North Main - Chapter Six

 Up to this point all my time down at North Main was as a spectator or helping out fellow racers with their cars. I really wanted to race but was lacking one crucial item to do so - horsepower! In anticipation of more power, I had already upgraded the rear end on my Chevelle to a 373 posi 12 bolt axle. The transmission was a 4 speed M22 Muncie "Rock Crusher", along with a Hays sintered metal clutch and a Lakewood scatter shield. Although I had acquired various small block parts and could have cobbled together a decent 327 or 350, I wanted some serious horsepower to replace the 307 that was still motivating the Malibu. 

My first ever job was as a helper in an engine rebuilding shop called Auto Engine Exchange. The owner, Bill, taught me many things, including an old racers saying: There is no replacement for displacement. I knew I needed cubic inches and the best way to achieve that in the eighties was with a porcupine headed big block. Even back then big block chevys were expensive, so I was always on the look out for a suitable candidate. The local self serve wrecking yard was a decent source for good prospects. During my many trips to Ecology Auto Wrecking I found more then a few 396 Impalas and a bunch of worn out 454 powered trucks. A complete engine could be had for $200 bucks, but the cost could quickly spiral out of control if it needed to be rebuilt, so I was always looking for that diamond in the rough. I was hoping to get lucky and find a wrecked car that had a recently rebuilt engine, or even evidence of a valve job. I started more junk yard motors then I can count, some with disastrous consequences! Local networking turned up a few leads, one of which was a very worn out "race motor" and another was a 366 industrial block that someone was trying to pass off as a 396 passenger car motor. One other lead ended up not even being a big block, it was a 400 small block. Now I had read a few articles on the "big inch" small block and the potential for horsepower that it had, so I was intrigued. At a asking price of $25 dollars, I snapped it up and brought it to my go-to machine shop, Motor Supply and Machine. I was fortunate that my neighbor, John Dahl, was the lead machinist at Motor Supply. He was a perfectionist by nature and I trusted him, especially when it came to engine or machine work. I brought the block to him for hot tanking and to get it magnafluxed for cracks. I loved going to that machine shop as there was always something special being worked on. This time was no different as John showed me a 454 blower motor that he was building for his 1970 Nova Super Sport. I left the shop in awe that day after seeing that big block with it's aluminum heads, BDS blower and Enderle fuel injection. A few days later I heard back from John about my block and it was not good news. The block had a crack between two of the cylinders and was basically junk. He asked what my plans were for it and I told him about wanting to replace the motor in my Chevelle, and also about my fruitless hunt for a big block. Then he told me that the final assembly was all done on his 454 and he would be dropping it in the Nova soon, and would I be interested in buying his old motor? I hesitantly asked how much, because I knew how bad ass his "old" 396 was. When he told me he would sell it to me for $500 dollars, all I said was "when can I pick it up?" 

