El Camino 500 swap.

[yellowroket]

Lookin good mike! Yeah i bought the sanderson headers, wow what a waste of time and I ended up eating the shipping charges! Looked at the hookers but one of the tubes on the drivers side actually wraps around the steering colum and has its own flange. I guess they could be adapted but you would have to cut the caddy flange in a few pieces not to mention they are pretty proud of them $$$. I was looking at a set of flowtech long tubes for a 67-69 BBC camaro my buddy has and they look promising! Well hope you get her runnin soon, we got about 2.5FT of snow here in WVa and i cant even get to my car to get it back in the garage!

[Mike P]

"....Well hope you get her runnin soon, we got about 2.5FT of snow here in WVa and i cant even get to my car to get it back in the garage!....."  

  Oh Man, I don't miss that stuff (I'm originally from Illinois) I am so glad to be here in the land of the rust free sheetmetal  

  Good luck in your header search.

  I had every intention of coming home tonight and spending a couple hours hanging the mufflers and making tailpipes to finish up the exhaust.  I had a nice surprise as the "G" oil pump I ordered from Marty at MTS was
waiting on me when I got home......yeah, I had to see if it would work.

  It's tight, but there is just enough room to get the filter on.  Right now the front suspension is unloaded as it's sitting on jack stands.  I suspect once the weight is back on the car and with new sway bar bushing I MAY pick up just a bit more clearance.  

  Looking back at it, I got lucky that it fit (it's that tight)......if I had it to do over agin I probably would have bought the pump prior to doing the engine mounts to make sure I had enough clearance.

[Stiney]

The sway bar mounts can be spaced down an inch or so very easily. 

[Mike P]

  I know I could have shimmed the sway bar but I was going to put a new oil pump on the engine anyway and it's nice not to have to play with the sway bar.

  I pretty much finished fitting the rest of the exhaust today.  I was a little apprehensive about how the tail pipes would fit……I had used a set of 2 1/4 “ tailpipes on the wife’s 84 with the stock 7.5 rear and the fit was tight so I wasn’t sure about the 2 1/2 “ pipes over a 9”.  I think I’ve actually got more room on this set up due in large part to the Lakewood upper control arms.





Because of the trailer hitch I added I couldn’t really run the pipes out of the back like I had intended so I brought them out behind the rear tires (which will actually be a bit better when I am pulling a trailer).

 

I still have one more hanger to ad and a bit more welding to do but the exhaust is pretty much done.

[Elk500]

looks great mike!    i havnt been on here in a while, good progress....i am right about the same spot i was last time, but i have collected parts since then

[Mike P]

Hi Mike, good to see you back around, I’ve kind of been wondering how you were doing on yours.

  With the exhaust done I’m currently working on a steering column swap.   The column in the truck was loose and at a minimum would have needed a new turn signal switch, lock cylinder and converted to the early style turn signal arm (with the single button in the end for the cruise control).  The El Camino came with a spare good early column so rather than use it for parts I’m just going to swap the whole thing out.  At some point I will probably rebuild the original column and sell it.

  Of course like everything else this little project also snowballed LOL.  First it’s remove the nub where the column shift handle went it and fill the hole.





 Of course with the steering shaft out, now is the time to change the rag joint out at the bottom of the shaft.  I don’t know the condition of the steering box, and at this point I only have to remove 3 bolts and the pitman arm to pull the box and reseal it so that’s on the list now too.  :

    With the column out I do see how it can be shifted a little to the left by slotting the holes just a bit.  I don’t know how much extra room it will give by the exhaust manifold, but even a little bit more couldn’t hurt so I’m going to give it a shot.  I have also decided to go ahead and try to reconnect the column linkage back up to the transmission after all.  I do like the idea of having the stock shift indicator and backup light switch functional.  As all the linkage will have to do is rotate the collar on the steering column, not actually shift the transmission I can get away with a lighter (smaller) linkage that just might squeeze in. 

  I was planning on hitting it pretty hard over the weekend but their predicting a couple of pretty bad winter storms rolling thru the area so I may just sit in the house and catch the BJ auction.  I’ll keep you updated as I progress.

[Mike P]

 I was able to get back on the steering column/linkage this weekend.  As mentioned with the steering column out I realized the holes could actually be elongated a pretty fair amount and allow the column to be shifted for more room. Slotting the base plate was pretty straight forward with a die grinder. 



  The slots and moving the column actually gave I bit more room than I expected.  I’m pretty happy with the clearance to the exhaust now.




It also moves the shift lever over giving just a bit more clearance.  I also picked up just a bit more clearance when I found out the shift linkage from the Monte Carlo I parted out was only 1/4” instead of the thicker 3/8” linkage that came with the 83 El Camino.  I really don’t know why the difference. They were both column shift cars and the bends in the rods are identical.  I guess it’s just one of those things that make you go Hmmm.




