That is awesome, and a great looking car to boot. You don't mention running a block girdle or stiffening oil pan. Is that because you don't run one? The catalogs and some other info I've read make you think if you want real power out of the 455 (I'm assuming your times in that car qualify as REAL power) you need to stiffen up the block with their product. Running that quick with the 3.42 rear end in that heavy of a car is very impressive as well. Too bad you can't stick with the big Buick rear end, but what's a guy to do. Inspirational to say the least. Nick
I have wheelspin issues but not nearly as bad with the MT's. If I drill the throttle hard from a dead stop, it will sit there at about 5800-6000 rpm until it hooks, then it runs into the rev chip at 6400 rpm instantly, then I shift late and most of the time it doesn't spin too much in 2nd or high. I think the MT's work real well, especially if you roll into the throttle a little bit instead of just mashing it. I don't run a block girdle or a lifter valley girdle or have block fill or have extensive oiling mods. this motor has been in the car since 1998 and has a million passes on it as well as about 15,000 miles of street driving. you could say that it's running on borrowed time or you could say that it's the most blueprinted BBB that you're likely to find and was put together right. either way, I won't be too suprised when I grenade it.
399 hp at the rear wheels at 900 ft density altitude (old torque converter) with 3.42 gears and th-400 and 2 piece driveshaft. 11.6 to 1 air fuel ratio, very flat a/f curve. the interesting part is that we pulled the car from 4200 rpm to 6500 rpm and in that range the power didn't change from lowest to highest more than 20hp with the peak being at 6000 rpm. extremely flat power curve, even if 399 isn't all that impressive. I happened to chassis dyno the car the same day it ran the 11.98 @ 112.22 mph which was the previous best pass until last week. I think that with 4.11 gears and a 1 piece drive shaft it may make 450 at the rear wheels without changing the engine. Yardley, I see you've picked up your car quite a bit too! congrats, low 13's in these boats ain't all that easy. keep having fun with it! :grin:
I looked into that years ago for my 72 Riv, I was quoted $3,500 + shipping. I wanted to go from a 2.93 open to a 3.23 posi, and not have to worry about replacement gears. I still haven't gotten around to that yet.....
There are several problems with the x-frame chassis and drivetrain. Without grabbing a plasma cutter and setting the body on a purpose-built chassis, I do have a few ideas in mind to make it work better. first, I need deeper gears, end of story. To that end I have assembled a 9" Ford center section complete with 4.11 gears that is destined for this car. The factory 9 3/8 rear end is tough enough, but no parts or gears available and the pinion is offset to the right side of the car. this means that not only does the driveshaft sit in a "vee" running through the center of the frame, it also kicks off slightly to the right requiring a driveshaft with 5 u-joints and big angles (big power killer) I plan on using a 9" with the pinion centered in the chassis and a one piece driveshaft. I will probably have to open the frame up some to do this. I am hoping to not have to butcher the floor of the car too badly. The other nice advantage to the 9" is that the pinion is set low in the carrier. While this isn't quite as efficient as say a 12 bolt, it does give me more driveshaft clearance in this instance. I am also going to build a new three link rear suspension complete with coil over shocks for the rear with relocated attachment points and an improved instant center to aid with traction. I am planning on ordering a Moser housing with back brace and 35 spline gun-drilled axels. This will cost about $1000.00. I have $1100.00 invested in the nodular Strange center section and Richmond gearset. Add a set of Willwood disc brakes for $500.00 and the rod-ends, tube adaptors, and tubes for the suspension say $400.00 and two coil over shocks and springs for roughly $500.00 and I'll have about $3500 in the whole deal, but as someone else said to me after I installed the roller cam, each and every tenth is getting more and more expensive. I guess that I'm just at the point with the car where it's time to do this and if it costs a lot, so what? so does everything else I do to the car at this point. I just have to save my money and then when I can afford to do the job it's time to get busy. I made my first step this week when I purchased my new Lincoln powermig 215 welder. Now, it's time to do some measuring (very careful measuring) and order a rear end housing.
