Bad.Samaritan: 1970 Chevelle
 

I bought this car 3 years ago, paint and body were nice interior decent...drivetrain mostly crap. It was a 350/TH350 with a 10 bolt open rear with 2.73's and 4 wheel drum brakes.

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/_q...0/IMG_0810.JPG

Replaced the 10 bolt with a 12 bolt w/3.42's and posi. Boxed UMI Lowers and Spohn Adjustable upper LCA

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/_q...0/DSCN0703.JPG

Pulled the dead 350sbc and built a 454bbc

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/_q...0/IMG_0395.JPG

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/_q...0/IMG_0651.JPG

In the end I would like this car to be a LS2/TKO combo (the motor I built would be used in another project of mine) with greatly improved braking, handling, and ride quality. Currently the front suspension is stock (except for the hotchkis bar I added) I have UCA/LCA from speedtech coming and will be changing to QA1 coilovers as well.



****UPDATE****


Been plugging away at the car slowly the last couple of weeks trying to get rear discs installed, Hydroboost, and steering box swap completed. Life/work have slowed me down greatly.

Currently the Hydroboost is in, and the new MC bench bled and hung. I am waiting on some fittings and lines to come in and then I can get started on the plumbing:

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/_q...0/IMG_1042.JPG

The rear disc kit is in, I just need to go back everything and torque it down. I also need to fill the rear end back up. I ended up going with a pretty basic kit for the time being as I still have 15" rally wheels. I am saving like crazy and can't wait to call Driverz inc. and put in my order. In the meantime this will be plenty and will get the car on the road in time for the few sunny days a year we get here in WA.

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/_q...0/IMG_1036.JPG

:thumbsup: :thumbsup:

Cool car, I had a71 just like it. Good luck on the build, keep us updated!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v5...713082014b.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v5...0713082015.jpg

Nice project. Keep us in the loop.

Thanks guys will do! Werks that's a beautiful 71:thumbsup:

Finished all of the plumbing for the Hydroboost, even got the car on the road for a couple quick trips around the block. There is still some work to do on the braking..feels like I still have some air trapped in there somewhere either in the HB or in the brakes themselves.

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/_q...0/IMG_1055.JPG

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/_q...0/IMG_1054.JPG

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/_q...0/IMG_1056.JPG

Not 100% sure I am happy with how/where the lines turned out, I may try some things to clean them up a little more.

I am REALLY happy to hear its back on the road!
So now I just need a ride in it to get a feel for that motor.....
Are you doing the dyno BBQ this year?
PS thanks for the CL link.

Finished up the speedtech UCA/LCA, QA1 coilover installed a couple of weeks ago and have just been enjoying the car. I still need to replace the stock steering linkage, but the ride quality is greatly improved. Even with my very crappy and old tires.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/_q...0/IMG_1072.JPG

I ordered and have been reading Mark Savitske's book on handling and I'm thinking about changing to the Howe Tall BJ's and keeping my stock spindle after new wheels and tires.

Looks great Ray.
Good seeing you and the Chevelle at docs a couple weeks ago.

When do I get to drive it? :willy:

Very cool project.:thumbsup:

As soon as we get some decent weather and I can get it out of the garage for more than an hour or two. Hoss is hosting another dyno day / bbq at his place. You should come up!

Just tell me when and I will be there!:cheers:

Nice, 70 Chevelles are my favorite muscle car. :thumbsup:

Nice build, looking at hydro boost right now for my build. I have the SPC suspension parts and they are nice product, I have not drove the car much with it but still i would suggest it from all the reading I have done about it.

Thanks Nick, I went ahead and bought and installed uca/lca from Speedtech, with QA1 Coilovers. I like the SPC gear a lot, I just thought the speedtech stuff was more in line with my goals for the car. The Hydroboost has been great, the more miles I put on it the more I am pleased. I ended up buying pieces off of Ebay as opposed to Hydratech and saved a little money. If your interested I can PM you the links I have saved from buying everything.

Side note: Where in Nor-Cal are you at?? I grew up in Dunsmuir/Mt. Shasta area until I joined the Army. I miss Nor-Cal a lot especially in the summers.

