Old Soul 71 Camaro build

[c4racer2]

I picked up a really well built 1971 Camaro last week and I'm excited to start the build to bring it closer to my vision.

The theme of the car is going to be vintage looks, modern suspension, brakes, transmission and vintage hot rod SBC motor with good street and track manners. The car is going to be mainly a street car, but as a former long time autoxer turned HPDE junkie turned NASA race series participant in CMC, the car has to handle well and be at least capable of the occasional autox or tame track day session.

I've been hot rodding cars for 35+ years, and built a few from ground up including a road race 1991 Corvette.
Took a decade off to get the kids through schooling and now I'm ready to start playing with cars again!

I have a 2016 Camaro SS convertible that I am debating if I will keep long term - my plan would be to drive this one about as often as I drive that one, which for the past 2 years has been 5K miles a year. We'll see how I do once I get through the initial phase of my build plans.

Car currently has a 406 that makes 500hp/500tq and a manual TH350 with 3200 stall. Hotchkis suspension. 4wheel disc. 10 bolt with Eaton posi and Moser axles.

Initial focus is T56 Magnum install plus some odds and ends like power steering, power brakes, and some slight tweaks to the motor and exhaust.

Next phase will focus on the suspension - looking at the DSI quadralink and add coil overs and tubular A-arms to the front

Final phase is a bit fuzzy - potentially additional power, upgrade wheels, convert to EFI, track oriented mods like baffled fuel tank - depends how the car is working and where I want to use it at that point.

It was featured in CHP in April 2010 with the story title Old Soul, so I figure keep that name for this build thread.

A few initial pics below. Updates should start this weekend with the exhaust system - I will post as that progresses.
Currently has a cobbled up mostly 2.5" system with 2.25" collector reducers and 2.25" flowmaster 40 series muffles which are very loud.

[Benttube]

Great looking car. What size are the tires/wheels, combo looks great to me.

[c4racer2]

255-45-17 on 8” and 295-45-17 on 9.5” vintage wheels V40

And thanks ! I agree the car looks great to me. I take no credit - this is how I got it.

[$Mike70Z-28]

nice car.. looks great! keep up the posts on the changes looking forward

[c4racer2]

Started exhaust work to move from hacked together 2.5 / 2.25 combination and 40 series flowmasters.

Going with the Pypes X-pipe header back system with MagnaFlow mufflers. Waiting on Pypes header collectors - original ones I ordered were not long enough. For anybody using that system, the 12" header collector is the way to go - in my initial mock up I am cutting these to 6" and 9" (aprox) as the headers do not exit evenly flush. Hooker supercomp 1 3/4" with 3" collector.

Currently in shipping jail - seemed to have missed the Friday shipment cut-off at Summit Sparks warehouse and waiting for them to come on line today and Fed-Ex to show up for morning shipments - hopefully it starts moving today and I get it tomorrow or Wednesday.

I was originally going to wait until these came in - but I am not considering doing a full mock-up install using the collector connector sections I cut off the old system. That way if I need to slightly adjust the system with longer front section I can make that adjustment before I make the cuts to the Pypes header reducer sections. I keep going back and forth on that - probably doesn't make too much difference as I can make adjustments on the front section or back section as needed to get it perfect.

[c4racer2]

Got the exhaust system on yesterday. Sounds great - still plenty loud, but more mellow now. Must be quieter because I can hear the fuel pump running with the engine running from outside the car - never noticed that before the exhaust was so loud!

The fit was good, but I ran into one clearance issue with the straight Pypes collector reducers - the passenger side was too close to the TH350 crossmember - actually touched it. So I ended up using the connector from the front of the old system which was welded together and had a downward angle of 10-20 degrees. That gave enough clearance. I may re-do that when I swap the T56 in depending on where things end up with crossmember location and such. So I'm leaving it all connectors rather than welding it. Seems to be tight and no leaks.

