Off Topic....I'll be gone

[Benny]

If anyone should want to contact me in the next 2 weeks about anymore .40 or .41 cal moulds/Boolits, I'll be on the Salt Flats in Bonneville Utah, Racing. The Orange Boolit is going for 233 Mph, and the Salt is in real good shape this year, the best in about 10 or 12 years. We stand a real good chance of grabbing the World Land Speed Record in our class. The car is a '53 Studebaker running a 400 CuIn Chevy small block running a 871 blower on gas. Last year would have been a good year for us but the salt was very rough and soft in places. We almost spun out (Fishtailed) at 218 Mph. The only thing that saved us was popping the chute, and that brought the car around in a straight line. I'll let you know when we get back how we did. We won't leave until Sun morning. BTW we will have about 1000 lbs of good wheel weight lead on board, in 20 lb ingots...

[NVcurmudgeon]

Best wishes, Benny. I am sure that you are aware that 50 years ago 233 mph was about the record held by the Kenz-Leslie streamliner, the fastest hot rod in the world. Now you are going for that speed with a gas powered street car!

[dragonrider]

Good luck Benny, keep the wheels on the ground.

[Benny]

In 1956 a friend of mine, Johnny Allen rode a Triumph 650cc Motorcycle to a world record of 215 Mph....Now the fastest piston driven auto(Streamliner) is 468 Mph....That was Jet powered speeds 50 years ago...Things just keep getting faster...Thanks for the encouragement...I'll post our results when I get back

[StarMetal]

According to the records, which are posted here:


Evolution of the FIM Land Speed Record
1937 Ernst Henne BMW 500 274.494kmh
1951 William Herz NSU 500 289.681kmh
1955 Russell Wright Vincent 1000 297.728kmh
1956 Johnny Allen Triumph 650 311.778kmh
1956 William Herz NSU 500 338.992kmh
1956 Johnny Allen Triumph 650 345.426kmh
1962 Bill Johnson Triumph 650 361.410kmh
1966 Bob Leppan Triumph 650 395.362kmh*
1970 Don Vesco Yamaha 350 405.425kmh*
1970 Cal Rayborn Harley-Davidson 427.267kmh*
1975 Don Vesco Yamaha 700 487.084kmh*
1978 Don Vesco Kawasaki 1000 512.733kmh*
1990 Dave Campos Harley-Davidson 518.450kmh*
* = two engines

Johnny did 210.639863 mph. Boy that's damn flying on an old 650 Triumph. I ran those and BSA's too, mine sure didn't go that fast. Friend had a Norton that was pretty fast.


400 cube chevy small block huh...have any cooling problems?

Joe

[Benny]

Joe...It doesn't run long enough to get hot...We were concerned with the Siamese cylinders. I bet 10 -12 minutes at a run is about max. We don't run a radiator. Where the passenger seat used to be is a 20 gal aluminum tank with electric circ pump. When we get back to the pits, then we run it through a heat exchanger and cool it down to 135 degrees. We just have a valve with quick disconnect where we can divert the discharge from the pump to the heat exchanger (Big Radiator), back through the engine and back to the tank...It doesn't take long...Running 6 miles at 200 + doesn't take long..With the alcohol motor, we didn't even have to cool it down between runs..

[Gunload Master]

Benny that looks like a blast! Good luck and have fun. I wish I was there to watch that.

[PatMarlin]

That is one increadible lookin' automobile. It's looks like it could talk to ya.. :mrgreen:

[waksupi]

Benny, I don't know how long you have been running the flats. I wonder, did you ever meet Hank Lawshe? He was a great friend of mine, who held several speed records with 6 bangers on the salt. He died back in, I believe, June of '92, so i thas been some time since he was there. As far as I know, I have the last dated piece of his artwork before he died, hanging on my wall. He was one hell of a charector!

[StarMetal]

I run a smallblock 400 bored over .030 to make it a 409. It ran hot for me, even with a four core radiater and seven blade performance fan. They have alot of torque, I'll say that for them.

Yeah reckon you don't need a radiator if you're just running a short time. Like when they use to pack 348 chevy engines with ice for a quarter mile run, remember that?

