This 1989 Camaro IROC-Z was built by owner Denny Villemure. Under the hood sits a 4.2 L Vortec 4200 inline-six with a Precision PT70GTQ turbocharger, 80 lb injectors, and PT1000 air-to-water intercooler. It also features a methanol injection system spraying a 80% meth/20% water mix through a 375 ml/min nozzle before the throttle body. The engine made 414 hp and 390 lb-ft to wheels on 9.5 psi of boost. The drivetrain uses a 4L65E four-speed automatic transmission and rear end with 3.73 gears. The best reported quarter-mile was a 11.26 sec at 126 mph.
Source: ThirdGen (build thread), Denny Villemure, and rod442 via Piotr
All that money on a 80.s camaro😂 let alone a 4.2 even worse.😂
I know! Please start a gofundme so I can recover from all of these used parts! I don’t want to pawn my gold chains!
Great engine, loves boost, handles lots over power, can consistently put cars into the 8’s and 9’s in the 1/4 mile….. Yeah what a terrible choice he made in engines……
Thanks for the write up! This combo has been on the road for a long time now and has had zero problems. 6years? It started with 10 psi and a straight through race muffler (500hp). Then it went to 15 psi (600+hp). It ran 10.85 and 126 miles per hour. Goal achieved. Now I have it turned down with a full exhaust which choked the turbo down to a 8psi. It weighs 3800 lb with driver. It gets 25 miles to the gallon on the highway @ 75mph. I was told by everybody that this engine would break the rods, explode the plastic intake, crack exhaust manifold, burnnthe rod bearings because the oil system is flawed, stock coils would not work with Boost, etc etc. I’ve proved them all wrong. It still has the stock spark plugs in it from when I pulled the engine out of the junkyard. They have over 75000 miles on them. I pulled them out after the first 15 psi pull just to see if I blew the porcelain off of them.. they looked great so I closed the gap down to .030″ and put them back in…
Denny
Hi Denny. Thanks for the update. It’s great to hear the project is still doing well. How did the drivetrain hold up?
Hi. Looking to turbo a vortec 4200 also. Where did you get your injectors from? Are they cross compatible with injectors from other gm motors like the 5.3?
Been wanting to know this myself.
Exactly! And they used to say the exact same thing about the LS engines and look at what people do with them now. Great engine choice, and a seriously awesome build! Nice work! I am actually doing a turbo 4.2 swap in my 94 dakota.
Hello Denny I love the car and I love what you did to it…. I am a big fan of the third gen camaro and I have a downer car…. Would you recamend this build and how much do you think it would cost….I would love to chat with you some time and get your advise…. Great build I love it….
Did you have to do anything with the firewall to get the engine to clear in the back?
I noticed you said the A/C compressor would probably interfere with the steering box. What size belt did you use without that? Any chance you have a pic of the routing you used?
If you couldn’t tell I’m thinking of doing something similar (though I’m thinking I’m just gonna go with an air/air cooler instead of air/water). I’m thinking I’m putting it into a Firebird and calling it a ‘Sprint OHC 6’, just like the optional Pontiac engine from the 60s.
That good to hear. That the engine is good for you. I’m having a 1985 Jeep cj7 built with a vortec 4200 in it. I can’t wait till it’s done I’ll post about it after I get it back