History Homemade mystery drag engine. SOLVED!! Car still exists!!!!

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh take it to Eagle Field and run it !!!!!!!!!!! Oct 3rd

 

U haven't heard cool until you hear Byron's 354 4 banger run on a 50% load.they ran it with as much as 2nd80%in it.i have 2 timing cards from lions that were full track passes.1 pass is an 8.63@166 with a 3.54 gear and 70%load and the

 

8's! Ohh, we gotta see inside the box now!

 

get to posting the photos! I would love to see it!

 

Hey, Tim;
Any pics will be appreciated, when you can get to them. Esp of the engine, & its' parts. While you did the rebuild, hopefully? & maybe specs for the curious? (read: me... ).
TIA.
Marcus...

 

Amazing it's still so complete. I'd love to have the chassis, or one like it, but I made the promise to my wife, no more projects till the current ones are gone. How did you get it on the scaffolding? Air conditioning in the garage, I need that too. I am Butch/56sedandelivery.

 

I'm also jealous of your shop; talk about CLEAN. Both cars look like they have been kept in a sealed bag. Making ones own engines and/ or parts is almost a gone thing. Up until a couple years ago when bad health, eye sight, lost strength, and fading endurance caught up with our group of old retired farts we built engines from scratch for a very competitive pull tractor. When you build your own it might not be the fastest but you darn sure know where to look when something goes wrong.

 

Sorry about the double entry.

 

Some guys cant change plugs and some build there own engines from scratch . There was a dragster that ran out of the Tyler area that was 6 cylinder powered with 2 351 Cleveland heads welded together and the guy ground his own cams ! and I thought that was cool boy the stuff that shows up on here amazes me !!

 

Are you talking about Six Shooter, owned and built by Joe Gerik (something like that)? I went to TJC 82-84, and was always out at I-20 Dragway or Hallsville Drag Strip, and saw that altered a lot. But, it was a hand whittled, dual overhead cam, aluminum head he made himself, and the car ran on alcohol. The weed burner headers would throw vapor out at the hit, and anyone standing to the right of the car would get wet. I am Butch/56sedandelivery.

 

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh myyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy.Yummy.Please keep the updates coming.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

 

That rail is totally awesome. (actually both....)

 

Giff is alive and we'll with his wife in port orford ore and Byron's grandchildren are living in port orford,carol lives in coquill,ore and works for springfield utility board which is how I was introduced to the Barnes family.she stop by my shop after seeing my Lynwood dragster and told me the story about her grandpas dragster.i said it sounded really familiar and like any early drag racing nut went to my stack of old mags and dug out the June of 1968 car craft mag and there's her grandpas dragster.she said it was at her grandpas house on the coast and she would get some pics for me.after many visits she called around Christmas time and said she had talked it over with her family and they thought giving it to me to take care of and restore would be a good idea.i was floored to say the least,that they would trust me to do their grandpa fantastic and amazing work justice.my family and I made the 3.5 hr trip to giff's house and met the entire family .giff,his wife and 4 grandchildren.they are some of the most caring people I have ever met.we loaded up all the parts out of the barn.taking lots of pics to document the occasion .the only part missing from the car was the halibrand champ rear end.i even was given the drivers Firesuit and copies of all the pics of building and car craft pics.the slicks are still the orginal ones and front tires.how amazing.it took me 5 months to restore the car and engine which is a work of art to say the least.im completly in awe over the work.i will load the pics soon as I can.i spoke to carol numerous times during the restoration process to get ideas and advice on colors ect...I was told many times that grandpa was a function guy not finish.the only way it was painted is if it came that way.i had it powder coated an electric tangerine and polished all the aluminum items.i freshen the engine ie v job,light hone ,bearings ect.i own a performance machine shop so engine work is easy.i then bolted everything back together after locating a halibrand champ rearend in n.carolina that was out of another dragster (it bolted right end how amazing.)carol back in the 70's lived with Dave Wallace (hot rod deluxe)ect,so when the pics were in the newest issue I contacted the office and Dave got hold of me in record time.i sent him a thumb drive of all my pics and a couple t shirts that we had printed after finishing the restoration .he was very pleased to find Byron's dragster to be complete and running.we had some lengthy conversations and it will be seen in a up coming issue with this story.i will get the pics up loaded soon and I am so pleased to see so many people intrested in Byron's car.thanks Tim by the way there is nothing in this world that sounds like a 354ci 4 cly on 50%

 

Pics of my machine shop,Byron's orginal fire suit,my blown fuel sb chev Lynwood dragster and inside the garage where the cars are kept,Byron's car top

 

Neato!

 

What a great story, and nice restoration. The Lyndwood looks unique, never saw one that didn't have the tubes connect to a point up front. Bob

 

Your shop is so cool!
The only thing more cool is Steve McQueen!
But you come pretty close!

Please tell more?
Do you Race it? Cam you post a small video with desent sound?

I bet that "big @@s" really sounds diabolic at WOT launching! Like Detroit Diesel V8 awesome, but on 50 pro sent. Sorry to ask what is the other fifty? Pump gas? Race fuel?

354 ci banger, wow !

Can you repost the article in reader friendly quality?

 

56 sedan delivery 6 Shooter was the car earlier version had the furnace braised head and storming 6 showed up sometimes ! I was running a duster with a 340 4 speed it was piss yellow and ran like stink . Back on subject we raced go carts a couple of years ago I built the crankshaft reground the cam welded up and extended the lifters we angle boared the blocks and sleeved them improve the rod angle and chamber filling. We made 27 hp on alcohol that was a lot out of a 5 horse Briggs . Mostly on a Bridgeport mill wonder how many hours he took to build his engine ?

 

OK! WE REALLY NEED SOME MORE PICS, VIDEO WOULD BE NICE!
Please!

 

The new Hot Rod Deluxe says that a story and pictures are coming later.
How about some pics to hold us over?
Come on!

 

Very interesting!

 

So cool. Can't wait to see more! Congratulations on finding and preserving this piece of history.

 

Sorry guys drew Hardin and Dave Wallace politely asked me to not show any pics until feature is done.

 

So when is the story coming out???

 

Simply amazing, the stuff found on here !!!

 

It's been MONTHS! WHEN do we see it?
Editors change their minds a LOT, what's the deal?