Was able to get the bucket on the scales today. Good friend has a set for the weekend. Gassed up and rolled out to Long Beach. Basic rundown. Full steel body 4 door valiant. Manual steering, removed heater box, wiper motor and radio. Currently running iron heads and battery is up front… also just installed subframe connectors. 1/4 tank of fuel. Came in at 3152, lots of room for improvement with the distribution
Got the good news today. My speed master heads are coming home this week. Had some port work done and setup for a solid roller. Now it’s time to get this junk off the top of my engine!
The plan is to drive out to Scottsdale to attend and play at the duct tape drags next Friday. Outside of putting my top end back together I have some other items that had to be addressed. Like.. the windshield. Have been ducking it for three years. Also going to install new front brake hoses and my driveshaft loop.
Picked up a set of ranger wheels with 235/75/15 tires to help with the upcoming freeway driving. That should calm my 3:73s with 26” tall tires down a good bit.
While the heads were out I was seriously looking at putting a 408 together. I had Brian spec out a cam for these heads for a 408. My timeframe changed and I decided to run my current 360 short block. I picked up a another comp cam from a guy on here. It’s not a perfect choice, but it will make enough power for now.
Big push. I managed to get it all sorted out and assembled today… even got it fired off and performed a leak check. I still have a full day tomorrow to get all the loose ends together.
Managed to get 99% of my list knocked out. Currently sitting in my driveway all loaded and ready to cruise out to Tucson in the early am. Fingers crossed I pass tech.. hell, I may even break out of the 14s
It was a great time. However , we had a serious oil consumption issue. It was something in the range of 1-2 quarts every 100 miles. I found it pulling oil from the lifter galley pretty bad. I ended up pulling the intake soon as we got to the track (after one hell of a drive!). I severely underestimated the length of the drive. This turd is not exactly a freeway flyer. Once we made it back home and I had a chance to really take a look at everything I realized I had more problems than the oil from the galley. I ended up pulling the intake a couple of times and measuring angles and checking gasket witness marks and all of that. I even swapped to a different intake that was much uglier but I was willing to give it a shot.
After running the new intake I still had the oil consumption issue. I really noticed it when I would lift off throttle. I checked my cylinder pressure and then a leak down test. I forget the exact numbers, but I know the leak down was at least 10% across all 8. I pulled the engine out and took the short block into the machine shop. Few days later I got the call, my cylinders had a lot of taper. A .030 overbore took care of it.
What’s the deal with the big 70’s headphones on the dash in one of the pictures
Those are noise canceling, Bluetooth headphones. No BS… total game changer on long drives at 3k with the windows down. My son used his air pods with mickeys on top.