Time-lapse photography can be a wonderful storyteller, and this video shot by Adam Ince is great example. But there’s much more to this tale than just the challenges of building — and rebulding — a 383 stroker engine for a ’69 Camaro.
[1]Adam’s dad, Dave, runs Dirty Dave’s Marine [2] in Perris, California. Dave is good friends of car painter Butch Lynch, who is also heavily involved in veterans projects. Lynch helped restore and paint a Marine’s Camaro (you can see the incredible transformation on Lynch’s website [3]), but there were problems with the engine that had been built for the car.
“The engine in this car was a piece of crap,” fumes Ince, who is also an automotive artist with work in a variety of mediums.
Even though Ince had agreed on a price for a basic freshening, he rummaged through the inventory in his shop and found a steel Eagle [4] stroker crank to replace to the cast-iron piece. He also gathered up Probe [5] pistons and I-beam rods. A set of Edelbrock [6] heads, Edelbrock manifold and Quick Fuel [7] 780cfm carb finished off the top end.
On the first test run, Ince could tell there wasn’t enough vacuum for a street car.
[8]“Yeah, we had to tear it down,” says Ince. “I knew better than to put that bumpstick in.”
In went a smaller Comp [9] cam and new set of Comp roller rockers that provided better clearance than the original units. Finishing up the engine are a MSD [10] ignition, Hooker [11] headers and Zoops [12] serpentine front drive.
“It’s good for about 475 horsepower,” predicts Ince, noting that a more precise tuneup on a chassis dyno is likely in the Camaro’s future. But for now, the veteran has a very sweet ride with an engine to match the body and paint work.
[13]