A couple of weeks later I got the message I had been waiting for, my motor was ready for pickup. I thought maybe I would be helping John remove the motor from his Nova but to my surprise when I showed up at his house the following Saturday, the motor had already been pulled out and was looking almost new. John told me that he decided to freshen it up so that it didn't give me any problems. Typical machinist. He knew I had a 4 speed transmission so he swapped out the cam (the Nova was an automatic), gave me the new cam card and instructed me on the break in procedure. Wow! I couldn't wait to put this wicked big block in my Chevelle! The motor was technically 402 cubic inches (.030 over 396). It had rectangular port heads with stainless steel valves, Crane roller rockers, Cloyes true roller timing chain, TRW forged pistons, Melling high volume oil pump, Milodon oil pan and windage tray, and an Edelbrock intake manifold. In anticipation of getting the big block I had put the word out that my 307 was for sale. I thought it might be a tough sell because most gear heads viewed Chevrolet's 307 as an abomination. It was actually a 283 block with a 327 crank but performance was not the first thing that came to mind, especially if compared to other small blocks. My friend Johnny ending up buying it for his '66 Impala low rider as he thought it would be a good upgrade to his 283. He also bought a polished Edelbrock "shoe box" tunnel ram with dual Holley carbs from me to put on it! Now flush with a little extra cash, I decided to purchase a new set of Hooker Headers for the soon to be big block Chevelle. I cruised down to J&M Speed Center to purchase the headers only to find out that they had to order the ones that I wanted, and I had to wait a week for them to be shipped or I could do a customer pick up. I had been jonesing on that big block for awhile now and didn't want to wait a minute longer then I had to, so I chose the will call option, and am I glad I did. The Hooker Header company was about 20 minutes from where I lived. At the time they were located in Ontario, California so I made the short drive over there to pick up my headers. I showed up at their will call and was told it would a few minutes while they pulled my order. I had no sooner sat down when a guy walks in from the back and asks me if I would like to see how headers are made. I couldn't say "heck yeah" fast enough! I soon found myself on a personal tour of the Hooker Header factory. To say it was cool would be an understatement. When I left there with my new set of headers I had a whole new appreciation of how headers are manufactured.

On my drive home I swung by D&H Rentals to get an engine hoist. They rented the type that you could tow behind your vehicle which made it convenient, and a one man job, to get home. Now everyone who I had talked to about this engine swap told me that I needed big block frame perches for the motor mounts in order to get the engine to bolt up. After trying in vane to find a used set I ended up going to the local Chevy dealer, DeAnza Chevrolet, to see what their parts department had to offer. The counterman pulled up a diagram on a microfiche machine and then spun it around so I could see it. After verifying the exact parts I needed he disappeared in the back. A few moments later he comes back and tells me that he located a set at a dealer back east. The price was a shock and the wait to get them was even more shocking! I decided to ask him if he knew what the difference was between small block and big block frame mounts. He told me only the height. Big block perches were about one inch taller then small block. I decided to pass on purchasing new perches and thought if worse comes to worse I could use washers to space up the small block perches. Boy was I wrong, but in a good way. When the engine compartment was finally ready for the big block and I was lowering it slowly into position, the motor mounts lined up perfectly with the small block perches! Yes it took a little jostling and the oil pan only had about 1/2 inch clearance in a few spots, but it fit! 

So there I was on a late Saturday afternoon, the 396 nestled in the Chevelle's engine bay, and as I am tightening the final header bolts it suddenly dawns on me that I made no provision for the exhaust system! Jerl's muffler shop was already closed and I really wanted to drive the car but it's not like I could go cruising with open headers. I quickly formulated a plan and used a hacksaw to cut the turbo mufflers off of my old exhaust system, then I grabbed the reducers that I bought with the headers and walked up the street to my neighbors house to see if he could weld them up. My neighbor, Bobby Goodwin, was a circle track racer and had everything in his garage to fabricate and work on his race car. Bobby and his brother Wayne raced at Corona Raceway in the half mile dirt oval and figure eight. I spent many a Saturday helping him prep his car and then watching him race. Bob and Wayne were like mentors to me growing up and I learned a lot from both of them. As I got older and was preoccupied with cars, I spent less and less time at his house and the dirt track. I was glad to see that he was home but I totally spaced and forgot that it was Saturday. I saw his race car loaded up on the trailer and it dawned on me that he was going racing. Fudge! Only I didn't say fudge. He was still loading stuff up into his truck when he spotted me and asked what was up. I explained that I needed a little welding done and showed him what I was working with. Bob said to me, "You know how to weld, the garage is open." "Just make sure to close everything up when you are done." I couldn't say thanks fast enough and made a beeline to his garage. I used his acetylene torch along with a coat hanger for filler rod to weld the reducers to the mufflers. With this setup the mufflers were basically being bolted directly to the header collector. I figured that it would be quieter then open headers and it was the only choice I had if I wanted to go cruising later that night.

