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

Rat Job was the name of the car....I think it was a 396 block.

Do you have any pictures of the motors you raced on the water?

Mort
 
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Do you have any pictures of the motors you raced on the water?

Mort

Yeh, somewhere this picture is pretty close to what my long deck Beismeyer Super Stocker looked like . https://www.v-drivevideo.net/pictures/albums/2/Copy_of_SS-17_Never_enough.jpg

In super stock, just a 427 L88, factory aluminum high rise with a 800 double pumper on top, Basset Headers. Probably made about 550 HP.

In Pro Comp and SK, an aluminum head Rat, with a Wiend Pro Ram with two 1150 Dominators. The Pro Comp was 500 cid, the SK limited to 399 cid. My best SK motor was a destroaked .060 over 427 with Air Flow Research heads, gosh awful solid roller cam, 13 to 1 compression, etc. it made about 650, Erving at 8000 rpm on the straightaways. Gas had to pass the gas check. We made our own gas, because one of my best friends Dad worked at the Ethyl Corporation. We took standard green AvGas, 105 octane, and added tetraethyl lead and manganese to it until it was just on the limit.

The k Boat engine, (basically unlimited), was a iron head 14 to 1 compression Rat Motor with the 3 inch stagger Tube Crower Injectors. It ran on Methanol with sometimes 10 percent nitro added. Same cam as the SK. It revved to about 7500 rpm. Probably around 800 HP.

I never ran a blower in K Boat. Way too much violent torque. Realistically, you set the boat up to do about 110 mph on the straightaways and to handle the rougher water after the first turn. The Beismeyer Hulls we ran would turn on a dime and handle the water great if you knew how to drive it.
 
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Jackie
Were you boat drag racing or on a race course?

The motors sound pretty impressive.

A friend of mine had a glass ski boat powered by a 427 Ford. My wife could ski but all I did was swallow lake water. When he chose to open that thing up it would beat the crap out of you. I can only imagine what your ride was like.

Mort
 
Jackie
Were you boat drag racing or on a race course?

The motors sound pretty impressive.

A friend of mine had a glass ski boat powered by a 427 Ford. My wife could ski but all I did was swallow lake water. When he chose to open that thing up it would beat the crap out of you. I can only imagine what your ride was like.

Mort

I raced in American Power Boat Association closed course events. The typical length was 5 miles. If you ran on a 1 mile course, it was five laps. On a mile and 2/3 course, it was three laps.

I used the same boat in all the classes. I simply changed the engine, the prop, and the gears in the V Drive, which was a Casell.

With the Super Stock and SK engine, I used 15% overdrive and a 11 1/2 x 15 Stellings prop. In the Pro Comp and K Class, I changed to 23% overdrive gears and a 11 1/2 x 16 prop.
 
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Jersy skiffs

I have some friends Dick and Bob that used to dominate in the Jersey speed skiff class. They had a 283 stock motor (blueprinted and perfect in every way but stone stock) that back then cost about $10,000. and a half a refrigerator box full of props that he said he spent $15,000. on. They used to try all kinds of stuff to get speed, A polished and waxed hull was several MPH slower than taking a sanding board with 60 grit and making long scratches the length of the boat. They had FHP clock them on radar going under a bridge over a lake.
 
I have some friends Dick and Bob that used to dominate in the Jersey speed skiff class. They had a 283 stock motor (blueprinted and perfect in every way but stone stock) that back then cost about $10,000. and a half a refrigerator box full of props that he said he spent $15,000. on. They used to try all kinds of stuff to get speed, A polished and waxed hull was several MPH slower than taking a sanding board with 60 grit and making long scratches the length of the boat. They had FHP clock them on radar going under a bridge over a lake.

I saw the Jersey Speed Skiffs race at Red Bank NJ back in early ‘70’s. About the only thing that could beat you up more was a Cracker Box.

For those that don’t know what they are, here is a video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wldlanAnwps
 
Jackie that video you posted was after they got out of skiff racing. The cage on the boats in the video was the reason they quite. They were both sure that in a survivable crash that the cage would kill you.
 
Jackie that video you posted was after they got out of skiff racing. The cage on the boats in the video was the reason they quite. They were both sure that in a survivable crash that the cage would kill you.

We raced in open boats, with a chute jacket. If you went over, (I did twice), you want to get pulled as far away from the boat as possible.

Now, some K Boats have closed cockpits, much lie you see on Unlimited Hydroplanes.
 
