I have a 68 camaro with BBC 489. I've noticed the last few passes at the track that the nose of the car wants to drift back and forth when speeds get up to 95-100 mph and above. It gets severe enough that I have to let off the gas in fear of losing control. The "wobble" stops right away when I let off the gas. I have a cowl hood, inner fenders, and a front air spoiler under the front of the car. This was previously a small block car, so I did not replace the springs. My first 2 passes at the strip, this wobble did not happen. So 4 passes total, with the wobble during the last two. I'm going to get my wheels balanced and aligned tomorrow. I run 20psi in the rear and 30 psi up front on BFG T/A Radials. Again mostly a street car, but I do like to have fun at the strip from time to time. Anyone ever have this problem and if so, what did you do to fix it? Thank you all. (also car is roughly 200 lbs heavier after the swap from 327 to 489)

Patrick

If you are having much front end lift at high speed, Camaros have a lot of bumpsteer which adds lots of toe-in when the front lifts. I had a friend who limited front lift on a Nova with the same problem and he gained 5 mph.

Make sure your balljoints and steering linkage is in good shape. The idler arm can cause a lot of trouble if it get's loose, check it carefully.
Align with as much positive caster as you can get.
David

Sounds like two problems to me. I agree that the wobble could be coming from bump steer. To demonstrate that the problem is real, on my 69 I put new tire and wheels all the way around. New something was off, so I went and had the alignment done. Car would still steer itself when I hit a bump or cornered, so much that I was down to the cords just on the outside, in 10,000 miles on the tires and it tracked perfectly down the road if I was on a flat surface.

Good point on the checking for loose parts.

Second problem is the lift. Did the engine mod or did you take on or off anthing that would effect air flow? Or were your times higher in the 3 and 4th runs so that you are getting more air lift? All the air going around the lights, thru the radiator, anything below the lip of the front the hood has to go somewhere. Most air in the engine compartment is forced down and under the car.

I'm rebuilding my camaro now and I'm playing with two thoughts. Look at the Vette. I like the shape of the lower spoiler area with the plastic being the final lower 2 or 3 inches. Also even since the 70's, some have had vent openings behind the front wheels. I wonder what that's for??? ...LOL. I could go on and on about the lift issue. I posted a request for info on another site on what people are doing on their lower valances and mums the word. Looking at the magazine cover for Big Red, it had two square holes cut in the lower valance in front of the spoiler. Now that lets air in, so you have to direct it out also.

Well I got my front end aligned and I had some pretty bad toe out, especially on the right front tire. I had the ball joints replaced (loose), the bushings replaced (worn), and a few other things. The car acts much better now, but still wobbles a little at speed (100 mph up) I never encountered bump-steer with bumps in the road or while cornering. I also found out that my front shocks are shot, so I'm ordering a set of Bilsteins. I put them on the rear, no idea why I didn't do all 4 at the time:confused: Hopefully that will help as well. Also plan to install a HD swaybar (1") instead of the small block one I have on there now.

Oh ya, shocks, big time. I have Koni's that I'll be putting on mine. Subframe should come back from the custom shop this week and I can then start re-assembling my front end. Then the body goes in for the restore, so I have a long time till I'll be able to try mine out. Send me a PM after you try out the new shocks, I'm interested in the results.