dr_hunt

If your crank flange were warped that much, it wouldn't even rotate cause it'd bind in the main bearings. I've seen flexplates do that before. You need to get a SFI rated flexplate.

I'm using the same one as John and Jerry.

Almost, but not quite. One of those square tube grills off of a fullsize chevy truck cut and bent in the middle to match the z's profile.

IMO and "overhaul" equals disaster. IMO you should always check bores with a dial bore gauge and bore a block not hone and re-ring. Just my experience and my opinion. I'd rather do it once right than wrong first, then right. Cheaper IMO.

Awesome, you da man!

Thanks guys! Yup, the rear shaved look, I kind of went WTF? But after awhile it kind of grew on me and besides, it is all metal and welded on, so it's not undoable at this point in time. Same with the headlight covers, all metal, one off welded on!!! Simply amazing and unique to say the least. The air dam is off the pinks car, not sure what that was exactly. Larry (cozy z cole) gave that to my son. Thanks Larry, it looks great and your one hell of a guy, despite what superdan says about you. What's next? Well, Arizona Z car front suspension, a new 9 inch rear axle (shorter than this one by a couple of inches), and some weld prostar wheels. The car lowered with the tires inside the wheel wells, scraping the ground baby!!! Ok, who can guess what the grill is out of?

Shaved Rear, how does that look? New custom grill and metal headlight covers. Yup, no lights! Ghost flames you can see direct in the sun. Engine Bay shot Interior and door jambs

My condolences. Most accidents are attributable to ignorance and inexperience of the driver, both of which typically applies to "youths".

What started off as a good thread is quickly going bad. Let's keep this on track. Most of you obviously haven't operated a boring bar, and don't know the different types, or machining characteristics of cast iron, steels, aluminum(s) and the different types of valve seats commonly used in todays aluminum aftermarket heads. Tool speed is important to get the desired finish and older machines don't usually possess the ability to alter the speed of the stone and/or cutter for todays higher tech materials. Older valve machines use stones, not the hight tech multi-angle cutters of today. While maintenace is an issue to longetivity, cleanliness of the shop typically reflects maintenance on the machines. In New Mexico, there are 3, reputable owners/operators of automotive machines that do top notch work IMO. Edwards Racing Engines, Albuquerque, NM (505)247-8821 http://www.edwardsracingengines.com They build all of the unsers engines, most of the sprint car engines for customers around the country. Shipping is available. Pricey, but has the latest and greatest in equipment. Budlong Motorsports Albuquerque, NM (505)275-3996 Well renowned builder/machinist, top quality work, late model equipment, best prices!! Keith Mauldin, Mauldins Super Service, Las Cruces, NM (505)523-8771 Old skool, multiple record holding drag racer, has old equipment, knows what he's doing, reasonable prices, top quality work, and "HOME OF THE SMALL BLOCK CHEVROLET!!!!" I've used Edwards for over 25 years, I've just started using Budlongs due to price and the quality is flawless! Keith Mauldin is a friend, he's machined alot of parts for me and IMO he is the one of the Mecca's of knowledge of BBC and SBC engines in the world. He's done it all from the 60's to the present and has held alot of drag racing records. He's a one man band and does all of his own work with no help whatsoever. Blueprinting isn't just the block, it's the entire assembly of an an engine and all of it's component parts, and the blueprint sheet tallies measurements from every aspect of every part from the bore size, crank journals and throws to the rocker arm ratio as measured from seat to full lift. People throw that term "blueprinted" around alot and if you've never done it or watched it done, then you don't know what it means. It can litterally take 6 weeks to fully blueprint an engine and the component parts and it may require the assembly/dissassembly many many times for measuement/machining/component change.

I've got a 5hp 13.8 cfm @ 135 psi compressor with a 60 gallon tank, it doesn't keep up with the die grinder, but it works for quite awhile before it has to catch up. Also I turned my compressor settings up to 145 psi for the high cutoff and 120psi for the low cut in.

The roof was stripped to the bare metal. The big hail dents pulled and the little ones filled. Actually the entire car had a layer of bondo on it about 1/16" thick. It was kind of weird. Everything was stripped down to the base metal, filler where needed, primed, block sanded, primed, block sanded again and then painted. It's painted black on the inside and Kandy on the outside, engine bay and all. The paint is near flawless, show quality already, buffed and looks like it's a 1/4" deep. It's really nice quality. I don't think there is anything I can do about it, but I really don't care at this point in time. I've got about $2500 in the 383 trade engine, so that's not all that bad Nobody showed up for work this AM so I guess I'll go take pictures today and post them later.

I have to work tomorrow but I'll take pic's on sunday. I saw it yesterday just before dark and there wasn't enough light to get any good pics. It is near perfect paint, flawless everywhere. rolled back, nice air dam (ala cozy z cole, Thanks Cozy!), chevy rear view side mirror, custom grill by the body guy. Doesn't look all that bad, really unique I guess you might say. The bad news is that it's the wrong color. Bryce had picked Kandy apple red over a tangerine base. They sprayed Kandy apple red over a black base or blue base. So, it's damn near black unless the sun hits it. It has ghost flames everywhere but you can hardly see them unless in direct sunlight. Oh, well, WTF, it is what it is, we've waited a whole friggin year, so I'm settling for that. Geez, and all I have to do to make sez was adjust the valves, change jets, check the timing and put on new slicks. Oh well, maybe next time!!

305 heads, even from the HO engine are not worth having or running IMO. They are prone to cracking for no normal reason and don't flow very well compared to even the 882 casting heads. Certainly the price depends on what else it has in it, if it's not stock and has low miles.

35psi! Sounds expensive, excessive and exciting!

Not entirely. But read the rules, and when your done, read them again, until you memorize them. Then, you'll understand.

Well, I dropped the car off after Sez 6 in March of '06. It was supposed to take 2 weeks to paint. Here we are in March of '07. It went from free to me building an engine, of which I have invested a couple thousand dollars in. It's taking more and more of my time since I have to bug him all the time. I'm trying to be nice to him. Oh, I already told him he isn't getting the engine until the car is "done". Motivation enough. I guess I could have let that drag out for a year, but I want the car done.

Went and picked up the 383 from the machine shop, so I'll try to get that together and I called on the z. Remember that the 383 build is a trade for the paint on the z. I used a good 4 bolt 350 block, eagle crank, eagle rods, Jade forged flat tops, balanced, World products heads (he had already), comp xe hydraulic cam. Should work ok. Ok, so the z is painted inside and all the jambs done, primered outside. Needs block sanded, painted, clear, and then flames over the clear. So, it'll be awhile, but at least it's moving along.

Probably cheaper because most of them are junk. Convert back, why in the world would you want to do that! Seriously, if you ever ran alky you'd never go back, unless it was a street driven vehicle.

Simple answer to that one is "NO!" Change the firing order, check it via valve position, whatever, is all you need to do.

It takes alot of knowhow and $$$ to make the BBF run. If that would have been a 540 BBC it might of been alittle different. What did you do with the car you won?

283 blocks are typically about as stout as warm butter. A better option would be 350 block with a short stroke, ie. 302 cubic inches. That has been done with success.

400, 5.7 eagle rods, 9:1 pump gas friendly pistons, ported 882 heads, 2.02/1.60 valves, screw in studs, guide plates, isky .510 lift hydraulic flat tappet, 236 duration, 106LSA. Pretty mild really, pump gas motor, TH350, 3000 stall. We'll work on the rear end, probably just an r200 diff.