Jump to 2007 pictures.
I bought my first Corvette when I was 19. I remember my father being quite pi.... off.
Oh well !
Since then I have almost always had a Vette. My First Vette was a 1968 427cid coupe. It came with the most awful
yellow color. After blowing up several 427's at the race track, I switched to small blocks. I was lucky to find
a '71 LT1 350 - 330hp engine that I rebuild and installed in the '68. I then painted it deep blue. This was a fun
car. It also had a four speed wide ratio Muncie transmission with a short throw Hurst Shifter. This was the "Cool"
setup in those days.
In 1979 I bought my second Vette. It was a Red 1971 coupe with a standard 350 cid and four speed. You can just
about imagine how long that stock engine and tranny lasted in my hands. I built another 350 with Milodon heads
and roller cam. Love those roller cams. I was also lucky to find another Vette owner that had a turbo400 in his
Vette and wanted to install a four speed tranny. We exchanged parts and had the tranny built for HiPer use. Installed
a 3500 stall converter and went racing.
In 1981 I bought my third Vette. It was a
1969 Pro Gas car. I found this car in Denver without engine or tranny.
It had only 2300 miles on it and was a race car from day one. It also had a 4 link Dana rear end fitted with 488
gears and 15" Firestones. My next project was to build a motor for it. The car came with a 5 speed tranny
which I sadly replaced with a Turbo 400. The motor I built was an aluminum head 427 with a roller cam. The car
ran 10.20's in the 1/4 mile. It also did nice wheel stands. Oh ! I forgot to mention the large nitrous kit.
In 1987 I bought my forth Vette, a 1974. It was the same old story. Throw the motor and trany out and stuff something
else in. So, I stuff a 377 cid small block with lots of nice parts, including heavily ported Dart heads. The engine
dyno'd out at 470 hp. It did blowup the first time it was dyno'd. My engine builder convinced me to run a solid
lifter cam instead of the roller. The cam was made wrong and did not center properly in the block. Hence, it did
nothing but lose HP as it was dyno'd. Out came the solid cam, in went the 0.730" lift roller, along with an
intense cleaning of the engine. Now that the engine was installed and done, it was time to move on to the tranny
department. The old Turbo 400 just was not going to make it. It created to much heat for my legs and got rotten
gas mileage. I decided to install a 700 R4 with a 4500 lockup stall converter. This was a winning ticket. I get
20 mpg with the 377 and noticed a 30 degree drop in engine temperature. Wow ! Cool legs. The first gear performance
in awesome. I put 370 gears in the rearend before the tranny swap. This was a mistake. I should of used a 350 or
336 ratio. Due to the deep first gear and high stall speed, first gear lasts about 20ms and shifts into second.
In the summer of 2002 I installed a Holley fuel injection
system. It took me a hole summer to get the thing tuned in. Now I know why
these systems have a bad reputation. It was worth the trouble however. Many
of the problems associated with high performance carburetor engines
disappear. The drivability of the large roller cam has now been tamed, along
with the boiling carburetor on hot summer days. The engine now starts with a
quick turn of the key in any temperature. OH! did I mention the power gain I
received with the Holley injection. My engine definitely came to life with
the 950 CFM throttle body compared to the 750 Holley carb.
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Hope you enjoy the pictures of my '74
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I had Arias custom make pistons to handle the nitrous.
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400 CID block with 350 CID crank.
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Installing piston/rod assemblies.
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No stud girdle was used. 7/16 rocker studs instead.
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Ready to put in the car.
Boy! Was I fat back then.
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That engine installed fast.
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Spark plug wires were later run under headers.
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View of oil pan and headers.
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Exhaust to header connections.
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Here are the pictures of the Holley
fuel injection. |
You can upload my F.I map by
clicking here.
This MAP is way different then the samples
Holley provides on their website. But it works
with my big roller cam and 10.5:1 compression. |