1970 OPG HT502 Chevelle
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MotorTranscript
00:00 Welcome back to Hot Rod Garage presented by Lincoln Tech.
00:22 In this episode we're going to take that HT502 crate motor that we disguised to look like
00:26 a 70's SS454 and we are going to dump it in this 1970 Chevelle.
00:30 We're building this car for the owner of Original Parts Group.
00:32 They have everything you need to make your classic muscle car look like it just rolled
00:35 off the showroom floor.
00:36 But since this is Hot Rod Garage we're going to try to inject some modern performance in
00:39 there.
00:40 That's why we took that 502, disguised it to look like a classic engine and we're going
00:43 to dump it in here for the best of both worlds.
00:45 But first stay tuned for a quick tip from Lincoln Tech.
00:53 Let's talk valve lash, in a push rod engine with mechanical lifters and adjustable rocker
00:57 arms, lash is the clearance between the tip of the rocker arm and the top of the valve
01:03 stem.
01:04 This clearance is specified by camshaft manufacturers to make sure the intake and exhaust valves
01:09 close completely and to make sure the lifters stay in contact with the ramps of the cam
01:15 lobes at high engine speeds.
01:17 Now, modern passenger car engines use camshafts actuated by hydraulic tappets that do not
01:23 require lash.
01:24 Now, on an engine that does require a specific amount of lash, you're going to have to frequently
01:29 check and adjust the rocker arms to maintain this critical relationship between moving
01:34 parts.
01:35 That said, the spec can be anywhere between .004 and .030 inch and it's routinely different
01:43 to the exhaust and intake valves.
01:45 Cam manufacturers usually provide a hot lash spec which is measured with the engine at
01:50 full operating temperature.
01:53 Lincoln Tech can teach you how to have a career working with cars.
01:56 See LincolnTech.edu.
01:57 Before we got this engine in, we took advantage of the open space and we installed some more
02:11 OBJ goodies, put in a brake booster and master cylinder, a new wiper motor, and a rebuilt
02:16 steering gearbox.
02:17 We also went ahead and put stock style exhaust manifolds on the engine.
02:20 Normally, I'd like to see a big gnarly set of headers on there, a little more peak power,
02:24 a little more flow, but the owner wants a nice quiet car with no exhaust leaks, so these
02:29 will work out just great.
02:30 Before we drop the engine in, we're going to attach this Gearstar Performance 4L80E
02:35 transmission.
02:36 The Gearstar 4L80E is a hell of a deal at $2,195.
02:39 It's a brand new transmission from top to bottom, new bearings, steel plates and clutches,
02:43 and a lot of the metal parts are heat treated.
02:46 That price also includes a torque converter and a brand new steel pan.
02:49 We are using the level two variant offered by Gearstar which is rated to handle 500 horsepower
02:54 and 500 foot pounds of torque.
02:56 To use this modern four speed overdrive electronically controlled transmission, we are going to use
03:00 the TCM transmission controller from MSD.
03:02 Finally, OBJ offers this trick overdrive shifter that fits into the original console.
03:07 It will allow us to use this modern transmission while keeping the interior look purely 70s.
03:12 This all cast iron AT502 is a heavy beast.
03:15 It took us a couple of tries to get it weighted right on the chain so that we could clear
03:18 this cross member and still tuck it into the transmission tunnel.
03:21 Once we got that sorted out and I got the help of a couple of guys, it did drop right
03:24 onto the engine mounts and it bolted right up.
03:26 The only thing you want to remember is that we did have to change the oil pan.
03:28 The oil pan that comes on this crate motor is for a truck and we had to swap it over
03:32 to a regular 454 Chevelle pan.
03:34 Now that we've got the engine in transit place and the engine bolted in, we're going to support
03:39 the transmission with this G-Force cross member that OBJ supplied us.
03:42 Luis is going to give me a hand putting it in.
03:44 Just kind of get yours in that slot in the front.
03:48 Can you get in a little more?
03:51 There you go.
03:53 Ah, stop twisting it.
03:55 Thank you.
03:56 There we go.
03:58 All right, it's only six bolts.
04:02 Once you get them tightened up, we can move on to the drive shaft.
04:05 With any swap of this nature, you're going to have to get a custom drive shaft made.
04:08 We had ours made by a local drive train specialist.
