dr_hunt

Ought to be real streetable and sassy. Go for it. Is it going to be efi or carburated? Remember the one piece rear seal cranks take a different flywheel/flexplate. 305240 is right, your building it all wrong. But so you don't have to bother with shipping, give me your address and I'll come take that junkola off your hands and haul it to my garage, eh, the dump, yeah, the dump. David

882's are the highest flowing stock low compression (76cc) head chevrolet made. I think HotRod did a series on these back in the 80's, I probably have it somewhere in my magazine archives. In 1980 I had a 1973 Chevy Long bed half ton P/U with a 350, 882's ported, Crower solid cam with 248@.050 and .510 lift, Speed Pro 12.5:1's, stock rods and crank, netting about 10.6 SCR. At 4500lbs race weight, it went 13.55@100mph. Camel heads are better, Vortec's are better yet, aftermarket is better yet and AFR's are top of the heap. Still, you can get 400HP out of 882's it just takes more cam to do the same job, that is why your best investment is in heads. Personally, I like strong bottom ends and great heads, but back then I couldn't afford anything and now it isn't a problem. Stick to the budget and plan, and it'll work fine. Don't do like I did... When I was 13 I built my first sbc, I put silicone all over the head gaskets so they'd seal, still ran, put 80K on it before selling it used to a buddy. He and some friends laughed their ass off when they pulled the heads to check for ring wear before they used it and saw silicone everywhere. Oh well, live and learn my friend. David

The bitterness of poor quality lingers long after the sweetness of a low price! I've been building race engines, trans and automotive rear ends for 27 years, sprint, late model, imca, blown alky, big blocks, small blocks, ford's, pontiac's, oldsmobiles, diesel's, etc, etc. back when aftermarket was a pipe dream and stock pieces were all we had and a turbo diesel was big time by Banks. My recommendations for budget, go to a quality performance machine shop first, if the floor is so clean you can sit down and eat, then your in the right place, if not, well keep looking. Turn the cast crank on the high side, any quality machine shop will know what that means. Go with Hyper's, bushed rods aren't going to make it faster, just easier to change pistons so don't waste your money, go stock HP "x" rods, or whatever you have, resized on the small end of tolerance (maximum crush) with ARP fasteners, balance the rotating assembly. Check the block align hone on the mains, fix if necessary, debur block, don't get carried away polishing anything. Ask and watch if the machine shop heats the rods till they discolor to install press fit pins, if they do then the rods are now junk and again, you are in the wrong machine shop. Heat rods till they smoke, not discolor and be quick about fitting the pin. Make sure the pistons move freely after getting them back or you will have pin problems for sure. Bore the block with deck plates if you can afford it, finish hone with 500 grit, don't budge on that or your rings will be worn out before you get started, put some nice heads, camel humps, 882's, vortec's, dart's, world's, AFR, Edelbrock whatever you can afford, and add a mild hydraulic flat tappet, install high pressure spring in stock pump to get it up to 45-50lbs hot. Cheap double roller chains and the stock chain with steel gears is a toss up, both suck. When getting the heads done, ask what the guide clearance is or will be, don't want it too tight or too loose, again make sure they do a three angle valve job, check it for runout, and vacuum test after assembly. Go with new springs and hardedned keepers. And that is about as low buck as it gets and you won't be sorry.

A 69 DZ block is small journal, should be easily distinguished from a 350 lg Jrnl. The DZ will have DZ stamped in the front boss, passenger side along with some of the vin #'s, ie. DZxxxxxxxx. 350 two bolts with studs are good to 400HP reliably. could be a 327 large journal, which is the same as a 350 large journal except they came with a steel crank in the pick up trucks.

Olds had cast rods, the 5500 rpm limit is an absolute maximum unless you want to window the block and empty the pocketbook. They all had 2 bolt blocks, some 425's and 455's had steel cranks, hard to find though. They need alot of cleanup in the oil passage to main bearing area to get them to work. There are several version of stock heads, only one is really performance oriented and came on at least the 455 Rocket series. Has larger valves and better ports. David

Ok, guys, I am trying to tie the front strut towers to the 10 point cage, to make a 12 point cage. Looking for pictures on how others have done this. Problem being is that the firewall cowl area has two separate compartments. I'm not exactly sure how to post a pic of what I already have completed. Any pics would be appreciated. David[/img]

That's not a wise suggestion, while it may work it is certainly not recommended, I know rollers are easy on cams, but.... I saw a guy bore a 350's to 4.125 to make his own 377 without using a 400 block, it worked for a couple of weeks before grenading. If the swap were genuine, then they'd only make one type of roller cam and ask you for your choice of lifter. Solid and hydraulic roller cams both have their own specific opening ramp characteristics and I don't believe that solids will offer alot more performance on the same grind. While hydraulics have a slower opening rate so as not to collapse the lifter, solids have to take up lash, ie get the lifter moving upwards before the steepness of the ramp exerts side load on the lifter. Try a street roller grind if you are looking for more performance, say around .600 lift and about 250 duration, it'll have better street characteristics, be more drivable, have cast gear for distributor, require less spring pressure, last longer and make lots of power even on low compression. Still with solid roller I've gone 15K miles on race grinds before starting to break springs due to fatigue, so plan on changing springs every now and then. Solid rollers are noisy, so be aware of that, run a stud girdle if you don't want to be setting lash every week. I'v got a set of World sportsman cast iron 72cc angle plug heads ported, 40 runs on 'em, set up for .670 lift solid roller with manley race flow valves, isky springs, comp steel retainers, 6 month old harlan sharp 1.6 roller rockers and stud girdle for offering to any hybrid z guy, hybrid z guy friend, wife, brother, mother, dad, brother, inlaw, outlaw or whatever cheap. Just think how pleased your mom would be if you bought her some race heads. "Oh, ma, if you don't want them I'll trade you for a nice robe and slippers, just let me take them and I'll go to the store." David

You guys are butchering this poor boy to death. Your mom's should give you all a good buttwhoopin. He's asking for help and by the sound of it he needs alot, not a kick in the teeth while he's down. When everyone came into this world they didn't know diddly about squat about converting hybrid z's, so it's a learning curve. You can learn easy or learn hard, depends on your pocketbook and how much success you will achieve. I think the idea that the members are all trying to convey is that some people (JTR) have assembled just about all you need to know about doing the conversion and this forum has supplied the necessary link were you can access that information for some good reading and knowledge. I don't think there is enough room here to accurately describe the procedure with enough detail here to help you significantly with your problem. If you could see somebody's converted car it would enlighten you greatly. There is a wealth of information available here and this group of members has done it all, twice, wrong once and right the second time, ok well maybe the third time, and they can help you avoid all the mistakes that we have all made. We are here to help, at least most are anyway. The engine should be set back as far as possible to aid in handling and significantly improves other fitment issues. If your welded mounts have resulted in to far forward of an install then try redoing them where it will set the engine back farther. Some better measurements, or a better reference point other than the back of the intake is required to do that. Try installing the distributor and measure from the back of the cap to the firewall to get a good idea of what your going to need to do. Cut the stock crossmember out and support the trans with a jack while you install the engine and trans, so you can see where the trans mount will end up, fabricate a crossmember or buy one and install that (preferred). But if your going to buy one, then buy the kit or at least the motor mounts. From there you can get the measurement for the driveshaft, and do the other million things that will need to be done. Questions that are more narrow and to the point will be received better, otherwise it's a pack of dogs mauling a cat in the name of a laugh.

Yes, the narrower you get it the less stable it becomes, not to mention pizza cutters don't help control of the front end. My solution is just build more HP and don't quibble about a few pounds here and there, just go with safety. Shop, welding..... It's cake. Learn how to weld with tech school class or something. Buy a good MIG/TIG. I have one, was about 8K, but does aluminum, stainless, and regular steel. Build you a shop out of steel pipe and pro-panel. Build cars till you sick. Take two asprin and call me in the morning.

Well no fluid comes out of the back reservoir port of the MC, which is for the front brakes. When I installed it I had to adjust the pedal travel to even get it to work so I was guessing it was the wrong MC. Now that I am aware that there is that possibility I'll order another and see if that fixes the problem. Thanks

Did a search didn't find anything related. Question. Master cylinder on my boys 260z was cracked. Bought a new one, had to adjust the pedal throw cause it seemed that it wouldn't back off enough and had no stroke. Went to bleed it and only the back brakes bleed, the front doesn't bleed even on the master cyl itself. So, is there different master cylinders, this one looks identical except for the position of the brake lines on the bottom, same bore dia, just about identical. Same piston end showing on the booster side, etc. What gives? David

I've got a 9 inch under mine, narrowed, with ladder bars. and a diagonal bar. The panhard bar is not the best set up for drag. Read all the pro's tips, for ladder bar suspension with or without coil overs the diagonal bar offers the least binding and more consistent center during entire suspension travel cause it is LONGER so it doesn't swing such a small arc as the panhard bar does. 9 inch rears are every bit as good if not better than a 12 bolt and easier to change gears in. Parts are cheaper for 9 inch than 12 bolt and easier to find. Complete NEW housing ready to bolt in with Wilwood disc's, moser axles, detroit locker, 4.11 gears, bearings, bearing retainers,, 1350 yoke etc, etc, mine was 2K delivered to the door. Stock 31 spline axles will handle around 8K torque and that is with slicks. Aftermarket 31's will go more. So that is a 550 to 600 lb-ft torque engine with slicks that stick. I've run detroit lockers for years, on the street, Nascar uses them on ovals and so should you. Don't fix it if it isn't broke. Stick with the 12 bolt if you want all "Chevy". Chevy has better engines, ford has better rear end. Actually it was probably their one best idea and their worst idea was canning the FE series blocks and the famous 427 side oiler. I fit a 29.5x10x15 slick under mine fine. Putting new coil overs and ditching the stock type shocks and coil spring setup it came with.[/b]

Relocating the battery doesn't hurt, do all you can do, shifts weight proportions to the rear more, however 50lbs is a huge battery, mine weighed 32 lbs. If your traction is that bad, I'd bet that 100 or 150 lbs in the right place would net you some tenths on the 60ft, while costing you only 1 or 2 mph. In circle track we used to take a stock chevrolet sbc valve cover and fill it with lead, weighs exactly 100 lbs and bolt it in the rear bumper. Run some weight bias calcs with one inch of engine trans set back from what you have now, if it'll fit. WOW! Now we are talking some serious proportional weight changes, since we take it off the front and add it to the back. Funny, women don't like rear weight gain, I wouldn't either if we had to take it off the front and add it to the back. I'm thinking of putting a dog house in my firewall to set my engine back even further, probably matches the dog house I stay in most of the time anyway. Don't have the hood latch anyway and I do have a 12 point cage, so I'm legal to modify the firewall. later, David

I put the battery in the back, ran again, ran same ET. I put pizza cutters in front, again no difference. However, "the feel" of the car changed with the pizza cutters, not as good as with regular 215/75/15's, sacrifices too much front end control for a little weight. David

Well, at least your going to drive yours, ours is still parked. Got the parts back today from the machine shop. AFR should be here next week. Got the powerglide built this week. Should stuff it in the car in the upcoming weeks. Going to try to take it to the track for the last race in Nov, but we'll see.

8) roller cams don't have break in. Rings do, but if it's honed with 500 grit, it won't take long. I give mine 35-60 minutes before WOT under load. If you built it right, it'll stay together David

Brownies on the way, hope the post office doesn't loose them, um oh, darned good too, smack, smack. Never heard of a dish volume larger than that, not even custom. Call JE, see if they ever made one, if they did, they'd have the cnc program for it and could whittle you a nice set. If not then nobody has ever needed any. BRC and Probe dabble in the monster forced induction arena, might check with them also.

It's not the length of the rod that is the problem its the bolts. 400 rods have a shorter bolt and corresponding shorter rod bolt shoulder area for cam clearance. Put the two side by side and you'll see what I mean. The 6 inch rods will definately have a problem as do the 5.7's. Small base circle cam is a definate plus, but if it hits it hits the lobe itself next to the peak not the base circle, however small base circles allow for smaller lobes. If you look at the bottom of the rod when the nuts are on. That portion where the remainder of the threads stick out and the corners of the nuts will sometimes hit the factory notches in the block along the pan rails on both sides in several places. Be carefull adding clearance here cause it isn't too far to water and by water I don't mean the kind you can drink. You want .080 to allow for growth, flex, bearing wear etc. Rev kits for hydraulic rollers such as the AFR kit are marvelous, simply marvelous. If you haven't run one then you won't know. I've built both with and without and with they will definately make more power above 6K. If you are not turning over 6K then leave it out. Also they make putting the heads on a two man job most of the time.

Ditto, I run 6.25 inch fluidampr's on all my sbc's. If you are going to spin over 6K I strongly recommend aftermarket balancers. If you have ever seen one blow up or come off you'll know what I mean as they can do significant damage. I had a stock one come off my 400SBC back in '93 at cruising speed down the highway. It cracked the crank portion and just came off, didn't tear up anything on the car just went 'yonders out in the field and wiped out the crank snout, very costly to fix. A buddy of mine had one come off his 67 chevelle drag car, 406, went through the passenger fender, that's right folks, through the fender well, then fender, then bent the front bumper, then went down and hit the wheel center cap and smashed it, and he shifts at 6K. David

That looks like an old Martin turbo setup? Has poppet valves to let the air/fuel directly into the manifold at a low boost level then closes the valves at a certain boost level and runs it all through the turbo. If I remember right, they did have some turbo lag. They work ok, better with an auto and higher stall say 3K and up, however they were limited to about 7psi since they didn't have an intercooler and it looks like you are running stock HEI. Try water injection for higher boost levels, works great. QJet's work fine when properly built, they are rather simple in theory. I've run 13's with a qjet in a 3800 lb car, so don't throw it away. If smog is the problem, fix the qjet since it is an emissions carb otherwise the holley will make you fail anyway. Turbo 400 is a lead sled, way overkill for such a mild engine and they are heavy. Th350 good to 400HP without going to upgraded input shaft. Be carefull about firming the 1-2 shift too much on a th350, you'll corkscrew the input shaft and/or break the drum. The converters are the same for th350/400 these days so you can save some bucks there. Torco, now art carr, makes a nice 9.5 inch converter for about $300. Also Redneck boys in TX make the same, custom stall for alittle less. Bet you didn't know Torco owned Art Carr for years. David

When building a 383, watch 2 and 5 rods for cam clearance. Rotate the engine several times and watch the cam lobes as at some point they will be right in the path of the rotating crank/rod assembly. If you are using 350 rods or any 5.7 stock rod they will need to be clearance on the cam side (All 8 for balance reasons). Any competent machine shop that knows anything can do it. Don't do it yourself! Block clearance can be a problem and you want .080 between rotating parts and the block. Internally balance the crank if you can, it's worth the 150 bucks for mallory metal not to have to worry about 400 balancers and flexplates/flywheels. Not to mention that you can "forget" what size engine it has after you blow somebody in the weeds. Heck run a 327 balancer or even better a 80's model 305 balancer and tell them it's only a 305 with a mild cam, intake and headers. Build it right once rather than wrong twice! David

basic questions: What gas are you running? What HP level are you trying to reach? What will the rest of the car handle? Seems that lowering compression is a crutch for low octane. Fuel management is the key to maximizing HP in shall we say overboosted applications. Ignition timing, Valve timing and exhaust port and manifold configuration is critical to extract all HP in +Pressure applications, the latter two probably being the most important. However, there is a limit to boost on any gas, especially pump gas, at some point you have to increase octane. Formula 1 racers run 60 to 70psi boost on alky with 10:1 static compression and turn 18K rpm. It doesn't matter what cam you have or boost you have if your exhaust port and manifold suck. Same goes for the intake. Got a lot of restriction on the intake port and all the boost in the world isn't going to help, actually it'll make it worse. Gotta get it in, burn it, and then get it out. We can bench race this all we want but actual running is the true answer, as all the variables are in the equation, are running under load, in real time, real life. If there were recipes, then there wouldn't be gearheads and everyone would be just as fast as the other.

