1970 SS Chevelle Undercover HT502 Build Hot Rod Garage Ep. 17

MotorTrend

On this episode of HOT ROD Garage

Transcript

00:00 (music)

00:04 (music)

00:08 (music)

00:12 (music)

00:16 (music)

00:20 It's an all new Hot Rod Garage presented by Lincoln Tech and this time we also have

00:24 an all new project vehicle. That is a 1970 Chevy Chevelle.

00:28 And it belongs to Dave Leonard who is the owner of Original Parts Group.

00:32 OPG is the company that makes and sells everything you need to restore

00:36 one of these cars. But the problem is he has a whole bunch of restored muscle cars

00:40 and he wants a daily driver that has more modern conveniences

00:44 which is what we're going to do to this car over the course of three or four episodes.

00:48 And you know what's really convenient? An HT502 crate motor. And on this episode

00:52 we're going to show you how to make that look like a 1970 SS454

00:56 engine. Now the other thing we're going to do this time is introduce who may

01:00 be our new host of Hot Rod Garage. You will let us know what you think of

01:04 Tony Angelo who's a pro drifter who's going to be working with us. And

01:08 we've got George Lopez from OPG. But first, Clarence Barnes brings

01:12 you tips from Lincoln Tech.

01:16 Okay you've just lowered your hot rod and now the shocks are too long.

01:20 Way to go. But what is the right length shock for your application?

01:24 Let's take some measurements and find out. Grab a pencil. First we need to establish

01:28 our ride height. Now this is the height of the chassis fully loaded

01:32 as it sees the highway. This isn't with a random thousand pounds of extra

01:36 cargo in the trunk. So clean out your car before doing this exercise.

01:41 We'll measure from the ground to the pinch weld to determine the ride height.

01:45 Then we'll measure from the bump stop to its contact point.

01:49 That'll tell us our compression distance. And finally we'll unload the

01:53 chassis by raising the car in the lift until the tires barely touch the

01:57 ground. This yields the droop distance. Now add the

02:01 compression and the droop distance to find your working shock length.

02:05 Add another inch to that measurement to account for bump stop compliance and you have

02:09 enough info to go shopping for new dampers. Lincoln Tech can teach

02:13 you how to have a career working with cars. See LincolnTech.edu.

02:17 (music)

02:21 (tires screeching)

02:25 Hey I'm Tony Angelo. You probably saw me on Roadkill. This is my buddy George from OPG.

02:29 What's going on Tony? What we want to do with this Chevelle is add performance but keep

02:33 originality which is usually our goal. So this is what we got right here. And the motor we have for this Chevelle is an

02:37 HT502. It's a really cool motor. It's pretty affordable. You can get it for about $6,100.

02:41 And this is a big torquey motor. It makes 377 horsepower

02:45 and produces 512 pound feet of torque. Yeah this makes it good. And what's nice is it's got

02:49 8 and 3/4 to 1 compression and you can run it on the junk pump gas you get out here in

02:53 California. George what are we going to do with this motor here today? Well that's what we're here for.

02:57 We're making this motor basically look like a vintage 1970

03:01 SS454 engine which is the LS5, LS6 style.

03:05 And there's a couple small challenges in converting that or finishing that

03:09 job is the cloning aspect of it is going to be the biggest thing compared to

03:13 the vintage one. So valve covers, we're going to paint it orange

03:17 to begin with. We're going to add the full conduction parts on there. At first glance when you

03:22 pop the hood it will look like a factory SS454.

03:26 So we're going to make it look old but have a bunch of new performance in there.

03:30 Exactly. And I know we'll get really close with all the parts from OPG.

03:34 Now that we've got the motor taped up, we're going to go ahead and paint it a classic Chevy orange with some dual color paint.

03:38 Actually one of the things we had to do before we painted it is change the oil pan

03:42 on this Crate 502. They come from GM with a truck oil pan

03:46 but to retrofit it onto an early car like a '70 Chevelle or any A-Body

03:50 you have to get one of the GM conversion kits. So we're going to go ahead and paint it orange.

03:54 And we're going to go ahead and paint it with some dual color paint.

03:58 So we're going to go ahead and paint it orange.

04:02 Now we're going to go ahead and paint it orange.