Joe

[Benny]

Waksupi...I was there in the mid 80s, and then started going back again in 2000.
I could not believe how big the event had grown. Just to give an overview. Last year, the pits were almost 1 mile long, and a city block wide. This year there are a little over 500 entries, for 350+ classes. When you are involved in a car, you usually don't have much time to cruise the pits. I may have seen your friend back in the 80's, but the name doesn't ring a bell...sorry...

Gunload Master..2 years ago we finished the race and trailered the car up to the Hot Rod Cafe in Post Falls Idaho for a Rod show and get together...Have you ever been there? It's quite a place....

[Bucks Owin]

Good luck amigo! That's one bad lookin' Stude!

Keep the "shiney side" up!

Dennis

[kywoodwrkr]

Starmetal,
Did you by anychance clean the inner water jacket out in your 400?
I was reading in last couple days that one theory behind the overheating was that oxidation(rust crud) build up on the inside was a major contributor.
Author suggested using sulphuric or muratic acid(properly diluted) to get crud out of inner jacket.
What be your thoughts on this.
I have a 400 block I need to do something with.
Thanks.
DaveP kywoodwrkr

[Bucks Owin]

Starmetal,
Did you by anychance clean the inner water jacket out in your 400?
I was reading in last couple days that one theory behind the overheating was that oxidation(rust crud) build up on the inside was a major contributor.
Author suggested using sulphuric or muratic acid(properly diluted) to get crud out of inner jacket.
What be your thoughts on this.
I have a 400 block I need to do something with.
Thanks.
DaveP kywoodwrkr

WAY off topic but the 400's siamese bores are no help to cooling, and don't forget to drill "steam vents" in whatever heads you use....

But, what do I know. My thing was big block Henrys of the "FE" persuasion....

FWIW,

Dennis

(F-100 with 428 CJ [smilie=1: )

[StarMetal]

Dennis is right about the steam holes. 400 heads had them, any other heads had to be drilled. Also make sure the gasket matches the holes.

The engine was built by an engine shop in Columbus, Ohio and they tanked the block. Normally that would clean them pretty darn good. Just about any chevy builder I've talked say 400's seem to run hot. Doesn't matter now because there's a brand new 350 setting in the 61 Impala hardtop, with flat TRW forged pistons for a 10.33 compression ratio. The heads are Corvette "D" shaped exhaust ports aluminum with 58cc chambers. Got a 278 HMV Crane cam in her with an Edelbrock RPM Performer intake, Hedman headers, block is four bolt mains, DUI coil in a stock HEI distributor. Eleven inch flywheel and Hays clutch disk and pressure plate. Tranny is a Borg Warner Super T-10 out of a big block Pontiac Firebird and I have the racing Hurst V-Gate shifter on it, which is a straight line shifter for a manual four speed. Rearend has 3.55 gears. All gauges and tack are AutoMeter. Had the car weighted for all the Ford friends I have that said it's an aircraft carries and it's 3640, that's damn light for a production stock Impala. They shut up then. It flatout gets it too.

Joe

[Bucks Owin]

Ford friends?!?

Oh yeah? Well will it turn air conditioned 14.80s like my Ford "truck"?

LOL :drinks:

Dennis

(who thinks at his age that only kids drag race without air!) :D

[StarMetal]

Well, it doesn't have air, but I'll bet it's lighter then your truck and I bet it got more rearend weight which trucks are notorious for not having..so my bite coming out of the hole should be alot better. I'll also bet I got way more horsepower then your 428 too. Being a smallblock 350 has a long stroke, don't sell it short on torque. I'm pretty sure the Impala will dust your truck, but I know for sure the 383 stroker(350 bored and stroked) I build for the neighbor down the mtn a couple summers ago for his 72 Chevelle will dust you. I put him an Eagle steel stroker crankshaft in with JE forged high compression pistons and he's using the Edelbrock aluminum RPM Performer heads with raised exhaust ports and topped with a an AirGap RPM Performer intake. Hooker competition headers, turbo 350 auto tranny I built for him with shift kit and 2400 stall converter hooked up to 3.55 posi in the rearend. He got the RPM Performer camshaft too which is alittle bit wilder then my Crane. High volume oil pump and a windage tray shielding the crankshaft. I degreed in the cam and we used Pete Jackson timing gears, not a chain.

