Mike,
The thrill of going racing just to go racing has long lost it's luster for me. I was bracket racing back in the 70's when there were still five amber lights on the tree. LOL. Now, since we have gone heads-up racing, the only reason to take the car out to the track is to try to improve it's performance. Therefore, it was never my intention to bring the little motor with the CV-1 heads to Norwalk. There was some chatter about that possibility here on PY, but not from me. I made our plans clear that we would run our Gaby headed 511 at Norwalk, and if time permitted, we would try the little CV motor later in the fall. As events unfolded, none of the above happened.
My motivation for building the car was to do something that hadn't been done: Run 7's in a street legal Pontiac. We compete in a heads-up street legal class at BIR. Minimum weight is 3100 lbs. But there is NO limit on cubic inches. So we are most often up against cars with much larger engines. Even so, we are right in the thick of things. Our last race we attended in 2011, we were in the finals against a 632" nitrous Camaro. It was an awesome 7 second, side by side race ....... except for the fact that we lost by .04.
Like many here, I was drawn to Gaby by reputation. We met at Norwalk in 2011 and talked about stepping up our program (so I could beat that 632" Camaro). I sent him my junk in November 2011 and he came up with a plan that included additional head porting, new sheet metal intake, higher ratio rocker arms and Dale Cubic carburetors.
I told him I needed to have the motor on the dyno by March 2012 and in the car on the track by April 2012. He assured me that would be "no problem". I took him at his word - didn't call him, didn't email him, didn't bug him - shouldn't have to. However, March came and went without any word from Florida. So, first week in April I sent an email inquiring about my junk. That's when the dance began. There followed months of excuses, broken promises, apologies, "problem vendors", etc., etc. So I was sitting on my hands, expecting heads and intake to arrive "any day now", when in fact it was just a lie. The heads didn't arrive until late July. The intake didn't arrive until after Labor Day. So there went our 2012 season.
Now, I don't have a problem with sub-contracting work, provided there are adequate project management and quality controls in place, which there were NOT. Neither the heads or the intake were useable as delivered. The intake looked like a high school shop project gone wrong. I couldn't believe my eyes. I sent a detailed email with pictures of the multiple - and I do mean multiple - machining and fitment issues. I would be embarrassed to let a product out the door like that. Once again, he was very apologetic, took full responsibility and promised that if I sent them back, they would "drop everything" and turn them around for me. I believe he was embarrassed too, and I got the feeling that he had never actually laid eyes or hands on the heads or intake. Don't know - just speculating.
I sent them back in the beginning of October 2012. End of November, I got an email stating that the intake was fixed and they were starting on the heads. Fast forward to February 2013 - still no heads and intake. Apparently our definitions of "drop everything" are different. Somewhere in this time frame, I read on PY that wreckmastr had received his Gaby intake manifold and that it was a work of art, pretty enough to display on a coffee table. I about blew a gasket.
Sent an email inquiring about my junk. Was told everything was done (heard that one before) and they just had to cut the receiver grooves in the heads. I reminded him that those were o-ring grooves, not receiver grooves. He said they would need to get additional tooling to do o-ring grooves. I told him to just send them back as is. The heads came back in March 2013 with (you guessed it) receiver grooves cut in them. Then "they" took a hammer and center punch and pounded dimples around the insides and outsides of the receiver grooves, apparently trying to crush them tight enough to hold a stainless o-ring. I don't have to tell you how well that worked out. This is just one small example of the quality of work we received. I can't make this stuff up.
Without getting into more detail, there were still machine work issues, water issues and fitment issues. While tackling these one at a time, the weeks turned into months. Finally got it pieced together and to the dyno. This motor made 920 hp four years ago. The shortblock is unchanged - just freshened. With better heads, better intake, better carbs and higher ratio rockers, it should have picked up SOMETHING, but it was an absolute lazy pig. Our best pull was only 860 hp. In the end, we could only laugh, as it was a fitting finale to two years of frustration. I took it home, rolled it into a corner, threw a blanket over it and haven't touched it since.
So there went our 2013 season and why we didn't make Norwalk. Is it all Gaby's fault? No, but a certain percentage certainly falls his way. No one is infallible. We'll find the lost horsepower. What really pisses me off is that I can't get the last two years back. That is the worst part.
DF
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