[tom s]

tell him hello,we talked about that engine before you bought it,my concern was the O ring grooves in the block.He had a idea for it.Good luck with the project.Tom

[gregsgtos2]

i have had a couple of other o ringed blocks,and never had any problems.are you bringing a car to the co-vention this year?or norwalk?

[tom s]

If I can find a deal on transportation I would bring my 63 lemans to Norwalk,cant fit both events in.Tom

[gregsgtos2]

maybe you could find 6 or 7 others guys in california wanting to take their cars,and rent the whole truck.some guys did that last year at the gtoaa nats.

[J GLASGO]

When i did my 5 engine,I based it on a 428 Block,455 crank,260/270 duration,680 lift rollar.Heads and intake were bone stock,compression was about 12-1.I figure by the trap speed versus the weight of the car,the horsepower was around 460? That was also with exhaust manifolds,and a full 2.5 inch exhaust,wrapped around a 69 GTO showcar.I wonder how much the manifolds and exhaust hurt that car?I thought it was really fast at the time(16 years ago)It may not have been the fastest car that i have owned,but it was definetely the nastiest sounding.555 horse with a 400 is still very strong.Its cool that people can share actual dyno resuts,or 1/4 mile time slips on these rare motors.Nothing irks me more than the old addage"it is reportadly making somewhere around 600 hp!!",without a stitch of proof.

[INJUNTOM]

Anybody know how long Rudy Diepuis ran the V stuff? Must have been years.

[Steve Barcak]

Tom,
I do not know everything about Rudy but, I did get to meet him a few times before his passing and talked much to him.

Also have his magazine features. His V was a 428 +.060 (440) high exh port deal, with a Lenco and 2-4s, in an Astre. I guess it could have been the former Stuas Atre, because it looked like a former pro stocker, or it could have been a completely different car. My info shows it ran good but, not spectacular. Featured in Popular Hot Rodding around 1977/1978. Car was black and reportedly ran a best of 8.80s. If I remember well, he told me the car was totalled in a top end crash. I think he hung on to the V stuff but, did not use it for years. After he passed, I heard his family sold the stuff off. If anyone can add or correct, please do so.
My understanding was he did not run the car in pro stock but, in a local northern Ca 'super' class of some sort.?

I am sure Jerry will comment but, I think the quickest he went with a V was 8.31? That is what I remember from a McCarthy book.

I tried once to buy a Lenco from him but, had some issues while dealing and decided not to.
He always talked proudly about Pontiacs, Pontiac this and Pontiac that. You would think he may have been the biggest Pontiac guy out there....Then, one day years ago at Bakersfield in the 90s, I see him and his Tempest. Took a look at the motor and learned the "Pontiac guy" turned and went the Tyree/Beswick route. Talking in 'forked tongue' with a cheby between the fenders. Never saw his chev/Tempest run good

I just can never understand how someone like these 3 guys can look you straight in the eye and tell you they are a Pontiac guy, yada yada. and there is a chev in their car. Go figure?

Steve


Hosting 11th annual Pontiac Heaven, show, swap, drags, party and all around good time. Saturday April 4, 2009 at Speedworld near Phoenix, Az
Also hosting- 7th annual Nostalgic Show and Go! and swap coming Sunday April 5, 2009 to Speedworld. Phoenix, Az

[Steve Barcak]

My thoughts on making a V really make serious power would be to do this.
If I had to use the original iron heads-

1. Raise the floor ( as Tom S engine builder did )
2. try to square the port as much as is possible ( on a mill )
3. raise the roof as much as is possible
4.raise the exhaust ports
5. fabricate an overhead cam set up for it. This way, you could remove the push rod tubes and really take advantage of the huge intake port. Making a 'cammer' would not be that hard.
It could be done with a Pontiac/vintage flavor by using a OHC cammer cover to start. You could also use a pair of belt covers too. I would drive the cams with belts myself but, it could be done with gears or a chain too.

as if a V is not wow enough, imagine an OHC V!

Not only the 'wow factor' but, could be the final solution to the push rod tubes.

Think about it.

Steve
Hosting 11th annual Pontiac Heaven, show, swap, drags, party and all around good time. Saturday April 4, 2009 at Speedworld near Phoenix, Az
Also hosting- 7th annual Nostalgic Show and Go! and swap coming Sunday April 5, 2009 to Speedworld. Phoenix, Az

[NHRASuperStock455SD]

Rudy was a great guy. We had just built our RA-V 69 TA when we started talking to him. He was a fanatic on rotating weight, a concept we never paid much attention to back then. We bought some cams from him and paid attention to his disertations on weights. I wish we could do it all over as I think the 146mph in a 3400lb car could have been clipped very easily.

Stacy's 2008 best of 9.18 running 144MPH in the SS 428 tells the story on todays cars as compared to yesteryears cars.

Lynn

[Steve Barcak]

Going further, I would look into the possibility of machining off the intake side as much as possible and replacing the area with a piece of blank alum plate in an effort to raise the port further. Then you could reshape the intake port with the blank. These types of mods is what a lot of pro stock racers were doing when it was legal to do so ( 70s ).
If an aftermarket alum head was made, I would do simliar mods but be much more aggressive with them as I can weld and machine myself now and am not timid when it comes to radically modifing a head.
Just some thoughts about how a V could really make some power and be among the best in the 'wedge' catagory of cylinder heads.

Mike and Eric have gone in the right direction in the way they designed their chambers for nitro. I designed and built my Super Chief chambers in a similar way for my car.

Steve

Hosting 11th annual Pontiac Heaven, show, swap, drags, party and all around good time. Saturday April 4, 2009 at Speedworld near Phoenix, Az
Also hosting- 7th annual Nostalgic Show and Go! and swap coming Sunday April 5, 2009 to Speedworld. Phoenix, Az

[gregsgtos2]

i agree,i would like to hear more from jerry on the rav stuff.steve,did you sell your aluminum block?

[tom s]

Greg,you NEED Steves block!My car already has one!LOL,Tom

[gregsgtos2]

dont know that i NEED it.as a 455 sd block is no slouch.would be neat,but not a have to have part.

[Steve Barcak]

Tom S says..."Greg,you NEED Steves block!My car already has one!LOL,Tom"..


Now, you know Tom is right, right? If not you, someone must "need" this block. It does belong in the right car. Of course, no one literally 'needs' anything Ram Air V, it is more of the 'want' but, that is OK too.

I am going to list it here on PY..

Steve
Hosting 11th annual Pontiac Heaven, show, swap, drags, party and all around good time. Saturday April 4, 2009 at Speedworld near Phoenix, Az
Also hosting- 7th annual Nostalgic Show and Go! and swap coming Sunday April 5, 2009 to Speedworld. Phoenix, Az

[INJUNTOM]

Originally Posted by Steve Barcak

If I remember well, he told me the car was totalled in a top end crash.

Unless it was a totally different car, he still had it as far as I know.

Here's a picture of the RAV Astre he had when he died sitting next to my coupe:

[gregsgtos2]

tom s and steve-you guys are BRUTAL-but in a good kind of way.that is about as awesome as it gets in pontiac-especially in the RAV relm.as far as i can remember,there were 3 of these blocks built?injun tom-cool pic!

[INJUNTOM]

Originally Posted by Steve Barcak

I think he hung on to the V stuff but, did not use it for years. After he passed, I heard his family sold the stuff off. If anyone can add or correct, please do so.

He had tons of V stuff when he died. He had a never fired complete shortblock, new blocks and cranks, numerous sets of heads sitting on the shelf, and the infamous "RAV doorstop". I saw it on the machine shop side sitting next to a mill the first time I went to his shop. He was surprised I knew what it was. It had a chunk of the casting broke away where the valve cover seals.

I had his custom sheetmetal RAV tunnel ram for a couple weeks while my buddy did some repairs to it. He was nervous as hell, calling me several times a week to make sure it was OK LOL

Most of the stuff was sold off. His daughter had made a statement that his car was being considered for some sort of museum. Not sure what became of it.

Last I saw of the '63, it had Jess Tyree's name on the door.

[INJUNTOM]

Originally Posted by Steve Barcak

I tried once to buy a Lenco from him but, had some issues while dealing and decided not to.

Rudy was known to be hard to deal with. I can't tell you how many times I drove over to his place only to have the price or the terms of the deal change overnight. The price and terms changed while in the middle of buying my coupe from him as well. He really regretted selling it.

[goatasaurus rex]

i dont have a dog in this fight as my car is slow and uses d ports but bill foder and alex hiller did a great job with V stuff back in the "day"(early 80's) especially hiller in the "fools way" drag boat. dont recall them using radial port rerouting either.

rex

[INJUNTOM]

Originally Posted by Steve Barcak

He always talked proudly about Pontiacs, Pontiac this and Pontiac that. You would think he may have been the biggest Pontiac guy out there....Then, one day years ago at Bakersfield in the 90s, I see him and his Tempest. Took a look at the motor and learned the "Pontiac guy" turned and went the Tyree/Beswick route. Talking in 'forked tongue' with a cheby between the fenders. Never saw his chev/Tempest run good

I just can never understand how someone like these 3 guys can look you straight in the eye and tell you they are a Pontiac guy, yada yada. and there is a chev in their car. Go figure?

Originally Posted by Steve Barcak

My understanding was he did not run the car in pro stock but, in a local northern Ca 'super' class of some sort.?

These quotes belong together Steve because yes, because at the end he was running in Goodguy's Nostalgia series. He was NOT running expedition and hobby type stuff. He was competing in class type racing at Sonoma, Bakersfield, and Sacramento. The car was set up to run BBC as well as Pontiac. Unfortunately to run the 7.50 Bracket, he had to run the BBC at the time due to no aftermarket blocks. He ran the Pontiac engine in the 8.50 bracket.

He did NOT like the chevy engine in the car and was in process of doing something about it. He was one of the ones who put money up to get the IA1 blocks to happen...he put up money for 2 blocks at 4 grand a pop I believe.

When He died there were 2 IA blocks sitting on stands in progress, and 3 billet cranks capable of getting him into the 7s. He was selling stuff off to make this happen while he was still alive. The money from selling me the coupe surely went into the project as well. Unfortunately he died before fulfilling the dream, but he did do his part to make it happen for other people in the form of an aftermarket block.

I can tell you one thing for sure - there was no BBC in the car when he died. I knew him for the last few years of his life, and never saw the BBC engines anywhere but on a stand. He already had 2 540" BBC engines, and was still dumping money into the Pontiac cause. He was truly A Pontiac nut. He didn't go the BBC route to make it easy or save money, he went that route to be able to compete in a class temporarily. I think that's a little different that Beswick who isn't competing against anyone or running in a class.

One thing he made me promise was to never put a chevy in the coupe...Of course that's an easy promise to keep