Project "Payback"

[tones2SS]

Awesome video.
Car looks killer!!! Sounds great too.

[MWCC]

AWESOME CAR AND AWESOME JOB TODD!!

It's nice to see that your dream car is finally a reality. As a builder and lifelong Camaro guy, I know these builds take time. Of the many Camaro's I've owned over the years, each one always gives me new ideas. What you've incorporated here is just incredible. It can sometimes be difficult for an idea to come to life as it can somewhat get lost in translation and other people sometimes have ideas that can cloud the owners (your) true vision. Your attention to detail is top notch and you stayed the course with the car you've had in your head all these years. As with all builds, there were hiccups along the way and you've found that parts are not always what they should be. As a builder, those little gremlins drive me nuts.

It's good to see someone who doesn't build these cars for a living go through the process. I've had several customers help-out with their own projects over the years and they all tell me afterwards that they never had any idea that these cars required so much work. Some of the shows on the tube give people the impression that these cars can be done in a week. So many things can happen along the way that are out of your control and all you can do is try to rectify the situation. As a builder, that can be tough to explain to a customer since they only see it as a delay. You worked through your issues and ended up with an INCREDIBLE CAMARO. Congrats on the "Car of the month" award, you deserve it.

When I finally get my butt out to LasVegas, I would like to come bye and see that "Beast" you built.

P.S. My wife saw the pictures and loves the Camaro. Her exact words were "WOW, that's beautiful"

[Vegas69]

Nick, your tact never ceases to amaze me. I really appreciate the comments. You are absolutely right about the difficulty of making these cars happen. Especially when you cross over into the custom territory. It's also one thing to have a vision and another for it to look good and function as intended. I spent countless hours hiding everything I could, covering bare wires and routing them together. Thanks for finding this outstanding car for me. That was a huge peice of the puzzle. That car you built for the California kid is what got my wheels spinning again. I'd be happy to take you for a spin when you make it out.

[waynieZ]

Hi Todd just saw the video, Nice! You did a nice job on it. Your car looks great I like the seats .
Wayne

[mdprovee]

Nice job on the video, and even better job on the car. Congrats on the monthly feature.

[GvEman]

Realy nice video! I am in love with your ride!

[Vegas69]

Appreciate it I am posting this more in an attempt to help someone else not get stranded on the side of the road. As I posted on the last page I sheared my distributor gear last weekend at about the 1600 mile mark. The engine was built and dyno tuned by a Nascar engine builder. The performance has always been excellent. I did start to notice a little drop off in power the last few times I drove it before the failure(including the video footage) I had needed to turn up the idle due to low idle not long ago as well. It all ads up now. I hadn't timed the car in quite some time. With the distributor gear wear I bet I lost 5-10 degrees of timing. Anyway....after doing my research and reviewing my engine file I determined that my billet hydraulic roller cam had a pressed on cast iron distributor gear. That is a great thing, but the engine builder used a bronze gear.

It's basically an aluminized brass gear made for billet steel cams without a pressed on cast gear. It's also used frequently by the drag guys. It's absolutely not meant for the street especially on a cast gear.

This is the correct gear for my application. It's a GM melonized cast iron distributor gear. It should give me the reliability we all need for the street. It comes on most GM hei's and so forth.

I cut open my last two oil filters and strangly enough the last one had very little debris where the one before had a decent amount of brass. It looks like the oil filter did a great job of catching the wear. I had changed it 4 times in the 1600 miles.

[Vegas69]

I was a little pissed that the builder put in the wrong gear. Of course there is a possibility of some bearing damage. After many calls and an email he finally called me. He swore my engine had a steel gear and needed the bronze gear. Until I told him which camshaft it had. He admitted they let it get past them and it was there fault. He also said he thought I would be fine but he would stand behind the motor if I have a failure. I changed the oil again and dumped a couple quarts to flush out any debris.
While I was messing around changing the distributor gear and retiming the engine, I decided to fix a seap around the crancase ventilation fitting that started in the last 200 miles.

Gotta love a big block with the valve covers off with a set of dart pro 1 heads and comp rollers.

Hear is the fitting that dribbled. I used a dab of blue loctite on the threads.(Suck it the inside fell onto the rockers at 6k) and used some silcone on the washer. Should do it.

Timed her at 36 total and 18 degree intial and went for a 80 mile road test. Never run better! Car is ****** sick.

[Spiffav8]

I need a fix. Think you can hook me up one of these weekends?

[Flash68]

Damn dude. I know your engine builder puts out a ton of crate motors, but that is unacceptable. He damn well better stand behind the motor if it fails.

Glad it's running at its best now. Nice work.