Building A '92 Camaro For Both Optimal Fuel Economy And Power - HorsePower S12, E14

[Music] feed me money money feed me hey are you almost scared to pull up to the gas pump these days ever want to just punch a fuel pump in the face come on grab my blindfold feed me touch my handle come on it won't hurt come on feed me money should you park your v8 daily driver and start hitchhiking not just yet well today we're out to prove you can put some of that gas money back in your pocket and make more horsepower in your engine you bet it's kind of like uh having your cake and eating it too this is our newest project car a 92 cabero we call the lean green street machine and it's truly a machine with a mission we're going to use it to show you in three stages how to make your ride more fuel efficient without copping out on horsepower first we need to check the car's miles per gallon to do that we fill up the car with regular gas and write down the miles or in this case just zero it out while you're at the station also check your tire pressure you'll get better mileage with the proper psi which you can find printed on each tire then drive the car until you use up at least a half a tank of fuel then back to the pump and fill it up again now after checking the odometer divide the number of gallons used into the number of miles driven and that's your miles per gallon all right we drove the car 128 miles and it took 6.3 gallons of fuel to fill it back up so 128 divided by 6.3 is 20.3 miles per gallon now we did some highway and some city driving so that average is going to be our starting point we probably don't have to tell you one of the best ways to save fuel is to only drive the speed limit use your cruise control and get your speed fix out of the strip then there's drafting like following a tractor trailer at a safe distance get too close though and you'll risk a wreck or a careless driving ticket this third gen rear wheel drive camaro can make a sporty daily driver it's very affordable it only has shade over 4000 bucks and it's only got about 84 000 miles on it like most older cars though this camaro came off with a production line with a lot of room for improvements now it has a 305 cubic inch v8 that was underpowered from the factory with a 170 horsepower rating and the front end well it was a poor design too because these things had a tendency to run hot we'll get to that in a few minutes right now let's get a baseline [Music] okay looks like we got our ground checking 144 horsepower at the rear wheels it's about what we expected this thing running in hot still yeah it's still warm about 245 245 well we got to take care of that situation before we even start stage one of our lean green project [Music] we'll start by installing a hypertech thermomaster power chip that not only maximizes power but it keeps the engine cooler in extreme heat after draining the coolant we can install one of the power stat thermostats that are designed to work with the power chip all right the last thing to go in from hypertech is this new fan temp switch and this little pigtail harness now it goes on the passenger side cylinder head in between the two rear spark plugs now you're not going to be able to see it so bye okay with that handle we can officially move on to phase one of our improvements on the lean green street machine there all on a lean budget of 600 bucks today and well we're going to spend 117 of that on fluids that's right by switching to synthetic motor oil transmission fluid and gear oil royal purple in our case you can improve fuel economy free of horsepower and add life to your engine components now we're not using the lift here to show off we need the room to make television however you can do this project at home using jack stands next it's time to take the transmission fluid out you try to do it with the least amount of mess take all the bolts out of the pan except for one on each side then go ahead and loosen those up and the pan should drop down and allow the fluid just to drain out of it slowly and this one's not doing that and we did it not a drop on the floor most gm rear ends don't have drain plugs so you have to remove the cover to drain the oil of course there's always a bolt that has to break drill out the broken bolt this one went off center so drill a larger hole and tap it then install a larger bolt with loctite cut it off flush with the cover as a template drill the larger bolt and tap it your repair is done before installing the new filter make sure the old seal did not stay inside the transmission then install the pan now we're back on top using the long funnel to fill the [ __ ] up with about six quarts of this max atf and we'll add five quarts of this 5w30 to the engine oh by the way the w on this label stands for winner instead of weight and the numbers refer to viscosity characteristics at various temperatures oh well the heat's on for us to finish this first phase we've got a lot more to go so hang with us [Music] hey we're back with our lean green street machine project now it's all about improving fuel economy while still enjoying plenty of horsepower now today in phase one we've got a handful of projects that are going to cost less than 600 bucks now i just removed the stock air intake and that's because we're going to make this 92 camaro breathe a lot better this car's 305 is fed by way of tbi which stands for throttle body injection that's because the throttle body here gets fuel from two electronically controlled injectors not a bad design for the time but we think we can improve on it with this power plate from cfm technologies it's milled so that each cylinder gets air from each bore at the same time we install the power plate with the open plenum against the tbi unit using supplied gaskets and bolts then we install the entire assembly onto the manifold now invariably one of the fuel lines will come up short so you can get one of these adapters from cfm to get the job done all right we're going to finish the air intake upgrade in just a few minutes but right now since we've got the room it just makes sense to go ahead and replace the engine spark plugs wires coil ignition module and the cap and rotor now we got most of these parts from excel and they cost us just under 190 bucks [Music] you can easily see why we need to swap plugs i don't think these things have ever been changed all right these old original wires they have to go now you might end up saving about 20 extra bucks if you buy a universal kit like us but it will take a little extra time first you need to measure them for the proper length then cut off the excess wire now we can strip a half inch of the insulator away and with the conductor core folded back along the wire we can crimp the terminal into place slide the boot over the terminal and finally press it on the cap okay back to our air induction upgrade you'd be hard pressed to find a cold air kit for an old car like this camaro so we're going to make our own now that involves first removing and relocating the battery that's because we got to do some cutting and creating a place for the air to come in spectre performance offers these build your own kits that come with different size sections of ducting in