Discussion Forum - Northstar Chevelle Club

gearlube · Active Member

Time to tell us your 2014 Winter projects!!

Lost in the 60s · President

Find the GTO under all the crap I've stacked on, in and under it for the past 8 months and get it ready to sell next Summer.

Go to CO and bring back a Corvair. Swap engines.

Swap engines in my '52 flatbed.

Swap radiators and re-plumb the trans cooling in the '38.

gearlube · Active Member

You never did tell us how the 38' handled pulling the camper with your hitch?

Lost in the 60s · President

gearlube wrote:
You never did tell us how the 38' handled pulling the camper with your hitch?

Pulled great for 8 miles until the trans overheated and I limped it home...

We had to take the truck to SD. That's why I have a new radiator to install with integral trans cooler.

And the truck nearly broke down too, but that's a different story..

Dan Williams · Active Member

gearlube wrote:

After talking to Craig I am going with Fuel injection.

What EFI are you going with? I ordered a Holley Terminator the other day. Looks like a great setup, will let you know how it looks soon I hope. It is supposed to be self learning, quite unlike me.

Any way, as to your question, different motor, trans, rear end, paint, adding a/c, disc brakes, new dash, interior besides seats etc etc. It was time for a change.

Derek69SS · Founding Member

Working on my driving (and trying to keep up with Keith) on Monday night karting league.

FINALLY ready to start working on the Chevelle again after spending all my free time catching up on all the "get ready for winter" type stuff that I didn't have time to do when things were busy at work in the fall. I should be able to finish the welding up in about an hour once I get back to it. Then I need to paint the frame, and start thinking about putting the engine in and leaving it there.

Bungy L-76 · Active Member

I'll be rebuilding the 327 in the 53 Bel-Air.

Rebuilding a 200-4R for the 53.

Converting the Mustang Chumpcar Racecar to Cobra brakes all around.

Building an 8.8 rear diff from the ground up for my Fairmont.

Trying to keep my Aspire running and on the road through the winter.

gearlube · Active Member

Dan Williams wrote:
gearlube wrote:

After talking to Craig I am going with Fuel injection.
What EFI are you going with? I ordered a Holley Terminator the other day. Looks like a great setup, will let you know how it looks soon I hope. It is supposed to be self learning, quite unlike me.

Any way, as to your question, different motor, trans, rear end, paint, adding a/c, disc brakes, new dash, interior besides seats etc etc. It was time for a change.

Can I am thinking of the Edelbrock setup. I like their wireless pad. Please give pics and updates when you start.

gearlube · Active Member

Derek69SS wrote:
Working on my driving (and trying to keep up with Keith) on Monday night karting league.
FINALLY ready to start working on the Chevelle again after spending all my free time catching up on all the "get ready for winter" type stuff that I didn't have time to do when things were busy at work in the fall. I should be able to finish the welding up in about an hour once I get back to it. Then I need to paint the frame, and start thinking about putting the engine in and leaving it there.

Derek what get racing priority this year? The Miata or the Chevelle?

gearlube · Active Member

Bungy L-76 wrote:
I'll be rebuilding the 327 in the 53 Bel-Air.
Rebuilding a 200-4R for the 53.
Converting the Mustang Chumpcar Racecar to Cobra brakes all around.
Building an 8.8 rear diff from the ground up for my Fairmont.
Trying to keep my Aspire running and on the road through the winter.

A blown 327 would be sweet!! Thoughts???

Bungy L-76 · Active Member

gearlube wrote:
Bungy L-76 wrote:
I'll be rebuilding the 327 in the 53 Bel-Air.
Rebuilding a 200-4R for the 53.
Converting the Mustang Chumpcar Racecar to Cobra brakes all around.
Building an 8.8 rear diff from the ground up for my Fairmont.
Trying to keep my Aspire running and on the road through the winter.
A blown 327 would be sweet!! Thoughts???

No blower for this one. I drive this car all the time, just about everyday in the summer, and take it cross-country every year. A blower would be impractical. Although, I'm very seriously considering slapping on a 2x4 tunnel ram and some piecrust slicks and taking it down to the nostalgia drags in IL.

Chris R · 2K+ Club

This months Car Craft has a good writeup on testing the EFI kits like the MSD, Fast, Holley and Edelbrock.

Tim H · Mega Poster

Finishing the 70 before June 15th.

