gkull

I feel sorry for those of you that live in congested areas of the world where you can’t get out and really enjoy street machines.

I was nearing my new 427 ci 600 mile breakin period. I had a couple of problems to resolve. One was water temp heat. My Spal fans, BeKool aluminum radiator, Slant high flow thermostats, and high flow aluminum water pumps never could keep up even with a direct off the alternator 14.7 volt power source. I made an enclosing nose aluminum pan a few years ago so all my front end air goes through the radiator. So I just built this cheapo idea five inch air dam. The rubber and square aluminum I didn’t think would be strong enough in high speed driving so it’s actually reinforced with wood.



My second problem was some oil smoke on start up. With a friend we pulled all the springs and redid all the valve seals. It took about 4 hours. Before I took it apart the valve lash had opened up about .006 on more than ½ of the solid roller rockers. In times past the lash calms down with time and the adjustment holds for a lot longer.

I wanted to take a off the 140 mph speedo picture, but I decided that fiddling with a camera is not a good idea. Anyway I have a friend’s ranch that is @185 miles away and 176 miles of it is high speed no traffic freeway. So I drove the whole way out at over 100 mph and for 20-30 miles way off the end of my speedo. The return trip was more in the 90-105 mph because my gas level was going down. It’s nice to have the power to floor a car at 100 and it just climbs off the end of the 140 speedo



No cooling problems if I keep the electric fans going all the time. My air dam stayed on place even when I was diving fast into a head wind. I did not check my plugs or oil level yet. My gas tank reads empty so I need to check it. But that still is great mileage to drive at those speeds and clock up 374 miles on the OD and only empty a 25 gallon tank.

I’m really looking at 3.73 gears and pulling my 4.11 or going to a 5-6 speed manual.

sorry about the glare- redline is 7000 rpm - Also 306 miles into my round trip

LFZ

sounds good George. Glad to hear the nice feedback on these big inch SBC. Cruisin at 100+ is always nice.

EDDIEJ82

George do you have the alum. diff or the cast one in the 79's. I don't know exactly when they chaged over. Anyway i have a 3.73 alum I'll trade you.

flood

thats awsome. Crusing that fast in a C3 is great. Pass any C5's?

gkull

Eddie - 79's are iron pumpkins. I also have nice yokes and posi so it's just going to get new richmond gears.

Flood - I went by one C-6. An older couple driving about 90. You have to remember these roads are posted at 75 mph and the patrolman don't even mess with people unless they are doing something stupid.

Z-man

Sounds like great fun! Can you describe what is shown in the first photo a little bit more? Is that a shot looking toward the rear? Is your theory that the dam pushes the air to both sides and keeps it from flowing under the car?

crazydalys

What state do you live in where you can go that fast?

gkull

Z-man - The picture is from the front. the aluminum pan goes clear out to the nose of the car. You can kind of see the silver headers behind the airdam and A-Arms.

The idea of an air dam is to create a lower pressure behind it. If you don't have a lower pressure behind the radiator you can create an air wall and you would have no cooling. I think that was what was happening to me. This air dam is right under the radiator

Before shot!

MotorHead

Sounds like yer having some fun

You are going 120MPH with a 4:11 rear end at just over 4000 RPM ?

Matt Gruber

sounds great george! were the old seals damaged?
cheap? loose?

norvalwilhelm

I wish I had your roads George. Here 60 is the fastest posted speed so to get anywhere takes forever.
Sounds like you really like the bigger motor. Cooling should not be a problem but again I don't drive in a desert.

gkull

Norval. I don't need the rpm going down the road, but the power band is really starting around 4200.

From where I gassed up near the freeway to my friends ranch was only an hour and 38 minutes away and @176 miles. That's just under 120 mph average. It drives really nice at the 4200 rpm. Your barely depressing the throttle. So that would account for the good average mpg. The big smokey two football field long burnouts and driving it WOT to test the radiator had to suck the gas.

The quality on freeways in the western US is high enough that if your willing to pay the tickets the roads are safe enough and traffic free enough to drive over 200 MPH if you had the car or bike that could. In these Nevada open road races where they block of a 92 mile section of road. They have the Unlimited class machines that have exceeded 240 mph.

Matt - As I understand it. If you have sharp valve guide edges or not careful it's very easy to damage the internal teflon/nylon band in those black rubber type valve seals. I just wasn't going to screw around. I didn't check anything on the old seals. It's a major pain to pop the stud girdle/rockers/springs off. I just measured the bronze guide diameter and bought the most expensive seals that the race shop had. They are also not easy to install. That's why I said 4 hours for the two of us. 10 degree locks and compressing 566 pounds dual spring weight is teadious