If that don't do you in we'll just drag out the Plymouth with the 426 Hemi.

Joe
P.S. Oh edited this in, FORD stands for First Outtada Race Day, not first on race day...course I could have said Found On Roadsided Dead, or Fix, Oil, Repair, Daily. Come on Dennis, lets line em up!!!! Vrroommm Vrrrooommm

[Larry Gibson]

Benny

Good lookin' "boolit", what's the B.C.?

Larry Gibson

[Benny]

Funny you should ask...After adding the larger hood scoop to accomadate the blower, it dropped from .187 to .108 ...or somewhere around there...Seriously though...In a wind tunnel test it is possible to change the front and rear of a racer, and reduce drag, and improve the slipstream numbers....Just like with a Boolit...

[StarMetal]

Dennis,

Here's a couple pics of the Impala:

[Bucks Owin]

Nice Impala "sleeper" amigo!

Yep, the 4500 lb pickup has a little trouble coming out of the hole, especially with an open 9" with 3:00 gears.....Can you say "John Force burnout"? LOL I use slicks at the strip (bumps me to "Pro Trophy" away from the rental car "plants" at the local bracket races) and I individually adjust the rear airshocks for preload but it "should" have a spool and 4:56 or 4:88s to get serious. Thing is, I remember living with those kinda gears on the street when I was much younger! (5:14s!!!) :roll:

The ol' 1968 428CJ runs a Crower 280/288 dur, .545" lift cam on a 108 degree centerline so it "thumps" quite nicely and will buzz to 6500 rpm when I feel "frisky"....(Rhodes lifters help the idle and "streetability"...) a "built" big shaft C6 w/ 2500 rpm converter and B&M ratchet shifter put over 550 lbs torque to the pavement...

I think it could easily go low 13's or maybe even high 12's with a posi and gears and some weight stripped out of it, but it's plenty of fun in "mild and comfortable" trim too....(And it great to "put the hurt" on the occasional kid at a stoplight by an old greyhaired dude with a "rough running" pickup...heh heh) Besides, premium fuel @ $3.50 gal plus boost (10.75 to 1 CR) is kinda pricey when you get 9-10 mpg!!!

We's bad huh Joe? :-D

Dennis

BTW a 383 stroker? Small change....A 426 Hemi? NOW I'm a little nervous! :D

[StarMetal]

Dennis,

That sounds like a real cool ride, even if it is Ford [smilie=1: You're right about the 108 centerline, that makes for a thumpy lumpy idle alright. These kids today don't really know what caused that lumpy idle back in the old days. Notice alot of the cams today are like 110, 112, 114 for a smoother idle. Me, I love those old "blap blap" cams. My 350 with easily spin past 6500 rpm, I found out accidently. It was after I had just put the engine in the car and had broke it in and was out testing. Remember the 400 smallblock was in it previously and it was pretty torquey. Well I lit up the rear tires in first gear and watching the tach, one moment it's at 4 grand, blink my eyes, next thing I know she's at 7 grand...still spinning the rear tires...whoa!!!!!! Being I babysat my son he was just a small kid then 6, 7, 8, I forget. Well mom said I gave him the bad impression that you burn rubber in all the gears. Now he's of driving age and he want's that Chevy in the worse way. Mom says "NO".

I don't know what the Chevy will really do Dennis, as much as I love cars and guns I don't get involved in competition. I've have a few chevy nuts ride in it and they think it's awesome. Personally I was never a 350 being I grew up with 283's and 327's. Now those 327's were quite some good running engines and the thing I liked about them over the 350's were the 327's , with their shorter stroke, would rev alot more quickly then the 350's. The 283 was a dynamite engine, but it just didn't have the grunt the 327 did.

