65 GTO

[Thumpin455]

Thumpin is our ethanol guru! Brews his own, at least sometimes from cat tails (I don't know how many tail-less cats he has these days ). If I wasn't so lazy I'd follow his lead.

Dan

I've switched to tree sap since I now have over 300 maples that are big enough to tap. Since the house has taken up the last 4 years and the shop the three before that, I don't have it all going again since the move. Plans are to get a larger boiler, more fermentation capacity, and a bigger still this year so I can do it all next year. With the cost of gas being so low right now, E85 makes it real easy, the problem is driving two hours to fill barrels.

[Thumpin455]

Driveshaft dilemmas. The shaft for the GTO with a Th350 is one inch too long for a GTO with a Th400. The shaft for a 72 Cutlass with a Th350 is the right length for a 65 GTO with a 700R4. I am trying to put a fresh Th400 I have had sitting around for years in this thing.. because it keeps breaking 700R4s. I have a kit to rebuild a Th350, but it won't live long behind the 455 either. Nobody sells a 58" driveshaft in a once piece.. except for Nissan pickups and who knows what yoke those things have. Speedway sells then up to 50" unless I go carbon fiber for $600+. Carbon fiber is a bit much for a daily driver with only about 550hp. I don't want to cut any of my steel shafts because they are the right length for other vehicles. Except for maybe the 84 F150 4x4.. if that one is too long I could cut it, but knowing my luck it will be too short.

Doesn't anyone race 64-67 Chevelles with a Th400 in them?

[DanStokes]

I had the shaft made locally for Mutt and it was fairly cheap - about $200 IIRC. That included the tube and parts and labor. I thought that was a decent price and he put extra effort into the balance when I told him what it was for. It's a shop that usually does shafts for trucks, etc. I don't know if you have anyone up your way who does that but it's worth looking into.

Dan

[Thumpin455]

I had the shaft made locally for Mutt and it was fairly cheap - about $200 IIRC. That included the tube and parts and labor. I thought that was a decent price and he put extra effort into the balance when I told him what it was for. It's a shop that usually does shafts for trucks, etc. I don't know if you have anyone up your way who does that but it's worth looking into.

Dan

Closest to me is 3 hours away in Green Bay. We don't even have a machinist around here to do engines. Good thing I have a bunch of fresh blocks sitting here I can throw cranks in. I plan to move, hopefully within the next two years. I am sick of the people here and the lack of anything to do with my hotrods. No reason to make them legal to drive or race, I am the only one out with it at any given time.

[DanStokes]

How far is it down to Ferris from you? Or maybe they don't even have T&I (Trade and Industrial) classes anymore. Just a thought.

Dan

[Thumpin455]

Considering I live about where the arrow is, and Detroit as at least ten hours driving time, Green Bay is 3 hours, anything down state is going to be farther than I want to go for something I can do in Wisconsin. Its already getting cold here. I am annoyed.

[Thumpin455]

Im fighting the Th350 I had in it behind the 400 before the current 455. Intermediate clutch pack has a quarter inch of clearance.. that just will not do. Been trying to figure this thing out for the last two hours. Taking it apart, putting it back, its kinda nuts as Th350s are super easy.

[Thumpin455]

Got the 350 working, stuffed it in with what I thought was a B&M 3000 stall, turns out its a B&M 3600 that likes to kill transmissions if you drive it very far, it slips A LOT behind a 455. Might work good behind a 350 though.. it will probably find its way behind a 400 in something I don't intend to drive more than a half mile at a time. So I found the 3000 I had, it was hiding in the '01 Trailblazer with the 10 pt cage for Old Ugly, swapped the 3k into the 68 LeMans and took the 2400 I had in it and put it in the GTO. Then I put the FiTech back on it, and took it for a test drive to town, that 455 is unfond of 3.42 gears at 70mph, turning 3200rpm isn't gonna get it. So it will get either the 3.08 posi from the 68 or the 2.93 I have holding up the other 65 that was under the 70 for a decade or two.

Well I romped on it at the first light on the highway, and it freakin scared me. It seems the 700R4 was losing lots of power somewhere, because holy smokes that Th350 and 2400 makes that car go nuts in 1st and 2nd. It didn't spin the 255s, didn't hop either, it pulled the front up and went. Not the tires off the ground or anything, but it was like driving Ugly back in the 90s, but faster.

This year I got the 79 Formula (Ugly) running very good. The 68 is running great and ready to make the lights and stuff work, maybe throw a VFN nose and hood at it, its kinda scary too.. the 65 is no longer a road trip machine, its a very fun toy I will probably get tickets in, and the 76 C10 is well on its way to having a hot little LS in it. It seems as though I got the building and working bug again after so many years focused on the shop, house, and keeping beaters running. I'm taking today off in the shop because the knees are kicking my ass, the left one is swelled up and stiff. Sucks getting old but I still build and drive cars I wanted to have when I was 16.

Have to do house stuff soon, insulation, build some actual exterior walls, block air from under the place, things like that.. and siding..Man that GTO freakin rips now, just like it should with the heads and intake that ran 11s in the heavier Formula. I hurt but I am happyish...