So, I got back from school on Weds of last week, we picked up the block from the machinist on Friday. (Al's Machine Shop in Woodstock, great guy does a good job and knows his stuff) We had the motor in the car, ready to fire on Monday, Tuesday I replaced most of the ignition stuff, Tuesday night the radiator hose blew off and sent my dad to the ER, Weds. Morning I redid all the hose clamps and pressure checked the system, and then we took it around the block, so it now has the same birthday as me! It was a lot of fun, and I'm so glad to have it back on the road, I'll be making another thread once we get plates on it and I can take it to a nice spot to do a shoot.

Here's some pictures for you guys. For a chronological sense, go all the way down and scroll up.

 

 

 

 

You painted OVER the rust? That thing needed some bead blasting!

 

It was hot tanked and cleaned, the color fools you into thinking the thing was rusty, that's what I thought when we first picked it up from the machine shop. That's just how it looks with the bare cast-iron. There were lots and lots of other parts that got blasted though.

 

Just surface oxidation not really rust. A lot of people exaggerate surface oxidation, its on every new car and exhaust system.

Whats up with the picture at the very top? Some mice came out of the exhaust system??

 

Yeah, I almost expected that, the exhaust sat in a corner for 2.5 years before I sanded and painted it. Surface Oxidation is nothing, I wiped the block down with mineral spirits to remove any rust pockets that formed.

 

Original 302? The casting number makes it look like it's probably the original engine (or a Camaro engine at least).

 

Nice job. I am not an expert at the muscle car senze. So my question, how many horepower will have the car when it is ready? Good luck with the enigne.

 

The short block is the only thing not original on the car, the original short block was replaced in 1970 and we have the records for it, and then when we took everything apart 2.5 years ago when we decided to clean everything up and fix some minor stuff, we found a nice crack in the block. Turned out it was a 350 anyways... so now it has a numbers correct (not matching) block that supposedly came out of a truck (I'm not too sure, my pop is looking into it), but the crank is the most important part. That's what makes it a 302, and it's a true DZ crankshaft out of a 1st generation Z28




As far as power, I figure in the realm of 330 crank hp, as these things were pretty under-rated from the factory at 290. It has a completely different powerband from the 350, it's like a honda, it wakes up at 2800 rpm, and then flies to about 7k. it's nuts. Compression test was awesome, every cylinder was between 190-192.

It sounds godly.

 

I say screw originality that just causes more problems. You get people who think they know what they are saying critiquing every nut and bolt on the car. The focus should be building a reliable and fun to drive car. When it comes down to calling stuff original everything should be original than. Even the 40 year old paint and the original surface rust that came with the car new.

 

We toyed with the idea of putting a 383 in it, then we found the crank and that ended that discussion. That being said, the motor has many new parts, they are just in an original configuration

In doing everything we did, not only did we create a reliable (hopefully) and fun to drive (if that's not fun i don't know what is) car, but we made it look like it just rolled off the factory line. It's a slice of a time period I will never experience fully.

 

awesome project..looking for a 67 camaro myself

 

great project!