Pictures of a 3" exhaust system I built.....
 

.....about 15 years ago. This was about a year before you could buy a 3" system from an aftermarket source.

The pipes are pieced together from .060 wall 304 stainless steel tubing and 12 mandrel-bent 90-degree sections. I used 3-1/2" Flowmaster race mufflers with reducing cones to mate up with the 3" pipes, the same thing was done to mate the 2-1/2" collectors to the 3" pipes.

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Tight clearance to the trans crossmember and floorpan, to maximize ground clearance.

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Transition to the muffler.

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Over the back-braced axle.

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I fabbed some 3" splitter tips to finish it off, a '64 GTO needs them for the right look. I built some gravel shields for the forward pipe since the car was to be used for drag racing for a while.

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Now that the GTO is done with bracket racing duties, it's going back on the street. I hope my neighbors won't mind the noise.:heh: :burnout:

nice job

Nice Work!

That looks awesome.

Beautiful work!

Might want to swap tires before you put it on the street. Those look dangerous on many levels.........

frekkin awsome!

SSSSSSSSSSSWWWWWWWWWWWWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEETTTTTTT T!!!! If the neighbors don't like your portable alarm clock then they can[t take a good joke then can they?

Thanks for the kind words all.:cool2:

The slicks were already worn-out 4-1/2 years ago, that was when the old goat retired from racing. They now only serve to hold the rear of the car up, until I get the new 15X8 plain-steel wheels that I'm having made and mount up the new 275/60-15 street radials.:burnout:

there is a house for sale in my hood..i'd love to hear it in the morning.....:)

Man what a nice job on the exhaust!!

Very Nice Job!

Lets see the rest of the car!

Okay, you asked for it. Here's the old goat in all of it's faded glory.:o

It never has been much to look at, however it was a good, reliable and consistent bracket race car for over a decade until I retired it. It was never one of the more popular cars to show up at the races, either because it was too ugly or too competitive I'm not sure which.;)

Been sitting outside for about 10 years now so it's been doing a slow-and-natural surface rusting/paint-stripping routine. I lost interest in bracket racing a few years back and the car itself and was thinking of selling it. But now I'm missing driving it (I knew this day would come:) ) so it's time for an injection of cash, some TLC and a new life back on the streets.

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q...1.jpg~original

A std-bore 1974 455 lives up front with 197 HO heads. Fuel is metered by a puny 650 Holley DP carb. This will drive shaker455 crazy, but I've never even had the float bowls off to see what jets are in it.:confused2

Here you can see the twin-snorkel 1974 air cleaner I modded that's plumbed into the cowl for cool air, and the 1964 twin-belt arrangement for added reliability. Never tossed a belt even once while racing, low-RPM 455s with a 5200 RPM shift point do have their advantages.:)

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A shot of the Cheetah SCS shifter, Autometer gauges and rust-free floor pans. Passenger seat recently re-installed, only the driver's seat was in the car while it was a race car. Bare-bones race machine for sure.

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Battery stashed in the trunk with 2-0 welding cable for sure-starting, the stock Pontiac starter that came on the car when I got it 18 years ago is working perfectly.

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q...8.jpg~original

Fuel line routing at the rear is temporary, I was using what I had laying around when the old lines rotted due to age. The PCV breather pipe was extended to accomodate the added carb spacer/intake height and new snorkel location.

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q...8.jpg~original

My Torker II with some time spent removing the webbing and crossover, no internal mods at all.

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q...7.jpg~original

Front suspension has travel limiters built into the upper A-arms, 1967 Firebird springs and Koni drag shocks are used. Stopping is provided by 1969 Grand Prix 11" front discs and 11" Ford rear drums, manual brakes stop this car quickly.

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This chain limits engine movement.

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I appreciate this sort of thing. And not to take away from the high dollar race cars, its just that something like your GTO is a lot more realistic for us regular people.

Nice Car!

Really sweet and well done. Times??

Rich

Best times at the 2700' altitude desert track where I did most of my racing (Los Angeles County Raceway in Palmdale, or LACR) was 12.22 @ 108. The air (density altitude) was actually 2400' all day which never happened again, the car ran in the 12.20s all day that day. On another very good day she ran 12.30s all day up there, but usually between 12.40 and 12.60 depending on the weather of course was where I'd dial in. Air quality is most often well above 4000' there, we race in lousy air most of the time.

Took her once down to Carlsbad Raceway near San Diego, on an August morning ran 12.055 @ 110.29. I know this car can run high 11s, I just don't have access to a sea-level track close by. Pulled both front wheels off the ground on that 12.05 pass, you could really feel the extra horsepower in that good air near sea-level.:eek:

The 455 still has the original pistons, rings and bearings in it from 1974. Compression is about 8.6:1, the #197 heads are milled .025 and it runs good on 91 octane.

