Swapping Out A Z28's Old 350 For A ZZ4 Crate Engine

We've got some new horsepower for a classic Camaro on today's show. So

stay where you are

today on horsepower TV.

It's out with the old in with the new ZZ four. That is an engine upgrade that includes fast burn heads, a new cooling system and high performance exhaust.

Before we test the rear wheel horsepower results of the seven Z 28.

Chuck puts his money where his seat is with an upgrade in pockets plus some cold hard facts about drag racing in our horsepower race of the week.

So hang on for horsepower TV.

Yeah.

Hey, welcome to the shop and our feast of Antibody horsepower

man. It looks like Joe's already got himself a handful here with his 84 Trans AM. Now it's powered by a 383 small block Stroker

and it's also got a wind 871 blower and a couple of BG modified Holly carbs. Now, tell me Joe, how is that test drive? Oh, great.

This Firebirds got plenty of firepower

and you know, it's just another example of why the F body is a perfect platform for an engine upgrade.

Well, they'll accept everything from a V6 to a big block V8 with just about any kind of transmission you wanna put behind it.

Yeah. Now, today we're gonna get my old Z 28 a new bullet by swapping out that tired 350 for this GM, performance parts ZZ four crate engine. Now, you may recognize this thing from a few weeks back when we download it here in the shop after adding a set of fast burn heads and G MS hot cam. Hey, we cranked out 448 horsepower.

That's quite a step up from this stocker that just makes 360.

Now, I've already disconnected the battery. So the next step in getting the old engine out is removing the fuel line here

and the carburetor,

then the passenger side header,

ignition,

the fan shroud

and the radiator.

Well, I got that transmission out and the motor mounts loose. I guess the next thing is to lower the car so we can snatch the motor.

Yeah, hold on a second. Let me get the clutch linkage.

Ok. Yeah, that's it.

All right. I think we're clear

lots of room over here. Ok.

We told you earlier, this ZZ four has been upgraded with fast burn heads and well, here's what we mean by that.

The 62 CC combustion chamber has a tight heart shaped design

that induces a swirling effect for a more efficient burn rate and about a 10 to 1 compression ratio with these flat top pistons.

Now the valves bar page right out of the race book, these two inch intakes are hollow stemmed

and the 155 exhaust valves are sodium filled.

Of course with a high tech engine like ours. We want to use a low tech ignition now that Camaro originally came with a point type distributor

and we're gonna go ahead and replace it with this blue printed he I unit from Excel. Now, aside from the additional output, it also has its high performance cap with brass inserts and a close tolerance rotor for maximum voltage transfer to the plug wires. Now, the wires themselves are Excel's eight millimeter spiral cores for RF suppression with minimal voltage drop.

The clutch can go on. Next. We're using an 11 inch street strip set up. We got from Hayes includes this organic disk and the diaphragm style pressure plate.

This will give us easy pedal action and maximum grip pretty easy on our budget too.

Now, I'm gonna use this special tool here to line up the disk while we both on that plate.

By the way, it's a good idea to have your fly wheel resurfaced or replaced. So your new clutch will work positively and smoothly. Our new one, by the way came from Hayes also.

Well, that ZZ four is a high RPM engine, so I wouldn't be surprised if occasionally we buzz it to the high side of 6500 RPM.

Now to contain the clutch we're gonna use this blow proof bell housing from Lakewood and while we're at it,

we're gonna replace the stock throw out fork with this heavy duty piece that we found in their catalog

along with a new throw out bearing. Oh, and here's a little tip for you

to prevent wear right here at the pivot point. We're gonna put a little dab of grease

before we slide it in on the ball.

Ok. Good timing. I just got through to the plate down to 55 footpath. Looks good. Now, let's see if I can line this thing up on the doll pins.

There we go.

Hey, we're just about ready to drop this engine in. But first check something out.

We also got some new engine mounts from Lakewood. We like they're made of rubber, which is good for isolating engine noise, but they have these steel fingers here which will catch this tab

just in case the rubber ever fails us. That's a pretty good feature.

Hey, there's no denying the performance improvements that you get with a set of headers. Problem is these old ones that we took off were some rusty leakers that were just about to fall apart.

Now, we're gonna replace them with these hooker super

comps and they feature one and three quarter inch, equal length primaries with a three inch collector

and to make sure that they stay pretty for a long time to come, we ordered ours with a ceramic coating.

The best time to lay the headers in place is while the engine's still out. And

we're gonna use these bungee cards to help keep them out of the way.

Ok, I guess we're ready for this baby now, right now, I tell you what,

I'm ready to take a little bit of a break. Now, while we set this thing in place, why don't you hold your place and we'll be right back a couple more feet, a couple more feet. Here we go. All right.

Later in the show, we'll see how much rear wheel horsepower the Camaro makes with its new ZZ four bullet

and show you how a new set of buckets is an easy bolt on for pool looks. And

for the latest news on horsepower TV, check us out online at Horsepower tv.com.

All right. Welcome back to the horsepower shop and our F body engine swap. Well, we got the ZZ four bolted into Chuck's 70 Z 28.

While I drop in the distributor. Let's shift to my partner who's working on a better way to shift gears.

