Now you know why i quit racin Billy! Now i have a 65 monaco with the old motor from Thor and a stock cam(it's a HOOT)

I'm lucky that my wife puts up with all car stuff..
she knew last year that I wanted to go on drag week..
big time and she knew I still had lots of work to do
to be ready... I spend almost every day in the shop
working on the car but I am also catching up on my
honey-do list... but when the car is done she wants
to drive it also.. so that helps.... good luck Billy

Boone has been spending Christmas/ New years in Phoenix for 8 years in a row, and that first year, being a running enthusiast, he forced my entire family to join him in a 5K race. At the time, I weighed around 315, so the chance I would enjoy running was pretty much nonexistent, competition however, well yeah, that's the hook I wasn't expecting! Over the years we've worked our way up from 5K to 50 milers, and now fixed time events, first 12 hours, then 24 hours, and now multi-day events. This year, he did the 72 hour race, and I attempted the 48 hour race. This is done on a 1.1 mile course at one of the major league spring training facilities here in Phoenix.
Running this kind of event is about as crazy as taking a drag car set up to conquer the 1/4 mile, and trying to drive it from track to track! Just like having a front row seat to watch Larry Larsen, and Jeff Lutz throwing down 7.0 runs, and driving around, at this event we were sharing this 1 mile track with some of worlds premier ultra distance athletes, watching in awe as 2 world records, a Canadian National women's record, and an Irish National men's record were all set! Another thing this event had in common with Drag Week? Yeah, just like the two broken cars I loaded on the trailer, I left this event lying on a cot in the medical tent with 8 hours of the 48 left unused! I had checked into the med tent to get the tape on my feet changed out, and during the process, (My feet were hamburger by this point) I remember telling the medic, "I'm feeling pretty light headed"... the next thing I knew, he and 2 concerned looking runners were standing over me saying "Sir, sir, are you Okay?". One of the others commented, "Your eyes rolled up in your head, and you fell out of your chair, and went out for 20 seconds!"
Every time my Wife would have to change the bandages on my feet for the next week, and help me into shoes that I had split the toe boxes at the top just to get my swollen feet in and go to work, she would look me in the eye, shake her head, and say, "You are an IDIOT!"
A cold I had picked up at the race, along with the feet, pretty much precluded me from touching the cars the first 2 weeks of the new year, just as the cold was wearing off, the Flu nailed everyone in the house, so January was pretty much a total waste!

As February rolled around, I turned back to the Belvedere with an eye towards Mopars At The Strip. I hadn't been since 2008, and that was the first time I took part in the MoPower cruise up from Phoenix, which was Dad, Ben and I in an underpowered 360 4 door dually pulling two race cars, so the cruise up wasn't exactly thrilling!
One of the things Rachael had complained about on Drag Week was loose steering on the Belvedere, and we tracked the problem down to the shaft coupler. Darryl shook his head when he saw the slop in it, "Someone put that together wrong, I've got a re-build kit, just drop the column out and change it now, with the head and header out of the way, it'll be easy!"
"Uh, I've never removed a column from one of these cars..."
He looked at me incredulously, "WHAT? You've rebuilt engines, transmissions, rearends, and never pulled a column?"
"Nope"
"4 Bolts or so in the floor, couple under the dash, 15 minutes!"
"You said it would only take us an hour to put the Hemi Leafs under this thing!"
He laughed, "Didn't account for 40+ years of rusted, caked on crap under this car!"

Late January, I had received 2 50 off 250 coupons from Summit, as I have two different account numbers...so I had to use them right? You'd think it would take some work to put together 2 250 dollar orders, but really it's just as easy as making the Wife mad at me! Or possibly, the boxes showing up at the front door from the former, result in the latter...I do believe there may be a connection somehow.
A set of Cometic head gaskets for the Stealths, new bathtub for the 440, VC studs and gaskets, Lucas oil, couple sets of NGK's, huge tranny cooler for the Belvedere, deep cast aluminum pan for the Belvedere, A TF3 kit since Dad lost my valve body, it adds up quick. Then near the end of February, I noticed that everyone seemed to be clearing out a certain set of Diamond pistons, and I began to understand why. The common 4.15 stroke piston for a 440 is for the 6.76 rod since most of those cranks are mopar pin. this piston works fine with 4.25 stroke chevy pin combos, because everyone just uses the 6.700 chevy rod. Someone at Diamond felt there was a need for a shelf piston, 4.25 stroke for the 6.76 rod, but chevy pin 6.76 rods aren't that common. Fortunately for me, I have a nice set of Manley 2.200, 6.76, .990 rods on the shelf from a previous deal, and visions of a 512 under those Stealths started to take shape! Problem was, I used the wife's Ebay and Paypal account to purchase them...this coming just after the Summit boxes had arrived, she was not amused and had no qualms in letting me know about it!!

