Buford T Justice -- the full tour

[Scott Liggett]

SB Chevy headers with p/s and a/c... ah, yes. I recommend the longer bolts , 1" iirc, as the short ones seem to find their way on the floor a lot. I also had good luck with paper gaskets soaked in the tub. Well, good luck with the gaskets, not so much with the first ex... why is okay for them to wash the filthy-ass dog in that tub but I can't put clean paper in it? I *KNOW* I'm not the only guy who has stunk up the kitchen with eau de carb cleaner washing a Q-Jet in the kitchen sink because there was good light and hot water helps remove gank deposits.

oh yeah, your car. So... I was reading the Car Craft 8 heads for less than 1000.00 the other day http://www.carcraft.com/techarticles...t/viewall.html - the Dart SHP's look good, but I have a Performer RPM and valve covers already so the Vortec isn't as attractive as they appear to be. All this work and you're gonna BBC it huh.

The final straw in the marriage was baking powder coated valve covers in the oven?

[Caveman Tony]

I see Brian took my classes on how not to stay clean when working on a car.

Actually, Brian rolled around in the coal bin out back to make it look like he was working hard. HA!



One day on the dyno, and only (I'm counting on my fingers here) four trips out. Three to the parts store, and one for pizza.

The neighbors musta LOVED us. Open headers, and like 8 pulls spread out at random times. And a departure burnout. Of course.

[Schtauffer]

I spy a CJTV shirt.

Suck squeeze bang blow amen.

[Brian Lohnes]

So you all should enjoy this. Randal, if you call me snowball I will jump a plane, seal a haul truck and make you 2D.

Ok, so as was mentioned previously last week's trip to the dyno got us through the intake, carb, and ignition testing. The full story will be written when all the stuff has been installed and tested. But since you are the hard core BS dudes and dudettes here, I'll give you a little bit of the behind the scenes scene. --

The intake was leaking pretty bad on the way home, so I needed to pull it and reseal. No biggie. I also decided to pull the manifolds and install the headers. Because I was going that far, I figured that I would pull the heads and install the new valvesprings, seals, etc, so when I did the cam swap, it would ready and raring to go. I busted a manifold bolt off and and talked to Dana and Jon at the machine shop and they told me to bring the heads down. I was just going to have them tank the heads and take the bolt out. Now they're getting tanked, shot blasted, and having a nice valve job done on them. I am trying to figure out the compression ratio on the engine to see if we can mill the heads down a little to get some more squeeze out of them. I think it is already 9:1 or so, which would take that out of the equation. They are casting # 14101083 heads which have a 64cc chamber and are the heads found on 87-88 TPI 350 F-bodies. They were also used on GMPP 300hp crate engines during that time. They aren't "good" heads by any stretch but they are better than say an 882 or something along those lines.

Anyone with solid info on the 9C1 350 compression ratio speak up! Judging by the other engines with these heads, 9-9.3 seems to be where it is.

Also, Dave Nutting eluded to it in a earlier post, but the driveshaft came out of the car again on the first pull. As it turns out, the rear yoke on the d-shaft was tweaked so we put it in the press, forced it out a little, installed a new u-joint, and then made the rest of our pulls to over 120mph and had no issue. Imagine my surprise when I pulled one of the heads and looked down at the trans to see a 6" crack in the bellhousing. The good news is that a 700R4 is going back in the car and there will be a new driveshaft behind it.

The old trans is coming out tomorrow and the new one should be here in a week or so.

I'm warning you Randal....

[tedly]

[TheSilverBuick]

So you all should enjoy this. Randal, if you call me snowball I will jump a plane, seal a haul truck and make you 2D.

......

I'm warning you Randal....

[BangShift McT]

Fine, I'll do it for him. "Snowball".

Bring your dirty jeans, that Imperial ain't gonna run open headered without them.

[Brian Lohnes]

They're all dirty you son of a bitch. HA!

[TheSilverBuick]

BTW, I look forward to the write up

[BangShift McT]

They're all dirty you son of a bitch. HA!

It's why I have three closets here: one for clean and presentable, one for shop clothes, and one for my brother to hide in when he visits!

[Scott Liggett]

Snowball! Snowball! Snowball!

It will be 80* here on friday for your visit. Reserve your Uhaul early. Holiday weekends are busy for moving.

[andy30thz]

You busted another trans with less than 300hp?!?!!? YOU'RE DA MAN....sort of?

Interesting on the 083 heads....I will be curious to see what the stock cam is. I know the 9C1's were crazy factory hot rods... But I did read from a couple of guys that they got better parts than their pedestrian siblings, even the TBI cars.

Gonna have time to get happy with the grinder and rework the short turn radius? Hell the heads are off the car and CLEAN!

Gonna stick some cheap gear in it now that you're going have overdrive again? (did you keep the servo out of the old trans so it will shift into overdrive at WOT?) Hell, somebody MUST have a set of 3.73's they'd donate!!

[Deaf Bob]

You guys are forgetting something... The coppers have slightly more ponies but gobs more torque.. Not sure how much tho..

[Brian Lohnes]

The vibration that came through the car when the driveshaft barfed a cap was awful. It had to have cracked the bellhousing then. Travis hit the brake on the dyno but it was too late, the thing flopped around some and like I said, we discovered that the yoke was pinched some and that didn't allow one of the clips to seat and it flew off at wheel speed of 93mph. With the yoke fixed we made the rest of the pulls to 125mph and didn't have trouble. Gears in the spring after I can run it at the strip again with the stock gearing.

I'd like to get the heads back on the motor as soon as possible just to seal everything up, so I think the valve job and maybe a little milling if I can figure out the compression ratio deal and that'll be it. The investment in time isn't much worth it I don't think. The heads aren't great and even with 6-8 hours of work in them they'll still be not that great. Better to save up for some 'luminum pieces in the spring.

[Barry Donovan]

maybe get some highway riding in, taking it easy..
it is old enough to have shrunk up some measurements.

tha chassis should have the strengthened arch roots (dog leg)..
I bet its a tight one.