You told us you wanted to see more LS-powered 3^rd Gen Camaros and budget turbo builds, and we’re more than happy to oblige. We’ll kick things off with this fine example of both genres which is owned by Chad Keiper out of Palmerton, Pennsylvania. It might be a bit rough around the edges for now, but what this 3^rd Gen lacks in refinement it more than makes up with a whole lotta budget-built turbo-LS horsepower.  

Keiper acquired the 3^rd Gen about a year and a half ago when he traded a 1971 Chevelle roller for it. “The Chevelle was supposed to be a big-tire big-block car,” says Keiper. “But I had just lost interest and decided I didn’t want to go that route.” Keiper determined to take the 3^rd Gen in a whole new direction, and started things off with a 318 horsepower 355ci small block that took the Camaro to 11.53 at 117 MPH.  

Keiper eventually added a turbo to the mouse-mill, but tuning issues and the desire for even more power quickly led Keiper straight to the LS series. As a foundation for his 3^rd Gen’s LS swap Keiper went with a low mileage 5.3L from a 2006 Express Van. The engine was essentially left stock other than some light head porting and a set of KMJ head studs and PAC valvesprings to better handle the boost. Keiper even reused the stock oil pan by cutting our 3” from the sump and shortening the pickup tube.

Keiper and his buddies at Black Magic Motorsports fabricated the turbo system which is centered on a pair of 57mm eBay sourced turbos. The manifolds were hand-built using a big-block Chevy DIY header kit as a starting point, and junk-yard sourced 3” piping from GM 2500 pickups were used to make the downpipes.

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A Magnafuel fuel pump keeps the juice flowing, while the fuel and spark are regulated by a MegaSquirt 1 EMS in conjunction with an MSD 6LS ignition controller. Keiper had junk-yard LS build aficionado Matt Happel put a dyno tune on the 3^rd Gen, and the final results are pretty impressive – 650 horsepower and 700 pound feet of torque at the rear wheels. Not bad at all for a stock 5.3L with a pair of smallish eBay turbos, don’t you think?

 

Keiper hasn’t taken the 3^rd Gen to the track just yet with the new turbo 5.3L, but the car should lay down some very impressive ET’s given the driveline and suspension set up. “The trans is a TH400 with a reverse manual valve body that I built with a 2500 stall nitrous converter,” says Keiper. “I just recently pulled the 7.5 rear out for a Ford 9-inch with 3.50 gears. The suspension is all built from molly tubing from Racecraft with QA1 coil over shocks in the rear and QA1 struts in the front. For tires I run 295/50/15 Mickey Thomson drag radials in the back on Jegs Fast Five 15 x 10 wheels.”  

Sounds promising to say the least and we can’t wait to see what she’ll do. Keep it tuned here for videos of Keiper’s turbo LS 3^rd Gen!