the crusher Camaro is back this is our 67 Camaro that you have seen on roadkill garage you remember wrenching on this thing a bunch of times oh yeah we did a ton of work to it here's something you may not know about the crusher Camaro Steve try me this thing was built in throughout 1994 for the very first Hot Rod Magazine Power Tour in 1995 whoa you know how I know that no it has this sticker on it right there oh no way not not only that but I was there as a matter of fact if you look at that passenger door you will see a chip on the top of the door where I was shooting car toar photos with my camera and Rob Canan was driving and he hit a bump and I went boom and my tripod mount gacked the P look at that yeah unacceptable if you're unaware about Hot Rod Power Tour it's been going on since 1995 and they call it the world's largest road trip it started out just as the staff driving their own cars including this one and we invited some fans I think we had about 40 cars Go the whole way now they have 4,000 cars so we gather up have a car show and a drag race and then drive from City to City it's not a competition it's just a cruise so what we're going to do with the legacy of this car at Hot Rod Magazine going back to 1994 and with it having been in the very first Hot Rod Power Tour we are going to Spruce this thing up and attend the very first Hot Rod Power Tour West which is happening next weekend it's Tuesday today we've got to be there Thursday night to take off on Friday morning from Irwindale to drive all the way to Las Vegas to drive all the way back to the Pomona drag strip wow that's going to be a blast in this car but we have to make it streetable we do right now it's all set up for drag racing it's got I think a 456 rear gear and a course slicks no exhaust all of that so it's going to be a big makeover in a very short time in order to make it streetable we can do it furer I think so yeah before we start wrenching let me tell you the story of The Crusher Camaro it dates back 30 years yep when this episode first airs in 2024 it'll be exactly 30 years since I first bought this thing for Hot Rod Magazine and turned it into a project car it's called The Crusher because I bought it at a junkyard where they were about to buy it and smash it on this whole government program that had to do with smog credits and stuff like that and we thought it was completely bogus that's why it's called the crusher Camaro the has been built in a zillion different ways over these 30 years at first it was just sort of a standard 90 Street Machine after that it had a 632 big block Chevy in it and it was on the cover of Hot Rod Magazine at that time sort of with 17inch wheels and stuff after that I had a little small block in it then I turned it into a 70s or 80s looking Street machine with a big blown big block after that vegan and I did this amazing thing on an episode of roadkill where we did a live engine swap po at a trade show and we removed the big block and installed an LS7 after that it was on Hot Rod Garage where it had a blown LS7 in the thing it goes on and on and most recently Steve doul and I right here on roadkill garage made it look like this which is very much a dead on clone of like a 1974 Street machine or drag car with the big ugly hood scoop and the big stupid stance and all these types of things now what we're going to try and do in this episode is make it streetable all right Steve we have to bite the bullet and just do the torque converter first thing yeah I know I was thinking we have to knock out the stuff in order that has to be done which is drivetrain stuff that's never going to make it all the way on the road trip exactly to remove the transmission I say we start by removing this glorious Hood so that we can get with the bell housing bolts and everything and then we'll have to Skyjack the thing and get under it and do that gruesome job that we can't [Music] stand I'm changing the torque converter because the old one is 5500 RPM stall that's very drag racy that feels very mushy on the highway and also it slips the converter heats up the fluid and it can kill the transmission got it all right I called yank converters I said I want 2800 stall so this thing should be way more streetable you can see the larger converter is the lower stall it's going to be way [Music] better now I've got to do the old uh you know can I get it to click all the way on trick okay if I put myself in a position where I can heave it I can't see this is way heavier than the old one a got it oh good okay if you're doing this at home the key is to get the converter all the way in so that when you mate the bell housing up to the back of the engine there's about an eighth of an inch in between the pad on the converter and the face of the flex plate you want to be able to tighten the bolts and pull the converter forward just that tiny tiny you know 3/16 to an eigh of an inch in other words the converter should spin freely with everything bolted up except the uh flex plate the next thing we have to do is change the gear ratio and to do that we take the wheels and tires off and then this some the brakes so we can pull the axle shots