'94 CAMARO, ROW-COLUMBUS

This week, we've got some backyard bolt ons for late model Camaros and Firebirds. Plus we're gonna put them to the test

today on horsepower TV. It's time for some hot rod respiratory rehab on a late model Camaro. We'll show you how to make more horsepower with a set of headers and high flow cat back exhaust system.

We've uh we've raced, you know, several times this year back and forth.

It's gonna be a dogfight all the way to the end

in our race of the week, a season finale of NSC. A competition turns into a nail biting showdown of six second outlaw street fighters.

So hang on for horsepower TV.

Hey, welcome to the shop. You know, late model F bodies are a great combination between power and

panache and here lately they've also become very affordable now. I just picked up this 94 Z 28 for only six grand. And hey, that leaves enough left over for some speed parts like the ones we're gonna bolt on it today.

That is if my partner ever decides to show up.

All right. Hey, man, did you bring any donuts?

All right. What do you got here, Joe. Well, this is the 21st century F body called the Hearst hauler. Actually, it's a project vehicle with Pontiac Mr gasket and year one

under the hoods. A 370 horse LS one

on the outside. It's got 18 inch American racing rims with 295 by 35 BFG rubber.

It's been lowered all around with IB box springs. But the real attention grabber is the fact that it's a firebird wagon.

Hey, and you know what that means? Plenty of room for plenty of parts. What do you say we unload this thing so we can get started on the Camaro.

All right. Keep going back.

There you go. Now, today we're gonna go ahead and open up the intake and exhaust on this LT one.

Keep going

and then we're gonna measure what each improvement is worth at the rear wheels. Oh, that's good enough right there.

But before we start bolting on any parts, what do you say? We get a good baseline laid down first.

Well, how'd we do

about 231? Good place to start. Now, let's see what happens when we add the cold air inlet kit.

Well, Chuck's removing the original air cleaner assembly. Let me show you what we're gonna swap it out for.

It's a high flow induction system designed by Calloway Technologies for Moroso that includes this air inlet duct

filter plate

and reusable high flow filter element plus all the hardware. Now, to install it. You just need a couple of sockets and a drill.

Well, there, we got the old air cleaner assembly out and as you can see, there are plenty of twists and turns and chambers and, well, this really gives you an idea of just how restrictive this thing is. There you go, man. Thanks a lot. Now, we're gonna start installing that new air inlet system by first bolting down this air filter plate that goes right down here where the old housing used to be.

The first step is to mark two holes

and drill em for the bolts that'll hold the plate in place.

Then after removing this plastic panel from behind the front bumper,

you can tighten the retaining bolts.

Now clamp the filter element to the filter plate,

install the duct plate, hose on the filter plate

and the connector hose onto the mass air sensor.

Now, we can install the air inlet duct and reattach the hose to the fitting on the rear of the duct.

Finally

just tighten up the clamps.

Hey, great job and only took us about a half hour. Hey, what do you mean to us? You slacker? I hope you've got enough energy left over to turn the computer on. I think I can handle that.

Well, how do we do?

Well, about 239 at the rear wheel, eight more than the baseline. Hey, that's not bad. But you know, we need to keep in mind that. Well, conditions here in the shop just aren't the same as they are out on the open road. For instance, there's no ram air

and the air temperature in here is considerably warmer than it is outside good points. But we gotta open up that exhaust. So let's check out our new headers.

We're gonna use this tubular exhaust system from Edelbrock. It features in and three quarter diameter thick wall primary tubes that feed into a factory style head pipe connector. Of course, it has provisions for your 02 sensor and all the smog fittings.

The fangs

here are 3/8 of an inch thick for a leaf roof seal. The kid also includes this wire pipe

and all the hardware you need to install it.

Well, I've already disconnected the battery and well, once we get this thing up in the air, we can go ahead and remove the 02 sensors plus the Y pipe and the Cadillac converter.

Well, now we're ready to attack the top side of the Camaro, but hey,

I'm ready for a little bit of a break. Stay with us.

Oh, it's gonna be a clutch pedal race as they call it.

Um It's gonna be whoever leaves the starting line first. Mike most likely will win the race

and the race is on at the NSC A finals in Columbus later on horsepower.

All right. Welcome back to the shop and more respiratory rehab on Chuck's Camaro.

Well, so far we've picked up eight extra horses with that moroso cold air kit. Now, what do you say? We opened up the exhaust? You bet. Now I've already removed the 02 sensor, the Y pipe and the cat converter. Now, I guess it's time to get rid of those old exhaust manifolds and make way for our new headers.