Clearance is very tight at the trans crossmember, maybe .25-.33" at most. Clearance to body is 1/2" on pass side and more on the other. The system is a bit tweaked to the pass side due to the crossmember clearance issue. Hopefully the T56 crossmember will be better not worse there!

[c4racer2]

Did the first test drive. so much better during cruise conditions! Still no sleeper at full throttle. And idle is a bit noisy too - but I think a roller cam with less duration at low lift will help that out too. Overall very livable and quieter than my last big inch big HP small block car that had 3" exhaust and same magnaflow mufflers.

[c4racer2]

realized I haven't done any updates on this thread. I have a lot going on with the car.

Pulled the motor to do some clean-up, re-seal, check-up and a few other odds and ends.

On the motor I swapped the rockers with Comp Cams because I had them and like these better than the ones on the motor.
Swapped intake for a ported version I had on the shelf since it matched the ports better than the stock one.
Heads are TFS 195
Added Canton road-race pan - the one for Chevelle chassis. 7 quart.
Changed the oil cooler sending unit to move into a -10 AN hose set-up. Also picked up a new Fluidyne cooler.
What else - full re-seal. Pretty much that's it on the motor.

A few photos:











Last one is the real reason I pulled the motor. New Tremec T56 Magnum close ratio is ready to install in place of the TH350.

[c4racer2]

Also upgraded to power steering from manual steering. Went with a PSC pro-touring 700 series box with 12.7:1 ratio. Feel is really good - very nice weighting and very precise and responsive. Used a KRC racing pump and associated drive set-up.

[c4racer2]

Next project while the motor is out is brakes. Since I needed a solution for a clutch master and wanted to run a dual master manual brake set-up, I landed on this nifty little bracket from NoLimit engineering. And I've been working with Ron Sutton on a StopTech based system that will be available for stock second gen spindles. Along with that needed 18" wheels so picked up a set of the Rocket Racing Attack in 18x10 and installed Nitto NT04 tires in 275/35 and 295/35 size.
6" backspace. Same size wheels front and rear. Looks like will run a .25" spacer in back and fronts should be OK as-is.

[c4racer2]

And finally a few shots of the T56 install. Using SpeedTech trans mount and tunnel cover. So far only did rough mock-up to clearance tunnel.
Working on aligning bellhousing. using Centerforce DF clutch and Tilton 6000 series TO bearing and a RAM 25lb billet steel flywheel.

[c4racer2]

Brakes coming along. StopTech new kit design by Ron Sutton for stock GM tall spindles. 14” rotors and ST60 calipers.

[c4racer2]

[ErikSOCAL]

Are those brake kits still available?
Interested to see how they fit and work, does look like a nice set up.

[c4racer2]

This is a new kit that will be offered - my car is a tester for it.
It’s really nice stuff.

[c4racer2]

brake bracket from No Limits Engineering in TN assembled and installed for mock-up.
This is set-up for stock pedals and uses a Wildwood balance bar for the brakes with dual masters.
The threaded rod they sent is not long enough - this was designed for a 1st gen although they supposedly have installed in a few 2nd gens before. Also the clutch master hole is right where the stock fuse box is - so I had to relocate that 1.5" lower.
Now it all clears and there is just one small wiring loom I need to slightly relocate in the cabin and I should be all set.
It's a pretty nifty design - but far from a bolt in. Not that I expected it to be.

Now on to plumbing lines!

[c4racer2]

Plumbed front brakes. Used stock repro line kit and only had to bend one line from master to the T block.

[c4racer2]

Working on oil cooler w 185 thermostat. Realized my headers don’t clear the side exit adapter. Ordered one with outputs I can adjust towards front. Also learned you cannot block off these adapters. Blocks off oil flow into top end of motor.
Good to know!

[c4racer2]

Also got bellhousing aligned within .008 concentric and .001-.002 parallel on both axis.

[c4racer2]

Got brakes final assembly done both sides along with new DSE UCA and bilstien shocks. Also mounted and did half the plumbing for oil cooler and 185 deg thermostat.