This is one of my favorite Camaros.

Me too!

Winter has finally set in here in the great north. The good part?

1. MCACN is near
2. Snowmobile season is near
3. I don't feel guilty taking a good running car apart

Earlier this year, I had sourced a nice set of 842 aluminum heads for the L88. My plan was to pull the motor and have a look inside. I'll strap the new heads in the 427 and return the original 840's to the original block. Depending how the cam looks, I may consider a more modern grind than the ZL1 cam currently in it.

I did also get a service dated Holley 3418 (L88) carb. That came with a bunch of parts I got when I bought a couple of cars last year. We'll have to see on that one. I may take the liberty of having a carb built specifically for the build. I suspect this will find it's way onto the dyno at AMS.

Anyways.......

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Snowmobile heaven is Boulder Junction, I need to get up there to experience the fun.

What are the details of the green 68’?

Belongs to a customer (has my dealer plate on it so I could drive it). I rebuilt the front end in it, aligned it, and did an exhaust system.

RS/SS original numbers 396-325hp 4 speed car. P/S, P/B, deluxe interior, console, gauges, fold down rear seat. Original body panels with nice paint. Still needs a little work but very doable. POP and window sticker

Nice!!:headbang:

Great pair of Camaro's :headbang:

When I was young I logged several hundred snowmobile miles on the trails of Northern WI. Great times!

And......we're off!

https://i.imgur.com/d91s7g8h.jpg

Anxious to know what’s going on inside. Go Tim!!

So, the L88 will get aluminum heads and go back in the beast, that will be cool.

That is correct. Perhaps some refinement inside:naughty:

Congrats on the upgrades.

Great updates.

Were you able to connect with the owner's family?

I was able to help a guy connect to a previous owner of his Nova via a machine shop receipt, felt good.

Cannot say as though I tried. Much of that research was done over 6 years ago. I suppose one of the reasons I did not pursue it was due to all of the different last names involved.

Lot of names to go through, I've found folks on FB when I was helping the guy research the Nova and I also found some family members on there.

Herbert Roy Pacheco, Daniel Aguilera, and Jose Aguilera, and her daughter, Virginia P. Aguilera-Quiros. She also leaves behind grandchildren, Laura Pacheco, Brian Pacheco, Adrienne Aguilera, Freddie Aguilera, Jr., Corina Aguilera, Daniel Aguilera, Jr., Misty Aguilera, Monica Quiros, Steven Aguilera, and Ashley Pacheco. She leaves 16 great-grandchildren and numerous nieces and nephews.

She was preceded in death by her sons, Fred R. Aguilera and Michael Satore.

Tim I thought you connected with the original owner? I was fortunate to talk with him and I thought you were going to invite him to Macan? Let me know I can check and see if I still have it.

You are right....I did connect with Mike. I have his info. He's probably told as much as he ever will

I spoke with Mike as well. Very nice guy and was able to give me good info on his time with the car. I showed him this pic of the windshield decal but he didn’t put it on the car. I was hoping he could ID it for me.

Love your vision for the car Tim, can’t wait to see (and hear) when it’s completed.

I've been back on the Camaro for a couple of days. I noticed the upper control arm bushings didn't look all that healthy, so I pulled the front end apart to at least change out the bushings. I also found out the lower ball joints were looser than I'd like to see. Surprisingly, the upper ball joints are good (and I wanted to hopefully save the original riveted joint on the left side). A thorough cleaning and Boshield was in order as well.

I elected not to soak the control arms, spindles, etc. in Evaporust. I felt they would better match the patina of the rest of the subframe and associated parts. There are some small parts I soaked on Evaporust just to get them back to their original plating.

I have tried to preserve the markings on the spindles and steering arms for reference.

Hopefully the lower ball joints will be here today.

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68 Camaro...
 

Nice job on getting the front end pieces cleaned...looks great.

?? How does that Mark Ten unit work, I have seen these before, but not really up to speed on how they work.

-wilma

That looks great, Tim.

It's a transistorized amplifier of sort. There was one on the car from way back. This one is installed as a dummy of you will. The car actually has a MSD box hidden under the dash.

Tim

Looks great Tim!!

Off to see the wizard tomorrow:headbang:

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Awesome!! Can’t wait to hear the bad assery!!!!

I see you have your snow shovel with....just in case...:headbang:

Next 3 days down here will be interesting for weather.

I like this car a lot.

The L88 is apart and all has held up well. The block, cylinder bores, pistons (TRW 12.5:1), crank journals all look good as does the dimple rods (bushed for floating pins). The ZL1 cam and lifters all look good, measured out to spec, and will be reused.

The only issue that was discovered is the flywheel was way out of balance (for whatever reason). That will get addressed and balanced with the pressure plate. I did notice there was a vibration above 5000 rpm. While it wasn't terrible, I felt it should be better. Glad we found a smoking gun there.

So, a simple hone job and hot tank. All new rings, bearings, and gaskets. We'll add the 842 aluminum heads I had redone earlier this year (for this little side project) in addition to another 163 intake (divider milled out).

Eric Jackson helped me source an old school Holley 4781 850DP. He should have that tomorrow to build a trick little carb specifically for this combination. I suspect by the end of January it should be on the dyno.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Great to hear Tim!!

And it will be great to hear, new exhaust?

That's the plan. Considering my options right now. Certainly want something that would be true to the period. The consensus between both Eric and my engine builder the current exhaust could be costing 80-100hp.

The exhaust may also help along the engine vacuum a little bit too (4" at an idle)

“my engine builder the current exhaust could be costing 80-100hp.”

Nice over 500 incoming?!

:naughty::naughty::naughty::naughty::naughty:

Merry Christmas, Tim. I can't wait to see the end product.

Eric finished up the carb today. I must say, I was particularly surprised and impressed as he wanted to know some VERY specific things about the build. Including........

-header primary size
-header collector size
-exhaust size
-exhaust configuration
-muffler choice

That in addition to particular engine and vehicle specs. Once again proving there are no "bolt on" parts in a build like this.

I made the choice to make it look like it had been installed early on. My mindset was to give the appearance the carb received nothing more than a carb kit.

Below, is Eric's tutorial as written on Facebook.......

"Holley 4781 850 double pumper for Tim Schuetz of Boulder Motorcar Company.

This one's destined for a "Day 2" style '68 Camaro with a pretty hairy-chested 427 that's running an old school L88 bumpstick. As such, idle vacuum is almost non-existent, so the carb needed a few tweaks to allow it to function on the snotty 427.

Idle air bypass holes were added to the primary blades to allow the curb idle throttle position to jive with the transfer slots. The idle circuit was also recalibrated to provide a suitable range of adjustment.
Boy...all that sure sounds awfully familiar. .🤔...

All that explains why it's idling at 1400+ on my test engine--I wanted to set it up close enough where Tim could install it and get it running without having to futz too much with the adjustments.

This one's set up fairly similar to the 1000HP I built for my chevelle which probably has about the same idle vacuum as Tim's 427.
I've ran the Chevelle's 1000HP on the test engine several times, and obviously when it was adjusted for a nice 900 rpm 12.5-1 idle on the test engine, it wouldn't even THINK about idling on the 496 in the Chevelle--which is precisely why carburetors have adjustment provisions. 😁👍

Oh yeah, before I forget--we sourced this core off of eBay, and it had that big blob of orange silicone sealing off the choke rod hole when we picked it up. I mentioned I planned to remove it and install a brass block-off plate but Tim said he kind'a dug the look of the silicone, so we left it on there. 😉😁"

Eric rocks!!:headbang:

Yes he does:headbang:

This car was crazy cool before - now it will be over the top.

Progress....... Happy with the preliminary pulls after getting everything broke in. Now run the valves, have a look around, check torque, and switch to Eric's carb.

Tomorrow, some tuning and power pulls