Engine still on the dyno and testing will continue late this week or early next week. So far, it looks like we have a repeatable 4-5 h.p. increase over last season. Next testing will be four different NHRA accepted fuels: two from Sunoco and two from V.P. Last session, the V.P. C11 was the best but we've changed cam timing and a few other things since then. -Al
 
Engine still on the dyno and testing will continue late this week or early next week. So far, it looks like we have a repeatable 4-5 h.p. increase over last season. Next testing will be four different NHRA accepted fuels: two from Sunoco and two from V.P. Last session, the V.P. C11 was the best but we've changed cam timing and a few other things since then. -Al

Al, I might be wrong on this, but in recent times there have been articles concerning octane of fuels. It seems that too high of an octane number for a given application is really not desirable, and can actually cost power. In short, you should not run 110 octane fuel if an engine combination only requires 98.

Since the class you run is one where improvements are measured in very small gains, have you found that having just enough octane rating to prevent detonation can actually make more power?

Or, maybe not. Just curious.
 
Al, I might be wrong on this, but in recent times there have been articles concerning octane of fuels. It seems that too high of an octane number for a given application is really not desirable, and can actually cost power. In short, you should not run 110 octane fuel if an engine combination only requires 98.

Since the class you run is one where improvements are measured in very small gains, have you found that having just enough octane rating to prevent detonation can actually make more power?

Or, maybe not. Just curious.

Jackie, you're absolutely correct. Matching the combustion chambers flame propagation to a fuels burn characteristics is where the power and torque increases come from in these restricted classes. I've had good luck with the VP fuels in the past and am looking forward to seeing what, if anything, the Sunoco fuels may offer.
 
The fuel testing proved to be very worthwhile ;). The BSFC on each fuel (basically an indicator of how efficient a fuel is) gave some hints. After four fuels and moving cam around, we saw more gains in both H.P. and Torque. Overall, we ended up with two fuels that are virtually identical. It's important to look at the average power and torque across the rpm range, too.

I can't thank my pal Bob Sherwood enough. He owns the private dyno that I'm fortunate to test on. His experience in not only dyno operation but data interpretation have been invaluable. Bob is truly one of the good guys. Thank you, Bob! :D

bmySGI7l.jpg
 
I talked to David Nickens about the idea I have about taking the 540 out of my Malibu and installing a new LT-5.

https://sdparts.com/i-24120714-chev...MInZa4-uiO6AIVA9vACh0EWgt9EAQYASABEgJCEvD_BwE

He said that the aftermarket has caught up and the parts are now available to do the whole project. With the cost of the engine at $18,000, the entire project would probably cost a little more than $30,000.

By big issue is what to do with my 540. This is a great street engine. I would like to find a buyer who could hear and see the engine still in the car, so they would know what they were getting. We could seal the deal and when Nickens got the 540 out, they could take delivery.

This will be a big project. I’m about 50/50 on whether I will do it.
 
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I talked to David Nickens about the idea I have about taking the 540 out of my Malibu and installing a new LT-5.

https://sdparts.com/i-24120714-chev...MInZa4-uiO6AIVA9vACh0EWgt9EAQYASABEgJCEvD_BwE

He said that the aftermarket has caught up and the parts are now available to do the whole project. With the cost of the engine at $18,000, the entire project would probably cost a little more than $30,000.

By big issue is what to do with my 540. This is a great street engine. I would like to find a buyer who could hear and see the engine still in the car, so they would know what they were getting. We could seal the deal and when Nickens got the 540 out, they could take delivery.

This will be a big project. I’m about 50/50 on whether I will do it.

Jackie, what's your thoughts on fitting the dry sump oil tank and lines? Does the ECU controller come with the wiring harness? Does the ECU have a basic tune up installed from the factory? Is it a 'self learn' style of ECU?
 
Jackie, what's your thoughts on fitting the dry sump oil tank and lines? Does the ECU controller come with the wiring harness? Does the ECU have a basic tune up installed from the factory? Is it a 'self learn' style of ECU?

Since I don’t have air conditioning to get in the way, they will probably mount the tank on the firewall just to the right of the engine. It does have to be higher than the pump.

From what I understand, the GM ECU is programmed for the Factory 755 hp tune and is locked into it’s own self tuning mode.
Of course, I am sure the aftermarket has already busted into these and figured out ways to retune it.
 
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The fifties were a great time to be a teenager. Why my buddy is laying on the hood of his car I don't know. His girlfriend took the photo.

Mort
 
Times change. You don’t have a bumper to climb on, fenders to roll across, and if you lay on the hood the bump shop is the next place to visit.
 
I have noticed this over my years that a LOT of us Shooters were/Are Motor Heads as well. I have owned a Bunch of Muscle Cars from "The ERA" butt what we had then are not anywhere close to the Autos that are come from the Big 3 2day--can U imagine a 800 + HP Plymouth,Ford or Cheby in the 60's with the technology we had then as far as brakes tires transmissions and the Options compared to today- Ps,Pb,Pw,X-M Radio, Traction control,Line loc and Air conditioning

I LUV the 60- early 70 Muscle car era in today's world they are Model "T's" compared to todays MUSCLE

Jim
 
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