Hi. So I built something. dEl Camino
 

Howdy. Name is Fox. And I'm new.

So I just spent the last 2 weeks doing this swap. I really have no prior diesel experience or knowledge... I really have never even driven in one. However I dig finding new interesting projects. I did some research, and out of common sense eliminated the duramax and power stroke engines. (common knowledge to you, new to me) So I took my 1975 El Camino, with the stock 350 2 barrel carb, that got 8-12 mpg. Pulled that, and happened to chance upon a killer sweet deal. A 1994 2wd that had 150,000 miles, and ran great. For $1400. Nice right?


So, after 16 days of learning the hard way, I finished, and the thing is on the road. Funny enough, most of the 16 days were spent dealing with having a 35 year old car, and redoing the suspension. By the way... Did you know these motors were heavy? It bent my 3 ton engine hoist. LoL.

So... after I finish the project I decided to join a forum. Kinda backwards. But whatever.

Still waiting on my muffler and 3" aluminum intercooler piping. (driving around hearing that turbo, but getting no boost is Toooorture.)
So how ya doin.

And yes... the hood is back on. I'll be having new pictures shortly.

Man that thing is rocking! Great Job! that thing will fly with the tubro hooked up some injectors and the pump tuned!:rocking::rocking::rocking::rocking::rocking ::rocking::rocking:

nice work!

Side note... I have a standard autometer tachometer laying around... there is no way to hook it up to the 2nd gen sensor that is on the harmonic balancer is it? From what I understand thats a hall sensor that requires a 12v source and ground, then modifies the output in the 3rd wire....?


And yes... I hope it will be rocking once the turbo is pushing boost.... I promised myself I would drive around for at least a week before I start working on the pump, taking out the air heater grid, and turning up the boost... LoL. Its gonna be a long week

That is awesome!

just a quick phone picture.

Muffler arrives tomorrow, intercoolre piping on friday!

You mentioned some suspension mods somewhere. I'm wondering what all you did to enable the chassis and suspension to handle the added weight and torque in terms of handling, driveabiity and safety, what with probably a 75/25 front/rear weight bias on it now?

well... For starters, the Camino chasis in this year model specifically, Had a better weight distribution than the chevelle did. There is just physically more heft in the rear. The frame is longer, and the gas tank is further back. Also the bed is thicker gauge steel, and there is more of it.

The frame ranges from 4"-5" in vertical height and 3"-3.5" in width. Fully boxed from tip to toe, and is 3/16" in wall thickness. There are 4 crossmembers over the length of the frame. 2 are major supports, 2 are just tie in's. So the frame is not in question.

As for the suspension. I spoke on the phone with a Tech from Federal Mogul for quite some time picking out springs. We ended up finding springs that had the same coil diameter, O.D., and I.D.. Rated at 2900 lbs load rating, and 445 lbs/in. After this is is all said and done I would have liked to bump that up to 465 as I wanted the front to ride 1" higher than stock, but I may just end up going to a single battery system, instead of running both heavy batteries, which might help some.

I also found some heavy duty shock bodies that were off a similar year chevy van. They were matched pretty closely to the springs, and they are thick as hell compared to my originals. I was quite surprised by their heft for just an OE application.

As for the bushings. I pressed them all out and replaced with high durometer Polyurethane replacements. Uppers, Lowers, and sway bar. Though I do need to go to a larger diameter sway bar, as there is tons of body roll with the motor sitting higher in the bay than the 350 did.

As for motor placement, I made sure I built my motormounts directly in the center of my engine valley, to distribute the forces as widely as possible. My only concern was I was not able to get much distal seperation from the mounts, so there is not much holding leverage as far as that is concerned.


I've been driving it about a week right now, and she drives like a complete dream. Only working out minor issues now, that are mostly concerned with the car itself. Like getting the AC to work and all the vacuum operated controls.

Sounds Like You got it Covered...
 

Is that frame description the work you added to box the frame and add crossmembers, etc, or is that the stock el Camino frame? What rear/diff? Sounds like you are aware of and dealing with the issues. That engine would tear it up in no time without significant upgrades. Regardless, it will be a handful and dangerous to drive at anything more than a serene pace.

Some shadetree mechanics don't always do that as well as they should at the engineering aspects of this type mods. :tu:

Very nice Fox keep on trucking my friend! :c: