Don’s 1971 Camaro
When I was in high school, way back in 83, I had a 69 Camaro. Boy did I love that car. After college, with a lot of help from my father, we turned it into a real mean machine. Shortly after my daughter Shelby, was born I sold it thinking that the speed bug was gone. I was wrong. I got bit again bad. I bought this 1971 Camaro in February of 1999. It has almost no rust and according to the seller was restored about five years ago. Since there is nothing particularly special (Z-28 - RS - SS) about the car, I plan on making a nice hot rod out of it. I have already added a cowl induction hood and found a 3 piece rear spoiler (very hard to find these days) through a second generation Camaro website I frequent, North Georgia Classic Camaro, AKA Madmike's Homepage.
After I bought the car and started searching the web for info on 2nd generation Camaro's, I found the 2nd Generation Camaro Owners Group (2GCOG) website. It's probably the best source of info on these cars that is available on the web. There are tech articles, general info broken down by year, and a message board where all the members are very helpful. I can proudly say I have been a member since May 1999. Click on the link below to go there.
The information available on the web is awesome! I'll update this page as I update the car.
Here is some more information about my car. It was well documented when I bought it. It came with the following items:
- The original build sheet
- The original owners manual
- The protect-o-plate
- A complete 1971 Camaro sales brochure
- Pictures of the restoration
The car was originally sold through Tropical Chevrolet (it's still there) in Miami, Fl on April 20, 1971. Its exterior color is Mulsanne Blue with a standard black vinyl interior. It has a 350 cid engine (originally a 307) that was installed at the time of the restoration, and a Turbo-Hydramatic 350 automatic transmission. The rear end is a 10 bolt 8.5 inch unit with 2:73 gears. The wheels are Cragar S/S in size 14x7 with 23560R14 rubber all around. It has A/C, and the Z21 style trim group option which includes bright moldings around the windows, on the rear edge of the hood, and around the taillights.
Current Engine specs:
350 cid V-8
4 barrel Edelbrock 600 cfm carb
Edelbrock Performer aluminum intake manifold
Accel blueprint distributor and Super Stock coil
Accel Super Stock wire set
Blackjack AK5000 Aluminum coated headers
Chevrolet cast iron cylinder heads casting # 462624 1.94 / 1.5 valves w/ 76cc
chambers
Edelbrock Performer Plus camshaft - duration @ .050 204 / 214 lift
@ valve .420 / .442
Stock pistons
Stock crank
Stock oil pan
Planned Upgrades:
Near Future:
Wake up the current engine by the end of the summer with;
Holley 750cfm double pumper carb
Edelbrock Aluminum Performer RPM Air-Gap intake manifold
Edelbrock Aluminum cylinder heads 2.02 / 1.6 valves w/ 64cc chambers
(raise compression ratio, better flow, etc.)
Edelbrock Aluminum water pump
Crane Cam - part # 114051 grind # cch-300-2 - duration @ .050
238/246 lift @ valve .480 / .495
Crane roller rockers & pushrods
Cloyes True Roller timing set
Fluidampr street harmonic damper
Mallory Unilite mech. adv. distributor
Mallory Hy-Fire Ignition module
Mallory PROMASTER coil
Moroso deep sump oil pan
TCI 10" Street Fighter torque converter
I need to find a 12 bolt rear or upgrade the current 10 bolt 2:73 open rear to a 3:90 posi unit.
After all of this it should really start to fly!
Distant Future:
Yank out the small block and replace with a bored and stroked 454 or 502 big block!
**********UPDATE**********
9/16/99
Pictures of new hood and rear spoiler
Next project is the engine and transmission mods. It took a lot longer and cost more $$$ to do the hood & spoiler than originally planned for (isn't that always the case?). Hopefully by the end of October I'll be knee deep in cash ( Ha Ha Ha ) and engine parts. I'm rethinking some of my original plans (aluminum heads) to keep costs down so that things will happen sooner rather than later. Stay tuned. More news and tape at 11.
November 18, 1999
3.73 : 1 rear gear and Auburn posi carrier installed
Had Broward Power Train install an Auburn posi unit and the new gear set today. Wow! What a difference. Now I definitely need to get the 15" wheels. Was turning 3200 rpm on the way home down I-95 at aprox. 60 mph. Also placed a $950 order to Jeg's yesterday:
Comp Cams Xtreme Energy 274 K-kit
TCI 11" Break-A-way torque converter
TCI shift kit
Edelbrock Performer RPM Air Gap intake manifold
AC Delco valve covers, air cleaner & timing cover
Holley fuel pump (carb next time)
And a mess of Russell braided steel lines & fittings
November 24, 1999
11" TCI torque converter and TCI shift kit installed
The transmission has been leaking fluid from the front pump seal. Not having the tools or expertise I would need to work on transmissions, I took the car to Al's Transmissions in Sunrise, Fl. For $200, he resealed the tranny and while he was already in there, I had him install the shift kit and the torque converter. Now not only does the car "chirp" going into second gear but, now it has that neck snapping acceleration you get with the whole, torque converter / shift kit / 3.73 posi rearend package. We're gettin there! (And quick too!) Since Thanksgiving is tomorrow, this is probably all I'm gonna have time for this year. Oh well, need to save another couple hundred $$$ anyway for the next step.
****************** Want to see my neighbors new muscle car??!! ******************
March 14, 2000
A New Beginning.......
