Here they are! The $1200.00 TTI headers I thought I would never see again!

No introduction is necessary for the detective who solved the case of the Hot Hemi Headers, Lt Columbo!

Interesting build. Keep up the good work.

Should you ever find out that you are missing any expensive car parts that you have ordered, and the company you ordered them from says that they delivered them, then check your local Craigslist ads,and you may be surprised at what you can find!

I picked up some sheet metal to make the lower sections of the inner front fenders for the stock car. I have not purchased any sheet metal in a while, and I was surprised how expensive it was. It was forty bucks a sheet for a 3 by 4 piece of 18 guage. I think I remember paying about half that the last time I bought some. I bought two pieces of sheet metal, and some glazing putty, and it cost $120.00!

Here is the sheet metal, and some thin cardboard to make the templates from. I hope to get started fabricating the inner front fenders soon!

I got the Daytona stock car up on the lift. Here are some pictures of the underside of the car.

More pics.

A few more pictures.

I have not updated this thread in a while, but I finally got back to work on the racecar. I spoke with my engine builder and he said that he could take the Hemi after Thanksgiving so I got it pulled out of the yellow 70 Charger R/T SE last night. Because of the known issues that the Mopar Performance crate Hemi engines from the era,I have always planned to have a machine shop go through the engine before running it. My friend has two 472 Hemi crate engines from Cummins, and both of them had issues. The first one had the wrong head gaskets on it,the rear main seal was installed backwards, and the rocker arm adjustment studs were over hardened causing them to be brittle, and three of them broke. His second 472 Hemi crate engine lunched the camshaft due to a batch of improperly hardened camshafts from Comp Cams. I bought my engine in 2004,and I have not run it yet. I have no way of knowing if my engine has any of the issues that my friends engines had, or if it has one of the improperly hardened camshafts in it. My friends engine that lunched the camshaft was still under warranty, so Cummins rebuilt it and sent it back to him and it has been fine since. Because I never ran my engine, the warranty is long over so if it were to fail it would be on me. Now that I am using the engine for the racecar, and I am using the Edelbrock 705 horsepower top end kit,this should take care of most of the issues that Cummins built Hemi engines from the era had. I will probably have to swap out the 9 to 1 compression pistons as well to make the horsepower that I am looking for.

After pulling the Hemi engine out, I started to disassemble the top end of the engine. So far, everything looks good, and the parts appear to be quality parts. But as I stated, I have no way of knowing if my engine has one of the improperly hardened camshafts in it. The camshaft is not showing any improper wear,but the engine has only 6 hours of run time on it by Cummins on their dyno. My friends engine passed the Cummins dyno test,and the camshaft failed shortly after the engine was installed in the car.

Now that I bought the Edelbrock 705 Horsepower Top End Kit, I will be using the cast iron Hemi heads on the 426 Hemi short block that I bought last year. This 426 Hemi engine will be going into the yellow 70 Charger R/T SE. I had planned to upgrade the 472 Hemi engine, so I bought an Indy mod man intake, and a camshaft and lifters matched to work with the intake manifold, dual Carter carbs, and TTI headers. All of these parts will be used to build the 426 Hemi engine.

When I get the 472 Hemi engine back from the machine shop, it will be broken in and tuned with the Fitech dual quad fuel injection system on it. I will have dyno numbers in hand when it is completed. The engine should be 100 percent and should run good and should stay in tune,with the roller cam and the fuel injection system. I am planning on bolting the cast iron Hemi heads on the 426 Hemi short block,and bolting it into the racecar for mockup for the exhaust system, and determine if the rack and pinion steering system that is currently in the car can be used with the Hemi engine. It appears that the steering shaft has to go where the oil pump is on the Hemi engine. I may have to go with a different type of steering system on the car.

Once I get the mockup engine in the car,I am reaching the point where I will have to find a racecar fab shop to setup the chassis, steering, rear axle and brake system. I am hoping to find a competent shop that can set the car up to a road course setup, so it can be driven on the street and on autocross courses. I will also want to know how to setup the car for banked circle track use as well for the few occasions when I go to wingcar meets at racetracks.

I bought this 472 Hemi crate engine in 2005 as I stated, it was built by Cummins for Mopar Performance at the end of 2004. As anyone who bought a new Mopar Performance crate Hemi between when they were introduced to the public, and up until Mopar Performance switched vendors from Cummins knows,that these engines should be dismantled by a competent machine shop and gone through to check for subpar parts and assembly issues. I have seen and heard horror stories about them. When I bought my engine, my friend had just finished installing his first 472 Hemi crate engine in his car, and his second 472 Hemi crate engine was still in the crate, and the car it was going into was still under construction. When I started hearing that his first engine was leaking coolant and oil shortly after he started running the engine, and the fact that Cummins put head gaskets for a 528 Hemi engine on his 472 Hemi engine, and then he found out that the rear main seal was installed backwards, I started wondering what I got myself into! Then after my friends first engine started breaking the rocker arm adjustment studs, which wiped out one rocker arm, and fortunately with the use of a telescopic magnet we were able to retrieve the broken pieces of the adjustment studs before they caused catastrophic engine failure, I was starting to panic about the possibility of major issues with my engine. It only got worse when my friends second 472 Hemi engine lunched the camshaft due to an improperly hardened camshaft for Comp Cams. Soon after that I started reading other horror stories of major issues and catastrophic failures with the Cummins assembled Mopar Performance crate Hemi engines, I was sick! I paid 13 grand for an engine that I was afraid to even run! When we pulled the oil pan on my friends first engine, we found out that it didn't even have a windage tray in it. To me a windage tray is very important to the survival of a second generation Hemi engine, as they are known for top end oiling issues at high RPMs. The windage tray helps keep the oil in the pan,where it has access to the pickup for the pump,instead of the oil balling up around the crankshaft caused by centrifical force,causing possible oil starvation issues. So after seeing and hearing the stories, I just let the engine sit in the car and never ran it for the last 13 years, only rotating in occasionally to keep it turning freely. I am looking forward to having my machine shop completely going through the engine, and upgrading it with the Edelbrock top end kit, Fitech dual quad fuel injection system, and running it on the dyno. I will finally be able to use the engine for its intended purpose.

My friend took the broken rocker arm adjustment studs, and had them tested,and found out that they were over hardened, using a test called a Rockwell test. Mopar Performance was pointing fingers at Cummins, and Cummins was pointing fingers back at Mopar Performance, saying that they supplied subpar parts. After seeing the problems with the engines, I determined that they both were at fault. It almost seemed like Mopar Performance was buying blem parts from parts manufacturers! By blem parts,I mean parts that didn't meet the requirements of the manufacturer's specifications, and Cummins assembly work on these engines was subpar at best! Between the over hardened studs,and the improperly hardened camshafts, I truly believe that this was the case.

I got my Christmas wish today! I delivered my 472 Hemi engines short block to the machine shop today! Forward progress is always good!

It's still Christmas time for the Daytona stock car! My new MSD Pro Billet distributor, and FiTech hyper fuel pump for the dual quad fuel injection system came in today. The spark plug wires are still being shipped. I should have almost everything that will be needed to run the 472 Hemi engine on the dyno when the engine builder is ready!

The Fitech hyper fuel,fuel pump system for the dual quad fuel injection system.

When I got to the bottom of the box from Summit Racing, I found that they sent me a Hellcat too