1997 427 Camaro
So yesterday we got fairly nice weather (40 degrees) so I decided to pull the car out and start it and get the fluids circulating. Well after a few minutes of listening to it rap away in the driveway I decided to take it on a quick spin of the neighborhood.
My speedo went from 0 to 1 mile for the whole trip. I probably spent more time wiping the car down afterward then I did in the car but it was worth it. The thing pulls like a freight train at 1/4 throttle. I didn't want to go much further than that since it's still fresh.
A few things I noticed on my maiden voyage. At low speeds (turns and reverse mostly) the manual rack is very difficult to handle. It takes some work to move wheel starting out. At speeds though, 20-35 mph, it's not very noticable. I didn't notice the spool at all.
The biggest change for me was the manual brakes. I'm not use to have the pedal like that so it took a minute to get use to. Only think I'm worried about it that the pedal doesn't seem to ingage right away. It seems like you have to push it fairly far in the path of travel for it to ingage the brakes. I'm going to have to investigate this further.
Next little thing I discovered is the breathers are puking oil. The valve covers are baffle-less so I'm hoping a set of baffled VC will fix that otherwise I have to get creative. Any one encounter similar problem with breathers?
Thats all for now. Come on spring.
~Jim~
My speedo went from 0 to 1 mile for the whole trip. I probably spent more time wiping the car down afterward then I did in the car but it was worth it. The thing pulls like a freight train at 1/4 throttle. I didn't want to go much further than that since it's still fresh.
A few things I noticed on my maiden voyage. At low speeds (turns and reverse mostly) the manual rack is very difficult to handle. It takes some work to move wheel starting out. At speeds though, 20-35 mph, it's not very noticable. I didn't notice the spool at all.
The biggest change for me was the manual brakes. I'm not use to have the pedal like that so it took a minute to get use to. Only think I'm worried about it that the pedal doesn't seem to ingage right away. It seems like you have to push it fairly far in the path of travel for it to ingage the brakes. I'm going to have to investigate this further.
Next little thing I discovered is the breathers are puking oil. The valve covers are baffle-less so I'm hoping a set of baffled VC will fix that otherwise I have to get creative. Any one encounter similar problem with breathers?
Thats all for now. Come on spring.
~Jim~
Last edited by BassProCamaro97; Feb 20, 2010 at 11:17 AM.
i admire your work sir. my big block jet boat was 
oil and bafeld VCs fixed the issue. im sure it will yours too. as for the manual brakes i thats how the stock car i drove was too i just thinks thats how they are.
oil and bafeld VCs fixed the issue. im sure it will yours too. as for the manual brakes i thats how the stock car i drove was too i just thinks thats how they are. Draggin, Thank you.
I'm hoping it will solve my issue as well. It's not a horrendous amount of oil but even a little is no good for me so I'll work on solving that issue when the weather gets nicer. We just got hit with more snow!!
I called Burkhart on Friday and more or less I have my brakes setup correctly but it sounds like the master has air in it some place. I'm going to try bleeding the entire system again and if that doesn't work I'll rip the master off the car and bench bleed and try again. I hope I don't have to take the master off. Thats a real pain to do with a cage in the car.
~Jim~
I'm hoping it will solve my issue as well. It's not a horrendous amount of oil but even a little is no good for me so I'll work on solving that issue when the weather gets nicer. We just got hit with more snow!!
I called Burkhart on Friday and more or less I have my brakes setup correctly but it sounds like the master has air in it some place. I'm going to try bleeding the entire system again and if that doesn't work I'll rip the master off the car and bench bleed and try again. I hope I don't have to take the master off. Thats a real pain to do with a cage in the car.
~Jim~
nice setup. only thing i would do, is swap the fuel level gauge in the stock cluster area for the oil pressure gauge where the radio was. that way when your raping this thing down the 1/4 you can keep an eye on oil pressure insted of fuel level. or....wire a warning light so it comes on when the OP drops below a safe pressure.
The oil pan is a moroso 7qt.
I'm pretty sure it is this one but I can't say it is or isn't for sure. It came with the engine when I bought it.
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/MOR-20195/?rtype=10
BWW:
Since the car is going to be a street car for the most part I ended up putting that there instead of the Oil pressure. It's really not bad looking over to the radio area so I'm not to concerned with it. If I lose oil pressure mid race chance are the things gone already.
~Jim~
I'm pretty sure it is this one but I can't say it is or isn't for sure. It came with the engine when I bought it.
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/MOR-20195/?rtype=10
BWW:
Since the car is going to be a street car for the most part I ended up putting that there instead of the Oil pressure. It's really not bad looking over to the radio area so I'm not to concerned with it. If I lose oil pressure mid race chance are the things gone already.
~Jim~
The oil pan is a moroso 7qt.
I'm pretty sure it is this one but I can't say it is or isn't for sure. It came with the engine when I bought it.
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/MOR-20195/?rtype=10
BWW:
Since the car is going to be a street car for the most part I ended up putting that there instead of the Oil pressure. It's really not bad looking over to the radio area so I'm not to concerned with it. If I lose oil pressure mid race chance are the things gone already.
~Jim~
I'm pretty sure it is this one but I can't say it is or isn't for sure. It came with the engine when I bought it.
