School me with some tales of horsepower..... Are injection units for the 401/425 hard to find(for racing)? I have found out quite fast that blowers are hard to come by(manifolds) Is there any other good sources?
Hey Jeff........here are some new ones. Pricey though. http://www.hilborninjection.com/product.asp?Id=377&CatId=193
Injection units appear every now and then, though they tend to go for good money. My understanding is that one of the "injection" manufacturers still has some, but the new ones aren't cheap. Hampton blowers lists a Nailhead blower kit, I would think that would mean they have a manifold but haven't checked with them. As for horsepower, if you're looking for a big number the Nailhead isn't the engine. Now a big torque number with a nice flat line down low, that'll happen. There is a problem getting them to breath past 5500. The money it takes to get them past that is kind of steep. LOL, Mr. DW beat me to it while I was typing...
I spoke to Don Hampton about his setup.....nice man yea...he has intakes for Blowers..... Naw,Zman...I understand Nails....Big on torque and non revvers.. David... thanks very much.! I wanted to know specifically what price range a older injection set up was(ball park) this is RACE only app....not STREET.
Some people don't and spend a ton trying to change them, it tickles me some times. But I figured you would. Did Don say what he wanted for a setup?
zman/ Don wants $1100 for an intake and $3600 for a complete system. A very nice man to speak to. I was checking with a local fellow who runs(for many years at bonneville) A fine gentleman, Gary Weldon who campaigns a A roadster with a 401.....and asking him about these motors.... He mentioned off the cuff.. that nailheads respond much better to injection,rather than supercharging.....I never got into details,but he sure knows more than I. a coupla guys ran a blown potvin blower in a Fiat....way back in the day.,,, More research is needed and any real life expeirance is more than welcome. I have a 63 401 and have a hankering to race......drag race
If you go with injection look up Gessler head porting. They do the best job at making a nailhead flow. Tom Telesco makes roller rockers for them, infact there is not much that you cant get from either Gessler or here, http://www.v8buick.com/forumdisplay.php?f=9 Also check this place out, they make a nice timing chain cover. Its hard to find a good aftermarket one, http://buicknailheads.com/ Doc.
He is nice fella. Ran into him on the salt several years ago and told him to stop by my place in Salt lake (when I lived there) I gave him some nailhead parts I had lying around. I told him he could have em' for free and he ended giving me 20 bucks as a tip. Nice gent.
Also check this out, Edelbrock are looking at doing some Nailhead parts. Vote for what you want. I went with the heads. http://survey.constantcontact.com/po...8bq/start.html Doc.
i picked up my nailhead hilborn unit about a year ago for $1000 it came with a hilborn fuel pump also for it. i plan on running mine on the street as well as racing it once and a while for fun, ill be running a 59 364, i will also be running a packard trans behind it. i havent gotten to the motor build yet but im thinking on having the heads ported out, and a good perfomance cam and that will probably be about the only major mods on the motor, mine is 10.25 compression from the factory too, im not looking to make a million horse, just have some fun, but i know it will problably make decent power and be fun to drive, 300 hp, 405 ftlbs torque from the factory, so i know it should improve some from there. JEFF
oh, on the note of a blower, i board and dont seem to know what to do with my time, so i picked up a 3 71 blower and have this 322 laying around, so im going to mill the intake parallel, and make a plate that bolts onto the intake to mount the 3 71 to, i know back in the day many blower intakes were made this way. well see if it will work, the only thing im worried about is the length of the drive snout. JEFF
Jeff, did you get anything else with the hilborn pictured? This just ended up im my lap a few weeks ago I talked to a guy outta Tenn. about running it on the street (yes, it's possible) only thing is the pump mounts, not made anymore and he said he's help figure some of the stuff out and help make it work. Just wondering if you had the fuel pump mounts too....pics please if you do. Thinking about picking up a few pieces here and there this winter and maybe making it happen for next summer. He did say the original stuff is hard to find and pricey if found, but it's out there.... mock up pic really makes me want to do it...
All i got was the manifold unit and a pump by itself, i was gonna run it off a v-belt as the flat type belt wasnt the style i was looking for, i found a bunch of v belt drive adaptors on ebay, but never pulled the trigger, well lately ive been enfatuated with running the fuel pump off a vintage hilborn dist drive adaptor, well i managed to get my hands on 1, its not for a nailhead but im going to modify it to fit it, then the hilborn adaptor takes a mopar distributor so i layed my hands on a spalding mopar base and had a spalding for a sbc laying around, so presto, i have a hilborn pump drive with a spalding on top of it! JEFF
I'll post some pics tomorrow of the one we are putting together. it is a N/A motor, but has some decent valves, some pocket porting done, modified guides and some other tricks. Should be pretty decent for a street car.
WOW....got a few more pics? wanna fab another one? could you maybe do some sort of tech here on what you did or what all needs to be done.
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