When you get right down to it, isn't this the reason we have nice interiors and weatherproof convertible tops? When you need to get out of the rain, you want a comfortable place to sit and relax. Special thanks to interior expert Elbert Efird for installing our Kee Auto Top and covering the door panels with Arctic Ice from East Coast Leather to match the Recaro seats.

Compared to what the original top looked like when we initially brought the car to the shop, you'll have to agree it's quite an improvement. In this, the final article on the build of the '68 Hotchkis Performance Camaro Convertible, we'll take you through the details of how to refurbish old convertible tops and install a leather interior that'll last for years to come.

These images should bring back fond memories of the monsoons that inundated 2005 Power Tour participants. While this amount of rain may be beneficial to crops, it sure can make driving our favorite cars a challenge. Although these pictures may seem irrelevant at first, think about it--all the precious fluids in your vehicle must be quietly doing their job, since the car is still moving and is taking you safely and worry-free to your destination!

We rarely give the fluids a second thought, but coolant, brake fluid, oil, transmission fluid, power-steering fluid, and gas must be contained and properly directed to do their job. Follow along as we take a quick look at the fluids and their containers--and learn a few tricks along the way.

This segment is gonna blow big-time! Once again, since the amount of detail is so great, we had to cut the topic coverage to shoving air, and leave pushing fluids for next month. That said, we'll start with the installation of the Vintage Air system, which takes in hot and humid air (the bad air) and blows out the cool, dry air we desperately need during the summer months. Having the top down is nice, but you can't beat having the air on max to help cool you off; although nothing seemed to help much driving through the monsoons at last year's Hot Rod Power Tour! From there, we'll wrap up this month by installing the Flowmaster American Thunder system with their Series 40 Delta Flow mufflers. Not only will it expel the spent fumes out of the LS2, it'll produce that recognizable Flowmaster exhaust note we've grown to love!

Keep in mind, when you first start taking apart a car that's been sitting idle for an unknown number of years, expect to see some sort of a mess. Case in point, in our Camaro someone had actually retrofitted this non-air car with factory air, which had to be removed before installing the Vintage Air Sure-Fit heat and air-conditioning system in its place.

On the plus side, Detroit Speed made our job easier with their nifty hanger system for the first-gen Camaro/Vintage Air install, which saves you the trouble of having to fabricate your own hangers. Detroit Speed also produces a mounting bracket for the Vintage Air controller, which enables the controller to be mounted onto the stock dash location. All said and done, we'll address the difficulty level and leave you with a clear idea on what you may or may not want to attempt when installing a Vintage Air System by yourself. So get in, sit down, start reading, and keep your cool.

If your project looks like this, welcome to the club. Follow along as we write from the loony bin. This may help you maintain your sanity while making sense of electricity and fluids--and how to keep from electrocuting yourself!Yesterday's classics were rarely available with the creature comforts we all enjoy in our modern vehicles. Thanks to Auto Meter, Covan's, Custom Autosound, Baer Brakes, Be Cool, Classic Tube, Detroit Speed, Electric-Life, Painless Performance, Powermaster, Rick's First Gen Camaros, Street & Performance, Year One, and Vintage Air, we can outfit them with systems that are much more efficient, compact, and reliable than the old stuff we used to call modern.As with all parts of your project, planning is the key to successful installation and joining of wires, tubing, and hoses that carry the lifeblood of the cars we are restoring. Most of the 30-plus-year-old wiring harnesses we remove are obviously past their prime. What may not be so evident is corrosion in the interior wiring bundles and fuel and brake lines, and mouse nests in the air and heat ducts.

Once again, you must be ruthless when evaluating old parts, and replace them now rather than having a short circuit or broken brake line when you are headed for the weekend cruise. The aftermarket companies sourced for this story produce high-quality replacement components that are already labeled, bent, or adjusted for your specific application.

We were hoping to cover the Vintage Air A/C, Flowmaster exhaust, Be Cool radiator/fan, and brake hydraulics installations this month, but there are so many details that we're going to form the second segment of it in Part 6. We'll get the bodywork and painting done in a special CHP paint and body issue next month (Part 5). We'll see you in the April issue for the HVAC and exhaust system, two very different ways of shoving air--plus brakes and radiators, two very different ways of pushing fluid. We'll detail the interior build-up in May and then wrap it in June with the modifications we have made since the car was "finished."

During its years of creating mechanical fuel-delivery systems for GM vehicles, The Rochester Products Division certainly turned out some misunderstood creations. Early Rochester fuel injection almost reached red-headed-stepchild status as more than a few frustrated Corvette owners replaced these unique but complex systems with carbs. Of course, at least one of Rochester's carburetor-type offspring also developed a bad rap. Ever hear of a "Quadraflush" or a "Quadrabog?" Naysayers notwithstanding, the Quadrajet four-barrel carburetor has proved its mettle, doing its duty on hundreds of thousands of GM vehicles, from the '60s all the way into the computer-controlled '80s.

CHP's as-yet unnamed project '74 Z28 is topped with a Q-jet, and we decided to yank the old mixer off and get it back into shape for service on whatever hot little small-block we decide to drop into our Camaro. We tabbed Sean Murphy, proprietor of Sean Murphy Induction in Huntington Beach, California, to do our rebuild and tweaking for us, and he discussed this particular carb's peccadilloes. "The Quadrajet got a bad rap," he told us, "because they're misunderstood. They're sophisticated, but have proven to be a good carb, especially in heavier vehicles with automatic transmissions." This sophistication is the Q-jet's advantage and its Achilles' heel.

"There's more tunability with a Q-jet," Murphy continued, "which means that they can be calibrated more accurately." On the other hand, that also means this carb is more sensitive to cam and head changes. There's more than just a set of jets to deal with here. Among its many adjustable features, the Quadrajet uses a power piston primary metering system that can be fitted with a wide variety of metering rods and piston springs, an equally large selection of secondary metering rods and rod holders, and an air-valve system on the secondaries that is very sensitive to modification. Oh, and there are main jet sizes to be chosen, of course. The combinations aren't endless, but there are certainly many to chose from.

That being said, Murphy gave us a few general Q-jet tuning tips gleaned during his 15 years of working on the little beasts. Not surprisingly, these pointers center around the metering rods. In general, we were told, the home tuner should stick with main metering rods within the same letter family, i.e., if your carb came with 43B rods (as ours did), and you change your setup, try a 44B or higher. That being said, the more effective way to tune the primary circuit is with main jet size. "Metering-rod changes will only affect performance at light- to mid-throttle," Murphy told us. "Jet changes will affect the entire power range."

With the secondary system, things get a bit more nebulous. In general, more aggressive cars (lighter weight, more horsepower, stiffer gearing, and so on) should have a more aggressive (i.e., higher letter) secondary-metering-rod hanger. As for the rods themselves ... well, there are many, and they're all interchangeable across the several Q-jet variations. The best resource is Rochester Carburetors, by Mark Roe (available from your local HP Books dealer). This treasure trove of Q-jet info lists secondary metering rods and their various dimensions, and explains how these tapers and tips will affect your carb's performance. Haynes' Rochester Carburetor Manual is also worth a look for the D.I.Y.'er.

In our case, we had two items on our agenda. One was to end up with a reconditioned, rarin'-to-go, and just-like-new Q-jet; the other was that this ready mixer be tweaked just enough to work with our project wreck's intended powerplant: a 355ci small-block making in the neighborhood of 400 ponies. The first goal was no sweat for Murphy, and he was even able to help with our second goal despite the paucity of info we provided about our intended engine combo. Follow along, and we'll show you how this Q-jet got to be the best looking--and performing--part of CHP's Z28 beater.

How often have you walked the isles of an automotive event daydreaming about building the perfect ride? The reality is that very few of us act on those thoughts. Imagining the perfect ride is like opening a book and reading the first paragraph. It’s the introduction to the rest of the story.

John Barkley has played the same “what if” game but finally landed on a vision of building a Pro Touring ’81 El Camino. He acquired the El Camino from a fellow Chevy enthusiast who had previously installed a high-performance 350ci and TH200-4R transmission. While the stout small-block offered plenty of power, California’s tough emissions laws banned it from the streets. Barkley’s only option was to extract the offending engine and replace it with something more emissions friendly. This bump in the road presented Barkley with several options.

Before he began, Barkley established the “rules of engagement” that the El Camino would have to play within. Barkley wanted a daily driver, but he also demanded the performance of an exotic sports car. While these parameters may seem polar opposites, they’re quite close to Pro Touring.

After much deliberation, Barkley came up with four possible directions his supercar could follow. The first route involved modifying a 305ci engine. Since Barkley’s been keeping up with CHP’s “My Generation” Camaro project car, he had a good idea of what the smog-legal, budget 305ci engine could produce and decided he wanted more. His second option was to build a mild 350ci engine and recycle the overdrive TH200-4R transmission. Chevy High has been planning this engine build for several months in the “My Generation” Camaro project car and tipped Barkley off to the potential power this setup could produce. After much debate, he decided that building the 350ci would be too much like his current combination, only with less power to keep the smog police away. Even though a modified 350ci is probably the best bang for the buck, Barkley wanted something different.

