[Old Man Taylor]

I'm hoping I'm getting to the end of the long odyssey I have endured with my '64 GTO. I took it apart in 2000 to freshen it up only to find a cracked block. I won't go over all of the history here, but I'm basically on the second version of my fourth engine since then. I still have some work to do on an unstable idle, but it is running great. It now has 85 miles on this incarnation with no engine complications. It already had 200 miles on it when I had to take it back apart for an oil leak. I had a friend over helping me a bit today, so I took him for a ride when it was time for a quick road test. Before we went out I did a quick test on the nitrous and gas solenoids to make sure they opened and closed properly. After driving around for awhile I decided to give it a short blast (the first time since 2000). I was probably rolling about 30 mph when I hit it in first. The tires started spinning pretty quickly, so I shifted to second where the tire spin continued. I only took it to about 4500 where the cam starts really waking up. MAN IT FELT GOOD. I did have to do a bit of steering in second gear as the car started sliding to the right. I can't wait to have all of the bugs worked out so I can really ring it out. It is not a strip car anymore, so I'm not sure I will ever take it to the track. That's why I built my Tempest, so I wouldn't keep breaking the GTO. You can't really tell by the seat of the pants, but it felt like it was better than it used to be when it ran 10.80 at 129.31. The car is all old school. The current rear tires are 275/60-15 M/T Street Radials. I upped the weight of the flywheel from 15 pounds to 22 pounds hoping that it would not spin the tires from a first gear roll. It looks like I wasn't as successful as I had hoped. Details below.

400 block bored 0.030" with a forged 4"stroke crank
Carrillo rods and Ross pistons
HR cam, 242/248 at 0.050" with about 0.600 lift with the 1.65 rockers
Heads are 670 (1967 GTO) with tall valves and 1.65 Crower SS roller rockers
CR = 9.6:1
Stepped 4-tube headers, 1 7/8' - 2"
1966 tri-power
nitrous plates under all 3 carbs. Boost is about 150-165 HP
M-22 4-spd, 4.33:1 12-bolt posi rear

"May the torque be with you"

[tom s]

nice list of internals!Tom

[66bonne]

Street racing !!! At your age ??!! Wish I'd been along for the ride.

Jim

[J.C.you]

nice, all you need now is some steelies and dog dish caps for some stealth action.

[PMD1969]

Adopt me! Congrats! and looks like big fun.

[Torquewar]

Oh my that is just gorgeous,i would leave the hood off so everyone can see those three shiny lids.
Like old school stuff and it sounds like its getting closer to the right tune.
Drive it like you hate it........

[grivera]

Congtrats! that really sounds like a killer ride and is beautiful to boot. Is that an SD cam?

[Old Man Taylor]

Originally Posted by grivera

Congtrats! that really sounds like a killer ride and is beautiful to boot. Is that an SD cam?

No, it is a Comp grind sold by the Butlers.

[rad400]

Thanks for the ride along Jim that was a nice little ride you guys had.

[rohrt]

Just when I think I want to keep my 64 tempest with the stock 326 and nice 20MPG a thread like this comes along and leaves me droolling.

Hope I grow up to be as cool as you instead of stick in the mud.

[Lemans64]

Good to hear, hopefully you will have fun with it and stay away from mr. police man, LOL. Now u just need one of the kids or grand kids to video grampa havin fun. LOL.

[geeteeohguy]

Thanks for posting , OMT. You were burning rubber in that GTO when I was sitting in my Murray Fireball pedal car, pretending to. It's very nice that some things never loose their appeal. I remember when I was a young mechanic, 21, and I asked an "old" guy who was 27 if burning rubber ever got old (he had a '71 Z-28 with 4.10's and a 4 speed, and I had my GTO's), and he shouted at me: "IT NEVER GETS OLD!". I thought he was crazy, that people just grow out of it. I was, thankfully, WRONG. Keep up the great work and keep us posted!!!

[limejudge69]

Nothing like a GTO with a 4 speed and some deep gears. It is nice when you can make a blast pass after a long hibernation. 20 some years ago I had a 67 GTO with a 400HO, 4 speed and 4.33's That car was an absolute handful but I loved it. Thanks for sharing OMT!

[mike nixon]

Jim Glad to hear you've gotten the GTO out again! 4 sopeed cars are a BLAST to drive!

[Qball]

So nice!!!! Kind of an oddball question, though. How did you get your hood hinges down and secured like that?

[Old Man Taylor]

Originally Posted by Qball

So nice!!!! Kind of an oddball question, though. How did you get your hood hinges down and secured like that?

I pushed the hinges down manually and then tie wrapped them. Hopefully the tie wraps hold up for awhile. I don't want to put the hood on until I'm done working on a few things.

[uneasyrider]

Very cool Mr. Taylor! Don't you just love churning through a "Rock Crusher". I know I like mine.

[Old Man Taylor]

Originally Posted by uneasyrider

Very cool Mr. Taylor! Don't you just love churning through a "Rock Crusher". I know I like mine.

I went to the rock crusher from an M-20 for two reasons: I had way too much torque multiplication on the starting line; and I was breaking the M-20's. However, I did also break the input shaft and first gear on a fine splined M-22. That's when I decided to quit racing the GTO.

[uneasyrider]

Originally Posted by Old Man Taylor

I went to the rock crusher from an M-20 for two reasons: I had way too much torque multiplication on the starting line; and I was breaking the M-20's. However, I did also break the input shaft and first gear on a fine splined M-22. That's when I decided to quit racing the GTO.

Yep, I worry about breaking mine too since they are so hard to find. I don't run mine on the strip so the tires are the safety valve. I figure it'll never hook up good enough to break it, I hope... The nice thing is that it's not matching to the car so at least it's not "priceless".

[R 70 Judge]

Congrats Jim! Such a cool ride