1998
1998 was going to be a huge year. In late 1997 I finally decided to buy some aluminum heads. I was ready to go to the next level of performance. So, I opted for a pair of Edelbrock Performer RPM aluminum heads with the big valve (2.02 intake and 1.60 exhaust). I chose the big valve head for the potential. I only wanted to buy a set of heads once, and these will work for me down the road on a newer and better shortblock.
This turned out to be a bigger project than first anticipated. Both financially and the work involved. Not only did I have to buy the heads, but I needed new stud mounted rocker arms (Crane Gold Race Rockers 1.60 ratio), hardened pushrods, gaskets, and new valve covers to clear the new, bigger rocker arms. Also, I had to put valve reliefs in my pistons for clearance. We thought about taking the pistons out and off the rods and send them to a machine shop for the necessary fly cutting. But, why spend money on a stock short block? So....we decided to fly cut the pistons in place. I got two old valves (intake and exhaust) and made cutters out of them. Then, I dissassembled one of my new heads and put the cutters in the valve guide and set up a stop mechanism and fly cut my pistons by putting a drill on the end of the valve stem. Then, when I had the desired depth, I used a hand held die grinder to gain the lateral clearance I needed. After this full day's work, I used some clay and measured my clearances. This worked perfect!
At the same time as this, my car was motorless, so I decided to have my engine compartment painted to match the rest of the car. The stock white engine compartment looked absolutely horrible compared to the rest of the car. Along with this, I got my white cowl hood painted. Unfortunately, racing season was coming up fast and I was running out of time, so I left the '90 style front and back bumper covers black.
I only missed one race this season, and it turned out ok. I picked up a lot with the new heads and rockers. But, one day when I was backing out of my driveway, I put the car in reverse and heard a loud bang. I thought "uh oh" and then backed out of my driveway as normal. But, the next time I tried reverse, there was nothing. I blew out the reverse band in my trans!
So, out the tranny comes and down to the trans shop again. I was thinking for a while about how I'd like a bigger stall convertor. Well, now was the time to do it. I opted for a custome built 10'' convertor that flashes to about 3200rpm. I got the car all back together (without missing a race) and head to the track once again. I'm going faster again! This is starting to get really fun now. I knocked two tenths off my 60 foot time and picked up some mph!
After a few more races and getting my new combination all dialed in, I decide I should take my car down the 1/4 mile once again. Going into this, I was crossing my fingers and hoping for a sub 13 second e.t. with my mph around 105. Well, it wasn't meant to be. I clocked off a 13.18 @ 101.7mph with a 1.85 60 foot time. I can't complain, though. I knocked off more than one full second, gained over 5mph, and 2 tenths off my 60 foot time.