Another idea was to build a 383ci that would create massive amounts of torque. However, upon investigation he found that emissions laws required a factory feedback Q-jet carburetor, EGR intake manifold, and single catalytic converter in order to comply with the California visual inspection. While changing carburetors for a quick smog test isn’t that difficult, Barkley decided to pass. He figured that adding cubic inches to the engine only to restrict the amount of airflow isn’t the smartest route.

Finally, after pondering numerous combinations, Barkley chose an LT1 engine and 4L60E-overdrive transmission from a ’95 Impala. The LT1 fuel-injected engine is capable of providing plenty of power and reliability, while the 4L60E-overdrive transmission would allow the use of a steep rear gear.

A stock ’95 Impala LT1 engine is capable of producing 260 hp but Barkley wanted more. He plans to add a Crane Cam, matching valve springs, and 1.6 roller rockers. He’ll also have some minor bowl work and a valve job done to the cylinder heads. The LT1 fuel injection requires a high-pressure return fuel system to supply the fuel injectors with the proper amount of pressurized fuel. Since Barkley’s El Camino originally came equipped with a carburetor, his entire fuel system requires re-plumbing. The 4.3L ’85-’87 El Caminos with factory fuel injection were offered with baffled fuel tanks that feature an in-tank fuel pump. These particular fuel tanks are a direct replacement for Barkley’s El Camino.

The LT1 and 4L60E transmission are a great choice when used as a factory package, but they can create some interesting dilemmas when installed in a vehicle originally equipped with a first-generation small-block and TH350 transmission. A late-model LT1 Impala engine places the air-conditioning compressor on the lower passenger side requiring an extra motor mount hole on the left side of the engine block. This extra mounting hole allows the motor mount to be placed farther back on the block to clear the air-conditioning compressor. Since Barkley was installing a ’95 Impala engine into his El Camino, he had two choices. He could have used the factory Impala LT1 accessory brackets and relocated the passenger-side frame mount approximately one inch back. The front passenger-side framerail would also have needed to be notched for compressor clearance. Instead he chose to convert his Impala engine over to LT1 Corvette accessory mounting brackets, which moved the air-conditioning compressor to the upper driver side of the engine. Had Barkley decided to use a Corvette LT1 engine, the oil pan would have required replacing. Converting to Corvette LT1 accessory brackets allowed Barkley to use the standard (non-Impala) motor-mount bolt pattern on the passenger side of the block and keep the frame mount in the factory location.

The 4L60E transmissions closely resembles a non-computer-controlled TH700-R4 design. Both of these transmissions are larger and longer than a TH350 requiring a custom driveshaft and crossmember if installed into an A/G-body car. The TH200-4R is similar in length to the TH350 and would eliminate the need for custom installation pieces while offering the 0.67 Fourth gear overdrive. Most ’80s El Caminos are factory equipped with 2.41 gears and a 7.5-inch 10-bolt rearend. Since Barkley is using the 4L60E-overdrive transmission, he plans to leave the stock 7.5-inch rearend housing in the car and install a posi-traction unit with 3.42 gears.

A high-performance LT1 and 4L60E transmission are capable of producing plenty of power to the rear wheels, but for Barkley’s El Camino to be the true road warrior he desires, it’s crucial that the suspension be first class. After referring to several suspension stories in Chevy High Performance, Barkley decided that lowering the truck, shortening the springs, and increasing the diameter of the sway bars would offer the best bang for his buck. He consulted Hotchkis Performance and a sway bar kit seemed like the way to go. The 1¼-inch solid front sway bar and 1-inch solid rear sway bar come with all the necessary bushings and end links. With the upgrade bars in place, Barkley also added a Hotchkis 1-inch lowering-spring kit to create a lower center of gravity and improved handling. The last thing on Barkley’s list of handling upgrades is a set of high-performance tires and wheels. Barkley plans to eventually use a set of ’99 C5 Corvette 17x8½ fronts and 18x10 rear wheels wrapped in factory rubber. Of course, this will require wheelwell modifications and wheel spacers.

For the average enthusiast thinking about bolting on some wide wheels without the hassle of modifying wheelwells, Barkley recommends using ’91-’92 Corvette 17x8½ wheels on the front and rear. Maximum tire size will vary according to the ride height of the vehicle.

Once Barkley figured out how to accelerate his El Camino through the corners he had to come up with a way to stop it. This led him to Baer Brake Systems in Phoenix where he learned that his El Camino could be treated to some monster 13-inch front rotors with the proper spindle. In order to install the larger rotors, Barkley has two options. He can use the factory spindle from a 12-inch rotor B-Body car and match it with Baer’s B-Body spindle kit, which requires aftermarket upper A-arms. The other route is to add Baer’s complete13-inch brake kit that supplies all the necessary parts including the special spindle. This particular kit has been designed to eliminate the need for aftermarket tubular arms.

The next best alternative to the aftermarket 13-inch Baer setup is to hunt down a ’77-’96 B-body station wagon or police car with factory 12-inch rotors. In the event that you come across a Caprice (B-body) with 12-inch rotors, the bolt spacing is 5 inches versus the El Camino’s smaller 4¾-inch pattern. If you want to keep the 4¾-inch bolt spacing with the larger 12-inch rotor, you’ll need to order an ’88-’92 1LE Camaro rotor.

There are many different rear-brake systems to choose from. While Baer offers its 12-inch rear disc conversion kit for the 7.5-inch rearend, Barkley managed to get his hands on a 10.5-inch Stainless Steel Brakes conversion kit. While the larger 12-inch rear brake kits may seem to be the ultimate choice, be aware that the massive rotor and caliper design requires at least a 17-inch–diameter wheel to clear the special caliper.

Designing the perfect automobile in your imagination is one thing, but actually making it happen is another. Barkley’s momentary thought of building a Pro Touring El Camino is currently transforming into an ongoing labor of love. So the next time you catch yourself daydreaming of the perfect ride, be careful what you ask for—you might just get it.

Going fast is all about eliminating the weak links in the performance chain. This is the seventh part of our buildup of the My Generation Camaro, a car that started life as a lackluster 305-powered slug with a TH700-R4 overdrive automatic that ran 17.40s at only 78 mph. In our last episode, the Camaro had improved to the tune of 13.82/ 100.23 mph with the help of a rebuilt 305, exhaust, heads, a mild cam, and a little squirt of nitrous.

Therein lies the rub. If you’ve followed our attempts to turn this mild-mannered Camaro into a budget-based boulevard bully, you may remember we ran into a snag. The NOS Super Power Shot nitrous kit worked a little too well. The 125hp shot worked flawlessly, pushing the Camaro into the high 13s, but we wanted more. With the 150hp shot, the stock ignition couldn’t fire the additional cylinder pressure and popped and banged all the way down the track, slowing the car down.

It was clear after one pass that we needed a hotter spark, so we put a call in to Crane Cams. What you may not know is that Crane has been busy building quality ignition systems for several years now and has recently released a budget-oriented digital multi-spark ignition that was just what our Camaro needed. The Crane box generates roughly twice the spark energy of the stock system and promised to light the fire in our unassuming Camaro. Not only is this system affordable ($130 through Summit), but the box is also 50-state emissions legal so we could bolt it on the Camaro guilt-free.

The Camaro’s owner, Tim Moore, also did some research and discovered that hefty doses of nitrous not only require a colder spark plug, but also a smaller gap and a non-projected-nose spark plug. Moore decided on an AC 43T plug that is one step colder than the stock heat range set at 0.030-inch gap. A colder heat range plug means that more heat is transferred from the plug center to the shell, preventing possible damage to the insulator. The shorter nose also means less heat builds up in the ground strap. With nitrous, a longer ground strap turns into a glow plug, igniting the mixture before the intake valve closes, creating the backfire. In addition, a narrower plug gap also makes it easier for the ignition system to fire the plug at the elevated cylinder pressures. As a general rule, increased cylinder pressures and wider plug gaps increase the voltage required to jump the gap.

Armed with this new ignition system, Moore spent about 90 minutes plugging the new Crane ignition box into the Camaro along with the matching Crane PS-91 coil. Moore used the easy-to-understand instructions to splice the digital box’s wiring into the factory harness with quick-disconnect pieces supplied so that he could quickly reconnect the factory ignition system if required. We didn’t need to go to the track to discover the first benefit of the new Crane ignition. The Camaro had always suffered from a mild off-idle stumble that resisted repeated attempts to cure. But the Crane multi-spark ignition box eliminated the stumble and the engine seemed more crisp and responsive to throttle input. After a short trial period, we headed to the track to see if the digital box could support a heavier shot of nitrous.

Now we were ready to test the larger 150hp NOS Super Power Shot plate system. Moore swapped the larger jets into the plate and we were ready to rumble. After a couple of runs, Moore launched the Camaro on just the engine and then hit the nitrous button about 20 feet out. The Camaro jumped; the tires spun slightly and then hooked up to a best-ever corrected 13.15 at 104.33 mph pass. This was a big improvement over the Camaro’s previous best nitrous pass of 13.82/100.23.

