Innehållsförteckning för November 1983 från Hot Rod

New BigBlock Head As reported previously in this column, Chevrolet’s newest version of the aluminum big-block cylinder head is ready for release. The new casting features extensive revisions to make it more suitable for Pro Stock racing. Design efforts included consultation with leading Pro Stock racers to ensure compatibility with their requirements. The bare head will carry part No. 14044861 and is available now. See page 56 for HOT ROD’s exclusive first look! Olds NASCAR Engine Oldsmobile is currently finishing up development work on a small-block engine designed for NASCAR racing. It is based on the diesel cylinder block with new cylinder heads and internal parts. The hardware has already been designed and tested, and is currently being put into production so it can be certified for NASCAR. C.J. Batten…

If you were an offshoot of a family of florists, it figures you would get a nickname. Both Ken Fenical Senior and Junior received their’s… which was, you guessed it, Posie. Their floral establishment ultimately withered, but not the nickname. Posie Jr. continues building bouquets to this day, but they are in the form of ’36 converts, Deuce tubs, ’34 tudors, and ’30 three-doors. Meanwhile, Fenical’s latest flower child, a supremely sophisticated ’37 Ford convertible, happens to be a much-welcomed addition to the growing “high-tech” look initiated by Lil’ John Buttera some years ago. “I bought the car last February in New Jersey with the intention of building a fat-fendered Ford hot rod with a chopped top combined with European styling and color coordination.” We, along with Lil’, think he’s…

Mike Prince and Richard Boyd are a couple of boyhood friends who have been building cars together ever since they were old enough to drive. Their latest creations are a complementary pair of color-splashed, supercharged Chevys which they assembled in a matter of months last summer to drive to the Street Machine Nationals in Springfield, Illinois. That’s a far piece from their home turf in south Georgia, but this pair of street machines isn’t afraid to hit the highways. Richard and Jo Boyd’s ’78 Z28 was running as a race car when they got it. It has a six-point roll cage, full sub frame, a narrowed Dana 60 rearend with 4.88 gears, and wheelie bars. The big McCrearys mount on 14-inch-wide Weld wheels. Inside, Richard had Steve and VJ’s Trim…

Chevrolet’s Mark IV (big-block) V8 has been the dominant engine in NHRA Pro Stock racing ever since the 500-inch rule’s inception—and you can bet that Chevrolet Engineering intends to keep it that way. With 400 porting hours now required to produce a competitive rat head, and the Fords and Oldsmobiles breathing down “Mark’s” neck, a new fourth design big-block aluminum head casting was clearly in order. Design engineer Ron Sperry was given the green light to design a new head incorporating all the latest porting technology. The result is a new beefed up head (part No. 14044861) optimized for 500-plus-cubic-inch motors, featuring completely revised intake and exhaust ports, redesigned combustion chamber and water jacket, and stronger rocker arm stud bosses. With an estimated 6200 rpm torque peak on traditional 427…

Bill “Willie” Metz, the owner and operator of Bill’s Bod & Custom Shop in Springfield, Ohio, is one of those laid-back lads from the Midwest who claims he’s never met a Deuce he didn’t like… and this pair of down-in-the-leaves ’32 Fords is a prime example of his affection for ol’ Henrys. Metz, who originally built both rodneys, started the fender-free highboy a few years back, but eventually sold it to fellow Fordnatic Dan Mershon. The roadster’s underpinnings consist of a Metz-massaged frame supported by a buggysprung combination which includes an original Bell Auto dropped tube axle, front and rear Model “A” leaf springs, Bill’s four-link split wishbones and ladder bars, and a Hali-brand quick-change center section attached to a pair of ’36 Ford axle housings. Under the “repop” bonnet…

Lean and Hungry I have a ’77 Dodge Royal Monaco with a 440-c.i.d. high-performance Police engine. It is cursed with a “LeanBurn” system. How do I go about replacing this system with a regular distributor and non-electronic ThermoQuad carb? Joe Murphy Memphis, Tennessee You’re correct in surmising that for performance use, the Lean Burn distributor should be axed since it has no advance curve provisions, but that’s not the case for the carb (more on that below). While you probably can pick up a used pre-Lean Burn electronic ignition system and distributor in the boneyard for around $75, you’ll end up with a used control box and distributor good for only low-rpm use, and that might very well be approaching the end of their useful lives. You’d also have no…

Tool Crib This month’s trick item is for doing first-class valve seat work, and 1 comes from Bob Lambeck Enterprises. The tool is a scriber to mark the location on each valve seat for the grinding stone so the various angle cuts will be consistent from chamber to chamber. The operation is really simple: when marking a new seat, set the point where you want the cut to end on the seat face, wipe on a coat of Dykem, and scribe the edge with the tool mounted on the grinding guide. If you’ve cc’d the heads, it’s important to seat the valves consistently to avoid changing the chamber volume by varying the seat depth. The gadget cures the problem with no hassle. For further information, contact Bob Lambeck Enterprises, 7510…

Don’t Go Near the Corners… I used to have a Lincoln Town Car that got poor gas mileage, and it got so I couldn’t afford it. I remembered seeing a Saab Sonett for sale, sold my Lincoln, and bought the Saab. The Sonnett got 35 miles to the gallon in the city and 55 mpg on the highway until one day when I hit a curb with it and broke the upper ball joint. The dealer said he’d have to charge me $500 to fix it. I decided to build a frame for it and put in a 1973 350 from a Camaro that I bought for $100. My friend Rich Riser helped me tear the engine apart—it was a mess. We polished the crank and put in 10.5 pistons,…

Sanyo National Championships The 1983 Radio Operated Auto Racing Nationals in Pomona, California, were once again hosted by Gil Losi’s Ranch Pit Shop Raceway. The first weekend of competition featured 1/12-scale electric-powered cars with Joel Johnson capturing both the Stock and Modified categories and Steve Toland picking up the honors in the Production class. The second weekend saw plenty of action with 1/8-scale fuel-burning Can Am cars competing in the Pan (non-suspended) and Suspension categories. Gary Kyes took the win in the Pan class, and Ralph Birch Jr. was crowned national champion in the Suspension class. The Ranch Pit Shop is one of the best known raceways in the country with complete facilities including a dragstrip, an off-road course, and a fully stocked parts and service center. They also have…

Wouldn’t it be neat if you could own a carburetor having many of the wide-open-throttle characteristics of a Holley, along with sophisticated Quadra] et-like off-idle transition circuits? Well, there is such a carb. It’s called the Carter AFB. Carter AFBs have been in use for more than 20 years, and were once the premier high-performance carbure tor. For all-out racing, they have been eclipsed by the more modular Holleys, but race cars don’t operate under part throttle conditions. And it’s in the off-idle transition that Carters really shine because of their “Five Point’’ idle circuit, consisting of a low-speed jet, bypass, economizer, idle bleed, and idle port. Such a finely-tuned metering system ensures superior idle quality, and in conjunction with step-up rods (Carter’s name for metering rods), step-up springs, and…

One look at Jamey Crank’s Indiana-based ’70 Cougar and you have to wonder why there aren’t more people building slick Cougars for the street. They have style, comfort, and the image—remember Dyno Don’s ’’Eliminator’’ on the cover of HOT ROD back in the ’60s? Jamey and his wife, Rhonda, applied most of the ’80s Pro Street tricks, with a narrowed 9-inch rearend, Competition Engineering 36-inch ladder bars, and relocated leaf springs. Jody Gurino installed a full frame narrowed in the rear and a six-point roll cage. These modifications made space for a set of 14x32 Goodyear slicks hand-grooved for the street. The drivetrain, featuring the ’70 302, was beefed up with Arias pistons, a Crane cam and kit, Offenhauser intake manifold with Dyer’s 6-71 blower kit, Hooker headers, Holley carbs,…

Chet Mitchell wanted the best ’56 Chevy in the hemisphere—sp he replaced his mouse with an elephant. The stock displacement ’66 Dodge 426 Hemi has a stock dual 4-barrel intake that Chet converted himself to accept the Holley 1 1050-cfm 4500 Dominator carb, which feeds fuel to ported and cc’ed heads whose valves are actuated by a. 530-inch-lift Crane cam. An electronic ignition helps prevent the temperamental Hemi from fouling plugs. Naturally, in such a custom installation, a one-off oil pan (by Milodon) and headers had to be fabricated. The 426 is backed by a Hemi Torqueflite hooked to a 3000 rpm stall converter. Shifted by a B&M Dualgate shifter, it transfers the torque back to a ’68 Dana 60 rearend that turns B.F. Goodrich G60-15 rubber while up front…

UP ON TWO WHEELS As a famous canyon carver once said, “The most memorable rides are the fastest rides.” It’s true. Speed is exciting, but far more important than raw speed is what you learn in pursuing it. You become a better, more skillful rider. High-level riding techniques become intuitive. When you suddenly discover gravel on the road or a car over the line, you know how to act. And, because you learn more about your motorcycle at 50 mph than 30 mph, you know how it will act. Don’t equate “fast” with exploding radar guns and handcuffs. You can learn to ride fast without breaking the law. All four tips can be practiced and executed under 55 mph. COUNTERSTEERING This is the most important of all the tips. If…

Plus Wire Identification I’ve found when changing or checking spark plugs it’s easy to keep from getting your wires crossed if you simply attach a clothes pin to each wire with a number printed on it with a felt pen. You can number them any way you want as long as they all go back where they came from. I usually just put R-l, R-2, etc., for the right bank and L-l, L-2, etc., for the left. It’s cleaner and easier than tape and you can keep them somewhere to use again. Tom Mechals Lebanon, Oregon Test Buzzer Test lights are fine for many situations, but when I had to look for an intermittent short in the wiring harness I found a seat belt buzzer was much more useful. Using…

If you ask speed equipment manufacturer Dick Moroso why he purchased the dilapidated Palm Beach International Raceway dragstrip last year, he will look distracted, avert his eyes, and mutter something about “brain fade” and “Florida sun.” Since acquiring the run-down facility in January ’82, Dick has invested nearly half a million dollars in its rehabilitation. Dragstrip SURVIVAL Typical property investors of today would think Dick is crazy. You don’t buy a raceway and then spend money on it—you buy a raceway because you get a whole lot of acreage in one lump at a bargain price, you try to milk it for a little income while land values escalate, and then you subdivide it or develop it as an industrial park for a financial killing. That’s what wise investors do,…

Most avid hot rodders are well versed on a Tull menagerie of popular engines: mouse motors, rat motors, elephants, porcupines, and so on. But many of you are too young to fully remember a whole different breed of hot rod engines from an era long past—the dinosaur motors. You might say these engines gave their lives so that hot rodding could become the multifaceted sport it is today. However, although these old powerplants are certainly an endangered species, they are far from extinct. One small but hardy club, called Four-Ever-Four, has been dedicated to the preservation of ancient racing engines for nearly 30 years, and has singlehandedly kept old-style drag racing alive for the past decade with their annual Antique Nationals. What is a dinosaur motor? By Antique Nats definition,…

This radical ’73 Dodge Challenger was not only. Bill’s first “new” car, but his first car, period! He ordered it with a 340 4-speed in June ’73, lunched the motor in ’75, swapped in a 426 wedge in ’76, added custom paint in ’77, installed a custom interior in ’78, modified the 426 in ’78, and repainted in ’81. So you see, it has been more of a career than a project for the Florida resident, but the results have been gratifying with a 1st place World of Wheels trophy and a quarter-mile performance of 11.90 @ 121 mph. The A-body chassis was beefed with heavy-duty Hemi torsion bars and sway bars. It was lowered 2 inches in the front and fitted with Center Line wheels and Goodyear Wingfoot tires.…

Connectins Rod Prep—Part 2 Magnaflux—A non-destructive testing procedure used to check steel and iron parts for cracks. Parts are magnetized both circularly (to reveal longitudinal discontinuities) and longitudinally (to reveal transverse discontinuities). The magnetizations cause Magnaglo fluorescent magnetic particles to adhere to the object being tested, conforming to the same pattern as the metal’s molecular structure. Under a black light they fluoresce, pointing out any imperfections in the metal. Polishing—Polishing the beam and big and small-ends to remove casting flash and surface imperfections that could be a potential source of cracks, using a hand grinder. Polishing is done longitudinally with the grainflow of the metal, never horizontally or transversely against the grain structure. Care is taken to remove a minimal amount of material so as to preserve the rod’s maximum…

SELL—1929 Ford highboy roadster. Blown SB Chevy, metallic red lacquer, completely chromed, flawless show record, meticulous detail. Never driven. $20,000 or offer (or without supercharger). Phil Riley, 5020 S.E. 4th Terrace, Tecumseh, KS 66542. (913) 3790798 or 379-5033. SELL—"Big Al.” First-flip top fiberglass replica ever built (December 1963). 1934 Ford sedan. Body only. Needs refinishing. You can own drag racing history! $3995. Jim Lytle, 153 Waterglen Circle, Sacramento, CA 95826. (916) 386-0255. SELL—1970 Boss 429, next to last car made. Pro built engine, plus spare engine, 411 Detroit locker, Konis, T/A radials, rollbar, steel flares, $25,000. Richard Stone, Vista, California. (619) 727-4902, evenings. SELL—1974 Corvette convertible, P/S, A/C, 4-speed trans., 350-c.i.d. 300 hp engine (new). Contact Bill Averill, 104 N. Grand St., Sobleskill, NY 12043. (518) 234-4374. SELL-1967 SS 396…