Part Deux
And I started Heavy Equipment, getting roped into rebuilding big kitty CAT engines so big you torque the mains down with a giant impact gun because they don't make torque wrenches that don't go that high. You torque the mains to 600Ftlb, make a chalk mark, and torque an additional x # of degrees like 90º or more with the impact.
By then I had the engine assembled in the shop, but my super hardnosed instructor Jack P., who was deaf from running CAT dozers back in the Nam, wanted me to start the engine on a stand, with water, etc, instead of just bringing the car in.
So I got it all hooked up, all the Chevy non believers watching, and I started cranking it, and nothing. Jack said stop, you ain't got no compression.
In school they teach you that you need three things to make an engine run.
This is before computers obviously, but the basics don't change.
You need fuel, compression, ignition. If you don't have one of those three, it's not going to happen.
To note, now that I'm working on diesels, for those you who don't know, they don't need an external timed ignition like a gas engine. The diesel engine has such high compression that the heat created is what ignites the fuel, at the top of the compression stroke. That's when they squirt the fuel in and BOOM!
So Jack says I ain't got compression, it's pretty obvious even without a gauge, because it's cranking too fast.
You can actually tell a lot by the way an engine cranks with the ignition disabled. The tone should be the same across all cylinders, speeding up momentarly with correspondingly higher pitch means a weak cylinder.
So of course as a newbie, I somehow - and this is the drug free part of my life - timed the cam wrong. The pistons were heavily dished for "valve float" at insane RPM so nothing was hurt, and I got the cam timed right, this time learning me some lessons about "degree-ing" with a degree wheel.
And this time it fired right up, on basically open headers, with that cam, Holy F... The old instructor Jack was deaf, but he wasn't that deaf, and I was pretty sure I was gonna get an F just from the look on his face.
To learn some of you on starting a new engine, NEVER EVER let it idle. For 20 minutes.
No revving up and down, just a solid 2500 RPM, watch for overheating, etc.
This is to break in the cam/lifters, each having a unique wear relationships, 16 lifters, and they can't every be mixed up, it's pretty easy to destroy a cam lobe. In my cam's case, of course the lifters were kept in order, egg cartons are great for this, and guitar tuners to keep them in order during surgical procedures, 12 eggs, 12 strings, 12 tuners. 12 months, apostles, etc.
So the engine is screaming, a deafening 100+ Db inside the huge shop building, like heavenly music... Eventually you bring the idle down, let it idle, bring the revs up and down, and that cam sounded like music, almost made people dance.
So then Jack let me bring the car in.
By this point the Root Beer Brown paint was gone, replaced with Rally Red, white top died black, Roadrunner hood and emblems, Centerline wheels, the console shift/buckets from the Sebring Plus replaced the original bench seat/column shift. I cut all the old mounts and welded them in, starting a fire while welding - with gas - under the car that my best bud - Beasly - from school saved me and the car and the garage from burning by screaming at me, I stopped welding and we got it put out.
Not too long after, I got a phone call from his mom in the middle of the night, he'd wrapped his car around a telephone pole about 100 miles away, they would't let her even see the body. A passenger in the car dead also.
Luckily it wasn't me, we did a LOT of crazy stuff back then. Me and him together, in cars, roving around at night, doing endless burnouts in one of our cars. I'd picked up a third '71 Satellite Sebring Plus, with a 383 2bbl, just for daily transpo, and that car would fry tires all night, and sound like your mom's car in the morning, a most impressive testament to Chrysler big block longevity.
I also built the tranny for the car, a 727, I became an expert in rebuilding them, building races trannies in my back yard for buddies mostly.
I used a Transgo Stage II Shiftkit, and all the settings in the valve body were set for "TRACK ONLY" just because.
So I got the engine in the car, put the hood on, took it for a spin down the river road where Heavy Equipment was at, very handy, and mind you there's no pipes, because I have to go to my favorite muffler shop and get exhaust built*, so it's as loud as that video, but just under the dash board, and if any of you are fans of "open headers", you know what I'm talking about.
So this car's got tall gears, 3:23, so I'm winding it out down the river road tentativelly for the first time, and it's about as loud as your typical 1/4 mile drag car, I drive by the Nursing program, impressing all the pretty nurses no doubt, by this time I'm up to about 4000 RPM, and if you know your old V8's that's getting up there near "Redline", then a bit more, 5000 RPM!
And because it's balanced, it's so smooth inside the car that it feels like you have the engine turned off, so that was weird, but I kept giving more. The engine was built race, the right - loose - ring gaps, bearing clearances just right, not tight like most new engines and now away from all school building having flown past Fire Scence I floorboarded it and it instantly tached out at in INCREDIBLE 7500RPM!!!
I was stunned.
Wtf had just happened?
I took the car back to class, tried not to brag, let it cool down.
Did I mention the "Windage Tray" set up between the oil in the pan and the cank?
The oil in the pan gets caught up in a giant vortex around the spinning crank, robbing you of about 20HP, also using Valvoline Racing Oil in "straight weight" 40W, prob 10HP increase over your typical 20W-50 for heavy duty applications at that time. Lighter weight oil = less friction.
The engine had amazing oil pressure as I found out when I had exploded an oil filter on a cold morning, warming up in the garage, a mess... and started using a then $15 a pop K&N oil filter with a burst strentgh of over 150PSI.
Next I took it to Dave's Muffler, where the kid's Dad had been doing my exhaust way back before, Dave Jr. was just a teen. To get exhaust this critical done just right, Dave had me show up at the end of the day - driving it across town on open headers was fabulous - I drove it on the rack, shut it off, he closed the door, flipped the Open sign, cracked a beer, and proceeded to weld that nicest exhaust, work like Michaelangelo. Their name is Matozzi, so definitely some Italian artistry there, like Guilds.
The exhaust got an "H pipe" for "scavenging".
Used brand new on the market Flowmasters, and man did they have a growl, I only wish I'd had audio from the back.
I also had Dave weld theaded ports in each downpipe so I could thread in some everyday emissions "Anti Backfire Valves" and run braided stainless hoses up to the Direct Connection valve covers, building what they call a "Pan Evac" sytem, using the negative pressure in the downpipes to evecuate the extreme pressure in the crankcase at RPM's like this, the back of the pistons working like a giant air compressor.
Just out of school, graduating with double degrees, I got my 1st job at Hill's Automotive. $1500 salary in 1991, I was in heaven, my rent was $275 a month with a nice garage.
The owner's kid builds vintage Ford or Chevy monster trucks, so it's not long before I'm telling him about my 383 that spins 7500RPM, and he calls bullsh*t, saying there's no way a Chrysler big block can turn RPM like that.
So then I drove the car to work the next day, and at lunch time off we go out in noonday traffic, I find a place to open up, he's staring intently at the Autometer Monster Tach. Only took one block and it was uphill, and we were heading back to the shop, John Jr. wasn't saying a whole lot.
Balanced/blueprinted 383, big cam, Mallory ignition, electric fans, real aircraft hoses.
Sebring/Rally Red Roadrunner at night
Some of my other street fighting machines at the time.
'77 Ramcharger 400/4sp with '68 Roadrunner cast iron 4bbl intake and carb, a full time 4x4 beast, capable eating Corvette's lunches at lights as well as doing some scary off roading, including an engine fire.
'71 Challenger 340/Pistol Grip 4sp with Dana Trak Pak Dana 60 rear end from 400 Six Pack or Hemi E body car. Forget the "red cars get followed more" myth, the dark blue - originally Green Go - Challenger got me followed by more cops than the Sebring/Roarunner ever did.
This is the way to go get groceries!