This represents a 0.40-second and 4.10-mph gain, which won’t put us in the NHRA record books, but it is really close to that magical 12-second goal. And this is a bunch closer to high 12s than our original mid-17-second pass. Perhaps best of all, we’ve spent less than $6,000 on this entire project to run low 13s at 104 mph. This is slightly quicker than a brand-new Camaro for less than one quarter of the cost.

But we’re still not satisfied. We’re spreading rumors of a mild 383ci engine and we are also anticipating an entire rebuild of the suspension as we dive into the chassis to coax the Camaro into turning a few aggressive corners as well. So stick with us—we’re not done flogging on this Camaro just yet.

Click Here To View Part I

Click Here To View Part II

Click Here To View Part III

Click Here To View Part IV

Click Here To View Part V

Click Here To View Part VI

Click Here To View Part VII

The Camaro name has been synonymous with Chevy’s high-performance breed of cars for 35 years. This high-performance reputation combined with a sleek body style is enough to tease any Chevy enthusiast. While the Camaro may not be everyone’s favorite, it is hands-down Chevrolet’s most popular performance platform.

We decided to look into the world of used Camaros and find out what’s involved in locating a good one. Everyone has heard the stories of someone who bought one of the 602 ’67 Z/28 Camaro for a few hundred bucks because the seller didn’t know what he had. But since those gifts don’t occur everyday, the majority of us are forced to look through endless cars listings until we come across a car that looks reasonable. Once the phone calls have been made and the details worked out, a trip awaits. Upon arrival, hopes of a clean Camaro in good condition are often dashed by a wrecked parts car that’s been stuffed under a tree for the past two decades. If you’re smart, you’ll continue to keep looking and have the pleasure of repeating this process several more times.

One thing that could save us all a lot of time is a universal understanding of a few important descriptive words relating to vehicles and their condition. The Kelly Blue Book (KBB) is an organization that keeps track of the approximate value of a vehicle while defining the words excellent, good, fair, and poor. Whether you are buying or selling, it is best to arrive at a common understanding of the vehicle’s condition.

The Blue Book defines “excellent” as a vehicle that looks great and is in excellent mechanical condition requiring no reconditioning. “Good” is defined as a condition in which a vehicle is free of any major defects while the paint, body, and interior have only minor (if any) blemishes, and there are no major mechanical problems. If rust is a problem, it should be very minimal, and a deduction should be made to compensate for it. KBB defines “fair” as a vehicle that has some mechanical or cosmetic defects but is still in safe running condition. The paint, body, and/or interior may also need work. The lowest rating the KBB offers is “poor,” which is defined as a vehicle with severe mechanical and/or cosmetic defects that may or may not be in running condition. For a more in-depth definition of these terms, visit the Kelly Blue Book Web site at www.kbb.com.

If you are in the market for a third- or fourth-generation Camaro, Carfax (www.carfax.com) is an Internet-based company that helps the average consumer identify important problems an inexperienced buyer may not catch. Carfax conducts extensive consumer research about what people fear most when purchasing a used car, which it uses to inform and aid consumers. This site caters to vehicles from ’81 to present.

Once you have armed yourself with a reasonable amount of used-car knowledge, it’s time to go shopping. One of the most extensive listings of used cars in the U.S. is the Hemmings Motor News catalog (www.hemmings.com). Hemmings is a monthly publication that includes a short description and contact phone number for each vehicle listed. If you’re a serious buyer and looking for the right car, you won’t mind crossing state lines to get what you’re looking for.

Another source for used cars is the Web-based eBaymotors.com, an auction site that allows you to bid on vehicles and communicate with the seller through e-mail. A picture is worth a thousand words, and most sellers include photos in their listings. There are hundreds of other Camaro-dedicated Web sites that include classified sections. One interesting site is www.classic-camaro.com, which is dedicated to Camaro bartering.

When using the Internet to purchase anything, be sure all your transactions are accounted for and insured. Most people are honest, but when dealing with the large sums of money involved in automobile purchases, you can’t be too careful.

A convenient but small-scale sales option is your local classified ads. These ads draw from a small area, often only listing several specific cars if any at all. A major benefit to local publications is that it’s more convenient to go see the car in person to determine whether or not it’s the ride of your dreams.

Purchasing a car can be quite an event. Whether you’re looking for a fourth-generation daily-driven Camaro or your next ’69 Pro Touring street machine, there are many factors that should play a vital role in your decision.

The history of the car is often a mystery and undocumented. This is when it’s time to put on your archeologist cap to look into the car’s past. First, take notice of the location of the car. If it’s located in the rust belt of the U.S., then chances are the vehicle may have more holes than Swiss cheese. Check the lower rear window molding, inside the trunk, around the wheelwells, and up inside the quarter panels and fenders. Make an effort to steer clear of any car with rust that’s eaten its way through the metal. Another major clue to a car’s history is the amount of body repair it has seen. Large patches of plastic body filler are often signs of hidden damage, so beware. Rust and body damage can be some of the most expensive things to fix. In the long run, a free car with extensive damage will often end up costing more than a vehicle in good condition at a reasonable price.

When shopping for a car, the three best things to have are patience, knowledge, and cash. Waiting long enough to find the right car and having the ability to determine its worth are key assets, but it’s the green that is going to seal the deal.

The determining factor in price usually comes down to what the market will bear. We didn’t include prices for poor, excellent, or rare models in our list because these categories are so broad.

Last time, we left off with the Camaro running 15.39 at 87.28 mph after we added ported World Products S/R Torquer heads and an emissions-legal Crane hydraulic roller camshaft. We improved the e.t. over 0.40 second, but frankly we were disappointed that the Camaro didn’t run quicker. It was at this point that we decided to get serious.

Whenever “bang for the buck” comes up, nitrous is always at the top of the list. It’s tough to improve upon even a basic nitrous system that will add 100 to 175 hp for around $400. Since we had just rebuilt the 305, we felt confident that the engine could handle the extra power, and we went shopping for a nitrous system.

Companies such as 10,000 RPM, Edelbrock, NitrousWorks, Nitrous Express, Nitrous Oxide Systems, and many other offer a wide selection of nitrous systems based on what you need. We went looking for an entry-level system and found several that would suit our needs. The least expensive systems don’t offer the advantage of changing jets, which is a tuning option we wanted. We decided on the Nitrous Oxide Systems Super PowerShot system, which can deliver a range of power increases from 100 hp to as much as 175 hp.

The system is designed around the classic nitrous plate where a ½-inch spray bar plate is installed underneath the carburetor. One spray bar connects to the fuel delivery side while the other delivers nitrous. The solenoids are electrically controlled and open when electrical current is applied to them. The system uses both an arming switch and throttle-mounted micro-switch to trigger the nitrous only at wide open throttle (WOT).

Moore mounted the bottle in the trunk area of the Camaro and installed a nitrous dump tube that directs any overflow from the pressure relief valve outside the car. The relief valve is used on all nitrous bottles to vent any pressure exceeding the safety rating for the bottle. It’s important to always treat a nitrous bottle with a great deal of respect since even normal bottle pressure is around 900 psi.

Bolting the system on the car is relatively simple. The solenoids mount adjacent to the plate and are wired through both the throttle-mounted micro-switch and the main arming switch. The biggest job involved plumbing an entirely new fuel delivery line from the Carter pump up to the carburetor.

Even with a simple 100 to 175hp system, you must still have a good fuel delivery system as well as a solid ignition system. Moore changed to a Carter performance fuel pump to ensure adequate fuel delivery and had to re-do the fuel lines in the process. The pump has enough capacity and pressure to supply both the engine and the nitrous. Just to be sure, we borrowed an Auto Meter fuel pressure gauge and tested the fuel delivery system at speed with the nitrous line disconnected to ensure that we had sufficient fuel pressure under load. NOS recommends a minimum of 4.5 psi of fuel pressure under load and the Carter mechanical pump delivered over 5 psi for the entire run.

With everything hooked up and working properly, we took the Camaro back to LACR for another assault on the quarter-mile. Again, the weather was oppressively hot with temps in the mid 90s and a density altitude of 6,200 feet.

We started out with the mildest jetting in the nitrous plate to see how well the car reacted to a 100hp jump in power. Even a mild nitrous system will deliver the equivalent of a big kick in the pants because of the huge torque gain that nitrous delivers. The stock ignition couldn’t fire the old plugs, so the best we could do was a 14.85/93.33.

The previous test had come with stock plugs and timing. We also changed to a two-step colder set of Bosch plugs. While we would normally retard the timing, we felt that the electronic spark control (ESC) would handle any detonation, and we had a load of 92-octane fuel plus some octane boost in the tank. We lowered the tire pressure slightly in the M/T ET Street sticky tires and pulled to the line after a short burnout. It was obvious the moment Moore hit the throttle that the Camaro was heading for a good pass.

We suffered from a slight amount of tire spin when the nitrous first hit off the line, but the Camaro still responded with an impressive 13.82 at 100.23 mph effort that turned out to be the best pass of the day.

This computes out to over 3½-seconds quicker and well over 21 mph faster, all for a total expenditure of slightly more than $5,200 including the cost of the car. We also accomplished this with all emission-legal parts, a 305ci engine, and iron heads. Frankly, we’re not completely thrilled with the Camaro’s performance, but we did come in just slightly over our original budget of $5,000.

