Hot Rod & Car Craft

[R442]

I am Rob with the Olds and by the time it was done it cost me about $6,000. It started out that I was paying for the labor and some upgrade parts ( new intake and aluminum heads). In the end I paid for labor, upgrade parts and a few extras ( lower end halo, valves, guides, and few other items.) By the time we were done with the rescue the motor had been gone through three times (the last time was for inspection to make sure the halo worked) with one chassis dyno session of about ten pulls and two motor dyno sessions with about twenty five pulls. The whole process took three years to complete and in that time I have taken it on several legs of two power tours and have been using it as a daily driver when the weather cooperates.

At times it was a pain in the ass making the time to get the engine in and out and delivered to the shops on time and driving all over Wisconsin in the dead of winter. But in the end it was worth it, I have a great running car that is a blast on the street and I feel I can drive anywhere at anytime. Which is a first for me with this car after thirty years of owning it.

[Roadent56]

Got my 1st subscription to both of them in 1973. There have been some not so great times in both of them (vans, dune buggys, etc)
Then came the CC Nats, got a group together and went to 4 of those.
The power tour, haven't long hauled yet but probably will in 16.
Drag week going back for my 4th time this year. Can't imagine missing anymore of those.
Neither magazine will hold everybody's interest but they do get the word out about the latest stuff.
I won't be buying the latest HellCamaroShelby. But then again look at the HP war raging on what year is it 69? 70?
I'm probably going to keep subscribing to both until I land in a nursing home and they start losing my mail.
Until then I'll be out burning Dinosaurs.

[68scott385]

I am Rob with the Olds and by the time it was done it cost me about $6,000. It started out that I was paying for the labor and some upgrade parts ( new intake and aluminum heads). In the end I paid for labor, upgrade parts and a few extras ( lower end halo, valves, guides, and few other items.) By the time we were done with the rescue the motor had been gone through three times (the last time was for inspection to make sure the halo worked) with one chassis dyno session of about ten pulls and two motor dyno sessions with about twenty five pulls. The whole process took three years to complete and in that time I have taken it on several legs of two power tours and have been using it as a daily driver when the weather cooperates.

At times it was a pain in the ass making the time to get the engine in and out and delivered to the shops on time and driving all over Wisconsin in the dead of winter. But in the end it was worth it, I have a great running car that is a blast on the street and I feel I can drive anywhere at anytime. Which is a first for me with this car after thirty years of owning it.

I was just reading through the article on line (got about 1/2 so far) and I'm gathering parts for a BBO build myself. I too was wondering who was footing the bill for all those nice parts. I KNOW what they cost first-hand. I don't have many of them yet but ya gotta know what it cost if you're gonna buy it. Those things I keep to myself as the wife goes bug-eyed when I talk engine part prices.

How high are you turning this motor? I saw the dyno results @5200rpm. I'm wondering how the halo is doing but if you aren't turning more than 5500 - 5800 it's probably fine. The reason I bring that up is that I'm still on the fence between the halo and the full pan rail / cap combination girdle that's 3x the price. If I was a normal person I'd drop a BBC in it since it IS a Chevy car. HAAaaaa, but what is normal?

[squirrel]

olds...interesting. I'm making 700ish hp on a $25 454 truck block. I guess that's just too darn easy.

[68scott385]

olds...interesting. I'm making 700ish hp on a $25 454 truck block. I guess that's just too darn easy.

We can't all be as cool as you Jim.

[squirrel]

It's not a matter of being cool, it's a matter of being cheap and lazy....the Olds sounds more cool

[G-Motive]

I've got the pitch if someone thinks they can hit it out of the park.

Project X-Conn

Being a natural born Conn I don't have the resources.

[68scott385]

SHAZAM!!! Glad I was sitting down when I got to the bottom of the article. Ain't no $12k Olds coming out of my garage. I'm prepared for maybe half that over two or three years. I don't think his goals and my goals are in the same ball park either.

[TheSilverBuick]

It's not a matter of being cool, it's a matter of being cheap and lazy....the Olds sounds more cool

I know, I went back a page or two on his Chevy II thread yesterday and teared up a bit at out much the bottom end of an OE BBC is built like Fort Knox BTW, what connecting rods are you using?

[squirrel]

The rods are a set of 6 used and two new LS-6 rods that I picked up about ten years ago for $100, and had them resized with ARP bolts. Good to 7000 rpm so far.

[TheSilverBuick]

The rods are a set of 6 used and two new LS-6 rods that I picked up about ten years ago for $100, and had them resized with ARP bolts. Good to 7000 rpm so far.

Do you know if they are standard GM forged rod SAE 1037/1038 steel? Or know if they are even higher grade?

[squirrel]

I don't know. They are kind of heavy, and have 7/16" bolts...and they seem to work ok. The same forging was used in the L-88, LS-7, and ZL-1 but they had a floating pin, mine are pressed pin.

[TheSilverBuick]

Yeah I found that on google and couldn't decide if they meant that the same forging machine was used (hence the bump on the side) or if it also meant the steel quality too, which I don't know the steel quality of the those other rods either. My Buick and OHC L6 use the same grade steel forged rods (as read in the service manuals), just curious if the BBC got a better quality rod or not, and if you are getting that durability out of OE units using the 1037/1038 steel, then I really will be unconcerned with the OHC's engine (I already have a set of rods with ARP bolts and resized). The bigger bolt certainly helps, but figure the ARP bolts should be fine as 3/8th. I'm still convinced the Buick block will crack before the crank or rods get to their limits. Crower sportsman rods are made of a higher strength steel, as would be expected.

[hotrodfords]

I think the magazine distributor fall out last year really hurt the magazines, including the ones that survived. I agree with the folks here that liked Dave's work as an editor, and I think we found those are very big shoes to fill at the editors desk.

CC is down to 70 pages - I think when they got rid of guys like Smith last fall, they were taking a major risk. I too look forward to CC for Bern and Krass, but that will only take you so far. And Bern and Krass have their own magazine now. Car Craft's most recent Zenith was when Freiburger was at the helm over a decade a go. Thought Mat King was good too.

What we really need is to get the car mag companies in the hands of enthusiasts, not "suits" who's only motive is "shareholder" profit. Titles like CC and HR would flourish in that environment. Right now any profit goes straight upstairs and not in the editor's room, hense letting go all the good staff then paying the editors peanuts.

[SuperBuickGuy]

The difference between then and now was most muscle cars were affordable to the blue collar crowd. There were exceptions, but compared to now. They are more status symbols for the upper class.

Really? do you believe that if someone wants to build a hot rod, there aren't any cars out there for them to do on a budget? The cynic in me wonders if that's the "I promise you a 1969 Camaro in every garage" political ad. Will you have a 1st gen Camaro on a budget? probably not, but build 3 or 4 1967-1972 Chevy trucks and you'll be well-withing shouting distance from the money you'd made since those are going from 6-8k for nice driver-quality trucks and can still be had for 1k.... of course, I expect you to fulfill your promise, Scott, when you become President or I'll lead the impeachment proceedings!

I surf craigslist with this criteria "1972" as the newest car, and $2500 as the top dollar. There are at least a couple thousand cars every time I search - no 1st gen Camaros, but I've seen everything from pre-war stuff with potential to 'other' muscle cars (like Buicks, etc)...

Seriously, the last time I checked - it was all about the build not the car being built. CC and HRM have forgotten that, Roadkill tries to illustrate that (though they're now subsidiaries of Mopar; so we'll see how long that lasts).