Engine finally in

Any movie that involves building a fast or special car usually has some kind of montage where the characters are rolling around on creepers, wiping grease and sweat from their brows, and at least at some point – lowering the hot new engine into the car.  It’s an exciting moment, one where the car goes from being just a shell or chassis, to the beginnings of an automobile.  The body receives its heart.

Especially so in this case.  The engine isn’t just any small-block Chevy, but an accurate reproduction of the original 302 cubic inch engine found in the original ’67 Z28.

It sits nicely in the engine bay, further back than you might think.  These cars have a reputation for the big heavy motor hanging out past the nose of the car, but as you can see it’s not really the case:

Front axle centerline is somewhere in the vicinity of piston #1.  Could be better, but clearly not as bad off as something awful, like a Subaru.  With no fan, shroud, and radiator in place, there’s room to stand inside the engine bay in front of the motor.

Still looks pretty open in there, but there’s lots still to be added.  Cooling system, fuel system, headers, power steering, alternator, etc.  You can see here the brake hard lines have all been run, that was the last thing I wanted to get done before dropping the engine in.  Transmission *would* be in, but I’m missing one critical part (clutch fork pivot ball) needed for assembly.

Coincidentally I came across some neat dyno charts today of the 302, from back in the day.  Credit for these goes to Jon Mello from the Camaros.org website, where I’ve done a lot of my research.  These first couple pictures show the gains produced from some (not ST legal) modifications to the engine.

Interestingly, the engine gains very little in the midrange from the modifications – benefits come mostly above 5500rpm, where the engine would see little time in autocross (though plenty at the track).  The baseline dyno in this series isn’t terribly far from an ST legal engine – it uses the stock 4bbl carb (jetting unknown), dyno “service” headers, high-octane gas, but with a cheater cam and milled heads.  Note the test date, February 3, 1967!

Here is another fun one, this from legendary engine builder Traco.  The Traco team were a key element to Penske-Donohue success, starting with the Camaro and in many cars that followed.  This is a fully built motor, likely representative of the power levels available in race trim back in those days.  Must have been a hoot on bias-plys!

Still not going to say how my motor did despite it being an aspect of the car people like to speculate over quite a bit.  It’s entertaining to see even if it’s not super relevant to the car’s competitiveness.  In fact, you might almost argue for wanting to have less power, if the results of Terry Fair and their super-beast Mustang are any indication.