an 86 SS Monte Carlo

Getting a call from my brother yesterday suprised me. He asked if I had an oil drain pan. "Yup,I do" I said and then he was on his way. My brother baught an 86 SS Monte Carlo a couple years ago. He kind of suprised me when I showed up at his place and this car was there. I thought that there was hope for him after all. He had always been one of those guys that said he missed the cheap gas and cheap insurance era. And the result was that someone was always his taxi. So you can imagine what was going through my mind when I found out about his car. First things first, the general look see told me a few things. It was obvious that the guy that he got it from did some quick work to get it running,I later found out the seller had a couple habits. Well,so much the better. I was at first suprised at the purchase price,then I started to have a decent look at the car. It had lots of chrome goodies under that hood,it seemed to run not too bad. However for those of you that know,the 86 SS Monte's came out with a 305 so they were not really anything special in the haul ass dept.

While not Jessie's car,this is what it looks like

   The car was in not bad shape overall so the main recommondations were to check all the seals, a compression test,all the belts and hoses and so on and so forth. Now being a 305 I had the gears rolling in my head with an idea about a 350 that's sitting on a stand in my garage. Since my brother was really amazed at how well his car went after both myself and our eldest brother started tweaking things,it seams to me that breaking him into real horsepower slowly might be the order of the day. More on the power later though.

  Jessie shows up and his plan is to change some fluids and some filters. He is already on board with synthetic oil so that was a given. I order the transmission filter and gasket so that was going to get done the next day. Now,he was having some issues with his carburetor and I was thinking it might have been a lot worse than it actually was due to the age of the carb. While I was changing the oil and filter he had taken out the fuel filter. It was about a quarter chrushed and that was towards the end where the fuel goes into the inlet inside that carb. He asked me if that may have been the problem with the carb...lol. It was.
Next,I decide to have a look at the breaks. They were fine,the wheel beings were not however. The rotors on both sides of the car had about an 1/8 " deflection or movement. I quickly removed the break calipers,pulled the cotter pin out and removed the rotors. A quick inspection showed that they were just improperly installed. I was amazed that the beings were in as good a shape due to the year and a half that Jessie had the car on the road.

  The wheel beings retorqued,the oil changed,the fuel filter changed and the carb slightly adjusted it was time to go for a drive. And the Monte left rubber and accelerated very nicely down the road.My brother was amazed that the car was running so good...and so was I! Once I take the casting numbers off the engine and heads I will know more but,it's possible that it may not be a 305 in that car. The only car I knew about that went half decent with a 305 was the 90 Camaro with the 5 speed transmission. Anyway,I'll keep you posted on the progress we have with the SS as time goes by.

Going for a ride in a Tuner

I had the pleasure of going for a ride in a Nissan Skyline after a new bigger turbo was installed. The car was built for drifting and let me tell you I had a blast! This little car was going around corners sideways on low boast! I for one never did see what all the hype was about imports or "Tuners". I figure good old fashion muscle got the job done just nicely,and for me it did. Don't get me wrong,I'm not gonna run out and start look for one of these ricers to build and pour a bunch of money into. I am however still one the lookout for a nice Third Generation Camaro. I'm thinking that I can build a car that will drift as good as the Nissan Skyline I was in yesterday,



  The plan for the Third Gen Camaro will include a short stroke small block Chevy. That would mean a 302, this gives the motor the ability to rev high. And with a 4 in bore,you still get some decent power out of it. When coupled with a Vortech,this little 302 is going to pump out some serious power and still run around 25-26 mpg. Backing this would be a new 6 speed transmission. From the outside,this car will look like your average 80's Camaro that's been brough back to life with some TLC. A set of 18" of 19" rims with the suspension built to accommodate the tires. A Eaton rear end from a 96 chevy pick up and a set of 2.73 gears in it would assure that the car moves along just nicely. After all, we couldn't have someone that bought one of those new Mercedes ML 6.3 to be able to leave me in the dust now could we? I have a deep respect for people that build their horsepower or buying it.

Have a look at this guy's idea of turbo charging! There is a big block Chevy under there somewhere.

 In this day and age,it's almost like gear heads are stuck working on older cars. Doing anything to a new muscle car like the Camaro or even the Challenger would void anything you may have for a warranty,not to mention that computers in these cars have more signals and processes running than it took to put the space shuttle into orbit. However,I do respect bought horsepower just not as much as built horsepower.

64 GTO,the first of the Muscle Cars

This 64 GTO is the product of a frame off (Done Right!) Restoration. Everything has been done to this car when they had it on the rotisserie. While the 389 is new it does sport period correct numbers,the 4 speed comes from a 64 donor. The whole cars looks like it just came off the showroom floor.Take a good look,this is the car that started the horsepower wars.

The Z-28 302 Chevy Camaro

Designed by Vince Piggins The Z-28 Camaro was the car the Chevrolet used to compete in the SCCA Trans Am racing series. SCCA stands for the Sports Car Club of America for those of you that don't know.Powering the Z-28 was a 302 C.I. small block. Chevy engineers simply used the 283's crank and the 327's bore for this little screamer. Originally,this engine was rated at 290 horsepower at 5900 rpm and 290 lb-ft of torque at 4200 rpm for the street version. On the dyno it actually turned out 340 - 350 HP. The Racing version was over 500 and was one of the winningest engines in Chevrolet's history. With a 4.00 in bore,a 3.00 in stroke,aluminum intake manifold sporting an 800 cfm Holley carburetor,a solid lifter 30-30 Duntov camshaft originally used in the 1964 fuel injected 327,and 2.02 cylinder heads the 302 turning into "the most responsive American V-8 we've ever tested". "The 290 hp figure quoted for the Z-28 engine seems ridiculously conservative"

  The 302 is also best suited for a manual transmission due to the fact that there was almost no low end torque,not an ideal situation for the street. Although seeing one on the road was rare as a result of just over 600 versions made of the 67.

As tested by Car and Driver, the 67 Z-28 in street tune ripped the quarter mile in 14.9 seconds and had a 0-60 time of 6.7 seconds.

  Chevrolet had planned on installing headers on the 302 but,supply problems caused the engine to be shipped out with manifolds. The headers were however a dealership option that did get shipped with the car when they were ordered. One cool litte bit of info,when the 302 hit 8000 RPM it sounded like an "Air raid siren" according to the mayor of Warren,Mich.

 A key to the 302's performance was the free breathing 2.02 intake,1.60 exhaust cylinder heads.

All the components installed in the 302 were strickly high performance that include forgeged crank,pistons and connecting rods.
Ref,Chevrolet Small Blcok V-8,Anothy Young