Indholdsfortegnelse for June 2018 i Hot Rod

Here we are about 50 years out from the initial muscle-car boom of the 1960s. What we see is a pretty interesting divide right down the center of the hobby, with restored cars on one side and modified cars on the other. Of course, when it all started, there was no one on the restoration side; you simply had guys who drove their stuff as built from the factory, and hot rodders who souped up their rides to suit their tastes. The balance changed with the passage of time, with more cars getting modified and still more finding their way to the junkyard. The balance between restoration and modification—I’m happy to say—is actually a fairly even split nowadays. You have one camp that enjoys preserving the past and discovering…

When Bob Gawlik wanted to transform his V8 four-speed 1967 Nova hardtop from a clean daily driver to a track terror capable of eating up highway miles, he went right to the source of some of the most potent Pro Touring hardware available: Detroit Speed & Engineering. The company, long known for its suspension systems, has a number of full builds under its belt. Bob’s plan was to combine Detroit Speed’s full arsenal of Nova suspension parts with an angry V8 engine, custom bodywork, and a no-nonsense interior to create a car that was capable of entering autocross, SCCA Solo, Ultimate Street Car Association, and other time-attack events. It’s hard to beat a free-revving, naturally aspirated engine for road-course duty, so a Chevrolet LS7 block was prepped with a 4-inch…

Old cool: Ford’s infamous 427 single-overhead-cam (SOHC) big-block engine, the final evolution of Ford’s first-generation “FE” big-block, and perhaps one of the most outrageous examples of the classic muscle-car era’s quest for ever more power when engines were big and gas was cheap. New cool: Taking a legendary big-block monster designed back in the 1960s and bringing it into the 21st century with electronic fuel injection (EFI), coil-on-plug ignition, and twin turbochargers. In an effort to keep up with Chrysler’s brand-new, 426ci Generation 2 Race Hemis on the NASCAR superspeedways, in 1964, Ford decided to up the ante by modifying its high-performance, side-oiler 427 FE big-block to accept overhead-cam cylinder heads with hemispherical combustion chambers. Although around 500 crate engines were sold through Ford dealers, when Chrysler whined about unfair…

The Pond head flows better than Ford’s original rendition, but as-received, Duttweiler felt the valve seats and valves weren’t up to the demands of a high-heat/high-boost turbo motor. As good as the as-delivered CNC’d ports were, he also thought porter Todd McKenzie could improve them even more. Explains McKenzie, “The original seats were too big and hung into the ports about 1⁄8 inch. I welded that area up and started again, replacing the original steel seats with new beryllium-copper seats that accept Ferrea 2.300-inch titanium intake valves and 1.850-inch Inconel exhaust valves.” The heads seal to the O-ringed block, courtesy of SCE’s red-printed, copper/rubber gaskets and ARP head studs. “The weird, upside-down, D-shaped exhaust ports in particular needed considerable work.”— Todd McKenzie…

Running on Duttweiler’s engine dyno with a mild tune-up suitable for daily driveability on 91-octane gas, the 482’s torque peaked at 956 lb-ft at 4,900 rpm, with up to 1,045 hp at 6,300 rpm. It made more than 900 lb-ft from 4,600–5,900 rpm, more than 900 hp from 5,000–6,700, and more than 1,000 hp from 5,700–6,700, the highest rpm tested. On the top end, the power curve was virtually flat—within eight numbers—indicating there’s plenty more potential waiting to be unleashed. Average torque and power between 3,100–6,700 rpm came out to 838.5 lb-ft and 759.8 hp. “We could easily have made 1,500 hp on the street,” Duttweiler explains, “but we were in a rush to get the car done in time for the SEMA show and didn’t want to push it…

All things lead to the spark plug. You can spend all the money you want in fancy intakes, cylinder heads, or engine management, but if you’re not paying attention to the most important step in the four-stroke cycle—the point of ignition—you’re leaving horsepower on the table. Worse yet, despite today’s comprehensive engine management, the data is only as good as the tools used to read the fuel mixture: the oxygen sensor. Ignoring the incompatibility with leaded race fuels (which foul 02 sensors) can lead to a miscalibrated or fouled sensor that can send you outside the envelope of safe tuning while whispering sweet stoichiometric nothings in your ear. Plugs are still the honest witnesses of what’s going on in the combustion chamber, and as Don Ward, E3 Spark Plugs’ lead…

Anybody who has longed for the sexy curves of the new Dodge Demon or Widebody Hellcat will be happy to hear that AVS—a leading automotive accessory brand under the respected Lund umbrella—has just introduced a kit that can transform any 2015-and-later Challenger into a near Widebody/Demon lookalike. The resemblance to a Dodge Demon or Widebody Hellcat is uncanny, with AVS designer Billy Bibb doing a fantastic job amping up the design even further. Demons and Widebody Hellcats have unique quarter-panels and fenders with attachment points stamped into them, but those can’t be used on a regular Challenger body, so AVS worked their design around the standard Challenger sheetmetal. To prove out the design, AVS teamed up with several other manufacturers and car builder Sam Mahdavi (Mahdavi Motorsports) to build a…

