Got Rubber

Had the new back tires mounted up today. Expected the tires to be bigger - looks like no difference in the total tread block to be applied to the road, just bigger grooves between the blocks. Tires are 40mm wider in theory, but looks like they just pick up 3/4" over the old 235/50-17 tires they replaced.

The new backspacing on the rim is 1/2" more than the old rim, but with the slimmer tire bulge, they only extend 1/8" more back. I measured old and new tread depth to see how matched the two sets of front tires will be to the one set of rear tires. I've got 6/32 left on the old tires, and 10/32 on the new tires. There's half a chance I might wear out the two sets of front tires alongside the one set of rear tires.

Comparing the old (lower photo) and new (upper photo), you can see the deeper dish of the new back rims, and the greater groove size in the 275/40-17 tires.

Pomona Swap Meet

Took an early drive to Pomona today for the big swap meet. The key motivator was to visit the Al Knock trailer and figure out interior colors. I've been debating some sort of tan leather interior on this revision of Mutt. I took a look at the stock 1961 Fawn Beige, but it was a bit green/gold and not the tan I was looking for. We ended up settling on the 1970 Light Saddle color. Al Knock will do it in standard 1961 style with the custom color, including the molded dash pad. Door panels, kick panels and seats will be leather rather than vinyl, and I decided on the retro-mod kick panels with the 5" speaker hole. I also got some extra material for the wheel and the shifter console. Best part, with the show special, it came in under budget.

Heads on

Ordered up head gaskets and bolts from Summit Thursday, along with a Be-Cool LS1 style 61 Corvette radiator for Mutt, and had the stuff Friday, gotta love the overnight ground service from Reno. Seperately I ordered the new Michelin PS2 tires from Tire Rack. I'll get the tires mounted Monday - I had them drop shipped to Big O by my office.

I modified the passenger head to accomodate the stock temp sender, drilling out the head and tapping to 1/2" pipe for the sensor.

I cleaned up the block and all the bolt holes, reinstalled the heads, and bolted them down. I used a sharpie angle torque wrench. Next step was reinstalling the rest of the valve train. Pretty easy job with no body around the engine.

Tonight I cleaned up the valve covers. I also pulled the truck filler tube, putting the fill cap directly on the valve cover. Given the corrosion on the aluminum, and the close proximity to the beach, the plan is to paint the engine and accessories to avoid more oxidation of the aluminum.

Patriotic work for Memorial Day

Being Memorial day, and celebrating my stepson's safe return from a year in Iraq, I installed a set of Patriot dual coil springs on the heads. The lever type compressor was impossible, so I borrowed a compressor from Frank. His compressor works great for recessed springs like on these LS6 heads. It took about an hour per head to remove the springs and seats, install new seats and seals, and install the new springs.

Got Cam

With the heads off the motor, it's pretty easy to swap the cam. Step one, buy another puller, because the long arm one you bought last week to pull the tranny gear and water pump pulley won't pull the balancer. After that, it's maybe 45 minutes to pull the balancer, the timing cover, the four lifter trays and lifters that don't come out with the trays, and the cam.

Here's the new cam on the left, and the old cam on the right. Old cam has a bigger base circle, but only about 0.480 lift with the stock 1.7 rockers. New cam has a higher 0.560 lift, and obviously muc more duration as evidenced by more of a square lobe profile than the triangular profile.

The cam all buttoned up. Cleaning the front of the block I found a mud wasp nest on the left side under the water pump just above the 5.3L casting on the cylinder barrel.

Good, Fast or Cheap - Pick One

Getting ready for the long weekend, I went out to Torrence before work and picked up my wheels from Phil at PS Engineering. The wheels have another 1/2" of backspacing vs. the 8" wheels, putting another inch outboard.

On the way back, picked up the heads from Engine Supply in Santa Ana, and still made it into the office before 9:30. The heads had 0.030 shaved from them to boost compression.

Before I install the heads, I need to swap the springs for the new Patriot dual coil springs with their titanium retainers.

Went by Eagleton after work yesterday to see if I'd be surprised and see them actually starting on the body. I wasn't surprised, it was still sitting in storage, but they did say that they can't work on it until it's on a dolly - the rotisserie had too much play for them. With the frame under the car, it is a simple matter of building some bolt on casters to convert the frame to a dolly.

A trip to Harbor Freight for some 4" casters, and Home Depot for a 2x6 and a couple of 2x3s, and $38 and a few hours of assembly, and the vette is now on a dolly rather than rotisserie. Luckily, Jim was in for a few hours Saturday working on his personal car, so I was able to come in, bolt on the caster assembly that I whipped together at home, and pull off the rotisserie.

Several weeks ago the lower fender panel showed up.

This will allow them to fit the fender closer at the door jamb to fix the alignment on the door.

Back at it

The past month has been pretty slow - body shop hasn't done anything, and I haven't done much. I trimmed a frame brace to clear the header - the pass header didn't quite tuck in enough.

Last week ordered a few parts - ordered a tailshaft housing with mechanical speedo provisions - a little bit more than a cable-x box, but won't need replacing every 10,000 miles. The conversion uses an adapter back to an early style caprice tailhousing. The tailhousing is modified to carry both the VSS pickup and mechanical speedo gear.

I also ordered up a Camaro water pump with a front outlet rather than a top outlet that the truck pump has - simple swap of the pulley, and I no longer have interference on the throttle body. I'll tap where the truck outlet normally is to have a supply line for the steam line off the heads.

I had to trim the throttle body water fitting off to clear the water pump. In sunny california, no need for coolant to warm up the throttle body.

My back wheels are ready - went to pick them up Friday, but Phil got an early start on the weekend. Had him pull a bit more backspacing. On the 8" rims, I only had 6" of backspacing - standard Camaro 8" wheels are 6 1/2" backspacing.

I also pulled off the heads today to send them into the machine shop for a .030 shave to bump compression. When I pulled the heads, I found some light surface rust on the tops of a couple of bores. Likely the side effect of living so close to the beach. With the heads off, gave all the cylinders a good coat of oil.