04:06 Now we're going to go ahead and paint it orange.

04:10 Now we're going to go ahead and paint it orange.

04:14 Now we're going to go ahead and paint it orange.

04:18 Now we're going to go ahead and paint it orange.

04:22 Now we're going to go ahead and paint it orange.

04:26 Now we're going to go ahead and paint it orange.

04:30 Now we're going to go ahead and paint it orange.

04:34 Now that we have the engine painted

04:38 we're going to add a couple of these factory engine lift brackets

04:42 that are needed and used when you drop the motor into the car.

04:46 So one just goes here in the front and one goes towards the back.

04:50 Second, as a note, we decided to keep the original 502 intake manifold

04:54 that came with the Crate engine. You can use any intake manifold you want, GM,

04:58 or aftermarket, but we figured this would work best with the MSD Atomic EFI

05:02 that Tony's holding right now that we're about to install.

05:06 George is pulling off the modern cast aluminum valve covers

05:18 that come in the HT502. The HT502 doesn't need a tall valve cover, so we're going to

05:23 put on some reproduction stainless steel chrome covers to keep it this retro look.

05:27 [music]

05:31 We're totally departing from originality when it comes to the

05:47 ignition system on the car. We are going with the Pro Billet MSD Ready to Run

05:51 distributor, but what we are doing is we changed it over to a black cap,

05:55 we painted the original blaster coil from red to black, and we're running the black

05:59 wires from MSD. That way at first glance, pop the hood, everything looks original.

06:03 Ready? Cool.

06:07 So now we're going to assemble the entire accessory system using pulleys and

06:15 brackets from OPG. It's all OE stuff. We're going to use a long

06:19 water pump style, the same as we'll be on a 454, so it's going to look original.

06:23 The only thing that's not original looking is going to be the aftermarket air conditioning system.

06:27 [music]

06:31 And finally we're topping off this 502 with the all original style

06:45 Cal Induction air cleaner that we got from OPG. It does a great job covering the MSD

06:49 EFI, and it's perfect for that all original look.

06:53 Here's the final assembled

06:57 engine ready to install. Before next episode where we get it running, we're going to put an

07:01 overdrive trans on it, we're going to change the brake booster and the steering gear box, take a couple

07:05 things off the firewall, and we're going to drop it in and get it running. This engine isn't going to fool any purists

07:09 into thinking it's a real deal SS 454, but it does fit the theme of a practical

07:13 daily driven muscle car really well. Alright, that's it for wrenching on this episode of Hot Rod Garage

07:17 presented by Lincoln Tech. Now stay tuned for a Q&A session with David Freiberger

07:21 and Mike Finnegan from Roadkill.

07:25 It's time again for the question and answer part

07:29 of Hot Rod Garage presented by Lincoln Tech. Hello from beautiful Baker, California.

07:33 Side of the road. Yep, we are not in our office, we are not driving,

07:37 so we're going to enjoy a fresh one while we read your questions off of

07:41 the Hot Rod Garage Show Facebook page and address them

07:45 desperately and with inebriation. Actually, we're only having one.

07:49 We're sober. Which sucks because all our talent is really in these

07:53 12 ounce bottles. That's true. Ben Hayden, or Hadden,

07:57 will you ever convert to the metric system? Me personally,

08:01 no. I try desperately not to own cars with metric fasteners.

08:06 All of my metric tools are really shiny. I never will get used to it.

08:10 I can't glance at a bolt and go, that's a 10. I have no idea.

08:14 That's when I'm missing a 9/16, a 14 is a good substitute. See, I'm not even good

08:18 at that. I wish I was. That's the only one. I don't remember the rest of them.

08:22 Metric sockets in my world are spacers.

08:26 This guy goes, "Finnegan, are you getting fatter?" No.

08:30 He's Finnegan. I'm Freiberger.

08:34 I didn't think I was getting fatter. No, I'm definitely getting fatter though. I'm back on the cola.

08:38 I have a serious caffeine addiction and unfortunately I don't drink coffee.

08:42 I drink gallons of coke every day. Let's talk about deficiencies.

08:46 What's your worst addiction? Cola.

08:50 And work. I'm a workaholic. I've got a sugar problem.

