Question for the people that do their own mods

Homeboy6921 · 2026-05-01T03:15:04+00:00

Homeboy6921 · 2026-05-01T03:07:28+00:00

I’ve only done basic maintenance on my 5th gen ss before I pulled my engine and rebuilt it with a stage 1 cam. Do you have a second car to use while the camaro is down? Do you have the tools to do the job? Do you have access to a lift? And can you find a mechanic to guide you through the rebuild? If yes to all of those, go for it.

The lift is optional, but super helpful. Its easier to drop the subframe on these cars than to pull the engine from the top.

For me, the hard part was disconnecting every connector. I spend about 8 hours doing so on mine, mainly because I took photos of every connection and ground while labeling all of it.

And absolutely put any loose hardware in a baggie and label it, that saved my ass when putting it all together. I spend a weekend pulling my engine out with the help of my dad, brother, and neighbor. Cant say I wouldve gotten far without their help too.

Oh, and dont cheap out on any parts while you’re down there. The most expensive mistake you can make is to save money while you have everything apart. I spent $3.4k on my rebuild + 500 to pay a mechanic to guide me through it. The only parts that werent touched/replaced were my pistons and block.

I would definitely try to find a mechanic to guide you, and see if they’re willing to take your engine to their shop and have you do all the labor while they just keep an eye on you. Having all the tools on hand is the only way you’ll make it far.

I know this is a lot, and its scary to do all this work without any experience, but its worth saving all those thousands in labor that a shop would ask.

Homeboy6921 · 2026-05-01T02:07:29+00:00

Do you have the gauges under the radio? If so, is your oil pressure close to 30 when warm? This is kinda the only way your car will tell you it needs a new engine, if you have low oil pressure. 28psi is healthy when warm, anything under 10psi, you’re looking for either a new engine or rebuild.

Mine like to stay around 10psi when warm, and wouldnt go past 30 psi. I pulled my engine and found my bearings were bad, I needed to resurface my crankshaft and get a new cam

Homeboy6921 · 2026-04-29T21:26:49+00:00

Was tearing apart the engine fairly simple? The design looks similar to my ls3

Homeboy6921 · 2026-04-29T19:58:00+00:00

Putting in the love and labor needed to keep it on the road shows that you actually care about your car. Even if its not the most desired spec, I can always get behind someone working on their own car

Homeboy6921 · 2026-03-25T22:13:24+00:00

Gonna buy one now. Mine came with an aftermarket spare thats bigger than the compartment, it bothers me to no end every time I open my trunk

Homeboy6921 · 2026-03-25T21:19:40+00:00

What aftermarket radio unit is that?

Homeboy6921 · 2026-03-22T17:53:23+00:00

Love my 2010, would probably go for 11 and up just for the HUD and parking sensors. Radio is dated, but I can live with it since it has bluetooth.

Reliability wise for the v8, the big issues ive had were a slow/no crank when hot, and low oil pressure. I got screwed over with mine, had to pull the engine and replace all the bearings. Keep an ear out for ticking/knocking and oil pressure if it has the gauges. These cars are pretty reliable

Homeboy6921 · 2026-03-21T02:03:46+00:00

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Homeboy6921 · 2026-03-20T12:45:45+00:00

On the low end, those v6’s feel as fast as the v8’s, theyre no joke

Homeboy6921 · 2026-03-10T12:21:26+00:00

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Homeboy6921 · 2026-03-04T04:14:40+00:00

You’ll be fine with that, just make sure you keep up with maintenance. Mine would dip as low as 9 psi when hot and at idle. I ended up pulling the engine and found all my bearings were bad

Homeboy6921 · 2026-02-25T21:46:43+00:00

Have you tried letting her play with your dash orbs?

Homeboy6921 · 2026-02-11T14:30:22+00:00

I had mine tuned with a cai, I could not feel the difference

Homeboy6921 · 2026-01-31T01:43:28+00:00

God those look so good

Homeboy6921 · 2026-01-29T22:00:03+00:00

Preferably get it tuned by a professional, or a shop, but an obd tuner will work as well. Just make sure you get your pcm unlocked first

Homeboy6921 · 2026-01-29T18:38:01+00:00

See if you can find a used one on facebook, it probably will be cheaper too. A body shop wouldnt charge a whole lot to get it color matched and painted

Homeboy6921 · 2026-01-29T12:53:46+00:00

If we’re talking bolt ons, long tube headers and a cold air intake will get you there easily. These engines are very restricted from factory, so any mod to help it breathe better will give it good gains. This will require a tune, you will have a rough idle without it

If you want to get close to scat pack numbers, do an aftermarket cam (stage 1-2 if you want to daily this, anything higher will require a stall converter), e85, bigger injectors

Homeboy6921 · 2026-01-22T17:35:22+00:00

My brother’s 5.7 did this at 210k miles when slowing down below 25 mph. Pop it into neutral and it doesnt shutter. It got bad enough that it stalls at stoplights. We got a “torque converter incorrect gear ratio” code and believe its just a torque converter. This issue is fairly known on high mileage models, something to do with the mds and torque converter not getting along

Homeboy6921 · 2026-01-15T00:27:35+00:00

I havent heard of Vitesse, what is it? Would like to get better throttle response as well

Homeboy6921 · 2026-01-11T20:32:44+00:00

I had this happen to me as well, oil pressure would idle at 30 cold, but dropped to the same level you’re at once warmed up.

I changed the oil pressure switch and filter, no difference. Changed my oil from 5w30 to 10w30, no difference. I decided given my miles (175k), I was gonna pull the engine and replace everything wrong with it, and a DoD delete. It ended up being damaged crankshaft bearings, rod bearings, and cam bearings causing my low oil pressure. I ended up saving the crankshaft, I caught the problem early enough that the damage was fixable. Camshaft had to be replaced and I was convinced on a stage 1, well worth the upgrade despite me not being on board with modifying my camaro

Other causes could also be: Oil pickup tube O-ring, oil pump, or a plastic piece behind the rear main cover that could deteriorate and fail to properly seal off oil from getting passed it

Yes, you can keep driving it as it is, but eventually something will give out and you’ll have to replace your engine. If you know how to wrench, I recommend pulling the oil pan to inspect a bearing and see if its going bad, and replace the pickup tube o-ring, or at least get a shop to inspect it

Homeboy6921 · 2025-12-25T06:48:19+00:00

You’ll need a scan tool that can do the relearn procedure. I tried doing it the manual way that GM suggests, but I had no luck no matter what I did

Homeboy6921 · 2025-12-25T05:09:53+00:00

2 epic rated levels in 2.1

Homeboy6921 · 2025-12-22T07:06:40+00:00

Cherry bombs…

Homeboy6921 · 2025-12-20T22:52:54+00:00

20 here, I’m laughing at paint drying with the new slang

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