1968 Camaro "Badmotorfinger" v2.2

[Flash68]

Had a great hour with Mike B the shop today. Man I learn a ton there.

Updates:

-Roller bearing 50mm cam tunnel is bored
-Deck was not square (shocker) so they are squaring it up. He said he'll likely bring it down from 9.0225 where it sits now just to 9.000 and call it good.
-Diamond hone up next
-His assessment of the block is that he likes its water jackets, its priority oiling and he compares it so far to the Little M, so I liked hearing that

We knew my Jesel shaft rockers would need some attention (new adjusters, maybe some rollers) but we did discover the intake is a 1.7 ratio (not 1.6 as advertised) and that's a good thing for cam design. 1.6 is exhaust as sold.

We talked cams in detail and he is a big believe in these oversized base circle cams, either 50 or 55mm for SBC. He showed me a shelf Comp Cams Mopar cam with standard base circle next to one he designed and had cut with a monster base circle (don't know Mopar sizes) but the difference was staggering. And what he said that was really staggering was the larger one made 60 more hp on the dyno. No other changes. Same cam specs. Wow. I had no idea on that stuff. So I'm sold on the added expense (a few hundred bucks) for the larger base circle on mine. Done deal.

He also would not let me take a pic of the 2 Mopar cams side by side. Trade secrets.

I learned the "C" or Cleveland firing order is the same as the LS firing order (also called a 4 cylinder swap) and it's easier on the internals while making more power. He said that's why all or most of new modern motors use that firing order. He uses the 4-7 swap on tunnel ram setups.

Mike is so cool and old school.. he has the same credit card machine from 1989 he said. If it ain't broke, don't fix it! It is huge like the phone Gordon Gekko was holding on the beach in Wall Street.

Put the crank on the scale. Mike said weight don't mean nothin til it registers on his scale.