Is Vic Edelbrock Sr. (right) elated by the rear-wheel horsepower produced by Ford’s brand-new Thunderbird, or are he and employee Murray Jensen just feeling sheepish about staging a series of April 1955 photos for Technical Editor Racer Brown without turning any tires? We’ll likely never know, since all three are long gone. Another enduring mystery is why the trio went to such trouble to set up a dyno-testing scene—realistic right down to heavy junk in the trunk (an anvil and crankshaft)—that we can’t find in HOT ROD or any other Petersen Publishing Co. monthly. Nor have we seen this particular car in print. Historian Greg Sharp, the NHRA Motorsports Museum’s curator, believes it to be the personal T-bird that Vic bought new and drove on the street. It briefly served…

Original Ford SOHC blocks were cast iron. Legendary Ford FE Stock Eliminator racer Robert Pond Motorsports now offers improved, beefed-up iron and (as used for this build) aluminum blocks that are significantly stronger than the original Ford versions. Using this block, it’s possible to build an engine as large as 511 ci with a 4.310-inch bore and a 4.375-inch-stroke crank. Nevertheless, for strength and durability if Ring ever turns up the wick, Duttweiler stayed conservative, going for thicker walls with a 4.25-inch bore. Building a “square” motor using a 4.25-inch stroke custom Bryant Racing billet crankshaft, that comes out to 482 ci. The Bryant crank has knife-edged counterweights plus weight-saving drilled crankpins. Ford Cleveland-size 2.75-inch main journals and 2.200-inch big-block Chevy rod journals offer the best balance between durability, journal…

Ford’s SOHC V8 has one cam per head that actuates that head’s intake and exhaust valves. The dedicated right- and left-hand cams are mirror images of each other. Even on a single-pattern cam, as used on Duttweiler’s Cammer, the intake and exhaust lobes of each cam have different geometries. Collectively, this means one engine set of two cams has four different lobe profiles. Comp Cams offers a series of custom-order, billet-steel, solid-roller grinds for the Ford Cammer. Duttweiler chose the mildest of Comp’s “SOHC-series” lobe profiles for use on both the intake and exhaust sides. “The owner is going to drive the car on the street,” Duttweiler explains. “With big turbos, the cam is not as important; we just wanted a smooth idle.” At zero lash, measured at the valvespring…

Making 1,000 hp these days is like shooting fish in a barrel. Add a power-adder, crank up the boost, and let it eat. Maintaining four-digit dominance while also being streetworthy? That’s a harder battle to win. Last year, we built a fortified Ford Coyote with Blue Oval extraordinaire Tim Eichhorn of MPR Racing Engines. The goal was to build an engine that could survive the rigors of a daily driving while producing north of 1,000 hp to the wheels. (To refresh yourself on the long-block buildup, check out the story “Bark & Bite” in the Aug. 2017 issue of HRM.) Our completed long-block was shipped from MPR to Westech Performance for engine dyno testing. In preparation for testing, we needed to equip our Coyote with a full induction system. We…

Unless you’ve been sealed inside your garage tweaking your pro-street Vega’s dual-quad, tunnel-ram setup for the past 15 years, you’ve noticed GM’s LS engines stuffed under the sheetmetal of practically every type of vintage vehicle—from Aspens to Zephyrs. Looking to give your project some modern muscle? Compact and relatively lightweight, the pushrod Gen III mill is tempting. After all, how hard can it be? Well, things can get complicated after an LS long-block is plunked between the shock towers. If your project needs power steering, air conditioning, or an alternator, you’ll have to plunder salvage yards for a front-accessory solution. If you’re lucky, an existing setup from a factory-equipped LS car or truck will fit. Otherwise, fitting a power-steering pump, alternator, and air-conditioning compressor (if you’re crafty) leads to cussing,…

THE COMBO After Tevete “T” Usumalii gained title to a 1988 Ford Bronco 4x4 that had been sitting derelict in an old buddy’s driveway since 2008, he soon realized its tired 302 motor needed some major help. As T puts it, “I wanted a weekend fun truck, off-road-capable that I could take to the mountains, desert, or beach. It had to have good performance under load. When I put my foot to the floor, does it do what I want?” What he wanted was a 347ci stroker (4.040-inch bore by 3.40-inch stroke), with a high-performance RV cam and free-flowing Air Flow Research (AFR) aluminum cylinder heads. “Two different guys had their hands in this project and they turned out to be real shady,” T says. When the engine was finally…

I normally write my column about stuff that’s big-picture or philosophical, but I just did something I’m really stoked about, and this time I just want to tell the story. See, I love engines, and I host the Engine Masters show on MotorTrend OnDemand.com. Steve Brulé, Steve Dulcich, and I get to play with engines, bust all kinds of myths, prove some truths. I recently had a scheme that my cohosts weren’t really down with, and social-media followers likewise thought I was stupid. I went with stock heads and huge cubes. Recently, I talked Blueprint Engines into selling its 598ci big-block Chevy as a short-block rather than only as a complete engine, which is what they were doing. What makes the 598 great? It’s a low-deck engine (stock 454 deck…

