1974 Camaro Z28

[Rogue86]

Jhonno said:

That red should look decent!

Out of interest, what camera do you use? I assume you have some form of fill lighting as well? I like the tone of the images!

Thank you - predominantly I shoot on a Nikon D800 with 24-70, it's a bit of an old work-horse by modern standards but it's not great with video.

These later shots are taken on a Canon EOS-R (mirrorless) with a 24-70 and it's very obviously a much more user-friendly camera, plus a lot better at shooting video. The shots of me are taken by Rick who is (by his own definition) very much not a creative While I did have the camera setup for him to use, he didn't miss any of the shots and I guarantee he would have missed on the D800. I hate to say it, but modern mirrorless cameras are finally moving the conversation away from the 'it's not the camera, it's the photographer' mindset in much the same way smart phones started to.

The lighting in these shots in particular is genuinely just workshop lighting. Occasionally I'll use the workshops portable led work-light to fill but I haven't used it in any of these.

[Rogue86]

andburg said:

great work...but find that missing fan bolt

If that turns out to be the source of all my oil leaks I'll gold-plate it and get it back on there.

[Rogue86]

Jhonno said:

I've not actually tried a mirrorless, I still use a an old 7D I bought about 8yrs ago. Are they really that much better?! Yeah, smart phone cameras.. Probably part of the reason I don't use my camera as much as I'd like!

Ah, just falling in convenient places. I can see that they could be lit from the workshop lights like that, but some looked like it was deliberate fill!

They're 'better' in the sense that it's easier to get the same results, so it takes a lot of the work out of it.

It's more a mix of moving the subjects into areas that are already lit and then a bit of selective editing to make them 'pop' a little more.

[Rogue86]

Called in at the works on my way home from the studio and the boys have really cracked on in my absence!



The bottom end looks in really good nick, no unusual marks or scoring and with the bits of adhesive in there I'd say either the block has never been apart, or if it has then the builder did a very tidy job.



A bit rough balancing the crank but apparently Chevy are notorious for it!





The main reason for this being apart though is to replace the rear main seal which was a really straightforward job at this stage.

[Rogue86]

Really good progress made on the engine today, starting off with getting it buttoned back up.



Fancy FelPro one-piece gasket for the sump.



With the sump back on, it was time to turn the engine and remove the intake.



Unfortunately we had to stop after a quick inspection as we're waiting on a pair of head gaskets.



So with everything back on, it was time to degrease the block.



With that done, into the paint room and start masking.



All ready for paint:





Rick putting on the first coat:







Me putting on the second coat:





Really happy with where it's at:

[Rogue86]

Jhonno said:

2 piece rear main seal?

I saw Derek at Vice Grip say the best way to do those is not to line the joins up with the join in the sump iirc.. He turns them slightly to prevent leaking if that makes sense?

Yeah - the seal that came off was in good nick and we actually think the reason it was leaking is because they were lined up, so we've done exactly that when putting it back together.

[Rogue86]

Well, a couple of days curing and the engine is out of the paint booth:



With the head gaskets arriving, it was time to whip the heads off and inspect the block. I actually couldnt be around for this bit so these are photos from Ricks phone:



The result was a lot of carbon build-up and a bent rod. The carbon build-up makes sense; the car was running so rich when I bought it that you couldn't even stand near it at idle. The rod is a little more confusing, there's a witness mark about half way up that shows an impact. First job was to clean some of the carbon off the pistons, they came up really nicely!



This also revealed two interesting things. Firstly, there are some small impact marks on the top of piston 5. Secondly, the serials on the pistons suggest (on initial googling) they are forged, although I'll do some more digging.

Ben at EDA kindly supplied a replacement rod too.



The ancillaries have all been powder-coated now too:





Time to throw in some new plugs and oil, then the engine is off to EDA for the dyno tuning. While that's being fettled, the headers are in for ceramic coating too.