This is a very low-maintenance race car. I gave it an engine and transmission oil change once a year and would check the ignition timing (locked at 38 degrees) every couple of years or so and put a new set of slicks on it about every 2-1/2 years.

When it was time to go racing I'd spend about 2 hours washing it, airing up the tires, tying it down on the trailer and loading up my '70 C20 Chevy pickup. That's it.:cool2:

B-man,
That's one cool ride and I'm onboard for you to drive it again rather than sell it....MAN it's a 64' GTO!...can't sell that!

As far as the carb...."not gonna go there" just like I accecpeted the fact your never going to tell me who the girl is?...LOL

Very Cool!

Bart you are an artist - that's one beautiful system!

That looks perfect, you must have tons of patience. You will probably need to change the mufflers, the baffles(or chambers) are most likely long gone.

BTW.....Nice trunk floor and floor pans......I don't think I've ever seen virgin floors on a 64.

Thanks again guys and gals for the props.:)

Yes, it does take a bit of patience to see a project like this through. I put the car up on four tall 6-ton jackstands and crawled underneath it to fit up the pipe sections in my garage.

And crawled under again, again and again.:doh:

It was all worth it though, to have some kind of prominent feature on my car that nobody else has. The pipes make a wild one-of-a-kind sound going down the track. The mufflers are still in good shape as the car has only seen time on the race track, add that to the fact that the dry desert air preserves steel pretty well (witness the floor pans, won't see 'em like that in PA;) ) so no replacement will be due for while.

The next mod planned for the car's new lease on life will be a new induction setup. When I lift the hood there will be something 'different' under there that might help stimulate some conversation.

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I sure do love this old heap.:drive:

Wow, B-man...I wish I knew you did that back then.

Very nice work.

BTW, you can't race on PCH?

Looks like tri-y headers?

Sure enough, I bought these back in the early '90s when HO Racing was still selling them new. I'm sure the mention of the 2-1/2" collectors was the tip off.

I originally built this exhaust system to run on the street, I wanted this GTO to be a fast good-handling street car. I really didn't realize just how loud it would be, but at the time I really wanted the GTO to be a badass pro-touring car and I figured the 3" pipes would help with the 'evil' theme.

It already had the tall F-body spindles and HO front springs when I first bought the car, but I decided to go bracket racing and changed direction like many of us do on our cars.

But for now and forever this old GTO will be a drag-race type car.:burnout:

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Pulled off the Torker II/650 Holley and went back to my matching '71 HO intake and '68 Buick 750 Q-jet. Should be a good street intake and carb until I get the tunnel ram setup going.

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While I had the intake off I slapped the bathtub tunnel ram in place to see how everything would fit.

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q...8.jpg~original

b-man,

How did you reef down the engine when you put that chanin on?

B-Man,

A comment and a request:

I think your driveshaft loop at the cross-member has way too big of an opening. If the U-joint failed, based on the pics, I think the driveshaft could possibly still tear up that nice body sheet metal.

As the hoop is at the front of the shaft and there is little vertical movement there, I would have no more than 1" of clearance around the tube.

Item two, can you post a pic of the driver's side of the round port tri-Y headers?

Tom V.

There was no need to 'reef down' the engine to get all the slack out of the chain. I made the bracket that bolts to the head first, then attached the chain to it. After that I pulled the chain tight by hand and marked the hole location on the frame bracket that was already bolted down tight.

I removed the frame bracket, then drilled and tapped the chain attachment point. As long as you carefully mark and drill the hole in exactly the right spot the chain will be nice and tight.

Both of the bolts holding the chain are 3/8-24 Grade 8. In order to keep the bolts snug in their holes as well as to properly locate the chain attachment points it's mandatory that both the chain attachment holes be tapped for threads, not just drilled as through-holes. The bolts also have a nut on the backside to further insure that the bolts don't come loose or wiggle around in the brackets.

Any slack that you can see in the the chain now is the result of about 10 years of racing, from the chain wearing and stretching slightly over the years. You can still barely move the chain.;)

Tom,

Thanks for the observation, I'll put the driveshaft loop on my list of items to take care of.

As requested, some driver's side views of the HO Tri-Ys:

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Getting closer.....
 

.....to getting the old warrior back on the street.

I was running a short loop of 5/16" tubing instead of a transmission cooler, the fluid never got hot enough while I was racing to need a cooler.

Different story now that I'll be running around town with the car, so I bent up some 3/8" hard lines and installed a B&M Supercooler behind the front bumper. The cooling line fittings on a TH400 are for 5/16" tubing so I stole some off an old ST300 2-speed trans, they have fittings for 3/8" tubing.

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q...3.jpg~original

The lines are far enough away from the headers so the fluid won't cook in the lines, I tried to keep them slightly above the A-arms so they wouldn't rub during suspension movement. I didn't make the lines follow the frame as they come toward the front past the A-arms so they could be easily removed without bending them.

