Project Obsession

[WS6]

I like the engine choice. Solid roller with a Stealth Ram intake. Should make good power and sound mean. Good luck!

[gordonr1973]

Any updates? Looks great so far!

[Todd in Vancouver]

Any updates? Looks great so far!

Thanks Gordon but it's been slow going and I'm doing the really uninteresting stuff like gutting the doors, removing all the glass and stripping off the last of the original rear suspension. I've also not been feeling well the last few weeks along with some really hectic travel and working hours. So nothing really worth posting about and other than having the car mounted on the rotisserie it doesn't look to much different.

But, there is some cool news as I posted a picture on the Camaro Performers facebook page about installing my TCI frame and it is in this months edition of Camaro Performers firing back page. (note; Penny is the Facebook name that my wife and I share for our facebook account. Penny is actually our rescued Pit Bulls name)



As soon as I'm feeling better I will be back on the car 100% and will start getting some pictures and updates posted. Most likely over the Christmas break.

Have a Merry Christmas and Happy New year to all. Hope Santa brings some new car goodies for everyone.

[Todd in Vancouver]

Today thanks to the advice of a few of the very helpful other Pro-tour members I picked up a pair of rear quarter panels from a local guy who also happens to be a member here on the PT website. These are original GM panels that he has had sitting for 20 years. Sadly I had to shift the money from my budget for my TCI rear suspension savings but I just don't think these kind of items come along everyday.





Now I just have to get this baby back on its wheels so I can start cutting off the old skin and installing the new.

[icemanrd19]

I hate to tell you this but that 1207 on the sticker is not correct. That means the panels were made in december of 2007. Sorry to break the news to you :(















OK ok i kid. Nice build and great find

[RBEAST]

Your project is looking great so far! keep those pics coming thx

[ronker100]

Your car looks great Todd, hope tyhose quoarters work out for ya, I did as you said and posted my car on this site....Thanks again and it was nice to meet you....
Cheers, Ron

[HotRod47]

You will never regret spending the money for NOS quarter panels.

Nice project!

Glenn

[Todd in Vancouver]

Nice sunny day here in Vancouver for January so got some stuff done on the car. Worked on finishing the pre-assembly of my TCI front end and do the guys at TCI ever build a nice set up. Everything has gone together without any hassles.

I really like the brake set up that they sold me with my front end kit

didn't install the tie rods as I still need to lube everything before final assembly
Thats it for today, and tomorrow I'll start getting the car car ready to flip on the rotisserie so I can clean the bottom side and get ready to order more goodies for the build. Also, started a new "Todo" list and what I need to take to the powder coaters that I forgot to take last time.

[WICKED_SS]

Nice project, looking forward to this build!

[Todd in Vancouver]

Here we go with a small update. The Camaro is on the rotisserie and I'm finishing stripping the last of the interior out and getting it ready to spin so I can start working on the bottom. I thought I was at this stage a while ago but there seems to be an endless supply of little stuff to keep going.

So I started with pulling the rear glass out and all is solid around the rear with no hidden surprises;




Then I pulled out the windshield and somewhere along the life of this car someone thought it would be a good idea to metallic tape over the rust and then bondo and paint it black.



How is this for a chunk of bondo?



And they did it all the way across the lower part of the windshield



Dropped my SBC off at the Dyno earlier this week so I hope to have those numbers this week.
That's it for now and I'll be back at it tomorrow and hoping to get her flipped on its side and start scraping off under coat. Yay

[Todd in Vancouver]

Jim at Richmond Engines just called me and my 350 SBC is running and they've done some light pulls. I'll be stopping in there tomorrow morning to do some full pulls and see what this little fella will do.

Anyone want to guess what this little 350 will put down for power?

[gardnerme]

Todd,

"Very nice build" back at you. I am curious of your impressions of that TCI front subframe. It is a trick looking piece.

Anyone want to guess what this little 350 will put down for power?

I will play along. Not knowing the exact specs on the cam, I will give a conservative guess of 420 HP at about 6200 RPM and 380 ft. lbs. of torque at about 4500. I say "conservative" only because my gut tells me a solid roller cam may be a bit big for the RPM heads and also have a tigher LSA than what would work best with EFI. That being said, I would love to hear I was too conservative and you get much better numbers! Let us know!

