Hello from Nova Scotia

[Maritime Drag Racing]

Hello from Sydney, Nova Scotia. 69 year old retired coal miner and long time drag racer here. Just built this 87 longbox for Pro class drag racing. Typical 350 SBC bracket engine maybe 425HP. TH350, 8.8 with 4.30 gear and MT 9X30 Stock Eliminator style slicks. Still needs a gear change to 4.88s and the roll cage parts are leaning against the bench in the garage waiting for my torn rotator cuff to heal. Work in progress for sure.....

 

[Curious Hound]

Very nice! Welcome to TRS.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

I like that. How much time do you have into it?

 

[Emily_Simmons]

Welcome!

 

[Maritime Drag Racing]

Bought the truck as a roller 2 years ago. Reworked the suspension, put on all new tires and we threw a 350 Chev together with a bunch of parts we had lying around. Short block is all bone stock but re-ringed 84 GMC with a big solid lifter Crane cam with "034" angle plug Bowtie heads, intake and carb that came off an 8 second Comp class Camaro. We have a "good" shortblock in the wings with forged 11:1 pistons that still needs a crankshaft before it's ready to go in the truck. It's got an API convertor and TH350, 8.8 rear with 4.30s that are getting changed to 4.88s shortly and 9X30 M/T Stock Eliminator slicks. Roll cage still needs to go in and a transbrake(if I can ever afford one for a TH350)

 

[Uncle Gump]

It's a shame you don't ever hear someone say... I had a bunch go fast SBF parts just laying around that I threw together.

It's just so much cheaper to build Chevy stuff... Cool truck and glad to see you enjoying smokey burnouts.

If you didn't live in another country... I would swear you were @pjtoledo errrr ummm.... Santa!

 

[Maritime Drag Racing]

It's a shame you don't ever hear someone say... I had a bunch go fast SBF parts just laying around that I threw together.

It's just so much cheaper to build Chevy stuff... Cool truck and glad to see you enjoying smokey burnouts.

If you didn't live in another country... I would swear you were @pjtoledo errrr ummm.... Santa!

It really was an economic decision to go with the SBC. That and already having a bunch of parts kicking around. I've got a 1967 390FE that I was going to put in it but it looked like a lot of work and then by the time I put a decent set of heads on it and a proper valvetrain I could have built three small block Chevs for the same $$$. That sucks because I've had a lot of FE engines over the years with almost zero failures except for one 352 that got over-revved once too often LOL.

 

[Uncle Gump]

I understand totally.

Also... just because it's a small block Ford... it doesn't mean that all parts play nicely together. Pretty much all SBC stuff is mix and match.

 

[OldMan2]

Welcome from Georgia.

 

[gmcfixer]

Hey MDR,

I just acquired an 89 Ranger and a sbc w/ turbo 350 trans that me and a couple family members are throwing together. Whos headers are you using? What are they designed to fit? Thanks!

 

[Maritime Drag Racing]

Those headers were fabricated from bare flanges, a pile of new tubing and collectors from an old junk set of headers. Not really that difficult if you make your bends a few degrees at a time and just keep fitting them until they're right. Hardest part is getting a good sealing bead on the head side of the flange. For that we built up the weld and went over it with a belt sander until we had a decent mating surface for the header gasket.

 

[Oxxon]

Hello and welcome to TRS!

 

[Ramcharger90]

It's a shame you don't ever hear someone say... I had a bunch go fast SBF parts just laying around that I threw together.

It's just so much cheaper to build Chevy stuff... Cool truck and glad to see you enjoying smokey burnouts.

If you didn't live in another country... I would swear you were @pjtoledo errrr ummm.... Santa!

The same reason why I haven't messed around with mopars in a while. But I guess quality parts are normally expensive.

 

[gmcfixer]

Very cool on the headers, I knew a guy that welded them up from scratch a few times using j-bends, but haven't run into him in many, many years. Who knows, one of the three of us that will be doing the bulk of the work made the comment that it may be easier to just cut the firewall out and get the motor and trans mocked up in there as far back as we can and go from there. Still got way too many other things to do before we get to that point.