Considering that we’ve spent very little money on it, having a Camaro that is solidly in the 13s, is fun to drive, and gets over 20 mpg on the freeway isn’t bad. What’s holding us back is the displacement-limited 305ci engine and the emissions requirements.

So what’s next? We’re thinking about building our own 350ci version of the emissions-legal package that GM Performance Parts offers, but that’s just one of the several options we’re investigating.

Click Here To View Part I

Click Here To View Part II

Click Here To View Part III

Click Here To View Part IV

Click Here To View Part V

Click Here To View Part VI

Click Here To View Part VII

Our pocket-change performer Camaro is back. After a quick hiatus that Tim Moore spent thrashing on a new motor, we’re now quicker, faster, and more powerful than before. We’ve got a lot to cover in this installment, so let’s jump right into the gritty details.

At the close of Part IV, we had just finished assembling the Slover’s-ported World Products S/R Torquer 305 heads. Combined with the new Crane hydraulic roller camshaft, we anticipated pulling off some better numbers at the dragstrip.

Moore decided the job would be easier if he pulled the engine out of the car. Once the greasy monster was on a stand, we decided that since the engine was stripped down to a mere short-block, it was the perfect time for a quick rebuild. Moore decided our budget could afford new pistons, rings, bearings, and some machine work if we kept the tricks to a minimum. That’s where our plans went awry.

The first task was to clean and Magnaflux the block at Jim Grubbs Motorsports (JGM). That’s when the JGM crew discovered the cracked block. So then it was off to find another block. Fortunately, we found a clean, standard bore, roller-cam 305 block for $75 and were soon back at JGM’s machine room. Our good fortune continued, because our original engine had been rebuilt, using 0.030-over pistons. So we decided to bore and hone the block to fit the existing pistons.

We then hustled over to Performance Automotive Warehouse (PAW) where we picked up a Deluxe Engine Rebuild kit that included a set of 0.010-under rod and main bearings, Hastings 5/64-inch rings, a timing chain and gear set, and a complete ROL gasket set. To this we added a set of cam bearings and a freeze-plug set. Moore also discovered a few wasted rocker arms, but rather than buy a whole new set, he scrounged the four we needed from a friend. All this set us back over $500, including the machine work, but we felt that we had a better chance to make more power if the engine could seal up the additional air we intended to stuff into the cylinders. Besides, how often is it that you can rebuild an engine for around $500?

Since most budget artists don’t degree the camshaft, we decided to do the same and just aligned the marks on the timing gears and bolted it together along with the used lifters that Moore disassembled and cleaned. One advantage of roller lifters is that if they are in good shape, you can reuse them on a new cam without damage to the cam. The only other addition was purchasing a set of steel-shim Fel-Pro head gaskets, because the S/R Torquer heads require a 4-inch bore gasket as opposed to the gasket designed for the 305’s smaller 3.736-inch bore.

Once the 305 was back in the car, Moore finished off the installation reusing all the previous parts, including the Edelbrock Performer aluminum intake, Edelbrock headers, and the Flowmaster exhaust system. Now we had a fresh engine to push through the 3.73 rear gears and rebuilt Posi. After a quick pressure lube and engine break-in, Moore took the Camaro for a test ride and pronounced the Camaro up on power and fun to drive. Now it was time for the dragstrip test.

Our previous best had been a 15.82 at 86.74 mph before the heads, cam, and short-block rebuild. Our original goal was a lofty 14.99 with a target of 90 mph. Frankly, we doubted whether we could achieve that, so we figured 15.20 at 88 mph was attainable. We drove the Camaro up to Los Angeles County Raceway (LACR) on a Wednesday grudge night hoping the cooler night air would help our cause. But as is usually the case with the high desert, as soon as the sun went down the wind picked up. Our handy PerformAir weather station from our pals at Helmet City told us the density altitude was a less-than-desirable 4,700 feet. With the headwind, we were certainly swimming upstream.

Moore made several passes experimenting with shift points between 5,000 and 5,500 rpm. It seemed that our little 305 ran best when shifted at 5,200 rpm and running through the lights at the top end at just over 4,200 rpm. Our best time of the night was a corrected 15.39 at 87.28 mph running into a 20 to 25 mph headwind. As you can see from the Quarter-Mile Tales sidebar, we picked up almost a half-second from the previous best, but the mph improvement was barely a half-mph. We chalked this up to the headwind and ugly atmospheric conditions.

We’ve discussed the possibility of driving to the San Diego area to run the Camaro at Carlsbad Raceway where the air is much better. This should be worth roughly another 0.20 to 0.30 second compared to our existing corrected times from LACR. It’s worth mentioning that the correction factor for LACR only accounts for the 3,000-foot altitude of the dragstrip, not for the high summertime temperatures. It’s possible that the Camaro could run a low 15 pass with a trap speed well over 90 mph and good conditions. But to put this in perspective, since our initial baseline, we’ve improved the e.t. and speed by 2.06 seconds and 8.64 mph. Not bad for a small pile of bolt-on parts.

Have we taken this Camaro as far as we can go? Not even close. We’ve already ordered the tunable Nitrous Oxide Systems Super PowerShot plate nitrous system for the Camaro, and we’ll bolt that on next month to see what it’s worth. We’ll show you how to bolt on this system along with our test results. It’s possible the Camaro could squeeze into the low 13s with a load of nitrous, but this will take a set of sticky Mickey Thompson ET Street rear tires as well to help with traction. We’re also going to have the TH700-R4 automatic rebuilt with a B&M trans kit to help the trans stand up to the added power.

From a budget standpoint, we’re looking pretty good. We have a 15-second Camaro, and all the bills totaled only put us back $3,903. Add the nitrous system, sticky rear tires, a trans rebuild, and a couple of refills on the nitrous bottle and we’re estimating the total cost could hit around $5,100. All of this is still just conjecture, but a low 13-second car for $5,000 qualifies as a screamin’ good deal, especially when you consider that it includes the price of the car. But you’ll have to wait to see if we are able to pull all this off.

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In our last exciting episode, we left our hero 305 Camaro dangling from the 15-second dragstrip cliff, waiting to be rescued with an influx of high-performance parts. So far, our little Camaro has responded to every component we’ve bolted on. While it’s still only a 15.80/86-mph car, at least it improves every time we bolt on a few more parts. Now it’s time to get serious.

Power comes from airflow, and we’re dealing with a weak 305 with restrictive heads and a tiny cam. We’ve enhanced the inlet and exhaust sides to uncork as much power as the stock motor can provide. So the next obvious step is to add better cylinder heads and a performance camshaft. Another important factor is emissions legality. The iron Vortec casting would be an excellent choice, but the Vortec heads do not include an exhaust-heat crossover passage. Since most small-blocks tap into that passage for exhaust-gas recirculation (EGR), this factor eliminates the Vortec as a legal choice.

Heads Up

Of course, our squeeze-it-’til-it-screams budget also constrained us from choosing a thumper aluminum head like the new 180cc Air Flow Research head. We considered a pair of alloy factory TPI heads since they are plentiful, relatively cheap, and lighter than iron. Unfortunately, these heads barely flow more than the stock iron 305 castings so the performance gain would be minimal. Further headhunting finally led us to a set of World Products S/R Torquer heads.

World Products has been casting iron heads for well over a decade, creating stock replacement (S/R) iron heads for the small-block Chevy. The S/R Torquer is a similar casting with better intake and exhaust ports and larger valves. Originally configured for 350ci engines, World also offers an S/R Torquer 305 with a smaller 58cc chamber and 1.94/1.50-inch valves compared to the stock 305ci 1.84-/1.50-inch valve complement.

Stock small-block Chevy iron heads generally fall in the 155-160cc intake port volume range with the aluminum TPI heads measuring around 163 cc. The S/R Torquer pumps the intake port volume up to 170 cc, which is relatively large for a 305ci engine. Add to this the stainless Manley valves, a 0.100-inch larger intake valve, and a good 3-angle valve job and you have the makings of a great combination.

We decided that while the S/R Torquer heads are an excellent investment, we’d spend a little more money and really make these heads romp. While we could have cheated and performed the head porting ourselves and saved the cash, we assumed that not everyone can execute a good pocket-port effort. So we took the heads to Slover’s Porting Service in North Hollywood and paid them the going rate of $120 for a basic pocket-porting job. Tim then lapped the valves and used his own valve grinding machine to perform a slight 30-degree back-cut to the intake valve in an effort to increase low-lift flow.

Camtastic

The next important consideration is the camshaft. While a great-flowing set of heads will pump the power even with a stock cam, adding a little more lift and duration to the mix allows us to take advantage of the better flow by spinning the engine a little higher in the rpm range. The stock LG4 motor tends to run out of steam at about 4,500 to 4,800 rpm. By increasing airflow, and with another 14 degrees of intake duration from the camshaft, our plan is to raise the peak horsepower rpm up closer to 5,000 to 5,500 rpm.

