My 69 Camaro - Going back together again

[HRS]

I've had my Camaro for over 34 years - Purchased in '89 when I was 16. Two years ago I tried autocross and got hooked. Made a bunch of changes to the car to have more fun. I took the car back apart last fall to make more updates. I'll post about them as I make them.

In this first post - Fuel tank modifications. I bought a stock stainless tank and I'm adding baffles. The engine is an old school 383 SBC. The plan is to run one more year with the carb and next winter switch to injection (thinking Holley Sniper 2). Looking to see what you think of what I came up with for baffles. The sender has been modified to accept a 2.5" x 8" Holley Hydramat.
I'm also going to have the front corners cut and angled to clear 3 inch exhaust pipes.

[camcojb]

Very clean car, thanks for posting!

[Roscoe03]

Awesome, I'm looking forward to seeing what you have planned.

[Spiffav8]

This should be good

[HRS]

Some back story first - In the summer of 2022 I tried autocross for the first time. A friend since high school has been running his 914-6 with the local PCA. They invite non-members to get larger car counts - average about 30-35 cars at one of their events. I took my 97 Camaro SS and had a great time. I decided that to autocross in my '69 I had to fix/upgrade a few things. The lower rear frame rails and torque boxes were in OK shape but not what I considered good enough to autocross. I replaced them and added DSE leaf spring pocket kit. I had stock disc/drum brakes - these were replaced with Wilwood 12.19 discs, Front with 6 piston and rear with 4 piston - I went with this size brakes so I could still run my 15" wheels if I wanted. The stock front control arms were replaced with QA1's pro touring arms. I also replaced the shocks with adjustable QA1 F&R.

The engine is an old school 383 SBC... it's a ZZ4 block with eagle crank & rods, holley systmax heads, RPM intake, edelbrock 750 carb and MSD ignition - was built in 2004. Since new, car has always been an automatic, a TH350. I had one built with ATI's 2.75 first gear and their rebuild kit. This combo worked great on the street going to car shows but not so much autocrossing.

This was the car/engine/transmission combo I ran for all of 2023. The more events I attended, the more comfortable I got with driving and went from averaging in the bottom 10% in time to about the middle.

Upgrades for 2024:
Engine - Trick Flow's new DHC 200 heads - full CNC ported, Comp 1.6 ratio gold roller rockers, ATI Super Damper, melling shark tooth oil pump & Canton road racing oil pan. All new fuel system - Stainless tank with self made baffles, Edelbrock electric fuel pump, Cupro/NI hard lines and Fragola PTFE braided soft lines. Getting rid of the water pump mounted fan and going to dual Spal 11" fans with a PWM controller.

Transmission - Tremec TKX 5-speed - bought a full change over kit from Silver State.

Car - Complete all new wiring - American Auto Wire kit. Replace the stock 5 leaf rear springs with DSE 2" drop springs. DES 4 point roll bar so I can run 6 point harness belts... and a bunch of other small stuff.

I'm making these changes to be a little faster, safer and have a lot more fun. My plan is to run with the local PCA club again, try to get to about 1/2 of the Akron Sports Car club events and the local DriveAutoX event.

The fuel tank in my first post - I dropped off today at my Tig welder's place to be put back together. I'll post more pictures as he puts it together.

[68454RS]

What wheel / tire combo do you plan on running? I'm running 255/40-18 & 325/30-19 Michelin PS 4 S

[HRS]

Originally Posted by 68454RS

What wheel / tire combo do you plan on running? I'm running 255/40-18 & 325/30-19 Michelin PS 4 S

Last year I ran General G-Max tires - 225/45-18 front and 275/40-18 rear. My wheels are Ridler 607's - 18x8 F 18x9.5 R

I based my front tire size on what I'll call a street alignment - just a small amount of negative camber. Lesson learned, this was a mistake. When I had the car re-aligned with something that would work better at autocross (-1.5 degrees of camber) a 245/255 should fit now on the front. Have not decided on a tire brand for this year.

Out back, 295 should fit now. I pushed the wheelwells in an inch (cut them out and recessed) and had the rearend narrowed to center the tire. My rear shocks are still in the factory location. The rearend is a GM 8.5 out of a 73 Z28, factory posi with 3.42 gears. When it was narrowed, the axle tubes were welded to the center section and I upgraded to a Yukon posi with moser 30 spline axles.

[WSSix]

Good luck with it, Todd. The 383 will be good for the autox course.

[HRS]

Here are a few pictures of the tank going back together. The baffles are now welded together and to the top of the tank. I also added a flap to limit fuel going up the fuel inlet pipe. The middle baffle between the side baffles has a some space above and below so fuel can still flow into what I'll call the pickup chamber.

[HRS]

I got the tank back all welded up. Click on the pictures to see them better.





Don't have any pictures yet to share - Worked on the engine yesterday. Got the deck surfaces cleaned and ARP studs installed, ready for the new Trick Flow heads. These: https://www.trickflow.com/parts/tfs-30210007-c00