Manufacturers
If you are driving down the highway in an older car, you are at a major disadvantage if you have to make a quick stop. Many of the high-performance cars being built today have fantastic stopping power, and if you can’t stop as well as the car in front of you, that could certainly be a big problem. The owner of this ’55 Chevy improved it with front disc brakes that work well, but he wanted the Chevy to stop even better, so he decided to add rear disc brakes.
Getting a ’55 Chevy to sit at the right ride height is as easy as installing a set of 2-inch drop spindles, such as those from Superior Spindles and others. Getting the big ol’ car to slow down offers many more choices as well, and as long as you’re swapping spindles it is an excellent time to install those long-overdue disc brakes. When you think about it, it doesn’t make good sense to put a newly rebuilt tri-5 Chevy on the same road with stock OE cars with ABS four-wheel disc brakes. If ever you came upon a situation where a car ahead of you had to stop in an emergency situation, the performance of even a stock set of disc brakes will far “outdistance” your drum setup, meaning you would not be able to stop in time and could well end up in the trunk of the car ahead of you. Not good.
The birth of the Mark IV 396 for public consumption occurred back in 1965. Its predecessor, the Mark I, started in 1961 on the drawing board, was finalized and built in late 1962, and was unveiled in race trim in 1963. It set the racing world on its collective ear at Daytona and other races, and then it disappeared, going back to Chevrolet Engineering for further development. Seeing that you could step up and possibly own the Marilyn Monroe of big-block engines, serious racers and enthusiasts had to sit on their hands for two full model years (1963 and 1964) before the son of this absolute powerhouse could be ordered.
Thirty-five years and $636 ago, we bought an 80,000-mile ’62 fuel-injected Corvette in Fresno, California. Sadly, the car had been stolen once. The fuel injection was gone as well as the T-10 four-speed transmission. A pair of bare 461-X heads was in the trunk. The engine was found to have a rocking rear cam bearing, which caused oil to shut off to the rocker arms at high rpm. At the time, the prognosis was that it could not be fixed, so the motor was replaced with a ’68 350hp 327. Since 1976, the car has been in storage, along with the original engine.
Small-block water pumps are common replacement parts and are available at prices that are nearly impossible to beat. However, while getting a brand-new water pump for cheap is great, sometimes you need to keep the one you have. If it’s date-coded, or maybe you’ve installed a chrome steel or an aluminum water pump. You aren’t going to get those at the parts counter. In cases like these, rebuilding a water pump is preferred to buying a new one.
Okay, we weren’t quite that naive about what we read regarding upgrading to 1.6 rockers on our small-block Chevy for the first time, but it was close.
The engine in question was a decent runner with 30,000 miles on the mild-performance rebuild. The rebuilt engine was purchased used, and among its selling points were 0.030-over 9.5:1 pistons, moly rings, 1.5 roller rockers, a Performer RPM intake and a brand-new Holley 750cfm carburetor. The cam wasn’t a perfect match to the torque converter used in the previous installation nor was the final-drive gear ratio. As a result, the owner planned on stepping down on the cam chart to a Comp 286H-10 cam, which came with the engine in its original box. Also included were a brand-new factory Z28 oil pan and a factory timing chain cover to replace the cheap chrome pieces. For $300, the engine package was a deal, and one we couldn’t pass up. We sold the aforementioned chrome pieces and matching valve covers for $50, getting us the engine at the bargain price of $250, and we still had the new cam and lifters on our shelf.
Unscrupulous Swap Meet Hawks Are Peddling (for More Money) 2.00-inch Ramʼs Horn Manifolds for the Bigger 2.50-Inch Design.
Now that the typical Chevy buildup cars (Novas, Camaros, El Caminos, Chevelles and so forth) are well over 30 years old, most have had several owners and lots of abuse. One important yet often overlooked area during a car’s lifetime is its locks, and by now, most early Chevys have mismatched or missing keys. Some don’t even have any keys or locks when you buy them. If you do find a car that still has its original keys, it is very unusual.
What makes more power: carburetors or computers? While the ultimate answer is that a sophisticated electronic fuel-injection system will virtually always outpower a carburetor, the real question may be whether the power gains are worth the extra expense and complexity of installing an EFI system.
