Manufacturers
While the small-block Chevy is the popular engine choice for many enthusiasts, many are now relying on a Blue Oval heart for their performance bodies. With its link to Ford, the original body manufacturer for many of the classic cars we see today, the small-block Windsor-style Ford engine offers several advantages. When compared to Chevy, the lack of firewall clearance for a number of Chevy engine swaps is due to the rear distributor position of the engine. The front-mount distributor position is the more logical place to drive the distributor and the oil pump. Not to mention, it’s much more convenient.
One of the most misunderstood performance components on any engine has to be the camshaft, or camshafts in the case of our overhead-cam 4.6-liter Ford engine. The difficulty is only compounded when you add forced induction to the mix. From an anatomical standpoint, the camshaft can be likened to the brain, as the cam profile determines how effectively (when and where) breathing takes place.
If you are towing your rig with a ’99-’06 General Motors truck, or a Chevy or GMC vehicle, there’s a good chance you have experienced a strange clunking noise when making slow turns. The clunking noise seems to originate from within the steering column, and some owners can actually feel a small vibration in conjunction with the clunking. If you have encountered this problem, it’s not your imagination, as there appears to be a unique conundrum associated with Chevy and GMC pickups, and their corresponding SUVs.
The Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) Show engulfs Fabulous Las Vegas annually. It brings together the biggest names in the automotive world to show off the latest and greatest, whether it’s new products, amazing custom builds, or the newest trends. TheAutoBuilder is excited to be in the thick of it all.
With the Jeep legend continuing to grow it is no wonder that more and more people are finding ways to customize their Jeep. Whether it is traditional Wrangler or a new more luxurious Grand Cherokee, people seem to want to feel that Jeep energy; the energy that has gotten Jeep where it is today.
When building a street rod, unless you are building it to look like the day it rolled off the showroom floor, you find yourself constantly hiding whatever you can, wherever you can. One area that usually ends up hiding more items than was ever intended is the dashboard.
The dash is the one area that lives up to the old saying, “10 pounds of stuff in a 5-pound bag,” which generally carries with it a whole set of challenges and/or problems. When it comes to the ’33-’34 Ford, conditions are worse than normal, as there’s practically no space behind or under the dash. By the time you place your gauges and an A/C unit, there is little room left for much else, including a glovebox. When your needs are such that you require a certain amount of equipment behind the dash, most of the time the answer to your dilemma is a smooth dash.
While the factory cast-iron four-barrel Q-Jet intake manifolds have performed admirably on literally thousands of GM applications—and if you are picking your engine from a used lot to use in a swap, it will likely be so equipped—every last one of them should be torn off the car and thrown in the dumpster.
With the advent of the old-time roadster popularity rearing its head again, and with the ever-increasing price of gasoline, we suspect that you will be seeing more and more of these little engines in creatively altered hot rods. We know of a few being done right now, and we will be bringing those to you just as soon as they hit the road. But in the meantime, here’s a piece that took a lot of time to assemble and research, so we thought that those of you looking for alternative powerplants would enjoy this neat solution for the right, light car.
“Real hot rods have axles,” or so they say. That was our story, and we stuck to it fondly for more than 10 years. The ’47 Ford sedan delivery we drive came to us with a new Super Bell dropped axle and four-bar linkage professionally installed by Dick Jones’ shop in Campbell, California. It wasn’t really a hot rod; more like a primered beater with no interior, very little glass and enough rattles that a radio was a waste of time. It was a project car for another magazine for several years, and as such was the subject of many tech articles, updating it with all manner of great stuff. But it was still a primered beater, so the axle suited it just fine, and we got many miles of enjoyment out of this setup. Oh, it could have had a nice, new IRS more than once, but it just wasn’t that kind of car.
Tech presentation is something anyone can do to his or her existing Camaro, since it takes no special skill, yet the results are worthwhile. Those are the rewards of personalizing a cool Chevy, and it’s what drives us in the first place to tackle such jobs.