[Rogue86]

An early start for Rick getting the engine over to Engine Data Analysis (EDA) in Castleford.







If you haven't heard of EDA before, they're a pretty big deal. They've built race V8s for all sorts of cars over the last 20 years, from balls-out drag cars (Bens own 'pop runs in the 8s) to heritage GT40s. Their unassuming unit is an Aladdins cave for petrol-heads:













It seems like every room has a race-built V8 tucked away.



By comparison, my 350 is very much a run-of-the mill job, so I really appreciated the time they took to fit me in.



They were also very accommodating in letting us feel as involved as we could in the process.



Unfortunately, I couldn't stay for the tuning as I had another job so left the engine in Bens very capable hands.

[Rogue86]

I'd been getting fairly regular updates throughout the day. When it was making oil pressure, when it was starting to make power, what adjustments they were making. It was very difficult to concentrate on work! I headed over to the unit as soon as I could. When I opened the door, there was a lot of commotion and a room full of sullen faces. There had obviously been some sort of incident and a few of the guys who worked there were huddled over in the dyno cell. It never even occurred to me that this could be related to my engine, but eventually the crowd parted and Ben walked out with this wrapped in a towel:



I was absolutely heart-broken. I was gutted for Rick as much as myself, with all the work he's put in to get the block ready for his deadline. I was dreading breaking the news to my other half and then I turned round to look at Mule who couldn't hide his smirk any longer and the whole room erupted laughing. Absolute b***ards. They knew I wouldn't know the difference between a BBC piston and my own and they had me hooked like a kipper. With the laughing (slowly) subsiding and lots of profanities exchanged, the guys were kind enough to open the dyno cell and let me have a proper look.







With everything ready to rock, Ben opened up the throttle and let her rip.



The sound was glorious and like a proud father, Ben walked over with a dyno sheet and handed it over. With 245bhp from factory (in 1974) and with only an intake, carb and cam upgrade I didn't really know what to expect. Our own little club pool ranged from 190bhp to 260bhp and I think I hoped for somewhere in the middle. So I was very happy to see 318bhp and 352lb-ft @4200rpm.

We accidentally threw that dyno sheet away so you'll have to settle for this one at 316bhp and trust me that there is an extra 2bhp in there



Unfortunately we were all on a deadline tonight so could only spare the hour, so the engine came out and went back in the van with a lot of relieved and happy faces all round.

[Rogue86]

The prank was definitely well rehearsed, I imagine he's done that hundreds of times

Jhonno said:

Reminds you how under-tuned these things are as well.. 70bhp from a carb/inlet/mild cam..

Yeah exactly, these engines are so under-stressed. I have a lot of mates who always joke sarcastically about 'how do the Yanks manage to squeeze that power out of an engine that big' but the reality is that it doesn't take much to unleash that power and the things will go on forever if you don't.

dinkel said:

Is 6k a safe redline?

On my particular setup there is no rev limiter. I think that 5200rpm is about the safe limit for the engine as it stands. Eventually I'd like to change that but for an immediate plan I want to put on an MSD and have a rev limiter. I once let a little kid sit in the car and rev the engine at a show. The first thing he did was plant his foot to the floor. With the engine screaming, 3 of us were shouting at him to let off but we obviously made him panic so he kept his foot on it. Ben was actually parked next to it at the time and was so convinced the kid would pop the engine that he started to frantically wind his window up. That's the closest I've come to knocking a child out in what would have been a desperate move to get him off the accelerator.

[Rogue86]

Ben Lowden said:

Wow I didn't even realise that cars having no rev limiter was a thing. Every day is a school day!

It's arguably the most terrifying thing about the car. When you're really cracking on, it's almost like you can feel the engine lifting out of the car.

Turn7 said:

is that Ben Rushforth at EDA ?

It is

Final check over tonight and an excuse to grab a couple of photos. The engine is ready to go back in. Not bad for a weeks worth of work!



