1976 Chevy Camaro - Project g/28 Part 5

Getting Road Worthy, It's time to drop the engine and trans into our '76 Camaro, but there are lots of details to deal with before we hit the road.

By Johnny Hunkins

We knew we hit a nerve when the mail started pouring in about our '76 Camaro project car. It seems like everybody's got an opinion on it, and those opinions run the gamut from loving it to hating it. That's funny, because there are times when we alternately love it and hate it, too. Recently, we've been hating g/28, but only because we haven't been driving it. Ever since we made the fateful decision to yank the tired 305 to stuff in our smog-legal Speed-O-Motive-built 383, we've had the jones to carve up some corners. That will have to wait another month as we stumble through the powertrain installation and various other subplot projects we started.

This month we tackle the mundane job of stabbing the motor and trans in. We say mundane because this is stock-and-trade mechanic fare and need not be covered in glacial detail here. What is noteworthy is that this is not your typical Saturday-night-special bracket racer--we've got emission rules to follow, and that means making some cosmetic and functional compromises.

Last month, we focused on the build up and dyno test of our smog-legal 383. The experts at Speed-O-Motive in West Covina, California, did a fine job; our motivator managed to make 403 hp at 5,400 rpm and 450 lb-ft of torque at 4,100 rpm, all while using 50-state-legal parts from Holley, Lunati, and Weiand. At $7,495, the cost was heavier than what you'd normally expect for an engine of this power level (as an example, Speed-O-Motive offers a complete 500hp 383 crate motor for $1,000 less), but we did opt for the bulletproof Lunati Sledgehammer rotating assembly in lieu of an ordinary cast-iron crank and budget pistons. We've essentially got a 700hp short-block with a smog-constrained 400hp induction. Think of it like a Nextel Cup restrictor-plate motor and you're on the right track.

Since one of the goals of the project car is to run 12s (naturally aspirated) using pump gas and emission-legal parts, we've got to consider the rest of the powertrain. Here, we turned to TCI Automotive and its extensive catalog of driveline goodies. With only 403 hp on tap and 3,600 pounds of steel to haul down track, we need to make the best possible use of all those ponies. For this, we selected a competition-level Turbo 350 with a reverse-pattern manual valvebody (PN 312001) and mated it to one of TCI's new 11-inch Breakaway torque converters (PN 240900). The competition trans is beefy enough to handle 600 hp easy, and the manual valvebody gives us the control we want when we go road racing. TCI makes a wide range of competition torque converters, but we picked the street-oriented Breakaway because it's a little tighter (about 1,000 rpm over stock) and is theoretically going to put us right into the fat part of the torque curve with greater efficiency.

The great thing about TCI is that you can do all your driveline shopping at one stop. We also picked up a zero-balance 168-tooth flexplate (PN 399273), a universal trans cooler (PN 820500), and StreetFighter ratchet shifter (PN 616443) that brought our driveline total to $1,372.95 (using Jeg's mail-order as a guide). That's less than we budgeted for, but it looks like we're going to need the cash somewhere else soon for stuff we didn't anticipate.

In putting our initial budget together, we didn't plan on spending so much for the engine (and who does?), and completely forgot about the exhaust system. Fortunately, we were able to do some horse trading and got about $500 out of our old 305 engine and Turbo 350, which is by now tooling around in some lowrider in San Diego. We'll put that money toward our budget and hope we don't go over.

We've also got to plan for better rear gearing and a limited-slip diff down the line. We've got eyes on a 3.73 ring-and-pinion and a Truetrac locker from Detroit Locker. That's gonna set us back at least $700, but it will get the job done with strength to spare, all while using our stock 8.5-inch 10-bolt rear and stock 28-spline axles.

Then there's that sweet Flaming River steering box we've been lusting after. Flaming River uses rack-and-pinion technology in the packaging envelope of a standard gearbox, and we can't wait to try it out at the test track. Having been spoiled by late-model rack-and-pinion cars, we just can't envision settling for anything less. Estimated cost on that is pushing $500.

We also want to address the seating for safety and performance reasons (Jeg's sells a great sport seat for just $199). There is some chassis stiffening to do (via subframe connectors), and finally, some gauges need to be installed to keep from blowing things up.

All this stuff takes time (which we don't have enough of) and money (which we also don't have enough of). The one big difference between g/28 and your project is that you have the option of "cooking the books" when dealing with your significant other. In our case, the only "significant others" we have are you readers, and we don't think we can pull the wool over your eyes quite as easily.

Next month, we'd like get g/28 back on the road to sort out the bugs. Once that's done, we'll put g/28 on the Dynojet chassis dyno and see what it pulls using the really crappy stock exhaust system. If we can get taller springs on the front, we may even be able to go back to the track and do some skidpad, slalom, and brake testing, but that's a long shot at this point. After that, look for updates on the steering box, seats, wheels and tires, the rearend, and the rest of our punch list as we complete them. For now, watch as we tackle the engine and trans install with Jason Scudellari in the Primedia Tech Center.