Part XV

1989 RS Camaro

Well, all of our hard work is starting to payoff. We fired the engine, engaged the transmission and can move the car around under it's own power now. We have been tracking our work days on this project and if we can ignore the evening or two where a part was cleaned or painted, we have 60 work days done now. Our pictures for this update are on the low side as there really aren't any new pieces to put in place. Since the last update the only things that we have added were the vacuum tubes to the header collectors and the hoses going up to the front of the valve covers.

Prior to firing the engine the first time, we had a few areas to cover to make sure the engine fired up right away. With a roller cam setup, this isn't as critical as it would be on a flat-tappet engine, but still you do not want to spin the engine endlessly when it's new getting it started. All of that lube that you put in place on the various parts and bearings just gets rubbed off and that's not what you intended.

First off is to make sure that you have filled the oil filter with oil so there's no wait on oil pressure. Then don't forget to fill the crankcase with oil and in our case a bottle of additive to assist with break-in. Next is filling the radiator. We have a new one in place and since running anti-freeze is an absolute no-no in drag racing, we filled it with 3 gallons of distilled water and a bottle of Redline Water Wetter. It's proven itself in our dragster in the past, lowering temperatures about 3-5 degrees. It works on the principle of breaking down water surface tension allowing the water to actually do it's job. It also prevents rust and lubricates the water pump.

Next up is putting fuel in the car, then running the fuel pump making sure that you are not leaking fuel anywhere (that can ruin your day!) along with making sure that the float levels on the fuel bowls are correct. Holleys have sight plugs and externally adjustable floats that make it pretty easy to set the float levels correctly. Now, on this engine we run the MSD cranktrigger ignition setup. With the distributor already installed and locked down to remove any advance, we set our timing to full max at idle. The easy way to do this is to bring the engine up to top dead center, doing so either with a remote starter switch or manually with a breaker bar on the the balancer bolt. Then continuing in the direction of rotation almost two more revolutions, you should be approaching TDC again, but this time you want to stop on the timing mark that you have chosen. In our case, I keep the timing on the mild side setting it in the 32-34 degree range. With the timing mark lined up with the 34 degree mark on the balancer, it's time to set the timing with the MSD unit. Simply loosen the two bolts that hold the pickup and move it until the center of the pickup is lined up with one of the magnets in the MSD wheel. Tighten everything up and your set. Could that be any easier?

Okay, we're almost ready. Next on the list is a window fan, yep a window fan placed in front of the radiator. Do not rely on just the radiator fan if you have one, you need a lot of air going through the radiator. Now, a couple of final checks. Make sure that your firing order is correct and that all of the plugs wires are solidly attached to the plugs. Check that your transmission is in Park or Neutral. If it's a new transmission have a couple of quarts of ATF ready to go along with the funnel you need. The transmission already has 4 quarts of fluid in it, but once the engine fires and the transmission pump starts turning, the level will go down. Last item is to attach a battery charger and put it on charge. This will assist the batteries in maintaining a starting ability if things go wrong.

Now remember that when the engine was still on the stand, that we placed a dummy distributor in it and spun that with an electric drill to circulate oil through the engine. You actually do this four times, turning the engine crank 90 degrees in between to make sure all of the bearings get oil on them. At this point, you should make sure that the engine will just turn over and not start. If you have a separate starter/ignition switch setup that makes it easy, if not then you may need to disconnect your ignition box. Spin the engine a few times watching the oil pressure gauge, once you have pressure then you are ready to actually start it. A couple of shots of fuel from the carb to prime the engine and it should fire right up. Some adjustments to the idle will probably be needed, and you want to turn on any electric water and fan motors that you have available. If you are using a flat-tappet cam or hydraulic, then you should run the engine for about 20 minutes and you should vary the engine RPM. With a roller setup, I normally run about 10 minutes to get a little heat in the engine, checking oil pressure and water temperature continuously.

Feels good, sounds good doesn't it? Anytime you fire up a new engine, I think it gives you a real sense of accomplish. Pat yourself on the back, you earned it!

Once the engine was shut down, our next item of business was to drop the oil and filter. The filter gets cut open to check for debris and since we used a lot of moly in the building of this engine, the filter gets plugged up pretty quick. By the way on our engine, our cold oil pressure is 60 and it drops to about 45-50 when we get some heat in the oil. And with the filter plugging up quickly we even watched the pressure drop to the 30 pound range. Cutting open the filter revealed the normal minor junk that you will find in a new engine. New parts are rubbing each other and no matter how clean you try to keep things there is always a bit of junk that gets inside. This is another reason for dropping the oil after the first run, it's cheap insurance for the engine.

continued.......