[Old Man Taylor]

Originally Posted by lust4speed

At first I was "huh?", then I remembered that you are our supreme leader of 4-speeds forever on the street movement.

I forgot to add a smiley face.

[Tom Vaught]

Some are just "Natural Gear Rowers", (like OMT) vs natural Chit Stirrers (who typically drive Automatics!)

I row a 5-speed Doug Nash

Tom V.

[455-4+1]

My 400 Srpint boat engine ran at 6400-6500 for between 55 and 60 seconds at a time.
Took some pretty serious bottom end attention to make it live doing that

D-ports by Jim Robertson (cast iron head rule), Roller cam, offset lifters / rockers, 3/8 pushrods and a big Victor and Bolaws annular carb. Sounsded pretty sweet I thought for a little iron headed 400

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ffCw0rR8pI

BTW, boat guys can shift gears when forced to run on land too (I think)

Tom / Jim, care to "score" my shifting in my street 76 TA with a pump gas 455 ??

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVHEZ77gUxQ

[Old Man Taylor]

Excellent shifting!

[Tom Vaught]

Originally Posted by Old Man Taylor

Excellent shifting!

Agree, Excellent Shifting.

Shifts were all high vs the Tach shift indicator needle so assume that the indicator was set 300 rpm low (as you were right on the 6300 mark every gear but first gear. That one was a bit higher. 6500 rpm on a "street 455 combination (was pulling well in each gear) says that you had a nice engine combination going there.

Post up the combination please.

Disappointed that we did not hear the "Bullit Double Clutch" (which I was expecting), LOL

Whoooow, bow, bow, Whoooow, bow, bow, Whoooow, bow, bow, Whooooooooooooow!

(;>)

I had 3 passengers in the car one night and did 3 power shifts. We later went back and measured the spacing between the black marks. Not much space on a properly done Power Shift. Driving some of the Top Loader Trans I can see a Double Clutch situation with those transmissions in a Mustang.

Tom Vaught

[72LuxuryLeMansLa.]

Originally Posted by Tom Vaught

I had 3 passengers in the car one night and did 3 power shifts. We later went back and measured the spacing between the black marks. Not much space on a properly done Power Shift. Driving some of the Top Loader Trans I can see a Double Clutch situation with those transmissions in a Mustang.

Tom Vaught

This was on a closed course, correct?

Karl

[455-4+1]

Not to hijack the "400" thread, but here goes as per Tom request (all relavent street info )

Yes I set the tach light approx 300 early, was a bit of a lesson learnt as the the changes (especially 1-2) come arounbd reasonably quick for a street car If you set it where you want to shift you end up over where your rods want to go LOL

Combo was a pretty simple deal I put together to get used to the manual trans before putting a "stout" engine in it and it actually went pretty well for shed parts (11.75 @ 118+mph at 1850kg weight)

455 block + 030, stock 3.25 crank, flat top "heavy" TRW piston, 6X heads (-8) home ported, opened up chamber (2.11 / 1.77 valves) with pushrod sleeve AKA SD heads (Felpro 1223 gasket), Holley SD intake with angle milled welded top section, converted to square bore with 3310 750cfm Holley (stock). I later tried a sleeper look 76 EGR intake with ALOT of internal mods / spacer which would ET the same (due to better 60ft !!!!) but MPH a few less (shifted at 6000 RPM instead). Custom 1-7/8" headers and an HC-03 hydraulic cam. (crane Gold 1.65 rockers)

3.73 rear gear

Pics of the Holley SD 4150 "converted" intake. Would work equally well on a "high winding" street 400. Runners were welded and extended into plenum and a large radius rolled down from the spcer into the runners. Would have preferred a bit more thickness (radius) at the front edge of the runners but run out of time to build up again before testing the thing.

Cutting off the crossover etc allowed for intake manifold changes at the track between rounds, much to the disgust of the Chevy crew watching on LOL

Probably the biggest lesson learnt was match the stuff you are running to the RPM range you intend to run at (or shift where the engine wants it, not where you want it)

I definitly wouldnt have shifted an auto 455 that high but the close ratio box kept the engine up where it seemed happy and I think 4 gears helped this. The manual would have definitly been more suited to a high winding 400 and would have made the starting line a bit easier. The modified factory intake probably would ET better with a 3 stage auto and a smaller cam. When I get some time soon I plan to try this for a bit more "sleeper" look.

[mikeb]

Back in the day I used to race with a 400 that had stock rods with nunzi's rod bolts and trws. It was in a 79 trans am, and i used to shift it when the tach read 6k.

Move forward a few years and i had a 455 with the same stock rods that i shifted at an indicated 5,500 rpm.

Then i installed a rev limiter set to 5,500.

Imagine my surprise the first time at the strip when the engine fell on it's face at an indicated 5,100 rpm..... the factory tach was slow to the tune of about 400 rpm. So i had been shifting my 400 around 6,400 and my 455 around 5,900 on stock rods!

Luckily i don't have any two piece rods or blocks with holes in them as a result of that.

[Bob Eiler]

389 +.065 (401)
RAIV CRANKSHAFT (donated by the local Pontiac dealer)
455 SD rods - beams polished, shot peened, big end set at lower specs, bushed for .927 pin
Brooks pistons (579 gr with pin)
SK intake with 1050 Holley
RAIV HEADS ported & machined by myself
Lunati solid roller

Shifted @ 72-7300 and went through the traps @ 7500.

When I got out of racing, the FB became a street car for 10 years. Three changes I made was to replace the 1050 with a SK tunnel ram (2 650 DP), install 10 in converter and reduce gearing to 4.88. In that period of time I only put 1000 miles on the car, then parked it in 1996.

[Skip Fix]

When my RAIV headed 400 had a big solid UD cam in it it liked to go to 7000, and had Crower billets to make it there-although a 557 block.