A

her shift was factory equipment, the Z 28

but here's the problem with it.

They insisted on using these rubber bushings here on the shifter head to reduce noise and vibrations inside the car. Now it works, but it'll give you a sloppy shifter and the potential for missed gears. Now, we're gonna replace it with this hears competition. Plus shifter

and it uses these nylon bushings here to tighten things up.

Well, that about does it all that's left now is to check for a proper operation.

Solid.

Well, to make sure that 450 horse engine operates at proper temperature, we'll upgrade the cooling system too. In fact, we're gonna jettison this stock copper brass radiator for this aluminum dual row one inch tube cooler from b cool. Now it's a direct drop in

and the company claims it'll cool engines making up to 1000 horsepower.

Of course, we've got to move more air through the radiator to do that.

So we'll also install this small dual fan set up with an integrated shroud.

Now to make sure it's mounted securely, we got these optional billet aluminum brackets

once the brackets are attached to the radiator drop on the fans

and snug them in place.

Ok.

Now, all that's left is the wiring.

We got our fans with a thermostatically controlled switch that cuts on when the water reaches 100 80 degrees.

Hey, just because we lost our stock fan, that doesn't mean we don't need an accessory drive.

So to complete our cooling system upgrade, we're gonna use this high water flow pulley system from Mark's performance.

Now, the smaller water pump pulley is actually gonna speed it up to improve circulation

and the rest of the kit includes these billet brackets and stainless steel mounting hardware.

The carburetor goes on next. Now, I know we

dyno this ZZ four with a double pumper. But for street use, we want to go with this Holly 750 vacuum secondary car.

Now, I know we'll give up some in the horsepower department,

but we'll more than make up for it in drive

and mileage. Now, once it's folded up, we'll get this Camaro on the lift.

Well, now we can go ahead and reinstall this MS

scene. Hey, if it looks a little bit different to you, it's because I've removed this handle. So the rest of the shift or assembly will fit up through the floor opening.

Well, that went into place pretty easily. Now, once I get the trans mount tightened up, we'll be ready for the drive shaft.

We're upgrading just about everything to get the most out of this engine swap and our last link is the exhaust.

We decided to go with this full three inch man bent system we got from Tor

Tech and,

well, as you can see, there's quite a difference

man that ought to free up some horsepower.

Now, let me tell you about the muffler that we're gonna use. They dyno

Max Super turbo threes and they call them that because they're three inches in three inches out and they're packed with fiberglass for good sound deadening. Now, once we get the rest of the pipes in place, we'll go ahead and weld them in, but tell you what you stay welded to your seat. We're gonna take a short break and we'll be right back

later on. We'll head to Columbus where the weather's great for snowmobiling. But what about street car racing?

It makes for track conditions, uh, to be very unsafe. We'll find out. Stay tuned.

Hi. Welcome back to the shop. We made 448 horsepower on our engine dyno

with this CC

four. Now, let's see what we get

at the rear wheel ready when you are.

So, how'd we do?

Uh, just a tad over 330 horsepower. Hey, not bad. Now, keep in mind this is rear wheel horsepower. Plus we swapped out that double pumper for a vacuum secondary car

and we've got a street style ignition and a full exhaust. So anything that we've lost in horsepower, we more than made up for in drivability. Yeah, there's a lot more to drivability than just horsepower. You know, you're really gonna be sitting pretty after this next project. Come on. Let's get this thing off the title jet.

You know, those old muscle cars might have been fast but they were sure uncomfortable stock seats like this were great for the short runs. But hey, in the long haul,

they were real back breaker.

Now, today we're gonna bolt in a set of custom seats into my Z 28. These are the sport XRs from Carillo

as his cutaway shows. They've got plenty of padding, nice deep side bolsters for a good lateral support

and recline mechanisms. Now, they also come in almost any color and material including leather.

Now, the secret to making these sports seats work in the Camaro is the bottom seat brackets. Now, Carillo offers these from Wedge engineering, but they've got them for just about any other application as well.

They just bolt up to the bottom of the seat frame. Now you'll notice their left and right side. So you want to keep the seat adjuster knob to the outside of the seat.

Now with the bracket secure, go ahead and slide the tracks all the way forward. That way you can mount them up using the forward floor mounting holes,

then slide the seat forward

so you can get at the back bolt

man. I could cruise in this Camaro all day now and it only took me about an hour and a little over 1200 bucks. Now, don't leave your seat. There's more horsepower ahead

next to cook to cold Columbus for at least some hot flashbacks of NSC. A racing

that lead up to the year's final competition.

Tv's race of the week is brought to you by car parts.com,

everything for cars, trucks, vans, and suvs.

This weekend, our race of the week has brought us to the National Trail Dragway in Columbus, Ohio for some hot competition

in the NSC, a season finale.

But it's cold here. How cold we'll check the track temperature

40 degrees and it has to be 60 or more for ideal racing conditions. We got a long way to go.

It makes for track conditions uh to be very unsafe and, and a lot of these cars,

uh especially nitrous cars, they have progressive nitrous, they leave with one horsepower mount and they increment all the way down the track. So we have to have an optimum track surface for safety.

