Go Inside a 5-Second Drag-and-Drive Engine, As Steve Morris Engines Freshens Up the SMX for Tom Bailey’s ‘Sick Seconds 2.0’ 1969 Camaro
Tom Bailey recently made his way to Summit Motorsports Park for the Sick the Magazine Drag-and-Drive Shootout as part of the National Muscle Car Association (NMCA) event in Norwalk, Ohio.
It would possibly mark the first time in competition for ‘Sick Seconds 2.0’ since Tom had it on Sick Week Presented by Gear Vendors Overdrive in 2023, but a broken chassis point was discovered during a test session, and the Camaro was done with on-track action for the weekend.
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With the 20th running of Hot Rod Drag Week less than three weeks away when Tom Bailey returned home with the car, he had already planned to send the SMX engine off to Steve Morris Engines to get inspected and freshened up.
The fix for ‘Sick Seconds 2.0’ chassis is a question mark, as Tom had mentioned “we may have to start looking at options, because that is not an easy fix” in his latest video.
Regardless, the engine that powered the well-known ’69 Camaro to the only 5-second run in drag-and-drive competition was received by Steve Morris and crew, and he got right to work on a teardown and inspection of it.
“It just has a bunch of passes,” said Steve. “We figured we should at least look at it.” The initial inspection was that all the short-block rotating parts (pistons and piston rings, connecting rods and crankshaft) all looked good. Even the head gaskets were solid.
The connecting rod and main bearings looked good, except for a film likely left by the oil. The connecting rod bearing cleaned up good, so Steve will just put a new set of main bearings in the engine block and caps, and clean the rest up for re-assembly.
Steve moved on to tearing down the cylinder heads and checking things like the valves, valve seats and springs. Once the cylinder heads were void of all the parts, Steve discovered three exhaust valve seats that needed a tad of touch-up, but otherwise the cylinder heads were in good shape.
Checking the valve springs was a different story altogether, as Steve discovered several springs with rusty sections. “This is not a problem with the valve spring, this is not a problem with the engine,” said Steve. “This thing is sitting with water on the valve spring, and it makes it rust. You can see the pitting on the surface of the spring. If your valve springs are rusty, no freaking good.”
So, the valve springs were replaced where necessary due to the rust problem, and after checking spring pressures, Steve will also replace several more due to lower than desired readings.
Steve thinks that taking the valve covers off the engine while the car is not being used would help alleviate the water issue (in a climate controlled shop), as that’s what he does on the ‘Boostmaster’ station wagon.
Watch the entire teardown and inspection, plus Steve’s insight on parts wear and what to keep and replace, on video here:
Written by Derek Putnam. Photos courtesy of Steve Morris Engines and Motion Raceworks.
If you have thoughts / feedback / ideas, please e-mail us at derek@sickthemagazine.com