[ponyakr]

A friend had a '70 Goat with a 455. He told me one day that it started missing real bad and that he had bought a 400 from a junkyard and wanted me to change em out for him. I did and as he was leaving, "You can have that old 455 if you want it." So after he left I pulled the intake and valley cover. I'd seen this before. The only thing wrong with it was a lifter had come apart. So I replaced it and had the motor to put my Goat back together. Boy, I was like the lamb to the slaughter. I was the student and that monster was the teacher. First I used the cleanest looking TH400 I had out of a '68 Bird and some slicks I had on hand - 9". I used the stock converter so I reasoned that 9" would be plenty. Now, fast forward to the track... I do a fair burnout and stage. When I hit the gas it was like a funny car when they put too much clutch in it. It blew the tires away and the rear end started around and out my windshield I was staring at the grandstands. It probably didn't look that bad from outside but it felt bad inside. I caught it and puttered on down the track. For the next pass I did a real hard burnout. It spun bad, but stayed straight, so I ran it on up to 5 and shifted to 2nd - NOTHING! That monster ate my tranny!