Yeah, I would say let's uh get started on the hard side first, but I don't think there is an easy one. So what do you say? We dig in and get the alternator off first.

Once it's out,

we need to remove the plugs.

I

wanna disconnect this smog fitting from the manifold.

There we go

there.

Now, we've already loosened the dipstick tube underneath and it just comes out from the top.

Then after moving six boats that hold the manifold in place,

it will come right out.

The header kit includes this longer bolt and spacer that are used to reattach this alternator support bracket to the cylinder head. Now, once I get this thing started,

I'm gonna go ahead and lay in the header gasket

and hand thread that rearmost header bolt.

The Chuck's Camaro has got over 100 20,000 miles on it. So it's got to have new

and wires before we lay the headers in place. We're gonna install these XL 300 plus race wires. They have low resistance for maximum voltage plus they'll help suppress RF I

to keep the ignition from interfering with the on board computer stereo or even the cell phone.

Well, how we doing over here ready for you now? Good deal. Now it's gonna take a little bit of

finagling, but these headers will drop in from the top.

Of course, once I get them dropped in, I'm gonna go ahead and start that most forward bolt

and that'll hold it in place while I start the rest of the bolts. And of course, once we get all them in, we just have to cinch them down.

Well, I just finished reconnecting the EGR tube and

well, now I guess it's time for me to go get the alternator dipstick tube and the smog fitting so we can reinstall them.

So that's it for the passenger side. It's pretty much the same drill on the driver's side. With one exception, we have to remove the steering shaft to give us the clearance we need for our new header.

Now, we should have plenty of room to drop this header in from the top

unless I get this thing bolted up. Maybe I can talk my partner to reinstalling that steering shaft.

Hey, dream on. Besides, I'm getting ready to install this new Y pipe here. Now, since my Camaro has so many miles on it,

we went ahead and pop for a new Cadillac converter. Now, this is a high flow high performance converter from random technologies. And as you can see, it's a slip fit.

Now, what that means is once we get into position, we're gonna have to mig weld it in place.

If you're doing this installation at home and don't have a welder, don't try to clamp the converter in place. Take it to a muffler shop to do the job. Right.

Well, I don't know about my partner there, but I'm ready to take it to a breakdown. Stay with us though. We'll finish our exhaust and put her on the dyno

Jet one more time after this.

Well, here's another late model Camaro to watch this one's battling for an outlaw street championship. Follow the action later here on horsepower TV.

Hey, welcome back to the shop and the exhaust system upgrade on my 94 Z 28 here. Now, so far we've gone ahead and added a new set of headers, A Y pipe and a new catalytic converter. And

well, now I guess it's time to finish off the rest of the job.

That's right. We're gonna install this Edelbrock Cat back system that features three inch mantle

bed pipes feeding into a fully welded high flow muffler here. Now, the whole system is illuminated

for long life and of course it comes with all the hardware, you need to bolt it up. But first things first, we gotta get that old system out of the way

and to do that, we're gonna use the trusty blue tip wrench.

Now, the first part to get installed is this intermediate pipe

followed by the over the axle pipe.

Then the muffler

with the driver side tail pipe attached

and finally

the passenger side tailpipe.

Now you wanna make sure that you keep all your connections loose and well, that way you can check for clearance around the frame,

any moving objects and certainly the fuel lines. Now, once you're satisfied, we can go ahead and tighten everything up

and remember we started out with 231 horsepower. We picked up another eight with our moroso cold air intake. Now, let's see what kind of payoff we get after opening up the exhaust side.

Hey man, if the sound is any indication we should have picked up a bunch of horsepower. Hey, how about 22 more? We're down 261. That's 30 more horsepower than we started out with today. Great. Now, you gotta remember that everything cost us about 900 bucks and well, those headers aren't exactly easy to install. There's not much room underneath the hood there, but on the other hand, that's probably where we got our biggest game with. No doubt. Well, that's all the backyard bolt

ons for your Camaro today, but we got more horsepower TV ahead. So stay with us. Hey, let's unstrap this thing. Take it for a road test. Hey, I'm all over that.

Coming up next, the top guns of outlaw street drag racing face off in the shoot out of the year at National Trail raceway. Stay with us,

horsepower TV. S race of the week. Trackside reports from America's best grassroots drag racing events.

This is the saga of two outlaw opponents fighting their way to the biggest duel of the year in street legal drag racing.

