My 73 Camaro project -- Hotchkis TVS and more

[thegalli1]

I've finally got enough parts together at once to start the reassembly on my 73 Camaro.

Before I got her she was an 80k mile original numbers matching car, but she'd been hit up front so the front group had been replaced with some secondhand parts. I got her from my best friend, and while it was his the old 350 finally gave up and seized a bearing, so we swapped in a 283 that his dad had in his shop.

That motor was bored .060 over, had 12.3:1 compression, the biggest heads you could fit on the little mouse, Comp 280h cam, port matched original 60 something GM aluminum intake and all sorts of goodies, so it wasn't really a slouch.

After he found out his wife was pregnant it warranted sale, so I ponied up the cash since I didn't want to see her go far. About a month after bringing her home the old tired TH350 decided to go, a while after that she went into the garage for a tear down. I removed everything from the firewall forward and vowed to start fresh.

Here's a list of what I've got for her so far:

Full Hotchkis TVS kit
Full polyurethane bushing kit (everything that didn't come with the Hotchkis anyway)
Brand new front sheetmetal (haven't got the hood yet, waiting to see if there may be clearance issues.)
Vortec 350 with multi-port EFI (originally marine application, but I'm considering switching a few parts to end up with a RAMJET... see below)
Transmission undecided.....

As far as my motor, a buddy of mine knew a guy who crashed his boat, and he sold the motor, ecu, and wiring harness to me for relatively cheap. It's a Vortec 350 with a MEFI 4 ECU.

I was doing a bit of looking and it seems like the block and heads are pretty comparable to the RAMJET 350. As far as I can tell, the different parts should be the cam, intake, distributor, and a few other things, but I can't find the part numbers for the marine application to compare. It looks to me like the fuel rails may be the same or similar, and if that's the case I should be able to get just the cam, intake, and distributor, and get my ECU reprogrammed somewhere and have a RAMJET. The MEFI4 is the same controller and all the hookups on the RAMJET look pretty close to the harness on my motor. I know it would have to be tuned somewhere, probably a marine shop or the GM dealer.

GM's catalog puts this motor at 290HP and 370lbs/tq, with 300+lbs at 1750rpm, and the curve seems comparable to the RAMJETS as well, just lower.

At this point I'm just getting ready to put the car back in the garage after a year and a half assembling parts. I'm starting with the subframe bushings and the suspension, then rear body work, then motor/trans/wiring, then front sheetmetal, then paint.

Here's a list of questions:

1- Anybody have a service parts breakdown for the Marine Vortec 5700 2003-4?
2- Anybody know the key differences to adapt my Marine MEFI4 system to the RAMJET setup?
3- Anybody know anywhere around Sacramento, Ca that does MEFI tuning?

Thanks for the help guys, happy building.

Jeremiah Galli

[two68s]

Sweet car, I can't answer any of your questions, but I have to add that your car looks like Bumblebee from the Transformers movie.

[andrewmp6]

I wouldn't use a boat engine they don't use a radiator. its sucks water in from the outside runs it through the block and pushes it back out.Id strip it and clean out the water jackets i'm sure its full of rust and gunk.

[thegalli1]

Originally Posted by andrewmp6

I wouldn't use a boat engine they don't use a radiator. its sucks water in from the outside runs it through the block and pushes it back out.Id strip it and clean out the water jackets i'm sure its full of rust and gunk.

Most people think the same thing about marine engines, but those days are long gone! New technology and other innovations are always revolutionizing the way we do things.

The engine has less than 100 hours on it, and it used a closed system of coolant pumped through a cooler. It never had any outside water in it.

You can view the specs for it here.

The torque and HP curve seem comparable to the RAMJET 350 crate engine, as they use the same MEFI system.

I'm just trying to find out what other parts they share, because I'm VERY interested in converting it to the RAMJET.

Jeremiah

[Sicmaro]

try calling force fed performance there at antelope rd. and roseville rd. i worked there for the past 2 years. boss does all the tunning, im not sure if he can help you. but he does have lots of tunning software and id say he is one of the best. he tuned my 72 LS6/4l60e camaro. hope this helps

force fed performance
331-1711
www.forcefedperformance.com