About two weeks ago I made another Jeg's mega order (650 double pumper, roller rockers, Edelbrock Al. water pump, Moroso wire set, and a bunch of misc. stuff) and now have just about all the stuff I need to hop up the motor. So, this past weekend Dad, Jared & me tore down the engine. It was a nice day and I think they enjoyed working on the car together. I know I did. We drained the radiator and pulled all of the pulleys, water pump, alternator and assorted brackets off and set them aside. How I'm ever gonna figure out where all these bolts go when it comes time to put it back together is anyones guess. Under the front cover I found a 010 stamped next to the cam gear. I have heard that it indicates a high nickel content block. Next came the radiator, distributor, carb & intake manifold. The headers (not as bad as I thought they would be) and heads came off after that. Yea, flat top pistons under the heads. Not dished. Finally, the A/C condenser (Major pain in the As$) came out and we removed the lifters and camshaft. The only thing left in the car is the block. I took the heads to the machine shop (HBR Racing Engines in Hollywood) yesterday and dropped them off. They will be hot tanked & magnafluxed as well as have the following work done:
competition valve job (multi angle)
port and polish
port matched
machined for teflon seals
milled .006
After that, they are going to assemble them with the new springs, locks & retainers I got from Comp Cams. I'm supposed to get them back in two weeks. A little longer than I had hoped for but I can handle it. Gives me a little more time to prep the engine compartment. Speaking of that........ today I was cleaning the crud from the top of the #1 piston (they are all filthy) and lo and behold I find that it's a forged piston with .030 stamped on the top. Woo Hoo! Number 6 is the same too. I have a 355 cid engine with forged pistons! Did a little poking around on MadMike's site with the casting numbers and suffix codes I found on the block. Apparently it's a '79 engine from a conversion van. Can you say 4 bolt mains? Well maybe. Don't really have a need/excuse to pull the oil pan. Hmmm, or do I? Anyway, things are well under way. More to come soon.
March 24, 2000
Bad News 
Couple of bad news items today. First, the upper alternator bracket doesn't
line up with the bolt hole in the water pump anymore because the RPM Air-Gap
intake manifold is taller than the old Performer that was on there. Gonna
require some bending to get that to fit. Secondly, the carburetor is going to
need a 1" spacer to provide clearance for the vacumn fitting at the back
of the manifold. Third, the master cylinder is leaking from where it bolts to
the brake booster (so thats where my brake fluid has been going). But the worst
thing is that I got a call from the machine shop (HBR Racing Engines) doing my
heads. Both heads are cracked between the valve seats. Nuts! 
Another unforeseen expense.
My choices were: buying a set of used low performance '882' heads similar to my
own for $100 and having the same work done to them. Buying a set of Hi -
performance heads similar to '492' (fuelie) head for $200 and having the same
work done to them. Buying a set of World Products Sportsman II heads for $825
and using them straight "out of the box". The Sportsman heads were
way outside my budget so I went with the '492's. So now I'm a little over $200
over budget but have a much better head that I can squeeze a few xtra horses
out of. Now, with the smaller 64cc combustion chamber on these heads, I might
have to ditch my steel shim head gaskets and go with something a little
thicker. With the .015 compressed thickness of the steel shim I calculate the
compression ratio to be 10.3 : 1. That might be a little too much for an iron
head motor. If I was running a more radical cam I might could get away with it
because it would bleed off some of the cylinder pressure but, the Comp Cams
XE274 isn't gonna do that for me (I don't think). Anyway...... I'm supposed to
get the heads by this Wednesday so hopefully it will be running by April 1.
April 9, 2000
It Lives 
Welp, we got it running last weekend (April 1) without too much trouble. Had a couple minor problems and 1 major oil slick in the driveway. It took about a week to get everything ironed out with the new carburetor but as of today everything is running pretty nice. It has a nice burble at idle and will really get up and go now. She fried the tires all the way through 1st gear and into 2nd! I like it! The main problem with the carb is that it had a stuck needle and seat on the secondary side. Got that working but it still wouldn't idle right until we took the front side apart to inspect everything & put it back together. After that it ran perfect. Took Shelby & Donna for a cruise down to the beach this afternoon to check everything out. She performed flawlessly. I wasn't expecting all of the traffic we ran into on A1A though (Spring Break....DUH!). Stop and go traffic for about 45 min. all the way up the strip then stuck at a draw bridge for another 10 min. after that. Temperature gauge never went above 180 the whole time. That Edelbrock aluminum water pump works great. It must run 15 deg. cooler than before. Pictures to follow soon.
Click here for engine mods & pictures
April 17, 2000
Wheels
The 14" Cragar S/S wheels while nice just aren't going to cut it any more with the 3.73 gears in the rear. I need to move up to 15" wheels, possibly even 16" to stay current with the times. Here are the Weld Racing wheels that I am considering on the left. The Cragar wheels on the right are also a possibility although, they may have too much positive offset to be used on an older car. I'll have to check on that but, I do like the way they look.
September 7, 2000
New Wheels & Tires installed
Got the new wheels and tires on the car. A few weeks ago I ordered the Weld Prostars (see above) and a K&N 4" tall air filter from Jeg's. The rear wheels are 15 x 8 w/ 4.5" backspacing and the fronts are 15 x 6 w/ 3.5" backspacing. Also had to get new lugs. The old ones were not long enough to use with the new wheels. Believe it or not the best price I got for the BF Goodrich Radial TA's was from Costco! So I had them order the tires, P27560R15 for the back and, P21570R15 for the front. I took the wheels over to Costco and they mounted & balanced them. They fit great and look great! Next project is to get the AC going again and a new headliner.
click here for: Latest pictures with new wheels installed
Here are some links to other performance related sites
Moroso Motorsports Park
West Palm Beach, Florida
Last updated: 05/24/00
You can E-mail me at: dh3@prodigy.net