This one's from motor city,

an outlaw street bandit who's stolen victories at strips around the country

like this one in Bowling Green, Kentucky

where he ran a top class 689 at

199 miles an hour.

This outlaw fell in from the big apple. So no wonder he's good at the tree.

What's more, he's bad to the core running his mean Monte Carlo on some record runs here are going 670 to win Outlaw Street at Darlington.

Well, the ultimate showdown was destined to happen here at the NSC A finals in Columbus where contenders first proved their machines are street cars with a power parade.

Yeah, but here at the track, there's something more important to prove. And that is a championship et here in this season finale, shootout.

While championship titles have already been determined in most classes in the outlaw street class. Every run in both qualifying and eliminations will be do or die

yet, this only one point separates these guys from a championship trophy

or going home second place coming into

race. We're only one point ahead of d'antoni racing

and as you know, he's no slouch. I

mean, it's going to be tough. We got, we got to try to qualify number one right out of the box. The only difference between the two cars is mine is considered a pro mod car with an extended wheelbase. Steve is more of a pro star car with a shorter wheelbase.

The effect of the two is it will be a little bit easier for me to get down

a slicker track than it would be for Steve.

But if his does go down, it will be quicker.

We're definitely going to have to hit it right on a tree. I think it's going to be one on the starting line. We've seen his numbers. He's seen my numbers.

We've raced several times this year back and forth.

It's going to be a dog fight all the way to the end. We're going to make two quality runs today

and then we'll slowly pace ourselves through elimination

to hopefully meet Steve in the final. If not earlier

during Saturday's qualifying runs. Both outlaws posted ETS in the sixes.

However,

D'Antoni managed a top qualifying spot to put the pair in a points deadlock heading into Sunday's finals.

It's gonna take, uh, mid eighties 68 at well over 200 to get through the afternoon

and then against Mark, you know,

he's fast and he's one of the best racers there is,

it's probably going to take a

real low 70

you got to leave the light first. Oh, it's going to be a clutch pedal race that they call it.

Um It's going to be whoever leaves the starting line first, Mike most likely will win the race.

Um We both know that I got a little more and Steve has a little more.

Finally, the showdown. Everyone expected K Steve and Mark in the NSE, a outlaw season finale

and in one of the closest contest of the year, it's Grebeck winning with a 673 over d'antoni's 676. We're lucky. Um,

you know, Mark's fast and like I said earlier today,

it was going to take a perfect, perfect run.

And, uh, that starts at the tree

and, um, a 68 to a 77

was close. I saw orange

for a little bit of the racetrack and I pulled the short stick and

I, I just disappeared from him. We ran good all weekend.

We expected to run exactly what we did. We just didn't expect the Steve to run a 73. My hats off to him. He did a great race and he deserved a championship

and hats off to all the champions of NSC. A competition.

Here are just a few of the class acts in American street legal racing,

horsepower TV

S Hot parts. A close up. Look at the latest in high performance hardware.

Hey, if you've got a second generation Camaro. Well, here's a good hood for you from a company called Good Mark Industries.

The ever popular cow induction hood is now available in

real steel and it's not just for good looks. It's functional with an opening under here. Now, you can latch on to one for about 425.

Hey, if you wanna pack more power into your Holly, well, then check out this main body kit from pro form.

Now, it's available for most popular Holly four barrels and it'll flow up to 870 CFM for an additional 25 to 30 horsepower. It's got screw in air bleeds down leg boosters, plus the air horns been milled and the venturia have been radius.

Now, you can pick one of these up for about 100 and 60 bucks.

Well, now you can monitor the vital signs of your 68 and 69 Camaro with this auto meter gauge panel holds up to four optional gauges and mounts right to your console just forward of the shifter. The only funds you'll have to shift from your wallet are about 39 George Washington.

Hey, well, by George, I can't believe that it's time for us to leave. But before we go, here's a look at next week's uh program.

We'll drop a 502 cubic inch big block at the Chuck's Bel Air bracket racer backed up with an automatic overdrive trance.

We'll also install a new radiator, a set of power pulleys and high performance shifter.

We'll take you to a new England dragway to discover the story of a crew chief who refused to let blindness dim his dreams of competition racing.

And remember high performance. Fun is what this show is all about.

Oh, what a day, man. It was pretty tough. But, hey, we got a couple of hot f bodies here. What do you say? I've been dying for some more seat time in this hauler.

I love this thing.

Here we go.

Hey

Hanson,

where'd you hide my keys, man?

Wait, wait a minute. Come on

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