In spite of the extra clearance there was still an interference problem between the linkage and exhaust manifold.  The solution I used was to re-drill the linkage holes closer into the pivot points (If you do one you have to do both as otherwise it changes the ratio between the 2 arms and will prevent the shifter from going into low gear and the shift indicator from reading correctly).







  So the floor shifter now rotates the collar giving me the backup lights, neutral safety switch and shift indicator, and the column locks the shifter in park when the key is shut off (just like the original floor shift cars).

  So in retrospect I could have retained the column shift and split bench after all. I’m not complaining though, the major reason I didn’t want to go with the floor shift was cost and finding the parts….and I did do OK on the price of the parts so it’s kind of a wash.

[~JM~]

...I guess it’s just one of those things that make you go Hmmm....

   Indeed.

Excellent information! Thank you for taking the time to document & share your experiences with the rest of us.

~JM~

[steelybill]

Great job on that project Mike.  I'm glad I came over here to see all the pics you posted.  I really like the exhaust system.

BILL

[Mike P]

    I spent a couple of hours going thru my driveshaft and transmission yolk pile coming up with a combination that is a good fit.  I never really paid that must attention to it in the past, but I found 3 different styles of yolks that will fit a TH400 and of course each would take a different length drive shaft.  I ended up using the longest yoke (I know the shortest one if from an M22 in a Corvette and I think the middle one may also be designed for a 4 speed.  The driveshaft I used is 54” (center of U Joint to Center of U joint). That length works for me but other peoples swap will possible be different depending exactly where their engine and transmission is placed.

 I have a conversion U Joint on order that will hopefully mate the yoke to the drive shaft.  Once it’s here and I know it fits I’ll post the part number in case it’s of use to anybody else.







  The only other thing I got accomplished this weekend was getting the brakes finished.  I retained the original brake line T fitting on my 9” and found a 14 ½” brake line which is the right length with the rear suspension at full drop.  The parts store I use has changed suppliers and now handles a brand called Centric (which I haven’t heard of before) but here is the part number in case it helps anyone and can possibly cross it to another brand.
CNT 150.61006

[steelybill]

Your whole arrangement looks great.  Can't wait to here how it turns out.

[Mike P]

  The U Joint came in so I got the driveshaft done.  In my case the joint I used is a Neapco 3-0544BF.

  Personally I’ve been very lucky finding factory driveshafts that can be made to work with various swap combinations I’ve done over the years and it’s usually a lot quicker and cheaper than having a custom drive shaft built. 

  If someone else decides to go this route, here’s a link to a the Neapco catalog that gives U Joint dimensions that can be helpful for mating oddball shafts and yokes together.  (JM if it’s not OK to post this link, please go ahead and delete it).

http://www.neapco.com/n_products-catalogs.php?pdffile=2

  Just one final thought…….it appears that this U Joint is not a high demand item and none of the various parts stores here in town stocked it, meaning I had to wait about a week for it to come in. I plan on keeping the El Camino for a fair amount of time and putting more than a few miles on it including some long trips.  That being the case I went ahead and ordered a spare joint so it’s readily available in case I manage to break or wear out the one I just put in.  It will go in a small box of spare parts that I will carry with me when I go on the long trips.  It would really upset me if I needed a new Joint while I was on vacation and had to wait a week somewhere for it to come in.

[~JM~]

  ...If someone else decides to go this route, here’s a link to a the Neapco catalog that gives U Joint dimensions that can be helpful for mating oddball shafts and yokes together.  (JM if it’s not OK to post this link, please go ahead and delete it).   http://www.neapco.com/n_products-catalogs.php?pdffile=2 

No problem at all. It's an important piece of information. Thank you for including it.

  ...I went ahead and ordered a spare joint so it’s readily available in case I manage to break or wear out the one I just put in.  It will go in a small box of spare parts that I will carry with me when I go on the long trips.  It would really upset me if I needed a new Joint while I was on vacation and had to wait a week somewhere for it to come in.

Very smart... 

[Mike P]

I have been working on getting the plumbing done on the fuel system.  I’ve run a new 3/8” fuel line down the driver’s side frame rail, and modified the routing of the original fuel line on the passenger side to use as my fuel return line. I moved the lines to the top of the frame rail so they could be easily moved out of the way when I do the final welding and add gussets when I pull the engine.  The original tank vent line to the charcoal canister will be left in place and used. 

 

[Mike P]

    As far as the fuel return system goes, I elected to move the bypass/ pressure regulator to the carburetor itself rather than just using the return fitting on the mechanical fuel pump or a fuel filter with a built in return line.

 

There is a fixed size orifice that threads into the pipe leaving the carburetor the sets the amount of fuel bypassed and regulates the pressure at the needle and seat. The pressure and amount of fuel bypassed can be changed by replacing the plug with one with a bigger or smaller hole.



 
While it’s a bit more cumbersome looking than some of the alternatives it does insure that there is no place for the fuel to lay stagnant and pick up heat anywhere on the way to the carburetor and should eliminate any possibility of vapor lock.