Had a bit of time away from the big yank recently. The garage itself was waaay overdue a bit of TLC, and as summer is here things were dry enough in there to actually deal with it effectively. I am of course talking about the cursed leaking roof. A trip to good old ebay netted me some ultra thick PVC sheeting, so one sunny weekend Simon and myself hammered into getting the waterproofing up:
...starting at Simons side. With that half up we worked over the camaro and did the other side:
...which left us with this! Nice dry floor!
While we were at it i wired up another few striplights, giving us 6 in total. So its now drier AND brighter in there. Winter is prepped for now!
Been a bit of a downer since the gearbox came out. There was finding the B&M shifter is duff, then I found the manifolds foul every edge and protrusion available within the engine bay, so its been a dour month. Nonetheless, some dusting of the shoulder has taken place, and i'm back on the up. I should cover how i came to the conclusion the tubulars are no use though.... The only way to really know was to pull the engine out:
Yes, thats my brother hijacking the pic in the background.
...and the empty bay. Surprisingly littly room in there considering the size of the car. This seems to be down to a chunky subframe and a sizeable pair of wheel tubs. Anyway, the end result was this:
Engine out and inlet manifold off. Trial fitted the exhausts and they come down at almost 90 degree angles rather than hug the block. Little doubt that they will foul just about every surface in the bay, so unless i am to get drastic with the angle grinder and welder, they really aint going on. Solution to this coming up! Moving onto the inlet, and we see more proof that this is the smog spec engine:
EGR casting (Exhaust Gas Recirculation). There is also evidence of this system on the manifolds, although all EGR ports have been blocked off. Not sure if this was done aftermarket or from factory but its clear this must be the most restrictive manifold known to man.
The inlet route is a fairly convoluted affair. From the pic above, gas flow goes up, down, around, and with plenty of right angles...Time for a change:
Enter the Edelbrock Performer dual plane manifold. Purchased 7 weeks ago from the most useless tool of a Californian, it finally arrived via Australia with all the studs for carb mounting bent. Not to worry though as these studs are for holley mounting (which will eventuall happen with this big badboy):
...but the manifold also accepts Rochester carbs. Out with the studs and on with the existing carb for now. But not before a touch of BLING y0!
A touch of silver to clean things up, and if you look closely, a subtle bit of detailing too. Can you see it? Let me help...
I highlighted the Edelbrock and PERFORMER casting in gold. To be honest its a touch that will probably never be seen once the big carb and air cleaner go on, but i know its there...
Why the gold paint though? Well i decided on a paint theme for the engine.
GOLD!!! The big problem about painting and making things look nice though, is that other parts end up looking even scabbier. Check out that timing cover. Not something i was gonna bother with but after painting the engine i feel it needs to be chrome. So having bathed the crank pulley in WD40 for a couple of days and asked it politely to come off, i had to bite the bullet and order a pulley removal tool. Its in the post as i type. I may also drill out the 3 bolt pulley wheel mounts to a larger diameter hole and a metric thread for remounting as the current imperial pulley wheel bolts are pitifully short, and i reckon i will need a meaty thread to take out the crank wheel when the removal tool arrives.
That said, the timing cover is not just a cosmetic change over, i hope to get the cam installed while the engine is out too. Look at the pic above again and you will notice the rockers are loosened in prep for this. It really is the crank pulley thats holding me back at the moment. And what do you do when things hold you back? Paint more....
Thats the engine mounts in high temp black next to the pulley belt drive (not the part thats holding me back i should point out, but one half of the crank pulley).
So in the meantime heres a wee teaser of the engine painted and the covers back on:
Weeks done, time for a pizza to celebrate:
Nomnomnom.....
So back offshore and time to spend a bit of cash to get things up to speed. I'm not really looking at the box for now as im fairly certain that it needs the shaft bearings changed out now. Thast can wait, but i did need to address the exhaust manifolds. I found a fella in Coventry selling proper third gen manifolds from a firebird which should fit. Won them for 40 quid, but it appeared he was breaking the whole car too. Had a rummage through his other auctions and couldnt really find anything of interest apart from what follows. Needless to say i won it for a song, but didnt consider the ramifications of postage (or that postage is nigh on impossible for an item this size). Long story short i'm off to coventry on Saturday with a roof rack to collect a rather chunky adult climbing frame:
Yes, its a Camaro specific rollcage. Yes, its a rather substantial one. Yes, its a weld in model. Oh, and yes, it will most definitely be going in my Camaro.
