I had just a few things left to do on the 68 Camaro before I could fire it up. I had to wire the fuel pump, and hang the radiator support and passenger side fenders, and install an air filter and intake to the BBK/Edelbrock 58 mm throttle body. I also needed to sort out some of the wiring and reroute a few wires that were originally routed to the passenger side via the core support but would now reside on the driver’s side because of the relocation of the alternator when I installed the TPI serpentine set-up. I would also take this opportunity to put the Spal fan relays on the driver’s side to keep the wires to the alternator short. Wiring the Walbro 255 external fuel pump (PN GSL-392) went pretty quickly: I grounded it right at the rear frame rail it was mounted on; the Holley Commander 950 is pre-wired to run a fuel pump. I merely ran the wire under the door sill and drilled a small hole in the floor under the rear seat. I used a rubber grommet around the wire passing through the floor of course and crimped a connector on it there. Rerouting the wires of the front wiring harness was just a matter of cutting my cable ties, unwinding some of the wires, laying them back out headed in their new direction, and putting cable ties back on.
Hanging the core support was equally uneventful, as was putting the passenger side inner and outer fenders back together. I measured the diagonals across the engine bay and had to push the front end around a bit to make sure it was perfectly square. I had saved the shim pack for the fenders so it was easy to get everything lined back up properly again. I put the hood back on by myself, which is a little less fun than with a helper by the way. I purchased a cone-type air filter with plumbing for the throttle body on eBay and I had to do two slight modifications to make it work. The first was that I needed to get a larger diameter, six inch worm clamp, because I was running the 58mm throttle body. I found an inexpensive stainless steel clamp at Home Depot. The second was the tubing didn’t line up well with my core support and radiator. I cut about two and half inches off one of the aluminum tubes to fix this problem.
At this point I was ready to test the fuel plumbing. I reconnected the battery and put the ignition in the accessory position so the fuel pump would develop some pressure. Several cycles of the fuel pump revealed minor leaks at a few of the couplings, all of which were stopped by simply tightening up the connections. It was time to load an appropriate program into the Holley Commander 950 ECU and attempt to start the Camaro! I decided to use the Wbmp3008 base map, which was described as: 355 small block Chevy, 30 lb./hr. injectors, Stealth Ram intake, 58mm throttle body, 20 degree Holley heads,
Lunati 30142 cam (235/245 @ .050, .507/.534, 112 LC), 9.5:1 compression, 43 PSI fuel pressure, 418 HP @ 5500 RPM, 422 ft./lbs. @ 4700 RPM. While the duration on my Comp Cam (PN 12-465-8) was a little shorter at 210/218 @ .050, I had higher lift at .560/.555”, so figured it would be pretty decent base map to start with, although volumetric efficiency for my car would probably be a little higher at lower RPM and a little lower at higher RPM. I figured my AFR heads would perform similarly to the Holley heads.
The 355 sbc roared to life on the second cranking attempt and then it was time to start tuning! I had exactly one week before my next SCCA Solo II autocross event.