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/MOR-20195/?rtype=10
BWW:
Since the car is going to be a street car for the most part I ended up putting that there instead of the Oil pressure. It's really not bad looking over to the radio area so I'm not to concerned with it. If I lose oil pressure mid race chance are the things gone already.
~Jim~
LS1 Tech Stories
The Best V8 Stories One Small Block at Time
Gas Monkey Built a 6-Wheel Ferrari Testarossa With a Corvette LT4 Engine
Verdad Gallardo
7 Most Reliable High-Performance Engines GM Has Ever Built
Verdad Gallardo
Amazing '71 Camaro Restomod Is Modern Muscle Car Under the Skin
Verdad Gallardo
6 Common C5 Corvette Failures and What's Involved In Repairing Them
Pouria Savadkouei
Retro Modern Bandit Pontiac Trans AM Comes With Burt Reynolds' Autograph
Verdad Gallardo
Top 10 Greatest Cadillac V Series Performance Models Ever, Ranked
Pouria Savadkouei
Top 10 Most Powerful Chevy Trucks Ever Made!
Hennessey's New Supercharged Silverado ZR2 Has 700 HP
Verdad Gallardo
Coachbuilt N2A Anteros Is an LS2-Powered C6 Corvette In Italian Clothes
Verdad Gallardo
We got some nice weather today so I decided to FINALLY clean the car and take it for a ride. What an adventure that was. I got the car home parked it in the garage, let it idle and it died. Now it won't start. I'm thinking it's flooded but I'll tear into it tomorrow.
Any way on to the pictures.
~Jim~
Any way on to the pictures.
~Jim~
Car looks really good. I enjoyed reading thru this thread. You put a lot of time and effort into this car and the results def showed. Thanks for sharing the pics and info. You had a plan and stuck with it and now you have the car you want. Lets get some pass videos!!!! 
Or at least a nice burn out
Or at least a nice burn out
Thanks guys.
This darn things starting to give me nightmares! After the second trip on the road with the car it decided to die in my garage and not start for a few hours. I figured the car was probably flooded. Sure enough after a few hours of "drying out" it started right up.
I decided to pull all the plugs last night and just as I figured the engine is getting way to much fuel. Every plug was jet black.
So here's my question for the carb guru's in here. What are the symptoms of to large of a carb? Right now I'm juggling a few ideas, to big of a carb, bad timing, or carb not properly setup.
What do you guys think? Should I try dialing the floats down?
~Jim~
This darn things starting to give me nightmares! After the second trip on the road with the car it decided to die in my garage and not start for a few hours. I figured the car was probably flooded. Sure enough after a few hours of "drying out" it started right up.
I decided to pull all the plugs last night and just as I figured the engine is getting way to much fuel. Every plug was jet black.
So here's my question for the carb guru's in here. What are the symptoms of to large of a carb? Right now I'm juggling a few ideas, to big of a carb, bad timing, or carb not properly setup.
What do you guys think? Should I try dialing the floats down?
~Jim~
Well I was really hoping to have track times by now but some cooling issues have come up and unfortunately for me they are of the worst kind.
This Friday I'll be tearing the heads off to inspect the head gaskets. My radiator was pressurizing over 20lb and kept blowing coolant out of the reservoir and the coolant smelled like exhaust.
Needless to say I'm not to happy but if it's only a gasket issue then we'll be ok. If the heads are busted or worse the block is busted then I'll be a little upset.
The few miles that I did get it on the road for were very enjoyable. The only thing I'm not real happy with is the steering. The BMR rack is pretty tight even with skinnies up front. I'm not sure what to expect when I put full size wheels up there for the street.
I'll have some pictures up this week of the tear down.
~Jim~
This Friday I'll be tearing the heads off to inspect the head gaskets. My radiator was pressurizing over 20lb and kept blowing coolant out of the reservoir and the coolant smelled like exhaust.
Needless to say I'm not to happy but if it's only a gasket issue then we'll be ok. If the heads are busted or worse the block is busted then I'll be a little upset.
The few miles that I did get it on the road for were very enjoyable. The only thing I'm not real happy with is the steering. The BMR rack is pretty tight even with skinnies up front. I'm not sure what to expect when I put full size wheels up there for the street.
I'll have some pictures up this week of the tear down.
~Jim~
Here are a couple of pictures of the shortblock after I tore the heads off.
Turns out one gasket was bad but not both. It looks like the gasket lifted near the water jacket. Not sure what the cause was at this point. I'm going to bring the heads and gaskets to a local builder to look at then I'll put it together this week. Hopefully I'll be back on the road next weekend.
~Jim~
Turns out one gasket was bad but not both. It looks like the gasket lifted near the water jacket. Not sure what the cause was at this point. I'm going to bring the heads and gaskets to a local builder to look at then I'll put it together this week. Hopefully I'll be back on the road next weekend.
~Jim~
Teching In
Joined: Mar 2010
Posts: 32
Likes: 0
From: Becker, MN
WOW! Thats a tough break! Hope all is good. Your car is awesome, doing the same thing in my 93 with a 383. Not gonna lie, I was not going to strip every thing out of the engine bay and repaint it but after seeing your pics I had to do it. Just got it finished it up turned out great. Also, do you not recomend the manual rack? I have a lot of questions but I wont bother you with them. Good luck hope everything turns out!