1972 Chevy El Camino 350 Engine Rebuild - El Cheapo

By the time we got back to wrenching, we'd been to a swap meet and scored a Holley 800-cfm double-pumper for $50! Way wrong for the 350, but there was no way to refuse the price. Before installing it, the manifold needed some work: 1) tapping a broken thermostat-housing bolt; 2) tapping a broken carb stud; 3) installing a core plug to block the old oil-fill tube (three stores before we got the right plug); and 4) finally finding heater bypass caps after going to five parts stores. Highly annoying.

We bought new cooler lines and bent 'em successfully, even if they are kinda ugly on the inner fenderwell. Another purchase was a remanufactured battery for just $18.95. It had top posts where side posts used to be, so we put new universal terminals on the old cables.

With the cooler lines in place, we also installed the trans dipstick, then the vacuum line to the trans modulator. We used copper hardline instead of rubber which can suck closed and cause weird shifting.

In addition to plumbing fuel to the carb and adding a new filter, we had to sort out the carb linkage. That involved removing a Ford-type arm from the carb, installing a GM-type ball stud for the cable to snap onto, and jerry-rigging a return spring. The throttle bracket went under the coil-bracket holes, but their location on the Torker manifold prevented the trans kickdown bracket from working. We just left it off for now.

It felt like a victory when we finally dropped in our junkyard HEI distributor, replacing the mangled old electronic-conversion distributor that was in the car, complete with clear distributor cap. We set the initial timing by eye and rewired the HEI power lead so it would get full battery voltage when the engine was running.

After adding fluids we were ready to fire it up, but the 12-year-old gas in the tank had turned to pure varnish. Getting it out was a pain because we had to remove this old anti-siphoning spring from the fill tube. Remember those things from the gas crunch? We siphoned fresh gas out of a car on the Hot Rod side of the shop rather than run to the station. Cheaper that way.

The moment of truth: We turned the key, and...nothing! No power in the entire car. Hate that. Early A-bodies have a main power terminal on the core support just ahead of the battery. In '72 it was moved to the firewall near the master cylinder. We found no power here when the battery was hooked up. The quick solution was to rewire it by running one cable from the power-point stud to the large terminal on the back of the alternator and another to the larger terminal on the starter.

Yup, it lept to life right away and ran pretty snappy while we were breaking in the cam. Neighbors love open headers at 2:00 in the morning.

After a good sleep, we returned to find gas puddled all over the manifold. That's what we get for installing the carb without rebuilding it. We were shocked at how much we had to spend for new accelerator-pump diaphragms, which were the problem. Once it was running again, the fan belt squeaked badly; it had stretched, and the alternator bracket had no more room for adjustment. Off to buy a 1/2-inch-shorter belt.

Then, the engine started running like dog doo. The plugs were perfect, so we ran a compression test. Pressures ran from a low of 121 to a high of 135 with no dead holes. The problem was our swap meet plug wires that burned through the boots on two cylinders. We were too lazy to buy new plug wires, so Kiewicz made an unsuspected donation. Topped with a swap meet air cleaner, the engine was done.

But, we were in for a big disappointment: We popped the rearend cover for a gear-oil change and found what looked like 2.56:1 gears, and a tooth-count proved us right. Rats! Small-blocks with 8.5:1 compression are not known for happy 60-foot times with freeway-friendly 2.56s.

However, we lucked out with the condition of the brakes, which you should always check when you buy any used car. The front suspension also looked safe, and we lubed everything up. We noticed that the front tires were taller than the rears, so we swapped 'em and improved the car's stance significantly. It would have been nice if we'd remembered to tighten all the lug nuts before a test drive.

Moments before the magazine went to press, it was smoky burnout time! The car ran dang good, only leaked a little (at the heater bypass caps-no surprise), and didn't even overheat. The loose converter, freeway gears, and rock-hard bias-ply treads added up to awesome burnouts-200 feet, officially. Once we get this thing to the muffler shop, it'll be a good driver and a perfect starting point for a basic street machine. El Cheapo lives.