Frosty

I am surprised he isn't being publicly flogged for wearing it in Red Sox country.

Happy Birthday Ringo!!!!! I hope you get to enjoy a pint or two today!!!

It's always good to get a hug out of the missus. She smells a lot better than you do. Thanks for the support of the snowflake Ringo. I know he is looking forward to it. Last practice is tonight and the first game is tomorrow.

Saw this car on the Discovery channel. They took it to the Kennedy Space Center, used the landing strip for the space shuttle and broke 270 mph in it to beat the Bugatti Veyron's top speed. I guess Bugatti retains the title as the world's fastest "production" car since only 29 Venom's have been built at $1.2M a piece and that does not satisfy the Guiness Book of World Records people as a "production" car. Still, its a neat car.

I'd love to go to the M1 show, but alas no. The boy is playing in two 14U baseball games in the CANUSA games this weekend. Flint's sister city is Hamilton Ontario. So the CANUSA games (short for CANada and USA) are held each year between Flint and Hamilton. It is the 3rd largest international sporting competition in the world (so I am told) behind the Olympics and Pan American games. The games are in Flint this year - next year they are in Hamilton. As part of the deal, we are hosting a young Canadian athlete for the weekend too. Opening ceremonies are on Friday, and closing ceremonies for the games is Sunday afternoon, so I can not go. However, this is a huge opportunity for him so it is well worth it. I will also be missing the Widetracker's annual picnic and private car show for this too. BTW - the Royal Pontiac license plate holder is now cleaned up and on the Lemans. I figured you'd want to know that JUSTA!!!! LOL!

I took the Lemans in yesterday to a radiator/air conditioning shop. First time in nearly 20 years I've had someone look at the A/C (hey its a convertible!). Seems it needs a new compressor. This one has an internal safety switch. The only one the shop could find is in Kansas City, so it will take 3-5 days to ship. Not sure if we need to replace the dryer/condenser yet. The compressor alone will be close to $500 installed. Seems the system still has freon on it too.

Patience ---- all will be revealed in a little over a month.

I wonder what a 100 shot of nitrous would do to that sucker?

Last night I did a last minute run to National Parts Depot. Its a little over an hour from my house. Reprduction trim rings, a 1" rear sway bar, and a set of door seals (I only need the right but they only sell them in sets). notallthere's Franken Chevelle is about to get a free rear sway bar. I wonder what this could be for????? The answer is going to have to wait a little while longer though.

So - 1) who actually went? 2) what did you see? 3) what did you buy?

Are you going to put any performance / free-flowing cats or mufflers too? Also, what is your intended use of the car? Strictly street? Street and autocross? Street/strip? Also, is it fair to assume that your power brakes, power steering, and A/C are still in place and functional? No future power adder like a turbo, supercharger, or nitrous?

Ah, now I am showing my age. I do remember Jim McKay and Wide World of Sports. I would always cringe everytime I saw Vinko Bogataj crash off the ski jump as McKay said "...and the Agony of Defeat". The famous show intro >https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fi69utdvDcA Vinko's famous crash >https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKEDD1i4oGk

You won't...I am confident about that one buddy !

Before I make a suggestion, what else have you done to the car from a performance perspective and/or what else do you plan to do to it? Your cam should work in conjunction with all your performance mods.

What they don't tell you is at that speed, how far can you go at that speed? The Veyron consumes fuel at a tremendous rate at that speed. It can only sustain that speed for approximately 15 minutes before it runs out of fuel. So at 246.4 mph at 15 minutes (.25 of an hour) is 61.7 miles. Mind you, that is a damn quick 61.7 miles...its just not practical or sustainable.

From a pure mathematical perspective and simplicity, you divide your PSI by 14.7 to come up with your compression ratio. So 90 PSI equals 6.1:1 compression and 85 PSI is 5.7:1. So I would agree that your compression ratio is 6:1. Your cylinder #4 with the 85 PSI represents a 5-6% reduction in sealing efficiency from the other cylinders. So you may be headed for new set of rings or valves pretty soon. Something is letting you loose some compression on every stroke. Since you just re-did the cylinder head, I suspect the rings as being the likely candidate.

I also think the matte black does a lot to hide bad or faulty styling. I suppose you could call it "stealth styling". This front fascia looks like it has something to hide and it is accomplishing it remarkably well. Put the Magum grill on this thing and it would look better.

Check the switch contacts for dirt or corrosion. If you hold the switch forward and the lights remain fully bright and you let if fall to its normal high beam position, it should stay at the same power level. It may be possible that the switch is dirty or may need replacing.

Well, I got an issue of Car Craft in the mail yesterday. Seems they will be fulfilling my paid subscription to High Performance Pontiac from The Enthusiast Network (TEN), which is the new name for Source Interlink. I've kinda liked Car Craft over the years, I've just never liked it enough to subscribe. I suspect my longer term magazine reading will need to be seriously re-evaluated in the coming months. I am going to miss both High Performance Pontiac and Popular Hot Rodding. I've subscribed to PHR since 1979. So I will probably this that title the most since I was first hooked on it for their coverage of V8 Vegas back in the day. I loved their '57 Chevy Project X, of course. All the budget friendly project cars were great too. To me, that is what separated PHR from Hot Rod magazine. HR always did the mega builds that the average Joe could never afford. PHR did.

