The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The HiPo Shop In Retrospect, I should have kept an I-6 in it...

HRD, I was referring to the example of the 283 rebuilt to stock specs, "no hop-up at all". $4,500.00 for that was an outrage, no matter who was doing the machining. The King's crankshaft I put in some of the engines I build goes for $2,800.00. It weighs 38 pounds- - -a stock crank weighs 55. Add a set of Honda-dimension H-beam rods, ($1,200.00) forged pistons to match the counterweights on the lightweight crankshaft ($800.00), and a set ot Total Seal rings ($250.00), and the rotating assembly approaches $5,000.00. That's before we consider a cam & lifters, heads, or intake/exhaust system. The average round track engine I produce is $12,000.00 or more out the door. It's guaranteed to start. Once you fire it up, it's yours. Better buy two- - - - -you'll need an engine swap about mid-season on the average 1/2 mile asphalt track. If you don't blow it up before mid-season, I'll freshen it up for about $5,000.00. How fast can you afford to go?
Jerry

Oh, about $10,000 fast. The 427 in my Corvette is the most expensive and most powerful engine I've ever built. But that was built for an assault on the Silver State Classic open road race. Should have a 175 mph top speed with the Muncie and not having an overdrive. But where do you test something like that without insulting the sanity of every cop around?

I get your point, Jerry. Yes, I spent $800 building up my 283 engine as a stock rebuild. The only stuff not stock were the heads, which had to have the right holes for mounting accessories. Another 305 I built cost $600 to build stock, and that got the 283 heads! It's actually running very good in a '32 Ford Model A now.

On the stovebolt head thing, it's too bad Wayne has gone out of business. Perhaps Leo Sanducci's idea of welding two V8 heads together to make a 6-cylinder cross-flow head is not such a terrible idea...ESPECIALLY if you can use the cathedral-port LS1 heads!!!

I might try to find a 292 or a GMC 302 motor and just play with it, and see what I can do with it. The low compression would be okay if I put a big turbocharger on it, right? What a cool stovebolt project that would be. And if it works out, guess what, the 350 V8 will probably come back out of my truck.

That sounds like fun. When do you plan to run it? I'd love to be there.

I've considered putting an LS7 427 in my C4 Corvette to run Bonneville. My thought was to build a 200 mph car, but from what I hear the rules are getting tough, and my estimate was $20,000 for motor, transmission and tires. I'm sure it would take another $20,000 to make the run.

These days that kind of thought always dies when I contemplate the impact on my retirement date.

You bet the rules are getting tough. You really have to do a lot of stuff when you get into the unlimited class. Halon fire suppression system, full roll cage, etc., etc.

But there are lesser classes that are fun too. I was thinking of starting small, like maybe the 120 mph class to begin with, or something like that. Something that doesn't require me to totally alter a very nice 1968 Corvette into a tubed-up dedicated race car. I still like it looking very nice.
The top speed capability just makes running 120 mph average speed that much more fun. For example, say you had to slow down to 80 mph in some tight twisties for a couple of minutes. Then you have to speed up to 160 mph for that same couple of minutes, or 140 mph for twice that time; or whatever is necessary to average as close as possible to your 120 mph target speed.
So you still flat out fly, as necessary, you just don't have to do it for the whole 90 miles.

I also wonder if I have 90 miles range on a 20 gallon tank full of race gas. Like I said, where in the heck do you test something like that...at least legally? I probably have about a dozen full throttle runs on it before fuel starts getting low. That's the thing about 427's. They're wonderfully powerful, and still has the rod to stroke ratio to really rev up high. But they don't know the meaning of fuel economy. 427's a heck of a grunty engine, but its real talents are in the top half of the tachometer. Just keep feeding it, and it'll keep performing.

I don't know when. The fact that no insurance company will touch you while you race a 93 grand classic car kind of puts a damper on it.

LOL!

A year or two ago I read an article in one of the Corvette magazines about a cross country race. Dead last was a twin turbo Corvette that could out run any of the other cars but only got a few miles per gallon. They lost by days because of the fuel stops!

