Old Soul 71 Camaro build

[c4racer2]

Bench bleeding masters using the bracket.

[c4racer2]

Motor with T56 back in the car.
I installed clutch and bellhousing on motor. Had car on 18” blocks on the tires. Went over front with the motor and mated trans from below with a trans jack. Went smoothly. Tilton 6000 TO bearing assembly on the trans.
Speedtech trans mount. Very well designed part. Very adjustable and located the trans perfectly. Currently sitting at 2.5deg negative with no spacers. Nose is still 1.5” high at least. So will come down a bit from that.
Only snag is I have to move the driveshaft safety loop back 6”.
Interferes with the big sonnex yoke.

[c4racer2]

Driveshaft loop removed. Was welded on. That was fun.
I’ll bolt it on next time.

[c4racer2]

Clutch hydraulics installed.

[c4racer2]

Got a new driveshaft built and installed. Wired the trans and wrapped up some other misc wiring changes in the interior.
Oh my how I love doing underdash wiring.
Also made a few adjustments to pedal height on clutch and brake now that systems are bled and I have a better picture of travel.

Time to get the exhaust back on and fluids in the trans and fire this baby back up.

I found I had mislabeled the 3 wire HEI wiring from the MSD. Connected as per msd diagram. Unless the module is customized or something. Can’t imagine it is.
I also removed a bunch of wiring for the drag racing stuff nitrous and line lock that I don’t need.
So hoping none of that was serving other purposes I wasn’t aware of.

Working on hot rods built by someone else is always an adventure!

[Motown 454]

Nice!! good job.

[c4racer2]

Motor / trans sitting at 2deg negative. So should be a good starting point. That’s without any spacers in the mount.

Plenty of exhaust clearance.



Car is on the ground and ready to test fire tomorrow. All fluids done and final checks.
Will look at my to do list - seems like I got everything. Fingers crossed. So many changes makes a first fire a bit nerve racking.

[c4racer2]

Motor / trans sitting at 2deg negative. So should be a good starting point. That’s without any spacers in the mount.

Plenty of exhaust clearance.



Car is on the ground and ready to test fire tomorrow. All fluids done and final checks.
Will look at my to do list - seems like I got everything. Fingers crossed. So many changes makes a first fire a bit nerve racking.

Plus I cant find the bolts for the hood !
5 months it’s been apart. I had a pretty good system but somehow this slipped thru the cracks. It’s gotta be in my shop somewhere

[c4racer2]

Never did find them but had some new ones that worked.

Fired up no problem - got timing adjusted and brought to temp. No leaks. No issues. Minor lifter tick for a few minutes but went away so all seems good now. Motor hasn’t run for 5 months. I did swap rockers so it’s a fresh valve adjustment. Hyd flat tappet cam.

Moved car a few feet so clutch works !

Need to put in a clutch stop per tiltons instructions before driving it. And maybe install a steering wheel would be a good idea.

[Tpichevy]

What brand brake master are you running? Is it hard to adjust for your brake setup? Car is looking great! How much turning radious did you loose going with with wide wheels/tires up front?

[Motown 454]

Everything looks great! Glad the fire up went good. Funny about the hood bolts, same thing happened to me. We ended up shortening some bolts. Then a year later I found them bagged and tagged like they were supposed to be. Only problem Not where they were supposed to be. The car is looking great.

[c4racer2]

Haven’t driven it. So don’t know about turning radius. But they don’t rub so likely none.

Wildwood masters for brakes and clutch. Separate front and rear masters with a balance bar full manual brake setup.

And adjust what? What do you mean by adjust? Masters don’t have an adjustment. I have an adjustable pedal linkage so I was able to put the pedal where I wanted it.

[c4racer2]

Everything looks great! Glad the fire up went good. Funny about the hood bolts, same thing happened to me. We ended up shortening some bolts. Then a year later I found them bagged and tagged like they were supposed to be. Only problem Not where they were supposed to be. The car is looking great.

Thanks. It was weird. I found 4 bolts in a bin behind the car that I used for various things I thought must be them. Tried getting them started for 30min. Then realized it was a smaller bolt after all and used new bolts I had recently picked up. Still haven’t found them. Really strange. I found everything else without issue as I only used a few places to store things. Not those dang bolts!

Got the clutch stop done per tiltons instructions. There is less than 4” travel and engagement is 75pct into that. Feels pretty good so far. Reverse works - I used the brake light signal per the bowler instructions. But I’ve heard that may over power that circuit. I don’t see how that could be possible - it sees 12v and the current is only dependent on the resistance of the circuit. Seems whatever 12v source is used to power it will result in the same current.

Also got my DSE steering wheel installed.



Stance is looking pretty good - May still settle half an inch or so. Have not driven it yet. The front wheels really tuck in nicely - doesn’t look like there is a 275 tire under there !

[c4racer2]

Got a shakedown cruise in. Everything working well except no brakes. Turns out the balance bar is complete biased to the rear so the fronts aren’t even working much at all. Need to correct that before I take it out again. That was a bit scary. Easier with a manual trans tho. Ha. The trans and clutch worked great. Very similar engagement point and feel to my 2016 SS. I set a clutch stop so there is only about 3.5” of total travel and the clutch comes in at about 3” pedal travel. Shifting is great. Reverse lock out works. Speedo works but I need to calibrate it. Autometer electric.
Once I get some working brakes I can get some more miles in. And bed the new pads and all that too

[c4racer2]

Got a shakedown cruise in. Everything working well except no brakes. Turns out the balance bar is complete biased to the rear so the fronts aren’t even working much at all. Need to correct that before I take it out again. That was a bit scary. Easier with a manual trans tho. Ha. The trans and clutch worked great. Very similar engagement point and feel to my 2016 SS. I set a clutch stop so there is only about 3.5” of total travel and the clutch comes in at about 3” pedal travel. Shifting is great. Reverse lock out works. Speedo works but I need to calibrate it. Autometer electric.
Once I get some working brakes I can get some more miles in. And bed the new pads and all that too

Bottom one is rear. You can see front is barely moved and rear is bottoming out the master. Not good.

[c4racer2]

At rest I had them the same length. But makes sense the rear pushes easier because it’s a 1/8” smaller piston.
So it needs to be setup more like figure one at rest so they are even at full braking. Wildwood directions were not helpful in this area.

https://us.bicknellracingproducts.co...tup/page31.pdf

[c4racer2]

I have determined there is no way to get this brake system to work with a 13/16 and 15/16 master combo - can't skew it enough at rest to even them out under max braking and the rear still bottoms out first. So I need to swap in the 15/16" master for the rear brakes. I will still skew it at rest because I think part of the issue is longer distance to travel plus 1/4" tubing for the back so it's just more fluid volume plus the stock type calipers have more slop before engagement with the rotor - so probably will need to skew.

Right now it's probably 80-90% front activation when the rears bottom out. The first set-up was more like 20% fronts when the rear bottomed out. So I'm close even with the smaller rear master. Even sized masters should let it work properly. I will try to get the masters to bottom out together.

[c4racer2]

Swapped the 15/16" master in. I have it very close to even under full brake push. Pedal feels great. I have it skewed as far as it will go to give rears a longer pushrod. Factory style brakes and more fluid to the back and a 1/4" line isn't helping. But seems pretty good right now. Need to test drive it again. It will be so much better with the StopTech rears.

[cornfedbill]

Nice build.

I'm just curious since I need to move my power steering pump up to the head for clearance. What pump and bracket are you using. I notice it is on the left cylinder head.

Thanks.

[c4racer2]

It’s KRC. A few others make a bracket tho.