New member with a 69 Camaro BBC swap

[BBC69Camaro]

It has always been my dream of buying a classic car and restoring / building it up how I wanted. Never really had the time/money/knowledge before.

So I started taking some classes at a local JC in auto-mechanics for fun and as a hobby to see if I really wanted to be serious about doing something like this. The more classes I took the more I realized I wanted to do this.

I finally bought my Camaro in April of this year. I took awhile as I tried to find one in good shape that needed an engine.

This is what I found - White Interior, automatic with overdrive (700R4). Very little rust, and the engine needed work:



So meanwhile I have been working on building up a 454 BBC to swap into the car (it had an old tired 305 non-original engine in it don't worry not messing with a matching numbers car).

So I have been slowly building up a 454 GenV BBC to replace the small block. It is bored 030 over with a .250 stroker crank (8.0L or 489ci). Block has been fully blueprinted, decked and squared, main bore are all within .001" of straightness of each other same for the cam bore. Cylinders have less than .001" taper to them and are all within .0005" of each other.

I have done all the machining myself except for the boring and honing of the cylinders. Top of the block was custom polished for increased oil return and a screen kit installed (case I grenade a valve):




Heads had a competition valve job and custom porting and polishing done to them as well as all being CC'd within 1/10 of a CC as well as a run-out on the valve seat and valve face of less than 0005". All the bearings have been custom fitted to be within .0001" of each other.



Current progress - It looks pretty and should be just about as fast as well at I'm guessing 550-650 HP with a similar amount of torque:



Has really nice idle on the stand with or w/o mufflers

Engine was running really hot, but once initial break in was over and a change of radiator caps (current one wasn't holding pressure very well), engine was holding at 200 degrees even with a smallish radiator on the stand.

Other than that no leaks, changed the oil very clean throughout, re-torqued the head bolts and intake, redid the preload on the hydraulic roller rocker arms (didn't move much), everything checks out really good.

Engine sounds awesome just about how I was hoping it would. Holds about 12" of vacuum at idle (1100) with about 20" of vacuum at 2,500. 80lbs of oil pressure at start up, once warm it is about 65lbs at 2000 and about 45lbs at idle.

Running a bit rich, thinking of changing the power valve to a 2.5/3.5 from a 6.5, I have a FAST fuel/air meter I want to hook up, try to dial in the motor a bit more before I take it off the stand.


The stuff:
Eagle Rotating Assembly (good for up to 750hp) with Forged SRP Pistons
Clevite Tri-Armor coated bearings.
Brodix 270cc RR-O heads with 10:1 Compression
Comp Cams Thumpr Cam CL kit - full roller cam (227in 241ex @050" P/N: CL11-601-8).
Edelbrock Performer RPM Air Gap manifold.
4-barrel Holley Street Avenger 770cfm.
MSD Ignition with 6AL box.
Hooker Comp Headers with 3.5" collector and 2" primaries, going to be running a Pypes system 3" exhaust all the way out the back with Race Pro mufflers
Tilton Super Starter.
March Performance V-Belt pulley system.
Moroso 6 QT oil pan with wind-age tray.
Moroso High Volume Oil pump
Carter fuel pump 100GPH 7PSI
Ron Davis dual pass Radiator.
Earl's Oil and Trans coolers with Thermostat for oil cooler.
Relocating the battery to the trunk with the Moroso box and kit.
Por-15 Engine paint (boy do I like this paint! Brake clean has nothing on it).
All ARP hardware and Fel-Pro gaskets.
Billet Specialties BBC short valve covers and wire tie downs (really nice clean appearance).

Should have a very flat torque curve and a power band between 2000 - 6000 rpm. According to Desktop Dyno over 500lbs of torque above 1500rpm, peaking at 4000rpm with 600, peak HP is 563 at 5500rpm, I think it will ultimately be a little more than this being how well blueprinted the motor is, but we will see once it gets a real dyno run.


And then going to rebuild the suspension while the motor is out:
New Koni classic shocks front/rear
New Moog front Springs (5536 550lbs/rate going to cut them as per David Pozzi's site)
New Eaton Detroit multi-leaf rear springs (175lbs/rate)
Global West Rear Shackle kit with Del-A-Lum bushings
Hotchkiss front and rear sway bars
Hotchkis sub-frame connectors
Global West Solid body bushings
Upper and Lower Global West A-Arms with Del-A-Lum bushings
Lee 670 Steering box
ATS Tall Spindle
C5 Front Disc brake kit to go with Tall Spindles and working with the stock 15x7 rally wheels (plan to go to a 17" rim just no budget for it right now).