As you can see, the headers are mocked up and have been ceramic coated (all done in-house by Ravenworks):



For those of you who remember the (rusty!) coolant explosion from when I first bought the car, Rick has gone to great lengths to tidy the bay and undo the staining it caused. I think it looks fantastic.



Even taking off the tag and cleaning it up:



Ready to go!

[Rogue86]

Picked the car up in the week, with the weather I haven't had much chance to drive it yet but the drive home in the snow was entertaining! The way the exhaust bangs and crackles now is insane, I genuinely can't wait to get the car out for a decent drive.

I'm going to clean the car up today and hopefully try and grab a couple of photos, but in the meantime here's a quick showcase of the work done from the engine coming out to going back in:

[Rogue86]

Turn7 said:

On the basis you are more than friends with Ben, is it correct to assume you are aware of the Williams Bros?

I'm not sleeping with him if that's what you mean I've heard the name (although not from Ben), but I've never had any dealings with them.

I managed to grab a couple of shots of the engine in-situ this evening:

[Rogue86]

FaustF said:

That prank is utterly brutal

Love a good sense of humour like that, great fun. Strong figures on the dyno! Must be pleased with those, I've got mine currently at the dyno for a tune as well, waiting on final figures.

Do you know what was making it to the wheels?

I would imagine the transmission loss to be somewhere between 20-25%, so 240ish to the wheels maybe? But I won't know until I put the car on a dyno, which isn't a priority really as the power is at a point where I'm comfortable driving it in the way I want to.

[Rogue86]

andburg said:

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

• cough*

Ben very kindly invited me to this but unfortunately I'm going to be out of the country. The lads are hoping to still turn up though, I might lend them the Cam too to bring through for it.

TopTrump said:

That is some proper power! It must have been breathed on quite heavily? I love the fact you know when to stop too- it always gets me when people say 'LS' it or whatever. Power has to balance with the car and honestly even 1000bp isn't impressive any more.

Thank you - for me driving them is where I get the enjoyment of owning them, so making it more suited to me in that respect makes sense. I'm not the best driver in the world so adding more power will only put the car further out of my reach As someone else said, my engine made (allegedly) 245bhp out of the box so I'm really happy with 320bhp, even if most builds these days are well beyond that. It's still a lively thing to drive, the short ratio gears really keep you working.

[Rogue86]

The last few weeks have seen a fair bit of ordering but not a lot of stuff actually turning up on time. so this is only a semi-interesting update. In good news, the car was picked by Capital Xtra FM to promote the new Fast X film that comes out on Friday. Along with a couple of film cars, we've spent the day in Leeds promoting the film and letting people enjoy seeing the cars themselves up close.





For anyone who is a fan, Ashley Kane came along too and got to sit in the car/rev the engine etc to promote the film on his own socials.













With that bit done, it was on the roads for a bit of a promotional tour around the city. I'm happy to admit mine was the loudest by quite some way





For anyone who has ever wondered what it might look like...













A shame the new bits weren't here in time, but I'll update more on those when they do.

[Rogue86]

I'd definitely like to try and make the time to make it to Bicester, especially as I missed the Sunday Service at the Motorist!

[Rogue86]

So I think I mentioned before that I'd been waiting for a lot of parts. To cut a long story short, I ordered some custom mats from Hamiltons and despite a promised 2 week lead-time, 7 weeks later I was still chasing them. They started to ignore any correspondence, so I went through Paypal for a refund and suddenly they were very helpful again (having not responded for 3 weeks, they responded within 30mins of the refund request). That was until they let slip that they hadn't even started making them, so I went through Rock-Auto and four days later these turned up instead:



They've transformed the interior of the car and once again RockAuto prove to be more useful than anyone in the UK.

Now the exciting bit:



I've spent most of the last couple of months trying to work out what size wheels I could squeeze under the arches and still have a fully functioning street car. My inspiration for the look was the IROC 74 cars and IMSA Camaros, so Watanabe were the natural choice and I've wanted a set since I could drive a car.



