Oh boy... it pains me to write this.I would like to first off mention again... and it's in the FAQ..... I am NOT a mechanic.  I only play one for my family and friends.  I'm an enthusiast of all things mechanical.  Having said that, I take full responsibility for this "mis-hap".I had noticed that the crank pulley had the main BIG BOLT in the centre.... I also noticed that there were no smaller bolts in the surrounding 3 bolt holes.   But then I forgot.After the boys worked for hours and hours fabbing up an exhaust, they took the car out for a spin..... In all of their exuberance, a minor tragedy struck.   That single bolt, holding the crank pulley to the harmonic balancer and crank backed itself out.  In short order, the pulley fell off, proceeded to make it's way back wedging itself in between the roadway and the nice chrome oil pan, causing the car to jump on the road, it then decided that the damage to the oil pan was not enough.  It quickly travelled to the unprotected flexplate and struck it or wedged itself in between the flexplate and the bell housing causing the flexplate to well....flex....bend if you will.

Well.  So much fun stuff happened!  We got a radiator.  We got stock dual rad fans.  We installed the rad and rad fans..... wired up said rad fans and began filling the rad..... OOOF... a leak, right from the middle of the rad.  Vinnie Camaro did the right thing and refunded us the moola.  We then went straight to www.thewrenchmonkey.com and ordered us a brand new one!  It showed up the next day and we promptly installed it.  OOOOH doggy.  We fired the beast up and realized a few things....which tamed the mood.  The rad fans weren't turning on even after the temp gauge showed 105.   So my wiring was blamed.....and it was.... I hooked up both rad fans with relays, but forgot the trigger wires on both...DUH.   All fixed and the fans came on!  And for those stock fans... I say... "Thank you" to Vinnie Camaro.As you can see in the picture, the hood fits perfectly..... we had our doubts.... this motor is much much bigger and we thought the air filter would contact the hood... turns out, there's about 1/2" clearance.

We've been hard at work on the Camaro.We got the inline fuel pump and filters from Venice at The Performance Cellar in Hamilton.  Go support him!

Things are coming along, slowly but surely.  We've got some of the wiring figured out, to the point that we can turn over the motor. We got a mini-high torque starter.....sounds super cool when it's spinning the motor over, and of course, the Hedman headers that came with the motor.........don't fit.  They are for a truck and physically won't work with an F-Body.  So if you want 'em, they are for sale on Marketplace.We were able to find (locally) a set of stock exhaust manifolds... complete with the air pipes.... got those removed and pluged, wire-wheeled and high temp painted.... they came out great.   

Well, last night was the biggest win so far.  With the help of Zach's buddy Ethan, we were able to get the motor and transmission installed in the car!  Took some finagling, and we had to remove the front clip.... but we prevailed!

So.... we did a thing.....We were able to borrow an engine hoist from our friend Greg, and within a few hours Zach and I had the 2.8L V6 and the 700R4 out and sitting on the ground.   Sheesh... Now what!?  

My best mate Rob came to play in the snow on Saturday.  He brought his 1995 Yamaha VMAX 600.  

When you've got snowmobiles, and there's an epic snowstorm dumping feet of snow, what would a normal person do? 

Well, 'tis the season.... When you're all about the oldies they tend to break down more then the new stuff.... while we're disappointed when it happens, we aren't surprised.

Booo!  We got that 600 triple running real well, and did two race-runs in the field.  That thing being piloted by Zach kicked me and my 2007 Polaris IQ 600 right in the rear.   While riding back to the barn, i saw him slow down to a stop.  Zach hopped off the sled and opened the hood.  Then, his hands went up onto his helmet in disbelief.  He thought the belt blew.... in reality, the primary clutch EXPLODED!  The shrapnel mangled the clutch cover, and blew a hole out the bottom of the bellypan!  WOW!   Thankfully we always run our sleds with the clutch covers on.... this incident could have been very dangerous!  The good news is that the engine still runs fine, we just need to find a new-to-us clutch, and we'll stitch together the bellypan. 

Well, the snow is here.... it came early this year and to be perfectly honest.... I wasn't ready for it.  Having said that, of course, instead of working on winter things in the summer....so they're ready, here we are, working on snowmobiles that should be being used.     Work on sleds in the summer and bikes in the winter is easier said, then done!