The CAM-Z: autocrossing a Z28

Getting the new hood home is easy. Remove old hood and hang on wall in living room or dining area. Drive to where new hood is. Install new hood. Drive home. Easy right?

If the car ran well, that would work...

AClockworkGarage said: I need to try and find someone who's done this before to show me how to do it, because I'm lost here.

I feel your pain.

We should assemble a list of threads that should be required reading for anyone who thinks "I'll get a project car, it'll be fun!"
Keep fighting the good fight. It's less broken than it was when you dragged it home, I call that progress.

If you can check fuel pressure. I had the hose from the tank mounted pump to the fuel line in the tank split. The car would run but no matter what I did it had a really bad hesitation (bog) then ran well after I got to around 2000+ RPM.

The pressure is good at the carb inlet. I have an early carb model so there's no in tank pump, just the mechanical one on the engine itself.

But, if the rubber at the tank is split, or the line plugged, it will read proper pressure, just relatively no flow.

Couple of big little changes today. or little big changes... I dunno. With the car show only 2 days away I wanted to wrap up some not looking to E36 M3ty mods.

I plan on parking with the T-tops off to make the cage a little more predominant. However this also exposes the droopy cracked headliner.

I went at it with a can of super 77 in a fruitless attempt to stick everything back in place, before giving up and pulling the whole thing out. It disintegrated in my hands. Fortunately the headliner is the only interior panel allowed to be removed under CAM-T rules so it probably won't be replaced.

A friend dropped by to deliver and help install my new hood. A few people were confused as to why I would want to go from a z28 to a base hood but I like the clean look. It doesn't hurt that this hood isn't being eaten away by rust too.

Tomorrow evening I will, at SWIBO's insistence, take the car up to the local coin-op and try to wash it. Then she'll be ready to stand out in Sunday's show. For all the wrong reasons.

Oh and don't think you guys are getting off easy. I plan on besmirching your good name as well...

No major updates. Just a pic of the headlinerless roof.

I washed it today. Scrubbed it for a half hour... It looks exactly the same.

Grumble. But the car is ready for the show on sunday.

And I spotted something sitting in a parking lot that just might become my next project...

because I need another project right now...

NPR box truck!

In reply to Javelin:

A colleague of mine has one in his fleet. They're gutless but COE's are fun to drive.

I think it's obvious he means the Ford Windstar.

In reply to Chadeux:

That is a Nissan quest, thank you very much...

A friend of mine ran the Gambler 500 this year and wants more 3800 cars to run with him next year. I still haven't found a better job, but if I manage to I will convert that Park Ave Ultra into the National park ave with a donk lift and knobby mud tires.

In reply to AClockworkGarage:

Sorry I can't accurately ID a minivan unless it's a Honda Odyssey or an early Caravan. I'll try to do better next time.

A photo from this year's Gambler:

It's just not feasible for a left coaster like me to get a car to the challenge, but I could build this for challenge money and run it here.

AClockworkGarage wrote: With everything back together I slapped the timing light on it to find the white line just bouncing everywhere... no rhyme or reason at all. I moved the distributor around slowly trying to get it to make sense but it never did.

Were you setting the timing at idle? I have found that timing at idle can be erratic. What type of advance do you have (Vacuum, mechanical)? You are going to want to set your total advance (Higher RPM) and then just let the idle be what it wants to be. The other thing is that timing pointers can also be off a few degrees, especially if they have been disassembled at some point. If it runs well but is a little off spec chances are the pointer could be off a little.

The attempt was made at idle, with the car in gear and the wheels blocked. the advance is mechanical and spark is provided through a Mallory Hyfire box.

Im not sure about the Mallory box, but I know that some electronic ignition boxes have multiple spark events per revolution at idle and off idle to aid in low rpm stability. That could be why it appears erratic at idle. I would just leave it in neutral and have a friend bring the rpms up and check it at maybe 3500 or so, then check it all the way up to redline to make sure it doesn't pull too much timing at any point. Do you have a certain spec you are trying to hit?

My goal is "running"

Run it up to 3500-3800 and work up to around 30 degrees BTDC if it starts to knock back off until it runs smooth. If you don't have an adjustable timing light or a damper with graduations up to 30 degrees you will just have to do it by ear. You may have to readjust a little if you make major jet changes in the carb.

In reply to AClockworkGarage:

Have fun at your car show!

The show is over and it was a great time.

I got stuffed between an all original Henry J and a way too shiny '72 El Camino.

I did talk to a few people about CAM and autocross in general but the real fans were the kids.

"Wow! A race car!" they yelled and pulled their parents over to look at it.

After this happened about four or five times I figured this was what I was doing today and started plunking my helmet on their heads and letting them get their picture taken in the driver's seat. It made their day.

towards the end of the day I wandered down to the registration booth to cast my vote for people's choice. I voted for a beautiful '60's Biscayne. The ladies at the table were tallying the votes as they came in. On the top sheet I spotted my car, #10 with one little hash mark next to it.

Not anywhere near enough to win, but that mean at least one person looked at every car there and thought mine was the best.

To me, that is a win.

Cool....glad you had fun.

That sounds like a good time!