Remember this car? Yeah, it has been MIA for months and for that I am sorry. The reality is that (as I have been whining about) we had a winter that pegged the crap-meter at 11 for a long damned time and since the car lives outside and I wrench on it (typically) outside, it was either under a snowbank or was going to be shortly under a snowbank from December until about a week ago. The good news is that I am raring to go on the next phases of the car and my goal this summer is to get them all executed for your viewing pleasure.

For now, I need to update you on the results of the last trip I made to the drag strip in late October. I was at New England Dragway the week before it closed up for the year and I was pretty excited because I had just installed the Trick Flow heads and I could tell from my finely tuned butt dyno that the car had lots more guts than it had with the worked iron units that lived on the block before. I was REALLY hoping to bust the car into the 13s with this mongrel engine combo and super lame 3.08 gear that still resides in the car. My best pass with the iron heads was 14.66, which considering the level of investment was pretty decent. The car ran very high 15s to start and to have knocked 1.2 seconds off the ET just by adding power was kind of neat. Would iron heads be worth a half a second? Probably not, but a man can dream, right?

Turns out I was damned close. 14.17/98 were the best numbers I could muster from the Caprice on that October day. The vast improvement was due (in my opinion) to a couple of things. The first was that the previous head/cam combo was very far from being ideal and with the new heads matched much more closely to the cam, the engine was actually working like it should have. The air was about 30 degrees cooler than it was during the trip I made earlier in the summer so that also helped. The 14.17 run came about half way through the 10 runs I made that day. Once it went the .17, I was hell bent on seeing a 13.99 and did everything I could from jetting changes to pulling the front sway bar, working on launch RPM, etc. It just would not go any quicker. How do I jam into the 13s? There are a couple paths and I plan on exploring them all this summer. The first is obvious and that’s in the gearing dept. Ditching the 3.08 for 3.73s or something even steeper would really do wonders to get the big girl moving and I bet there is at least a couple tenths in that. The 60′ times the car produced now, even on a “quick” lap are north of two seconds. Anything that will drop the 60-ft number will show up on the big end. The second thing is tires. The Mickey Thompson Sport Comp tires are fantastic for turning corners in a big, heavy car but on the strip their low profile 40-series sidewall and rubber compound are not the best for the drags. A set of DOT or full slicks would also do wonders for the car. I’ll need to add a driveshaft loop and C-clip eliminator kit before doing that.

So, what’s going to happen to the car next? Great question, glad I asked myself. There are two things that will be happening in the more immediate future than the stuff I mentioned above. The first is a rocker arm swap. I have a set of COMP roller rockers to install that will replace the Magnum steel roller tip rockers currently on the car. Why? Well as several of you noticed in the head swap story, the heads have guide plates for the push rods and those Magnum rockers are self-aligning. You are NOT supposed to run self aligning arms with guide plates. At the time I was on a lame schedule and had to make it work, but I am going to rectify that shortly. These rockers also have a slightly more aggressive 1.6-ratio.  Secondly, I have an MSD Atomic EFI to install and believe it or not, I have actually begun the install process on that kit and will be giving you a full write up with details as soon as the wick is lit and Buford becomes a fuel injected hot rod. I’m excited about this install and what it will do for the car in a performance and efficiency standpoint.

Lastly, during my final visit to the strip, after like 10 runs I was getting ready to stage for a final blast when the starter shut me down and rolled me back. Oddly one of the water pump gaskets had blown out and coolant was pumping everywhere. Having seen literal heroics on Drag Week I wasn’t going to call for help on this deal or whine about it. I pulled the pump off while it was like 6,200 degrees, cleaned up the surfaces, applied RTV liberally, let it set up and then bolted it all back together. 85-miles back to my house and is it still looking good today. I do plan on actually putting  a gasket in there at some point, too.

Soooooooo, that’s the deal with Buford. I have a couple weeks here at home before I go back on the road for my NHRA and other duties so stay tuned, this should get pretty good, pretty quick!

SCROLL DOWN BELOW THE PHOTOS TO SEE EVERY SINGLE BUFORD T JUSTICE BLOG ITEM! CATCH UP ON THE HISTORY OF OUR CAPRICE!

• Introducing Project Buford T Justice – Our 1987 9C1 Chevy Caprice – The Adventure Begins!
• Project Buford T Justice: Our Cop Car Cruises Home and Then We Beat on It!
• Driveway Tech: Bodywork on Buford T Justice – We Close Our Roof Hole For Fun and (NO) Profit!
• Project Buford T Justice Hits the Strip with Some Pretty Shocking Results!
• Project Buford T Justice Hits the Dyno and Goes KABLOOEY! CARNAGE VIDEO INSIDE!
• Project Buford T Justice Will Be Saved For About A 100 Bucks With a 15 Year Old Transmission
• Project Buford T Justice Update: The Trans Thrash is ON!
• Buford T Justice Update: It Lives Again Thanks to a Down and Dirty Driveway Thrash and Junkyard Parts
• Buford T Justice, Our 1987 9C1 Chevy Caprice Goes Through Final Testing Before the Upgrades Begin!
• Buford T Justice 9C1 Update: The Parts From Hotchkis, Cragar, AFCO, and Mickey Thompson
• Update: Hotchkis Suspension & AFCO Bushings Transform Our 9C1 Caprice
• Buford Update: Our 9C1 Caprice Gets Real With Mickey Thompson Tires and Cragar Wheels
• Driveway Tech: How To Swap A Jeep Steering Shaft Into Your GM B-Body or G-Body Car With A Trashed Rag Joint
• Buford Update: We Flog The Suspension, Unveil a Mountain of Speed Parts, Spill Our Wild Drag Strip Plan
• Project Buford T Justice Update: Drag Strip Thrash Squashed By Ma Nature – We Learn Stuff – Plan B!
• Project Buford T Justice Quick Update: Where The Hell Has Our 9C1 Caprice Been?!
• Project Buford T Justice: We Go On Hot Pursuit Of Horsepower-Our 9C1 Caprice’s 350 Gets A Slap!
• Buford T Justice 9C1 Caprice Update: Metal Fab,Head Work, A Good Surprise, An Awful One
• Buford T Justice Update: Headers, Cheap LS Technology, New Valvetrain Parts, More Compression, Fun!
• Buford T Justice Update: A TCI 700R4 And Breakaway Torque Converter Get Our 9C1 Caprice Shifty!
• Buford T Justice Update: A Very Frustrating Day On The Dyno And How We’re Planning To Fix It
• Project Buford T Justice Update: Where Has Our 9C1 Caprice Been Hiding?
• Buford T Justice Update: We Install A First Gen Chevelle Flowmaster Kit On Our 9C1 Caprice!
• Project Buford T Justice: Our Caprice 9C1 Gets The Shaft! A Dynotech Drive Shaft That Is!
• Project Buford T Justice Our 1987 9C1 Caprice Hits The SCCA Autocross – Photos And Video!
• Project Buford T Justice Update: We Finally Give Our 1987 9C1 Caprice A Cheapo Nose Job!
• Project Buford T Justice Update: We Hit The Strip Again With More Power! (W/Video)
• Buford T Justice Update: We Bolt On Power From Trick Flow And Snappy Looks From Trans Dapt!
• Project Buford T Justice Update: Where The Heck It’s Been And Where The Hell It is Going –
• Place Your Bets For A BangShift Shirt! Buford T Justice Is Hitting The Dyno With This Engine One Last Time – Guess The Power And Win
• Project Buford T Justice: The Long Arm Of The Law Gets Longer With A Stroker Build – 388ci Of Budget Fun