Lost in the 60s · President

Tim H wrote:
Finishing the 70 before June 15th.

That must be Car Craft ? I can't find a dang thang about the dates on their website...

Good to see you on here, Tim.

How are you and your grandson feeling ?

Did you find a replacement truck ?

SShink · 3K+ Club

Lost in the 60s wrote:
Tim H wrote:
Finishing the 70 before June 15th.

That must be Car Craft ? I can't find a dang thang about the dates on their website...

I'm guessing Tim is shooting to finish before BTF's, which is June 20-22nd.

Car Craft is July 18-20th. I posted the details in the Events section. It is run by Family Events, so you have to register through them.

gearlube · Active Member

Chris R wrote:
This months Car Craft has a good writeup on testing the EFI kits like the MSD, Fast, Holley and Edelbrock.

Thanks Chris I will check it out.

gearlube · Active Member

SShink wrote:
Lost in the 60s wrote:
Tim H wrote:
Finishing the 70 before June 15th.

That must be Car Craft ? I can't find a dang thang about the dates on their website...
I'm guessing Tim is shooting to finish before BTF's, which is June 20-22nd.
Car Craft is July 18-20th. I posted the details in the Events section. It is run by Family Events, so you have to register through them.

Seems soooooo far away

gearlube · Active Member

Tim H wrote:
Finishing the 70 before June 15th.

Tim you still selling the 69?

Lost in the 60s · President

SShink wrote:
Lost in the 60s wrote:
Tim H wrote:
Finishing the 70 before June 15th.

That must be Car Craft ? I can't find a dang thang about the dates on their website...
I'm guessing Tim is shooting to finish before BTF's, which is June 20-22nd.
Car Craft is July 18-20th. I posted the details in the Events section. It is run by Family Events, so you have to register through them.

Yep, I had the wrong month but having it done for BTTF doesn't add up either, since it can't attend...

bowtie · Secretary

Lose the AC box on the firewall, clean up the engine compartment a little.

Once spring hits, we're going to do the install on a top-secret ECM add-on that 67SS found for me. It's going to give me learnable EFI control and better control so I can actually (finally) feel like my engine runs at 100%.

If I can save up enough I'm going to ditch the horseshoe shifter and factory console for something else. I have a couple ideas I've been bouncing around but I'll wait to share. I have 3 completely different options I like, very specific ones. They each have benefits I want, but at the same time, there's a specific downfall I haven't decided I want to live with yet. Option 4 is a homemade conversion of another GM factory shifter option that would be fine, but almost too subtle for my tastes. back burner for now.

Derek69SS · Founding Member

gearlube wrote:
Derek what get racing priority this year? The Miata or the Chevelle?

I'm going to run the Miata at bigger events that have more competition and better drivers in similar cars.

Chevelle will be used more for smaller less competitive events and test & tune stuff just for fun.

67ss · 1K+ Club

Not much I can say on the chevelle front. But the camaro is getting Baer dual piston caliper front brake upgrade and rear disc brakes. I am doing the same ECM swap on mine as Bryan's chevelle. Still undecided on the wheel and tire upgrades.

gearlube · Active Member

bowtie wrote:
Lose the AC box on the firewall, clean up the engine compartment a little.

Once spring hits, we're going to do the install on a top-secret ECM add-on that 67SS found for me. It's going to give me learnable EFI control and better control so I can actually (finally) feel like my engine runs at 100%.

If I can save up enough I'm going to ditch the horseshoe shifter and factory console for something else. I have a couple ideas I've been bouncing around but I'll wait to share. I have 3 completely different options I like, very specific ones. They each have benefits I want, but at the same time, there's a specific downfall I haven't decided I want to live with yet. Option 4 is a homemade conversion of another GM factory shifter option that would be fine, but almost too subtle for my tastes. back burner for now.

Bryan have you been having issues with your EFI? I heard without the learning computers their are a pain to tune.

gearlube · Active Member

Derek69SS wrote:
gearlube wrote:
Derek what get racing priority this year? The Miata or the Chevelle?
I'm going to run the Miata at bigger events that have more competition and better drivers in similar cars.
Chevelle will be used more for smaller less competitive events and test & tune stuff just for fun.