out then we can unbolt third member this is a 4 9 in so it has a Dropout third member with the gear set all assembled normally you don't have to pull the axle all the way out you could just pull it enough up disengage it from the side gear or the spool but we need to take it all the way out so we can match it up and make sure that it's 31 spline to match the gear and it's not looking like it it's just looking like 35 H we're screwed we're screwed oh here's a problem I can't believe as many times as I've changed gears on this thing I didn't remember this but it has 35 spline axles which is a aftermarket upsize that they never actually made it's a ford9 in differential Factory Ford would have either 28 spline or 31 spline upgrades are often 35 or 40 and this thing has 35s all right this is going to slow us down a little bit however I think I've got a solution but it's not going to happen for the next like many hours so I think what we should do is clean up and then move on to the exhaust system which is going to be a [Music] hassle so we're going to go ahead and install the exhaust system now the crusher Camaro was born in the 90s and so were Flowmaster Mufflers I absolutely had to have them for that correct sound you probably know this is that chambered Muffler all welded no packing that became so popular back in the day and this is the super 44 model I got a 2 and 1/2 in kit that we're going to install and by Wei I mean I'm going to let dolage take [Music] charge the exhaust is going to hit the crossmember here for the dry cha safety loop so unfortunately the loop has got to go [Applause] I've cut the join that's going to connect the HP pipe to The Collector reducer now all I'm going to do is tack welded in a couple of spots so it holds that position and once I've got the left side tacked in place I'll make the same thing for the right side next thing I'm going to do is remove the whole exhaust system from the car and then take it to the bench and weld it up [Music] solid now's when I reveal the second part of my scheme to take the crusher Camaro on the very first Hot Rod Magazine Power Tour West it's not just about making them more streetable I also am going to return the thing to the way it looked when we very first built the car in a Pages a hot rod in 1994 and 1995 that means like single four barrel cowl hood convo Pros exactly like it was back then or as near as I can get it at this point now I have to admit this breaks my heart a little bit because I love this 1974 look that we've got going on right now with the tunnel ram and the weird stance and the kers and Dish mags and the Grump lump all that stuff is awesome but if there's one consistent about the crusher Camaro it is that I love to change it all the time and this time it's weird because I'm going to be updating it from this point but kind of regressing it to where it was way back when so 1994 1995 here we come I'm going to talk to you about what I'm going to do on the engine sort of as I go what is that I have no idea what's going on there I just pulled the radiator hose off and all of this crud was in the thermostat housing look at that mhm that is bad you think that's a electrolysis yeah it's aluminum oxide that's because there was nothing but water in here here's a problem drag RAC cars you're not supposed to put antifreeze in them antifreeze is also an anti-corrosive and a preventor of this that is the worst I've ever seen it it packed in there I'm going to have to take the intake off and see how bad it is in the cylinder heads and stuff and we're probably going to have to flush the system this is time I was not counting on yep it's not good wow when the crusher Camaro was first assembled by hot rod in 1994 guy named Rob Canan was in charge and he put a 400 cubic inch small block Chevy in just like what this is and the inct manifold they used back then was an edel Brock performer RPM just like what this is or at least very similar I'm not sure they had the maen USA tag back then if memory serves I think they came out with this design right around the time the car was first built the performer RPM is a taller or high-rise version of a dual plane so it benefits low-end torque it's more of a street manifold and unfortunately by removing the tunel RAM and installing this I am unbolting 50 horsepower this this Engine with this intake manifold is going to make right at 500 [Music] horsepower here's another step towards making this thing streetable it needs an ignition timing advaned curve right now it is locked out meaning I would can only set the ignition timing to say 35° before top dead center and that's where it is regardless of RPM so I'm going to have to take this distributor apart take this thing out flip it over add some Advanced weights put some bushings in it put the springs on change the gear push it back just all that stuff here we go [Music] now comes time for the carburetor when this car was new in '94 it had like an 1850 on it a 4160 series Holly the ones with the side hung float bowls I couldn't have that so I had to make a departure from originality but I had to have a gold carburetor I couldn't have the modern silver or black