PDANK Racing's Chevelle Classix Rebuild/ LS Upgrade

[PDANK Racing]

In May of 2011, I picked up a 1976 Chevelle that has been racing shortcourse since the mid 90's. Bought it as a full roller, threw in a drivetrain and raced the majority of the TORC season. Overall, the car handles great, rearend really likes to hook, and got my first two podium finishes. Since the car has been raced for so long, most of the problem areas have been fixed. The frame, steering, spindles, front and rear control arms are the only stock parts left. The body is gone, previous owner had replaced it with sheetmetal, and as you can see in the pics, it was pretty ugly. But the frame is surprisingly straight and solid. We made the entire season without any broken parts, other than a couple shocks.

Did have a problem with the electrical system, so that was completely redone in the middle of the season. One major problem is the shocks, their some trailblazer crap, so they will be getting tossed for a decent set of 2.5". I am still looking for a set of 10" smooth bodies, pm me w/ details.

Last week I purchased a 6.0L LQ4 for $600. Pretty stoked about finding one for so cheap. Yesterday I picked up a dual plane edelbrock intake, and ordered the TCI Flexplate kit, new pushrods, and msd controller. Other than possibly putting a set of headers on it, I'm gonna keep the motor stock internally, maybe throw a cam in if there's room in the budget. Without camming it, should be putting out around 400 hp. Same power as my 350, but 1/2 the price. Car craft did an article on this motor, pulled some impressive #'s, check it out http://www.carcraft.com/projectbuild...t_results.html.

Yesterday, couple of buddies and I got the car into the shop, removed the crappy body and cleaned up the leftover dirt. The body will get a complete redo. I'm on the search for a decent donor, found a couple good prospects, so hopefully one will work out. Started cutting out the damaged body mounts and getting the old motor ready to take out. Finish up the night by getting the junk shocks off.

Couple pics





Thanks for checking out my thread, I have a bunch of pictures and a couple videos that I'll be adding later.

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[PDANK Racing]

Plan of Attack:
Completely redo front and rear shocks/mounts
Change ball joints, ctrl arm bushings
Upgrade Tie rods to heims
Swap 350 to LS
Redo Body
Install Mastercraft Seat
Inspect everything
Upgrade rear lower trailing arms

[PDANK Racing]

Random pics from this past season

Bark River

[TORC_spotter_870]

Good Luck on the build, someone needs to get out there and give Dale a run for his money!!

[PDANK Racing]

Thanks, maybe you can talk to your pops about hooking us up with some horses. Then we won't have any problems keeping Dale in the roost.

[TORC_spotter_870]

There ya go, we've never done a Classix motor before. If you ever want his number let me know, or call him out at Keith's pit!

[PDANK Racing]

Progress is being made. Removed the old body mounts, rear bumper(which will be made a little better looking and removable), headers/exhaust, all shocks and front suspension. Founds some areas of the cage that I will fix, probably could do more, but the major problems will be taken care. Welds are quality, only found a couple boogers.

exhaust system that came with the car, will end up in the Blazer I'm finishing after this.


This rear setup will all be redone, I'm on the fence about lengthing the rear control arms, since the car really hooks up well. Bare minimum, heim setup on the tubular ctrl arms, and new shock geometry. Just picked up Herb Adams Chassis Engineering, should help me get a better idea of what i'm doing.

[PDANK Racing]

This is where we left off last night




Tonight, My son and I got the coolant drained and he cut a bunch of Zipties off. I recently got him a bunch of tools, so he's pretty excited to use them.

Engine will be ready to come out soon. I have a engine/trans stand setup, and will use this to make solid motor mounts for the ls. Found some sets of Schoenfield crossover headers for $300 to $360, depending on primary/ collector size. Crew chief has Desktop dyno to help use get motor details worked out. Mike over @ Bay Speed Center in DePere, has been very helpful with giving me good advice on part selection and potential problem areas with the motor(not many). Great pricing too, saved me almost $100 on the msd/ intake setup.

Rear travel is currently strapped at 10", due to springs falling out with anymore travel. Unstrapped, the upper control arm limits travel to 12". Class rules allow 15" of travel and custom springs, so if I can't find a stock spring to work for 12", I'll have to go that route.

[PDANK Racing]

Made really good progress this weekend. Finished up majority of the grinding, between the old body mounts and other junk, there was at least 20 hours of sparks flying. Still have a couple tubes that will get cutoff and rerouted, and I'm on the fence about how much deeper to go. Motor and tranny got pulled last night, and separated. The motor will be torn apart and inspected, and be put back together as a spare. The tranny worked fine, so I'll probably leave it as is, and rebuild a spare I have.

[PDANK Racing]

Found a donor car for a body, 1979 Monte Carlo. Which unfortunately doesn't quite fit, so it will have to be shortened 6" and widened. But this car is not as ugly as some of the other late '70s junk, so it will do. Also picked up a set of ctrl arms and spindles from the junkyard. They will be sandblasted, reinforced and rebuilt with steel bushings and moog 3/4 ton ball joints. All hardware on the chassis will also be replaced with grade 8.

Msd controller came in the other day, and placed an order for the TCI flexplate kit. Only items left on the engine list are headers, starter, belt, couple gaskets, and possibly an oil pump.

Ordered shocks from FOA today. I have ran foxes before and were satisfied with there performance, but budget dictates where I spend money, and FOA seems to make a quality product.
Front- 2.5 x 12 w/ res.
Rear - 2.5 x 14 w/ res.

Next is figuring out what spring rates to start with. Anyone have advice about how to determine a starting point? What info do I need, unsprung, sprung weight, etc?
Car will be around 3500lbs race ready.
110" wheelbase
72" track width(outside of tires)