either four inch or three-inch widths plus you get boots clamps and oh don't throw this away it's not packing material you take this foam and use it to hold together your sections while you design your own kit how cool is that then you can mark it up send it back to spectre for welding and polishing or if you're on a budget like us you can use the clamps and boots to build your own system either way you return what you don't use and get a refund now we're going to get started by installing this plenum on top of our throttle body then after drilling a hole in the original battery box location for the rest of the inlet tubing [Applause] we can go under the car to install the filter assembly [Music] well i can't wait to see how that works out for us now we still have a few more things to take care of on our to-do list but right now we have to take a break when we come back we're going to finish this thing up recheck our mileage and see how we're doing on horsepower make sure you come back and see us we're close to the finish line of stage one of our lean green street machine project it's all about making this 92 camaro with a stock 305 more fuel efficient while optimizing power now so far we changed all the lubricants to royal purple synthetic then did a basic stock ignition upgrade added a cfm spacer to the tbi system and custom build a cold air intake system with a kit from spectre performance now you don't have to be a genius to realize how getting rid of extra weight will help matters even just a little bit so keep your mother-in-law out of the car and get rid of all that extra junk back here in the trunk in our case it's the previous owner's thunder thumping stereo complete with busted speaker next we can drill hose to mount up our remote battery box from taylor drop in our new battery from a rowdy parts store and route the cable to the motor away from heat and sharp edges take one end of a hose hook it to the vacuum port on the tbi the other end gets run into the car it goes vacuum gauge that we got from matco tools it can be used to diagnose several problems with your engine and also help with fuel economy the more vacuum you maintain the better fuel economy you will have so avoid quick start and maintain steady pressure on the gas pedal when you're driving you want to keep it as close to the green bar as possible hey our lean green camaro is running great it seems to be making a little more horsepower and it's running a lot cooler so fuel economy should be better now we're staying in the green on our vacuum gauge so everything's working properly now we're going to take it back to the pump fill it up and see how we did on fuel economy this time we drove the car 130 miles and it took 5.8 gallons of fuel to fill it back up if you do the math that averages out to 22.4 miles per gallon now that's a 2.1 mile per gallon increase with all of our modifications now we're gonna take it back to the shop and throw it on the chassis dyno [Music] so [Music] we're checking things out on the big screen here 153.22 horsepower is a 9 horsepower gain over the baseline and we picked up 17 foot-pounds of torque and remember that's after improving fuel economy 2.1 miles a gallon i'd say that's having your cake and eating it too well next a feast for the eyes for car lovers at the super summit event stay with us [Music] every once in a while you got to say thanks to your loyal customers and that's what the world's leading high performance order company did here in ohio for its 40th birthday we do this as a way to say thank you to our customers you know they they come out here all year long and support the store support the hobby so this is our way of giving them a chance to come out show off their toys to their friends and family have a good day super summit attracted the cream of the cool car crop well like this quintessential hot rod with trick touches like a cam shaft for a front bumper and for power hey you got to love that rocket 88 with those three deuces classics to street rods some pretty far out funny cars even a good old 56 gasser oh it's a 56 it's been a gasser for about 35 years that's a 400 small block ford 30 solid lifter cam but i've always liked them just yeah an awesome car the gas or you say yeah nice i love it i love the wheels i love the whole stance the fuel injection the whole aspect the fans the fit and finish this car is impeccable and i'm a gm guy hearts yeah visitors could mull over a mass of them some from manufacturers who've been with summit for eons they definitely work well with us to extend any kind of a discounts and deal to the consumer and they do support the brands very well as you can see with the show specials and the catalogs supersummit also featured several stars of nhra racing well like top fueler hillary will i remember getting summit packages were delivered at the house and my dad would be all excited to have something new from summit it was like christmas in our house when those came so it's pretty cool that i can represent summit here's nhra pro stock racer jason line getting a tour of a 427 ford thunderbolt a prime example of stripped-down factory-made race cars from the 60s got van seats in it one windshield wiper there we go automatic you know shows like this always stir up reminiscence for hot rods we wish we still had first car i used to i ever drove was a 73 dodge challenger so i'm into those cars too it makes me kind of miss my car of course there's always that next cool street machine project that's what keeps the lifestyle alive [Music] hey let me ask you what could be better than a mustang with a 5.4 liter svt motor in it well how about one with a supercharger upgrade kit licensed by roush performance brings the horsepower from 500 to 605 thanks in part to this twin vortices series eaton supercharger open element cold air intake system and a procal tool once you register the kit what's the price of all this extra horsepower a little more than 4 900. just like motor oil coolant and transmission fluid your car's brake fluid can wear out too now that can lead to corrosion and eventually break failure that's why there's a cool new way to test your brake fluid it's the new brake strip from phoenix systems you just dip the strip into your brake fluid in your master cylinder for a second then shake off the excess and wait 60 seconds or longer then use this color scale which goes from white to purple to see if you're in need of service now this one came from muscle cars le mans and it seems to be doing pretty good but this one here came from our camera guys blazer and well he needs to change his fluid now you can find out where to get this stuff at our website which is powerblocktv.com meanwhile we'll see you next time with phase two of our lean green street machine project i mean that drinks greasy what is that you'll find out in the morning really

Channel: POWERNATION

Views: 118,914

Rating: 4.8651834 out of 5

Keywords: Car, PowerNation, howto, how-to, diy, automotive, cars, trucks, automobile, do it yourself, automobiles, auto, fuel efficient cars, fuel efficiancy, horsepower, chevy, chevy camaro, engine build

Id: K6E5a-oEeUU

Length: 18min 5sec (1085 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 12 2020