HOMEGROWN COPO #11 - Where do we go from here?

Tackling lots of little things and installing a mock-up engine

Famous last words as published in the Feb 2020 issue of RPM MAG: “As we publish this article in early January we are moving on to assembling the long awaited short block, so be sure watch for it in an upcoming issue of RPM!” I can’t sugar coat the fact that this has just not happened.

The pandemic hit in March and like so many others we were on pins and needles about the future of business and the stability of our families. We were deemed an essential business and allowed to stay open during the 3

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We had an empty space and no motor, so we put together a mock-up engine to help prepare a number of underhood areas for the real thing.

We will be using a 4500 series flange Holley 112-578 2000CFM throttle body and Meziere billet water pump.

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We chose to go with the Hooker mandrel bent 304 stainless steel hand-welded headers part # BH13190 with 2-inch primary tube and 3-inch collectors and were very impressed with the build quality and fit.

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Here is our mock-up engine complete and ready to be set in place.

It’s in and we are ready to get to work.

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month long shutdowns and a weird thing happened, we were busier than ever! It seems that a lot of people had a lot of spare time (and a few of them some spare cash) to spend on their cars so we had little to no time to spend on our own endeavors.

Last February we covered our braking system, some interior work, wiring and installing our Holley EFI dash along with installing Optic Armor windows. We also tackled a number of brackets and started to prep the short block for assembly.

We fully expected to have the motor completed by now, but as always we have to have the courage to accept the things we cannot change, and we definitely cannot change what has happened over the past 10 months, so let’s just move on.

While we wait for the remainder of the machine shop work to be done to the block, I decided to put a mock-up engine together. This will allow us to really get into the meat and potatoes of the install and what we have left to do under the hood to make everything work once we are ready. The mock-up engine consists of a stock empty block topped with the Mast Motorsports cylinder heads and intake (covered in a previous issue of RPM MAG) along with a Holley 4500 flange 2000cfm throttle body. We also picked up a set Hooker BlackHeart headers that are 2-inch primary tube with 3-inch collectors and a Meziere electric water pump. We took delivery of our wicked Canton oil pan but can’t install it on the factory block we used. The

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We plumbed some fuel lines using Earl’s fabric and steel reinforced rubber and PTFE hose and their AN fittings. We had heard good things about it and decided to give it a try and the results were amazing.

It’s hands-down the easiest stuff we’ve ever worked with.

Season’s Greetings, and Thank You In these uncharted times, we would like to show our most heartfelt gratitude and offer appreciation to you, our readers, and to all of the advertisers who make it possible for us to continue our 21 year tradition of delivering highest quality content in the face of the current challenges.

Thank you for your faithful support, and we hope that, despite the difficulties, you are able to celebrate the season with your family in safety.

21 Years Of Ho-Ho-Horsepower www.rpmmag.com

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factory piece is skirted so all the mains sit up in the block whereas our Dart block is not skirted. No worries though, we’ll cover the Canton pan in more detail in an upcoming issue.

Believe it or not, the most difficult part to get was a motor mount as everybody was sold out of the size we needed. We finally sourced one just a few weeks back and were able to get the mock-up mill properly fit into the Camaro. Having the engine installed, I am able to start laying out the underhood wiring as well as fuel lines. All of this work will help identify what remaining parts are needed and also give us quite a bit of extra time to not only have max performance in mind, but also provide a clean look. Something else to consider is that because this is a race car and you can bet we will be working on it a lot, we want to make everything as simple and accessible as possible. There’s nothing worse than having to have to work on something or swap out a part and not having proper access to do it efficiently.

I started working with the Earl’s fuel line and fittings. If you have worked with lines and fittings in the past, you understand that they can sometimes be a pain. Not using their products in the past, I have to admit I took a cautious approach, but once I got in a groove I realized how simple and easy their product has made fabri-

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Our Canton oil pan and accessories came in, but unfortunately it won’t work on the stock mock-up block…stay tuned for more in a future issue when we install it on our Dart block.

Check out our slick Holley twin 450lph pumps that also arrived this fall. This drop-in assembly is just waiting for our custom fuel cell to be completed. cating lines. The fittings and line are true quality and the line is super light, which is an added bonus. So far I have made the line joining the two fuel rails together and the feed line from the Holley regulator to the rails. The rest will be completed once we get the custom fuel cell back from being fabricated to fit the Holley dropin pump assembly with twin 450lph pumps.

Next up was cooling. I picked up an aluminum rad for a 1995 Honda Civic and had our good buddy Darryl Chatterson weld a couple of -16 AN bungs on it. I like to use AN fittings and braided hose on a lot of my builds. While it may cost a bit more it pays back in how easy it can be to work with and install in custom applications, its improved appearance and, in my

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We installed our Holley EFI LS Coil Sub Harnesses part # 558-321, coils and injectors on the mock-up.

SOURCES:

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A 1995 Honda Civic rad is fitted with a few -16 AN bungs and installed to the passenger side of our engine bay. This will allow us to make a bunch of room for a custom high flow air intake using air from the lower grill area.

Just as we were completing the mock-up we came across a deal on a recently freshened G-Force GF5R 5 speed clutchless transmission and have ordered a Quick Time bell housing to go with it...stay tuned!

opinion, enhanced safety. We have used this same rad setup in my NMRA Coyote car and it works great and offers good weight savings, as well. So you’re thinking why I would mount the rad sideways like this? Quite simply, I want to keep the front area behind the bumper open in order to use the lower grille area for a custom cold air intake for the throttle body.

With a number of items taken care of under the hood, we can move on to prepping other areas of the car that will make our job a lot easier once the motor is complete. We managed to grab a killer deal on a G-Force GF5R 5 speed clutchless transmission and immediately ordered a Quick Time bell housing which we expect will arrive over the next few weeks.

Watch next time as we mock-up the G-Force trans in the car and work out the clutch pedal assembly. We’ll also hopefully be able to finish the fuel system and tackle some more smaller projects such as the vacuum pump and throttle cable.

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