Ronnie Brennan

Ok to make an update this is a continuation of a post started on another board about the rebuilding of my camaro.
"Can be found here ---> https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/memb...ml#post5175185

took a car with 3 wheels already in the graveyard and brought it back to life.

Now on with my current build

I'd like to start off with the tear down of my previous engine and some cleaning of the engine bay. I'm a firm believer of clean, and not just the no dirt clean... I like no clutter and anything that can be hidden, to be gone So after pulling my blower motor and A/C my engine bay looks like this.

Not much of a looker, so right off the bat I decide I need to make a delete panel to cover those nasty holes in fire wall. Since I have to pull the engine regardless, well.. its time to get at it.


This engine bay is in dire need of some TLC!!!!

Through this build, I find out that I should have looked more closely at the engine when I bought the car as I was told it was a 350!! Turns out to be a 305HO that worked real good but still I could tell it wasnt working as well as a 350 should.

Ronnie Brennan

Engine is now ready to be pulled and heads and all other goodies have been wrapped in plastic and oiled well to keep moisture from getting at any metal parts. Did this to ensure that if I decided to rebuild the 305 or sell it, there wont be any water or rust marks


And POOF' its gone... just like that!



I'm really happy I thought ahead of myself and laid some plastic sheets over the front bumper and fenders prior to pulling engine..... Dripped some ATF and oil on it!!

Ronnie Brennan

Now its time for cleaning and painting!!! This entire paint project was done with rattle cans and where its not highly suggested is doable and I'm hoping everything turns out good

I first start with painting all the sub frame parts and any spots that will be abused a lot with rock guard(bed liner) paint. This will allow for some wear and tear prior to the final layers of paint and clear coat to be applied.



Fenders now have a few coats of primer and lots of sanding and fire wall panel for the most part is now designed. While I was at it I laid out a design for panels to put on both fenders where the body is open to see the inner fenders by the battery and emissions canister.

Ronnie Brennan

Engine bay panels are now cut and are now fastened into place. I must admit that I am more than happy how they turned out and how different they make the engine bay look!

Ronnie Brennan

Paint booth is now set up and heaters are cranked up and I'm ready to get those rattle cans workin!!!



And now........ for some paint!!!

Ronnie Brennan

And now for my most recent messings in the garage I have applied the final clear coat in engine bay. 3 cans of 500 degree clear coat was applied







And now for a question... I have a lot of over spray and where I was able to use a cloth to wipe some of it off in spots on the fire wall, does anyone know how I would go about removing the rest of the over spray which seems to dominate a good portion of my engine bay and makes it look bad. Specially under certain angles of light such as the following angle.



While I wait to get started on my engine some minor touches and some rewiring and re-looming some wiring is the name of the day..

Thanks and stay tuned for more updates once I get engine started

Will be as far as I've figured so far to be approximately 400HP 350 engine, and going with light weight internals to reduce weight of the engine The builder and myself are going to mimick a build of a race car engine that he had built for one of his race cars so I am pretty stoked and keen to get started.

Ronnie Brennan

haha and yes thats a mazda beside my car.. letting a friend store his car and do some work to it in my garage. First winter with him there was tough cause he kept razzing me about having an old car that needed a lot of work. This winter the tides have turned!!!

My Car is now living its 26th winter and is now nearly spotless and his car..... has no floors!!! His car is only going on 8 years, and only has 1/2 an engine so now I razz him!!

Ronnie Brennan

I'm also going to get a radiator overflow built too to match the charcoal canister on drivers side and going to place where the Battery used to be(buying a non vent battery and moving it to spare tire well). I still need to have this container vented right? and I should be able to have it feed from the bottom of the container through a hose to keep the rad topped up correct?? Anyone know if just a regular steel core hose would work? I dont want to build something and have the hose melt/burn from the hot radiator fluid. I know the normal hoses don't melt/burn but they have nothing on the outside but air flowing over them. Any tips/suggestions would be helpful.

I am not going to replace the factory radiator and washer fluid containers and leaving the wheel wells un-covered. At least for now.... untill I decide whether I like it or not.

Ronnie Brennan

Here is the Block and Heads I am using for my build


Heads are World Product Heads
Have 1.60's rockers instead of the normal 1.50's too, but aren't roller but to each his own

Ronnie Brennan

This will be a 355 when its done. Will update with more pictures once I have them This engine will clean up nicely!!!

conlinj

iTrader: (3)

Good luck with the build, I just did the same thing with my 86

Alain2

Any details on the camshaft you are going to use?

Ronnie Brennan

I dont have the specs right off the top of my head but its the same cam that he used in his other build. Which is the same build we are doing for my engine. Next time I am over I'll try to get cam specs I know Tim told me what those specs were when we were talking one night but, that was after a few beers etc... I cant remember....... haha

Ronnie Brennan

I should hopefully how ever have some more pictures soon as we're going to tear the block apart and put a couple of new pistons in it as a couple of them look like they slapped the head has a few scratches

Ronnie Brennan

Was talking to the guy building my engine today about the cam shaft being used. off the top of his head he thinks its a 510/520 cam, but he said he was going to dig out the tab from the end of the box it came in and give it to me. He did say it was about as far as you could go cam wise. Has 1.6 rockers too instead of the normal 1.5's Still all new to this engine tech stuff, but from the little bit that I do know, its sounding like this is good stuff. The other engine on his car that this one is being built to match has a very mean muscle car chop sound