My names James, I'm new to the site. Im 17 years old and currently attending college to become a truck and coach mechanic. About 5 years ago I saw my first second gen camaro and instantly fell in love, I decided right then and there that i had to own one. Of course being from Canada, its pretty hard to find a car without a ton of rust on it. About this time last year, I found a 1981 and a 1970 camaro for cheap and began the process of transforming it into my dream car, a 1970 camaro. The 81 had no engine, needed new frame rails, rockers, tail panel, trunk floor pan, floor pans patched and some other things that I can't remember right now. The 70 was a complete basket case and so I decided to take both cars and make one good car. The 1970 camaro when I got it, had a buick 350 in it. However it was seized solid. My original plan was just to toss the engine and install a chevy 350 like any other camaro, however once I looked up some specs and did the research, i found that I actually had a 69 buick 350 with 10.25:1 compression. I decided at that point to keep that engine. The progress of making a solid body out of the two cars began last april and it is finally starting to look like a car again. This is the car I started with, it came with the 69 buick.
After finding more information about the buick, I started looking into what exactly was wrong with it. Turned out that one of the pistons had cracked somehow and the piston rings were frozen to the cylinder. After a little hammering, the piston came out. The block got honed and was given the ok to build. Now I had a problem though because I only had 7 pistons and my budget couldn't handle new pistons. After searching around for awhile, I was told to contact Sean, great guy by the way! He told me he had the same block that I do and was willing to send me a piston and connecting rod. Perfect, so now I have 8 pistons again, now just to put the motor back together, or so I thought. Turned out that one of the other pistons I had that was opposite to the one that was seized has a small crack in the connecting rod and when I was installing the new piston, it broke. So Sean to the rescue again! He has now sent me all 8 pistons from that motor! Im back on track! I just need to buy a gasket kit and the motor will be ready to go back into the car. :grin: Im hopping to have the car ready to drive this summer, but Im currently really tight on funds as I recently lost my job so we shall see. More pictures of the car coming soon. James
Yes, James Love has this killer twin turbo Buick powered Skymaro: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJJbp8teqaM
Alright, got the engine mostly put back together today, now I'm working on building a set of motor mounts as the originals were broken beyond repair. Hoping the engine will be able to go back into the car in a few weeks but I need to find a timing cover first as the one I have is cracked Will have more pictures soon! If anyone has an old timing cover that they aren't using, let me know. James
Hey guys, been a long time since I have posted. The engine is in the car!! Had to make some custom mounts but finally got it all together. Now my next problem is that I bought one of those new timing covers where the seal installs from the front, however I'm having a hell of a time locating a seal that fits this cover. If anyone knows what the part number for the seal is, please let me know, trying to get this car drivable again and this is the last thing I need for it to run.... James
Don't know if you've already found the seal, but if not, TA Performance (taperformance.com) has the one you need. P/N TA1513A
not that this is any help but brings back some memories.....my first car was a 72 Skylark custom.... bought it when I was 17, didn't know what I had... drove it through 3 winters here in Buffalo, only washed it when it rained..... and the frame and most sheet metal rotted.... it ran great so I pulled the motor before it went to the junk yard for parts. A friend of mine had a 76 Camaro with no motor so I bought it. I think all I had to do was drill a few holes and move the motor mounts closer to the front an inch or 2.... I think it was actually faster in the Camaro .... Was out doing donuts, burnouts and even hit over 130 MPH one night.... then landed it in a ditch and twisted the Camaro up pretty good... I should have pulled the motor again.... I think it would have ran forever. Good luck with the project!
Way to go, James! Your Camaro looked like what the one I'm currently working on when you first got it. (pics below) It's always great to see young guys, like you, getting into our hobby (passion). Many of us from the musclecar generation are getting older so its nice to know there are young guys/gals to carry the torch when we can no longer do so. You have come to the right place here at V8Buick. Lots of very knowledgeable folks here. Everyone here is willing to give advice and encouragement.
This was almost 3 years ago, I hope the guy is still alive? 4 messages and gone, last seen on Aug. 2014, either he had to get rid of car and isn't bothering to write back or he found a cheap sbc to bolt right in the car so he doesn't need any sbb advise anymore? Maybe send a PM to the guy Sean, looks like he's one of your fellow Canadians eh. Derek
I will text him I have his number still... I sent him some pistons and a dist. For free so u was curious if he made it work...
I recently purchased a 1986 Camaro IROC roller. I've got a transmission and 350 engine that came out of a 1974 Buick Sylark. I was thinking of dropping that into the IROC.
Yes this is why I bumped this thread up from the dead...I say go for it!! Start a thread with pics of the car and the engine etc... I have a cool idea for engine mounts. I have 5 of these setups, ready to convert anything to Buick 350 power... The v6 mounts in the same location as the 350 so is a bolt in using this. Quick and easy, mount this cross-member: http://www.speedwaymotors.com/Garage-Sale-Buick-V6-Motor-Mount-Crossmember,239829.html