1972 Chevrolet Camaro EFI & Power Upgrades

This big block Camaro 402cid (6.6l) came to us with a serious lack of performance, despite the colossal engine under the bonnet.

Our initial Brief was to:

Fix / Address the performance of the car.

Potentially fit new Camshaft / Exhaust headers

Adapt the car to being more everyday drivable.
Investigate the braking issues
Some gauges are broken, look to address these
Dress up the engine to look more impressive
Investigate the air con not working
Rear Reversing lights

The Customer had a very strict budget and as always with older classic cars there are various caveats that can come into play when starting such a project i.e. its very difficult to know in advance what your going to uncover.

Power / Engine

Its fair to say i've never seen such an underpowered car with such a huge engine, having taken it for a spin (well a crawl) there was clearly something not right.

The customer had mentioned various performance upgrades on the engine, from a new camshaft to EFI etc.etc. But first and foremost, we wanted to make sure that there was not something fundamentally wrong with the engine itself.

We also took the time to do a compression test of the vehicle, which gave an indication that the engine was quite worn, but should still be performing far better than it was.

To save time and to test the engine, we swapped over the carburettor from our in-house corvette and together with some timing corrections, I would say the horsepower almost doubled and proved that there were no major fundamentals wrong.

Having then pulled the engine to address a few other repairs, we noticed that the core plugs were corroded and leaking, so these ended up being replaced.

Whilst the initial discussions had also included fitting a new camshaft, we are always a little wary of fitting a new camshaft in an older/worn engine (we couldn't warrant the results) and with further concerns around the overall spend it was decided to focus on fitting Exhaust headers and a Holley EFI solution to make the car more everyday drivable.

Brakes

As we got into the project it became apparent that the braking problems were more than just some jammed up wheel cylinders and failing brake hoses. These were initially replaced, but the Camaro still failed to bleed the brakes up correctly. The master cylinder was found to have a fault and as with most parts its more cost effective to replace it than to spend anytime trying to rebuild it.

This improved the situation, however the brake proportioning valve was also seized, so this ended up being replaced as well. Then after an initial run, the servo was discovered to also be leaking air..it never rains but it pours as they say.

Aftermarket Gauges

The Camaro had several gauges that were no longer functioning. In these cases the gauges themselves were at fault and whilst they can be repaired, due to the costs and timeframes the customer decided to have some aftermarket gauges installed. These were sympathetically placed at the bottom/under the dashboard.

Putting it all together

The exhaust headers, despite claiming to bolt on had to be adapted and the fuel lines ended up needing to be rerouted in order to accomodate the headers.

One of the brake lines was also heat shielded due to proximity to the exhaust headers.

Due to the further complexities uncovered during the upgrade work with the brakes, rerouting fuel lines (for the headers), core plugs etc. and thus the increased time/costs with these, the aircon work and reversing lights were dropped from the list of items to complete and all focus was put into getting the car up and on the road.

Once the EFI installed further performance improvements were gained, turning it into a tyre smoking monster...as it should be. The Camaro now performs as it looks...amazing and with a full set of gauges the customer can keep an eye on how everything is performing.