[GM_427_Racer]

Chapter 3

Since I am back to work and we are now in the summer of 1970. My new found friend is telling me about some parts he has that will perk up the Yenko. Naturally, I ask how much this will cost and he says I will give you a deal on everything, but we need to get some "light" machine work done. Being a novice, and since the Yenko was still my prime medium of transportation, it was now time to buy another car. I end up with a 1960 Chevy 2 door Biscayne with a straight 6 and an automatic for my daily driver. I take the Yenko to his shop and naturally after a couple days, my Dad asks where the Yenko is, I tell him we are doing a little tune-up on it. As it turns out, the "little tune-up" turned out to be the engine being pulled out and completely dis-assembled, which freaked me out, cause this guy was just putting all the nuts and bolts in boxes and coffee cans without any markings. I am thinking, I have barely had this car a year and the engine is out and in a zillion pieces, none of which I know where they go. The heads and block and rotating assembly go to a speed shop in Cleveland. Again, to make a long story short, the block was replaced, the rods got lost, so the speed shop replaced them with new, 7/16" L88 rods, the pistons were replaced, the assembly was balanced and blueprinted, a different camshaft, and the heads were cc'd, milled and a competition valve job.

So the car has been gone about a month and Dad is getting nervous, (not as nervous as me), I tell him it will be back soon and he trusts me, so all is well. We go to Cleveland to get all the parts and the engine re-assembly begins, however, the next Saturday I have to leave for summer camp for two weeks. My buddy works all week trying to get the engine done and on the Friday night before I have to leave we have it in the car and it is ready to fire. I am in the car and he tells me to hit the key, it turns over, but nothing, not a bang, not a burp, nothing. He tried for hours to get it started, nothing, can anyone guess how bad I was feeling. Practically, a brand new Yenko Camaro that I have invested a ton of money in and it doesn't run. The bad part was it was like 4 AM and I had to leave at 6 AM, so I had to go. My brother also had to go to summer camp, but he was leaving a day later, so I told my buddy, "When" you get it running, call my brother and he will come and get it. I am really thinking "If you get it running, call my brother. I call home later that night and my brother tells me he went to get the car and it is home, but he tells me it is not running very well. He said when he left the shop it sounded really good and was running really well, but sometime during the trip home it started to miss and never got better. I asked him what my buddy said was the problem as to why it would not start to begin with. He said the timing tape (that is how you did it in the 70's) was put on the harmonic balancer backwards, so the distributor was completely out of time to the mechanical part of the engine. He said it fired right up when he put the tape on the balancer in the correct orientation. As far as the miss goes, #7 spark plug wire had fallen off.

When I got home from summer camp, I took the Yenko for a ride and WOW, what a difference, now there was some serious power.

I will give you Chapter 4 soon...