The small block chevy is the iconic hotrodders engine. Its been around since 1955 and is even still made new today for the aftermarket. Without too much trouble, 400hp out of one of these engines isn’t hard to achieve. But in this modern age where we see 350hp out of NA V6’s and now turbo 4 cylinders with that level of output, 400hp doesn’t really sound or feel all that special. Is it possible for the hotrodders mainstay to compete with modern engines?
My current state of affairs
When you open a shop manual for setting pinion angles or look it up online, generally, they give a specification for what it should be for your car. But, if your car has been modified, which it most likely is because you’re reading this, the pinion angle listed probably wont work.
My car was designed for a T5 transmission which was substantially smaller than the T56 I now run. I might have been able to get the correct driveline angles if I ran my car at the factory ride height, but since my car is lowered, the large size of the T56 limited how high I could raise the transmission to correct the angle at the front U-joint. The solution was to make an extension over the trans tunnel to allow it to be raised.
Read more »
Some time ago, I ran across an interesting muffler design from Flowmaster. The design used two perforated sheet metal cones mounted point to point inside the muffler case. Back then, the muffler was called the “Hush Power” series; but now they are calling it the “Pro Series” line. Strangely, They also have a smaller pipe diameter version called the DBX series; I’m not sure why they name those differently.
With the new Fast and Furious 7 movie in theaters now, I have seen a lot of traffic to my post about Paul Walkers tragic accident. His accident received a lot of attention when it happened and has been renewed with the new movie. I have seen some comments about the level of attention his passing has received; many wondering, even understanding how tragic it was, why it was such a big deal or questioning if it’s being blown out of proportion. Let me tell you why I think Paul Walker was important, and why his death has effected so many.
I think few would argue against that old cars have more character and are simply cooler than modern cars; but the performance of modern cars is undeniable even though they are bigger and weigh more than ever. So how is it that all of these modern sports cars (and many non-sports cars) that tip the scales at 3500lbs+ (even over 4000lbs!) drive and handle so much better than light cars of the past?
A perfectly timed shot – the car was doing close to 100mph in this photo.
Read more »
