Retrofit Head Up Display In An Early C5 - Chevrolet Performance

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26 CORVETTE ENTHUSIAST ABOVE: If not for the orange valve covers, the install could be mistaken for stock. Using newer parts, but keeping a factory appearance keeps King Ray a classic, yet contemporary. CENTER: Jerry had these air cleaner flags printed up for King Ray. They could easily be overlooked, but are definitely a finishing detail. BELOW RIGHT: Speaking of details, you can just see the spacer plates’ seam where they meet the intake. Machining makes them almost disappear. BELOW LEFT: We needed to use an MSD PN 8547 distributor to make up the difference between the oldstyle intake and the raised-deck block. This distributor has an adjustable sleeve to set the proper cam engagement and is designed for Donovan tall-deck racing blocks. It works fine in the 572 for this application. There was a little bit of carb work to be done, but the car settled into a nice trot at idle, giving the antenna mast a constant wiggle to the tune of the dual pipes. Sure, there’s nothing like the sound of a big-block breathing through a set of side pipes at wide open, but with the right compression and camshaft, the sound at idle can also put a smile on your face, especially if you’ve got the steering wheel in hand. But, let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
TOP LEFT: The interior is basically stock, including the factory A/C and teak wheel. In the Feb. ’06 issue, we started covering the buildup of King Ray, our ’67 project vehicle that Jerry picked up off of eBay. It started out as a 300 horse, powerglideequipped convertible. One thing he had, which was original, was factory air. Within a week, Jerry’s Vette Service split the body and frame, sending the chassis to Van Steel in Clearwater, Florida, and the fiberglass to J & M Enterprizes in Brooksville, Florida. Since then, they have been scuttling wrenches and parts to complete the project with their eyes set on Carlisle. We covered the car as it came back together over the past year and what you see on these pages is the result of some late nights, numerous phone calls and emails, and enough sweat to fill a small swimming pool. Even with everything that went into the project and obsessing over all the details for the past 11 months, when we asked if he would do it again, Jerry had only one answer, “Oh yeah!” For me, hearing that engine breathing heavily yet freely through those Stainless Works headers and 3-inch chambered side pipes, made it all worthwhile. Now it was time to prove that the focal point of all this noise BOTTOM LEFT: We did some kit-bashing for the 572 on the hood, combining 454 and 427 number kits. and attention was actually a car and could be treated as such; it was time for a drive. I pushed the clutch in, found first gear and we were off. There’s no mistaking that the GM Performance Parts 572 crate engine is a performance engine. With 620 horsepower (the smaller of the two offered by GM) there’s plenty on tap when you want it. In fact, it would take a serious, die-hard, power-hungry enthusiast to even want the 720hp version in their Corvette. The little brother is quite capable and really puts the car right on the edge of everyday driving. It’s rowdy but not violent, and if you don’t mind getting noticed, it’s a great engine for the performance-minded, early Corvette owner. Think of it as an L88 on pump gas. It does get a little tight under the hood due to the higher deck height. Since we had a small-block car, we opted for a big-block style hood and even then, we needed to clearance a little for the A/C compressor and also, since we wanted the shielding on the ignition, we needed to trim the rear portion of the hood where it comes down in past the body line. I can remember the response I got when ABOVE RIGHT: The white gauges stand out in the black dash, but blend well with the white interior. I called GM Performance Parts and told them we wanted to put a 572 into a ’67 Corvette. Their reply: “How do you intend on doing THAT!” After convincing them we were NOT crazy and had actually thought about how we were going to do it, the check was written and the shipping label applied. Interestingly, it wasn’t terribly complicated to make the engine fit. We obviously changed the intake to one of Coffman Corvette’s factory-style, 435hp tri-power setup with the help of spacer plates, and we also swapped out the oil pan with a Milodon unit for more clearance, since the 572 uses a truck-style pan and the sump was too low. In fact, the Milodon pan gave us a little more clearance than the factory 427 pan. Originally, the spacer plates for the intake were cut with flat upper and lower edges. This made the plates VERY obvious so Bill Harris machined the plates to match the intake, which made the plates virtually indistinguishable. If you didn’t know what you were looking at, you would probably never see them. We didn’t use power steering on King Ray, but we did use an alternator/power C O R V E T T E E n T h u s i A s T 2 7
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Page 7: compressor. Combined, they keep the

Retrofit Head Up Display In An Early C5 - Chevrolet Performance

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