Re: Where is 69 Yenko Camaro 124379N663539
 

"If we are interested"

Like a kid laying awake on Christmas Eve!!!!

We all love Muscle Cars here, but the people and the stories are what really gets us car guys out of bed in the morning:-)

Don't tease us Gary Chapter 2 please and thank you.

Ryan

Re: Where is 69 Yenko Camaro 124379N663539
 

Gary,

Keep these stories coming.....welcome aboard, very happy to have you among us [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/beers.gif[/img]

Dan

Re: Where is 69 Yenko Camaro 124379N663539
 

Keep em coming Gary! This is why most of us come to this site. No BS real stories and good times.
Rick

Re: Where is 69 Yenko Camaro 124379N663539
 

Chapter 2

After leaving Fort Bragg, I get assigned to Fort Lee, Virginia, for Advanced Individual Training (AIT). After a couple weeks there, I finally get the opportunity to get home and drive the Yenko. My brother and I, also at Fort Lee, hitch a ride back home and get there after midnight. Dad left the keys in the kitchen, so me and my brother take off and pretty much empty the full tank of gas that Dad put in the car. To be honest, my first impression of driving the car was rather disappointing. I really thought that this thing would have so much power that it would break the tires loose when it was in high gear at 60 MPH, but it could not. Obviously, leaving from a dead stop, it had a massive amount of torque and just smoke those Goodyears until you let off the loud pedal.

I will fast forward to after I get back from AIT and go back to work at GM. Needless to say, the modifications started as soon as I started making money again, Hooker headers, Lakewood traction bars, Lakewood bell housing, and I had probably had the car to 3 or 4 different guys tuning on it to make it quicker. I just did not think that this car was as fast as it should be. I had been beaten by several 396 SS Chevelles and my buddy had a 68 Z28 with a cam in that 302 and he could even hang with the 427. It just did not make sense to me. In the winter of 1969, I got laid off at GM, so my plans got curtailed for a while. When I get called back in the spring of 1970, I am in a totally different plant that has just been built and not even finished yet, but they are so eager to get product, they have us working in the Body Shop building bodies from 6:30 PM until 3:00 AM, so the construction guys can work in the daytime. At this point, you are probably wondering what does this have to do with anything. Well, since the plant is not complete, nothing is very organized and at lunch time, it is just a bunch of guys sitting around shooting the breeze. One day at lunch, I am listening to this guy talk about Grumpy Jenkins and that is his idol and as it turns out, this guy has a bought a white, 69 COPO Camaro and has completely stripped it after having driven it home from the dealership with 8 miles on it. I am just listening, but it really sounds like this guy knows what he is talking about and his plans are to make his car a Super STock D stick car with the 427 that came in it. His current street car is a 62 Chevy Impala SS with a 409 two four barrel car. As I investigate a little more, I find out that this guy is one of the biggest street racers in a three county area and is very successful. After listening for quite a while, I decide its time to strike up a conversation. I tell him about the Yenko and that really perks his interest and as it turns out he has his own shop that he does performance work on the side. Since I am just learning about all this stuff, I ask him if he would be interested on working on the Yenko, he agrees and tells me to bring it to his shop. I take the car to his Warren, Ohio shop which just happens to be on a 4 lane highway that is not very well traveled. He tells me lets go for a ride, so I run the Yenko through its paces banging all the gears and bottom line, he agrees, for what it is supposed to be, it is a DOG!!!!!!!!!!! I tell him all the people that have tuned on it and he says, Well, I think the tuning is over, it is time for some hard part changes.

Re: Where is 69 Yenko Camaro 124379N663539
 

And then ?????

Re: Where is 69 Yenko Camaro 124379N663539
 

Cliff hanger, man this guy can tell a story:-)

Ryan

Re: Where is 69 Yenko Camaro 124379N663539
 

Chapter 3

Since I am back to work and we are now in the summer of 1970. My new found friend is telling me about some parts he has that will perk up the Yenko. Naturally, I ask how much this will cost and he says I will give you a deal on everything, but we need to get some &quot;light&quot; machine work done. Being a novice, and since the Yenko was still my prime medium of transportation, it was now time to buy another car. I end up with a 1960 Chevy 2 door Biscayne with a straight 6 and an automatic for my daily driver. I take the Yenko to his shop and naturally after a couple days, my Dad asks where the Yenko is, I tell him we are doing a little tune-up on it. As it turns out, the &quot;little tune-up&quot; turned out to be the engine being pulled out and completely dis-assembled, which freaked me out, cause this guy was just putting all the nuts and bolts in boxes and coffee cans without any markings. I am thinking, I have barely had this car a year and the engine is out and in a zillion pieces, none of which I know where they go. The heads and block and rotating assembly go to a speed shop in Cleveland. Again, to make a long story short, the block was replaced, the rods got lost, so the speed shop replaced them with new, 7/16&quot; L88 rods, the pistons were replaced, the assembly was balanced and blueprinted, a different camshaft, and the heads were cc'd, milled and a competition valve job.

So the car has been gone about a month and Dad is getting nervous, (not as nervous as me), I tell him it will be back soon and he trusts me, so all is well. We go to Cleveland to get all the parts and the engine re-assembly begins, however, the next Saturday I have to leave for summer camp for two weeks. My buddy works all week trying to get the engine done and on the Friday night before I have to leave we have it in the car and it is ready to fire. I am in the car and he tells me to hit the key, it turns over, but nothing, not a bang, not a burp, nothing. He tried for hours to get it started, nothing, can anyone guess how bad I was feeling. Practically, a brand new Yenko Camaro that I have invested a ton of money in and it doesn't run. The bad part was it was like 4 AM and I had to leave at 6 AM, so I had to go. My brother also had to go to summer camp, but he was leaving a day later, so I told my buddy, &quot;When&quot; you get it running, call my brother and he will come and get it. I am really thinking &quot;If you get it running, call my brother. I call home later that night and my brother tells me he went to get the car and it is home, but he tells me it is not running very well. He said when he left the shop it sounded really good and was running really well, but sometime during the trip home it started to miss and never got better. I asked him what my buddy said was the problem as to why it would not start to begin with. He said the timing tape (that is how you did it in the 70's) was put on the harmonic balancer backwards, so the distributor was completely out of time to the mechanical part of the engine. He said it fired right up when he put the tape on the balancer in the correct orientation. As far as the miss goes, #7 spark plug wire had fallen off.

When I got home from summer camp, I took the Yenko for a ride and WOW, what a difference, now there was some serious power.

I will give you Chapter 4 soon...

Re: Where is 69 Yenko Camaro 124379N663539
 

A little suspense....... oh what a web we weave:-)

Ryan

Re: Where is 69 Yenko Camaro 124379N663539
 

Great story so far and most importantly, thank you for your service. [img]<<GRAEMLIN_URL>>/flag.gif[/img]

Re: Where is 69 Yenko Camaro 124379N663539
 

This is awesome Gary!

Best non-fiction in the world.

Dan