The Cadmaro: Part Last
Mar 4, 2002
The Cadmaro project went belly up in early August. The engine wouldn't fit without either stock manifolds or a hammered firewall. I gave up on the Camaro when I realized I really didn't like it, and the Cadmaro project was just a last attempt to find something I liked about the car.
In December I found a '69 Cadillac Calais for $100. I did a little bit of tuning on it (and corrected the spark plug wire order) and it runs like a champ. It came from the factory with a 472, the same engine as the 500 but with a bit less bore. The engine and tranny are going into this car as soon as I get my house.
That's the final part of this update - I'm finally buying a house with a 2-car garage. I won't move in for another month and a half, but when I do the weather will be warming up and I'll be ready to do some hot-rodding on both the Cad and my RX-7.
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The Cadmaro: Part2
Jun 4, 2001
I managed to get the engine mounts out without tearing down the front suspension. I did have to buy a special socket, but now the time required has been drastically reduced. Good thing too! My friend is moving and I have to have the car out of his garage by the end of the month! I've got to get the new motor mounts ready fast, then get the engine and transmission in and hooked up. The car doesn't necessarily have to run, but it needs to be in a condition where I can tow it. It's going to be a busy month.
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The Cadmaro
May 13, 2001
I've been working on the '81 Camaro lately, the car that I had fun towing several months ago. I finally removed the wore-out 305 that was in the engine bay friday. I've been buying assorted parts like crazy and was planning on installing the Cadillac motor sometime soon. Yeah, right. I didn't know you had to tear down the front suspension to replace the motor mounts. I just rebuilt the front suspension a few months before the motor blew, now I get to redo a lot of that work. On the plus side I have the engine assembled and painted. It looks very sharp, low-gloss black with silver ARP bolts and an aluminum Edelbrock intake. While the engine is out I'm going to clean the engine bay, tidy up some of the wiring, and paint the engine bay flat black. Maybe with luck I'll have the swap finished by winter (I've been hoping to get it running a lot sooner).
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Honest, I'm not THAT hick!
Dec 18, 2000
I just re-read my last journal entry. That sounds so hick. Towing cars that I own from friend's place to friend's place. I will admit that if I owned a spread of land I'd have cars parked on the back lawn. I own three cars (at least I got rid of the '51 Chevy) and only one runs. One is in a friend's garage awaiting an engine transplant. The third car is sitting on my other friend's lawn still (but he's always had cars sitting there, so I'm not the hick, right?). I just really enjoy working on cars. And I REALLY need to buy a shop with a house attached.
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10,000 lb. Tow Ropes
Dec 11, 2000
Ever buy a 10,000 lb tow rope? Why does it say 10,000 lb. on the box while there's a tag on the tow-rope that says "Max load 3,333 lbs."? My father and I towed my Camaro from a friend's yard to another friend's garage. We broke the first tow rope within a mile of leaving my friend's yard. We were much more careful about matching speeds and taking up the slack slowly after that. Next weekend I'm moving my toolbox into the garage and I'm going to start the swap.
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