Geeto67

While the block size didn't change the crank journal size did, also the cylinder walls are not the same for all blocks. There is a limit to what you can do and boring a 350 to 455 is outside those limits (i think the biggest you can go is 413ci). Those blocks are all thin wall casting as well so some of them are more fragile than others. What is nice about the pontiac engines being externally all the same size is that you can go find a 455 pontiac block and "dress it" to look like the stock 350 and unless you are looking at casting numbers it will be very hard to tell. Also you don't have to move the engine mounts like you do on a chevy going from small block to big block. People tend to think the blocks are all the same but the really are not. 400, 428, and 455 blocks tend to have the greatest aftermarket support. you can build a 400 all the way out to 466ci (stroker crank) if you feel so inclined. 400 blocks tend to be the most common as they were in nearly everything. Honestly, if the car is a cruiser and not a bonefide stop light sleeper, just do a few mods to wake up the 350 you have. It's really easy to make a Pontiac a miserable place to be due to the heat sensitivity (ever drive with the heat on in NYC traffic in the middle of july? it's awful). Plus you can always put it back to 100% stock at any time if you decide you want to go the show car route. BTW, if you are going to go big or go home then I suggest you find a wrecked LS2 modern GTO and rob its drivetrain and FI. Then bolt on a supercharger and never open the hood. It will never be cheaper to built a 600+ hp pontiac engine that it would to pluck an LS2 from a yard. Honestly my RA 1 clone car dyno-ed at 350hp at the rear wheels and was good for 12 seconds on bias plys but it was not for the faint of heart to drive everyday.

Ok this doesn't answer any of your questions, but as someone who once drove a 400 built to factory ram air 1 specs as a daily driver within the last 10 years maybe I have some insight about some budget things that make the car better. I am assuming you lemans has either a small journal 326 or small journal 350 as stock, correct? Pontiacs are notorious for "overheating issues". Most people don't know this but the stock overheat idiot light doesn't come on until 240-260 degrees (there is a very loose tolerance in the stock sending units). They like to make power around 180 degrees (160 is actually slightly too cold for the combustion chamber, at least that's what my best dyno pulls tell me). A flowkooler water pump makes a huge difference, esp when you switch to a stainless water pump restrictor and then reduce the tolerance between it and the impeller. I personally went to a aluminum radiator but a stock harrison 4 core will work fine if you have one that isn't corroded/plugged up. I went with one of the stock looking aluminum ones from Rodney Red but there are cheaper cross flows for your year that work great and will look almost stock. Ignition, my points were giving me fits. Switched to a pertronix and a MSD digital 6 and the car smoothed out completely. I had a factory RAI cam in it which has the worst idle qualities of any stock pontiac part and where the thing would stall at traffic lights it didn't after that. However the best piece I ever put in the car was a billet distributor hold down from Nunzi in brooklyn. Most people don't realize but even the stock low comp cars have distributor walk. The stock hold down is a chincy pressed steel part and goes flat and lets the distributor creep. Seriously take a timing light to your car right now and I bet ya it is a few degrees out. Nunzi's piece is billet - he used to have it on his website but now you have to call him to order one. Heads. There are a million pontiac castings and few are actually high performance. See if you can find a set of decent early heads to run on your car. I have had good luck with 670 casting heads, they are a 1967 only head for 400s, but they were the early RAI heads until the 97 round ports came out. On a 350 they will net you about 9.5:1 compression and require a chamfer to the top of the cylinder for valve clearance but it's a big jump. If you can find some later 7H1 or 4x and 6x heads as they require less work. Using stock pontiac heads means that only the hardcore poncho people will spot that it isn't stock. Exhaust manifolds: get a set of factory style ram air exhaust manifolds. A superstock racer friend of mine ran my RA1 reproductions on his flow bench against a set of D pot tube headers and the cast manifolds blew the headers out of the water. Pontiacs have exhaust flow problems to begin with so any increase in flow in this area is a godsend. Ram Air Restoration sells them. Again, if you lift the hood at a show, only those that "KNOW' pontiacs will spot it, everyone else will be impressed you kept the stock manifolds. Carb: While I am a devout fan of the quadrajet (or quadrabog as people love to remind me) and ran a 1969 GTO RA IV blue dot one on my 67 for years, they are probably the worst carb to live with. They are finicky, sensitive, and prone to air leaks. Currently mine has a float bowl leak (it drains back to the tank) that makes starting the car from cold a 10 minute process. A decently tuned holley with vacuum secondaries makes life easier. It's really easy to overcompensate and go too large so pay attention to cfm (a decent 450cfm carb should work fine for your 350). It won't look stock but put a big stock dual snorkel air cleaner on it and don't take it off at shows and nobody will notice. Electronic choke is also really really nice to have.

I much prefer my buddy MuchoMoto's t-shirts, esp his "how a carb works" and "how a turbo works". http://ih0.redbubble.net/image.13675047.6993/fc,550x550,asphalt.u1.jpg http://www.redbubble.com/people/muchomoto

get one of the chinese copies of the old honda CT70 trail "monkey bike". I believe it is called the Jincheng Panda Trail Rider. Or you can buy an original CT70, they aren't expensive esp if you find one with a lifan 125cc swap. Plus they are road legal so if you need to take the pit bike to the store for a sixer you can. Also it won't be worthless like that tractor supply minibike when you decide to sell it.

Hey all, So coming from NY I've never really played with cars that had "salvage" or rebuilt titles because there was never any way to register them and actually drive them. But I have noticed that there are plenty of people driving salvage/rebuilt vehicles, or at least there seems to be a ton of cars on craigslist with tags and unclean titles. So what's the story? how much more is insurance? will I need some wonky insurance brand instead of Geico who I have been with for years? Any special hoops to jump through with registration? The reason I ask is I was scoping out for a winter beater so I could take my daily driver jeep off the road and tend to some longer term service items that the truck needs (like welding in a floor pan). I have always wanted a manual trans BMW wagon (I've owned two e34's before and enough bmws that if I needed to fix one on the side of the road to get home I could) and I found one with a manual trans swap for a price that if it caught fire tomorrow I would probably be sad and pissed for all of about 10 minutes before hitting CL for another car. It's even a rare color that I like. The issue is that the title was branded as salvage two owners ago and I don't really want to drop what could otherwise be a good weekend at the beach on a car that I can't actually drive. I'm a mid 30's dude with a completely clean driving record and two non salvage cars on my policy already so it would just be an addition to my regular insurance (normally a third car is cheap to add). So any advice?

I went to Crowne Plaza also, it's was cool , even took a few laps of Busch. Afterwards went to Quaker Steak and Lube which was just bonkers with the amount of jackassery going on. There were people literally taking laps of the place just to do multiple burnouts, this one guy with a white 65-66 'stang notch was pretty committed to doing as many as he could till they told him to stop somewhere around 10pm. I didn't meet any of you guys IRL because frankly I don't know what any of you look like, but I'll keep an eye out at Cars and Coffee this sat if anyone is going.

thanks!

anybody going to the Kickoff party tonight at the Crowne Plaza Hotel? 6500 Doubletree Ave. Columbus, OH Starts at 5:00, supposedly a parking lot show aside from the ticketed food event inside. how about the parking lot shows tomorrow: Hilton Plaza at 6pm and the Columbus Crowne plaza north at 6pm? I thought burnout spectating was Saturday? where on Busch Blvd does it start/end? schedule here: https://www.good-guys.com/pdf/weekend/2014/WeekHapsColumbus14.pdf

Excuse my noobness but what's the "gathering"? Arithrits foundation? Busch? So I'm guessing nobody is really into old motorcycles on here?

If it is a Mac, and it sure looks like it, the chrome on it is so terrible I'm shocked it isn't rusted into orange powder already. Best thing to do is to paint it with high temp, hitting the chrome with a scotch bright pad to give it a dull "brushed" finish will only make it rust faster and trust me the thing doesn't need any help. Based on the size, it looks like a meg from a 2-1 setup or a 4-2 setup. What are you trying to put it on?

So this coming weekend are to major car and bike events: vintage motorcycle days at mid ohio and the goodguys ppg nationals at the expo center. Are there any CR meet ups planned for either of these events? Who's planning on going?

Police have sirens so noise is not the concern. Plus loud pipes do not actually "save lives". Considering how quiet the insides of cars are these days the biggest danger is to pedestrians who aren't usually looking and won't hear it coming. My father owns a volt and the number of pedestrians that step in front while looking the other way while he is driving or exiting or entering parking garages is shocking. He does live in NYC where the pedestrian population is higher but still...I am shocked he hasn't hit anybody yet. The more important question is how useful is an electric bike? It certainly isn't a high speed chase vehicle. And if it is anything like the Zero I rode a couple of years back it is severely range and time limited. I could see it replacing bicycles for beat cops, but then how will they stay in shape?

