I finally got the prop re-made to fit (don’t ask) and the limited slip oil so I got it up on stands and fitted the prop and filled it up. I fired it up and put it into gear and gave it a bit of throttle to make sure it was changing gear. It didn’t. I plufged the laptop in and it was showing a very low speed from the speed sensor, even tho it had been re-flashed with the correct gearing adjustment. After checking the wiring to the sensor which all seemed OK, I pulled the sensor out and gave it a clean. That made no difference, and it was setting some fault codes for the gearbox. After a lot of research, I found that the gearbox that had been sold to me as a ’94 was in fact a ’97. They use a different base program on the PCM, and it uses a PWM solenoid for the torque converter clutch.

I was pretty gutted at the thought of having to pull the box and swap it over for the spare one I had, so spent the next day researching what the physical differences were. It turns out I could use a ’95 base (the ’96 and ’97 are different engine computer wise) and it needs an extra wire run from the PCM to the box to control the clutch. I downloaded a base tune for a Camaro, made a few changes and flashed it on. With it back on stands, the speed got up to around 40mph without much effort. The rear brakes were not stopping the wheels turning, so I needed to bleed them properly. As I was about to start doing it, my mate Leigh turned up so he got roped in to pump the brakes while I bled all 4 wheels. With it all done, I realised it was ready to go. I got it off the stands, and drove it out of the garage shaking like a leaf. A quick drive forward and back and it all worked but I was out of fuel again. After getting some more, I got Lisa to video of it which you can watchhere! After all the work it was more than worth it. It’s an amazing feeling. I didnt want to push it too hard without getting some decent data off the datalogger just in case I’m running really lean somewhere along the line, so thats next. What a truly great moment in a project.