The Sacrifice

08/09/2000. Well, the Nova Gods demanded a sacrificial offering before they'd allow me to drop a motor into the Coyote.

And since that 4-bolt motor may need a crankshaft, it seems that it would be a good candidate to make into a 327 for the Grape.

I got a call from a fella who asked if I was still interested in a 350 motor...I said I was still considering things, and I'd look at what he had. Here's what I saw:

A semi-ratty 77 Camaro with a 350 motor, TH350 trans (no reverse) and a Holley 600 cfm carb.

I thought about having him pull the motor and just buying that...but the idea of scarificing the whole car to the Gods seemed like a better idea. So we agreed on $325 as the offering for the Sacrifice.

We took the battery out of his truck and got it started...and it ran fairly well So he drove it to my house and we exchanged coin of the realm.

It actually looks fairly good sitting in my driveway...but let's check a little further. The paint is a spray-can job that is somewhat uneven...well, real ragged in spots.

Then there's the front end and left front fender that don't quite match.

The center section of the rear spoiler is cracked from opening the trunk with a prybar.

And underneath the deck lid the whole inner panel is rusted out. There are also big ol' rust holes in the floor of the trunk. I didn't pull up the carpet to see what I'd find there.

I did find a set of 882 heads with what appear to be 2.02 intake valves in the trunk. I'm not sure what to do with them, but I'll think of something.

The seats are in fairly good shape...at least they can be recovered and re-used, possibly as back seats for the Grape.

The dash is in pretty good condition and includes a DashMat. But the instrument panel and wiring...Whoa!!!

You can see how the instrument panel and heater controls have been somewhat rearranged. And to start the car, you have to force the slide switch that normally sits on the steering column with a screwdriver while straddling the heater controls. Lotsa fun.

Under the hood is a very dirty 350...the numbers match up to a 77 A, B, F or X body, so if it's not original, it's close. The block casting number is 3970014, so it's a 2-bolt 350.

It also has an Edelbrock 2101 intake manifold and a Holley 3310 (1850?) 600 cfm vacuum secondary carb.

Next page: the Sacrifice gets sacrificed.

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