Stock Stuff John Massaoud and I ran my 71 GS (3850 lbs) with a stock crank, stock rods, Arias pistons (old!), NO girdle, block filled, steel heads, 308s cam and roller rockers. The car can consistent 10.80's and I sold the engine to somebody that runs a lighter car that's running 10.50's and still running! The best part is that I got the motor from John's friend Greg (did his heads and my heads) and he ran 9.94 with it in a 3100 lb. Regal. John ran the same rods and pistons years earlier and ran the heck out of them. I agree with John that good machining gets you reliability. I have also run another 10:1 motor in the same car at 11.30's, (Hemi Killer cam-steel head) which is street driven. No special mods in that either, just good machine work.
Sorry Ray, I ran through this thread and didn't and can't respond to your original question. I have used neither the Halo Girdle or a Stefs pan or Postons pan.
Gary, nice et's! What converter, gears (ratio), and tire height are you running? RPM through the traps? Thanks, Jim
This is a great tread, Allot of the posts are making me feel better about putting better heads and cam on my stock rod short block. I do have the heavy sealed power small dish pistons in mine and I try to keep the rpm to 6000 max :laugh: Its been on the 6400 rev limiter in the burnout a few times though, my bad. People are telling me the ported big port 430 heads I got last year flow well enough with a good matching cam to get me into the 10 second club. 11:31 is the best for my car so far. I am a little worried if the rear end will take it if it does though. Tom
So what I gathered from this thread so far is quality machine work with proper clearances is the most important aspect to making these blocks live a long healthy life at the 600-650hp range. Also any lighter bobwieght will help. And any reduction in rpm and a quality balace job will most certainly help. I never reallized there were so many cars running 9's and 10's without any structural block additions. Ray
Ray, if you've got it all balanced already then use them. I have the Poston pan on my motor and haven't had any problems with it. It does hang a little low, but not bad. I launched the car a few times on the street and it scrapes the drainplug a little when it comes down. But I'm sure it helps make the block a little more rigid. I am right know building a light weight 494 with out a girdle because my builder assured me that without an aggressive tune, and keeping the rpms down, it'll be fine. He told me that most issues occur because of over revs and too much timing. The key to longevity is a solid tune-up and zero detonation.
Ray, if you want to run into the tens and push 600 to 650 hp, don't bother with all the high end stuff such as girdles and aluminum rods. Theres a ton of guys who've done it and made uncountable numbers of passes. John Csordas Jr's white GSX clone and Dom's car come to mind besides John Massoud's car back in the day before he got into the nines. John Jr's car had over 800 runs on it when Dave Saye took delivery of it and he put another couple hundred on it. Last year in BG it finally quit, but the bottom end was fine! Turns out, it torched a head. Talk about reliable!! And that was a solid mid-10 second car! Now, you wanna see something cool? John Massoud's going to loan me that "junk" shortblock he threw together last fall and we're going to bolt on my Stage2 heads, drop it into my '65, and let 'er RIP!! I have no doubt that I'm going to take "junk" into the nines! Maybe 9.99, but nines all the same!
Gary when you say you nothing exotic in the oiling system either. What do you mean. I guess what I'm asking is what are your oiling mods on your set up. Is that a TA front cover. any external oiling system what weight oil and who's oil are you running for that matter. and by the way thanks for sharing this info Gary and all of you. It has help me a lot on my decisons. I'm tired of being on the shelf.
Terrance, I use a factory timing cover with the usual mods. Nothing special at all. No additional feed lines, internally or externally. Royal Purple 21 oil, System 1 filter.