We felt the key to making power with the 305 was not to go overboard with the cam timing. We consulted CHP’s technical guru, Kevin McClelland, and he felt that any cam with more than 200 degrees of intake duration would tend to kill low-end torque—something we don’t have in abundance with a 305ci engine. We decided on a Crane CompuCam grind with a relatively short duration and reasonable lift figures (see Cam Specs chart). For now, we’ll stick with the stock 1.5:1 rocker arms, but we’ll try a set of 1.6:1 rockers to see if that improves the power. Either way, we’ll let you know the results.

Even with this short-duration cam, we’ve still managed to increase the duration by 14 degrees and lift by 0.050 inch. This may not sound like much, but this offers a significant increase in lift without sacrificing much in terms of low-end torque, which is important since this is still primarily a daily driver.

Conclusion

Because of the extra time required to pocket port the heads and do the parts swapping, we weren’t able to complete the install before deadline. Part of the time was also spent in the body shop, since Tim had his pal Bob Moore perform a complete exterior makeover on the Camaro as well. We’ll cover that at a later date, but that’s Tim’s Camaro on the cover lookin’ good in its ’69 Hugger Orange PPG paint. Now if we can only make this Camaro run as strong as it looks, we’ll be stylin’.

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Third-generation Camaros make wonderful budget builders, because you can buy them dirt-cheap. If you’ve just joined our performance buildup, this is the third part of a multi-part performance construction project where we started with a basic carbureted LG-4 305ci small-block with a TH700-R4 and a lazy 2.73 rear gear. The best part is that our pal Tim Moore bought this jewel for a paltry $271. Up to this point, we’ve added an intake manifold, a dual-snorkel air cleaner, a stronger mechanical fuel pump, and an after-cat exhaust. The Camaro responded with minor e.t. and speed improvements, but what it really needed was headers and a gear.

It’s tough to make power if the air and fuel gets in but can’t get out. Last month, we added an intake manifold and air cleaner, enhanced with a larger after-cat Flowmaster exhaust system. Unfortunately, our little 305ci engine was still trying to exhale through stock iron exhaust manifolds, a 2-¼-inch Y-pipe, and the stock replacement catalytic converter. The first order of business was a set of headers. We searched through several header kits and settled on Edelbrock’s 1-5/8-inch headers for the early third-gen Camaros.

The headers are completely smog-legal since they retain the original air injection reaction (A.I.R.) fittings to inject fresh air into the exhaust to help reduce hydrocarbon (HC) emissions. Car-owner Tim Moore reported that he had to move the steering column to fit the driver-side header in place. The passenger-side pipes also required some finesse to install.

The final part of the job involved some modification to the Y-pipe. We ordered the headers for a standard 305 Camaro, not the High Output (H.O.). The H.O. systems use a larger 3-inch catalytic converter, which dictates using a 3-inch Y-pipe from the headers to the catalytic converter. Since we ordered the smaller header system before we realized that we needed a 3-inch catalytic converter, Tim decided to modify the existing Y-pipe to increase it to the 3-inch size. The easier thing to do would probably be to order the H.O. headers and exhaust, and the whole system would bolt together.

We also needed a larger catalytic converter to help this engine breathe. These early systems used a single catalytic converter, so a larger 3-inch converter is essential for better breathing. DynoMax offers several universal high-performance catalytic converters, and we selected the 3-inch inlet and outlet converter. Once the converter was in place, the entire header and new converter conversion operation required the better part of eight hours to complete. Since Tim was able to do the work himself, we didn’t have to pay for labor, but you could expect to pay over $400 for a muffler shop to perform this task.

Before we moved on to the gears and Posi, we decided to test the Camaro at Los Angeles County Raceway (LACR) to evaluate the performance improvement. We were expecting around a half-second improvement and hoped we might see more. LACR offers a Wednesday night test night, so we bopped up to the high desert. Even though this was an evening excursion, the air was still plenty thin with a density altitude of 4,400 feet (see “Altitude Adjustment” for more information on density altitude). At first, the Camaro was hesitant to deliver, but with a cooler engine and a higher shift rpm of 6,300 rpm, the Camaro responded with a corrected 16.29/86.59-mph pass that was a 0.46-second and 2.3-mph improvement over the previous test.

These were encouraging improvements, even if we still were only running low 16s. But still, the Camaro was going through the lights in Second gear, and we knew that what we really needed was a deeper rear gear. It was time to get serious.

Roughly a month before, we had been touring our local Pick Your Part self-service recycling yard and ran across a 2.8L V-6–powered Blazer with the standard 7.5-inch, 10-bolt rearend. Tim knew that many of these tiny V-6–powered SUVs came with a deeper 3.73 gear to give them some help from the stoplight. Someone had already relieved the dead Blazer of its spider gears, which made removing the ring-and-pinion a snap. The gears were on an open carrier, so we unbolted the ring gear and managed to walk out with an excellent set of 3.73 gears for a paltry $22.50.

A couple of days later, Tim found a Posi unit in a third-generation Camaro for a mere $25, so for less than $50, we had gears and a Posi-traction unit. We then ordered the deluxe Ratech rebuild kit through Summit for $120, which offered all the bearings and parts we needed to install the new gears. While we could have cheaped out on the bearings, we figured this would give us a virtually brand-new rear axle that could probably take most of the abuse we could dish out. Again, Tim installed the gears himself so we didn’t have to add any labor to our running bill. However, you can expect to pay around $100 to $200 to have a professional shop install the gears.

With new lube in the rear axle, it was once more time to hit the track. Tim again drove the Camaro back up to LACR. Now the Camaro was much more responsive and much more fun to drive. Usually, a 3.73 gear is a pain to drive on the freeway because the rest of the world is cruising at 75 mph and you’re stuck at 60 or 65 mph. But with the TH700-R4 overdrive, the effective rear-axle ratio in overdrive computes out to 2.83:1, which is extremely comfortable to drive. With our 26-inch tall rear tires, the cruise rpm was a paltry 2,560 rpm at 70 mph.

The best news was what happened at the track. The one full point of additional gear ratio made a big difference. The 305 still doesn’t have the torque to fry the tires, but this means it doesn’t spin the tires hard enough yet to require an investment in sticky tires. After a little tuning with secondary metering rods (we found an AY secondary metering rod worked the best), the Camaro cranked out a corrected 15.82/86.74 which was a stout 0.47-second improvement over the previous combination. The mph picked up only slightly, but we were also facing a very stiff wind that night that got so bad it knocked our last run down by 7 mph! The Camaro would probably be 1 to 2 mph faster in better conditions than the speeds we’ve reported here.

Combined with the headers, gears, and Posi, the Camaro is now a full 1.6 seconds quicker and 8 mph faster than it was a mere two months ago. Not only that, but the Camaro also has a street presence now with its more authoritative exhaust note, and enough gear to take maximum advantage of the remaining modifications. In an upcoming story, we’re going to bolt on an emissions-legal Crane hydraulic roller cam and a set of World Products S/R Torquer heads that should put some power to the ground. Our goal is to run in the high 14s. That’s a lofty goal considering that we’ll need to pick up over 0.80 second just to run a 14.99. We’re not sure the 170,000-mile short-block and rings can seal the cylinder pressure needed to do that, but it should be interesting to find out.

Our ‘87 Camaro is shaping up nicely as a real-world performance car. It’s already fun to drive, still gets over 20 mpg on the freeway, and is slowly becoming quicker every day. We can’t wait until next time.

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The adventures of CHP’s fire-breathing 17-second 305ci ’87 Camaro continue. We last left our hero Tim Moore contemplating how to push the budget Camaro into the 16s. For those of you attending this party for the first time, we introduced the My Generation Camaro in the previous intallment (see links below). Tim discovered this 305ci, TH700-R4 automatic-equipped Camaro at an auction for the incredible price of $271. After bolting on a new catalytic converter, wires, and assorted minor pieces, he had a great Camaro for a touch over $1,200.

We cruised the Camaro up to the track to baseline its performance. To no one’s surprise, it ran a paltry 17.45 at 78.64 mph corrected to sea level from the 3,000-foot altitude at Los Angeles Country Raceway. Exhaust modifications are always a good place to start, so we installed a Flowmaster 2-¼-inch after-cat exhaust system. We also bumped the timing slightly from a stock 0 degrees to 6 degrees before top dead center (BTDC).

In theory, this should have pumped some steroids into the Camaro’s performance program, but when we went back to the track it only ran two-tenths and almost 2 mph quicker. At first this was disheartening, but then we talked to Flowmaster’s Kevin McClelland, who has a wealth of experience with these cars. He explained that our stock fuel delivery system was weak, so when we added the better exhaust, the engine probably went lean. This would also explain why a richer metering rod change had no effect on performance.

This ’87 was the last year for carburetors on third-generation Camaros. It employs a small electric in-tank pump that pushes fuel up to an engine-driven mechanical pump. Even this combination of electro-mechanical pumping action is insufficient, so that’s where we went next. We bolted on a stronger Holley mechanical pump to ensure the feedback Q-jet carb had plenty of fuel.

Now that we had opened up the exhaust and improved the fuel delivery system, the next step was to swap the intake manifold. Edelbrock has the widest assortment of emissions-legal manifolds, including a Performer EGR intake for these late-model small-blocks that require a different intake manifold pattern for the middle four bolts. Tim swapped the intake on in a couple of hours.