After double-triple checking everything and pre lubing the engine I was ready to fire it up. From the cam card that John had given me I knew that it had a very healthy cam in it and I was eager to hear how it sounded. After the first startup and initial cam break in, where I varied the engine rpm between 1500 and 3000 for about 20 minutes, I was ready to change the oil and take it out for a spin. The hood was still off the car but that was fine with me as it would just show off my new big block all the better. The cam ended up being radical enough that I had to do some fine tuning on the Holley carburetor to get the engine to respond the way that I wanted it to, but the sound was incredible! I'm sure you could hear me coming a block away! I was really glad that I had installed a decent stereo system in the Chevelle as I needed it to be loud to hear the music over the exhaust. I had a Pioneer Super Tuner, an Alpine graphic equalizer, Carver 200 watt amp, and 6 speakers. Now all I had to do was wash the car, Armor All the tires and dash, shower, throw on a Izod shirt along with my 501 Levi's and I was ready to go cruising. I was driving down Magnolia Avenue to the newest cruise area when I noticed a large crowd had gathered in the Gemco parking lot. Picture this: I am turning into the parking lot in my blue '69 Chevelle and Loverboy's Working for the Weekend comes on the radio. I have the stereo cranked up, the engine is loud, sounds wicked, and is totally visible because my hood is off. As if on cue, everyone standing around turns and looks at me as I pull into the lot. I am in first gear and goose the throttle a couple of times which really lifts the front end of my Chevelle due to the Moroso drag springs and shocks. After idling past a seemingly endless gauntlet of people I found an open spot by where some of my friends were parked. As soon as I shut down the engine a crowd formed around the car. It wasn't long before one of the guys looked at me and said "North Main?" "Next weekend" I said, "After the motor is broke in."

FranktoidTM No. 26 - Wiping Out Low Prices

 It is pretty much common knowledge that almost everything is getting more expensive now-a-days. Unless you're living under a rock, you have noticed. All you have to do is pay attention to the stuff you regularly purchase and watch the prices. This appears to be a two tier approach because if the price has not noticeably gone up then the product appears to have shrunk. This is referred to as "shrinkflation". Case in point: The other day I bought lunch at McDonald's and my Filet-O-Fish sandwich was literally the size of a slider. Even the boxes that hold them have gotten smaller. Excuses abound for shrinkflation, from being called a conspiracy theory to blaming it on the Mandela effect - another words they were always that size, you just thought they were larger! Call me crazy then because I finished it in three bites and my mouth sure hasn't gotten any bigger... And imagine my surprise (or lack thereof) when I saw an ad for $18 off wiper blades! Just how expensive are these blades?! The last set I bought was like half of that. Are wiper blades on the inflation station destined for even higher prices? Maybe it's just the high prices of the seller, who I definitely won't name here out of common decency, but they might just rhyme with Zappa.

Wild Horses

 Check out this video I ran across while perusing the interwebs. It was created by Noah Bowman who is one heck of a talented artist!

2024 - A Knew Year

It is once again a new year and it has become sort of a tradition here at Frank's Classic Car Blog that I try and predict what lies ahead in the upcoming twelve months. If my past predictions are any indication it would seem that I just might know what is in store for both donkeys, elephants, and the rest of the "basket of deplorables". There is a lot of fear mongering going on and tons of conspiracy theories floating around, mainly about aliens and AI. Everyone seems to know this or know that and most folks are getting to the point that they don't know what to believe. Without doing a deep dive let me just say this about 2024: Hold on, you ain't seen nothing yet. A year from now I can look back and say "I knew it!" or eat crow, and eating crow would be a lot better for what I think is in store for We the People.

In the new year I need to dedicate more time to this blog of mine. Some people may be looking for a distraction from all the white noise and Frank's Classic Car Blog aims to please. Expect updates on Project Yellowjacket, the "new" Amberlight Garage, and very possibly a new project. I also think that we are going to see a dip in classic car prices in 2024. I follow the market closely and have already seen a significant drop, especially on project cars. Bullishly I can also predict the following for this blog: hold on, you ain't seen nothing yet.