Derek based on what I saw at Car Craft last year I think your Miata would kick some serious butt

gearlube · Active Member

67ss wrote:
Not much I can say on the chevelle front. But the camaro is getting Baer dual piston caliper front brake upgrade and rear disc brakes. I am doing the same ECM swap on mine as Bryan's chevelle. Still undecided on the wheel and tire upgrades.

Chris,

are you staying with the same size disc?

bowtie · Secretary

gearlube wrote:
bowtie wrote:
Lose the AC box on the firewall, clean up the engine compartment a little.

Once spring hits, we're going to do the install on a top-secret ECM add-on that 67SS found for me. It's going to give me learnable EFI control and better control so I can actually (finally) feel like my engine runs at 100%.

If I can save up enough I'm going to ditch the horseshoe shifter and factory console for something else. I have a couple ideas I've been bouncing around but I'll wait to share. I have 3 completely different options I like, very specific ones. They each have benefits I want, but at the same time, there's a specific downfall I haven't decided I want to live with yet. Option 4 is a homemade conversion of another GM factory shifter option that would be fine, but almost too subtle for my tastes. back burner for now.
Bryan have you been having issues with your EFI? I heard without the learning computers their are a pain to tune.

We never really got to do a full tune with the computer after it was done. Way back when in 2008, we did the install in the spring and then I was going to take it on the Power Tour sections close to home. I lost my job so I bailed on that. I drove it as-is with a "good enough" tune for a couple years, though I knew it was real rich and not otherwise perfect. I did bring it down to TPIS for a dyno tune, but that was more for a total power output than fine-tuning. It still has a couple holes that were annoying while driving sanely, though I did pick up 40+hp at the tires that day. TPIS can fix it, but he's not too close to me and it would again need to be changed if I tweak the engine more. This new plan has a more modern tuning capability as well as a learn on the fly vs the burn/replace the chip setup (remember Hypertech chips? same thing). Since I don't have an off the shelf setup I can't just run to the 85-92 engine computer chip store for a new one. 67SS can do that, though it's getting relatively archaic now so we decided to step up. He currently runs the same type of computer as I do with his EFI/supercharged engine.

67ss · 1K+ Club

Chris,

are you staying with the same size disc?

Yes the front will still use the 11" stock front rotor but with the dual piston caliper and the rear will be 11.5 inch rotors single pistons calipers. I am going this route as it will not require me to install 17" rims or bigger right away. If I already had bigger rims the best upgrade would be to go with the 98-02 camaro four wheel disc swap. The fronts bolt to the stock spindles with a custom bracket and the rears are pretty much a direct bolt on to a 10 ro 12 bolt. I can give you more info on it if you like or if you google it you should find all kinds of post about it.

gearlube · Active Member

67ss wrote:
Chris,

are you staying with the same size disc?
Yes the front will still use the 11" stock front rotor but with the dual piston caliper and the rear will be 11.5 inch rotors single pistons calipers. I am going this route as it will not require me to install 17" rims or bigger right away. If I already had bigger rims the best upgrade would be to go with the 98-02 camaro four wheel disc swap. The fronts bolt to the stock spindles with a custom bracket and the rears are pretty much a direct bolt on to a 10 ro 12 bolt. I can give you more info on it if you like or if you google it you should find all kinds of post about it.

Hey Chris,

Thanks for the feedback. I am thinking of Wildwoold D52 single pistons. More for the look I guess. But enhanced braking would be a consideration if it was that much of a clamping difference.

gearlube · Active Member

bowtie wrote:
gearlube wrote:
bowtie wrote:
Lose the AC box on the firewall, clean up the engine compartment a little.

Once spring hits, we're going to do the install on a top-secret ECM add-on that 67SS found for me. It's going to give me learnable EFI control and better control so I can actually (finally) feel like my engine runs at 100%.