ones this is my favorite carburetor the Holly 1,000 CFM HP here's the thing though it's not really a th CFM the throttle bore size and the Venturi size on this are the same as on a 950 not only that but you can see that it's got annular boosters that is a larger booster than the standard Holly dog leg and anular means that it distributes fuel through a ring all inside the deal and it also is a larger diameter so it's more of a restriction so it has more of a pressure drop so that it's got more pull so it has like more draw on the fuel coming out of there we have made these run great on all kinds of V engines and actually the calibration is pretty good right out of the box they have a 31 squ in the front 36 in the back I usually just swap those end to end and then they are great so yeah I'm going to install this on our [Music] 400 you know it's weird how Fashions change obviously the Mickey Thompson aluminum valve covers were the kill in the 70s and early 80s they're actually really cool now as a matter of fact you can buy Mickey Thompson for big and small buck Chevys brand new from Holly but this car originally in the 9s had a stamped chrome valve covers which just leak and so I got some of the diecast aluminum ones which were actually cool way back then there's also a functional reason that I'm doing this my tunnel ram had a breather sticking off the front which is like for crank case evacuation and you'll notice that the Mickey Thompson valve covers don't have any breathers at all whereas these new ones which are from Mr Gasket do have breathers and so so stylish and functional uh once again I have to remove parts that I love those Mickey Thompson valve covers are just [Music] great except for one fuel hose here the engine compartment's pretty much done and looking at it's making me realize that 1994 wasn't that far away this kind of looks like every Camaro you'll see at Power Tour here's a couple things that I did first of all the blue Moroso Blue Max spark plug wires by 94 I would say we were dedicated to the red MSD wires but there was too much red going on so I threw the blue ones on there they're kind of retro and you know what everybody had to have a chrome air cleaner with their favorite speed part name on it so that's what we got but we still have a big disaster going on with the rear suspension and right now we're waiting for parts [Music] Steve did a killer job on the exhaust system but I have to admit I have legit anxiety building because we have a hard deadline for this Power Tour West and uh we get to go meet a bunch of fans and do signing autographs and things like that but to do that I have to get this car right it has to look perfect or I'm going to be in a really bad bad mood and part of that is the whole thing about taking it back to how it was in 1994 which means not having the big rake now thing is right now we've got some drag racing cow tracks or Cal racing springs on it that are actually a 1-in lift and the new Springs that we have here are sort of a generic heavyduty leaf spring and I just have no idea what they're going to do to The Stance of the car and that's what's like stressing me [Music] out before I can set the car on the ground to find out if the leaf springs have the new lower stance that I want we need to obviously put the wheels and tires on before we put the wheels and tires on we need to put the axles in before we put the axles in we need to change the center section finally we got the parts in the mail to change the rear gear so we're going to pull that apart and I'll show you what the differences are of what we're taking out and what we're putting in we removed the Fab egg of Ford 9in Center sections I love having an aluminum housing on these things it makes them so light and so eras this one's from mure engineering and it has a spool meaning no differential at all and a 4.57 to1 gear ratio our new unit I was able to overnight from Summit Racing this is a 3.5 to1 gear ratio and the differential is a true track a Detroit true track is like a clutchless posy it uses gear bind in order to create drive to both the wheels I've used them in a bunch of stuff I actually love that difference differential now why did I make this change because such a low gear like a 4.57 to1 versus a higher gear like a 3.5 to one the lower gear makes the engine spin higher on the freeway specifically in this deal with a 26 and2 inch tire on the back that I'll show you at 75 M hour this is going to make the engine spin 4,300 RPM and the higher gear ratio is going to make it spin 3400 RPM and then don't forget I've got the gear vendors overdrive on top of that so this is just going to be far more Highway friendly because of the gearing and it's going to be way more Street friendly because it has a true track instead of a [Music] spool did it go all the way yeah yeah Center sections install good our Ford 9in differential is fitted with a aftermarket setad of bear racing brakes now that could be a problem when you find out that your brake pads are completely worn out like these are but fortunately this kit uses a PBR caliper which is the same as a third gen fbody now that would be a Firebird