12/15/98

COOLING-Haven't changed the fan or sensors as yet.

HEADS-Met Dave Smith of Power Performance in Riverside at the Long Beach Performance Swap Meet two weeks ago. Had several LONG conversations. He's got iron raised port heads he claims are the best.

BLOWER-The blower boy backed out.

PAINT-Was going to do it over Christmas, but the plans to be detailed in a moment have pre-empted that.

HIFI-Rob Anderson is doing the dually hifi for about $5K!!. He will fix the Bird after that.

ALTERNATOR-It STILL works!!

BRAKES-Had the front brakes redone about a month ago. Had the left rear studs (2) replaced about two weeks ago. Smelled burning brakes. Saturday the car felt like the left rear wheel was coming off, or had a flat, and/or had drum brakes that were hanging up.

Went to GK Auto, found the left rear caliper crunched against the rotor. The stud guy left the bolts loose and the thing fell apart! $81 later I'm good, but I'll be talking to Tires Buy Mark about the prior work.

ENGINE-I'm going to have Dave Smith put a fresh 408” Windsor in over Christmas. We're going to try to sell the existing engine, after taking a look inside and freshening it. This will run $6500, including a dyno test , and should yield in the mid-400 HP range. This will be a turnkey operation. I was going to go injection, but the $3000 difference right now can wait until AFTER the engine swap.

The trans had a cooler line leak which we repaired with the brakes. It will get a freshen-up at the same time as the motor.

Smith was trying to get me to go with a built 302-based motor at 347”, but I'm going to hold on to my large displacement mentality.

This motor has gone about 44K miles, the trans almost 50K. The car just passed 150K. It's time for some fresh blood.

1/26/99

Gave the car to Smith before Christmas, with a return delivery date of Jan 8. NOPE! Smith laid the delay off to the holidays and parts availability problems. He later said that my bottom end was pretty good, although the bearings were mostly gone, apparently from oil starvation. He replaced the block, kept the crank ,rods, and pistons, changed rings and bearings. He suggested using the cost savings on the rotating assembly he was going to replace by diverting the funds to injection, my thoughts exactly. At this writing, he has gotten the lower plenum, is waiting on the upper, has the short block assembled with hydraulic roller cam, lifters, pushrods. He intimated the heads had been on, and feels the Darts will make more horsepower than the Twisted Wedge heads I'd read about and had been leaning towards. He has very strong opinions on things, though not combative. I'm alternately suspicious and impressed. We had a long discussion last week on front pulley sizes and how he though a smaller pulley turned slower. The engine is being sized with 65 mm throttle body, 28# injector pump mounted in the tank. He'll have the gas gauge sensor calibrated while it's out. He claims he's currently waiting on the fuel rails and the upper for the injection. He reiterated he plans to have the motor on the dyno by the weekend. He claims he'll be disappointed if it doesn't make 500 HP. I personally just don't see how. The motor is ending up at 9.7:1 compression. He would have liked to go to 11:1, and claims the injection and computer would let it run fine. It will run a 114 lobe center cam at 220/220.

He says he's welded the trans temp bung in the pan, has not yet mounted the many gauges, and will make a decision on how and where to place them tonight.

All of this is wonderful, particularly since the money has now run out, and I'm clueless how I'll find the cash to pay the remaining $3200 or so off when he's done. Oh well.

In response to my question about contacting Mark Sanchez regarding the off-center mounting position of the motor, Dave says he STILL has not called Mark. He says, however, that he mounted the engine STRAIGHT with the heads on, and it fits fine. Go figure.

So at the moment, the promise of a running motor now looms for THIS weekend. It is a certainty, however, that the car will not be back until sometime next week. At the moment, I still have yet to send Smith the oil and trans coolers, so this is not all bad. Smith is waiting also for the short water pump to allow for a clutch fan system.