Snowman

SO SORRY. My Photo Storage Account had to be re-set because I moved pictures on my hard drive so the pictures here are going to disappear. When I have time, may try to re-insert them all but that might be the end of December before I get to it. Once again, sorry. Video links and pics taken by others are still in the thread.

Doug



Hello all!

I've sent a few notes about my project car but I think it is far enough along to start a formal thread as things really start to get interesting.
I will build this a bit at a time. Please be patient as I get the pics installed and bring you up to speed.

To begin:

I bought a very clean-looking 71 BB convertible early last year. It was represented as numbers matching, restored car, Keisler 5 speed, everything in the car redone pretty much stem to stern. The car was in such good shape (I thought) that I recommended that Andy Bolig do an article on the car which he did in Corvette Enthusiast October 2008 Issue entitled Blue Monsoon.





I did a lot of work to make the car right. Got all the vacuum stuff to work, horn, replaced side windows, complete new key set, some minor paint stuff, mostly little stuff to bring the car up to snuff.

On the way to BG (10 miles from my house) the shifter pin sheared off, leaving us only with 4th gear so back to the house it went. The Keisler had to come out. They repaired it for my shipping costs only but said besides a Tremec design fault, the tranny hadn't been installed properly.

While waiting for that to be done, I noticed an oil leak at the back of the motor. Off came the oil pan, rear main, and I discovered that the rear bearing was scored right down to the copper. Ditto the main.





So out of the car the motor came.







When disassembled, we discovered that many of the name brand parts claimed to be in the motor weren't there and what was there instead were no-name Chinese parts. The cam gear had been improperly installed and had machined its way into the front of the block, sending metal shavings throughout the motor, so much that the oil filter bypass was stuck open and other parts were starting to go.

While block was repairable, I didn't want to take that project on so began to conspire to build an entirely new car with a lot of support from my friends.

I'm member of an awesome non-car-club group of guys and ladies who make the trek every year from Houston to BG for the Cruise-in. The NW Houston Vette-Rods Group. Many great folks. A number of really good mechanics and many with ideas about how others should spend their money.

I planned to get a new 454 block, bore it out to a 496 like the motor I'd taken out but ended up with encouragement building a 555 cu inch motor. Dart block, Dart heads, Callies cam, SRP pistons, etc etc. Will print up a parts list at some point.

Great mechanics at G&G Performance here in Texas did the work on the block and heads.

>> Picture of Joe and his guys

The motor has been spec'd and built by non other than The Great Temptor Jim Moore. What a labor of love. He has been the point man for working with manufacturers to get the parts we need; from time to time he sends me a shopping list and I go to work on Summit Racing to pull them all together.

First purchase was 555 insignia for the hood...then I was committed!



Some pictures of the Great Temptor himself, Mr Jim Moore in his secret laboratory (his car in the background)









These are all rough, don't have final valve covers, carburetor and is setup for dyno testing of several different cam combinations, carb and intake combinations which we intend will be a magazine article.

I asked the great Temptor if the Keisler would hold up with 700+hp at the crank and he laughed and said "yes for a while." So now a Son of Tranzilla 6 speed sits in a crate in my garage waiting to be installed.

I then asked the Temptor if the stock rear end would hold up and once again he said with a smile "yes for a while." So through Chad at FL Speed Unlimited I arranged to buy a Tom's rear end, offset trailing arms, upgraded 4180 half shafts, new springs, a whole lot of stout stuff. We are in the middle of installing the rear now and should be finished within the next week or so.











In the meantime, I have added Hydroboost power brakes, installed new proportioning valve and Hurst roll control.



I stripped out the entire vacuum system and replace headlight controls with electric actuators (Thanks to Chris McDonald).





Okay that's it for now. Will get pics installed in the next night or so then continue on.

Looking forward to seeing everyone in BG. This car may make it but it won't be painted yet. We'll have to see how we do.

Back to you soon.

Doug

454Can-Am

Doug, sounds awesome................................. ............ can't wait to see all the pix inserted !!! Its a slow, but sure process ! Rick

Eddie 70

It really sounds awesome Doug. I remember when you bought the car and posted the pics. Those pics were of a nice car. Now it sounds as if it is going to be even better. If it turns out anything like what your Z looked like at BG, I know this car is going to be a real head turner. Looking forward to seeing this car in a few months.

Was that Jims car in the background?

Snowman

This car will be violent. Yeah will turn heads, no question. Oh yeah definitely that is Jim's car in the background. The Great Temptor is building my motor, in fact in that picture there were a bunch of parts from his motor IN that motor, my old Mighty Demon 850, old fuel pump etc.

Thanks for following the thread. Much Moore to come!

Peterbuilt

WOW! Even Zora would be proud of that Vette!
Enjoy, PG.

battsup

That car is going to be amazing, can't wait to see it all painted up. You have to love the irony in that you "didn't want to take that project" of rebuilding the engine, but you went ahead and put in a new rear end, new wheels, crate engine, steering, air conditioning, and paint!

cadams311

Thanks Doug, cant wait until the cruise in

IcemanZ06

I remember being in awe of your C5 buildup (white with blue stripes). Some how I must have missed your C6/Z06 build. You've always built some amazing cars and I can't wait to see this one when it's finished.

tshort

What's funny is when Doug bought this car he made a comment that he wanted to find a car he could do a "little" wrenching on himself.
So....word to the wise WATCH WHAT YOU WISH FOR!!!! It might come true.