From what I remember in NY, some Auto-Xs require you have open lug nuts on the wheels. Since the Audi uses bolts and not lug nuts I was just wondering if I needed to make a stop at jegs for some studs and open lugs if I decided to go. Hence why I was asking. If they are cool with me running the factory bolts then no problem.

Interesting. Sounds like a fun event. What's needed to pass tech?

Ask and Ye shall receive: http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f102/Geeto67/1979%20cb750F%20Pictures/EDBA74BD-2A40-4C6D-8231-D33E76FE9B53_zps73lief8t.jpg This is the 1979 Cb750F I "resto-modded" back in 2005 and now belongs to my brother. It was a $400 spray bombed mess that barely ran but after a year we had it in fighting shape. vipex rear shocks, corbin seat (paint matched to the seat fabric), dyna coils and avon venom tires. I had a basssani pipe for it but my brother thought it too loud. I do have a boomerang comstar and dual piston caliper setup for it but haven't installed it for him yet (due to distance). This weekend is the Dayton Air show and I already have tickets, otherwise I would have loved to come out to CMS. Anybody know where I can get a ruelbook and schedule for non SCCA events? or do SCCA rules apply to them as well?

Hello, My Name's Kerry and I found out about your forum from talking to some people at the Lennox shopping center Cars and Coffee. My Wife, Daughter and I moved to columbus a little over a year ago from Brooklyn, NY and we are still getting settled. And since I don't really want the "this thread is worthless without pics" reply I'm going to dump my photobucket library here. Some of you may have spotted my wife's car the couple of times I brought it to C&C: http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f102/Geeto67/3edbb9cf.jpg It is a 2.0T 6 speed (FWD) with full stainless turbo back exhaust, cold air intake, H&R lowering springs, and a lot of carbon fiber pieces the previous owner spent a fortune on. Before we purchased the Audi we used to own this e30 convertible 5speed car (325i with koni suspension at stock ride height) that we used to do everything from Auto-X to grocery shop with: http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f102/Geeto67/66ea9ab3.jpg Although it is in storage back in NYC, I still own the 1967 GTO I bought when I was 18 and drove through most of the 90's: http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f102/Geeto67/GTO/786b.jpg Car is a numbers matching 400ci 335hp car with a warranty replacement TH400 (I have all paperwork going back to new). In the 90's I rebuilt the engine to Ram Air I specs (670 heads, RAI cam, RA cast exhaust manifolds, 1969 RA IV Quadrajet carb). Since it was a driver more than a race car it has 3.55 gears in the stock 10 bolt. I used to run weekend brackets with it at Westhampton before it shut down in the early 2000's (mid 12 second passes when the car was dialed in). For most of my life I have also been involved with old motorcycles. I was the Vintage Japanese Motorcycle Club NY Rep from 2005 to 2012 and I have crewed for a few Vintage Race teams, most notably Team Obsolete: http://www.motorcycleclassics.com/classic-motorcycle-touring/long-island-1975-honda-cb750.aspx http://www.motorcyclistonline.com/features/122_1010_the_ex_rayborn_xrtt_calvin_and_rob/printer_friendly.html The current vehicles we moved to columbus with are my wife's A3, my 1995 Wrangler (which I have owned since new), a 1975 honda cb750K, and a 2006 ducati Sport 1000. And since I didn't post pics of those yet here they are (sorry no pics of the jeep): http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f102/Geeto67/null_zps60859e89.jpg http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f102/Geeto67/5D7A9763-7DB3-4C8E-B77D-EDBD4645C8ED_zpsghlf6zmc.jpg So the reason I joined was to get connected to the racing community here in Columbus and to find out more about events. The wife and I have been talking about doing Auto-X again, and I wouldn't mind making a few passes down the 1/4 in my painfully slow jeep just for fun. Coming from NYC, Columbus feels like gearheads paradise with LSR, Mid-O, and god knows what else within short driving distance. So that's it, now I am ready for the ritual "kick in the nuts" initiation that comes with joining any forum. Either way I am glad to be here.