Hot Rods Southeast Gasser, Father and Son H/Gas build

The engine assembly went Ok, just slow as usual. Not a whole lot to show for that part, but here is a few of the process.

 

One thing that made me scratch my head was, how far off the timing was from the cam card. The cam is a Tatom's spec grind by Schneider and the timing gear is an Elgin. Turned out the intake centerline was falling on 123* and should be 110*. Had to pin the camshaft and use an offset bushing to get me back to 110 ICL.

 

I can't wait to hear that old flatty run.
What RPM do you think you will be turning it?

 

I am thinking it will RPM to 5500 safely.

 

We needed to make a block saver plate out of 1/8" 6061-T6 aluminum. Made the pattern from the bellhousing, drilled come holes and used the plasma cutter to cut it out. Came out pretty good.

 

Another thing that bothered us on the car was the front axle. It is a narrowed 56 F100 axle with unknown spindle/ brake conversion and it had crazy amounts of positive camber, kind of tractor like as evidenced it the pictures. So, while the engine was out it is a good time to start over on the front end.

 

The I beam axle is about a 2.5" drop, but the spring perches had 2" riser blocks plus caster shims. The brakes were 11 inch vented rotors with GM calipers. A lot of weight if you add it all up.
I ordered a HD straight tube axle from speedway and basically the front-end & brake assembly that uses their forged and machined Chevy spindles. We re-used the existing leaf springs and a few pieces of hardware. The HD Speedway axle is robust and actually heavier than I thought it would be. But it ain't going to bend on us. After mocking it in place I welded the spring perches on the tube to give us 8* caster.

 

Looking great, hope to see it in person someday!

 

The front axle is all together and it came out great. Only minor tweaking needed to get it all to fit. So now it was time to drop in the motor and trans.

 

Looking Good!

 

More progress updates. Engine is in place and just about ready for start-up. We are running a cooling system so had to come up with a radiator. Used the small race radiator that came with the car but had another inlet and 2 outlets welded in for the flathead configuration. There is not much real estate in the front, so options were limited. Made a fuel log for the 3 carbs with pressure gauge and hooked up the lines. Fabbed up a crankcase vent in place of the mech fuel pump assbly. Not running a charging system so made a belt tensioner so we can still drive the water pumps. Got the headers and the exhaust dumps all made up.

 

The blue looks gorgeous!

 

Not bad….a little secret..you can have a sign shop make a template for ya and all ya do is brush the paint on and peel the template off..not real expensive and leads to great results

great color..are those rims real Magnesium?

 

I can't believe it has been over a year since I posted on this build. A couple recent comments about it helped me revive it. We got it running and started tuning it up. This happened at the tail end of 2022. Here is a short video of some garage testing to make sure it moved under its own power.

 

Here is another vid of it idling in the garage. This one is open headers. The previous one I had some mufflers attached to not piss of the neighbors too much.

 

Once we felt things were Ok with it, we took it out for some actual test N Tune. As expected, there were some bugs to iron out. Really had to work on jetting and proper timing. But it went down the track Ok until one time on a shift to 2nd, it death wobbled like crazy. Also, out little radiator wasn't going to cut it. Just sitting in staging and making a run and getting back to the pits, it was getting too warm for comfort.

 

Needing a bigger radiator required reconfiguring the front frame crossmember and lowering it down 6 inches. There is so little real estate under the hood, it really was a c hallenge.

 

Love it man. Cool little car. As far as your lettering, it looks awesome. We're always our own worse critics on this stuff, anything with the human element isn't gonna be perfect, I'd rather see character than to see a laser cut vinyl sticker

 

WOW! That is a great little car. Congrats on a job very well done.

 

So, we finally made it out to a Southeast Gassers event in May of this year at Wilksboro Dragway in NC and had a great time. The car ran well and was well received by everyone. There are some things we need to work on and a lot of it is me. Here is one last one for now. Enjoy.

 

OK, one more.....

 

Lookin’ Good going down the track, you should be Proud!!

 

I wish I could hit that little like button a few hundred times more! I really liked the 3-4 shift…lol

 

Sad to see that you are selling this little beast, but I know you both had a great Father Son experience with it! All the Best, Carp,

 

Selling it??

 

I loved that car and and hate to hear you're selling it. It was a big hit at the SEGA race you came to, hope it stays in SEGA where it can be appreciated for what it is.

 

That thing is Cool as sh!t !!!!!

 

I have decided to put it up for sale and see what happens. The engine is out to get sleeved and for crack repair which took me out late last season, so selling the car as a roller. Hope it can stay in the SEGA family to do what it was built for. See the add in the classifieds if you're interested. I guess if it doesn't sell, we'll keep working on it as time and money allows us, both of which are in short supply nowadays.