Hey I had a 65 Impala SS convertible (that's rare being a SS convertible) and what made it even more rare was it has a 409. Yup, 400 horse, with Weiand intake, 12 to 1 pistons, and solid lifter experimental L88 cam, Muncie M22 Rockcrusher four speed, with the short throw Corvette shifter linkage, hooked up to 3.73 posi....all from the factory. On burnouts she'd do 360's in 1st and 2nd gear, and fishtail 180's in 3rd and 4th. If I kept my foot out of the carb she got about 12 mpg. I blew it up one day :( Later on I found out how exotic the engine and car both are...quite rare for that year as it was the last year of production for the 409. I still have a piston out of it. Wife shakes her head over all this.

Yeah, it's cool dusting those kids at the red light. Now says we have to behave Dennis cause we're old and grey haired!!!!

Have fun with that truck....someday if you're looking at the rear of a 61 Impala with a grey haird old man that just dusted you...you'll know it was me :drinks:

Joe

[Bucks Owin]

LOL, yeah, it's been awhile since I've made a pass down the 1/4 mi, "stoplight gran prix" is more my speed these days...

I used to have a pipe dream about dropping the 428 in a T bucket but I doubt my ol' ticker could stand it now!!! :roll:

Sure was fun back in my "rod days" though....sigh

409s were cool alright! Remember the Ford SOHC 427 like Don Prudhomme used to campaign in AA/TF? I see them turn up in "weekend" drag boats once in awhile now...Way cool engine dude! :D I wish the NHRA would bring back the Fuel Altereds....THOSE were scarey! They still run a nostalgia circuit down in Bakersfield....

Dennis

BTW, Mama still has a '73 XR7 Cougar with a warmed up 351C 4V in it that I built her but I don't think she's drove it in a decade....These days it's a XLT Explorer with 19 mpg....:roll: It's hell to be "practical"....

You'll be happy to know her "teenage ride" was a 67 Impala with a stock 327...(silly girl) I've since "reformed" her... :D

[StarMetal]

Dennis,

Geez, a 67 Impala WAS a boat!!! Big and heavy.

Hey I moved to AZ for awhile in my younger days, esp when I was still a bigger motorhead. Well my friend, a ford nut "sic", took me to the big lakes on the weekend. Damnation, I was in hopped up motor heaven. I saw inboard motors in boats that rivaled anything on the street. Every brand too!!! God those were neat.

Yes I remember those early Ford 427's. Now those impressed me, but when Ford came out with 4 something of the month engines, we weren't impressed. Geez what did they have, 428's , 429's, etc. Yeah big blocks, but in all honestly I didn't see many of them that ran really good. I remember too when Ford come out with the 289 Mustang. Great engine, great car, but chevy smallblocks had a better head flow design. To the tune that Ford tried to sue them over it in 1955, but that didn't work and Chevy had it patented too. Anyways in order to put some zip in those early Mustangs, Ford shoved 390's in them. Well another great engine...for family cars and truck, but not a performance engine in the Mustang. It wasn't until the Mustang got built by Shelby that they really began to run, and also when Ford come up with the 302 engines, now those run too. This was before the 351C which is another great engine.

In all honestly this is how it was where I grew up in Pitts area of PA. Chevys ruled, especially the 396. Not alot of us could afford the 427 big blocks and ran mainly 327's. Also I've never personally seen a 389 GTO that was such a bad ass that a Chevy or Ford couldn't beat it. But all this came to an end for Chevy, Ford, Pontaic, Buick, Oldmobile, when Chrysler come out with the 426 hemi and the 440 magnum. There's no doubt about those babies ran and straight from the dealers showroom floor too. Oh there were some Chevys and Fords that could beat them, but they had alot of money and work in them.

A question was asked of knowlegdeable car shows and magazines of what was the wildest hyped up engine commercially produced and sold. Well the answer was the very first 302 Boss. It had the most wildest cam and largest intake valves of any then production engine. In fact it was said that Ford detuned it the very next season. The other answer was a Chevy engine that is very rare, I think only twelve made, and that was an all aluminum 454 big block and it was in a Chevelle. Back then horsepower ratings from the manufacture were deliberately lowered to save you some money and so they could sell them, but that 454 was rated at something like in the 400's. Hotrod said that was very conservative as it was more like 750!!!!!