So lots of emails to Japan later, I realised that actually the Watanabes wouldn't fit in the way I wanted them to but I could maybe make do with stretching tyres to get them on. Not ideal but a workaround. They're also still made in a 30 year old cast and while I think that's very cool, there's obviously no quality benefit to that and that's essentially the disclaimer I was given just as I was about to pay. So I began talking to Driftworks about what I wanted and they recommended Japan Racing 19s with custom sizing would do what I needed them to.



I excitedly went to the TNT depot to pick these up so I didn't have to wait until after the weekend.





By the looks of it, my maths had been pretty good in terms of widths/offsets:





Unfortunately, this is where the good news ends.



They don't actually clear the ginormous hubs.





With some calipers and a tape measure, I started checking whether they had been drilled properly and after about an hour, I began to figure that my problem looks like this:



So the centre-bore of the wheel is actually clearing the hub diameter, but essentially the hub is too deep for the wheel to sit on the hub face.

As you can see, the OE wheels get around this problem by locating on the studs themselves:



So I'm scratching my head a little at the moment and see my main options as being:

1. Machine the centre bore of the wheels so that they'll sit against the hub, then have some centre caps made to cover the hub as it will protrude outwards of the front of the wheel.

2. Fit spacers. Ultimately this will mean wide arches to accommodate the width.

3. Sell the wheels, set fire to the car and move to Barbados.

I think option 1 is my preferred route at the moment. Or 3.

So I put the car back together and headed out for a drive so that this problem seems a lot smaller and I can forget about the money I've wasted. I still love it.

[Rogue86]

unsprung said:

I predict with considerable confidence that no F-body owner is having more fun than you -- not there, not here.

I mean, if you can't have fun in something ridiculous like this then when can you?

Rodd Nock said:

I've just been through all sorts of issues sorting wheels for my 70s yank so I can sympathise!

I guess that's the problem with trying to do anything out of the ordinary!

Thank you for all the suggestions with how to proceed, but I've been doing some working out and I think spacers are the way to go. My biggest risk is that the track is a little too wide and I need to flare the arches slightly, but in terms of risk/reward this just makes the most sense to me. So I've mocked these up for fabrication:





In theory, this should solve all my problems in one hit. The studs on the spacers should alleviate my need for PCD variation nuts, while the 25mm depth should cover my existing studs and enough of the hub that the wheel itself would go on. While I was sat drawing these up, I remembered a conversation on the FB owners club last year where a friendly Norwegian chap was also about to buy the wheels. Luckily I had the foresight at the time to screenshot his name in case I ever needed his help in future. It's a good job I did!



It turns out he did exactly the same thing I'd worked out to save having to butcher the wheels, so that's a good sign. An old wheel building friend of mine has given me some contact details for TT Tools so he's kindly going to mock me up a proper drawing for them to be made. Another friend of mine is currently working on a 3D printed plastic mockup so we can make sure all the measurements are correct before I pull the plug on the actual spacers, then in theory all I'll need is some thin nuts from somewhere like ETPlus to get them on.

Oneball said:

I’m a little worried about your brake caliper clearance though. Are they the same 4 pot iron calipers as my Vette?

I'm not sure they share the same calipers, but it would make sense. It didn't look like I'd have any clearance issues (and I can't think why I would given these wheels are bigger than my OEs) but I'll keep an eye on it when I get them on.

[Rogue86]

My friend Jordan (who helped me take the measurements) sent me a surprise earlier:



I didn't even know he dabbled in 3D, but sure enough he turned up at my house tonight with this:



It fit like a glove, obviously with dowels in place of studs just to mock the fitment up:





It's going to be tight. Tight enough that I'm considering taking 4mm of stud away so I can go for 20mm spacers instead of 25mm, but I'm going to trust that the camber and tyre choice should give me enough clearance once they're on the ground.



My new Norwegian friend assures me it's enough