I hatched a new plan, it was time for my own Ebay and paypal account! Then, it happened. You all have a Mopar Bucket list right? That car you've always wanted, or that famous part that you've always missed by a day or a dollar?

Well, for me a 67 GTX is probably never going to happen, the Belvedere will just have to work, but another coveted part has always been a Weiand Six Pack Tunnel Ram, and wouldn't you know it, hours after opening my account, there one is, and no-one is bidding on it!
Long story short, 6 days later, the intake, a set of manual secondary carbs, and a GSS breather are on their way to the compound! In hindsight, the arrival of these parts just 10 days after the pistons...probably not one of my smartest moves! It paled in comparison to 4 days later, when I left my Ebay account open on the PC, and she came home and saw what I paid for those parts! She even printed off a copy to stick in my face, or send to her lawyer, I'm not sure which!

Some dudes get all the puddin'

http://www3.sympatico.ca/big-d/2X4.htm

If this guys results are any indication you should be happy with that intake. He has lots of old school tech that works.

Kevin

Kevin,
Great meeting you and yours at the Firebird National event! Wished that impromptu bench racing session with you, Al, and Darryl could have continued on, but it cooled off fast when the sun went down.

Joel,
I actually entered the belvedere under the Wife's name this year, think her and the daughter would have a great time together, but it's still gonna be a hard sell.

ksj,
I'll let YOU tell my wife she's the trunk monkey! I'm not going down that path...

Chris,
Enjoyed our conversation at MATS, highlight of my weekend, actually!

Rod,
Thanks to you and the Mrs. for your hospitality and help at MATS. It was great to meet you, and the whole "Team Confusion" gang.

Dave,
She's a big Ebay shopper, so If I don't complain about that, and how much the UPS guy visits the house, she'll be OK!

Devilbrad,
I have a request in for more pics, hopefully in a week or two, although I honestly don't think they have done much since last year.

Ray,
The 76 is a cool car, but I'm starting to call my son, OEM Ben! He has a service manual, and he's already switched it back from an edelbrock to a t-quad, and he's wanting to ditch the chrome breather for a more factory appearing one.

StockerBill,
Really miss racing and hanging out with you, my friend.

Mr P Body,
The Wife handles the car stuff very well, but I've been pushing the envelope of what she can handle for 30 years, and sometimes she decides to push back!

rt66jim,
At the time I went out of the race, little brother was only 10 miles ahead of me, and passed out in bed. That and I was only 20 miles away from a 100 mile belt buckle!
Yeah, I know, who would run 100 miles for a belt buckle? But yes, I need to train better next year, and be ready!

Billy Saw you and your car on Hot Rod TV, dragweek episode!
WOW I sort of know someone who lives and writes cool stories AND is a TV Star. Can I have your autograph?
Thanks for the hard work of sharing these EXCELLENT adventures!!!
Don

Where was I? Time is moving by faster than my updates that's for sure. I finally finished bolting everything back on the Belvedere two weeks before Mopars At The Strip. I fired it up Sunday morning March 10th, and she backfired, spit and coughed. I switched the front 2 plug wires around after a cursory examination, and tried again. Backfiring in the exhaust on one cylinder on the driver's side. I cursed my luck, If only I had taken that head to the shop while I had it off! Apparently one of the exhaust valves was bent or burnt. I was so angry at myself, I pulled it back down that very day. The machine shop called later in the week with bad news, "Those valve seats aren't hardened, and it's pretty hammered...I can repair this one, but the other one can't be much better".
I decided right then and there, the CNC Stealths and Cometic head gaskets were going to be pressed into duty on the 440. Thursday night, after work, I removed the other head, and prepared everything to get the heads on over the weekend, but HotRod was announcing the tracks for Drag Week 2013, and registration was to go live on Friday. I was nervous, very nervous, that it would fill up quick even though many of the veterans were downplaying the possibility of that happening.

I headed off to work Friday, March 15th with my mind definitely NOT on the duties at hand. HOT ROD was going to send all past participants a 6 hour head start E-mail for registration to begin, before they opened the floodgates to the un-washed masses. The fact that Bowling Green was the host track, and furthest east on the route had dampened my enthusiasm, but Boone said he was definitely taking the truck, so I figured I would at least take the Belvedere as his sidekick. So I told my son as I walked out the door, "Let me know when I get that E-mail, so I will know when the countdown starts"!