Yesterday's qualifying was canceled due to rain

and here on Sunday,

well, the unseasonably cold, icy weather is perhaps better suited to skating than drag racing.

So what's the plan with uh

ambient air temperature around 4243 degrees and track temperature

hovering in the upper thirties and low forties? The prospects for getting any track temperature with no sunlight are pretty bad.

We're gonna wait, see if the, if the sky clears, but uh, quite frankly, it doesn't look very promising.

Well, waiting on the weather, man to see what's ahead for today. What do you say? We look back on some of the competition

in warmer weather that brought us up to these finals

throughout the year. The National Street Car Association's new series was catching on like wildfire among serious grassroots racers and fans

and events like this one in Bowling Green, Kentucky

was powerful proof that the NSC A had a hot ticket on its hands.

The event featured pro mod competition where the finals came down to a neck and neck shootout between veteran Billy Harper and his Barracuda

and Harold Martin in his fuel injected firebird

in the final race. Martin soared to a close win with his 656 et at 213 miles an hour.

But the outlaw at pro street stalwarts gave us just as good a show.

In fact, Vinny Pacifico and his diapers powered 63 vet showed his championship for winning the outlaw class

while

Teal etched out mentor, Pat Youy

with a grow streak of 698.

Well, a few weeks later, the NSC A invaded the motor city region without the Promide cars but with plenty of speed and thrills thanks to Pro street and outlaw racers fighting for a share of the championship

for extra hot drills. Danny

Berber and Richard Hutchins brought bands to their feet with their wheel standing trucks and supercharged match races. We originally started out with just injected motors. Now we've got super chargers on them with injection. We run alcohol for fuel

and actually we're running over over 1000 horsepower. Both me and Danny

and uh

we uh

have more horsepower most of the time than we need,

but you need that horsepower to get you out of trouble a lot of times then Benny Pacifico cinched the outlaw street crown with this win over Paul Catone

Pat Busy

won the Pro Street final but runner up Danny Scott piled up enough points to head to Columbus with the lead,

speaking of which it's still cold here

and after a feudal wait for a break and the forecast for rain later.

Well, Tony, the pillow held a driver's meeting to announce the weekend's big season finale

had been canceled. I think it's fair. I think it's a very smart decision. I think it is unsafe to go down that track. I made one qualifying pass, turned the car sideways. So,

um, and it's even colder now and I think the man is very smart and making the correct decision.

Well, believe it or not, there are some

things to celebrate today, like points championship. Danny Scott Pro street champ. Congratulations.

Thank you very much, Joe. We've, uh, we've worked a long, long hard summer here trying to get to this level and, uh,

the crew has done an excellent job here. Unfortunately, we didn't get to race today because of weather, but, uh,

but, uh, God's been good all year here and we just really appreciate everything that's happened.

Uh Thanks to NSC A for this fine organization that we've been able to race in and the sponsors that have all been involved.

Meanwhile, while racers come to the track to race, it's better to leave in one piece than chance a crash or worse.

So it was time to head home,

reflect on the season past while trying to build a better, quicker combination for the one ahead.

So there you have it. The fat lady gets to sing early and the name of the tune is,

pack it up and go home, but we'll have another race of the week next week and it'll be a hot one.

Join the horsepower TV. Crew. March 18th through 19th

at the NSC, a silver dollar shootout at silver dollar raceway in Reynolds, Georgia.

Now, horsepower's hot parts brought to you by summit racing equipment. Your source for high performance parts for 30 years.

Timing is everything, especially when you're dialing in your cam for maximum horsepower. Well, now you can get precise cam timing with this acu

gear gear drive set up from Edelbrock. Now, the fully machined and heat treated gears fit under a stock timing cover

and the offset bushings give you up to eight degrees of cam indexing. Now they're available for big and small block Chevys as well as small block Fords and hey, the price is affordable too starting at 100 and $60.

Speaking of Ford's Mustang, 50 fans will get a charge out of this, a denser fuel charge that is now the special intake manifold spacer comes from

Moroso

and its CNC machine

from a special phenolic material that fits between the intake manifold and the plenum to help isolate heat.

Now, it comes with all the hardware that you need to complete the installation

and all that extra horse power will only set you back about 55 bucks

old and new technology come together in this electronic distributor from Joe Hunt.

Now it features the latest electronics inside a classic magneto housing and it's fully self contained including the coil plus, it's got a simple two

wire hook up. Now, the aluminum body is also available in red, black and blue anodized with drives to fit most popular engine applications.

The color coordinate wires are another option. And hey, pricing on this nostalgic sparker started at about 500 bucks. Well, that's it for hot parts. Here's a look at next week's show.

We'll fill an old swap meet 12 boat rear end with a parcel of new parts, including a ring opinion set and a posse

unit.

We'll show you how to make your own custom door panel. Then load our 32 3 window coupe with a cool stealthy sound system.

We'll follow some kings of compact drag racing to Florida for some unbelievable six second quarter mile thrills and chills

and remember, high performance fun is what this show is all about

for information about the products used in today's show and more. Check us out online at Horsepower tv.com

Horsepower TV is an RTM production.