04:11 You may not have one in your town.
04:12 If you don't, a nice tip is you can go to an 18-wheel shop or a big rig shop.
04:16 Those guys make drive shafts all the time and they should be able to make you one.
04:19 Another thing you want to remember is when you're measuring for your custom drive shaft,
04:23 the vehicle has to be at ride height.
04:24 If you don't, the measurement won't even be close.
04:27 What you want to do is put it on four ramps so if you can crawl under it at drive height,
04:30 you're going to measure from the snout of the output shaft and the transmission right
04:34 to the flat on the yoke of the rear end.
04:36 Give your drive shaft guy that measurement.
04:37 You should be good to go.
04:38 With all the mechanical stuff bolted together, now we get into the fun stuff.
04:42 We're going to run this really cool MSD Atomic EFI on this car.
04:45 It's going to be reliable.
04:46 It's going to be nice and crisp and it's self-tuning, which is super cool.
04:49 To do that, though, you need to make provisions for a high-pressure fuel pump and a return.
04:54 You may look at your fuel tank and see these fuel vents and think, "Why don't I just return
04:57 my fuel there?"
04:58 You shouldn't and I'll tell you why.
04:59 Because these are far too high up in the tank and if you were to return your fuel here,
05:03 they would just spray all over the place and really aerate the hell out of the fuel.
05:06 You don't want to do that.
05:07 What you can do is you can take your fuel sending unit out and if it has a vent in it
05:10 like this one did, you can hog that hole out and have someone braze in a 3/8 line.
05:15 What we did is we took this to a local radiator shop because welding on a gas tank is a bad
05:19 idea.
05:20 Even if you think you've got it clean, it will probably still explode on you.
05:23 They brazed on some AN fittings for us, drilled this out, and brazed in a larger return line.
05:29 It is not the cleanest work I've ever seen.
05:32 They did an ugly, ugly job.
05:34 We're going to put it in anyway.
05:35 You're not going to be able to see it.
05:42 We've run our feed line and our return line on this car front to back and I just mounted
05:47 the fuel pump and the pre-filter.
05:49 Technically you don't have to run a return line on this system, but I would always recommend
05:53 it.
05:54 It's going to deal better with altitude and if you did a pulse width non-return system,
05:57 it's going to burn out that pump much faster.
05:59 This is the way to go with this system.
06:00 We're going to toss a tank back in, connect these fuel lines, and we'll basically be done
06:04 under the car.
06:05 Then we can move forward to mounting the EFI stuff, connecting the fuel lines and the regulator,
06:10 and just about fire this thing up.
06:12 Now that we've got the fuel tank back in and the fuel lines run, I went ahead and welded
06:16 up the bung for the O2 sensor.
06:18 Position of the sensor is actually really critical.
06:20 Ideally you want it about two to four inches behind the collector.
06:23 I moved it down about 10 inches because I want to hide all the EFI stuff in this car
06:26 and make it look original.
06:28 You have to make sure that you get a really nice weld on here and that you have no leaks
06:31 before the O2 sensor because this system relies very heavily on the feedback from the sensor.
06:37 Any air introduced before it is going to totally screw up what the computer sees as an air/fuel
06:42 ratio.
06:46 Got it.
06:47 All right, now that we've got everything done underneath the car, I'm going to install the
06:53 fuel pressure regulator, put on the distributor cap and the spark plug wires, connect a couple
06:57 of the sensors.
06:58 This throttle body bolt is on just like a carburetor.
07:00 Four bolts, throttle cable and return spring, and some fuel lines, and you're good to go.
07:06 OPG supplies with the biggest stock radiator they make.
07:09 It's a four core made for a big block car with AC, so it should work great for this.
07:17 Okay we've got everything buttoned up under the hood.
07:19 I put the initial setup into the computer, and hopefully this thing should fire right
07:23 up.
07:27 All right, now I can set the timing and check for leaks.
07:35 Hopefully take this thing out on the road.
07:42 Hell yeah.
07:45 Once we got this thing fired up and broken in, I took it over to the drag strip.
07:49 It runs really clean and pulls really hard.
07:56 Even considering it has an open diff and a 308 rear end, I was able to run a 14 second
08:26 flat quarter mile.
08:27 I got 103 miles an hour.
08:29 That is very fast for this setup, and I was really pumped on the whole thing.
