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Post by John Scott on Jun 21, 2014 10:27:51 GMT -4
I went walking around a junkyard this morning to see what I could find. I came across some early 80's Camaros and Firebirds with some 305s. Is it possible to bring cylinder heads or intakes in this condition back to life for Stock Eliminator use or would it be a waste of time to even attempt to retrieve them? Thanks John Attachments:
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Post by ChipperChapman1090 on Jun 22, 2014 16:25:16 GMT -4
You can revive just about anything, but it may not end up as good as it could be. For example you will often hurt the performance of stock legal head by replacing valve seats, as you're not allowed to blend the new seat to the runner like you could with a bracket engine.
You said you're looking at 305's? Which heads are you looking for? I have a few sets of 416's around, and some of the iron intakes of the era. Free to a good home if that's what you need.
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Post by John Scott on Jun 22, 2014 19:15:37 GMT -4
Chris,
I sent you an email.
Thanks, John
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Post by jkr on Jun 22, 2014 20:15:46 GMT -4
why bother with old tired parts that need refreshing and might not meet the tech crews scrutiny. for the g-m guys the generals performance parts catalogue is written for stock and ss racers. less options for ford and dodge guys but that only make a round win feel better.
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Post by John Scott on Jun 22, 2014 20:48:42 GMT -4
Not sure what you mean by "catalogue is written for stock and ss racers". As far as I know, the 401 is the only NHRA Stock Eliminator legal cylinder head in the Chevrolet Performance catalogue and the 359 is the only intake manifold. If I could afford to build a 396/375 that would come in handy. Please correct me if I am wrong.
John
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Post by ChipperChapman1090 on Jun 23, 2014 3:16:32 GMT -4
Jeff, if you are getting at the crate engines, any crate engine regardless of manufacturer is going to cost $5k plus to buy, then spend another $3k plus to make competitive and last a decent amount of runs. There are many lo po combos that can go down the track for far less. Maybe you should buy or build a car and try to run it before chiming in? ?? As far as jon is talking there still is lots of parts still out there for that era, replacement parts are limited to high end muscle car era stuff!!! Now, feel free to shoot me down with whatever crap you want to spew, but I have typed out what many others are thinking!
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Post by jkr on Jun 23, 2014 19:27:51 GMT -4
several places in the g-m catalogue I have in front of me reference "nhra legal" for various parts. that was what I was referring to. I know none of the dodge produced cylinder heads in the performance book refer to them as "nhra legal'. nor any other place in the book. don't have any ford material so no comment. now back to the main point of the thread. if there was a complete or bare head available and legal for whatever class you plan on building for it would make "logical dollar sense" to look at new before spending time and money on old parts. remove, strip, clean, magnaflux, and then decide if it's affordable to do guides, seats, valves, springs, retainer and locks, and resurface them. while I was at the store the basic stuff for a head might cost about $200 to $300 X2 only to find out they were cracked. I wish I still had the names of the 2 salvage yards in Saskatchewan and Manitoba that had barns full of complete engines from early era muscle cars and trucks for $300 each, complete carb to pan and some had transmissions still attached. I have the info on a salvage yard in new Hampshire for the same stuff but most are out of the cars laying under trees and hoods.
as for buying or building something that has been taken care of. I spent my money, that I didn't have, on something different, and a vehicle I could drive ANY day of the year, both on and off track, if needed. spending gobs of money on a vehicle that sits in the corner of the garage, waiting for 2 days of perfect weather, only to whine about the price of fuel to get it to a track doesn't interest me. or waiting till the track in my backyard creates it's schedule around my work schedule so I can go to race. I realize it costs a lot of money to build, maintain, and travel but what some people have are certified garage queens. to be slightly competitive, in s/ss one must be "more innovative" than the next guy and that's where the money is spent. it's innovative till the sanctioning body deems it illegal, then it's cheating, if caught.
make your way here in pei this weekend and blow the dust off your car for the ACSSA event. the short race season has been going since may and winter is fast approaching, only 6 months till Christmas. and by the way there is a class winning vehicle in the yard right now from this season, went 5 rounds and I can have the trophy brought over for you to see it if you wish. let me know and i'll get my driver to bring it as he is coming for sure... you have how many round wins and class wins with the chevelle..............
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Post by ChipperChapman1090 on Jun 23, 2014 21:55:21 GMT -4
Go to nhraracer.com and you will see there are more off the shelf parts available to use in stock and Superstock for your beloved mopars than gms Jeff. Right down to a full host of edelbrock heads!
I will be on the island, I'm surprised you didn't see that on the roll call???
I can't adjust my work schedule for racing, I will be going to as many as possible and that makes 4 of the ACSSSA races and about the same for brackets.
FWIW Since I bought my chevelle I have only been able to put on 23 passes, with about 13 round wins, which includes going to the semi's in epping the day I bought it. I don't think that's too bad but an expert watcher like you must know better than I.
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Post by jkr on Jun 24, 2014 6:50:58 GMT -4
I only referred to the gm parts book and mopars book as well. what's available nhra racer and other publications to use a person would need a Philadelphia lawyer or do nothing but read books all day. read the bottom line (disclaimer) of every post I make.
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Post by Don @ Maritime Drag Racing on Jun 24, 2014 9:10:51 GMT -4
If I could find myself an early 60s Biscayne I could do an experiment on how how long "junkyard" 283 parts would stay together with too much convertor and gear ratio LOL. Back in the "stone age" of class racing all that was available was junkyard parts and you typically went through a dozen sets of heads checking combustion chamber and runner volumes and picking the most closely matched pair that gave you the least CCs in the chamber and the most in the runners and at the same time were also NHRA legal since manufacturing tolerances were all over the map back then.
But times have changed, rules have changed and unfortunately it takes a lot more $$ these days to build a competitive Stocker. Junkyard parts are never going to perform as well as carefully massaged stuff from one of the many serious Stock class engine builders. I know I probably shouldn't be even posting in this board since I don't race in the ASCCA series but I don't like to see anyone else be discouraged from participating by the high cost of fielding a car that can go waaay under the index. If I could I would love to build something that would barely run ON the class index. After all - in eliminations you still have to run off that dial-in on the window whether it's the one that the IHRA/NHRA gave you or the one you use because you can run under. Just my two cents worth....
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