FranktoidTM No. 25 - The Last Post of 2023

 Wow, time really flies! Seems like just yesterday I was making New Year promises that I wouldn't keep. I'm starting to sound like a politician! Well I can honestly say that I got absolutely nothing done on Project Yellowjacket. I did manage to buy more parts for it and squirrel them away but that's about it. As far as the blog goes I have decided to completely turn it over to AI, that way I can claim plausible deniability about all of it's content. I mean AI is going to take over everything anyways, right? By the look of things I think the White House has already converted to AI. Switching gears, the Amberlight is in shambles with major delays on the addition and I have also decided to build a large covered car corral to store future projects, or maybe hide the large alien craft I discovered. Oops, did I say car corral? I meant horse corral. Right honey? Horse corral, that's what I'm building... Stay tuned for details on the car err, I mean horse corral. Now if you will excuse me I have a Zoom meeting with Giorgio Tsoukalos.

North Main - Chapter Five

 Birds of a feather flock together, that would best sum up my friends, acquaintances,and people I knew growing up and especially during my mid to late teens. We ate, drank, and slept cars. Duane had (and still has) a '67 Pontiac GTO with a 400 cubic inch V-8, tri-power carburetors and a 4-speed manual trans. Jim had a '67 Chevy Camaro with a small block 350 equipped with a polished tunnel ram with dual quads. Bob had a '67 Chevy Chevelle with a 327 and a 4-speed, Paul had a '70 Dodge Challenger with a 440 and slapstick automatic, Zeke had a '67 Chevy El Camino with a 327 wearing big 'n little Cragar SS mags, Buddy had a '65 Chevy Chevelle Super Sport with a wicked 327, Roy had a '70 Chevy Chevelle SS 396 with a 4-speed, Dominic had a '70 Chevy El Camino with a 300 horsepower 350 wearing Daisy mags, Francesco had (and still has) a '65 Chevrolet Corvette with a 425 horsepower 396 big block and a 4-speed (that I actually got to drive!), Danny had a '67 Pontiac Firebird with a small block Chevy in it, lil' Erik had a '70 Chevy Chevelle that he equipped with hand controls due to his paralysis, and Rob had a '69 Pontiac Firebird. There of course were many more but these are the ones that stuck with me.

Many of these cars were regulars on the cruise circuit and more than a few raced at North Main. As was common during this era, a lot of guys were referred to by their last name. I also recall Downing and his pro street '71 Chevy Vega, Mix and his '65 Chevy Chevelle Malibu, Hudson and his '69 Chevy Z28 Camaro with nitrous, Lattica and his '67 Chevy Nova with a Doug Nash 5 speed, Atkins and his '70 Plymouth Roadrunner with a 440, Larkins and any number of his race ready big block Mopars, the Cruz brothers who had (and both still have) a '68 Chevy Camaro rs/ss and a '65 Ford Mustang fastback, and the Whittier Boys with their pro street '55 Ford T-Bird and small block Anglia. Like I had said, towards the end more and more purpose built race cars started showing up on trailers which really caught the attention of the local authorities.

Everyone that I knew also worked on their own rides. There was no internet to search for answers so networking among fellow enthusiasts was necessary if you didn't know the answer yourself. If I needed to talk to an expert I would just call them. I picked the brains of some of the best of the best. When I had a question about a Pontiac I called Nunzi Romano from Nunzi's Automotive or Ken Crocie from H-O Racing Specialties (whose son Kevin I would later work with at Super Shops). I called Bill Summer from Summer Brothers Racing when I had a question about my big block Chevy gear drive, George Spink when I had a fabrication question (it also helped that he lived just a few blocks from my parents), for camshaft questions I talked with either Jerry or Don Johanson from Howard's Cams and for high performance parts recommendations none other then Phil Braybrooks from J&M Speed Center. Sometimes you figured it out on the first try and other times it was trial and error. I vividly remember a recurring problem I was having on my '69 Chevelle. Just prior to my big block swap I was trying to squeeze out as much power as possible from the original 307 small block. The engine had been balanced and had a healthy Crane Cam in it. I wanted as much compression as possible so I had installed an early set of 194 small chamber heads that had been surfaced and port matched. To top it off I put on the recently released Edelbrock Performer intake manifold. The problem was that I was oil fouling plugs but only on a couple of cylinders. I pulled the heads off numerous times and had them checked. Each cylinder had good compression and I had installed the rings myself so I was leaning towards a collapsed oil control ring, but on two cylinders? What are the chances of that? More clues were revealed during the subsequent reassembly and testing. I was still getting oil fouling but now it had switched one of the cylinders! One of the previous suspect cylinders was now firing correctly with no sign of oil burning on the plug... what the heck! I was really confused now and needed to consult someone with a lot more mechanical experience than me, but who?

I went over to see my friend Jim as he had a lot of experience with small blocks. After explaining what was happening to my Chevelle motor he was as confused as I was but suggested that we go ask his neighbor Fred. Fred was quite a bit older then we were and was a GM line mechanic. He had decades of experience and always seemed to be working on a car when he was at home. After explaining to Fred what was happening to my motor he sat down and started asking me some questions. He was particularly interested in the heads and how much had been milled off of them. His educated guess was that the intake manifold was not sealing correctly and was pulling oil from the galley below the intake. I had never heard of this before and it never dawned on me that it was even possible. He told me what to look for so I went back to tear down the top of the motor. After removing the intake and carefully inspecting the gasket I spotted it. On the bottom side of the intake gasket, at the end that was closest to the oil galley, the gasket was wet with oil. I checked both the intake manifold and the head with a straight edge and also did a dry fit test on the intake to see how much clearance was between the intake and head mounting surface. It looked good until I put the cork sealing strips on the front and rear of the galley. With the intake in place the cork raised it up too far and there was my problem! Fred had suspected that the milled heads might be causing some problems and when I told him what I had discovered he told me to throw away the cork ends and use RTV silicone. I bought some fresh FelPro blue intake gaskets, a tube of Permatex silicone and the next morning proceeded to button everything back up.

That morning happened to be a Saturday so I got an early start in anticipation of cruising Market Street later that evening. My friend Johnny and his buddy Jose showed up and were soon helping me. After the initial start up and setting the timing I was ready for its shake down run. Johnny had ridden in my Chevelle numerous times so he kind of knew what to expect performance wise. Everyone climbed in and I took off, anxious to see and feel the results. The very first thing I noticed was the power, it was like a whole different motor! This motor was pulling hard! Johnny was shocked at the power difference and Jose was just sitting in the back seat, wide eyed with a smile on his face. I was really feeling good when all of a sudden the motor started losing power. I could feel it as it was happening and then I noticed the smoke. I immediately pulled over, leaving the engine idle while I got out and popped open the hood. It now had a noticeable miss at idle and was running rough, all the same symptoms as before! Man was I pissed off! I couldn't believe it but the same problem was back. All that work for nothing! I jumped back in and started to head back to the house. The motor seemed like it was getting worse and started loading up on me. I was at a red light waiting to turn right on Van Buren Blvd when the engine shut off. As I was cranking the starter to get it started again the light turns green and of course cars start honking at me. I get the engine to fire up, proceed to rev it to about 6500 rpm, and dump the clutch... right across from a Police car waiting at the intersection! Of course I did not see the cop car, I was too engrossed in getting the car started and getting back home. The Chevelle ended up getting sideways as I turned through the intersection and was billowing smoke from both the rear tires and the exhaust, but I'm sure the fuzz only saw the tire smoke. My two passengers saw the cop before I did and tried in vain to get me to lay off the gas pedal but I was hell bent on teaching that motor a lesson. There was so much smoke that I literally could only see the police car's red and blue lights before I saw the car itself so it was a good block or two before I pulled over. 