Mike

[Todd in Vancouver]

Todd,

"Very nice build" back at you. I am curious of your impressions of that TCI front subframe. It is a trick looking piece.



I will play along. Not knowing the exact specs on the cam, I will give a conservative guess of 420 HP at about 6200 RPM and 380 ft. lbs. of torque at about 4500. I say "conservative" only because my gut tells me a solid roller cam may be a bit big for the RPM heads and also have a tigher LSA than what would work best with EFI. That being said, I would love to hear I was too conservative and you get much better numbers! Let us know!

Mike

Hi Mike,
I also had concerns as I didn't want to be another one of "those" guys who over cam and over carb my car and wonder why it doesn't perform like it should. I did lots of homework before I purchased this camshaft and here are the specs on it. And, yes I will post the dyno sheet as soon as I get it in my hands from the shop. I'm hoping I'll be able to post some video as well once I figure it out tomorrow night.

Solid roller, rough idle. Good cam for high performance street or mild strip applications. Needs 2500-2800 RPM stall speed converter, 9.5:1 or better compression, aftermarket exhaust system and 3.73 rear gear ratio.
•Advertised Duration (Int/Exh): 267/273
•Duration @ .050 (Int/Exh): 237/243
•Gross Valve Lift (Int/Exh): .566/.578
•LSA/ICL: 110/106
•Valve Lash (Int/Exh): 016/016
•RPM Range: 2500-6800
•Includes: Cam Only


Part Number: 40120731
Previoius Part Number: 60131

The TCI frame has been awesome to put together and the fit and finish was excellent. I've installed it twice checking the assembly and so far it's been all easy sailing. It will be a while before I can drive it and give any feedback but from everything I've read it performs very well and from what I see won a lot of races in the TCI '68 Camaro.

[scherp69]

Looking good Todd. Everything is coming together nicely. Keep the pics coming.

[Todd in Vancouver]

OK so I went to Richmond engine today and Jim ran me through the process and we did some engine pulls to see what my little 350 could do. In all fairness I was not expecting to much and my guess was that I would be in the 425hp range as there is really nothing at all special about this SBC other than I spent to much money on it and I could have bought an LS for what I have into it. All that being said I did use really good parts and the little beast should last without having any reliability issues.

Drum role on what it did...

473 HP & 433 F-lb Trq



Here is a video (if I can get it to work) of the dyno run.

http://youtu.be/1paieB0khEE

So overall I`m a happy boy with this little engine but I would never recommend someone do this as I said in another post you could have more LS power for what i spent but it easy to work on and a guy could, in a pinch, McGyver this thing to run if you got stuck. I will look at changing this over to a 427 LS down the road if nothing else just to change the emblems on the car from 350 to 427. there is a few more HP to be had with additional jetting and fine tuning but we had to call it quits at some point and this was more than what I was expecting so this was the best pull we had. I will get some more pictures posted when I have the engine and trans assembled in the TCI frame on my garage floor in the next couple weeks.

For now, back to scraping off undercoating

[gardnerme]

Holy cr@p, Todd - not bad at all!! Glad to know that cam works so well with the fuel injection setup. After looking at the specs you had posted, I realize it is actually a little smaller that the hydraulic roller I have for the FI 406 I am building. I bet that thing sounded killer at 6,700 RPM, yes?

[gardnerme]

I watched the video after I posted my last comment and see that you did the dyno run with a carb. Are you going to re-run it on the with the fuel injection setup on?

[Todd in Vancouver]

Everyone I talked to recommended breaking it in with the carb and making sure everything was good. I decided not to run with the FI right now as the computer while being brand new is outdated so after much investigating I'm going to upgrade to new Holley HP system. It's self learning so I will switch it over when in the car.

Sounds real cool at 6,700 eh?

[Todd in Vancouver]

FINALLY! the car is flipped on the rotisserie and I've started working on the bottom of the car. It's another step in the progress of the car because now that I'm working on the bottom I will be starting to get the car ready for the rear suspension and mini tub install which means I'm actually starting on the assembly of the car. Everything up to this point has been about taking the car apart, planning and prepping.

From this point forward my work will be about fitting and assembling the car. It's really great to have reached this point and it feels like getting a jolt of motivation. Here are a couple pictures of the car flipped on its side;