Day 2 67 Camaro restoration

[markinnaples]

Where are all of the '66 and '67 427 Chevelles? I remember seeing a few of them advertised in the 80's from Auto Trader magazines in South and North Carolina, but you never see them in the wild anymore. I'm sure they were all dealer specials, but I absolutely love the SS427 emblems on a '67 Chevelle, and really, Chevy should have made those from factory.

[SMS]

What size are these rear tires?

[Chuck_Burg]

The Cragars have ProTrac L60s. 275/60-15. Bias Ply available through Coker Tire

[Igosplut]

Originally Posted by Chuck_Burg

My dad is responsible for getting me addicted to classic cars. He and I restored the 68 in my avatar picture about 17 years ago. On the eve of starting my 67 project he gave me his old Snap-On box from around 79/80. As you can probably tell by the stickers and emblems on the box he is a Porsche guy. He worked at an independent Porsche repair shop for many years in his younger days. He has a nice shop now with all built in boxes so he asked if I wanted the old Snap-On, otherwise he'd sell it. OF COURSE I wanted it, this thing is a family heirloom. I took it apart to oil all the tracks and cleaned the carpets in the drawers.

That bottom roll cabinet was, at the time the biggest Snap on box they made. Nicknamed "The Taco wagon", it was designed for the aviation industry. There was not many of those made, and most of the one's you see are really beat up.

[Chuck_Burg]

Originally Posted by Igosplut

That bottom roll cabinet was, at the time the biggest Snap on box they made. Nicknamed "The Taco wagon", it was designed for the aviation industry. There was not many of those made, and most of the one's you see are really beat up.

My dad told me all his coworkers made fun of him for buying it back then... He was only 20 when he financed it. He had the matching bottom cabinet to the top cabinet I still have but traded it in for the taco wagon!

The box means a lot to me.... way too large for my small garage but kind of like an heirloom.

[Chuck_Burg]

On Tuesday, July 2nd, I brought the Camaro to Westech Performance for a dyno day. Before going, I eliminated the rear power valve and upped the secondary jetting to 88s and put 80s in the primary. I also put a new set of plugs in the engine.

The first pull showed the engine was rich, low 11 air/fuel. We swapped in 85 jets into the rear and dropped the primaries to 77s. This yielded a nice conservative 12:1 AFR.

The main reason for going to the dyno was to make sure the AFRs were safe at WOT throughout the RPM range.

Most pulls were done through the exhaust with the cutouts closed. After the jet change and playing with timing, we discovered 34 degrees total timing was the sweet spot! Through the exhaust the engine delivered 424hp and 454lb/ft at the rear tires. With the cutouts open, it made 433hp and 474lb/ft! No only were the peak numbers higher with the exhaust opened up, but the torque curve was even more impressive! It gained substantial torque throughout the curve. Peak power was made at 5,365 rpm, but does carry pretty nice for GM 781 oval port head out to 6000rpm where it still made 420hp. I was really pleased to see this because the engine would fall on its face at 5500rpm with the old fuel system, it just didn't want to go any higher... I should've known there was fuel delivery issues from day one!

Even though the numbers aren't earth shattering I am pretty happy considering this is a pump gas, "781" iron headed 496 with an out of the box stock 1970s era Edelbrock Tarantula intake, a very mild hydraulic roller cam, 9.2:1 compression, and an 850 Holley. The guys at Westech really liked the car and were pretty blown away with the vintage speed parts on the car, especially the points ignition

[Chuck_Burg]

Here is the overlay on the screen, black lines are with the cutouts open and red lines indicated closed exhaust cutouts.

[napa68]

The thing carries at least 400lbs of torque from 2900 to 5400 at the tire???

[Chuck_Burg]

It's a bit like driving a turbo diesel

[dykstra]

Way cool Chuck!