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Posts Tagged ‘Flat tappet cam’

Doug and Nancy Cook’s Ten second ’69 Buick Skylark

Wednesday, October 27th, 2010

Lot’s of cars have interesting stories, and Doug and Nancy’s Skylark bracket car is no exception. In Doug’s words:

“I found this car on a used car lot around 1997.  It was rust free Texas car with a totally shot interior and a 350 with a rod knock.  I let my friend know and he went to look hoping to make a full race car out of it.  When he went the car was still there but he was told it was sold.  The next month I drive by and it’s still sitting there.  I call my friend who goes back and finds out someone put money down but never came back so he bought it for $800.  We drove it home with a rod knock about 5 miles expecting it to grenade.  We gutted the motor/trans/interior and let it sit.  A short time later a local machine shop gave us a rebuilt 73 455.  Someone dropped it off to be rebuilt many years ago and never picked it up.  Having a car and a motor sitting there we decided to build a “fun car”.  A local junk yard gave us a TH400, we built a 4.10 12 bolt chevy from a spare housing, used some old MT headers from the rafters, bought a performer intake, found an old 3310 Holley and threw it all together.  The best the car ran was 12.80’s with a total investment of about $1500.  I drove the car off and on for about 10 years, usually taking it to Buick races to have fun with.  3 years ago I bought the car from my friend and shortly afterwards I bought a 12-1 stage 1 engine and ran 11.70’s.”

Looking for better ET’s, Doug built the engine in the car now. It’s budget minded, but still uses good quality parts: The Block was machined by Bobb and Geof  at Finishline, and assembled by Doug. Wiseco Pistons were used, and swing on 6.635 BBC H beam rods. The cam is a custom flat tappet from Competition Components, 260 @ .050 on the intake side, and .600 lift with Comp Cams 1.6 Gold series rocker arms.  Heads are CNC Ported Edelbrock RPM’s with an upgrade to 7/16 rocker studs.  The intake is an SP1 single plane with an adapter to run a 9375 Dominator (1050). Improved oiling comes from a Finishline scavenger unit. Doug used some innovation and some spare parts for the ignition, using a stock buick distributor and converted it to electronics using a Mopar pickup and corresponding orange control box. Neat idea Doug. The converter is a 4000 RPM Coan unit, and the 12 Bolt houses 4.10 gears. Exhaust consists of 2″ Headers and 3 1/2″ pipes and Dynomax bullet mufflers. Best ET so far is 10.60 @ 127+ mph. The skylark weighs in at 3500lbs. Oh, and the other cool thing? Nancy is Doug’s sister in law and  shares the driving duties on the blue Buick! Here’s a video of the car in action

Phil Rowe’s Old School Nova

Thursday, February 4th, 2010

Some guys have a lot of money to spend on their toys. Other guys have to be more budget concious.  Aftermarket blocks, high dollar heads, roller cams, yeah, who doesn’t dream about that stuff? Sometimes it just isn’t in the cards.

Phil doesn’t have a ton of extra dough, like most of us.  But he does want to go racing! So you have to be smart about the dollars you have available. The car, a 1972 Nova, weighs in at about 3500lbs. It’s a basic street/strip type of set up. Mini tubs, 10 point cage with swing out bars, Jaz poly seats, make for an all business approach. The outside of the body is stock and all steel other than the fiberglass cowl hood and front bumper both from Harwood. Slicks are 30X9, and front runners round out the package.

The engine is equally no frills, but just as smart. Stock block and 063 oval port heads are the core to the combo. The stock GM steel crank is.010/.010 and slings GM rods with 7/16 ARP bolts and TRW domed pistons. All business, no flash. Cam is a flat tappet form Competition Components 256/266 with .636 lift. EDM constant oiling lifters make sure the cam and lifters get plenty of lube. Comp Stainless rockers and .080 pushrods make sure that all of the lift the flat tappet can produce gets to the valve. The Beehive springs and retainers keep the heavy valvetrain in check. An 850 Quick Fuel carb sits on top of an unmodified Team G from Weiand. The 8″ converter is from Transmission Specialties, and the transmission is a bullet proof  ‘glide from Hutch’s transmission in Canada.

The old girl has done right by Phil so far, it’s been a best of 10.88 at almost 123 MPH with the old 4500 converter. The new 8″ converter should help launch the car a bit harder, so hopefully ET’s will improve a little. At this weight, a 3 speed would probably help some too, but that is just on the wish list for right now.