Bill Pankiw's Cool Chevelle

[Big Block Bill]

Everyone say Hello to my son... TheMuscleCarKid! This car was to be his first car when he was 15. Started out as a Father/Son project and you know the rest of the story... Frame off, Redi-Strip EVERYTHING, 5 years, 2 Camaro's for the Son, 5 Corvettes for the Dad, and presto! Bill Jr. will post some more pics when he comes home tommorrow for the holiday. Maybe he can even tell the story about the first engine, a 1975 LS-7 Crate motor that lasted exactly 62 Miles! Thank you all for the Kind comments. Bill

Now on to the Black M-22 LS-6 Car!

[Alss]

I love the Father and son deal..my son and I are looking for "his" first project..should be fun..you both have done yourselves proud.

ALbert

what about the LS-7..62 miles?

[TheMuscleCarKid]

lol the ls7 story

heres the rundown. My dad found a complete never fired ls7 crate engine sitting in some guys basement that he had bought but never installed in anything. This motor still had the crayon markins on the domes of the pistons when it was installed, only thing missing was the original cam. So he bought it. Now this was @ about 2 years into the resto. About a year later my dad canceled an order on a 2002 z06 @ Kerbeck ( i found the same car for sale local). they would wouldnt refund his deposit so he used the money to order GM performance products aluminum rectangle port heads with 2.25/1.90 valves to replace the stock iron heads on the ls7. I found a cam on ebay and we were all set. LS7 shortblock+GMPP heads+L88 intake+1967 L88 carb.

Fast forward a few years. We fire the car up and right from the get go the motor never ran right. Backfired through the intake, wouldnt idle, etc.... In fact there is still burn marks on the underside of the car from a few of the bigger backfires, i know dad i still have to clean those up . So we replace the ingnition setup with a pertronix setup and it runs alot better but still never good enough. After weeks of scratching our heads we finally figured out the problem. The springs installed on the new head we got were for a hydrolic lifter setup and the ls7 had a solid mechanical. Now i had checked the lift ratings and we were in the clear but what i didnt check was what the seat pressure ratings were. Turns out they were way off and the extra pressure flattened 3 of the lobes on our cam shaft. So we ordered up a new comp cam (255/[email protected] .620"/.620" 110lsa) and converted the rest of the valve train to a full roller rocker setup. Car ran alot better and we thought we were in the clear.........till a few weeks later my dad was showing off to his friends and the motor seized up and he had to push it home with his buddies. Guess the metal from the flattened lobes finally made its way to the main bearings. So in the end the motor caused alot fo headaches and has lived a very rough life in those 62 miles it was alive and kicking it in the SS.

The motor is currently @ the machinists getting reassembled with some more displacement (468) and some more compression (13:1) but i dont think it will ever end up in the SS again. this ls6 is a much much more docile setup with much better street manners. Had planned on putting it in my 94 Z28 but after adding up the costs its just not worth it.

[Big Block Bill]

Well before someone calls from Kerbeck Chevrolet, and screams foul, it was Bud's Chevrolet in Ohio that refused to refund my deposit. They took my $2000.00 deposit in July of 01 for a "Projected" September delivery for a red 2002 ZO-6 @ $4000.00 off os MSRP, and by October that year the car had not arrived. By that time I had already purchased a car locally, which my son found, for $2000.00 off of MSRP.

Back to the LS-7. After the fact, I remembered back when these engine were sold over the counter, a lot of people I knew, took them apart and checked clearences ect. before firing them. Most of the time they found a poorly put together mess.

My "Frends" who I happened to be "Showing Off" to were the local Fire Chief and another buddy, and they were in the car when @ 7000 RPM and 100 MPH it just decided to LOCK UP! Nice way to come to a stop with 62 miles on the clock of a 5 year Frame off project.

The engine in the pictures is the LS-7. As my son said, the LS-6 is a better engine for street use. We are both looking forward to the next project. It is a window sticker documented, locally sold new, Black LS-6 / M-22 Chevelle we are doing a complete, back to original, frame off resto. on. Thanks again for all the kind words. Bill

[Xplantdad]

Good info and pictures Bill. Thanks for sharing your Chevelle with us. Chevelles are cool!