Hay Ray !!! just read this old forum, Very interesting, Im doing a frame off now and love the vansteel stuff .Im getting a big block 502 , 540 or so and need that 12 bolt. vansteel makes one 4,200 bucks (wow) Hows yours dolng

Ray,

Beautiful job on your car and modifications. How is the 3.73, TKO600 and 555 working for you? Are you happy with this combination? I have a 3.73 and the TKO600 and I'm working on a 540 now. I chose the 3.73 when I had a smaller, less powerful engine in the car, now I'm a little concerned that I might have too much gear. Thanks for your input.

Nice job Ray :cool:
I have a 572 with a TKO600 and 3.55 and it worked quite good. But on the strip I hitted the "wall" a few times when I tried to put the third gear in!
Sold the TKO and now Im planning to put a T56 instead!

Also got offset ta.s and some other nice parts from Van Steel
Have to have wider backtires :D

Hi Guys,
Sorry for the slow response...too many projects competing for Forum time.

First and foremost...Thanks for the compliments on my car!!

The Ramadi 12-bolt is still awesome and one of my favorite upgrades on my car. I believe his build to be the #1 available. The TKO600 w/ overdrive 5th is perfect for my type of driving. First-Fourth eats up the street and 5th gets me there with fuel to spare (blow it later of course).

I agree about the post regarding TKOs, what I dislike most is the shift from 2nd to 3rd. It takes some practice if you've got your foot in it, but if you let it find the gate for you it works better than trying to force it into 3rd. Palm it out of second, then fraction of a second later drive it home with a palm push; do not try to guide it into 3rd by squaring off the gates.

Spend the money and do a 12 bolt if you are going big cubes & lots of torque and sleep well.

:cheers:
Ray

PS-
I took home the 1st place C3 in the Montana state vette meet this year for the 2nd year after this resto-mod build, back to back years. :cool:

Ray,

Glad to hear you not say that 3.08s would have been better than the 3.73 gears. LOL.

Of course you won, smart people appreciate good work!

Actually, I copied part of your build, I bought the PML valve covers with the Corvette script, but I cheaped-out and went with the as-cast ones. I have a shaft-rocker set-up and even with the "tall" version (+3/8"), it's going to be tight, but I really like these covers and will make it work.

In a past life, I put my polylocks on a surface grinder with a 6 foot diameter table and shortened the hex ends to make roller rockers work with the stock 69 valve covers.

That is a really cleaver idea adding exhaust flanges there...

Nice lookin car & great build

http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u...tInstalled.jpg

Thanks for the compliments guys!

The exhaust flanges work great for quick easy access when you want/need to have extra working room. :thumbs: