<span style="font-weight: bold">Time for More Powahhh.!!. </span>
Now at the age of 17 and being young dumb and full of…. Well you get the idea.. I wanted and needed more horsepower.. I was quickly becoming a junkie of power and speed. After spending the summer of ’94 & ‘95 working my butt off saving and buying parts and when off work; and of course when I got the blessing from the old man I would get his black 68 SS/RS L34 Camaro out for a night of “cruising”.. This wasn’t a numbers car as the original engine was long gone and dad had built a fair strong L78 that was in it. I cut my teeth sorta speak with that car and street racing.. Although it didn’t last but one summer as he ended up selling it; not on purpose might I add, when he shot off that he’d sell it for X amount of money and the guy showed up the next weekend with trailer in tow and cash in hand; the car went to Alabama.. To say that I was crushed was an understatement.. Ok back on track now.. So where was I.. Oh yeah, bustin’ anus and savin’ mucho dinero.. By this time I had found my niche of work in the auto parts world at Advance Auto Parts.. I would use my parts knowledge by buying rebuilt master cylinders that just so happen to have 309 & 346 castings with the bleeder screws and stampings of WT & US.. Yeah those GM guys go nuts for stuff like that.. I was able to flip them for a decent price and at the same time use my employee discount on performance parts like my camshaft and my super badass roller tip Comp Cams rockers!!.. Hey don’t laugh.. It took me 2 pay checks of summer work (almost 40hrs a week) to pay for those bad boys.. As I continue to source parts and collect everything I need I am able with the help of “pops” score a sweet M20 trans, 12 bolt and 3.55 posi, 010 standard bore block, a set of 186 heads; which the local machine shop screwed me on by charging me $300 labor for doing the work but that’s another story.. That winter was spent building the engine.. It was awesome!! 10.5 to 1 pistons, 280 hyd Comp cam, Edelbrock Performer intake and a Holley 600 carb.. Also went through the trans with dads help as this was the first for me.. As winter began to slowly become spring in the early part of ’96, the first thing we done was swap out the limp pecker of a 3rd member that was under the car which was a 10 bolt with 2.73 gears.. Yeah it was a turd.. So much so that it wouldn’t even turn the tires over unless it was wet.. Trust me, I tried!! It was amazing what a gear change would do to that tired ole 307 & powerglide.. It went from not being able to pull a greasy string out of a cat’s ass to a tire smoking, rubber layin’ mouse motor.. Ok maybe it wasn’t that great but considering I was now able to do a burnout I was excited.. After about a month of this it was well into spring and it was time to break out the surgical gloves and get to work.. As the engine was lifted out of its compartment for the first time in its life I had a lot of pressure washing and scrubbing that needed to be done.. As many people of that era spray paint satin or semi-gloss black was your best friend and that was how you’d dress up a tired engine compartment when you were installing a fresh-n-shiny engine between the fenders..
<span style="font-weight: bold">This was the black (actually originally Ash Gold) L34 car. M21 & BU coded 12 bolt</span>
<span style="font-weight: bold">The 350 in all its glory! I know what you are thinking.. That kid was straight ballin' with those sweet Comp roller tip rockers! Yeah at least I thought I was at the time..</span>
<span style="font-weight: bold">Behold the mighty 307 and its tire smoking, pavement shreddin' strenufff.. With just a little help from the newly installed 12 bolt and 3.55 posi.</span>
