HOMEGROWN COPO #10 - It's all in the details!

HOME Grown

COPO

RPM PROJECT CAR

by

Jay Misener

>> Our COPO project gets a Holley digital dash and brake lines

F

ebruary 2020 seems to be the issue of reflection for the Chevys involved in RPM projects, so it seems fitting that we take a look at where we left off

IT’S ALL in the

DETAILS

in June 2019 with Project Homegrown COPO. Yep, that’s right—it was way back in June when we last gave RPM readers their most recent fix of our homebuilt COPO tribute Camaro.

Racing season, running a business, and having a family seemed to once again take precedent over building a project car, and judging by this month’s Acadian project article—not to

mention talking with most everyone else in the world building a car—it’s nice to know that I’m not alone.

It’s not that we didn’t have any time at all to work on the car. We just didn’t want

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1: Our Holley EFI Dash (part number 553-106) will work along with our Holley HP Fuel injection system not to mention look wicked all lit up in our COPO tribute Camaro. Although a real COPO comes with mechanical gauges, we opted to be a little more modern, so this dash will take the place of all those gauges in one package. Plus, it actually has screen activated toggle switches if we choose to utilize them and it can also be used as a datalogger which is important for us. As we’ve shown in previous installs, you can also set up alarms for low oil pressure, water temperature, etc.

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2: This dash bezel from Classic Dash is designed specifically to fit the Holley screen into the 2010-2015 Camaro dash.

This makes quick work of the custom install and allows the digital display to be mounted in minutes with a finished, nearfactory look.

3: First we prepared the factory dash for the bezel by installing these mounting brackets.

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to get too much started and have to pick up again in the winter. We were waiting for a number of critical components to arrive, as well, so instead we tinkered with various areas we

needed to tie up.

When winter hit, we got back into some more dedicated work.

We left off in June finishing up our jewelry-like Mark Williams braking system and introducing

RPM readers to our killer new RC Components Hammer wheels—15x10 beadlocks for the back and 17x4.5 fronts. We managed to do some work on our Dart LS Next

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RPM PROJECT CAR 4

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4: The bezel and the dash fit in the factory opening perfectly and look OEM.

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5: The Holley dash is installed along with a bunch more of our interior. Wiring is simply plug and play with the Holley HP system.

In this shot you can also see our trick Precision Performance shifter mounted and wired (along with a dirty floor).

6 6: Next we took some time to weld on brackets for our brake system flex lines.

block and took delivery of our Ross 14:1 (yes sir, we said 14:1) custom pistons and COMP .800+ inch roller cam while Andrew from New Generation Engines prepared our Mast Motorsports cylinder heads.

While it may not seem like much, we focused on some time-consum-

ing items as time permitted during our busy season.

We went ahead with more wiring on the car to the point where we could start to install some of the interior. Now we have to wait patiently for Willy The Stitch of Tom’s Upholstery to finish the interior so we can install that and then install the Optic Armor

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RPM PROJECT CAR windows we covered in a previous issue of RPM. Our wiring efforts also included the final install our Holley EFI digital dash. With a goal of giving that factory look we used the original dash mounting surround with a Classic Dash instrument bezel for our 2015 Camaro to fit the Holley display into, and the results are amazing. The only thing we will add gauge-wise to the interior will be a larger stand-alone shift light. Since I am 40 now, I hope I don’t need a wake-up call to shift this thing considering what I normally race, but it can’t hurt!

We also found time to weld on a number of brackets for the braking system flex hoses and installed copper brake line. The line we sourced from our

local APC store was priced right and is easy to work with. While we were at it we installed the Hurst line lock and proportioning valve, as well.

With winter setting in, we got back to work on our LS mill in mid-November.

We bored the block to 4.185 inches to fit our custom Ross dome pistons and we also installed the reluctor wheel on the Lunati Pro Series crankshaft. We were able to find the Goodson RRJ350 Reluctor Ring Installation Tool so we could do it in-house at New Gen. Basically this tool is used to line up that reluctor ring/wheel in the correct spot to ensure we will have the

7 7: Our COPO 9-inch rear end with some newly installed brake lines.

8: Our adjustable proportioning valve was also installed.

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february 2020 | RPM Magazine

9 9: Once the winter took hold we focused our efforts back on our LS mill. Our Dart LS Next block is being bored to 4.185 inch. This bore along with our 4-inch stroke Lunati crank will give us 440 cubic inches!

10 & 11: This special engine-specific Reluctor Ring Installation Tool from Goodson will properly line up the crankshaft reluctor wheel. This is imperative in order to have a proper timing setting.

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RPM PROJECT CAR proper timing. We then moved on to balancing the crank with our new ATI Super Damper.

As we publish this article in early January, we are moving on to assembling the long-awaited short block, so be sure to watch for it in an upcoming issue of RPM! Don’t forget that RPM Magazine will be totally overhauling and massively updating their website, www. rpmmag.com, by March to include each and every article in the magazine, including all past build features of the COPO, so you can follow it from start to finish in one place. Be sure to Toby Brooks photo check it out!

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12: This is the reluctor wheel installed. We will actually tack weld this in place to ensure it stays put.

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13 & 14: Finally we get to re-open our ATI damper box! We will also be using this special hardened crankshaft bolt from ATI. We plan on zinging this engine to 8500+ RPM so we want to make sure we pay attention to the small details like this.

15 15: The crank is set up on the balancer with bob weights that simulate the weight of the rods, pistons, rings and bearings. We will be assembling our short block in no time now!

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16: The Lunati Pro Series crankshaft is shown set up on the balancer at New Generation Engines with the ATI Super Damper.

SOURCES Dart www.dartheads.com 248.362.1188

Holley www.holley.com 270.782.2900

Lunati www.lunatipower.com 662.892.1500

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