dr_hunt

No, it's totally fabbed, semi truck lights, low tech, low budget. Looks like a vette from the back when they are on at night. Going to roll the back, shave it whatever you call that, so you can't see the fuel cell.

I looked at MSA, I like the carbon fiber air dam instead. That and get the car lower. Chuck Norris gave me some tires to put on the back that are larger but don't ask what they do.

Nope, they froze to death last winter in the dark and never made it there.

I don't think so, cause the 9 inch has a pinion bearing in the back that keeps it from deflecting. What's the diameter of the dana 60 gears? Probably 10 inches or so I'm guessing. Gears are stronger, but defineately not more efficient.

What does MSA have, I still have a 50 dollar gift certificate for them from SEZ. Anything would be better than that sheet metal crap he fabbed. Sick, just sick. Trying to picture Kandy Apple Red on that car with traditional flames, Hmmmmm. I can't tell you how that's going to look, but I'll post more pics in about 2 months when they decide to do some more work in it. Crap, at this rate I'm going to have to pull the motor and release the valve train before the springs take a set.

That's not 1800Hp that's for sure, but it sure works good.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking, just don't know how to fabricate that. I tried to explain it to him that a curved flat surface, air dam, to keep the air from getting under the car would be better than that. Just looking at that it hit me all wrong. Gimme some ideas here.

I've often wondered the same thing. The 9 inch is stronger, and easier to do gear changes in and the aftermarket is incredible.

updated with pic's. You can see how the earliest hail storm had an effect, the whole car was covered in bondo, he said he'd never seen anything like it. He imagined 50 lbs of bondo all over the roof, passenger door (1 inch thick) passenger door post (2 inches thick) top of car, left rear quarter. Looks like the car had been painted twice in previous life too. Notice the headlight cover on the passenger side. It's red metal, there will be no headlights in this car so street driving is out. Comments on rolling the front, need 'em, let me have 'em good or bad. Ideas? Two fricken months and this is as far as I've got.

Went to the body shop today, I'll take some pic's later, the car is sanded and all the old bondo was removed. Too bad, it is evident that the car was in another hail storm prior to the hail storm that wrecked it last year. Anyway that's fixed the headlights were deleted and skinned over like the clear plastic covers do. They are rolling the front of the car and it has a small slit for air intake to the radiator. That may change though, I'm going to finalize that decision later. We discussed tubbing it now, but in looking at the car I think I want to just move the ladder bars to the inside of the frame support and then buy some wheels with more offset and wider so I can lower the car and get more "meat" on the ground. I can always add wheelie bars for now. I need to lower the front of the car so I guess I'd better do a search on how to best get that done. Well, off to the body shop to do pic's. later

Well, you find the lightest weight of all the big ends, make all the heavy big ended rods weigh the same as the lightest rod by taking material off the balance pad, there's other places, but you have to know what your doing. Do the same with the small ends, taking material off the balance pad on the small end of the rod. If your going to go to that much trouble, put some good rod bolts in them and resize the big ends.

I bid on it to get it started.

Well, at least I got part of it right. My little sandrail had an adaptor plate made out of 3/4" plate aluminum and had a custom VW flywheel with a different center welded in. It was really fun to drive, but I was sure that parts in the long run weren't going to be available, and finding another motor here is like finding a $100 bill on the sidewalk, just doesn't happen. Me and a buddy pulled the motor and trans out of a car by hand!!!! But that was in my younger days when I was stronger and stupidererer. Jap Tin, I think Rover makes a 5.3 displacement version, I may be wrong about that too.

Your right in theory, but Buick sold the mold pattern to Land rover in the 70's cause brits were wanting more power and we were in gas crunch. it is the same mold, different bellhousing bolt pattern, not interchangeable and not made by buick. That's a land rover motor, which is a sand cast block instead of an investment casting, also there are some other difference in how the starter mounts too I think. Anyway, most everything else is the same parts wise, just a little better I think in terms of cylinder head flow. I could be wrong, but I know the bolt pattern is different and the starter mounts different.