Amongst our little NWHoustonVetteRods group, Doug wins the most improved wrencher award this year. He's probably learned more from this project than a lot of us learn in a few years of wrenching and learnin' on the Forum.

I personally can't wait to see the finished product. Doug is basically building my dream C3. Mine isn't too far behind and may not be too far behind at the track but I'll definitely be getting a good look at that Tom's rear-end!

hugie82

That's going too be a bad *** vette That sucks the way your engine went

tshort

Gary, sent you a PM.

RippoDippo

Whow! So thats how ya repace a sheared shifter pin

Rolling Thunder

Gonna be an awesome car Doug... somehow I'm not surprised.

Dave

GDaina

Great write up and pics

fugawi

i like the car the way it was.. this should be freakin' AWSOME.can't wait for finnished car..

IcemanZ06

on a side note, what brand rims are those and what sizes? I really love the way they look.

Any history on what had already been done to the car? It looks great and it going to be even better when you're done.

Alan 71

Hi SM,
I enjoyed your interesting tale and pictures. Thanks for taking the time to post them.
Regards
Alan

JoeC427

3JsVette

I thought it was a great looking and performing car when you bought it. I can't imagine what it is going to be like now. Hang on!

Snowman

Thanks for the props everyone. Will spend more time putting in pictures tomorrow. We are hoping to generate several articles: motor build and dyno, one on the car itself, maybe even one prepping the car at the track. Will have to see how that all goes.

Jim is doing an awesome job. Just AWESOME! Here are a few motor details:

New Dart Big M block
Dart 335 CNC heads with light cleanup- Jim wanted to let them show what they could do without a lot of changes. We did mill them and cleaned up ports and bowls a little. 11.1 CR. Flow numbers on them weren't too bad.
Jesel shaft rockers- 1.8/1.7's
Jesel Belt drive for easy cam swaps on the dyno (you see that in the motor pic in the first communication of the thread)
Callies/SRP bottom end. Std tension rings etc.
Milodon stepped drag race pan
Machine work was done by Joe at G&G Machine in Tomball.
Bought valve covers from CP Performance (Marine motors) to get enough clearance. They are still under wraps at the moment.
MSD billet distributor and digital MSD box
March billet bling...currently with Chevy orange livery but may go to black before installing in the car.

Dyno testing will be covering 3 cams. A solid flat tappet, a HR and a Solid roller. The idea wasn't to do apples to apples comparisons..it was mainly to get the best we thought we could come up with that was somewhat streetable for what we're doing with the car. We know we won't get any real RPM out of the HR, but we're going to see what it can do. The solid flat idea is to see how close we can come to HR power yet still be able to get some RPM out of it and hopefully spank it. Then there will be the SR for the *hero* dyno runs. We will also likely test the SR lifters on the HR cam since everyone wants to do that these days...even though I don't like the idea. Seems like you might as well just stick a real cam in it and be done with it. Cams are from Crane. All this testing makes me nervous...I do want to put the motor in the car to get it to BG in time, even if with fender flares and no paint.

Jim has spent hours mocking up all 3 cams and went through PV checks on them. He said that the solid flat tappet was the tightest. Won't be able to advance it too far!

Jim has arranged to have the lifters and the 3/8" .080 wall pushrods Spintron tested for us against some 7/16"x.165" wall pushrods and will be getting a set for each cam to test with. There may also be a separate tech article on the pushrods. So another interesting test will be dropping the 7/16" in on the solid roller combo to see how it shows on the dyno.

The other part of testing to be combined with the cam stuff is some intake swapping. Since it's a C3 with hood clearance issues even with an L-88 hood, we have Wilson doing a Vic Jr intake right now. Milling the carb flange at an angle and porting it for us. We will have various spacers to test too. We also will have a Reher/Morrison CNC Victor for a Dominator. It will be too tall for the car..but we want to test it anyway to show what it does. The carbs are a Holley HP1000 4150 and a 1150 Ultra Dominator. We will also test an old C-454 Dominator dual plane and possibly a Holley Strip Dominator because they will fit under Vette hoods.

Jim is the man with a plan for dyno day. All under wraps at the moment but hopefully you will see it in a magazine article.

Motor has already been fired on a test stand at Jim's with the flat tappet and went through cam break in with outers only, so it's about ready to hit the dyno.

Hoping to get 800HP in *hero mode* and 725-750's in the other versions. We'll see how good those heads are I guess! I'll be happy with 700+

We are working now to book dyno time at the end of the month. Still have parts coming before we can begin so intend that it all comes together in time.

Once again, Jim IS the Great Temptor. I was going to build another 496 and look at us now!

There are many other thank you's but those will come in time. Vendors, magazines, many of my friends here in Houston. A lot here is still under the radar. All in good time. All in good time.

Doug