Too bad those days are gone, maybe kids wouldn't be stuck on video games and drugs like they are today.

Joe

[Bucks Owin]

Seems to me the 428CJ Mustang still "owns" one of the NHRA SuperStock classes, can't remember which. Down around SS/H or thereabouts...The 428 is an "FE" block (Ford Edsel) derivative like the 332, 352, 360, 390, 427 and 428...Differnt bore/strokes, going way back to 1958 or so...

Of course, just about any old musclecar owns a class of some kind...(The Hemis still dominate SS/D I think, the big block Camaros in something like SS/F...)

ALL Detroit iron will run with enough "cubic dollars"....[smilie=1:
(Remember the old saw "Speed is money, how fast do you want to go?!?)

289? Had one in a 4 gear 66 Mustang. It held it's own....(They were LIGHT!) The 351W can go out to 427 inches for a real "small block" killer in an old Mustang, Falcon etc...

Best pal,

Dennis :drinks:

BTW, the 429/460 is a completely different animal from the 70s and 80s. Kind of like a big "Cleveland" with canted valve heads....It's called the "Lima 385 series" block. It's a great hot rod boat engine, easy and cheap to build 514 inches out of, torque with a capital T...

Anyway....(How'd we get THIS far out in left field? :D) See what you started Benny? LOL....

[Bucks Owin]

BTW Joe, of all the dozens of different wheels I've had over the years, you'd never guess which one impressed me the most....at least in durability

Give up? A 92 Chrysler "Jeep" Cherokee with the 4.0 HO inline six banger! I still have it as a "beater" just to see when (or IF) it'll eventually die. At the moment it has 340K on it and shows no sign of quitting....(and the little booger is kinda quick!)

Synthetic oil works!

Dennis

[StarMetal]

There's a small block Chevy block and crank kit that brings the cubes out to hight 400 something, very close to 500 cubes. It's also a killer smallblock.

You know getting off Detroit iron, I once built and owned a Baja VW. Those engines are amazing. Back alot of years ago I saw a VW engine in a rail do 8.20 in the quarter. That's amazing. They say it was one of the easiest bolt on horsepower engines ever built.

I remember big block Chevy engines back in the muscle days as not being a durable as the smallblocks. You could beat the smallblock daily and not have problems. Seems like the big blocks like to chew up rocker arms after every ****** race. Parts were double the cost for big blocks too, plus the engine was alot heavier. Now one engine and car that Chevy came out with as being ****** was the 302 Z28 Camaro. Well it might have been for track racing, not quarter mile. Some of the reason was the flywheel was aluminum with a steel face to cut down on weight and shorten rev time, but at the cost of torque. Torque is the name of the game. You can have high horsepower without alot of torque. What you want is that horsepower with alot of torque. My friend had a hopped up 55 Chevy with a 327 in it. He bought a Z28 302 flywheel and put it in. Come pick me up and said watch. Stopped on the hwy and cranks the engine up to like 4 or 5 gran and dropped the clutch. We got a maybe alittle more then a chirp out of the rear tires. That flywheel come out el pronto. Now they had quite an engine in the race version. Dual four staggered log ram intake with a really really eratic cam. In fact Chevy put out a bullet that you couldn't just take that cam and shove it into your smallblock without having special valve relief cut pistons. They named a TRW piston. The lift was that high on the cam. It was called the "Off The Road Service Cam". Now that little 302 put out like 495 ponies and remember that was back at the end of the 60's. I guess she would fly once you got her up to speed, but for street racing, it was a dog.

Another car and engine highly toted was the Pontiac Sprint. Basically the GTO/Tempess body, but it had hypo six cylinder in it. What made it special was it had an overhead cam and 4 barrle QuadraJet on it and of course a 4 speed tranny. I raced a one with my 327 61 post sedan and I wasn't impressed. Cams gave them trouble too because it ran in bosses cast right in the aluminum valve pam cover...I thinks that's how I heard it was set up. Now nothing wrong with that, as most all these Jap super bikes been running the cams in aluminum bearing bosses for years, but I don't think Pontiac had the technology down just right back then.

