Part XIV

1989 RS Camaro

Bet you thought we would have this thing running by now - didn't you? Well we kind of thought the same ourselves, but with various interruptions that we won't bother to go into here, we're not quite there yet.

We rebuilt the 750 Holley DP unit with a kit from AED, nice parts and very similar to the Holley Trick Kits that used to be around years ago. Most of the settings are just guesses at this point but they are based on past knowledge and should have us in the ballpark when we fire the engine. The plumbing for the fuel system has been completed with -8 line running from the Holley pump in back to a split-Y and then keeping -8 to the regulators and carburetor. We could have dropped down to -6 going from the regulators, but with -8 there should never be a fuel supply problem on this car.

This shows the split-Y and lines going to and from the regulators, at this point we were giving the homegrown regulator mounting bracket a coat of paint. You might notice that the Hedman Hedders are in place along with a new radiator and hoses. The overflow line runs from the radiator across to the left front fender where it attaches to a coolant bottle.

The brake lines have been finished and the entire system has been bleed, so we now have functional brakes. The lead for the MSD system has been run but needs to be connected to the cranktrigger and the MSD box. All other minor electrical pieces have been completed. We finished the installation of the B&M Prostick and installed the Lakewood safety loop around the new driveshaft which was built locally.

A nice addition to the car was the sparkplug plates that a friend of ours whipped up for us and we installed on the cowl of the car. This makes it quite a bit easier keeping up with which plug came from which cylinder when you are reading plugs to tune the engine.

Another item that we finished was the installation of the East Coast mini-alternator. It took a little bit of extra fabrication to get it installed, but that's been the theme of this car from the beginning. The mounting plate had to be flipped upside down and backward, then another hole drilled to line up with the mounting locations on the block. Once that was accomplished - well it just fell into place after that.

Back to the fuel system, we now have the painted regulator bracket installed and the regulators completely plumbed. The bracket was made by welding the mounts that come with the Holley regulators together and then bending a length of 1/2 inch steel, drilling mounting holes in it and welding the whole mess together. Actually turns out to be a simple and clean way of mounting the regulators. A gallon of fuel in the tank and a click of the pump switch confirms that the system is tight with no leaks and is ready to go.

We need to figure out a mounting for the throttle cable to the carburetor, index a set of plugs for the engine, add some venting to the valve covers, connect the oil line to the oil pressure gauge, then add coolant to the radiator and fire it up.

That's it for this time, but on our next installment we'll cover how we make sure that we don't have any major problems firing up a new engine and some of the things that we do to make sure it has a long life.

On to Part XV