Update I

1989 RS Camaro

Project Camaro has made it into the high 10.50 area with the addition of a larger carburetor. During a test session in October, 2007 we made the change from the original 750 CFM unit to one flowing about 835 CFM. That put us in the mid 10.60 area immediately. After some minor tuning and adjustment, the car pushed into the high 10.50 area on a cool day early this season.

Most of our original off-season plans for the car never happened and the choice was made to hold off on any additional work to the car until this season is completed. The changes that were made involved the rear hatch being replaced with lexan, but we now find that we need to replace the rear trunk section with a fiberglass replacement as most of the weight is actually in that single part. A shift light was added to the dash and a thin wheel spacer was added to the rear wheels to reduce the tire rubbing when the car turned.

Our next major change for the car is the addition of an anti-roll bar setup to the rear. Right now, the car launches hard but twists which is costing us valuable time. With an anti-roll bar in place we will be able to tune the car to lift and launch straight. Setting in the wings is a complete set of Brodix Track II heads, CNC ported but still roughly the flow and size of our current Dart Iron Eagle heads. A new roller cam with slightly higher lift and duration rates, plus a 4/7 cylinder swap and an Edlebrock Super Victor intake, port matched to the new heads. Plans call for pulling the engine, putting new rings, bearings and oil pump in place to freshen things up and then topping it off with the new parts. Should be interesting to see what this nets us in performance improvement.

Overall the car continues to perform at a stable and consistent rate, just the thing for a good bracket car. ET, MPH and ST are all within hundredths from run to run so we know our baseline performance is in good shape.

News Flash

In October of 2008, Project Camaro came to an absolute stop. Literally.

During a normal burnout just as my son was shifting it into high gear the engine abruptly came to a dead halt. After examining the damage, it appears that either the pin snapped on the cam and then the timing gear bolts worked loose allowing everything in the valve train to move or just the opposite happened. We'll really never know for sure, but the damage at this point amounts to a small amount of metal in the front of the oil pan, a nice set of push rods turned into pretzels, one broken roller lifter set, 7 bent exhaust valves, 5 bent intake valves, roller cam and timing set. We have not performed a damage assessment on the lower end yet, except that the internals of the oil pump appear to be fine. We hope that indicates that the crank, rods and bearings are okay.

So, our plans call for a new short block using the cam, intake and aluminum heads already mentioned above with an increase in cubic inches. We plan on documenting the engine build, the installation of the anti-roll bar setup and some other minor changes to the car for the upcoming 2009 racing season. We should be venturing closer to the 9.90 mark in the coming year so please check back soon for the continuing adventures of Project Camaro.