Another big block that didn't impress me were the 382 Plymouths. Yeah, I've seen a few of them run, but hey for 382 cubes and big block, they weren't that impressive.

Joe
P.S. That reminds me. Back in just a tad before my days Studebaker had a V8, was 200 some cubes, but anyways it had a Paxton supercharger on it. Thing flat out run for a smallblock. Those Golden Hawks they come out with in like 57 (at least that's the year I saw one) would flat out run pretty good too. Studebakers were actaully pretty good cars ahead of the time.

[Bucks Owin]

Believe it or not, the old Rambler 287/327 ran pretty strong too...

I whipped a Chebbie or two with my Mom's '64 Classic with an "alternative" 327*...

Actually, I've seen a "racey" 401 in an early Javalin run in the 10's! (No "bottle" either!)

The ol' man was a bigtime Nash and Rambler fan. I remember as a kid being so ashamed of the big ol' "bathtub" Nash he used to drive... Everyone "cool" ran a V8 flathead "Hank"....! (Or better yet, the bigger Merc flattie...)

Dennis

*(Wow, is that insulting or what! heh heh) :-D

[StarMetal]

Dennis,

My best best friend that got me started on Chevies and mechanics, dad was a Rambler fan. So I know about those sleepers. Then when AMC bought them they came out with some pretty cool cars like the AMX, the Rebel, and Javelins.

Imagine your 428 in a Metropolitan!!!!!

Hey when I was in Jamaica in the 60's I saw a Renault with a 389 Pontiac dead center in the middle of the passenger compartment. Me and my friend made note of how we thought we wouldn't want to sit that close to the engine.


Another guy I knew built a 327 Chevy smallblock to the hilt and put it in a little TR series Triumph. Found out he didn't need 1st, 2nd, and 3rd gear, it would flat off burn rubber in 4th and take off. He was building it for a quarter mile car and I guess that 4th gear take off discouraged him for reasons unknown, but he sold and some circle track racer bought it and won quite a few races.

A friend aboard my ship while in the Navy had some little MG with a 406 Ford engine and tranny in it. To say it was squirrely would be an understatement.

Gee Dennis, you're fun...you love guns and hyp cars....now if you could just fix me up with Cameron Diaz. Whatelse is there fast cars & bikes, great guns, and hot women?

Joe

[Gunload Master]

I've never been to Post Falls idaho before. It's pretty high up in the panhandle for me to travel there, unless there was some huntin' to do I might make an exception.
Would be fun to hear that sucker roar in person though :)

[Bucks Owin]

Gee Dennis, you're fun...you love guns and hyp cars....now if you could just fix me up with Cameron Diaz. Whatelse is there fast cars & bikes, great guns, and hot women?

Joe

Yep, they make the world go round alright amigo! :drinks: (I'll have to keep the Diaz info private though....sorry)

Dennis

Who even once owned a Nash Metropolitan! (Kept the original Austin A-40 mill in it though....):-D

[Four Fingers of Death]

Thats fast man, Whats that in FPS? Seriously though, good luck and we look forward to having you back in a few weeks. Give us an update when you get back to the fire. Mick.

[PatMarlin]

You guys remember these? Frantz Oil Filter. This is the very original model I've restored, and will use it for a diesel fuel filter.

I cut out screen out of hardware cloth, and window screen to fit. Drilled out the orifice for fuel. Cleaned it all up, and she's ready to go.

That's real dense- 2ply scotts industrial TP, and will filter finer than 2 micron, plus remove moisture. I've got 5 Frantz Filters, of various year makes, changes and improvements, but they all operate the same way. I even have an aircraft model... :mrgreen:

[StarMetal]

Pat,

Didn't J.C. Whitney's sell somekind of filter like that? I know they sold one that took TP.

Joe

[Baldy]

Go for it Benny and have a safe one. That is one fantastic looking ride you have there. Sure hope you bring the record home with ya. Good Luck.

[PatMarlin]

Pat,

Didn't J.C. Whitney's sell somekind of filter like that? I know they sold one that took TP.

Joe

I remember the JC Whitney ads Joe, but I don't know if it was the Frantz or some other brand. Frantz was and is the best. It is now again being manufactured.