It's been a long time since I have posted in here. This summer was a pain as far as the car went. I problems with pinging in the 3000-3500 rpm range and spent most of the summer trying to chase down what the problem was. After changing timing curves, plugs, adding carb spacers and heat shields and everything else I could think of. A very knowledgeable friend suggested I change intake manifold gaskets to the kind that block the exhaust crossover. Made a world of difference. It was too late in the year to know if it truly fixed it or not but it was a huge improvement.

This winter I have a bunch of small projects in mind for the car.

1. SPAL fan controller
2. Level out the Master Cylinder and Hydroboost unit.
3. replace some various interior pieces.

Longterm:

Look at Auto OD setup, I am thinking 4l80E with tci paddles.
Wheels and tires...I would really like to get some Rushforth's

A lot has changed on the car since I last updated on here.

- replaced the inner/out heater boxes which were rusted pretty bad

- installed and wired up the SPAL fan controller so no more having to constantly check the water temp guage and turn the fans on manually.

- Installed the rear Ridetech coil overs and the ride is awesome. Having coilovers on all 4 corners on these big cars makes the ride amazing. I'll have to re-work the rear exhaust to clear the coil overs, for now my exhaust ends at the turndowns over the rear axle.

- Re-routed my hydroboost return to the pump as it was incorrect and the pump constantly had fluid coming out of the top from too much pressure.

- Re-worked the Hydroboost firewall bracket. The bracket placed the master cylinder nose up at an extreme angle. got to where the MC sits almost level now.

- New wheels and tires, I'm sure people will recognize the style and probably the brand. All I'm going to say is I wish I would have gone with Rushforth.

pics:

I didn't have enough ports on the intake so I found this cool waterneck spacer on Summit. It has two NPT ports for temp senders etc. I ended up switching the senders location from this pic because the waterneck doesn't give a good ground for the water temp guage sender.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-0...0/IMG_2354.JPG

New Ridetech's installed and the issue with the exhaust.
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-A...0326-00141.jpg

Wheels/tires
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-H...0/IMG_2443.JPG

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-Q...0519-00177.jpg

WHeels and stance make all the difference :thumbsup: :thumbsup: .

How about some tire and wheel info? specs?

Wheels and tires don't look bad. Maybe lower the stance some. What brand are those? Sorry, I cannot recognize the detail because they are black. I can see that it's a mesh wheel. As far as wishing you went with Rushforth's, as you've stated in your previous posts, I thought you were. If Rushforth's are what you wanted, you probably should have waited and got what you wanted. I know way to well about being anxious and just buying something "for now" until I get what I want later. That costs and wastes alot of money. Nonetheless, the car looks nice to me. Rushforth's may have been your preference, but I like those too. Trust me, it looks really nice and I love the brushed lips. :yes: :yes:

Thanks guys,

The wheels are NewGen Anarchy's and tires are Nitto 555's

fronts are 18x8 with 4.75 BS 245/45/R18

rears are 18x10 with 5.75 BS 285/40/R18

The quality and fitment are fine, it was the process that really started to piss me off. For the very marginal difference in price I would have rather done business with a professional.

I had to trim my fender lips a little, as well as remove the wheel well trim. That pic is the day I got the wheels, I have since dropped the stance a little on both the fronts and rears. I may need to do a little more trimming to get the stance any lower in the rear.

I did notice in the pics that the tire sat a little bit close to the quarter panel's lip, but wasn't sure. Thought it might have been the lighting in the pic. Anyway, it looks fine. No complaints here from a fellow Chevelle'er. :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

Thanks! :thumbsup: I've cruised through your build thread a couple of times myself, I love your combo...can't wait to go LS myself!

Thanks bro! Hopefully I'll have it on the road by this time next year. Got my fingers crossed.:_paranoid :_paranoid

your fronts are about the same height as mine, but the edge sits about 1/4" further in (my 9.5x6 bs vs your 8x4.75 bs). im going to have to cut the heck out of the front inners to get them to fit. i thought i would have to do the engine sides, but they have a ton of room. its the outside towards the fender that wont work. i have about 1" of travel before they smack the inners, and thats with the wheels straight. a little cutting a welding should give me 2.5". we'll see.

