my '58

[Dakota Boy]

as it stands right now, you'll beat me if that valve on your blue bottle is cranked open

[Dakota Boy]

A bit of fun at a "car" party last Sunday. There was a concrete pad, some guys with a water hose, and my car has a line-lock. You can guess what happens next. Everyone was taking a turn at wrecking thier tires, so why not join the fun?

http://s54.photobucket.com/albums/g9...nt=burnout.mp4

[Jimz Bird]

Now that really gave me a "Grin from Ear to Ear"

KEWL!

[Dakota Boy]

My two kids were in the back seat. Ages 7 and 11.

I'm pretty sure it will be a memory that they will remember forever....And that is precisely the reason that they were included in the adventure!

[Dakota Boy]

Meltdown Drags in Byron, IL July 21 2012

[tbird430]

Very cool pic!!!

I like how the Impala guy removed his hubcaps- Don't you know someone could be decapitated with a hubcap flying off at the race track!!! LOL!!!

-Jon in TX.

[mattyel]

What was your time?

[Dakota Boy]

Time?

Not fast enough....due to a stupid vacuum modulator that had the car shifting whenever the **** it wanted to....or maybe it wouldnt shift at all. Nothing like being stuck in first gear to kill your times.

Replaced the 15-dollar part the following Sunday, and all was well. "A day late and a dollar short" is how my luck usually runs.

Even with the functioning modulator, it's still not fast enough. But the money tree has already been picked clean for this season. We'll have to see what we can do about that NEXT year....


The 1960 Impala is my friend's car. He's never had hubcaps on it. It has a fairly stout 454 under the hood.

[tbirdkid]

I LIKE WHAT YOUR DOING HERE, thats one cool bird, what is your best time to date.

[Dakota Boy]

Thanks for the words of encouragement

My times are low 15s right now.

More-or-less stock '73 460, C6 trans., and 3.50 gears.

I was going to yank the engine in the Spring and have a local 429/460 guru add some snort, but a couple weeks ago I ended up having to buy a new daily driver instead.

All the car got this winter was an electric fan. Gonna just drive it next year while I pay off the new truck as quickly as possible.

[tbirdkid]

You hang in there,

your bird reminds me of my first car, a 1960 t-bird, same color, 352 at, and so on, it ran 17;01 stock. (unless a crome air filter counts for about 25 hp. lol. im new to this site, id love to get you a pic of my white 60 convertible, not even sure how to put a pic on my profile yet... the bird has a stroked and bored 427 tunnelport engine, headers, c-6 c 3;89 posi, etc. i think we could have something for that 60 chevy in your pic. 0-60 4.15 sec. on street tires.. you keep up the good work on that cool bird. i love it.

[tbirdkid]

your a good dad

My two kids were in the back seat. Ages 7 and 11.

I'm pretty sure it will be a memory that they will remember forever....And that is precisely the reason that they were included in the adventure!

Id wished my parents took me racing, my parents went to watch me at the track and i broke an axle on my 69 mustang after 2 passes, .. in the several decades ive raced no siblings of mine have ever came to watch me at the track, parents came once.!

[simplyconnected]

Greg, we gotta do something about your times. You should be in the 13's. I think your high numbers are caused by your timing chain setting. For the price of a couple gaskets and an offset key, you can straighten this out in one Saturday afternoon.

The 460 should put out 500-ft/lbs of torque on every day of the week. Ford de-tuned this engine to meet their CAFE and EPA emissions standards. It's time to unleash some serious ponies. - Dave

[Dakota Boy]

Agreed. But don't I have to pull the engine or at least raise it up in order to get the timing cover off? It'd be a sad day if I cracked that devil open and found I already had the "good" (not 8 degrees retarded) timing set in there.

I called the previous owner last winter; he had the engine rebuilt, but could not recall with any degree of certainty as to what timing set is in there. He couldnt recall what the cam was either, except that it was "just a little bit bigger than stock". I'm guessing it's an Edelbrock Performer.

Engine revs to about 4500rpm, then falls on its face. Either the valve springs are too weak, 4500 rpm is the limit for the cam, and/or the stock D3VE iron cylinder heads stop breathing at that point. Could be a combination of all three things, I suppose.

I was thinking that the engine needs to come out, have different pistons installed to get up aroung 9.5 to 10.0 CR (instead of 7.6 to 8.0), heads need exhaust-side porting (at a minimum), need a different cam, and a 2500 stall convertor (I did have the foresight to install a trans. cooler while installing that electric fan last month).

Oh well. The car runs good, and is very reliable, and my wife says "what do you need a faster engine for?" "Needs vs. Wants." I always have to remind myself of that.

[simplyconnected]

I have NEVER heard of pulling an engine to get to the timing chain.

You can check timing without going through all that. Find true TDC and mark it on your damper.

I made my own Piston Stop from a worn out spark plug. Knock the white porcelain out and weld in a piece of 1/2" round stock, sticking out about an inch or 1-1/4". Make sure your #1 piston is down somewhat, then screw the slug in the spark plug hole. Rotate the crank by hand until it stops. Mark the damper with a fine line. Rotate the other way until it stops. Mark the damper again with a fine line. True TDC is exactly between your lines. Now remove the Piston Stop and proceed finding valve timing:

Slowly rotate the crank in the direction it runs, while watching #6 rocker arms. The exhaust valve will go down first. On its way up, the intake will start down. When they are dead level (use a straight edge on the rocker arms), tell us where timing marks are on the damper.

If you rotate too far, keep going until the rocker arms come around again. Do this a few times to prove consistency. - Dave