Note the new heater hoses, I put the heater assembly back in the car so my feet don't get cold while prowling around late at night (more likely driving to work in the morning).:o

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q...4.jpg~original

Looking upward from under the radiator support, the lower line that carries hot fluid from the converter enters the bottom of the cooler. A store-bought 60" length of hard line just happened to reach from the trans to the cooler all in one piece, what are the chances of that?:)

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q...5.jpg~original

The return line was made from another 60" length, but it wasn't quite long enough to reach. Just as well, if it was any longer I wouldn't be able to take it out without bending it up some. I had to make up one short length of tubing and put a 90 degree bend in it, along with a 3/8" inverted flare union to finish up the return circuit.

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q...7.jpg~original

Easy access to the union from the slot in the front bumper, it just happened to end up in a good spot for getting wrenches on the fittings.

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A shot of the cooler location from the front.

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Bending up hard lines is a bit of work, but you end up with very durable lines that have the same look and quality as OEM equipment. Very reliable, and cheap too. I have less than $20 in these trans cooler lines and fittings, and a few hours worth of work making them up.

Tube flaring tool set, a necessity when making up lines that seal with inverted flare fittings.

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B-Man,

Coud I get a close up of your air cleaner base (the bottom) and your throttle bracket/return spring arrangement on the Holley???

Also...could the dual belts be used with Power Steering??? I have seen dual P/S pulleys....just curious....Robert

B-Man....

One of the best things I have seen on your car is eliminating the heater hose fitting in the heads. I have seen several blow out and cause damage. Musch better to come out of the intake like you did. Bravo!!!

On my 1975 Formula, I am plumbing the hoses into the intake/water pump and fitting them with ball valves and hose nipples so the water can be shut off quickly in an emergency without tools.

This is a common modification on our personal street cars over the years...Robert

Bman i love your car! I think that the rusted body and perfect motor look is a good combo! :D

I must say i envy your mechanical prowess, i was afraid to take my valve cover off:o

Awsome!

Jack, thanks for the kind words. I've been fiddling around with cars for over 32 years, all it takes is some time to learn by doing. Not having a lot of money is a good motivator too, you learn to make what you can't afford to buy.

If nobody makes it then you make it yourself, to have a custom-made feature on your car that nobody else has is kinda cool and it's worth the work.

Oh, and it's only surface rust. No rot in this puppy.;)

Robert, here is a shot of my throttle bracket, pretty sure it's originally off of a '69 GTO RAIII 400 engine (stamped 'T 4' for Tempest 4-barrel) as that's what came in the car when I bought it. Unless you own an earlier A-body car it won't fit your throttle cable, it fits onto the Torker II intake the same way it fits this '71 455 HO intake. The return springs attach to the '77 350 800cfm Q-jet (17057262) the same way as on on my 650 Holley.

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q...0.jpg~original

Air cleaner is a '73 -'74 B-body unit, I added the extra snorkel using a spot welder so it would look like factory issue. Nothing unusual about the base, no mods were needed to use a Holley carb.

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Twin power steering belts on my '64 Tempest. This power steering setup was 'stolen' off of my GTO to use on the Tempest. The power steering pump pulley is made of cast iron.

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B-Man,

Interesting!!! and Thank You very much!!!

I have to modify my 1975 Ram Air Cleaner for use with a Holley. Some guys pound dents in the bae, but I think I will silver solder copper plumbing caps into the base to allow the bowl screws to clear.

Now...about the power steering....my 1975 Firebird 350 has a dual belt crank and water pump pulley. All I need is a dual alternator pulley and a dual P/S pulley.

I have a buddy who owns an alternator/starter shoppe, so the pulley for the alternator is no big deal. Where/what should I be looking on to find that P/S pulley???

Thanks again B-Man...Robert

Robert, as far as I know the twin-groove P/S pulley is an early '64 A-body item only. Later on in the '64 model year the belt/pulley arrangement was changed and a single-groove P/S pulley was used from then on.

Thanks!!!...Robert

P.S. Any photos of your Holley installation with the air cleaner off???

Sorry, didn't take any. The 650 Holley and Torker II are now tucked away up in my attic, ready for a looong sleep.;)

"Here you can see the twin-snorkel 1974 air cleaner I modded that's plumbed into the cowl for cool air"


Can you take a few closeup pictures of the cowl/firewall, I was thinking doing the same on my 77 bijd

What a Beautiful set of Headers!!

Those HO Tri-Y's came off of Ron Hildreth's '65 GTO. The only TRUE "bolt-on" part used in the assembly of that car.

Tri-Y truth.....
 

Those 'championship-winning' ;) headers on my GTO are actually a set that I bought brand-new from Ken at H-O Racing, I sent them out for Jet-Hot coating before installing them.

