Old Man

Walt,

I may well be the oldest, but I am not so sure about the "wisest" part...

My second-childhood "blower" escapade cost me dearly in both time, and money. I probably could have built a faster (quicker) car by just dropping a 440 into the engine bay, or spending 1/4th of what the blower setup cost me on a good N20 setup for the 360. I'm not at all sure I got the best bang for the buck, doing what I did, but, hey... I can't be right ALL the time!!!! :happy10:

Besides, I don't have another 20 years to get a supercharged car, and I've always wanted one...

Now, if these ^#%@*$*&!!!! head gaskets will just stay put... LOL!!!

One more nostalgia story and I'll shut up:

I had a friend in 1963 who had a 1962 Dodge Lancer (re-badged Valiant) with an aluminum block 225 slant six/904 with a 3.55 gear in the back. With those little 13" wheels, it was more like a 4.10... Atlas Bucron tires (remember THOSE?) No??? They had bite like slicks... and, LOOKED like slicks... two radial grooves and siping... that was all the tread they had. They were Standard Oil's "premium" tire and were made out of "butyl" (synthetic) rubber... REAL soft compound. Great on the strip; not so great on the street; wear rating would have been about 100, probably, if they'd had a wear rating back then.

He had installed a Hyper Pak 4bbl intake manifold and the Hyper Pak AFB carb (4-bbl), along with the Hyper Pak cam (long duration/high lift) and springs. He'd had the head milled .100". The great Hyper Pak headers couldn't be installed because the starter's solenoid (this was an automatic) stuck out right where one of the pipes ran. So, this thing had only the stock, single-pipe exhaust manifold, and not a very big pipe at that.

He handed me the keys one Sat. night and said, "Take it to the strip tomorrow and see what it'll do." He was a pharmacist, and had to work on Sunday, when the race was held.

I was the "Stocker" Tech guy... heh heh...

I classified it in as a 170cid because I saw this guy named Jerry Davis entering his new '63 Falcon Sprint (260 V8, 4-speed car) in the same class the Dodge would run as a 148hp (170cid) Hyper Pak. I figured the stock exhaust manifold would hold me back a bunch.... which it did. So, I was okay with that...:snakeman:

His car (the Ford) supposedly came with a mild hydraulic cam, but his rattled like a sewing machine and would barely idle at 1,000 rpm, so I didn't feel bad at all.

I made one time trial: 15.88 at 89mph. Pulled the car into a far corner of the pits, with the shoe polish window rolled down, before he had a chance to see it.

Eliminations rolled around and there were about ten cars in our class. Of course, it got down to him and me...

I ran another 15.88 to his 16.00 and beat him about two car lengths for the trophy, which was HUGE since it was the Arkansas State Championships at Carlisle (Ark.)

He was mad as a wet hen because his 4-speed V8 got dusted by a six-cylinder/automatic, but knew he couldn't protest because he knew I would protest his cam! He was screwed...

On the return road from that Class runoff, the Lancer started running on 5 cylinders... I couldn't imagine what was wrong. By the time I got the car home (30 miles of highway driving), it was runnning on only four...

Turns out it had two broken rocker arms. The guy who owned it had installed high-lift rockers when it had a stock cam, and forgot to take them off when the Hyper Pak cam was installed! Total valve lift was about .535"... instead of the .410" it was supposed to be. Probably was coil-binding the valve springs. It was pure luck that they lasted through the eliminations!!!

He was happy though, with the big trophy and the 15.88 time slip.

That was 1963.... only 45 years ago... Seems like yesterday!!! :profilel:

I'll stop with the nostalgia stories, now...:stop:

Thanks for listening. It's all true!

Bill, in Conway, Arkansas