To recap, so far we’ve added a K&N filter, a Performer intake manifold, more ignition timing, a performance fuel pump, a stock replacement 2-¼-inch catalytic converter, and a Flowmaster after-cat exhaust. Those were all positive things. Unfortunately, we were still burdened with the incredibly tall 2.73 rear gear that was certainly going to prevent the car from going quick in the quarter.

We also decided to keep track of the weather on each trip to the dragstrip since, as the summer months progress, hotter test days will detract from the Camaro’s performance. Helmet City was kind enough to send along a completely automated PerformAire weather station that will accurately track the atmospheric conditions during testing.

With all these new parts bolted on the Camaro, we went back to LACR’s quarter-mile crucible to see if we could finally lay claim to a performance improvement. Keep in mind that all these components have a synergistic effect. In other words, for the exhaust system to deliver a performance increase, we also needed help from the inlet side and the fuel delivery system. Without each of these components, the bolt-ons would not have improved performance. This is probably the biggest lesson with this car. It’s the combination of the parts that make this Camaro perform.

While still saddled with the 2.73 rear gear, our trip to LACR still proved worthwhile. The Camaro delivered a slight improvement, posting a 0.70-second and 5.61-mph improvement that broke us into the 16-second zone with a best time of 16.75/84.25 mph charge. While we can hardly call this a quick time, at least we’re making headway.

The other way to look at this is that these times offer a tremendous amount of opportunity for improvement. Clearly, the 2.73 gear is a hindrance to rapid acceleration, so Tim went gear-ratio hunting. He discovered a set of factory 3.73 gears lounging in a 2.8L V-6 Blazer fitted with the 7.5-inch ring gear. Someone had even removed the rear cover and pulled out the spider gears, making our retrieval that much easier. Literally, in less than 20 minutes we walked out of the junkyard with a set of 3.73 gears for less than $25!

But we’ll save the excitement of testing those gears for the next installment as our My Generation Camaro launches a full-on blitz to blaze into the 15-second zone.

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Buying a musclecar can be a thrilling experience. You have several thousand dollars saved up, know just what you want, and have a great vision of how that next Chevrolet is going to look and run. You’ve put a lot of thought and bench-racing time into getting to this point. Buying the car is the easy part, right? Well, maybe not. With most musclecars over 30 years old, the possibilities of hidden flaws, rust, frame damage, or substandard bodywork runs high. But armed with good information and rational thinking, your next Chevrolet can fulfill those tremendous plans.

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Let's face it. The time is ripe for a 305ci third-generation Camaro. Chevy built about a billion of these third-generation Camaros between 1982 and 1992. The eldest of this generation Camaro is almost 20 years old now, and that makes them both plentiful and incredibly affordable. There are tons of replacement and hi-po parts available. If you are resourceful, it’s possible to build a 14-second dragstrip car out of an early third-gen Camaro without selling your soul to the devil (save that for something really important).

Chevy High Performance has been looking for a third-gen Camaro for quite awhile, but the moon and stars never seemed to be properly aligned—until associate Tim Moore ran across the third-gen Camaro deal of the century. At a recent salvage auction, Tim bought this fairly straight, carbureted 305ci ’87 Camaro with a TH700-R4 and 2.73 gears for a meager $271! That’s right—less than your sister’s latest telephone bill. When Tim told us about his acquisition, our 4.10 gears started to turn.

The Camaro needed some work. First, Tim replaced a couple of dead plug wires. Then he discovered the catalytic converter was plugged when the engine wouldn’t run over 2,000 rpm in any gear. A quick call to CarSound for a stock replacement catalytic converter got the Camaro up and running, and with a few more dollars for smog and safety inspections and new plates, Tim was driving his resurrected Camaro for just over $500.

The Plan

Given the nature of hot rodders, we couldn’t stand the thought of leaving this little cruiser alone. So we formulated a simple performance plan—go faster for the least money. The goal for this Camaro is to push it until the Camaro either runs quick or blows up. This won’t be just a junkyard adventure, but we will use the resources of recycled auto parts when they serve a purpose. When it comes to performance, we’re going to source out the best way to get there for the least amount of money.

The first thing we had to do was baseline the Camaro so we would have a starting point from which to judge our efforts. The Camaro accompanied the rest of the competitors during the 0-100-0 Shootout, but the Camaro was on the track for only three baseline runs. The combination of 150,000 miles on the stock Q-jetted 305 and a 2.73 gear didn’t help acceleration, where the Z28 attained a stunning 17.45 at 78.64 mph. This is about what we expected.

Prior experience has taught us that enhancing the exhaust side of things has always been a great place to start with virtually any V-8 car, no matter how anemic the engine may be. We had already installed a new catalytic converter, so the next step was a better after-cat system. We looked into several after-cat systems from DynoMax and Edelbrock, but finally landed on Flowmaster’s exhaust system. All these systems offer a similar performance advantage, so we went with the most cost-conscious system.

Flowmaster offers two different after-cat exhaust systems for this car: one for the smaller 2-½-inch catalyst, and one for the later, larger 3-inch-diameter catalytic converters. Although we had already replaced the old cat with a direct-replacement 2-½-inch cat, we ordered the Flowmaster after-cat system for the larger 3-inch catalytic converter. We did this to accommodate later changes and the possibility that at some point down the road we may install a 350ci engine in the Camaro. Had we thought ahead, we would have gone with the larger converter the first time around.

We also wanted to improve power on the inlet side as well. These early Camaros are notorious for having a restricted inlet, so the first thing we did was add a K&N air filter to the stock air cleaner assembly. In the next installment, we’ll show you how Tim hunted down another air cleaner assembly to build a dual-snorkel cold-air system for next to nothing.

In addition to the exhaust modifications and new air filter, we also looked more closely into the ignition system as well. This was the last year for the carbureted 305, replaced in ’88 with either a throttle-body or Tuned Port Injection. The feedback carburetor had been rebuilt on this car at some point and Tim removed the lid just to ensure that all the parts were in decent working order. He also looked into the HEI ignition system to make sure everything looked OK. Since there is no advance mechanism in these distributors, there was little to do. Both the advance curve and the part-throttle air/fuel ratio are controlled by the computer.

We considered a computer chip for the Camaro, but we decided to wait until we had more accomplished before making the investment. In discussion with Steve Cole of The Turbo Shop (TTS), he said that the computer-controlled advance curve is very limited in this combination—roughly around 22 degrees of spark timing. While more timing could be added with a chip, the least expensive route was to simply add more initial timing to the engine. This is a good idea anyway since the factory initial timing setting is 0-degrees BTDC! Tim checked the Camaro and that’s where the timing was set, so we had plenty of room for improvement.

Unfortunately, we ran out of time to test our new-found power at the dragstrip. We’ll save those numbers for next month when we start our budget assault on the 14-second bracket.

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Imagine how intensely boring this world would be if everyone had the same taste in cars. What if everyone drove refrigerator-white Yugos? Even Pro Street '69 Camaros would be a magnificent yawn because they'd all be the same. Thank- fully, the world is full of enthusiasts like Terry Stevens, who lives on a farm on Sugar Maple Lane in North Carolina and pilots a 757 for The Friendly Skies. He also happens to fervently believe that a '78 Caprice four-door is more than a toaster oven on wheels.

Terry is one of those prescient few who can look at something as mundane as a mid-'70s quadra-door Caprice and envision the potential in its lines that no one else can see. Terry is also pit-bull persistent. We met him a few years ago through Kevin McClelland, who thought Terry's vision of a land yacht like the Caprice was more than a passing whim. Meeting Terry was like being introduced to a cross between Bill Cosby and a Jehovah's Witness. He's a lot of fun, but seriously dedicated to making this car work--even if no one else shares his idea of what his machine could become.

The story of the Caprice SS and Terry's dedication reads like some kind of Hollywood love story turned Victorian horror epic. Terry's mother-in-law decided to no longer navigate the boat around town, allowing him the opportunity to create the ultimate performance touring car--a personal '70s impression of an Impala SS. For Terry, the time had come to go big or go home. But from the onset, the project presented hurtles. Terry's wife, Sue, nixed the idea of using the family garage as a hostel for homeless Caprice parts, suggesting instead Terry convert the nearby milk shed.

After a month of cleaning and electrical wiring, a tornado hit the farm at the end of May 1996, destroying three buildings, uprooting over 300 trees, and ripping half of the roof off the recently converted shop. Exactly one year later, Terry was still converting the shed into a shop with a monster air compressor and enough power to light the city of Chicago. Officially, work on the car began on May 1, 1997, with a half hour spent stripping front clip bolts from the parts car.

In June, the sandblasting began. After smashing fingers and removing rust-stubborn control arms, Terry began the arduous task of cleaning. He literally wore out the nozzle on a borrowed sandblaster and eventually spewed through over 2,000 pounds of sand to clean the frame and attendant pieces. The work took days in between rain, when the sand was too wet to shoot. "I think it's easier," he lamented, "to give a 15-pound cat a bath."

