We Haven't Had A Good Car Thread In A While...........My '67 Chevelle

I seem to remember a quote by Warren Johnson years ago.

“Making 1500 HP is easy. Everybody does it. Making 1505 HP is the difficult part”
 
Ol' Beggs again.

Hey Jackie

Just looking at the pictures and reading descriptions of the hotrods that you, Al Nyhus and others build is scary !

I find it all very interesting but even when I was a young man, I would have never ventured into such even if I could have afforded it. State of the art in the engines, transmissions, chassis, and other parts of these street monsters today is amazing.

Just think; all these modern day, CNC manufactured race engines are direct descendants of the basic configuration of Henry Ford's V-8 ! Eight cylinder, Y configuration V-8's. Isn't that ironic and amazing? Old Henry was way ahead of his time.

Keep up the good work, I appreciate all the pictures and articles you share with us on BR Central.

Later,

Gene Beggs

Oh, BTW, is that 540 ci block in your car basically what they use to build top fuel dragsters?
 
Gene Beggs said:
Hey Jackie

Just looking at the pictures and reading descriptions of the hotrods that you, Al Nyhus and others build is scary !

I find it all very interesting but even when I was a young man, I would have never ventured into such even if I could have afforded it. State of the art in the engines, transmissions, chassis, and other parts of these street monsters today is amazing.

Just think; all these modern day, CNC manufactured race engines are direct descendants of the basic configuration of Henry Ford's V-8 ! Eight cylinder, Y configuration V-8's. Isn't that ironic and amazing? Old Henry was way ahead of his time.

Keep up the good work, I appreciate all the pictures and articles you share with us on BR Central.

Later,

Gene Beggs

Oh, BTW, is that 540 ci block in your car basically what they use to build top fuel dragsters?
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Gene, the answer to the block question is no. Top fuel and a Funny Car blocks are special manufactured items from solid billets.

Here is a YouTube video of one of Don Schumacher’s shops were they machine them.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=j0sn5xBSe5A


The block I used is called a Dart Big M. It is patterned after the big block Chevy, only with more mass everywhere and bores that will go all the way out to 4 5/8 bore. Mine is a 4 1/2 bore with a 4 1/4 stroke.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WX1giqSMn2Y

The Dart Big M blocks are suitable for just about any high performance build up to 3000+ HP.
 
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The Dart and other blocks have been a huge improvement in the performance game. In the past, we'd take a chance on a small block Chevy block, bore it, fill the water jackets to the level of the water pump holes with Hard Block, final hone it and hope for the best. Even filled, the walls would shake around and the routine was to put 30-50 passes on it and take it apart to hone it. Most of the time, it would take .003-.005 to make the bores round again. At best, the wall thickness wes about .125...potato chips.

The Dart block I'm using has .280 thick cylinder walls. After 250 passes, it took less than .001 to make them all round again. This lets us run the piston-to-wall extremely close. That minimizes the piston rock at both ends of the stroke. Tight piston-to-wall minimizes ring flutter. Now that that's addressed, we back cut the rings more to lighten them up and minimize the back clearance behind them. Since that's done, we can now decrease the radial clearance on the rings. Now, we can run the deck clearance tight enough that the piston-to-head is no more than .001 or .002. This, in turn, picks up the piston speed when the plug fires....blah, blah, blah.
 
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Technology Overload

Jackie, I've spent hours watching the sites you provided on how the engine blocks, heads, cams, lifters etc., are made. Man, the drag racing world has come light years from its beginnings. It's a whole nuther' world !

Looking at the equipment in those shops makes a gunsmith's tools look like toys. One thing I did notice was that sitting near all the machines and work areas were cans of the old standby,, WD-40 ! No mechanic could ever do without it.

Thanks for sharing info with us rifle nuts.

Later,

Gene Beggs
 
That motor going in the Mustang looks bigger (physical external size) than a power stroke or a duramax.
 
jackie schmidt said:
That’s a serious Altered.

Is that engine based on the earlier 302 engine or the newer 0HC Coyote.
Sounds like about 9000 rpm.
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I can't even visualize the amount of work that went into that chassis and platform..... she ran like a friggin' ARROW! Compared to that, anything I've ever put power to was like trying to bat a marshmallow...
 
Found some pictures

Although its been a while, here is the car and the damage done. I drove the car year round. And yes, she was the only one to sit on the car.....
 

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David Apple said:
Although its been a while, here is the car and the damage done. I drove the car year round. And yes, she was the only one to sit on the car.....
Click to expand...

David, refresh my memory about when you posted in this thread. (It’s getting really long).

Is that 427 a crossbolt main side Oiler?
 
jackie schmidt said:
David, refresh my memory about when you posted in this thread. (It’s getting really long).

Is that 427 a crossbolt main side Oiler?
Click to expand...

Jackie,
Yes it was. A medium riser cross-bolted 427 (actually 454). Pretty interesting seeing bolts and washers on the OUTSIDE of the block. The heads were original iron. I will look for more pictures.

I saw this car at a show. In my mind, this is what it is all about.
 

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Back on the dyno. Time to test some 'round about' ways to take some dynamic load off the oil rings while staying within the stringent NHRA rules for Stock Eliminator. I need to find out where the 'bottom' is for oil ring tension....a balance of freeing up parasitic drag from the oil rings while still maintaining adequate oil control:

OgSWULEh.jpg


YvdNaOYh.jpg


Newest version of my quick change cam timing lash up:

OPAcI1Jh.jpg
 
Al

Looks like you are venting the crank case for testing .whatever it is I like and appreciete your work.
I use allen head bolts whenever I can. They just look better.
Nice photos. Thanks


Mort
 
I have been watching

A couple of Youtube creators who go to the junk yards and by LS engines trying to pick the aluminum blocks and heads, adding turbos to them and make them run. The LS engines seem to be very robust. They get 600 HP or more out of them, they claim anyway, with a street cam. I also watch Nicks Garage who pretty much only works on vintage MOPAR engines. Interesting stuff.

Pete
 
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