08:33 This car is bitching, and I can't wait to get some gears in it and a diff and see how
08:37 much faster we can go.
08:38 Everything we've done with this car has been to build a very streetable, really fun to
08:44 drive car.
08:45 So the dude spec'd out a motor that's like tame, reliable, has power everywhere.
08:51 It's not tuned for peak power, but it's really fun to drive around.
08:53 It also does great burnouts and stuff.
08:55 I actually, in my head, thought this would be kind of lame, and in execution it's awesome.
09:06 That wraps up another episode of Hot Rod Garage presented by Lincoln Tech.
09:09 Stay tuned for a Q&A with Fryeberger and Finnegan from Roadkill.
09:16 This is the Tech Q&A section of Hot Rod Garage presented by Lincoln Tech.
09:19 We're doing something a little bit different here.
09:22 We're at Power Tour.
09:23 Hot Rod Power Tour, the largest road trip in the world, and we've been sweating to death
09:27 driving the blasphemy '55 Chevy all day long today.
09:30 We're here in Hoover, Alabama, I think.
09:33 About halfway through the tour, and the day's all wrapping up, so we're having a cold one.
09:37 You can tell by the accent.
09:38 You can tell that we're in Birmingham?
09:39 Yeah.
09:40 That's true.
09:41 There's some people here, if they were any more Southern, I couldn't understand them
09:42 at all.
09:43 Yeah.
09:44 They couldn't speak.
09:45 You need a secret decoder ring to hear what they're saying.
09:46 We're going to do something extra special and swanky here.
09:49 We're going to use the Periscope app to get some questions from the fans so that we can
09:53 answer them.
09:54 People are asking about the ramp truck that we have in Roadkill Show, which is a '73 Chevy
09:59 Crew Cab, and we've been waffling about selling it, leaving it around.
10:04 I have the reason why.
10:05 Okay, I'm ready.
10:06 Okay.
10:07 The ramp truck is awesome, but I saw a different ramp truck that had a Hodges bed on it, like
10:11 ours, but it wasn't tilted, it wasn't made out of wood, it was flat and went like this,
10:16 and it was like six feet longer.
10:18 Our ramp truck, you can only fit a Honda on.
10:19 You can't fit anything substantial.
10:20 Anything longer than a Camaro, not going on there.
10:23 So we need a different ramp truck.
10:25 So I'm okay if you get rid of this one.
10:27 Really?
10:28 Yeah.
10:29 Okay.
10:30 And the bed is broken on our existing ramp truck.
10:31 Let's see.
10:32 What is the best welder for car or basic metalwork?
10:35 MIG.
10:36 MIG welder.
10:37 Yeah.
10:38 MIG welder's your one.
10:39 Spend some money on it, though, because if you do like I did, I spent $200 on my first
10:43 MIG welder and I bought it at like one of those warehouse stores.
10:48 And you had to practically polish the metal you were about to weld, turn it all the way
10:53 up and it would barely penetrate.
10:54 And in most cases it wouldn't.
10:56 So it wasn't even safe.
10:57 Like you don't want to be welding suspension components, putting in a four link with a
11:00 MIG welder that costs $200.
11:03 And you don't want to go gasless.
11:04 Don't go flux core.
11:05 You need a good, decent MIG welder that will run off 110 or 220, preferably 220, and invest
11:12 in it.
11:13 You'll have it the rest of your life and your car won't fall apart.
11:16 All right.
11:17 Next question.
11:18 How long can you reasonably expect a V8 to last?
11:22 You know what?
11:23 The modern V8s, they've got those things dialed in so much on tolerances and everything.
11:27 There's no reason why those can't go like 300, 350,000 miles.
11:30 Yeah.
11:31 You don't have to put spark plugs in them for 100.
11:34 Right.
11:35 So yeah, I think that's no problem these days.
11:37 With an old small block Chevy, this is the thing that's really changed over the years
11:41 in the way people deal with their cars.
11:43 Used to be you would buy, like my dad did, a brand new '72 Chevelle and you'd drive it
11:47 like 85,000 miles after having never changed the oil.
11:50 The motor was worn out.
11:51 So you'd take it someplace and get the motor rebuilt and put it back in.
11:54 No one does that anymore.
11:55 No, they throw them away.