As with any car-building project, the work progressed in overlapping sequences. While the frame effort continued, Terry had Mike Heintz at Heintz Brothers begin work on the small-block Chevy. The plan was to build a stout 486 capable of decent fuel mileage. Assisting in the effort would be a 700-R4 overdrive automatic, but the engine still needed to be efficient. After much deliberation, the plan revolved around a 350 four-bolt block, a steel stroker crank, forged pistons, and Eagle H-beam rods. For the top end, Terry chose a Comp Cams hydraulic roller (218/224 degrees of duration at 0.050 with 0.495-/0.502-inch lift) using 1.6:1 intake and 1.5:1 exhaust Comp Cams roller rockers. The rockers actuate 2.02-/1.60-inch valves in the aluminum Air Flow Research 190 heads. Up top, Edelbrock got the nod with a Performer EGR intake wearing a Carburetor Shop Q-jet carburetor and an HEI distributor.

The plan also called for the small-block to be emissions-legal by retaining the EGR valve and the catalytic converter. For the exhaust, Terry talked with Kevin McClelland at Flowmaster to come up with a system that included a pair of Doug Thorley Tri-Y coated headers that feed to a single catalytic converter.

Flowmaster then supplied a Y-pipe that splits the exhaust from the 3-inch cat into a pair of 21/2-inch pipes and Flowmaster mufflers. Of course, the Y-pipe that connects the headers to the cat didn't fit, which required minor tweaking by Mitch Edison at Exhaust Systems in nearby Salisbury. This required a couple of trips before everything fit, then came more frustration when Terry discovered his new high-torque starter wouldn't fit.

Several other companies also lent a hand, including Just Dashes, which provided major assistance restoring many of the plastic dash pieces that could not be replaced, along with a matching pad, arm rests, and other pieces to complement the Connelly leather material Terry had chosen. Terry also purchased a pair of used BMW bucket seats that arrived damaged due to poor packaging.

The rest of the chassis also needed attention. Inline Tube offered to duplicate the original brake lines in stainless, which required careful packaging in a big bicycle box, while new front discs and upgraded rear drums were ordered from Master Power Brakes. Terry also ordered a polyurethane Super Front End kit from Performance Suspension Technology, and some of the suspension pieces went to the powdercoater.

Terry also completely disassembled the 10-bolt rear axle and then had Larry Pollard at Pollard Transmissions do the installation, which included a set of 3.73 gears and an Auburn limited-slip unit. It also required detailing once assembled and painted with polyurethane paint.

The big chore was the bodywork. With the body set on blocks, Terry took the inner fenders and various other pieces that needed rust repair to Danny Shaw's Sudden Impact body shop. Terry relied on Danny's shop for bodywork and paint guidance as well as specialty work like the welding.

After all the machine work was completed by the Heintz Brothers, Terry spent six hours prepping and painting the engine block, then spent quite a few more hours rechecking all the clearances. He intended to assemble the engine himself despite the fact that this was his first attempt at engine building. Armed with a shop manual and a copy of S-A Design's How to Build a Small-Block Chevy book, he spent the next three days carefully assembling the motor.

Now came the moment of truth for the engine. Terry hauled it over to Rick Morris Racing Engines in Mooresville for a dyno pass. After breaking the engine in, carb and dyno problems below 3,000 rpm prevented a full test, causing more frustration and delay, but the engine did pull 456 lb-ft of torque. A few months later, final testing generated similar torque numbers with a final horsepower rating of 401 at 5,400 rpm that included the single 3-inch Random Technology catalytic converter, Flowmaster mufflers, and the Q-jet carburetor.

One of the perks of Terry's job as an airline pilot was a trip to England, where he met Bernie Whiskin at Connolly Leathers. There Terry was able to personally choose five Prussian Blue hides that would make up the Caprice interior.

Effort up to this point had been geared mostly toward disassembly and cleaning. Terry's diary recorded over 220 man-hours and so far only the engine had been assembled. Now the process turned the corner from destruction to construction. Terry bolted on the last details to the rear axle assembly and waxed the frame "to help prevent dirt buildup." After a test-fit of the engine and trans in the frame, it all came back apart and Terry bolted on the front and rear suspension pieces and then clearcoated all the chassis fasteners so they wouldn't rust.

The chassis vacated the shop in September to make room for the body, but suddenly it was December and little had been done. Terry cranked back up during the holidays and settled into disassembling all four doors. He had to be very careful with the weatherstripping since GM had long since discontinued the parts and no aftermarket company offered replacements. Plus, the door mechanisms were riveted together and required drilling and cutting for disassembly. He also chiseled out all the old caulking so it could be replaced, even though his body man Danny Shaw warned him: "You're doing way more work than is required." But Terry didn't let up. He spent a day and a half per door doing the stripping and prepping, only to discover large creases in two doors that would take more effort to repair.

Worse yet, once the car was stripped, Terry discovered a previous body shop had used a high-speed grinder and 24-grit paper to sand the body, which badly warped the hood, top, and deck lid. Terry pulled the hood and trunk from the parts car and stripped those parts as well. After working on six doors, two hoods, and two deck lids and patching rust holes in the car's floor pan, the body was ready for primer. All of this took a mere 122 hours of back-breaking labor to complete.

On a brighter note, Terry located a set of '86 Camaro IROC wheels that were then polished and mounted with BFGoodrich 255/50VR16 Comp T/A tires. On December 30, "I sprayed the surfacing primer on all of the pieces. Three coats took almost 2 gallons of primer...New Year's Day, what better way to celebrate than sanding doors? I wet-sanded every part except the hood." On January 10, Terry lifted the body onto the frame with help from Pat Soutullo and Terry's John Deere tractor.

"I now understand the reason body repairs are so expensive--the labor required to do a proper job is mind boggling!" After much prep work, Terry finally started painting in the last week of January. Even though this was his first shot at using PPG's basecoat/clearcoat paint, he sprayed the inside of the doors, hood, fenders, and trunk with BMW Arctic Silver, which had a touch of blue that complemented the blue leather interior.

By then it was downright cold in North Carolina, so Terry fired up the kerosene and propane heaters, warmed up the shop, and started to paint the exterior color. "It's clear to me I did this work bassackwards! I should have done all the bodywork last summer when the painting conditions were better. Of course, I thought all the bodywork would only take a month at most. Oh well..."

After way too many hours with a borrowed HVLP gun, the paint was finished with only a few minor dust hiccups in the clear that were sanded and buffed out. During this time, Terry's diary eclipsed the 500-hour mark. That's 12.5 40-hour work weeks, and the car was a long way from completion.

Frustration set in until Danny showed Terry how to set up the power window motors so that the brackets would all line up. Then Terry took on the daunting task of wiring the beast, which began with a harness that had been hiding in a big box on the shelf. Thankfully, Terry had taken the time to label each connector when he removed the harness from the donor car since the original harness had been butchered numerous times. Dozens of hours passed in the process.

By early March, Terry dropped the motor and trans in the chassis, but his flying schedule did a fantastic job of interrupting work on the car. The wiring continued to eat time and extended through May with 45 hours spent just on electrical connections. "I knew it would take time, but never thought it would be like this," he says. "Thank goodness for the digital multimeter. The last thing I want to see is smoke when I hooked up the battery." The time clock was up to 749 hours.

Then came July, and Black Thursday. Jimmy Robinson and Gary Parrish stopped by to help mount the hood. The acid etching used for the black oxide coating on the hinges froze them solid, which Terry discovered only after his newly finished hood buckled in the middle! "Do you ever feel totally, absolutely, completely speechless, flabbergasted, stunned, sad, mad--all at the same time? Oh well..."

On the positive side, Terry finally completed the wiring, with fire extinguishers at the ready and the car pushed outside ("If this sucker went up in flames, I didn't want to lose the shop too!"). A couple of cranks on the starter and the rumble of open exhaust is all the fanfare Terry needed to hear! With the engine rumbling, all the toil became worthwhile. Better yet, almost everything electrical worked the first time.

With the car sitting on all fours and running, something didn't quite look right. The front end sat around 2 to 3 inches higher than the rear. A few calls to Coil Spring Specialties confirmed the springs were correct. Later, lying underneath the car, Terry realized the "baseball bat-sized" sway bar was on upside-down, preventing the front suspension from settling. A quick swap and the car dropped to its proper ride height.

Terry expended another 40 hours locating, repairing, and painting the third hood for the Caprice. But then more bad news: A quick test run resulted in a broken transmission. After the post-mortem, he concluded the converter had failed and managed to trash the transmission as well. Terry stepped up for a brand-new 700-R4, converter, and cooler from B&M, but that took time.

Well into September 1998 the Caprice SS was finally roadworthy, and with barely 200 miles on the odometer, Terry and Sue put fears of capricious failure aside and hit the road with the East Coast Hot Rod Power Tour. The car performed flawlessly except for a second power steering pump that failed, but against all odds the Caprice averaged 17 to 19 mpg for 4,300 miles. By November, Terry also had time to take the Caprice to the local dragstrip. Despite traction problems in First and Second gears, the 4,200-pound (with driver) quadra-door cranked out a best of 8.85 in the eighth-mile, which is roughly equivalent to a 13.65 in the quarter-mile.

