Operation Pinks or Bust
 

Well...since I have one month from today, figured now is a good time to get motivated and swap motors, transmission, converter, ignition, carb, and who knows what else.

I hope to have it ready for Friday night drags this Friday for initial testing.

They may (or may not) ding you during tech for not having that poly seat back braced to the roll bar (crossbar).

I guess I must've forgotten to mention that in your roll bar thread... :doh:

Bret P.

I'll make one this week, kinda like the one I made for the vega project. We just came home last night from our Colorado "staycation" so I have a l-o-n-g ways to go.

Thanks for telling me about those rockerbars. We took your suggestion and installed a pair. Between those and the subframe connectors and aluminum mounts, she should be quite stiff.

Is your shoulder harness a Y type? Those won't pass anymore either.

No, it's a two strap harness, I'll mount that this week as well. I was very happy that I received it in June and it was made this July.:)

The black harnesses you see are coming out as well.

Cylinder heads
 

Hey, got any pictures of Pontiac Gregg's bad ass heads? What valves are you running?

Any updates on the progress?

I so want to see a Pontiac in the finals. Problem is, you never know exactly what time bracket they are going to take. You could be too fast or too slow.

On the 81 Bird, Please put a Poncho in it!! Too many half breeds around.

Best of luck!!!!

You'll get it ready in time. Good luck Johnny!

I posted some pics of the heads posted here. The valves are turned down bbc valves 2.19 on the intake.

Unfortunately I have run out of time and $$ to use those heads for pinks as I still need custom pushrods for them. Plus I will need to get the northwind intake milled down to fit. I just got the solid ultradyne cam and lifters this week (Thank you Greg!!), if I had another month, they would be on the car but I really need to get it together and do some testing and work out the bugs. I don't want to be doing a TnT at Pinks. I also need bigger headers as well, those exh ports are b-i-g.

I reinstalled the XE294 cam which had previously been degreed and used my old 260cfm heads with the matching pushrods and 1.5 H/S rockers.

Motor is in, I have been working on fabbing the alt bracket as I will be using the Moroso water pump motor and a electric fan. I'll post some pics shortly, I have the port matched crosswind intake with my custom Holley 850DP on it and the 125 powershot plate. I still need to put in the ignition, I'm going to a Dave Ray magnetic trigger distributor.

Pictures coming soon...

Thank you!! Pinks is Aug 13-14, I want the car on the track next weekend.

Good Luck Johnny hope you win some cash...

Thank you Polar!! Those motor mounts I got from you were great. I dropped the motor in the car in under 30 minutes with those.

I got alot done, all I need to do now is hook up the shifter linkage, make a return spring bracket, fill fluids, and install the ignition system. I plan on cranking it tomorrow, not thrilled about the heat, we will be in the 90's again tomorrow.

Here are a few pics

And a few more pics...

I can't wait to get both cars running...AT THE SAME TIME!!:o

Ya could ask for help. There are some that are local that have a clue.;) Drop me a PM sometime.

If you didn't see on my other post, I found the oil pump was stuck when I went to prime the motor. Of course, everything was done but the ignition. I pulled the motor out yesterday morning and dropped the pan. I was expecting to see the drive rod stuck to the side but nope, everything was right where it was supposto be, the pump is siezed. I went ahead and pulled the pump and pan off the 406. That pan is a Moroso 7 quart and I know that pump works so on it went. I got the motor back in last night and I'm finishing the rehook up process now. I'll probably wait until tomorrow morning to fire it up and break in the cam as we're going to hit the upper 90's today.

Please learn from my goof, no matter who builds your engine, MAKE SURE YOU CHECK THE PUMP BEFORE INSTALLING, I won't forget that ever again...

was this a new pump or one you had used before?please let us know what bound it up if you get a chance.

This pump came out of the 406, I know it works and the pickup was already welded on. It was making 40 psi with my 14v battery drill last night while I primed the motor.

I took the siezed pump to the speedshop/machinist yesterday. We pulled the bottom plate and no debris (as expected, it was never used). The driven rotor popped out pretty easy but the brive rotor needed to be beaten out. My new replacement pump will be here tomorrow.

She fired right up and ran well for 12 minutes when one of the heater hoses to the back of the head blew off (5/8 line on 1/2 nipple didn't hold).

I was surprised on how loud it wasn't. The 406 with the XE274 was louder than the 463 with the XE294.

I'll finish the break in tomorrow morning and time it. I have 112 race gas in it, wanted to keep it cool for the run in. She stayed at a constant 190 degrees. Initial oil pressure was 65lbs cold and stayed around 50lbs once warmed up.

I got the cage painted and the pads installed. The harness is in as well. I'll take her out tomorrow for initial shakedown runs. If all goes well, I'll take it to Earl Scheib for a paint job.

You're making great progress !!

Jim