If I can save up enough I'm going to ditch the horseshoe shifter and factory console for something else. I have a couple ideas I've been bouncing around but I'll wait to share. I have 3 completely different options I like, very specific ones. They each have benefits I want, but at the same time, there's a specific downfall I haven't decided I want to live with yet. Option 4 is a homemade conversion of another GM factory shifter option that would be fine, but almost too subtle for my tastes. back burner for now.
Bryan have you been having issues with your EFI? I heard without the learning computers their are a pain to tune.
We never really got to do a full tune with the computer after it was done. Way back when in 2008, we did the install in the spring and then I was going to take it on the Power Tour sections close to home. I lost my job so I bailed on that. I drove it as-is with a "good enough" tune for a couple years, though I knew it was real rich and not otherwise perfect. I did bring it down to TPIS for a dyno tune, but that was more for a total power output than fine-tuning. It still has a couple holes that were annoying while driving sanely, though I did pick up 40+hp at the tires that day. TPIS can fix it, but he's not too close to me and it would again need to be changed if I tweak the engine more. This new plan has a more modern tuning capability as well as a learn on the fly vs the burn/replace the chip setup (remember Hypertech chips? same thing). Since I don't have an off the shelf setup I can't just run to the 85-92 engine computer chip store for a new one. 67SS can do that, though it's getting relatively archaic now so we decided to step up. He currently runs the same type of computer as I do with his EFI/supercharged engine.

I think it is amazing how far they have come with EFI. When I get mine I am looking forward to the self learning computers. I know they are not 100%, but I have been reading they are pretty dead on...

67ss · 1K+ Club

Tom you have 17" or bigger wheels right? If so I'll send you an ebay link to a front conversion that is about the same price as the wilwood conversion but gives you 13 inch rotors and dual piston calipers. I don't remember if it works with drop spindles for sure but I would think you can email the seller and ask.

SteveS · Super Poster

I'm thinking about a domed hood and possibly stripes, maybe "SS" the car a little.

Derek69SS · Founding Member

SteveS wrote:
I'm thinking about a domed hood and possibly stripes, maybe "SS" the car a little.

...and fix that dent...

SteveS · Super Poster

Derek69SS wrote:
SteveS wrote:
I'm thinking about a domed hood and possibly stripes, maybe "SS" the car a little.
...and fix that dent...

Oh ya, that's right...I'm thinking about making Derek install a domed hood and possibly stripes, maybe "SS" the car a little.

Damn storage land lords

-- Edited by SteveS on Thursday 2nd of January 2014 02:36:20 PM

Tim H · Mega Poster

Lost in the 60s wrote:
Tim H wrote:
Finishing the 70 before June 15th.

That must be Car Craft ? I can't find a dang thang about the dates on their website...
Good to see you on here, Tim.
How are you and your grandson feeling ?
Did you find a replacement truck ?

Hi Mitch,

I do have some nagging pain in my left elbow that may need some work. Otherwise we are both fine. I bought a 2012 Silverado crew cab as a replacement. I just set the 15th of June as a target so that I can enjoy the car this year. I don't want to spend the summer building a car. The big bore kit is about done being installed in my 89 FLHTC so I can get back on it, bought a couple new sleds and have been riding those. If it's going to be winter then give me snow!

Yes I am definitely selling the 69 this spring. It's a great car but I want AC PW PS in my 70. I might even go with an automatic but that is not settled yet. The car should have a bunch of power so I need to think the tranny through a bit.

dashboard · 2K+ Club

SteveS wrote:
Derek69SS wrote:
SteveS wrote:
I'm thinking about a domed hood and possibly stripes, maybe "SS" the car a little.
...and fix that dent...
Oh ya, that's right...I'm thinking about making Derek install a domed hood and possibly stripes, maybe "SS" the car a little.
Damn storage land lords

You Guy's

gearlube · Active Member

67ss wrote:
Tom you have 17" or bigger wheels right? If so I'll send you an ebay link to a front conversion that is about the same price as the wilwood conversion but gives you 13 inch rotors and dual piston calipers. I don't remember if it works with drop spindles for sure but I would think you can email the seller and ask.

Thanks Chris. Will watch for it. Please PM me.

SShink · 3K+ Club

gearlube wrote:
I think it is amazing how far they have come with EFI. When I get mine I am looking forward to the self learning computers. I know they are not 100%, but I have been reading they are pretty dead on...

Tom, spend 30 min. and read through this thread on TC, as it's not just an easy bolt on installation, let the computer learn, and life is good. LOTS more to it in regards to grounds, wiring, ignition/timing, high pressure fuel line assembly, sensors, and all the other things that impact an internal combustion engine:

http://www.chevelles.com/forums/showthread.php?t=306642

In other words, do your homework/research, be careful during the install (read the instructions...), and I'm sure it will work out fine. Or, pay a mechanic to do it.

gearlube · Active Member

Stan anything on the Internet is true! Didn't you remember that? I still have some time to figure this out.