I love the idea of the Charger SRT Hellcat - I don't think Chrysler did themselves a favor with the new front clip on the Charger though. Looks too much like the Dart. I have not warmed up to this styling on this platform yet.

True JUSTA - you would be the one guy to suggest that on this forum ! I like that idea BTW. However, sinister poet, be sure to blueprint the entire motor with most of the parts and suggestions from above. Forced induction will require smaller compression pistons, but the added power will put stress on the rest of the engine - if you don't take precautions to handle that power correctly. As I often say through out this forum - do your homework. Talk to expert engine builders, pick their brain on what the best combination they think will work for your car, wants, needs, and most importantly, budget.

I beg to differ. The 6X-8 heads were on the 180 HP 400 motors, the 6X-4 heads were on the 200 HP 400 motors, starting in '77. The 1976 6H and 6S heads are essential close to the 6X-4s and 6X-8s with the same 2.11/1.66 intake and exhaust valves. The 6H, 6S, and 6X-8 heads were designed for motors with 7.6:1 compression ratios. The 6X-4 motors had a compression ratio of 8.0:1. Not statistically significant if you are moving up to 9.5:1 compression in the first place. I will say that given the number of Trans Ams and Formulas built in '77 and '78, the 6X heads should be plentiful and cheap....assuming the 455s original heads are gone or junk to begin with.

sinister poet. I have a 455 that has been bored out to a 462 (.030 over) in my '72 Lemans Sport convertible. So I can give you some tips. Based on what you've written, I am going to make some assumptions here. First, the car is going to be street driven. You'd like to have performance but have has to be able to run on pump gas. Your engine has to produce enough vacuum to support your power accessories so a race cam/heads is out of the question. Stratman and notallthere are correct in their recommendations. Butler is the premiere Pontiac engine builders in the country. Edelbrock makes a great performance aluminium head for Pontiacs. Short Block: Eagle crank, stock rods, JRE pistons, Melling oil pump, a hydraulic McKellar #10 cam profile from Melling, Clevite bearings, ARP studs and rod bolts everywhere, factory windage tray, BOP Engineering Vlitron rear main seal (not a factory style rope seal), stock oil pan (Melling reproduction if necessary). double timing chain/cam & crank sprocket, stock timing chain cover and water pump. block and rods shot peened and magnafluxed, block align honed Top end is a different animal since you have choices: Edelbrock, Kaufman, allpontiac.com produce aftermarket heads for Pontiacs. Even certain stock heads are desirable based on their cc's, intake and exhaust sizes. You have to do your homework on the stock heads to know which ones to get. Assuming your 455 has the original 6S or 6H heads, they quite good - they have with 2.11" intake and 1.66" exhaust valve. The 7M5 heads on my Lemans run 2.11/1.77. So some gasket matching/port/polishing and a triple angle valvel job is all I did to mine. My intake is an Edelbrock Performer RPM. I run a stock QJet carb. My compression is about 9.6:1 on 94 octane gas (no octane boost). The original factory intake 4-bbl manifolds are really quite good other than for weight. So unless you want to see a shiny aluminium manifold under the hood, you don't have to swap it out. I run a stock distributor with a Pertronix II Ignitor to replace the points and condensor. In your case, an re-built HEI is fine. I tun Comp Cam springs, push rods, and stamp steel roller rockers. Again, ARP studs and bolts all around. Exhaust: Doug's Headers, or factory re-production performance manifolds from Ram Air Restoration. Mandrel bent exhaust tubing. Your choice of mufflers - Pypes, Magnaflow, Flowmaster, Cherry Bomb, Thrush, Heart Throb, etc. There is a video series in another thread on this sight where another member has his 455 professionally built to run on E-85 fuel. I think the build tips are valid regardless of what you plan to do with your motor. http://foreverpontiac.com/topic/4211-pontiac-v8-engine-building-series-in-1080hd-on-vimeo/

I agree with SPRINT6 - call PHS first. That sounds like quite a family story. Why does your Dad want to get rid of it if it has been around so long?

According to the Standard Catalog of Pontiac 1926 - 2002 by John Gunnell, He reports that body style break outs were not available in 1931 and that total production was 84,708 cars. So PHS might be the only possible source, if any. All vehicles were assembled in Pontiac, Michigan. There were 6 different body styles for the series 401 Pontiacs produced in 1931, each with a different factory price. 31307 2 door coupe-2P $675 31308 2 door sport coupe-2/4P $715 31318 2 door convertible coupe - 2/4P $745 31301 2 door sedan - 5P $675 31309 4 door sdean - 5P $745 31319 4 door custom sedan - 5P $785