or Camaro or variant and that made it as simple as going to our local auto part store and picking up these duras gold brake pads there semi metallic and they're OE level formulation so can take these new ones pop them right in and we'll be ready to [Music] run and now a critical element the wheels and tires this is going to be super similar to what was on this car in 1994 and 1995 that is a Centerline convo Pro 2 this is a modern reproduction of the original wheels that aren't made anymore and I got to be honest it's not quite right but I don't think most of you are going to notice why the fronts those are legit those are actually made in 1994 genuine Centerline convo Pros 15x4 in the front 15 by8 or maybe they're eight and a half in the back originally this car had a Mickey Thompson Indie profile tire on the back those are no longer made and that's why this is a prot Trak n515 but it has the right kind of tread look and that squared off profile that is signatured to a bias ply tire that we would have used back in the day in the front I have a Mickey Thompson 26in Tire on the thing and they're an eight ply you may not be aware that they make those front skinnies in a couple different Plies and I got the heavier duty ones just cuz we're going to be driving on the highway and I just want a little more beef okay we're going to put these on and then set it on the ground and find out if these new leaf springs are going to give me the stance that I want or if it's going to be a total fail I mean look at that we need to close up that Gap to right about there to have this look decent I don't have high hopes all right let her down slow all right that's sits way too high in the back maybe if you give it a bounce the shocks are set on full stun for drag racing so oh it doesn't move at all doesn't move at all H not what I was hoping for as far as the stance goes but hey it's good enough for now because we got to be at Irwindale first thing in the morning yeah all right let's see if we can make this thing run crank it that's pretty good it's got a little header link th000 CFM carburetor right 400 cubic Ines all right runs good I'm pretty happy with that and I think we're going to put the hood on it check some fluids and we're going to load this thing on the trailer and run it down to Irwindale for the start of Hot Rod Power Tour West the quickest this car has ever run is 1067 at I think 125 or close 1245 or something like that but now we've got a lot of strikes against us obviously so I have no idea what's going to happen is he going to give us a good burnout I don't I hope so all right here's PR rers lined up just doing this burnout car is getting a little squirly [Music] okay oh it bobbled a little bit on the line but easily handled the alino well I spun real bad off the line so that's not going to be great but it ran all the way down clean thank you yeah 1292 at 108 pretty weak we'll go again I'm going to see if I can pick a better spot on the [Music] track yeah FR Burger is right back in the burnout area he's going to make another pass hopefully he's going to do better than the 1290s he ran last time but the timing clocks do not lie [Music] still spun the tires and I had to Pedal not good okay 1190 cleared a whole second off the time which is pretty remarkable but you know what that wasn't even near the potential of the car cuz I could see he had a little trouble with the Trans brake again so it wasn't a clean leave that always cost time but we've got an 11sec time slip and that's pretty good this is probably going to be our last pass today I mean it did run in the 11s that's pretty good see if we can do better yeah now start a burn out got those slicks nice and hot that should help traction off the line the thing is our man fryberger is a competitor he wants to beat himself he ran an 1190 see what it does right here he's staged up right there wow that was a nice lead perfect he's got this he's got this that's going to be my best pass all right I think we can leave happy with [Music] that that had to have been the best yep 1175 11649 slowing down half a mile an hour I think the car can go quicker I do too but not here today no yeah let's go to Pomona okay let's do it we're here world famous Pomona Dragway now this place is usually reserved for National events so running a car here is pretty special one of the special treats for us is our crew from Famoso Dragway is here running the event there's cleat at the starting line he's starter for this event fryberger is going to try to beat that 1170 Rand in Vegas I think he can do it will he we'll find [Music] [Applause] out oh yeah this track is torn up and for some reason this sounded like it was [Music] misfiring and there's my pass at Pomona I really drove it easy out of the hole it spun a little bit 1176 it ran exactly L the same talk about repeatability this thing just went 1176 at 11988 right on dude it ran exactly the same with more mile an hour 1176 yeah 1176 at 11988 dude oh dude this thing's running 120 in a quarter I know this thing's got power wow I want to get this thing at fosa on a fully prep track we will man that was good yeah wow pretty good FR Burger