Nope, 215 cubic inches is 3.5 liters, that motor in the car domain featured ride is 5.3 liters, so it's not a 215. I dunno about the differences between the two except bell housing pattern. They are light though, reports are 305 lb complete engine from carb to oil pan. Here's some of the info I had looked at back in the days when I messed with that. Buildups Normally aspirated versions of the motor are still somewhat available, and there are a couple of shops which specialize in the motors (D&D in Michigan is the one that advertises in Hemmings every month). Parts are available to bump displacement out from the original 3.5 liters to 5.0. The hot setup to use in this case is to swap the heads for those on a 1964 Buick 300, which is the same basic engine with a cast iron block and a displacement bump. The 300 heads are still aluminum, however, and will bolt to the 215 block. It is possible to drop the crank and heads from the 300 onto a 215 short block and get a 5.0 liter all aluminum V-8 that weighs about 310 lbs fully dressed. The basic block was fitted with DOHC 4-valve heads and turned into an F1 racing engine by Repco of Australia in the early 60s. Mickey Thompson also ran one at Indy in the early 60s. Mickey Thompson used the 215 block along with his own forged crank and aluminum pistons to make an off road race engine. The crank was 3.5" stroke, quite a bit larger than the 2.8" stock one still used to power the Rover 215. This brought the CID up to 250 and it had a higher lift, higher rev cam, as well as Mallory Dual point ignition. Another interesting bit of trivia is that the 1964 Buick 300 is actually a cast iron version of this motor with aluminum heads - in fact these 1964 heads have larger ports and valves and will bolt to a 215. Many articles have been written on installing this crank into the 215 case to get the 215's light package with the increased stroke and displacement of the 300's crank. It does, however, require engine rear seal machining, crank grinding, and some funny business to get a manual tranny to bolt up. They can be bored as high as 60 thousandths without going through the steel cylinder liners. Piston's and rings were available a while ago. Alan Friedrich Just when you thought that nothing else could be done to this poor block, Volvo (yes family sedan/wagon people) valves, it was discovered, would fit into the 310 aluminum heads to increase flow. Also, Chevy Carrera rods (300, 310, 340) were quite a bit stronger than any of the others. Stronger than even M. Thompson's box welded rods. A side note, The 310 is also sometimes referred to as the 340. Back then, Buick often put the largest number from among CID, torque or horsepower on the air cleaner. The 310 engine generated 340 pounds/foot of torque. That's how you end up with people referring to the 401 nailhead as a 445, or the 425ci as the 465, since those were the numbers on the original air cleaners. Just something to know when looking for compatible parts. In Britian, some 215s have been bored and stroked to an amazing 4.5 to 5.0 liters through the use of the factory crank from a diesel Rover (known as the Tundra something or other). Now then, does this not sound fun to you, an Olds F-85, with the aluminum Rover 3.5 liter block, bored to 3.8 liters, stroked from 2.8" to 3.5" using a Mickey Thompson crank, Big aluminum head via Buick 300 etc. Volvo oversize valves, a 3.8 liter front case w/HEI ignition and still able to hang a serpentine belt with all accessories on it, and bolted up to a Borg/Warner 5 speed tranny?

You spelled propper wrong, it's proper. prop·er ( P ) Pronunciation Key (prpr) adj. Characterized by appropriateness or suitability; fitting: the proper knife for cutting bread; not a proper moment for a joke. Called for by rules or conventions; correct: the proper form for a business letter. Strictly following rules or conventions, especially in social behavior; seemly: a proper lady; a proper gentleman. Belonging to one; own: restored to his proper shape by the magician. Characteristically belonging to the being or thing in question; peculiar: an optical effect proper to fluids. Being within the strictly limited sense, as of a term designating something: the town proper, excluding the suburbs. Ecclesiastical. For use in the liturgy of a particular feast or season of the year. Mathematics. Of or relating to a subset of a given set when the set has at least one element not in the subset. Worthy of the name; true: wanted a proper dinner, not just a snack. Out-and-out; thorough: a proper whipping.

I think your mistaken about engine choices having all been tried. I saw a volvo v-4 the other day in a little wagon and years back a buddy had one in his boat. I don't think that has been done yet, 86 whopping HP would be hard to contain. Just a matter of choice. FWIW most people swap to increase HP, not just to be different than the crowd. Also another one is the blown caddy motor, I don't think we've seen that one either. Could try the dodge slant 6, or howabout the AMC motors of yesteryear like the 304 or the 360. Come to think of it I haven't seen any buick powered z's yet either, or a 348 or 409 chevy powered z. You could be singing "Me and my 409"!! For some real seat of the pants performance the DSM 2.0 liter turbo would be a nice swap and they make an adapter to go to a PG for the rwd changeover of the DSM cars. They make sick HP too!