My 69 Camaro - Going back together again

[Roscoe03]

Nicely done!

Who did you pick up the TKX from? I'm looking to do the same to my Camaro and I'm looking for a reputable vendor to work with.

[HRS]

Originally Posted by Roscoe03

Nicely done!

Who did you pick up the TKX from? I'm looking to do the same to my Camaro and I'm looking for a reputable vendor to work with.

I bought an entire kit from Silver Sport since I was switching from auto to manual. It had everything I needed except a driveshaft since I'm running a GM 8.5 rear that never came in a 1st gen.

[HRS]

Lots of Progress. Hope to have the car running again this week. DES roll bar is installed, just have to finish the harness bar. Functional test of the new AAW wiring harness completed last night - no issues. New 3" Exhaust (Rod builder kit from Stainless Works) fabricated, tacked up and had my neighbor Tig weld all the seams (same guy that welded my fuel tank). My battery cables now run down the passenger side rocker channel and under the front carpet. The positive cable goes into a distribution block that I sourced from a Cadillac SRX. It has 5 fused connections. The new fan shroud painted and installed.





Pictures show the exhaust just tacked up at this point:

[camcojb]

Looks great Todd!!

[WSSix]

Nice work. Good luck with the start up!

[HRS]

Originally Posted by WSSix

Nice work. Good luck with the start up!

Thanks.

Got the car running last night. Had a few issues to work out before it ran well - timing and valve adjustments. Took it for about 2 mile drive. The Stainless Works mufflers are a little louder then I thought they would be at idle and under acceleration. The mufflers are their Turbo S-tube. At around 35 just driving, about the same noise level as my old Flowmaster setup. I'll try get a video of it running this weekend and post it.

[WSSix]

Congrats! Cats will help quite the mufflers down if you like the sound but want it quieter.

[HRS]

I got the car back together and took to a local test and tune last Wednesday to try autocross for the first time with all the new parts and changes. Akron Sports car club has Wednesday night events during the summer at Dragway 42. Had a few issues. More to come on those and what I used/made to solve them. The plan has been before I started making these changes was to have the car ready for a DriveAutoX event here in Cleveland that took place last weekend. Learned quickly that my car is way more street than race car. Of the 35 cars there - I would say 2/3's were close to race car. I was the near the bottom both days in overall speed which was not a surprise. With all my changes, my 69 drives completely different compared to last year. More seat time will help a lot.
Here are videos of my best runs from Saturday and Sunday.

[HRS]

Before going to last Wednesday's autocross, I drove the car around my local area for about 150 miles. Didn't have any issues. At last Wednesday's event, found 2 issues with the fuel tank - the brand new cap O-ring split and started leaking - that was the minor issue. The other major issue was the vent was leaking during and after each run. I made changes to the vent line with the new tank and that didn't work causing a siphon effect. To fix this, I made a vent can similar to what you can buy (I would have bought one but there was no time for shipping and installation before Saturday morning).
Here is what I fabricated and had a local welding shop tig weld together. It's a 3" round piece of stainless exhaust pipe, 4 inches tall. One fitting is welded flush to the floor of the can and the tube goes up into the can about 1/4" from the top.


It's installed on the highest part of the truck floor above the rear end:


The vent line from the tank goes to the fitting flush to the floor of the can and the other one goes to vent - It's a 3/8 tube that runs between the tank and trunk floor to the vent that's behind the rear plate just above the fuel cap. I used this vent: https://www.summitracing.com/parts/tnk-vvr

This setup worked great and didn't leak a drop all weekend.

Here is an image posted on the DriveAutoX FB page - headed to the finish line on Sunday:

[WSSix]

Glad the changes are moving you in the right direction. Dialing in the combination will take time but is part of the fun.