The Caprice SS required more than 1,000 hours of work, and he's still not finished. This is the equivalent of almost six months of 40-hour work weeks spread out over 21/2 years. His diary encompassed over 50 pages of notes and assorted car-building philosophies, from which this story was created. Total cost to build the Caprice SS tallied up to $22,000. "The engine accounted for the biggest chunk of change at approximately $6,000 but will be ready for nitrous or a blower if I should ever choose to go that route," Terry says. A complete second transmission also pushed up the overall cost.

At the end, Terry contemplated his effort. "I spent five years prior to starting the Caprice SS reading several car magazines. I clipped seven notebooks full of articles that I arranged by subject. I spent a lot of time reviewing these articles and forming mental lists of what worked and what did not work.

"Now for the big question: Would I do this again? Yes, but not to the extent that I did this car. I have lots of talents, but bodywork is definitely not one of the upper few. I will let Danny and the crew at Sudden Impact do the work. My sincere thanks to all the companies and individuals whom I have worked with during this project."

There's plenty to be learned from Terry's determined project Caprice. Most importantly, he never gave up on his dream, even when there were times he admits it was tough to continue. Remember that setbacks and mistakes will take more time and cost more than you think. But the satisfaction makes it worth all the effort. Just ask Terry Stevens. CHP

If you have been reading Chevy High Performance for the last year, you have seen the stories documenting the progression of my latest project, a '69 Chevy Camaro dubbed "The Thrasher." The name comes from my willingess to run my cars hard and take abuse without failure. Just before writing this last installment, I put the first few miles on the car and my initial impression is that this is the best Camaro I've ever built. It's powerful, smooth, and more than willing to hammer through a corner or smoke the tires into Third gear. I plan on enjoying the Thrasher for quite a while, and I hope you have been able to avoid at least one car-building snafu or improve the performance of your Chevy by employing some of the ideas presented in this buildup.

THE THRASHER DEFINED

This car integrated all of the lessons I’ve learned from building previous Camaros. It’s simple, yet features advanced design and construction techniques. On the simple side, the body is stock and the floorpan is unmolested except for subframe connectors to increase chassis stiffness and a four-point rollbar to provide driver safety. The drivetrain is typical small-block street fare that can be easily serviced anywhere in the country. Though there are several advanced ideas in the car, I did my best to simplify those as well. The best examples are the spindles I designed and had built to correct inherent front suspension geometry problems and the spring and shock combination providing 1990s ride-quality and performance.

I also built a custom instrument panel loaded with Auto Meter gauges, a stainless steel trunk battery mount, and a 3-inch stainless steel Borla exhaust. All of those components were designed to be completely functional, so, from the exterior, this car just looks like a clean 1969 Camaro with a nice set of tires and wheels, which is fine with me. The Thrasher is a purpose-motivated car. Whether I want to cruise the highways chilled by the Vintage Air or blast around a road course abusing the tires, this car will happily answer the call to action.

THE FACTS

The subject of cost is always a difficult one; it's an essential topic that few magazine articles are willing to address. Simply put, if you wanted to duplicate this car--not including the paint and body cost--you would need around $20,000 to $25,000 to purchase all the components and pay for the specialty work, while still assembling the car yourself. That's not to say this is the minimum price, but if you want all the components and features of The Thrasher, that's a realistic price tag.

If you had someone build the car for you, the cost could range anywhere from $50,000 to $100,000. Don't think there are any $100K Camaros running around? Think again. Shop rates of $40 to $60 an hour can quickly add up to tens of thousands of dollars. I'm telling you this because it's important to know your financial limits before starting. I knew mine, and I tried to design and build a car that wouldn't exceed them. In the end, I still went over budget.

There are many components on this car that I consider "foundation" parts, and so they had to be the best. Things like the Currie 9-inch rearend, the prepared Borg-Warner T56 six-speed transmission, the Goodridge braided-steel lines, and the water, oil, and power steering coolers are all top-of-the-line components because this car is going to be road raced. In that case, a component failure could be catastrophic. If you don't intend to use your car this way, lighter duty and often less expensive components can be used.

In the end, the Thrasher successfully combines off-the-shelf, aftermarket components with '60s-era ponycar technology to create a hot rod worthy of the next millennium. So don't be surprised if I park next to you at some rod run with chunks of rubber hanging off the rear fenders, the headers crisply crackling, brake dust plastered on the front wheels, and rock chips on the front valance. What better way to enjoy a hot rod than to drive it?

Editor's Note: This is the fourth installment in CHP over the last few months from Mark Stielow, the builder of many badboy, Pro Touring-type '67-'69 Camaros. He's building a new '69 Camaro, the Thrasher, and is showing us how he created these super-performing ponycars. This month's story details building a minimum restriction, but maximum quiet, Borla exhaust system and how he modified the stock dashboard to accept aftermarket Auto Meter gauges.

The last few months have been spent doing groundwork for the Thrasher, so I'll review to make sure everyone understands what we're up to here. My latest car, a '69 Camaro called the Thrasher, is being built to run a few different events (One Lap and the Pony Express 100 for example) and drive on the street. The drivetrain is loaded with a 450hp, 406ci small-block, a Centerforce clutch setup, a T56 Borg-Warner transmission, and a Currie 9-inch rearend. The suspension is equipped with Koni shocks, my own design SED spindles, Landrum springs, Hotchkis swaybars, Global West bushings, BBS wheels, and BFG tires.

I've built cars with trick, unobtainium parts in the past. They are cool to look at and touch, but when they break, you can't find a replacement part to save your life. That's why the Thrasher is being built with off-the-shelf parts. It should run just as fast as the trick stuff, if not faster, because of how the parts are combined, and I'll be able to fix it if we break something in Resume Speed, Missouri. Having built the engine and outlined the basic chassis work in previous articles, this month you'll learn how to tuck a full 3-inch Borla exhaust system up under a slammed '67-'69 Camaro and maximize ground clearance. You'll also see how I installed a full set of Auto Meter gauges in the relatively ugly '69 Camaro dashboard.

GETTING SOME EXHAUST

As much as I really dislike exhaust backpressure, an exhaust system that leaves me deaf after a day of hammering it down the highway hardly makes sense. I want the best of both worlds, and through experimentation I think I've found it. The exhaust system on the Thrasher has almost no backpressureand emits a slight rumble at idle and cruise but lets 'er rip when I stomp on the throttle.

The entire system is very simple but completely custom-built to tuck up underneath the car. I started with a set of race-style 17/8-inch primary tube Hedman Hedders (PN 65020) that dump into 3-inch exhaust pipes with a balance tube where they come closest to each other. Just in front of the rear axle (under the rear seat area), two 3-inch inlet and outlet Borla XR-1 Sportsman mufflers soften the bark, and then the exhaust snakes its way over the axle to exit at the rear of the car.

So it would last forever, I chose to build the system with T304 stainless steel tubing, which is more than double the cost of mild steel. If you are on a budget, you could use mild steel, which is also easier to bend and weld, and have it coated inside and outside by HPC to get the maximum life out of the system.

Another reason to consider mild steel tubing over stainless is that stainless "grows" much more than mild steel as it increases in temperature. It is common to see a stainless exhaust system grow 1/2-inch or more over its entire length. This might not seem like much, but often it's enough to tear an exhaust hanger apart after a few hundred miles. I have learned this lesson the hard way and now use a "swing" type exhaust hanger that can move with the tubing growth yet still retain the exhaust. Also, don't mount any hangers too close to the mufflers, as the intense heat will likely shorten the life of the rubber mount considerably--these babies get hot! And, as a final note on the hangers, I use a "blade" type late-model factory hanger at the tailpipe, so as the exhaust tubing expands and the length of the system grows, the blade just slides in its rubber receiver mount on the frame.

Because the components used on this car are aftermarket, sometimes they need a little "persuading" to fit properly. This was the case with the headers. My exhaust guru specialist, Richie Hernandez, used a jack and an acetylene torch to heat up the primary tubes around their bends to reduce the amount the headers hung down under the car. While this is cool to do because it will give me more ground clearance and clean up the underside of the car, understand that the second we started whittling on the headers the warranty was out the window. So, get somebody that can heat the tubes up without blowing through them, kinking a tube, or worse. If done right, it is worth the effort, as it got each collector up about 11/2 inches (and I'll stress "right"). Richie did a great job because he knows what he's doing--if I had to do it, I might have ruined them.

I don't use flanges on my headers, especially on stainless steel systems, because they seem to all leak, crack, or somehow fail after a series of heat cycles are put into the system. I found some trick exhaust clamps that are used on big rigs to seal a slip-on collector to the exhaust system. They are available from Summit Racing Equipment, made by Dyno Max, are called stainless steel exhaust clamps (PN WLK-35978), and cost $8.50 each. These clamps are great because they seal the system but allow some movement, which is important. I'm yet to have one fail. CHP

Editor's Note: This is the fifth installment in CHP from Mark Stielow, builder of many Pro Touring-type '67-'69 Camaros. He's building this '69 Camaro, the Thrasher to illustrate what it takes to create a show-stopping, super-performing ponycar. This month's story details body prep and paint, what materials he uses, and how he goes about getting the job done in a timely fashion--if you've ever had your car painted, you know it can be tough to get your car back in the same season it went into the paint shop!

Let's start this off by saying I don't do bodywork and paint. I pay people to do the job. When I was