New member from NE
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New member from NE
Happy New Year folks!
I'm new here, but not new to Camaros. I've owned four gen 2 Z28's, a 2013 ZL1, and I finally own my first true love...a gen 1 Camaro. It's a 67 that I picked up in November. It's been redone, it appears that pretty much everything has been touched. It has a Ford 9" with 4.10 gears, a Richmond Super T-10, behind a 383 stroker with Dart Pro1 200 cc heads (also had ribbed belt conversion, Edelbrock 600 carb...previous owner pulled the Demon off of it for some reason, aluminum radiator, headers, etc. Interior is new, has aftermarket gauges (Autometer), body is in good shape, paint is clean (though not the highest quality). That's really all I knew for sure about it. The seller didn't know a whole lot about the history but it was clear that it was built for a drag strip...the cam was big, but I didn't know how big.
The first thing I did was pull the single plane high rise and Edelbrock carb off. The carb was a 600 cfm with an electric choke and vacuum secondaries. I put a brand new Holley 650 double pumper with manual choke on it with a new Edelbrock RPM Air Gap intake. I put a vacuum gauge on it and attempted to set idle mixture on the carb. At the same time, I set the base timing at 4°, allowing for vacuum advance. No vacuum. No matter what I did, I could not get more than 5" of vacuum unless I was at about 2,000 rpms. Even then, I never saw over 10". I never could get it to idle very well. Pulled the brake booster hose, checked for leaks, nothing. Ran a propane bottle around the intake, no response. No vacuum, rough idle...I don't want to pull the cam. I put a piston stop in #1 cylinder to check the timing mark on the balancer...maybe it was off. Nope, spot on. A buddy of mine suggested that I check the cam/crank timing. I pulled the water pump and cover, and there was a little slop in the chain, but the cam was set at 0°. Since I had the cover off, I went ahead and put a new Cloyes timing set on it. No change. No vacuum, rough idle. Crap. I still don't want to pull the cam. I don't know what the rocker ratio is (though they are roller rockers), I don't know what type of pistons it has (though a bore scope indicated it was flat top). I don't know what the deck height is, I don't know what the compression ratio is. I don't know what cam I'd put in it...and I'm not 100% certain the cam is the problem (though it's looking pretty likely). I put a compression tester on it and all cylinders were within 3 psi of 150. No cylinder issues, valves seem to be good.
The week of 12/13, I started hinting at my wife that I was thinking about putting a crate motor in it and selling this one. If I put a roller cam in it, it may fix the problem, but at the end of the day, I still know nothing about the bottom end so I still wouldn't have the peace of mind that I would if I put a motor with a warranty in it. The old motor has primo parts, the compression is good, I should be able to get a good chunk back on it. For kicks, I texted her a link to a NEW Blueprint 383 dressed motor from Speedway motors (about an hour away from me), not thinking it would go anywhere from there. Wrong. I got home from work and she showed me the invoice. Well then, I guess that makes my decision easier. I'm going to throw a new motor in it.
I have the old motor and tranny out and separated. I'm waiting for my new flywheel to arrive and I discovered a crack in the bellhousing (OEM GM), so I have one of those coming too. I'll reuse the clutch (which looked brand new), the MSD dizzy, and the aluminum valve covers that came with the car. The motor is sold to a buddy of mine, and I'll have some carbs & intakes for sale (they'll be in the classified section one of these days).
Anyway, I'm happy to have my gen 1...finally. It's one of the colors that was highest on my list (silver with black rally stripes...even though it's not a Z28). The cowl tag doesn't indicate that it was anything special, but it was a V8 car. I'm into it deep enough to have found most of the potential problems that I would have worried about and they are being taken care of. Fortunately, the weather won't let me drive it so I have time to work on it...and make it mine.
I'm new here, but not new to Camaros. I've owned four gen 2 Z28's, a 2013 ZL1, and I finally own my first true love...a gen 1 Camaro. It's a 67 that I picked up in November. It's been redone, it appears that pretty much everything has been touched. It has a Ford 9" with 4.10 gears, a Richmond Super T-10, behind a 383 stroker with Dart Pro1 200 cc heads (also had ribbed belt conversion, Edelbrock 600 carb...previous owner pulled the Demon off of it for some reason, aluminum radiator, headers, etc. Interior is new, has aftermarket gauges (Autometer), body is in good shape, paint is clean (though not the highest quality). That's really all I knew for sure about it. The seller didn't know a whole lot about the history but it was clear that it was built for a drag strip...the cam was big, but I didn't know how big.
The first thing I did was pull the single plane high rise and Edelbrock carb off. The carb was a 600 cfm with an electric choke and vacuum secondaries. I put a brand new Holley 650 double pumper with manual choke on it with a new Edelbrock RPM Air Gap intake. I put a vacuum gauge on it and attempted to set idle mixture on the carb. At the same time, I set the base timing at 4°, allowing for vacuum advance. No vacuum. No matter what I did, I could not get more than 5" of vacuum unless I was at about 2,000 rpms. Even then, I never saw over 10". I never could get it to idle very well. Pulled the brake booster hose, checked for leaks, nothing. Ran a propane bottle around the intake, no response. No vacuum, rough idle...I don't want to pull the cam. I put a piston stop in #1 cylinder to check the timing mark on the balancer...maybe it was off. Nope, spot on. A buddy of mine suggested that I check the cam/crank timing. I pulled the water pump and cover, and there was a little slop in the chain, but the cam was set at 0°. Since I had the cover off, I went ahead and put a new Cloyes timing set on it. No change. No vacuum, rough idle. Crap. I still don't want to pull the cam. I don't know what the rocker ratio is (though they are roller rockers), I don't know what type of pistons it has (though a bore scope indicated it was flat top). I don't know what the deck height is, I don't know what the compression ratio is. I don't know what cam I'd put in it...and I'm not 100% certain the cam is the problem (though it's looking pretty likely). I put a compression tester on it and all cylinders were within 3 psi of 150. No cylinder issues, valves seem to be good.
The week of 12/13, I started hinting at my wife that I was thinking about putting a crate motor in it and selling this one. If I put a roller cam in it, it may fix the problem, but at the end of the day, I still know nothing about the bottom end so I still wouldn't have the peace of mind that I would if I put a motor with a warranty in it. The old motor has primo parts, the compression is good, I should be able to get a good chunk back on it. For kicks, I texted her a link to a NEW Blueprint 383 dressed motor from Speedway motors (about an hour away from me), not thinking it would go anywhere from there. Wrong. I got home from work and she showed me the invoice. Well then, I guess that makes my decision easier. I'm going to throw a new motor in it.
I have the old motor and tranny out and separated. I'm waiting for my new flywheel to arrive and I discovered a crack in the bellhousing (OEM GM), so I have one of those coming too. I'll reuse the clutch (which looked brand new), the MSD dizzy, and the aluminum valve covers that came with the car. The motor is sold to a buddy of mine, and I'll have some carbs & intakes for sale (they'll be in the classified section one of these days).
Anyway, I'm happy to have my gen 1...finally. It's one of the colors that was highest on my list (silver with black rally stripes...even though it's not a Z28). The cowl tag doesn't indicate that it was anything special, but it was a V8 car. I'm into it deep enough to have found most of the potential problems that I would have worried about and they are being taken care of. Fortunately, the weather won't let me drive it so I have time to work on it...and make it mine.
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