The old Rally setup that was on here was horrible in every way. The fronts rubbed and the rears rubbed constantly until I put those air raid air bags in the rear coils and put a few psi in them.

The new setup the fronts are great, no issues and I dialed down the coil overs quite a bit. The rears have been the pain, lots of trim and trial fit. I think I finally got them cut to where they need to be. I'm glad I had to though in the end because there were some suprises hiding under the wheel well trim. I'm going to have to look into getting both the rears cleaned up and repainted in a couple of spots.

The car sits nice, I like what you're doing :thumbsup: . I will be following your build from now on as I too have a 70 chevelle. Any chance you could snap a few more pictures from the side so I can see both wheels at different angles? I'm trying to pick out wheel size and I was thinking about going 18's all the way around like you have.

Thanks Dug, I have it on stands at the moment while I fix some small stuff, as soon as I am done I'll pull it out and take some pics for ya.

awesome, thanks a bunch.:cheers:

Something strange happened today Dug, the sun came out in Western Washington. Here are some pics for you, ride height still needs to be adjusted some.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-b...0/IMG_2483.JPG

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-S...0/IMG_2484.JPG

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-X...0/IMG_2485.JPG

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-j...0/IMG_2486.JPG

hahahaha nice! damn looking sharp :bow: Ride height? whats wrong with how it is? I think it looks great. Thank you so much for taking the pictures. I think that sealed the deal to run 18's.

I'd just like the rear to come down just a little bit more. .5" at most. Glad the pics helped :cheers:

Looking good:cheers: It's GREAT when the sun is and and the Chevelle can catch some rays:thumbsup:

It's been a long time since I have updated this so I thought I would make a quick post. Since those pics of my new wheels were posted I had a bit of engine trouble. I kept getting popping out of the carb at 4000 rpm or higher. I went through all of my ignition, made jetting changes etc. turned out the pushrod cup in a lifter shattered and debris went through the motor. Found these in the oil pan:

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-3...-26-27_802.jpg

Lifter:

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-B...0/IMG_2645.JPG

I ended up tearing down the engine and going through it again. I was pretty pissed as that motor barely had 2000mi on it. Only real change I made to the motor was the cam. I found a Gen V roller cam with a mechanical fuel pump lobe on it and had it re-ground at Delta Cams in Tacoma. Cam is now a .597/.603 HR.

I used the cam locking plate as opposed to the cam button

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-L...0/IMG_2678.JPG

Also added these 1/2" holes into my block between the cylinders for some additional cooling:

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-a...-19-19_373.jpg

I have maybe 200 miles on it now and I love the new HR cam. Less valvetrain noise, no more worries about ZDDP levels in oils etc. My last upgrade I finished yesterday. I took out my stock bench seats and added Pro-car Rally's for the front and had the rear bench recovered to match. Also added some Morris 3 point seatbelts while I was at it.

Rear seat

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-A...0/IMG_2907.JPG

Passenger seat in:

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-s...0/IMG_2909.JPG

I still plan on putting in the LS2 I have and adding a OD trans of some sort. But for the time being I really just want to get some miles on it.

Interior looks good. Sorry to hear of your engine troubles.

Glad you got it back on the road. Now drive it like you stole it. Or like a :RunninDog:

Thanks guys, that's the plan for this summer. The engine wasn't too big of a deal, I just hadn't planned on having to do it. Once I get an OD trans I will be able to drive it a lot further.

wow, its been a fast 8 years since my last post........definitely some life events.

Car now has Holley EFI and a Ricks Tanks EFI tank. I've also since relocated back to So-Cal and have loved being able to drive the car almost year round. I will say that after a few years of trying to tune some hot and cold start issues I finally caved and took the car to JBA in San Diego. They were able to iron out my tune and it's been really reliable and starting consistently since.

Next on the list is a big brake upgrade and hopefully a TKX

Great car. :thumbsup:

Glad you stuck with it and that it's all working out for you. Give Tobin at Kore3 a call on that brake kit. You won't regret it.

I've looked at his stuff for a long time, definitely a fan of his products. I eneded up going with Wilwood this time, They had a lot of options for stock Disc spindles. I went with the 6piston fronts with a 12.19" rotor. I am just mocking things up now, but I will post up again with some pictures.