>>>>,That ole` truck ,,with a home made 'glass nose ,,,mono leaf front springs w' worn out Monroe Load Leveler coil over shocks on the front ,,no front brakes ( legal back then in NHRA ) ,a copy cat Stone-Woods & Cook Chassis ,,weighed 2800 lbs ,,
>>>>>,Oh ,,and that was with me in it ,,but i only weighed 145 lbs back then ,,Just got outa the Air Force up there ,,,,plus a 20 gal aluminum helicopter gas tank in the bed full of gas,,
>>>>,No Car; I'd run as hi as you fell good at ,,anywhere from 10;0 to 11;5 ,,,we have pretty good 91-93 octane gas now ,,if you can ,,use the gas with 10% Alky ,, the blower motor in my T ,,a 427 Small Block ,,has a static compression of 8.5 to one ,,but that blower is puttin' out 9 lbs at idle to 16-18 lbs boost at full throttle ,,it's my daily driver ,,i run whatever premium gas they have at the stations ,,werks great ,, WERD OF CAUTION: when you rebuild that 396 ,,be sure to have the good valeve seats & valves put in those heads to run unleaded gas ,,,
>>>>,The 396 in that ole` truck ,had a Crower cam ,,Tunnel ram w' two 660 Holleys ,,HomeMade Hedders ,,a M-21 Muncie w' smooth syncros ( home made crash box ) ,and a Dana 60 rear w' 4;56 gears ,,55 inch long ladder bars ,,
Just screw a long bolt in the cam and use that to pull it out, have the guy at the machine shop look at things while it's there and give you some advise on what to do. He might have some stuff that a customer never picked up and could give you a deal on.
>>>>>,Let the machine shop pull the cam ,,you'll want new cam bearings anyway ,,if you don't know the year of that block ,,they;ll figure it out ,,the early blocks required a notch in the rear cam journel ,,but ,,the new cam bearings have a groove in the rear bearing ,,so it can be used o k in any year block ,with any late model cam ,,
>>>>>,You're gonna want a new timing chain & gear ,,cheap insurance ,,get a cam too suit how you wanna drive it ,,Hyd or Solid Lifter ,,even a Roller ,,BUT ,,stay away from Comp Cams ,,their blanks come from Tiawane and are not werth a hoot ,,get a cam & kit ( lifters/springs/retainers/keepers /etc) ,made in the U S A ,,in Cams ,,you only get what you pay for ,, any questions about cams ,,just ask ,,
Wow thanks for the information on cams. My dads buddy a 1941 willys drag car and he maid his own cam I was thinking about asking him to make me a custom cam. Go to youtube and type in willys crash and its the 5th one down he crashed it but he drove that monster on the street. Check it out.
Good luck with your build here. Go to mortec.com and search your part numbers to find out what you have exactly. There are plenty of us BBC guys here to help with putting an engine together but we really need to know what you have first.
>>>>>,Elpolacko is correct ,, www.mortec.com is your best source of info on head n block numbers ,,,great stuff there
I want to go with a dual carb intake whats the best exept edelbrock cause there to dam expensive and never been a fan of edelbrock. Thanks Scott
Really don't think you'll find that dual Holley's or Dual Demon's are going to save you any money to speak of! The dual Edelbrocks on my Roadster work flawlessly, better then the dual Holley's I ran years before, but all setups require that you know what you are doing with them to run decent.
Well if you're talking low rise, I think only Edelbrock and Offy currently make them, and Edelbrock is less money than Offy If you are talking tunnel ram, you have Edelbrock, Weiand and Dart and Edelbrock is still the least expensive
>>>>>,No Car; check oneBay Motors ,,do a search for BBC Parts ,,lotsa kool stuff on there including intakes of all types ,,some w' carbs too ,,i bought a BBC Offy Polished Tunnel Ram w' two 750 Holleys & Linkage for my 496 BBC Stroker Motor offa there last year for $300 bucks ,, Check It Out ,,,might find a deal ,,never know,,
Hey connman, what do you mean by a "copy cat stones, woods, and cook chassis" under your truck? What type of chassis was it? Was it a tube frame or was it a stock frame rails with mods? How could that thing only weigh 2800 lbs with you in it? Even tho you say you are 145lbs...thats only 2655 lbs for that whole truck? Are you sure? Damn the 396/4spd/dana 60 must weigh over half of that. Did you have to scale it on race day? I'm also curious as to what kind of 60' times you had? 10.80's with a mild 396 is haulin some serious ass...especially when that damn thing is about as aerodynamic as a house!!! Do you remember what your cam specs were? What heads did you have on it? I just find it hard to believe that it was that light....that fast...and then to only be running in C/Gas class. Doesn't add up.
'65 & '66 big blocks used a grooved rear journal on the cam and a grooved bearing to supply oil to the lifters...later motors had a groove in the block behind the bearing to accomplish this. Using a non grooved cam in the earlier block wont let oil to the top end. I siezed a few valves in a solid lifter 427 that I thought was a '68 block, turned out to be a '66. Expensive mistake!
