{"id":1193,"date":"2011-11-28T23:14:49","date_gmt":"2011-11-29T07:14:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rhoadescamaro.com\/build\/?p=1193"},"modified":"2011-11-28T23:14:49","modified_gmt":"2011-11-29T07:14:49","slug":"engine-finally-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.rhoadescamaro.com\/build\/?p=1193","title":{"rendered":"Engine finally in"},"content":{"rendered":"

Any movie that involves building a fast or special car usually has some kind of montage where the characters are rolling around on creepers, wiping grease and sweat from their brows, and at least at some point – lowering the hot new engine into the car.\u00a0 It’s an exciting moment, one where the car goes from being just a shell or chassis, to the beginnings of an automobile.\u00a0 The body receives its heart.<\/p>\n

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Especially so in this case.\u00a0 The engine isn’t just any small-block Chevy, but an accurate reproduction of the original 302 cubic inch engine found in the original ’67 Z28.<\/p>\n

It sits nicely in the engine bay, further back than you might think.\u00a0 These cars have a reputation for the big heavy motor hanging out past the nose of the car, but as you can see it’s not really the case:<\/p>\n

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Front axle centerline is somewhere in the vicinity of piston #1.\u00a0 Could be better, but clearly not as bad off as something awful, like a Subaru.\u00a0 With no fan, shroud, and radiator in place, there’s room to stand inside the engine bay in front of the motor.<\/p>\n

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Still looks pretty open in there, but there’s lots still to be added.\u00a0 Cooling system, fuel system, headers, power steering, alternator, etc.\u00a0 You can see here the brake hard lines have all been run, that was the last thing I wanted to get done before dropping the engine in.\u00a0 Transmission *would* be in, but I’m missing one critical part (clutch fork pivot ball) needed for assembly.<\/p>\n

Coincidentally I came across some neat dyno charts today of the 302, from back in the day.\u00a0 Credit for these goes to Jon Mello from the Camaros.org website, where I’ve done a lot of my research.\u00a0 These first couple pictures show the gains produced from some (not ST legal) modifications to the engine.<\/p>\n

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Interestingly, the engine gains very little in the midrange from the modifications – benefits come mostly above 5500rpm, where the engine would see little time in autocross (though plenty at the track).\u00a0 The baseline dyno in this series isn’t terribly far from an ST legal engine – it uses the stock 4bbl carb (jetting unknown), dyno “service” headers, high-octane gas, but with a cheater cam and milled heads.\u00a0 Note the test date, February 3, 1967!<\/p>\n

Here is another fun one, this from legendary engine builder Traco.\u00a0 The Traco team were a key element to Penske-Donohue success, starting with the Camaro and in many cars that followed.\u00a0 This is a fully built motor, likely representative of the power levels available in race trim back in those days.\u00a0 Must have been a hoot on bias-plys!<\/p>\n

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Still not going to say how my motor did despite it being an aspect of the car people like to speculate over quite a bit.\u00a0 It’s entertaining to see even if it’s not super relevant to the car’s competitiveness.\u00a0 In fact, you might almost argue for wanting to have less power, if the results of Terry Fair and their super-beast Mustang <\/a>are any indication.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Any movie that involves building a fast or special car usually has some kind of montage where the characters are rolling around on creepers, wiping grease and sweat from their brows, and at least at some point – lowering the hot new engine into the car.\u00a0 It’s an exciting moment, one where the car goes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rhoadescamaro.com\/build\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1193"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rhoadescamaro.com\/build\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rhoadescamaro.com\/build\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rhoadescamaro.com\/build\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rhoadescamaro.com\/build\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1193"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"http:\/\/www.rhoadescamaro.com\/build\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1193\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1217,"href":"http:\/\/www.rhoadescamaro.com\/build\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1193\/revisions\/1217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.rhoadescamaro.com\/build\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rhoadescamaro.com\/build\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.rhoadescamaro.com\/build\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}