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Tom Dosher’s 68 survivor

13K views 56 replies 21 participants last post by  SlaughterD 
#1 ·
Finally decided to get started are trying to get my late father in law, Tom Dosher’s 68 running after it sat in a garage without running for 25 years. I always wondered how he let it sit for so long. After a year of it sitting my garage, I realized who am I to judge. I’m a novice, done a tone of reading, including this site for over a year (I know it’s been over a year because the annual subscription just auto-renewed - best money I ever spent), and spoke with many people about the car.

I wanted to start a thread for the car to track its path back to road capable. The car 68 Z28, without the engine. Original colors are butternut yellow with pearl parchment but car is currently black lacquer with custom pearl parchment (very worn). Engine is tricked out.

Began tonight pulling the plugs and putting two teaspoons of mystery oil in each cylinder. Drained what was left in the radiator, carrot juice I think. Draining and replacing oil next. Will give a couple days to soak and then see if I can rotate the motor (with plugs still out).

I attached pics of the spark plugs. Most appear to be fouled w carbon. 2 appears normal and 4 close to normal. Looking at the intake, I’m wouldn’t think fouled plugs would be a surprise. But not sure why 2 would appear so different than the others?
 

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#4 ·
It sure looks "80's" under the hood! Just the way Camaros did when I was in high school.

Watch out for stuck floats, cracked fuel lines, and that aluminum fan. Always have a fire extinguisher standing by on start ups like this. Let us know how it goes, video would be great.
 
#6 ·
Drained oil, all 7-8 quarts from the large oil pan. There is an odor of gas in the oil. Hopefully that is because mixture was too rich with the intake set up (evidenced by plugs and the varnish on the intake seen in the above photo)

Removed the belt, water pump spins smoothly, alternator spins smoothly. Removed fan for safety and will reinstall later when we get to the running beyond 15 second stage w/ a new shroud. Will see if motor spins without combustion first, hopefully this weekend. After that, with the camaro came a lot of classic car parts. Have a more reasonable manifold and carburetor, and may have carb rebuilt and make a change before trying to run under combustion. Fire extinguisher will be a must (CO2 not powder).

Baby steps, my job only gives me a couple of hours each night to chip away. Added an old pick of a previous custom hood...
 

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#8 ·
X2 what Tom mentioned. Those fans could surprise you badly and they roar. It looks like gas stain on the front runners. That setup may be why it sat all that time. I wouldnt put gas back in those carbs without taking them apart first. As you mentioned swapping it out might be the best plan. I see quickie valve cover bolts. Assuming the motor has sat for 25 years without the rocker arms backed off you may want to see if there is an old set of roller rockers under there with the crap stretched out of some of them. Thats a nice way back machine you have.
 
#9 ·
Not wanting to get the cart too far in front of the horse, but down the road you may want to invest in a fan shroud to improve cooling. I'd also pre-oil the engine prior to startup.
 
#10 ·
Little concerned. Got oil filter off, and the contents in the filter were a milky brown (put in water bottle) The oil from the oil pan was black and looked good. Removed the valve covers and revealed 041 heads. They look like they are in okay shape but did see a little bit of fluid that appeared greenish (coolant?). Starting to worry have some coolant intrusion. Will keep chipping away. If motor moves, will likely have to take the heads off to make sure head gasket is good.
 

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#12 ·
First moment of truth tonight. With engine lubed up, used a breaker bar, was able to turn engine. Felt smooth and consistent. Will let it sit for the night and will try turning engine with the starter tomorrow. If that goes well, will work on cooling system and gas tank/fuel lines.

Can see video here of manual turning of engine.

https://vimeo.com/user102274167/review/356321975/e422419fb9
 
#15 ·
On to fuel system. Dropped the gas tank. Some old fuel in tank to contend with. All hoses are hard as a rock, but of course already planning to replace. Seems only logical to replace tank and sending unit while I have it down, so will order one this weekend. any suggested places to get one?Some rust on trunk floor. Want to preserve car but not in restoration mode. Wire wheel areas of concern, prime and paint?

Of to watch Huskers season opener, GO BIG RED.
 

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#16 ·
On to fuel system. Dropped the gas tank. Some old fuel in tank to contend with. All hoses are hard as a rock, but of course already planning to replace. Seems only logical to replace tank and sending unit while I have it down, so will order one this weekend. any suggested places to get one?Some rust on trunk floor. Want to preserve car but not in restoration mode. Wire wheel areas of concern, prime and paint?



Of to watch Huskers season opener, GO BIG RED.


