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

[dmort]

Spectators...will this thing really start? It's a small logging town and everyone knows what I was working on.





The crew that stayed and hung out after we got it running. My long time buddy Bob and race engine builder is on the right, and his now ex son in law in the middle......these are old photos.




The 350 in the 40 after replacing the temporary rubber fuel line. The one-piece hard line connects the fuel pump to the carb. A lot of trial and error but it looks good. Those little things add up.

Mort

[Al Nyhus]

dmort...nice to see you had a good carb on it. -Al

[dmort]

Good eye Al. I got the carb from Bob.....He swears by them. Besides that it was rebuilt and free.

Mort

[alinwa]

So I never had any money, so I never race-raced (my friends did/do) but I still did plendy wrenching to keep my wrecks on the road and I do have an "opinion" on the old carbs.....

The best SOUNDING carb I ever had was a Carter AFB on a 350 in my old El Camino. Stupid car, never hooked up, wheel-hopped them "50's" like a banty rooster when I'd get the old 4-holer to arc... but man when all the weathers aligned right and I got 'er not to puke off the line she'd hit about 35-40mph and howl like a trapped thunderstorm! Whhoop WHOOop HAWNKK!!!

I never had a motor that breathed well enough to handle the huge secondary blast, they all ran better on the primaries.... but I'd feather that thing on just for the hawnkk of those 4 barrels...and watch the gas gauge roll right off the dial.

And dream of Big Blocks....

Now I've got dozens of big blocks, in trucks, and I got rid of my last hotrod dream, a '70 Challenger 340 over 20yrs ago..... I've got spare big block long blocks setting in the shop right now, and think of making a Rat Rod but I'm too wrapped up in guns to really get fired up over it. So I just read these threads and enjoy it vicariously happy to still understand the lingo.

[Al Nyhus]

Good eye Al. I got the carb from Bob.....He swears by them. Mort

The sophistication of the Quadrajet is lost on most people. -Al

[jackie schmidt]

The sophistication of the Quadrajet is lost on most people. -Al

Back when I built the first 454 for my Malibu, I had an early model Quadrajet on it. I learned quite a bit about tuning on it, especially the rear air valve.

The local pick apart was a treasure trove for the tuning rods, both primary and secondary, as well as rod hangers,vacuum springs, etc.

I will admit it's been 15 years since I have fooled with one, but when tuned right, it was a darned good carb.

That 454 had a set of 049 oval port heads that I had done some pocket porting on. This was back when Hyd Roller Cams first came on the scene. Comp Cams had their version, I bought a .282 magnum Hyd Roller kit, which was about 224 degrees at .050, and .572 lift. It ran pretty good.

When I had set the thrust on the Roller Cam, I just used a stock sheet metal timing cover. I knew the old trick of placind a bolt between the water pump housing and timing cover to keep it from beating out, but just didn't do it. Over a period of time, the Cam developed too much end play. This caused the rollers to eat into the side of the lifter, (amazingly, the first Comp Cams Hyd Roller Lifters were not hardened), and one finally broke, ruining the block.

I got another block, put that same Cam in it with Crane solid Roller Lifters, and set the lash at .005. The thing ran really good. I put a lot of miles on it.

Much later, I stuck a set of Edlebrock heads on it with a Performer RPM intake. The heads upped the compression to 10 to 1. In around 2010, I took it to a shop and put it on a chassis dyno, where it pulled 360 HP at the wheels. That equates to an honest 500 at the crank.

That's the engine I took out when I had the 540 built, which opened up a whole new world of insanity.

[dmort]

Sometimes it's only thing that keeps us sane. During the Vietnam war when it seemed like the world was taking a major dump, cars and racing kept my head above water. Gave me chance to focus on something else.

Mort

[dmort]

A high school friend and his project 33/34 Ford. The flat head that was removed is on the floor. I don't remember what motor was planned for the car but he had a log manifold for it. I think it was set up for four two's.

Mort

[Al Nyhus]

Last weekend, we had our Make A Wish race at Thunder Valley in Marion, S.D. This is a great race we've been sponsoring for several years now. Again this year, we raised enough money to fund wishes for two Make A Wish kids! One of the highlights of our race is giving the Make A Wish kids a short ride in the cars down track. The smiles on the faces of these kids and their families says it all!

My pal Randy Sheperd and his passenger. Randy's car is a '69 Camaro 396-375 4 spd that runs in A/S. His ride-along kiddo had some lower leg deformities that made sitting a struggle. So, in true fashion for these kids...he adapted by hanging on to the roll cage!





I made it to the quarter finals, losing to my team mate Steve Koppien and his killer AA/SA '69 Camaro 427 ZL-1. Steve went on to win, so he's been bustin' my chops at the shop all week!



I qualified 10th. My index at TVD is 12.30. Ended up going 11.26 (-1.04 under the index).

[FBecigneul]

Hey Al,
I see Kevin’s name on your car; what’s that old cop up to these days?

[dmort]

That is one happy kid !

What does the double A mean ? Haven't seen it before in a stock class.

Nice photos Al

Mort

[Al Nyhus]

Hey Al,
I see Kevin’s name on your car; what’s that old cop up to these days?

Hi Francis. Two of my four brothers were police officers.....Todd and Loren. Todd used to shoot some BR so you probably met him at Webster City. Loren passed away a few years ago and another brother, Lloyd, also passed this Summer. Kevin loves racing and cars and went with me as much as he could in the '80's. When I decided to get back into racing a few years ago, being able to have Kevin and I doing it together again was a big deciding factor.

It's kind of like my tow rig...it belonged to a man that was very good to me in my early days of racing. He built my engines and even let me build my last '67 Camaro race car in his shop. He was a talented machinist, engine builder, fabricator and a real thinker. I use many of the things he taught me to this day. He pased away in 2018 and this Dodge was a truck he'd bought new with thoughts of getting back into racing some day. Unfortunately, health issues prevented that. Having his truck means a bit of him and his history travel along to the races with us.

Cummins 12 valve 5.9, 5 speed heavy duty trans, Dana 80 positraction rear with 3.55's:

[Al Nyhus]

What does the double A mean ? Haven't seen it before in a stock class.Mort

Mort, NHRA added the 'AA' class to Stock several years ago. It's a class that lets cars like the ZL-1 '69 Camaro and the '64 Ford Thunderbolt have a place in Stock Eliminator. Formerly, their horsepower ratings and weight didn't meet the minimum weight break.

Glad you enjoyed the pics. -Al

[alinwa]

OK, so here's something I know a little about!

Those are awesome rear ends, I have 11 of them..... but I learned something when I let one get low and gently ate a bearing, then completely WASTED the new set I put in.

"EVERYBODY KNOWS" that you torque 'er down tight then back off 1/8 turn..... or 1/4 turn...... or 1/3 turn...... depending on who you're talking to or reading from.

Well after wrecking bearing/hub/axle (failed on a busy freeway, by the time I hit the next ramp and she spewed metal like Old Faithful but DID'T come down..... drove 'er onto the rollback, with 7 ton on ) I did some research. Talked to some old guys.

When I rebuilt it this last time I ran 'er down to 150ftlb AND DIDN'T BACK 'ER OFF NONE!

I ain't saying that's RIGHT, I'm saying that's what I DID, and she runs cool under 20,000lb GVW


YMMV

[dmort]

The wife and I went down the Calif. coast for our 5th anniversary. I think this was near Monteray. The car was really cherry and the only issue was a vibration from the dash when you cranked the volume up on the radio. I took a match book cover and pushed up under the dash trim....problem fixed.

Mort