My 3" system was was a 'bolt-on' just like the headers, each side was fabbed in a jig and bolted on as a completed unit. I fabbed each side in 3 pieces by fitting the tubing sections under the car and marking them with a Sharpie. The 3 sections were completely welded together as separate units after their locations were confirmed.

The 3 finished sections (collector to muffler/muffler and over-axle bends/splitter tails) were welded together complete on a bench after putting them under the car (my 'welding jig') and marking them one last time.

I took the completed pipes home, dropped the rear axle down and slid the pipes right onto the collectors. After turning them 90 degrees into their proper positions I bolted up the muffler and tailpipe hangers, done. None of the welding was done with the pipes on the car, even the first tack welds were done on the bench.

Along with Ken's fine headers, my system was a TRUE bolt-on even if I did fab them myself. Someone had to fab those headers too.;) :cool:

Ron's 'old' headers (pictured below) will end up on my Tempest, I have 2 sets of these excellent headers.:burnout:

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q...3.jpg~original

Cold air setup.....
 

Check out this thread, it gives a good explanation of how the installation was done and and a few more pics:

http://forums.maxperformanceinc.com/...highlight=cool

Unfotunately as the car progresses further along all the race-oriented parts get removed, so no more photo opportunities of the setup installed on the car.

Here are a few shots of the components used to make the hose connections to the cowl/firewall. The larger piece bolts over the heater blower fan hole, the smaller one with the 3 tabs bolts to the wiper motor opening. I didn't need to drill any holes to mount these pieces, I made use of the factory mounting holes and hardware to minimize the hacking and enable me to go back to the original equipment someday (which is now).

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q...4.jpg~original

I had access to all kinds of stainless steel material to make stuff out of at my old job. A lot of it made a trip through the electropolish tank, an etching process that cleans and brings out the shine on stainless steel.

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How do you find the time?

It's not easy sometimes.....
 

Back when I first put the car together to go racing about 15 years ago I was of course a bit younger and I rarely worked more than 40 hours a week. I built up the car during one summer, it was a busy few hot months.

Lately I've been missing driving the car, it has been sitting pretty much forgotten and neglected for nearly 5 years. I'm not nearly as ambitious as I was back when I first got the racing bug, but I make myself get out there after work and move forward on it even though I'm tired from working 55 hour weeks.

My interest in this car (my very first Pontiac) has happily been renewed, I'm glad I didn't sell it after I lost interest in it for a while.:)

I get 2 hours for my father's day gift this Sunday...I get to grind on some calipers and remove a no-hop bar so I can refill my differential, and maybe get it back on the road.
:)

Black powder-coated steel wheels and radial tires.....
 

.....for street use are now replacing the 20 year-old Centerline aluminum racing wheels and non-street legal racing tires.

I wanted a new look for the car, and some wider front wheels and tires for better braking power.

A pair of 275/60-15 Firestone Indy 500 tires in the rear on 15X8" wheels and 205/75-15 Kuhmo touring tires on 15X5" wheels complete the new rolling stock.

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q...7.jpg~original

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q...4.jpg~original

The wheels were built off of a set 15" 1956 Chevy wheel centers, these were welded into new steel rims. No hub caps will be used on this car.

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B-Man, what an awesome job!!
The whole engine and car setup looks like something my Dad or Brother would have built and raced. It is nice to see so many things that look "familiar".
When you are ready for toning its sound level down, I bet we can figure out some new mufflers to do it.
Thanks for sharing the shots of the exhaust system and air intake too.
Tom

Tom, thanks for the kind words.:)

It might not surprise you that the reason I decided on the modified stock aircleaner and cool air from the cowl was directly due to inspiration provided by reading a HPP article featuring your Dad's wagon back in the early '90s.

After reading that article I pretty much headed straight to the boneyard and picked up all of the pieces I needed off of old Pontiacs. After installing the cool air setup and a 1" tall aluminum 4-hole spacer (a friend at work made it for me) under the Q-jet the car picked up a solid 2 tenths in the 1/4 mile.

You can be sure that when it's time for a more 'civilized' exhaust tone I'll look you up.:horn:

Bart :cool:

Bart,

I really like the open wheel look. The overall theme of your car is very cool indeed...Robert

Bart:
Here's a pic of my stainless splitters installed - thanks for the info you provided on yours.

Glad I could help you Tone.

Those look great, they give your car a classy look.:cool:

Since my car is essentially a no-class build, I built my splitters to scare old ladies and small children.:faint:

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q...3.jpg~original

That's right Bart, I've got all kinds of class - just happens to be all THIRD!!

Say, what is the backspacing on those 15X8's? I really like how that wheel/tire combo fill out the wheel well. I'm quickly realizing I need bigger rear tires with the 467.........