>>>>.333 Half Evil; back in the middle '60's ,,,not sure anymore the exact year ,,but Hot Rod did an exploded view of the Stone,Woods & Cook Willys ,,i took the "54 Ford pick up frame and modified it to what they showed ,,,i copy'd it as best i could from afar ,,,that 396 with the Edelbroke Tunnell Ram & two 660 Holleys weighed 880 lbs with the 4 speed ,,,had a pair of 396/375 hp rect port heads ,,in C/Gas i was 'posed to weigh 3000 lbs ,,we didn't have a scale at the track ,,i threw junk in the bed and weighed it at the Grain Scales in town ,,then trew out the junk ,and turned in the weigh ticket when i got to the track ,,Ya,,,just a little fudgin' ,,Scales At The Track ??? heck man ,,we had a half mile GRAVEL shut down ,,it was ALASKA ,,in the '60's ,, Don't remember the cam Specs ,,but i was a Crower dealer up there ,,and Crower sent me a cam n kit suited to what i was runnin',, that home made 'glass tilt nose didn't weigh much ,,plus no front brakes ,,mono leaf front springs ,,heck ,,that truck only weighed 3400 lbs totally stock ,, anyway ,,,it was what it was ,,,
Actually NHRA gas class rules in 1968-1969, 396 ci in C/gas would have been a minimum of 3168lbs and max of 3758lbs. I know guys ran gas cars/trucks in higher classes but never lower classes. Your truck should have been a B/Gas ride and could have gone into A/Gas but usually that class was really tough. Still hard to believe that if the truck was that light, with a heavy assed BBC up front how cold you hook that thing up? Not many could have. Tire compounds were finally starting to get softer and wrinkle walls were getting cheap enough for some of the average Joes to afford....but hey, if it did it did.
>>>>>,I was runnin' M&H 10 inch wrinkle wall slicks with the A-148 Compound ,,,on launch they would wrinkle all the way around the rim ,,and pull the front wheels about a foot ,,plus ,a 125 lb Greyhound Bus battery at the rear of the bed helped too ,,,,the rules then said ladder bars could only be half the wheel base ,,so,,,i made the mounts offa the Dana 60 rear go backwards 8 inches , before the ladder bars went forward ,,so instead of being 55 inches long ,,they were 63 ,,they only taped the wheel base to make sure the frame mounts were half of it ,, actually ,,you're right ,,if i was runnin' it in the lower 48 ,,i woulda been in B/Gas ,,,but everybody fudged up there then ,,to keep up ,,you fudged too ,,or was lost ,, heck ,,i was only 26 years old ,,,
>>>>>,PLUS ,,we had a whole slew of A and B gas Anglias up there then ,,one ,,the "Super Rat" A/G had won the winter nat'ls in Calif that year ,,the B/Gassers where runnin' in the low 10's ,,no way i could compete ,,,so ,,you do whatchu gotta do eh?
53-56 F100 with a Y Block weighed 3325. The 396 outweighs the Y block by about another 100 lbs. The tranny's are probably a wash. The Dana 60 adds another 60-100 lbs over the stock Ford rear. That 125 lbs battery adds more. Even with a glass front end, I'm not getting 2800 lbs. not even sure it would have got down to 3000. Especially with additions like the ladder bars etc. I bet you were closer to 3000.
Sometimes balancing at home and at a shop are to different things. Theres a bunch of stuff that goes into balancing and not just sanding on the small and big ends. magnaflux, making sure theyre not bent, polishing the rod sides, shot peening, new bolts and resizing last. If all this has already been done theres no reason to keep re-balancing. Theres also a few different stock rods out there. 3/8 Dimple rods is what was on the better 396s and best 7/16 for the 375hp 396. Ive seen a few mid 70s non dimple rods that get 7/16 bolts however they arent as strong as the older style. If its a steel crank keep it as long as its not scarred, bent or past 20/20. I rebuilt my old 402 without doing much more than a 30 over job with dome smoothed trw 2287s and polishing my old crank at home and standard bearings. I was 19 and on a budget back then. The motor wasnt hard core raced ever in its life so it was okay to pass on all the other stuff. It has lasted since 1991 and the current owner actually spun a bearing by over reving past 8 grand in 98!!
>>>>hotroddon; what do brake drums ,,shoes,,and backing plates weigh ? plus two 7 leaf stacks of stock springs ?? we didn't have to run front brakes back then ,,NHRA said "front brakes are recomended ,,BUT ,,NOT manditory" ,,i had custom made Mono Leaf springs made for it ,,plus a Tiny MG radiator w' just enough water for a run ,,got towed back ,, Hey ,,i had it weighed with me in it so i knew how much junk to throw in the bed ,, with the stock V-8 and that cast iron truck "granny low" 4 speed ,,it weighed a hair over 3400 lbs ,,that motor n trans weighed as much ,,or more than the 396 / aluminum 4 speed ,, but ,,it's not werth arguing over ,,
The 396 "s were notorious for throwing rockers and at hi revs caused a lot of bent pushrods,stuck valves and cracked pistons,rebuild what you have and be sure to use good rocker assembly,other than that 396 engines are awsome powerhouses with right gear behind them.
>>>>>,brad chevy ;; you're so right ,,plus those old stock pushrods weren't nuthing to write home about either ,,in my tool box ,,i still have a rocker arm that a pushrod ,,with the ball broke off ,, chewed a hole and went clear threw the rocker arm ,,from '69 ,,,stock GM BB Valve springs weren't very good either ,,broke two in my '69 SS396 Chevelle in the Yukon driving down the Al-Can ,,of coarse ,,Canada didn't get BB Chevy Motors back then ,,so no parts ,,had to drive it all the way to Iowa on 6 Cylinders ,.,,lucky tho ,,they were exhaust springs ,,not intakes ,,
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