There was an assistant principal here at school who wanted to build up a Pantera to run that race. The last time I saw it, it was a stripped-bare body shell on a rotisserie stand, and he was dressing down rough spots on individual spot welds to prepare it for a concours-quality paint job. It will never hit the road again, as the guy is an incredibly obnoxious doonkeyhole, and a perfectionist to boot, and he will die before it's complete. He's got a Corvette that's been in about the same shape for over 20 years, a restored rolling chassis that will never see a body. He's 62 now, and his Type A personality got him five bypasses at age 49. He's living on borrowed time. Too bad, because he's a very skilled mechanic/restorer, but his personality sucks!
Jerry

Jerry, there are a LOT of really cool old cars here in Northern New Mexico. More AD trucks just sitting around than I've ever seen anywhere else. Old Buicks, Tri-5's, Datsun 240Z's, to name a few. I've even seen a couple of old early-70's Cuda's and a '68 Corvette sitting around.

The problem is, a lot of these people have that same type A personality. They say they are going to restore it, but until the day they die, it'll just sit in the same spot. But because of their opinion that they THINK they'll restore it someday, they are unwilling to even talk about selling it. Maybe someday when these stubborn folks finally die, their kids WILL sell them. When that happens, maybe there will be a bonanza of cool oldies for sale here.

There is an AD 1-ton in non-running condition for sale for a $100 bill though. I thought about going there and seeing if there's a big displacement stovebolt in it for maybe a $50 bill.

A well prepared 6 cyl. Chev. 292 can easily be made to put out around 300 H.P. and almost 400 ft. lbs. torque. For a good reliable street engine that's hard to beat, and if it has the Fenton headers sound, no V-8 can match that sound. Talk about cool, what more could you ask?

I have never had the pleasure of hearing a straight six through Fenton headers. But I know there are some extremely cool-sounding V8's out there. The two best ones that come to mind is the 327 that used to be in my Vette when I bought it, and the 455 in my '68 Firebird with the Flowmaster exhaust.
The former sounded like a Ferrari when it was winding out at high revs, and the latter sounded like a cross between a P-51 Mustang and a race car. Then there's the 427 that now resides in my Corvette that sounds like a bunch of Harleys because of the 4" sidepipes, or could possibly be described as sounding like the drums leading into the song "Hot for Teacher".

I have a few toys (see my sig), but I want my truck to be a truck. I love the 427 BB in my Camino, but in my truck I want grunt. I could honestly care less about HP. I have a stock 235 in mine for now, and it runs great. I could see tweaking it a bit, shaving the head and adding a nice aftermarket RV style cam, maybe a header. In the end, I still want it to pull stumps at an idle. I towed a 71 Bug with it today that hadn't moved in 10 years, around my Pastor's yard so it could be picke up by a wrecker.

Don't take me for an all-stock guy by any means, but these trucks worked well with the 6 cyl in them. I can see great improvements with a bit of work.

Devin

That's cool. I tell ya Devin, I was willing to keep the 235 in mine indefinitely as long as it was running good. Those things may only put out about 250 lb-ft, but it's right at idle! You can just about move a barn off its foundations with the torque that little motor has down low.

But what I find interesting is the 240Z in your sig. Tell me more about it. What engine is it, and what are the specs, such as engine type, hp, torque, curb weight, ...and can a 6-footer with long legs fit in one of those?

There are a zillion of those early Z-cars where I live, and I'm seriously thinking about grabbing one some day.

A lot of different opinions here,and they are all good.It just comes down to personal preference and how deep your pockets are.I have the 55 with a well tuned 350 in it,and it is a blast to drive,just listening to that 350 exiting thru headers and Flowmaster mufflers,is sweet music. Then there is my 65 with a 500 Caddy engine and a 400 Turbo trans.Both great runners and I wouldnt have them set up any other way.And to you guys who want to run a Ferrari engine,that sounds like a blast,but it aint gonna be a stovebolt anymore,same case with my trucks they aint stovebolts anymore,but I like them that way.