The heart of the beast

Having made relatively little progress on my Camaro these past few years, even in regards to collecting the parts necessary to put it back together, I felt it was time to purchase at least something. That something was my solid roller lifters, with a $324 price tag.

I had ordered my cam a few years ago, a Comp Cams special grind with the following specs:

Duration @ .050 = 266/272
Lift = .678/.688
Lobe Separation = 110
Intake Centerline = 108

For those who know engines, yeah, this is one helluva cam for the street. I emailed Comp a few years back, told them what I considered "streetable," and what I was looking for with my engine build this time around. My goal was 650-700 hp, in addition to possibly a 250 hp shot of nitrous from a system I bought from a friend. I wanted the car to possess at least as good for street manners as before, or better. My engine I pulled out of my car was as follows:

454 .030 over
LS6 heads, ported and flowed
Comp Cams solid flat tappet .629/.605 lift, 260/266 dur @ .050
11-1 Cr
Victor Jr Intake
Barry Grant Race Demon 750
TH400 trans (manual)
12 bolt with 4.10 gears

This combo was good for 513 hp and 495 ft/lbs of torque on our SF901 dyno at college. Also good enough to run 11.70's in the 1/4 mile at 116 mph. The car was a beast on the street, so much so that even right up till before I pulled it off the road, it often scared the hell outta me. It was like trying to tame a beast that wasn't meant to be tamed when you jumped on the throttle, yet it never failed to put a smile across my face as I held on, trying to keep things in a straight line.

So why would I want to go faster you ask? Bragging rights I suppose. Anything over 500 hp on the street is a handful in my opinion, and for the most part, unusable. So what I'm building this car for is the drag strip. The desire to hustle down that 1/4 mile of asphault quicker is what led to me parking the car, gutting it (after a total restoration), and having a 12 point roll cage installed.

I'm still going to base my engine on my 454 block, though a new set of heads are in order, as well as some other components. My goal is to keep the car streetable, while dipping into the 9's with it. The finished product is a few years away, and this latest purchase is just one small step in terms of progress. Perhaps I'll try and get some of the smaller purchases out of the way in the coming year, as they can nickel and dime you to death as you near the end of your project.