Following up on a lead about a bunch of survivor muscle cars in Iowa, I met Bob, who showed me his drag cars and parts. My eye was immediately drawn to a red 1988 Pontiac Firebird Formula 350 with only 22,000 miles. Next to the Firebird was a 1970 Plymouth Duster 340 with a four-speed that was bought by Bob and his father in February 1973. He raced the car, then put it away in 1976. Bob’s brother bought the 1973 Duster 340 four-speed car next to the ’70 after driving Bob’s. He racked up 17,000 miles, then put it away. Bob says it’s original, right down to the air in the tires. He’s coming up on retirement and plans on getting the 340s going again.…

It seems that everywhere you look—TV, social media, and print—old cars are continuously being discovered that have been stored in barns, basements, garages, sheds, or from any number of other forgotten resting places. No matter where they’ve been extracted from, the common term for all these finds has been deemed the “barn find.” The question is, when was the last time you saw a really good junkyard find? Well, we have one for you and it involves one of Chrysler’s finest examples from the muscle-car era, a 1969 Dodge Daytona, and its rescue from the grim reaper at the junkyard—the dreaded crusher. While we’re going to focus on this particular Charger Red Daytona, we’ll also tell you about some of the other cars in the yard at the time. How…

Since the day cars were made available to the general public, car clubs have been an important part of hot rod culture and helped to push the hobby ever further. The emphasis of these clubs was always focused on the idea of taking vehicles as they came from the factory and finding ways to improve the looks and performance through whatever means possible. Groups of builders and drivers joined forces to push the limits of their machines and gathered together on rural strips of asphalt to hang out and pit their hottest cars against those of other clubs. Southern California, in particular, has always been at the forefront of this movement and continues to be the place of origin for many new trends. Whether it’s traditional hot rods, lead sleds,…

With no cam and lifters in the valley to oil, Pond redesigned the 427 medium-riser-based SOHC block to incorporate a full priority-main oiling system, where the critical bottom end receives all the oil first. The overhead cams and rockers receive oil via external oil lines connected to one of the side-oiler galleries. As you’d expect on an engine of this caliber, the engine has a Dailey Engineering dry-sump system. “The complete Dailey dry-sump system is about a $5,500 package, but it eliminates $1,500 worth of plumbing.”— Ken Duttweiler…

Incoming air is compressed by dual Precision 7675-series turbochargers. The ducting, sheetmetal intake, headers with 2-inch primaries and 3-inch collectors, and custom-bent hardline were all custom-fabricated by Bassett. Fuel and spark control is handled by Holley’s high-end Dominator engine-management system that’s capable of individual cylinder fuel and spark control. Manifold air pressure (MAP), wideband O2, inlet air temperature (IAT), and throttle position (TPS) sensors provide input to the Holley ECU, while an idle air control (IAC) motor helps stabilize idle quality. Eight 160-lb/hr injectors are fed fuel at 45 psi by Holley’s brushless VR2 electric fuel pump. At full boost, the air/fuel ratio is about 12.2:1. Holley’s coil-near-plug, GM-style, smart-coil kit supplies 19 amps of juice to each coil, supporting up to 3,200 hp without a separate CD booster box.…

Rarely a day goes by at HOT ROD when we aren’t overwhelmed by new-product press releases, but one we got from Harbor Freight Tools stands out as having the potential to be a game-changer for a lot of DIY hobbyists. Harbor Freight Tools is mostly known for importing inexpensive products from Asia; what isn’t commonly known is that this U.S.-based company has an impressive campus for product development and quality-control testing. That interesting fact is the reason HFT has come out with its upscale Vulcan Master Welder Series. The Vulcan line has the sophisticated features and performance of high-end pro gear, but at the significantly lower price we’re accustomed to from HFT. It turns out that one of the interesting benefits of being HFT and having such huge buying power…

We’ve talked before about how long it can take to fix simple things on a project car, especially when that car is in service as a regular driver. One gets used to the broken switch or the wobbly armrest, and you stop thinking about it. This is true—sometimes even more true—when the replacement part is easy to get and inexpensive. The tear started in the shifter boot of the Opel GT as a crack in the accordion fold at the base. I noticed a slight rise in engine heat and noise, but the Opel is already a hot, loud, little machine. Over the next few months, it continued to dissolve, and the temperatures and noise levels increased in the cabin until it got to a point where my smartphone on…

Half a century ago, the recently formed Speed Equipment Manufacturer’s Association did something that never existed: It hosted a trade show for parts and services intended to modify cars and trucks. It was a small affair—so small the card tables and folding chairs of its few displaying vendors didn’t take up all of the basement under Dodger Stadium. A lot has changed in the past 50 years. For one thing, SEMA officially changed its name to Specialty Equipment Manufacturer’s Association. Then it moved the show to Las Vegas. And it did something unprecedented in the 40 years it’s been there: A trade show about car trinkets became the seventh-largest trade show in the world and the second largest in Las Vegas (in case you’re wondering, the Consumer Electronics Show owns…