I want to get the engine in for a while so I can drive it, but I plan on replacing the rear end (10 bolt non-posi currently) with a 12 bolt posi and either rebuilding the 700R4 to handle the torque or going with a Keisler conversion kit and dropping a 6spd in the car.

[BBC69Camaro]

Couple more pics:



Pulled the front clip this week to start on the front suspension:



Going to repaint the sub-frame, firewall and inner fenders while I am at it as well.

[AllSpeedAndy]

Looks like your off to great start.

It's rare to find someone to go threw the education process as you have,
then start on a project(especially for a hobby)....keep us posted on progress.

[XcYZ]

Excellent! Keep us posted.

Welcome aboard.

[Garage Dog 65]

Looks like you found an excellent car to start with - and what a monster it's gonna be with that mean big block in there ! Sweet !!

Welcome !

[BBC69Camaro]

Originally Posted by Garage Dog 65

Looks like you found an excellent car to start with - and what a monster it's gonna be with that mean big block in there ! Sweet !!

Welcome !

Thanks! Yeah I spent about 6 months looking till I found one that was pretty good shape. You can't believe how many rustbuckets people were trying to sell.

[BBC69Camaro]

Big update (been lazy ):

Pulled out the old heater box that was all rusted from the old heater leaking. Wire wheeled it and cleaned it up:


Then threw some Por-15 and their Chassis coat black on it and replaced all the weather stripping, also had to weld on some new bolts as two of them broke taking them off:


Came out really nice I am pleased with it, shouldn't have to worry about it rusting anymore.

[BBC69Camaro]

Striped the front sub-frame of control arms, springs and brakes and removed the front sub-frame and cleaned it up. It also had a spot on the drivers side spring pocket that needed some minor welding so welded that up and then it went to the powder coater (it really needed it):



Beautiful work, they sandblasted it, baked off any remnants and then powder coated it. They even painted the inside of the rails, pretty good for $250.00. Pyramid Powder Coating in Sun Valley.

Painted the firewall with Por-15 and Chassis black, came out pretty good, very durable finish.

Put the front clip back on, mounted the Global West uppers and lowers with QA1 double adjustables, put the AFX spindles on, along with the Touring Classics AFX big brake kit (12.7" rotors) and Hydro-boost unit. Brake lines are from the Right Stuff.

A special thanks to Tyler over at ATS for helping me figure out the front suspension and brake setup! He really knows his stuff and is willing to work with you to make sure you are set.

Put the heater box back on with new heater core and big block outer cover and made a small cover since the new big block outer heater box didn't cover up the small block heater holes.

For comparison here is a before and after shot (you tell me which is which ):

[BBC69Camaro]

Painted the inside fenders of the front clip with Por-15 and Chassis black (pictures didn't come out too good):

Before:


After painting (pic didn't come out too good, but it looks nice):


Redid the hinges and hood lock mechanism in Eastwood's Zinc Phosphate paint. The below picture really doesn't do em justice they all look brand new now (from pretty rusty) :

[BBC69Camaro]

Now that the front suspension is mostly together, I took a centerline of the rear axle / body and compared it to where the front clip center line was just to make sure I wasn't too far off before I dropped the rear suspension:

Lets see what kind of trouble I can get into back here:




Started grinding off the undercoating on the inner wheel tubs in the rear in prep for mini-tubbing. Going with a G-Bar with QA1 double adjustables in back with a new Moser 12 bolt true-trac rear axle with 3.55 gears with a Ricks stainless notched tank (Thanks to Frank at Prodigy for hooking me up). Should be interesting to see how the rear matches up to the front when I am done.


Took out the seats and took the dash apart to put in new gauges and for the mini-tubbing. Going to run Stewart Warner Maximum Performance line with Speed, Tach, Fuel (Dash Cluster), Water, Oil Pressure (A-Pillar), Oil Temp, Trans Temp (Under Dash), Voltage, Vacuum, Fuel Pressure, A/F Ratio (Console Pod).



Taking a lot of pictures on the custom work to fit the Stewart Warner Gauges in the stock dash, its looking pretty good (will post when its done).

Well that is it for now