Didn't see this mentioned. I was wondering what r.p.m stall you have for your converter. I was thinking of getting a PAE4000 converter, with a low stall of 1400 and 4000 for the high stall. A good friend of mine thought that was way too high. Thanks for any help. :TU:
Let us know about how that 1piece driveshaft and ferd 9" works. I'm looking to add that to my hybrid 65 Riv to get discs on the back and get better gear and posi choices. If you could I'd really, really appreciate pictures of the rear suspension and hear your plans on how to keep the stock 3-link and fit more tire. Thanks,
Nice Car That is a Killer Riv. Never seen one quite like that or run like that. Hey just a word on the gears from my experience after just doing this. Im no expert that is forsure. I was running 3:31's in my Stage 2 455 Sport wagon and turned a 12.4 @ 107 with a 1.88 60'. (full weight sport wagon) thru the exhaust. I thought I would try some lower gears for fun and went to a 3.90, the car did not gain a thing? I had the same 60' and even spinning a little? The car does feel like a quicker stop light to stop light car and it does seem to like the 3:90's. I think I may of went a little too far, maybe a 3:73 or so would be a middle ground. Going thu the traps with the 3:90's at close to 6000 rpm on a 28' slick. Im not saying going to 4:11's in your car would not help, it is a different car. But, from my experience I was kid of dissapointed I did not gain much. I had people tell me I would not gain much, but I had to be hard headed ou: and think like we all do that we need a high 3 or 4 gear to go racing. Dennis
I have a Coan 258mm custom converter that stalls at about 4100 rpm. There is a lot more to a converter than stall speed though. I used to run a Coan competition 10" converter that stalled at about 4100 rpm also. Best pass with that converter 11.98 @ 112.22 mph with a 1.61 60ft time. I switched to the new converter which is a new cutting edge design with killer torque multiplication and went 11.87 @ 114.43 with a 1.72 60 ft time and this was in conditions that were 900 ft density altitude for the 11.98 and 3800 ft for the 11.87. As you can see, with just a converter there was a huge change. I highly highly recommend this converter for the heavy cars with no rear gear. I am so completely impressed with it that I have no fear of recommending it to others. Coan has long been recognized as the very best in torque converters and this one proves it again. By the way, the converter is so efficient that I can drive a 4100 rpm converter around daily and I even road trip the car with very little if any heat in the trans. It just plain works. I also want to add that the new converter is so efficient that while I used to come through at 5700 rpm, I now come through at 5300 rpm going 2 mph faster. This is why I now need deeper rear end gears, My power peak is at 6000 rpm and I shift at 6100 rpm and would like to come through the traps at 6000-6100 also. I need to pick up 700-800 rpm and I would also like to go to a 28" tall or even 29" tall tire instead of my 26" tall tires I run now. As far as installing the rear end, the Ford has a lower pinion than the Buick, so I am hoping that by running a rear with a centered pinion that I can get away with a one piece driveshaft and only have to open up the bottom of the frame for clearance. I am hoping to not have to modify the top of the frame any. I am planning on using the factory lower control arm mount and either going to two uppers or one centered upper with as much length as I can fit. The advantage to two uppers would be the abiltiy to pre-load one side a little if the car doesn't want to launch staight. I want to switch to double adjustable coil over shocks but I am planning on maintaing the panhard bar, but it may end up on the front side of the diff. I think that with disk brakes and the lower shock mount trimmed, a person could easily fit 10" wide wheels in the stock wheel wells with maybe even a 12" wide with some minor trimming. Time will tell, I am planning on finding out.
One thing about the that Ford rear the gear ratio changes will be alot easier that with the 9 3/8. I am very interested in the converter. I am shopping, I have been looking at the ATI converter and the PAE S/P. The PAE will be alot more streetable and I will be driving mine alot although it sounds like yours does fine. What did your converter cost you. Just so you know I brag on you to all my Ford and Chev friends. Moving that much weight that fast it can only be done by a BBB.
$940.00, worth every penny, and the cheapest .3 seconds I ever bought. btw, the old converter was a $560 10" and no piece of junk either. Also, if the converter is right, you don't need a switch pitch to make it streetable. Most BBB street motors don't need more than about 3200-3400 stall, even less if the motor is mild. A high quality converter like a Coan that has 2-3% slip after "lockup" and excellent torque multiplication will work just fine. In fact, my 4000+ converter drives just like a stock unit until you nail it and then :3gears: hang on :grin:
