Jerry.....great reading that has me relating to many of your remarks.
Parked in the Shed next to the Torana 308 SS Hatchback and the Chev is a 1968 F%#@ Fairlane fitted with..........a 302 cu.in Windsor, C4 Auto and L.S.D.diff.
This is another of my cars being worked on at the moment.
Blew up the gearbox getting it ready for our Nostalgia Drag Series held in February this year.
I bought this car as an unlicensed rolling shell for $400, and then spent a couple of months building the engine and driveline.
After building HOLDEN 5.0's in the past, I wanted to see how well a F@#% 5.0 litre would perform in comparison.
Bad Idea !!!!!!!!!!!
Twice as expensive and alot harder to identify/specify/locate some of the components ( Here in Oz anyway! )
I bored the 302 to 40 thou, resulting in a sleeved block!
Done all the usual machine work, assembled the bottom end and finished with a high performance, winged, baffled sump.
The heads are HIGHLY modified 289 units running 2.02 and 1.7 350 Chev valves, screw in studs, CRANE Gold Roller Rockers, Bronze guides and some amount of port and chamber machining.
These were topped with an EDELBROCK 289 Performer intake manifold,650 Vac Sec HOLLEY and some 4 into 1 pipes with 3' collectors and a custom built 3' straight through single exhaust.
The C4 runs a stage 2 shift kit behind a 2500 stall converter thru to a disc braked LSD diff.
Compared to equally modified HOLDEN V8's in similar weighted and geared cars....I must say that the F@#$ engine does seem to fall short of the mark.
Can't tell you how it ran down the 1/4 cause the gearbox let go before I got the chance to run.
This is also our daily driver for me to take to work and the missus does the shopping in it! Reckons it goes and sounds better than her '71 351 F@#$ Falcon!!!!
The Torana has run a best of 15.7 at 148kph with the stock 308, 4 speed and 2.78 LSD 10 Bolt.....not bad for a factory car crossing the line in 3rd gear with it's 2.78 diff !
Anyrate, hope you enjoyed the read !
