Buford T Justice -- the full tour

[Scott Liggett]

Hey Brian, I did the same egr surgery on my Monte Carlo. Mine was frozen solid so I just cut the diaphram off and called it a day.

[RustyRodder]

So Brian, serious question time- how are the mickeys holding up after the burnouts and such?

[andy30thz]

Get your oil pan gasket straightened out before the deep freeze?

[Brian Lohnes]

Andy, got back from the coast with the most on Friday and will get going on the oil pan tomorrow or tuesday/wed as it is going to warm up dramatically. I also have the exhaust system here, gauges showed up, and I need to get back down to the dyno again as well. I am really looking forward to getting the exhaust on. Will be good for my hearing and my relationship with the town police. LOL

Rusty, the MTs are doing a fine job. I think a better test will come after some autocross laps. They have a treadwear of 300 so they're not like race tires or anything. The burnouts have not taken too much of a toll on them. Really grinding them into the pavement with 4000# will get 'em good and gooey!

[RustyRodder]

Nice! Im considering picking up a set of them.

and its nice to see that Burford is making better use of his 357 then his movie namesake!

[andy30thz]

Damit Brian!! Another two weeks before I hear about cammed results?!?!?!
Throw us a friggin bone here! At least give a one liner on how it runs.... Unless it was yacking out so much oil you haven't gotten after it yet?

Get some gears in that fat bitch and let'er eat!!

[milner351]

The SBC is revolting - it liked the Motorcraft filter - once the AC filter took it's place - it will continue to follow Murphy's law until the proper Ford part is once again in place.

LOL!

[Brian Lohnes]

...because camshaft

[John Brewer]

Oh, boy. noise rules!! great sound.

[Brian Lohnes]

Thanks John!

[andy30thz]

Man.... Why do you want to put a quieter exhaust on it when it sounds like that?!?!?!? It sounds nasty!
It actually has a heck of a lot more lope to it than I expected? I didn't think Comps small SBC Thumpr cam hits much harder than that?
Did you get the oil pan sealed up?
Get a chance to street drive it some before you get snowed in? (although your last blog seemed a little vague on power improvements?)

I'm really surprised at how "light weight" this thing is!!! For what was considered a FULLSIZE car in that era, seems like now days everything is 4000lbs or more....
I can't see any reason with a little weight reduction, other than its physical dimensions, that this thing won't handle to the point you need a better seat and belts!

[Brian Lohnes]

Andy, I did the oil pan gasket yesterday. It sucked, like I expected but in some respects it wasn't as bad as I though it would be. My father in law was awesome and provided a second set of hands which is always a bonus. Drove the car some yesterday. Of course it is snow-mageddon now so work is at a halt. I am hoping like hell to get the car on a lift this coming week and get the exhaust on. I agree it sounds good at idle with the header mufflers, but it is misery to drive and beyond the pale obnoxious.

Pan was clean as hell, no sludge, no badness with respect to the bottom end so that was good to see.

After the exhaust is on, I am going back to the dyno, then I will finally pay some attention to the interior, then in the Spring I have a plan to really get some weight off the front of the car with some creative thinking and budget minded solutions.

As far as weight goes the car is a hair less than 3800lbs as it sits (per when I weighed it on the scale at the strip in October). I bet I can get another 100lbs off the front end of it without doing anything crazy. Obviously the wheels are heavy as hell (but I really like 'em so they are staying).

[SSChevyManiac]

You wont go out on the closed roads and do burnouts. You wont do it. No guts.

[Barry Donovan]

You wont go out on the closed roads and do burnouts. You wont do it. No guts.

[Brian Lohnes]

You wont go out on the closed roads and do burnouts. You wont do it. No guts.

I was out ripping donuts in my DD Escape with the kids earlier. The Caprice literally wouldn't move in this junk if I tried. The MT tires like a little heat in them and are a UHP summer tire so yesterday when taking it to do the oil pan at my FIL's house I thought something was wrong with the rear end because the car was tracking weird. Yeah, it was spinning the tires at will because of the cold roads and the compound used in the tires.

Brian