Now at that point in my young life I had had my share of traffic tickets. Exhibition of speed, speeding, California stop (rolling through a stop sign), engaging in a speed contest, reckless driving, and too many fix-it tickets to count. Heck, I made John Milner from American Graffiti look like a choir boy. I was in serious danger of losing my drivers license and I thought this stunt was the final nail in the coffin. When the officer walked up to my window I felt my heart sink as he was not a city cop, he was a CHP Officer! Everyone knew that the Highway Patrol did not mess around. They did not pull people over to give them warnings or warm hugs, they are all business all the time, or so I was led to believe. The first thing he says to me was "What the heck were you thinking and what's your problem?!" I thought honesty was the best policy here so I started off with "I was not thinking, that's the problem" and then proceeded to tell him the whole story about the engine, which Johnny and Jose collaborated, right up to the very end when I lost my shit and dumped the clutch. The officer was very patient and listened to everything. After verifying that I had a valid driver's license and lecturing me on my disregard of my passenger's safety, he said he understood what I was saying and that I needed to think about how my actions can affect others. He then wished me luck on figuring out what was wrong with the engine and told me I was free to go! Wait, did I just get a "warning" from a CHP officer? No one I knew would believe me so I was glad I had two witnesses with me.

So it was back to the drawing board on the Chevelle's engine problem, or in my case back to talk with Fred. Fred was asking a lot more questions, this time it was about the gaskets. He had worked on more than a few Corvettes and they all had aluminum intake manifolds. He told me they used a different gasket than the cast iron intakes, it was a different material. That got me thinking and after another tear down I noticed the intake gasket had failed again, this time on multiple runners. I knew it was getting sufficient clamping force but the material still failed. Fred suspected it was too hard of a gasket material so he suggested I get a pair of GM intake gaskets that were specifically for a Corvette. I went down to the parts counter at De Anza Chevrolet and picked up a set. I noticed that the material was softer and seemed thicker so I was eager to try them out. It turned out that those gaskets did solve my engine's problem and a few years later Edelbrock issued a technical bulletin saying not to use FelPro blue gaskets on their aluminum intakes as leaks could develop. Go figure, we found that out before they did, the hard way!

FranktoidTM No. 24 - AI Bloggers, The Future or Fiction?

 Sometimes I really wonder about this blog. I strive to make it free of click bait, sponsored content, and "guest articles" which is really just someone trying to sell something. With the seeming rapid advancement of artificial intelligence, or AI for short, how long will it be before all the folks who are actually employed to write get replaced by AI? Fortunately I do not rely on my blogging for income, I do it as a hobby. I know, hard to believe that I actually enjoy writing, go figure.

Now AI might be able to churn out a fictional story or two, and maybe some technical papers and history based stuff, but how about legitimate classic car stuff? I use the term legitimate because AI cannot read minds or books (unless they are digital), "its" research is based strictly off the internet and human interaction, so therein lies the problem. We all know almost everything on the interwebs is not always true and a lot of so-called "experts" have to be taken with a grain of salt. If the past few years have taught us anything its that you can't always believe what the media is telling you or what you are seeing. (think deep fake and AI videos)

Imagine AI trying to write a story like North Main and pulling all of its research from internet articles, videos, and movies. AI is not real, as the name implies, it is artificial. Its the intelligence part that is controversial. Once I finish writing North Main I suppose AI could could find it, copy what ever it wants to and re-write it artificially, but in my opinion, that is just another form of plagiarism or copyright infringement and that begs the question: can AI even be held accountable? Technically case law does not apply to it, let that sink in for a minute...