Derek69SS · Founding Member

Derek69SS wrote:
FINALLY ready to start working on the Chevelle again after spending all my free time catching up on all the "get ready for winter" type stuff that I didn't have time to do when things were busy at work in the fall. I should be able to finish the welding up in about an hour once I get back to it. Then I need to paint the frame, and start thinking about putting the engine in and leaving it there.

Got the welding and grinding done today... just have to wait until it warms up to spray some paint on it (not going to run an exhaust fan in these temps)

SteveS · Super Poster

Derek69SS wrote:
Derek69SS wrote:
FINALLY ready to start working on the Chevelle again after spending all my free time catching up on all the "get ready for winter" type stuff that I didn't have time to do when things were busy at work in the fall. I should be able to finish the welding up in about an hour once I get back to it. Then I need to paint the frame, and start thinking about putting the engine in and leaving it there.
Got the welding and grinding done today... just have to wait until it warms up to spray some paint on it (not going to run an exhaust fan in these temps)

Progress! Let me know when I can come over and help bolt stuff together!

dashboard · 2K+ Club

I’d like to put EFI in the Elky this year so I picked up this month’s Car Craft magazine and read the article on EFI. It didn’t help very much, lots of fluff, they looked at four systems, devoted a lot of print to the unit displays and did there cold starts at 55 degrees, all are advertisers in the magazine; go figure.

There must be a better source for information out there. A guy may just be better off downloading the install manuals for the Holley, Fast, MSD and Edelbrock systems.

Pushrod, tell us your install story, what system you used and how you like it.

John D · 2K+ Club

The thing I took away/gleaned from Pushrod on his EFI (FAST) setup, after looking at it and asking questions...

What it comes down to is it's basically a "electronic" carburetor. Using a minimal amount of input sensors it will do the best job it can to adjust air/fuel ratio under varying conditions. One of the things he griped on was it doesn't kick up the cold idle speed, you still have to keep your foot on the pedal to keep it running on a cold start.

A factory EFI uses O2's, engine temperature, throttle position, RPM, gear position, air flow, air temp, (and probably a few more) to give a zillion inputs to the CPU for the optimal settings for a given 40x per second. It can then adjust A/F ratio, timing, idle RPM, etc. for a particular scenario.

Aftermarket systems just don't have this capability... there's just not enough to them. Don't get me wrong - they do a great job compared to a carb - but don't expect the perfect "turn-the-key-and-go-at-20below" like a new car.

gearlube · Active Member

I had read some of the same things. I think the thing I want from the Efi is the throttle response through the entire curve of mashing the pedal. Plus being a tech geek I love the pad idea with the Edelbrock and knowing what the engine is doing and acting. I think the warm up will be a pain though. Agreed. But of anything I have read online including the you tube videos, not one person or story I have read has stated they had buyers regret. All of them have talked about some of the great change. One thing Craig told me which I thought was really smart is to get my carb and timing dialed in first. EFI will not necessarily fix a problem if one exists. So I have done that. It's running sweet. But I just like the idea of mixing new with old. Anything to make it more drive able is fine with me. It will still sound the same and go like hell.

Dan Williams · Active Member

This showed up the other day

Not sure how it works, but it sure is pretty. I've talked to a couple of guys that have installed one and they said they would do it again.

Chris R · 2K+ Club

I found the article in Car Craft informative actually. I dont know much about these carburetor sized aftermarket systems that look like one big throttle body, so I enjoyed reading it even if it were a big advertisement. However though, I prefer the EFI setups like Bryan and Kieth have. I still remember helping (well observing actually) Kieth tune his system with a laptop on the Friday afternoon of Car Craft weekend back in 2006. I dont mind dealing with the learning curve to get it right with one of those systems.

Kieth, if your considering selling the fuel injection system too. Consider me first in line. (Cant hurt to ask now that you sold a lot of the suspension system right?)

67ss · 1K+ Club

Those kits make EFI swapping very easy. But in my opinion if you are going to do it you are better with a multiport one injector per cylinder system. Than get a throttle body with some kind of IAC or stepper motor for idle control, for people running A/C and good sized cams it is going to need idle up ability.

Enganeer · Mega Poster

While the multi-port injection would be the best, it also limits your manifold selection. With the throttle body stye, you can swap manifold to play around with.

Dan,

Once you play around with the Holley software, it is pretty easy to use and the learn / tune feature works slick.