08:54 If you leave candy or cookies out anywhere, I can't stop myself.

08:58 Here, we've got this one down. Nathaniel Prenatus.

09:02 What's a good recipe for a budget street strip big block Chevy?

09:06 Oh, dude, that's easy. I can make 600 horsepower easy.

09:10 Basically. AFR 315 cylinder heads on any GM crate motor.

09:14 And you've got 700 horsepower. Easier than that.

09:18 454HO crate motor. A good oval port.

09:22 Brodix has a line of really good oval ports. AFR has a new oval port.

09:26 There's a CNC oval port from Edelbrock now. Any of those,

09:30 a Performer RPM air gap intake manifold, 10 to 1, 10.5 to 1 compression

09:34 right in that neighborhood, and a hydraulic roller cam shaft with

09:38 242, 248 at 50. That makes 600 horsepower.

09:42 Martel Deferre. Sort of a follow-up question.

09:46 Is it worth building a 454 small block Chevy?

09:51 I'm going to say probably no. You can do it. You generally want a tall deck

09:55 block. You're going to have to move the cam up in the block. Basically, you have to

09:59 use a rocket block so that you can go 4185, have some cylinder wall left,

10:03 move the cam up so that you have to put a 4 1/8 inch stroke in them.

10:07 But at the end of the day, it's a small block. It's a small block. If you're building it for a street

10:11 machine and you just need the physical small package size, I can see

10:15 making it worth it. For a race car, you can't get the cylinder head to support

10:19 it as easily as you could a big block of the same displacement, which you can

10:23 get a grate head for, no problem. Right. Mike Harris. What is the cut-off point

10:27 for engine performance mods where a carb with manual secondaries

10:31 can be used? I'm the wrong guy to answer this question because I always say you can put a double

10:35 pumper on anything if you tune it right. But... Yeah, I mean, if you don't care about fuel economy,

10:39 put a double pumper on it. The throttle response is awesome. Guys with no

10:43 rear gear with a really heavy car and no camshaft, put on a double pumper. Don't tune the thing

10:47 mad at box. That's the problem. That's what a vacuum secondary solves for people.

10:51 If you want gas mileage out of your car, you generally want a vacuum secondary

10:55 because if you're cruising and you have enough load where you've actually tipped into

10:59 the secondaries, your mileage is going to be horrible. Whereas on a vacuum secondary,

11:03 the secondaries won't be open. That's what you need a vacuum secondary carb for.

11:07 Okay, last one. What's your favorite car movie?

11:11 That's easy. Two-lane blacktop. Hands down.

11:15 Best car movie ever because it has the best lines ever and it has probably the

11:19 longest periods of time where you just hear the engine. Yeah, not a whole lot of

11:23 talking. Yeah, we shut up and just, let me hear the car. Very existential.

11:27 I'm going Dirty Mary Crazy Larry. That is... Every time.

11:32 Peter Fonda says... Oh God, I can't even repeat it.

11:36 It's vulgar. Just rent it. Buy it. Whatever.

11:40 Peter Fonda is a psychopathic badass in that movie. Yeah. You know what I'm most

11:44 inspired by in Dirty Mary Crazy Larry? I love the Charger and everything. It's great.

11:48 But at the beginning when they heist the grocery store and they take off

11:52 in a '66 Caprice 4-door. And they jump it.

11:56 The scene where they slide the thing out onto the highway and split

12:00 the lanes between the two semi-trucks and it knocks the rearview mirrors off the side.

12:04 That has made me want a 4-door Caprice. I met Peter Fonda one time at a

12:08 power tour kick-off party. What would you ask Peter Fonda?

12:12 I just thanked him for producing Bridget. That was all.

12:16 That's it for this Q&A. We'll close it off at. We'll see you next time.

12:20 Once again, check out all our social media. Hot Rod Garage Show on Facebook.

12:24 Roadkill Show on Facebook. David Freiberger on Facebook.

12:28 And on Instagram, Finnegan999. On me, David Freiberger. Roadkill Show.

12:32 It just never really ends. Once again, kings of all social media.

12:36 But that's it for this time on Hot Rod Garage presented by Lincoln Tech.

12:40 [closing credits]

12:44 [closing credits]

12:48 [music]

13:16 BAM!

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