Cascade Crew

[Sellmanb]

My motor has EXCESSIVE blow-by, and needs rebuilt very bad! It doesnt smoke except on startup, loses alittle coolant from the intake (no biggy), oil leak from fuel pump gasket. The 4th gen dash/console/door panels are about 1/4 the way finished (dash is mocked up, no gauges working, center console in, need a manual transmission upper plate for it).

Need to add in some brackets for ground effects (Berlinetta model), need to swap in a new steering column, with a completely new wiring harness for the lights, turn signals, etc for the column with a turn signal lever.


At this point I've done a little bit of work to the car, and plan to do even more.

I just put in some WS6 springs (cut each spring 1/2 coil), 36mm front sway bar, I need to tap the holes for the rear 24mm swaybar that I have. Put a 350 in it (used, didnt realize that the blowby was as bad as it was). I have a full exhaust, SLP 1 5/8" headers, catco direct fit 3" cat, hooker catback, ZZ4 intake, just put on new MSD 8.5mm spiral core wires w/ high temp "race" boots, heat sleeving on all of them.

If I had access to a welder the brackets for the ground effects would be on already, along with all the ground effects, the new front and rear bumpers, etc.

It would be fairly easy for me to pull the motor, take out the rotating assembly, have the block bored .030 over, get new pistons, have rotating assembly rebalanced, (would probably put new heads and cam in at the same time), etc.


The dash would just take some time.


The only problem is that right now I have way too many unfinished projects, or things needing fixed on this vehicle, and I have no time OR money to fix all these.


It would almost be easier and cheaper just to get a 91-92 camaro (or any that I can swap the gfx over that I have already w/ brackets), nix the 4th gen interior idea. Then put all my mods onto that vehicle, and get a 350 short block going for it. I'd like to go fuel injected eventually, but frankly I am too lazy to pull all the wires, and put in a new wiring harness and figure out where they all go lol.





What do you all think I should do?

Sell it w/o the things I've modified and buy a newer(ish) Camaro

Take the money that I would end up losing from the Camaro, and just do it with this vehicle.

[rjmcgee]

It's your call.

I wouldn't trade building my car for anything. But I will say this, after a few thousand bucks thrown at it, (insert sarcastic comment from wife here) I wish I would have started with a nicer car. I have it running pretty much like I hoped but now there is still body work, paint, and interior to do. Not to mention the whole front suspension needs to be rebuilt. There is so much more to building one of these than slapping a high horsepower engine in it.

With that said I hope you build it up. I like seeing what others do.

[Sellmanb]

Thanks Rodney, that's sort of what I was hoping to hear.

I am in the same boat though. I have put so much money into it that I know I wont be able to get back, and wish I would have started with a better base. My thing is now, should I continue putting money into it not knowing whether or not that I'll actually finish some of these projects. Or do I cut my losses while I havent put as much money into it as I'm hoping to, and get my better base and swap things over ($$$).

[Quasi-Traction]

Find a better base to start with, and go from there.........One of my fairlanes (which I sold yesterday for $600 ) I had poured good money after bad. I finally just realized that it was worth my while to start with a better car and go from there.

I'd hate to see yours end up in a junkyard after all the work you did, but maybe a crewbie who has a little more money to make stuff happen can pick up where you left off.

[Sellmanb]

I was talking to my co-worker about this dillema, and he said he has a '75 350 with 50,000 miles on the clock. He's sold it to me for 300 dollars. Comes with a new whole engine gasket kit, Cloye's double roller timing set, a spare set of heads, new hydraulic lifters, if I want it, I can get a new cam off of him too. It's a summit cam, the specs were pretty good, but I dont know who Summit gets their cams from, and I wouldnt want to chance getting like an Edelbrock or something lol.

The lifters are from the summit cam set. Are they going to be allright to run with a Comp XE268h cam? This would save me a lot of money.

Chris, I definetly think that selling this car would be a good idea, and help me get a better base. But right now I dont think I'll get as much as I want for it in the condition I'd sell it (I'd be taking off my mods and leaving a motor w/ no intake on it lol. So it wouldnt have exhaust, or most the steering, and suspension, and interior lol) which would be about 1,000 dollars.

Nor do I think that selling it and even if I did get 1000 for it, would I be able to purchase a better base to start with, and end up saving any money really (it costs almost 2500 just to get a decent 3rd gen now, with a LO3, and I'd want a 91-92 305TPI w/ stick).

So I made the decision to stick it through and see what I can get.

[Dewey316]

We could get the motor in and going in a weekend dude. I bet if you put out the help call, and offer beer and pizza, you can get a few of us over there.

And summit used to get their cams from Comp, i'm not sure if they still do or not.

[chevymad]

Summit cams were/are Crane. There's no problem using their lifters. There's not too many actual lifter manufacturers in the world. I've always bought napa lifters from work and used them on my comp cams. Havent had a failure yet.

[Sellmanb]

John, I would be more than happy to purchase beer and pizza in exhange for crewby services... I'd have to shuffle the beer money to someone though as I'm underage (until March, err).

Brandon,

Good to know about the lifters, that saves me a load of cash really!

I have not heard too much about Crane, are their cams any good? Would one be a better choice than a XE268? I'll figure out exactly which cam it is he has, but broadly speaking... does Crane make a as good/better cam than Comp's XE line? Or should I just spend the 90 dollars for the cam I want?

[chevymad]

There's a new line of Crane that I really know nothing about. It's supposed to equal comp's xe line and lunati's voodoo. I havent heard of anyone running them though. The summit line and all of crane's old line are very old lobe profiles. If you're looking for the most horsepower vs duration go with one of the other 2. Crane cam's are known for good quality and long lasting though. So if you needed a cheap cam with some zip for a daily driver nothing wrong with them at all. I believe they also grind the cams for GM's performance crates.

I'm running 2 comp XE cams right now. One in my blue truck and the other in my formula. The last cam I bought was a Lunati voodoo for my 454 truck. Harold Brookshire is an excellent source of information(cam engineer for UD then lunati) and helps alot of people, so I bought one of his cams. He's since been laid off by Holley, but I think i'd still by a Voodoo next time. I've been happy with all of these cams, but I will say that the comp XE cams are noisey. They close fast enough to click the valves on the seats. Havent been able to hear the voodoo but Harolds supposed to have a fix for that. The Crane cams should be completely quiet with their old style lobes.

[Sellmanb]

Predicament then! I've been set on the Comp XE 268, but I think I'll go check out lunati's voodoo series. This will turn into a daily driver in a couple months pending the motor change, and I would like a comftorable ride, with a flatish torque curve, but still a bit of fun for around town driving and the occassional "guys I'm gunna knock the socks off this Toyota Tercel" and still have a slight lope just to let 'em know I'm packin. lol.

[rjmcgee]

You should be safe with the 268 for that. I have the XE274 in my 350 and it is very mild. Torque is great and it drives around town with out any real issues. Thats cool to know about the valve train noise Brandon, mine has always been kind of noisey.

[Quasi-Traction]

[Sellmanb]

Thanks Chris.

I'm starting to save money, and acquire parts, finish working on parts for this new motor, and getting it ready to go in.

I'll have to yank the new (old) motor out to put the new (new) motor in... again. lol. So I'll probably be here with my engine hoist for quite a while.

If I do employ the services of the crew it'll probably be mostly so y'all can hear it fire up lol. It should run healthy, and blow up my trans and differential in no time, I cant wait!


Anyone willing to rebuild a CCC-Qjet for me if I buy the rebuild kit and give yah the carb? Name a price and I may be able to afford it heh.