My son called me at 11:15 Am, "You got your E-mail at 11:00"!
Great, that meant it would open to everyone at 5pm, and I wouldn't be home until 5:30... I'm probably overreacting, "Calm down, you'll make it" I assured myself.

At 1pm I had a trailer delivery that would give me the option of getting by the house If I needed to, so I called and had the boy check out Bangshift.com to see how many people were registered already. "80 or so by the looks of things", he replied. Sheez, 80 in 2 hours, I was going by the house!
I hit the front door at 2:30, and booted my wife off the kitchen PC, and promptly entered the Valiant. Entry #157! Entered Boone's truck as he gave me his info over the phone, #164, Entered the Belvedere as fast as I could type, #174!
I headed off to finish my workday feeling almost as good as I used to feel after those "Nooners" in college!!

Dale called an hour later, "Why didn't you enter me", he queried. "Figured you didn't want to tow all the way to Bowling Green!" "Well, I'm in, #186.
When I finally got home from work, Boone called to let me know that Darren had entered, and was #228, only 22 entries left!
I decided to call Darryl, and he was feigning disinterest. "Ah, I'll wait 'til tomorrow."
"It's gonna fill up in the next 30 minutes, get on there!"
"The link in my e-mail won't work"
He was stalling for time, I could see right through that. "Just copy and paste it into the address bar!"
I badgered him through the entire process until he finally, reluctantly, pushed the enter button, and was rewarded with entry #249, one to spare!
So 6 mopars entered, only 1 actually capable of moving under it's own power...here we go!

...then, 14 hours later, the Saltines met their untimely end. Was it the pistons? The sixpack tunnel ram? The entry fees? Or a cumulative effect of the whole thing? I may never know!

I almost didnt enter like 3 times then said screw it I have to do it again. Had to go home and tell the wife how much it cost because I used the debit card.

Ok, so the Wife is furious, but her unleashing of that anger meant she was wore out afterwards, and ambled off for a nap. I was pre-entered for MATS, and the hotel was paid for, so I had to get to work on the Belvedere!
I managed to spend the rest of Saturday bolting on the stealths, and everything else except the headers. Sunday morning I jumped up and finished everything else. 11am was the moment of truth, the 440 fired to life, and immediately started popping through the exhaust on the drivers side, identical to the way it sounded with the 906's! Now, I set about tracking the wires in earnest, and realized someone had dropped the dist. in 180 out, and just built the wires to match, so my previous cursory glance was in error! Switch the back 2, no more problems, except for that nagging feeling that when my wife calls me a moron, she may be closer to being right than I'd like to admit!

With the Mopower cruise scheduled for Thursday morning, it didn't look like I would get time to put the new, deep pan, and cooler on the tranny, but it made a good pass on Rachael's last run, so surely it had one more weekend of fun left in it, right?

Thursday Morning, I jumped up, and headed out in the Belvedere, 65 miles to Earnhardt Dodge in Tempe for the start of the cruise. 65 miles in the opposite direction of Las Vegas from my house! So, the free breakfast and free t-shirt set me back a half a tank of gas, but I had a good time anyway. I was really enjoying the cars, and not feeling too bad about the belvedere's rough and tumble, down and dirty street racer looks until it happened. Everyone turned to the street as it rumbled into the parking lot, a Turbine Bronze 67 GTX, with oversized RO Superstock hoodscoop, oversized gleaming magnum 500 wheels, and oversized Stage V hemi with a 5 speed, and cage! They parked in the row almost directly across from the belvedere, and there I stood looking from my reality in the form of a 440 67 Belvedere, to my dream of an immaculate 67 Hemi GTX, and realizing quite starkly, "I can't get there from here!"

The drive up to Vegas was very enjoyable, and it was really the first time I had spent any time driving the Belvedere. It turned out to be a fairly warm afternoon, and on some of the long climbs, I could smell the trans, and feel the temp rising through the floorpan... not good!
The highlight of the drive was playing around with a bright yellow Superbird on the long, flat, straight run from Kingman to Boulder city. We were clipping along at 80 or so, and then would take turns blasting by each other at 95! Just good clean American Muscle Mopar Fun...in 2013.

Glad to see you got it out and playing with the big B..
I should be on the road within a few weeks

116 days till dragweek 2013

Love these threads...please keep the posts coming.....