11:56 You don't buy a new car and change the motor.
11:58 You throw the car away once you're done.
12:00 My wife, Sel Camino, which came from her grandfather, when I tore it apart after we did the engine
12:05 swap, I could have put the main bearings back in the motor and it had never been rebuilt.
12:09 Really?
12:10 It's all about maintenance, dude.
12:12 Change your air filter, change your oil often, it'll run forever.
12:16 It looked brand new and it had never been cracked open.
12:19 I have an interesting thing that I learned the other day from Lake Speed.
12:21 Do you know Lake Speed?
12:22 Yeah.
12:23 Driven oil.
12:24 Driven oil, yeah.
12:25 So you know how we always complain about the Obama gas with the ethanol in it and it's
12:31 tearing up fuel lines and all that other kind of stuff?
12:33 Yeah, we're down with that.
12:35 Apparently, the problem that they're running into is that not only does that ethanol tear
12:40 up all your fuel lines and everything, it diminishes the effectiveness of zinc in the
12:45 oil.
12:46 So even if you go to a race oil with zinc or you go to the Lucas TB zinc thing or anything
12:51 like that, the ethanol in the gas can tear that down and so you need to change your oil
12:56 even more often.
12:57 Or shop at places that sell clear gas.
13:00 My dad's gas station used to sell that, no ethanol in it.
13:03 Really?
13:04 Yep.
13:05 All right, give me questions.
13:06 Is 5.3 LS good for boost?
13:09 Yes.
13:10 Take it apart, open up the ring gaps, make 1,000.
13:13 Someday you'll drive over the crankshaft but not the first time you do it.
13:16 Here's the thing about using a 5.3 or a 4.8 for boost.
13:19 They're really good because they're a small bore, much smaller than the bigger LS engines
13:24 and so the piston pin is supporting more of the piston and the piston itself is more rigid
13:30 so it can take a lot more boost on just a stock combination than the bigger bore stuff,
13:35 at least in dirt.
13:36 Here's a good one.
13:37 McCruisen84, thank you.
13:40 Should this guy with a '66 Mustang remove the inline six and put in a 302?
13:45 The thing about dealing with a '66 Mustang or any of those platform early Fords like
13:49 the Falcon, Ranchero, Mustang, one of those early Fords that has a six cylinder in it,
13:54 you want to change to a V8, the problem is there's actually a different cross member
13:58 that you need but the six cylinder cars are four lug from the factory so you really have
14:04 to change the whole thing into five lug.
14:06 There's some other elements in the front suspension I'm not thinking of right now that are different
14:09 but it's a bigger deal than just changing the motor mounts and putting the V8 in it.
14:13 But by all means, if you're going to do it, 302 fine, don't do the 390 thing because big
14:19 blocks just don't fit good in there.
14:21 If you like having to remove your tires and jacking the car up to change the spark plugs
14:24 because you've got to go through the intercoms, then go for it.
14:27 There's one right now.
14:28 Yeah, 289.
14:29 But the big block, pain in the ass in a Ford Mustang.
14:33 Just disc brake setup that's pretty affordable for swapping drums.
14:37 For what kind of car?
14:38 Didn't say.
14:39 It really depends.
14:40 There's a lot of good disc brake swap companies.
14:42 Master Power is a good one, CPP is a good one, stainless steel brakes is another.
14:47 There's a lot of ways to go.
14:48 I think the most affordable, easiest ones are probably those first two, Master Power
14:53 and CPP.
14:54 There you go, more expert knowledge from Freiburg.
14:57 I'm just going to sit here and drink beer.
15:00 Alright, that's a wrap for Hot Rod Garage presented by Lincoln Tech.
15:05 What did I say?
15:06 I have no remembrance.
15:07 You had a lot of good answers.
15:08 I don't think I really brought much to the table.
15:10 Really?
15:11 I felt I rambled in this episode.
15:12 You'll tell me because you will comment and you will tell me all the ways that I was completely
15:16 wrong.
15:17 Yeah.
15:18 [Music]
15:18 [Applause]
15:29 [Music]
15:37 [Applause]
15:45 [Music]
15:55 Bam!
15:56 Suck it, nerds.
15:57 I'll see you on the comment section.
15:59 I feel like that's kind of like playing hard to get a little bit.
16:03 [BLANK_AUDIO]