The powerglide came in two first gear ratio's, 1.82 for the 4's and 6's, and 1.76 for the v8's. Stay away from the 1.82's, they are a stamped steel carrier for low HP applications. The 1.76's can be distinguished by a slightly larger output shaft diameter, although they use the same trans yoke. The 1.76 ratio is .020 larger diameter. Powerglides came in an air cooled model that has cooling holes in the bellhousing, both square and round. Stay away from this in performance applications, this is a sure bet that it houses a 1.82 planetary carrier set and won't stay cool enough for V8 power levels or even hot 6's. The advantage to the powerglide is the torque multiplication or lack of it. It is lower than all other automatic transmissions as you take off in a gear that is typically between 1st and 2nd gears in a typical 3 speed auto. For instance, say you have a 500 lb-ft producing engine at 4K rpm and you use a 4k stall converter. The converter multiplies the torque by 2 so you have 800 lb-ft to the trans input shaft. Multiply that by 1.76 and the final drive ratio, say 4.11 and you have 5786 lb-ft to the tires. If you were using a th350 instead that would be 8285 lb-ft to the tires. So, the powerglide puts less TQ to the tires which can be a big help if traction is a problem. This allows you to build a street sleeper without tubbing the car. Easier on rear end parts as well. Do the math and you'll figure out that you can put one heck of a motor in front of a powerglide and still not blow the tires off the car getting out of the hole and charging hard in the mid track and top end. Rule of thumb is that with low HP and low TQ engines you need gears, lots of gears to keep it in the powerband. With High HP and TQ the glide works wonders for getting out of the hole and with all the HP and TQ they are typically as quick or quicker than a 3 speed auto. They have less parasitic losses and are alot lighter, about 110-120 lbs depending on converter. High stall converters are utilized to optimize TQ on launch, not HP. Powerglide traditionally eat up 5 to 8% less HP than comparable automatics. Powerglides can easily handle 900Hp in stock case form with more clutch area added and some other mods. Expect to pay for what you get. I build glides for myself and end up with $800 to $900 total including custom converter ready to rumble. This is far less than what you can pay for other transmissions that will leave you with traction problems and having to race from a sissy roll cause you can't put the package together and plant it to the ground. Real men think and find solutions, the rest of the sheep follow the leader. Build TQ, HP will follow, then figure out how to hook it all up.

No rust, it was an original AZ car. Frame beefed from front to back. now with 12 point cage. I did get a good driver side fender with it when I bought it, so at least I got that. Bought a new hood scoop on EBAY, wonderfull place, I buy alot of stuff that my wife doesn't approve of there. Had a good week, rounded up the cash to fix it so off to the body man it goes. Thinking of flat black with traditional ghost flames in orange, yellow and red....???? Looking forward to seeing if the powerglide softens up the hit on the tires coming out of the hole. Wondering what type of launch I can expect and whether or not it'll go straight? considering 4 link in the event the ladder bars don't work out. Hoping I don't have to put wheelie bars on it, kind of ruins the street aspect.

Well, it happened, the first time in recorded history here in my little podunk town of Socorro, NM, a tornado wizzed by (not touching down) dumping baseball sized hail. Of course, out of 4 vehicles I own, I left my boys '74 260z setting outside the shop as I was working on the 12 point cage. The glass was perfect and the body was primered and ready for paint. I was contemplating taking the windshield out to make the final halo bar welds, when darkness caught up to me. So, thinking I'd just leave it right were it was until the next weekend didn't work out. The damage, Hood with fiberglass cowl scoop is destroyed and in pieces on the ground. Windshield and back glass is gone. The remainder of the hood, both front fenders and top of the car look like Arnold Palmers favorite golf ball, Dimpled over every square inch! Good thing my boy likes golf! Also my house and shop both need new roofs as well, but it could have been worse. The good news is that the 350 4 bolt block, cola crank, carillo rods and JE 13.5:1's will be ready next week. The AFR 220's are on the way as is the machined direct and reverse pistons for my Powerglide. Also today my Detroit locker came in for the 9 inch rear, so I'll can the minispool that came with it when I bought it. So, I'll press on with the rest of the project and see what the insurance adjuster says on Sunday. Body man friend came by last night and quoted me $1500 to fix it, with me providing another hood scoop. I bet the adjuster totals the car, which leaves me to buy it back and accept the balance and just fix it. Or just fix it and not get insurance $$$ or have my premiums go up . Question: What's a '74 260 worth???? Question: Fix it or go the insurance route? Anybody want to donate $1500 in exchange for the first pass down the strip? I'll wet your appetite a little 350 4 bolt +.030 Align honed and decked to 9.005 Cola 3.50 stroke crank 6 inch Carillo rods 13.5 JE's AFR 220's CNC ported Mild Crane Roller cam .600/.625, 250/260 dur @.050 and all roller valve train Edelbrock scorpion Intake 800 cfm wet flowed C&S Aerosol billet on Alky MSD 7AL2 and billet dist. S&S full length 1-3/4 headers Powerglide w/1.76 low 5000 stall Art Carr converter Transbrake Dedenbear Reaction time delay box 9 inch ford rear w/4.56 29.5x9x15 slicks 12 point cage Final weight 2400 with my fat butt in it.