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| Comp788's 1982 Chevy Z28 Silver State Project | |||
| Well this will be the start of quite a few postings as I am just starting off on my Silver state project. The car has a unique history as when it was new (less then 250 miles on it) the factory motor was pulled out and a true 1970 350 LT1 was installed by the first owner. He has the car from 1982 to 1986 when I purchased it. I had worked for him as a mechanic for many years and depending on how much some of the people know about California smog laws here, you might know that any car in California prior to January 1, 1983 that had an engine swap preformed before then was smoged to the make and model of the motor that was installed. Long story short. Since my car is smoged to a 1970 car in California I am smog exempt. WOOHOO.. I purchased the car in 1986 with about 12,000 original miles on it. It had already had a 5 speed transmission and posi rear end installed out of a 1984 Z28. I drove the car for about 4 years. In the end of 1989 I broke a rocker arm, bent a valve, put a hole in the piston, then parked it. The car ran 12.76 & 108 mph at Sears point raceway in Sonoma, CA. The day it broke. (I was at the track when it broke) I took it apart and pulled the motor and It has been in storage since then. Last year I started to gather parts for the "project". Starting with a car that only has 30k original miles makes it quite east in many aspects. The first part to address was the rear axle. I chose a Currie 9" that I then modified with additional bracing. It has the big bearing Ford ends, Strange 31 spline axles with 1/2" studs, JFZ/Sierra Racing Products Winston Cup rear disc brakes with four piston calipers. The third member is a Strange with 4130 caps, Daytona pinion support, 1350 yoke, and a 3.60 gear set. The next part was the transmission. I chose one of the Race T56 six speeds. Having being in the high performance industry for over 12 years I called in a few favors and got some really unique parts and modifications done. The New T56 has been reworked and has all the internal gears, main shafts, input & output shafts, sliders and steel parts cryogenic treated. I also am using a Hurst internal rail shifter. In the driveshaft and torque arm area I used a custom built aluminum driveshaft from Inland Empire. It has 1350 yoke, non-drilled u joints, and is 3 1/2" in diameter. The torque arm is a Spohn Performance and I was not at all happy how it fit. When I ordered it I ordered it for the 9" Ford but it did not clear my floor pan and that is having to be cut out and boxed in to clear the up and down movement from the floor around the pumpkin. In the clutch & bell housing area. I put a McLeod Industries steel SFI flywheel, McLeod Industries single disc clutch (see if it will holdup), a McLeod Industries hydraulic throw out bearing, and a Lakewood bell housing. The Lakewood bell housing is quite a bit smaller then the McLeod Industries one. The engine is a stock ZZ383 425hp GM Performance Parts crate motor. It has the GMPP HEI distributor and intake. The real issue starts here!!!! As anyone who has one of these cars knows there is no real room for a nice exhaust system in these cars. Sure if your running a race car or some stock smog motor it is no big deal but to have "nice exhaust system that fits" is quite a challenge. To top it off when I put the Spohn Transmission cross member in there was absolutely no possible way to get any exhaust on the drivers side once I installed the set of custom full length headers Dan Lemons built. Dan Lemons did a wonderful job building my headers!!! They are 1 3/4" primary tubes with 3" collectors and v-band clamps for sealing. What I ended up doing is was to cut the frame rail extensions the go back for the transmission mounts out of the car. I am going to fabricate new frame rails and also tie them into the sub-frame connectors. At the same time I am going to make a new transmission cross member and front torque arm mount. I am going to build a 3" exhaust system into a 4" mail pipe to go over the rear axle and into some sort of muffler. I will be using 304 stainless steel for the exhaust. The headers will be HPC coated once the exhaust system is completed. I'll get some pictures up soon as things progress. |
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