Man I wish I had the abilities to build one myself that would make the car that much more enjoyable once complete. Good luck on your build!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
#17 ·
Dan - I hope you don't mind me posting this, but here's a scan of the article on your car from the July, 1982 issue of "Popular Hot Rodding" magazine. (Hey everybody - The magazine printed this article at an angle, so please don't knock my scanning skills.)

How many of us bought these magazines in our teens and drooled over the feature cars while we saved up money to buy Camaros of our own? Very few of those feature cars have survived this long in the same configuration, so here is one more vote for keeping it old-school.
 

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#18 ·
Thanks for posting. Have many copies of the magazine article of the car. He had a framed copy in his house, he was very proud of it. The plan is to make the car a tribute to him, but not keep it exactly the same. Will eventually change tires / rims to a more reasonable size but stay w chrome crager like rims. Change the intake to a single 4bbl set up but save the dual set up from the article in case there is a desire to go back some day. There is no hood picture in the article, but will eventually try to have a hood that reflects they way he had it painted at the time of the article. A lot of work ahead...
 
#19 ·
On the number 2 cylinder, I suspect a slight coolant leak. Probably only when it was running. I have an old pick-up I use here on our farm and one plug always looks clean as can be compared to the others. The head gasket shows slight seepage (externally) only when it begins to warm up. Don't recall where I've heard that theory before, but from the evidence from my old pick-up, I believe it.:) It runs perfectly, btw...

When you 're ready to spin it over with the starter, I advise taking a compression test. Before and after firing it up.

Acetone cuts (dissolves) gas varnish. If the tank isn't rusty, no reason not to use it....
 
#20 ·
I agree with everything Garth said above. I had an El Camino with a 400 SBC and a bad head gasket. It was find for back and forth to work but hydrauliced a cylinder after my with took the kids ice skating and sat in the truck with it running for an hour or more. IIRC I pulled the plug and pushed the coolant out and drove it some more after that.

Jeff
 
#21 ·
Good advice, thank you. Will do a compression check. If it appears to be an issue, even if minor, I can’t see not changing the head gasket since I plan to change intake anyway. Biggest fear I have of going to the head gasket is breaking an old bolt or getting debris somewhere bad. The radiator fluid was like orange carrot juice, believe now it may of had Dexcool in it, and so maybe I have a gasket that is incomparable with Dexcool causing some leakage.

Trying to determine what intake to use using the article as a guide for the cam specs, etc I assume are still accurate.

Went ahead and ordered a gas tank. There is a rusty area on the top right area that I don’t want to worry about.
 
#22 ·
Would be best to get it running as is without further disassembly and do your tests. This will give you a better idea of how far to disassemble and what to look for. I realize the dual carb setup may be finicky, but it's not a waste to do what's needed to the carbs to get it running as you can recoup that if you choose to sell the intake set-up.

Not much to worry about changing headgaskets other than the possible damage (cracked castings, etc.) found or required machine work (resurfacing). If the heads are removed (and valvetrain) it's fairly easy to replace the camshaft as well.
 
#24 · (Edited)
Just need to spin it over with the starter to do a preliminary compression test. Also a cooling system pressure test as previously mentioned can be done prior to start up. However cooling system leaks may not be apparent until it is warmed up and running.

The carbs probably just need to be cleaned. As mentioned, acetone is very effective removing varnish build up. Holley's are easy to work on. If you don't have the experience, many of us do and can help guide you...
 
#25 ·
Sounds like a plan. Will do a cold compression check today. To do the pressure test on the cooling system will have to replace the radiator hoses, they were very brittle and cracked, falling apart when I drained the radiator. There is no thermostat in the housing, common here in Florida garage built rides.

Appreciate you building my confidence in the carbs. Will hold off on full rebuild, but try to clean them up and the basins/floats myself.

This forum is great!
 
#26 ·
I ran two compression tests per cylinder. This is using the starter to turn enjoy, no combustion yet. Not sure how to interpret. The results seemed to vary too much, cylinder #4 is very low compared to others. Compression check results:

#1 - 145, 145
#3 - 140, 148
#5 - 140, 142
#7 - 155, 170
#2 - 152, 150
#4 - 135, 130
#6 - 170, 170
#8 - 155, 152
 
#27 ·
Doesn't seem too terribly bad. It should run on all cylinders. The main thing you're looking for is consistency. I forget for sure, but think the general rule is within 10% on all cylinders. Next you should add about 1 oz. motor oil to each cylinder and retest. If readings improve, indicates rings. If not, it's most likely valves. I'm not really seeing anything obvious pointing towards a head gasket. Things may improve after you get it running. Let's see what other folks have to say ….?

I presume you checked the oil pressure when you were spinning it over ?
 
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