Intro: Hello everyone, My soon to be wife and I last month bought a 1978 camaro project car as a early wedding present to ourselves. She named it "Bells" as in wedding bells. We are knew to working on cars and are basicly clueless on most of it. So we can really use everyones help.

We bought a Haynes manual and have started the basics of changing fluids and sparkplugs. The radiator is very dirty and hopefully We will get to flushing it this weekend.

Questions: While changing the sparkplugs one of the sparkplug boots will not click/pop and is very loose when re instaling. Could this be a bad boot and if so can I just change the boot or do I have to change the whole wire out, or could it be the new plug?

Also we had and issue with the coolant system leaking and not working properly. The upper hose would kink and we would hear a squeling noise from the thermostat housing. We changed out the housing and thermostat. I was wondering the radiator cap is a CST with a lever to vent the radiator from autozone. Will it work with the stock radiator and overflow tank or should I get a OEM radiator cap online?

Also are there any other good manuals/how to info out there for this car and if so where should I look?

Sorry if this is in the wrong section, not really sure where to put it.

Thanks in advance, Mike and Amy

 

well with the spark plug boot, these things are mass produced and are never perfect, so i have always tried giving the boot a squeeze (to close up the metal inside) it usually works but if it doesnt than yes youd have to get it replaced.

as for the radiator hose if its collapsing thats really bad whats happening is a vacuum is being created instead of pressure. id replace the hose and make sure when you flush the system that you have all the air out of the system.

 

welcome to forum, nice looking 78 you got there. what part of Southwest Michigan are you from?

 

Thanks Basic, I haven't had the time to try your suggestion on the sparkpulg boot yet but I'll let you know how it goes. As for the radiator hose, the hose looks fine but the thermostat housing did have some holes in the neck and on the bottom near the O-ring (replaced it). Haven't had time to finish the sparkplugs yet this week and have to wait on the fiancee to do the flush this weekend.

Hi mike6208, We are around the St Joe/Benton Harbor area. I am originaly from the North suburbs of Chicago. Moved here in '08. I checked out your Progress album. Very NICE! I am hopping we can get our '78 to that point some day! Would you mind if I friended you on here? I would love to be able to pick your brain from time to time.

 

yea go ahead and add me, if you have any camaro questions the forum here is very helpful, nice to see another 78 owner around, i live on the indiana/IL border but i was in south haven last weekend, i'm in Michigan from time to time would like to check out your car when you complete it.

 

Hey Basic thanks for that advice about the sparkplug boot. I tried it and it worked.

Thanks Mike I wanted to ask, what kind of exhaust do you have? It sounds great in your video. Since you were in South Haven did you stop by the Lane automotive show?

 

i got my exhaust from summit racing Summit Racing SUM-680101 - Summit Racing® Header-Back Dual Exhaust Systems - Overview - SummitRacing.com

it does sound really good, i like it. i think a couple guys on the forum also have it. i didnt know about the lane auto show, ill have to look it up online and maybe check it out next time.

 

The show kinda got rained out anyway so you didn't miss much but ya its every year just off I94 in Watervliet. Free to enter your car and free to walk around. Thats not a bad price on that exhaust.

 

it is a good price and the exhaust is bolt on, no welding needed, was able to put it on in my garage.