My project 1966 Chevelle

[gmachinz]

Okay, I have some time late at night to post some pics of what I have going on in my shop at the moment. Taking up a lot of my time is this 1966 Chevelle. Now, I took this project on prior to the motor/tranny being in it, brakes needing installed, no plan as to the electrical, etc. The customer plans to send it to the body shop after he's played with it for awhile so the paint isn't perfect but anyway, the guy wants a car he can flog the crap out of and still handle pretty well. Among a host of other things, I am setting this car up to handle up to a 450 shot of giggle juice, disc brakes all around, upgraded electrical system and a custom console to house a total of 9 Autometer Nexus gauges, an Alpine headunit as well as all the required arming switches, LED indicators, etc. and two cupholders along with an armrest and a spot for the fire extinguisher. The car will eventually end up being red with black interior-the console will be wrapped in leather in the end. The motor is a +.030 SB400 with a 4" stroke Scat crank, Brodix aluminum heads with 2.08/1.6 valves, mechanical roller camshaft with a .640 lift on 112 lobe centers, a TCI TH400 with a manual valvebody and a transbrake with a 3400-3800 converter through a custom chromemoly driveshaft to a 4.10 Moser 12-bolt rear. The motor dynos at 692hp @ 6700 RPM and with a 750 shot on tap, it'll be scary. I figure this thing will either blow up at the track or be insanely fun! Plans are on the board for an EFI motor should this one let go so I made sure to weld a bung in the collector for an O2 sensor just in case. I did a serpentine conversion which is basic for any build I do, custom Mark VIII cooling system for this Chevelle which turned out to be a perfect fit, and an electrical system that I am very proud of-I have yet to finish cutting the brackets I'll need to mount the Nitrous 6 box, 150-amp circuit breaker, aux. relay/fuse panel, etc. but I'll post once I get them cut out-I'm also building a custom carb heat shield that will serve to mount the nitrous, fuel and purge solenoids too. Over the heater box on the firewall I plan to mount my fuel regulator standoff bracket which will then route to a bulkhead bracket for the engine fuel, nitrous fuel and the nitrous line itself. Stay tuned and chime in with any comments you have about the build or questions. I'm building what I like doing so let me know what you think!

[T_Raven]

i love 66 chevelles, can't wait to see some progress, post lots of pics

[jackfrost]

that's some serious hardware. i didn't even know there WAS a 750 shot.

[gmachinz]

Erf. Fat fingers strike again-Nitrous Express 450 shot, not 750. Man, that would be a hand grenade of a solenoid, that's for sure..... I'll get more pics of the plumbing as we go.

[1968CamaroSS_Sam]

Very nice. More pictures please.

[marinablueSS]

Build what you like, thats the whole idea, you wouldn't happen to have, or know of a console??? that and shifter are all I have left on my list.thanks and good luck.

[Motown 454]

Nice build, it sounds like a wild ride for sure. Keep the updates coming.
Wayne

[gmachinz]

Well, this car does not have its original console anymore so I am mocking one up to house everything. As a matter of fact, I'll be spending all of today building it. I'll post some pics of it once it's roughed together to give you an idea of how it'll look.

[gmachinz]

Okay, so maybe two and a half days roughing this console together. I'm plumbing the nitrous lines and standoff brackets now but here's phase 1 of the console. Mods are to be made but this is the general look of it. My idea is to make it look stock-so the top of the console lid will be a thick padding, the rest is a thin padding. The hinges are high quality cabinetry type and the locking mechanism was pirated from an S-10 Blazer with a custom catch on the nitrous arming plate. The contour of the console was trimmed to fit the floor contour of the Chevelle and along with an Alpine headunit, the console houses a total 9 Autometer Nexus gauges: Speedo, tach, fuel level, fuel pressure, water, oil, volts, NOS pressure and trans temp. On the arming plate is the master arming switch and two toggles-one for the line lock and the other is an electric fan over-ride. Not shown is the trans brake switch (activated by the dimmer switch), the purge button and the LED indicators for the nitrous "on" and the fan over-ride. I'll post pics once I get to wrapping the console up in black leather. The console pocket area I plan to line it with a black felt material similar to that of a pool table. Once installed, the top of the console rests nicely right under the climate control panel in the car. Fire extinguisher will mount on the trans tunnel between the console back and the front of the rear seat.

[SaturnVUEguy]

So all the guages are going on the center console?

[gmachinz]

Yes, the car has a sweep speedo with no real good place to put gauges. The customer initially wanted a pretty elaborate stereo system so I had drawings on the board to build a false floor in the trunk and have the Nitrous Express bottle, optima battery, amps, power caps, etc. all integrated into it but he scaled back the whole stereo thing due to other projects with more pressing concerns over the Chevelle's stereo system. I was stoked to do it too but oh well. At least he has a 120-amp alternator that should support the system should we do it later.

[gmachinz]

Well, I'm basically tying up loose wire ends and fuel/nitrous lines to get ready for firing this beast up. I'm hoping to be burning fuel next week sometime. I'm building a master control center for everything electrical underhood and the charging system will be setup for a huge stereo install later. In the pics you can see the carb heat shield mounting I designed for use with this nitrous kit and along the passenger side, I built a firewall standoff bracket to mount the oil accumulator for the vacuum pump as well as two pressure regulators-one for the engine fuel, the other for the fuel solenoid-this way, I can increase/decrease fuel pressure as the nitrous jets get larger independant of the motor. Excessive heat is a major concern when I build fuel lines so the undercar lines for both the fuel and nitrous will be wrapped with a heat resistance/fire resistant wrap similar to what you find underhood of newer cars. It's getting really fun as I get closer to firing it up! As side note, when I made the power steering lines to join the newer pump with an o-ring seal to the OEM ps gearbox, I thought I would need adapters but when I gauged the size of th epressure line, it was equal to a 3/8" fuel line so I just cut the end of the old line off, slide the fitting off and cut the new replacement line and slide the old inverted flare seat fitting on, flared the line and voila-no need for any adapters. Tis car is more for go than show-but when I do the 68 Camaro, I plan to route it along the quick ratio box (new style) factory style and that means slightly re-bending the return line out of the pump reservoir to follow the contrours correctly.

[sonicblue70]

I must say those Brackets look pretty swell...

[gmachinz]

Yes, they are rather functional, aren't they? Corey here is the man who layed out the brackets on his CAD program for me so kudos to him for the awesome fit! Btw, I have to plumb the purge valve a little differently but it'll still work in its current location.
I had to swap to a Taurus electric fan on this car because I did not have enough clearance with the Mark VIII fan even after trimming it down by almost 1". Pics coming soon.

[gmachinz]

Here's some shots of my ignition control center and fuse panel. Oh yeah, and for clarification, the NX kit is adjustable up to an approx. 750 extra ponies via the #136 nitrous jets and corresponding fuel jets. Yikes!

[JYD]

looks like its coming together

[gmachinz]

Well-I fired up the motor today for the first time. It went pretty basic after I hunted down a nuetral safety switch wiring snafu that the previous owner spaghettied up. I had to tighten both tranny lines slightly, upper radiator hose and snug up the two front oil pan nuts. Primary fuel pump came right to life giving me 7 psi right off the bat and it primed the carb in no time-three revolutions and she fired up without any hiccups. I have some pics to load here shortly of where I'm at so far-the console turned out great-I pre-wired the water, oil, volts and tach gauges prior to start up just to get a sense of things so now it can all be secured in the car. The sound of a .688 mechanical roller @ idle in a SB just makes me tingle all over. lol