Lots of good looking work so far! I have a couple of comments on your choice of powertrain. Getting the big block engine shoehorned into that narrow frame is going to be a challenge. Please DO NOT buy into the myth that the frame rails need to be boxed- - - -they were designed to flex, and attempts to make them rigid will result in a spider web of cracks in very short order unless you do some pretty creative elliptical cuts on your boxing plates. Several years of trying to build dirt track race cars like bridge girders taught me that there's no such thing as a "rigid" frame.
Shift kits were probably designed by somebody who had a warehouse full of rear axles to sell. Getting that firm shift happens at the expense of everything else behind the transmission- - - -U joints, driveshafts, spider gears, carrier housings (more about that later) and axle shafts. Upshifts aren't much of a problem, as long as you blast off down the drag strip, shift up through all the gears, and shut down. On the street, a kickdown from 3rd to 2nd. for instance results in a momentary lockup of the drivetrain while the transmission tries to engage two ratios at once. The orfice in the valve body separator plate that gets drilled out to quicken the shift also means that the clutch it controls applies too quickly on a downshift. The resulting lockup eventually turns the spider gear pivot pin hole into a slot about 1/2" long before the shaft breaks and sends pieces of spider gears into the ring & pinion! Instant wheel lockup! Good luck! Jerry
"It is better to be silent and be thought a fool than to speak and eliminate all doubt!" - Abraham Lincoln Cringe and wail in fear, Eloi- - - - -we Morlocks are on the hunt! There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self. - Ernest Hemingway Love your enemies and drive 'em nuts!
