The story of a 71 Elcamino

[Chris142]

I was 16 in 1985. I had a friend my age and he drove a nice 71 Elcamino to school every day. It was a 2 bbl 350 car. Was very dependable,drove it every day with no issues.

His father was an old racer from earlier times and he decided that my friend needed a faster Elcamino.

His dad put together a 327 for the car. Big cam, tunnel ram with 2 double pumper Holley carbs.

With his dad's guidance we swapped the 327 into the Elcamino. This basically ruined the car.

It would not idle at a red light. You would have to put the transmission in neutral and keep it running with both feet.

The power brakes no longer worked as the big cam didn't have enough vacuum now.

We had to leave the hood off as the carburetors were too tall to shut the hood.

Add in the fact that none of us knew about converter stall speed and axle gears . The standard axle gears were 2.73. add in that a 71 Elcamino must weigh at least 4000 lbs.

So after it stalling several times at a red light you would take off on the green it would stumble and burp till about 40 mph in 1st gear then the 327 would start breathing and come alive.

My friend and family moved away soon after and I never heard the outcome for that car.

Imo we would have been better off with a single 4 bbl and maybe some headers on the original 350.

 

[AZjeff]

Hard to imagine a dad thinking his 16 YO son needs a racy engine even if it didn't run right.

 

[bullwinkle]

A 327 would have been plenty quick enough with a marine cam or 327/300HP cam, 2 plane manifold, and Quadrajet. The mistake was putting the huge cam in it! I had a ‘68 Impala SS convertible with the 327/300, Turbo 400, and very tall rear end ratio. Plenty fast enough, 55 in first! Guessing tunnel ram intake on the El Camino? That’s a whole lot of carb for an engine that small, especially one hooked up to a (probably weak) automatic. I seem to recall a terrifying test drive in a 340 powered dual carb tunnel ram equipped Demon, once, though, so it can be done (that car was a manual).

 

[SR5]

Everyone learns these lessons eventually, don't fix what isn't broken, and your race/hobby car should be your second car.

 

[SR5]

El Camino, I love this style of vehicle. They have been very popular in Australia for decades, a large bodied RWD sedan, turned into a ute (utility vehicle) by removing the rear seats & boot/trunk and replacing with a tray. Smaller and more nimble than a full sized truck, but more useful around the farm than a regular 4-door sedan.

The story goes, that a farmer once wrote to the local car company, and asked for a car that could carry stuff around the farm during the week. But was still comfortable enough for him to take his wife to church on Sunday. So they made him a ute. We've been buying them ever since.

 

[marc1]

Number one mistake made in modifying old muscle cars is too big of a camshaft, everyone wants the lumpy idle and you pay dearly for that on the street in terms of drivability and stop light to stop light performance. Number two is too big of a carb, everyone wants a giant toilet bowl of a carb on the engine to brag at the drive in ("its got a 750 double pumper blah blah blah") and then suffers with the consequences. Seen it a million times in 40+ years of being in the muscle car hobby and my teen years working in a speed shop. My customers were sometimes sad at the point of sale when I talked them down to reality but they loved me on the street and at the track when they were winning with potent properly sized combinations. Is there a place for high duration, big overlap cams / big carbs? For sure... if you have the right rear end gear, converter stall, heads, compression ratio etc. but 99% of the applications are better served with street friendly numbers.

 

[SR5]

From about the same time
Chevy El Camino
Holden Kingswood ute
Ford Falcon ute

Two as show ponies and one on the farm as a workhorse.

 

[02SE]

A '70-'72 El Camino with a smallblock and auto trans would have a curb weight of approx. 3500 lbs.

The engine, cam, and induction system would have been great for high-RPM horsepower, but terrible for low-RPM driveability. You would think a racer would know that.

 

[JeffKeryk]

If ya never over-cammed an engine, what are ya good for?

The corallory is, you don't have too much cam, you need more motor!

 

[factorytuned2012]

if the guy was an old racer he would have built the car right. motor-trans-rear along with tires & brakes.

 

[Chris142]

if the guy was an old racer he would have built the car right. motor-trans-rear along with tires & brakes.

I think he was a legend in his own mind. I did learn a lot though. Too much cam= bad. Too much carb= bad. Not enough gear= bad etc

 

[factorytuned2012]

I think he was a legend in his own mind. I did learn a lot though. Too much cam= bad. Too much carb= bad. Not enough gear= bad etc

sounds about right lol

 

[dishdude]

None of my friends had cool cars. We cruised around in crap like Tempos, Tercels, Omnis, one had a Renault Encore the Renault by far was the worst of the bunch and could have used that 327.

 

[Chris142]

None of my friends had cool cars. We cruised around in crap like Tempos, Tercels, Omnis, one had a Renault Encore the Renault by far was the worst of the bunch and could have used that 327.

We had several cool cars in the parking lot. Back then a run of the mill base Chevelle was a $600 car.

I specially remember a 67 Camaro,65ish lemans,68 GTO,69 road runner and the 71 Elcamino. They all lined up a long the fence in front of auto shop.

 

[DuckRyder]

the number of SBF and ponchos with some VWs and the odd SBC thrown in we assembled in dirt floor garages with used parts a ball home and a ridge reamer and a stupid cam when i was young is ridiculous. We once sanded a spun bearing in a diesel rabbit and put it back in, it ran a long time before i lost track of it. The you tube crowd would now be telling you none of that stuff would even run.

One of the best ones was a TA we put someones (probably cranes) "blueprint" ram air IV cam in.

My neighbor (RIP) would put kinda idiotic choppy cheap cams in, his dad fancied himself an expert because he once owned a Texaco station (in his defense, back when they did actually work on cars) and it was never fast.

Every one thinks a lumpy cam is cool till you have to live with it.

They do make some cams now that are designed to sound nasty and run good on the street, but you still give up some power.

Agree the elcamino would have been noted with a nice dual plane 4V and reasonable cam.

 

[c502cid]

His Dad didn't just put in a big cam, he put in a 3/4 Race Cam!

 

[Pablo]

Too much cam?

Should have dropped in a big block. Funny, yeah that was the hype then, just cam it.

I agree, should have just cleaned up the 350, great father-son project.

 

[daves87rs]

Why ruin a great car?

 

[JeffKeryk]

Too much cam?

Should have dropped in a big block. Funny, yeah that was the hype then, just cam it.

I agree, should have just cleaned up the 350, great father-son project.

Dual exhaust, 4BBL manifold and Q-Jet, mild cam and it would have been a great driver.

 

[Chris142]

Too much cam?

Should have dropped in a big block. Funny, yeah that was the hype then, just cam it.

I agree, should have just cleaned up the 350, great father-son project.

Big blocks were hard to come by back then. At least for me I was often @ picapart looking for one for my 70 Elcamino. Never found one. Today there are several big blocks in trucks there.

I did find several sets of double hump heads though.