MRZ28HO

I was talking to my father about his 1978 Corvette on Friday night. Trying to persuade him to get it done right and registered. Well, we decided to address the needed issues on Saturday. We needed to replace the water pump, so he purchased a new one at the local parts store. Then I mention, well, since we are there and I have these nice OEM chromed valve covers, let's put them on. But, wouldn't a chromed timing cover look good with the chromed valve covers? Since we are changing out the timing cover, we also need a new oil pan (it's dented) ... let's get a chromed one too. Since the oil pan is off, now is a great time to replace the vital oil pump. Wouldn't want to button it up, then find out it dies. Well, since we are doing all this, that timing chain is probably very worn out, let's put a double roller in it. You know, since the timing chain will be out, should we put in a better (smog legal) cam? We decided not to, but only after seeing the lifters and cam journals through the holes in the block. For that, we needed to remove the intake manifold. It was an iron one! Hmm, cam looks good. So then we looked at the intake ports, talk about carbon build up (caused by leaking seals). So off go the heads. Well we are in this deep, I'll pay for the cam and lifters, so now to find a good cam. That was no easy task trying to find. I settled on a Comp Cam 212/218 (adv. 260/268), .474" lift (using 1.6 ratio), with a 110 ICL on a 114 LSA. This is actually Comp Cam's biggest smog legal TPI (flat-tappet) cam. The old cam spec's out to 192/202 (adv. 280/288), .390"/.410" lift, with a 112 ICL on a 113 LSA. Not a bad choice, I'd say. So we will be replacing the belts, hoses and other misc. stuff in the next month. We finished at about 8 PM or 9 PM. Dead tired, since we started at 10 AM. I got to bed at mid night (after taking care of SC3G business). No way I could go through Sunday with only 2 hours of sleep, since I planned on going to the Pomona swap meet. Needed to get up by 3 AM. So Sunday I get up late at 8 AM, take care of a few items on the SS, while my father picks up some items at PAW. When he gets back, we head down to Don's, so he can rebuild the heads (add a little of Don's magic dust ) and port match them to the intake that is currently on the Z28 (dual plane Holley modified for a Rochester). The 'vette has an L48 (8.2:1 CR), but Don might be able to score us some 64 cc head (vs the 76cc OEMs). This should bump the CR to 9.2:1 and the 'vette should put out around 260 rwhp and 300 rwtq on the original, numbers matching, short block. Not bad for an old "Corvette". Same numbers as my 1994 LT1, T56 with only CIA and a cat-back.

Guest

lol

Starts with a water pump, turns into a rebuild.

BretD 88GTA

When does the nitrous kit go on?

MRZ28HO

Chris, isn't that the way we all started modding our cars? Sheesh, look at mine. I was just suppose to swap the 305 for the 350. Three years later, look what happened. :sillylol:

Bret, sshhhh. I am trying to find where I can hide it, not much room.

MRZ28HO

This is the only good picture I have of my Father's Corvette. Excuse the background , although it is a good shot. This was taken back when he had just got it. We'll get more after we button up the engine in a week or two.