Projects Wild 577" Blown Injected AWB Tempest Funny Car build...for the street!

But thank you kindly for making this documentary and taking the time to answer all the questions.
I believe it's safe to say the pleasure is all ours. Tom S.

(hate to say this, but I must; Thank goodness for HAMB. I'd pay good $$ for this in a book)

 

Best of luck on your build Steve, it looks great. Bill

 

Thanks again for the nice words and encouragement Bill and everyone.

Here are the next series of build pics of the main body.

Here is my friend Bill, a few decades my senior, starting to weld on the car. Now, I was not comfortable with him gas welding the quarters. I knew it would make a mess, and it did. Bill is a smart guy with a lot of experience but, I am no beginner either. sometimes Bill and I would differ on they way certain things were to be done and it would cause some friction between us . Still, it was my car.



I kept telling Bill we should mig weld it. Finally after much effort, I convinced Bill to mig weld. I have a nice Miller machine and showed him how simple mig welding was. Later, he became a believer in wire/mig welding.
I ended up doing all the final welding on the car after he tacked stuff together. Later, I also ended up doing all the finish body work as well. Still, Bill deserves very much credit in helping me build this car and I am grateful to him .

Once the gas welding was put away for good, we continued on this very cool build.

Here is how we made the wheel houses- cut and stretch just like in 1965. Pre made tubs would have been out of place on a build like this. Also, this way was cheaper.



Here is the left side going together





This picture shows clearly how much was changed from stock. As before, a stock '64 GTO is in the background ( same as '65 Tempest wheelbase). Many altered wheelbase cars do look kinda' goofy ( funny I guess ) as their body lines do not look right. It is my opinion that this change actually looks better than stock, or at least, as nice as stock. I am very pleased with the amount of rear wheelbase change and think.

 

Holy Monkey!!!!

That is one WILD motor you are putting together!!! (I guess three wild motors...)

I have a 1962 194.5 tempest motor in my son's T roadster, I'll have to keep my eye out for a lone head to do some tinkering with!

 

Holy Jess Tyree Batman!.....Thanks for letting us in on this build.

 

Steve, I was following this on PY so exciting!!! I always wanted to do this also the BRUTUS GTO was always my favorite. Keep on posting and it looks great!!!

 

This thing is going haul some serious ass!

 

Love those late 50's and early 60's Pontiacs and their engines! I'll be watching the build for sure.

 

Love it! Going to watch this build!

 

Keep posting I'm hooked.

 

If ol' Bill is out there and can see this, I know your pain around these kids

I never learned to TIG either, but still had all our moly cars SEMA'd none the less.
Inspectors used to be old school aircraft tradesmen too!

Finished quarters look great, no warpage in the photographs, but then I never learned how to finish body&fender work without filler though.
Bill wasn't going to lead those seams was he ? Tom S. in Tn.

 

Here are a few pics of my spare set of deck plates should I build a 2nd 577". they resemble torque plates but, are completely custom made from scratch. If memory serves me well, the material is 1020 cold rolled steel. the odd shaped opening for the push rods were made to accept both normal Pontiac wedge heads and the M/T HEMI style.



This set is not machined as far as the mounted pair are.
Both sets of these plates ( 4 total ) were surfaced ground flat before mating the 1st pair to the '59 389 block.




Earlier in this thread, I mentioned I had 2 raw block forging made so I can carve out my own Top fuel Pontiac engine blocks. Here they are. When discussing this project with my friends, we decided the one thing we could not do easily was to bore the length of the block for the cam. So, I had that done in a slight undersize. This leaves many options to me including a larger cam bore, etc.





As time allows, these engines will get the same bottom end the 577 has as shown earlier. Other design improvements will be incorporated too that is beyond this threads subject.

 

whats your bore spacing going to be?
im assuming the cam is going to be moved up for a larger stroke?
is this going to be similar to a donovan tall block with a 5" bore space when it comes to CID?

 

whats your bore spacing going to be?
im assuming the cam is going to be moved up for a larger stroke?
is this going to be similar to a donovan tall block with a 5" bore space when it comes to CID?

 

The bore spacing will remain stock Pontiac at 4.62" My primary application for the block forgings is nostalgia Top Fuel. Engines in this class are all around 400 inches. Not planning to raise the cam as there is plenty of room even for my 4.800" stroke crank thanks to Pontiacs design that dates back to 1955. Even so, have a pair of Crower 3.75" stroke billets and see no need, at this time, for a different stroke for N T/Fuel.
cars in this class run in the mid to high 5s at around 250.
some of the basic rules-

12" nostalgia tire
no transmission, direct drive
3.90 rear gear
6-71 blower
1 magneto, 1 spark plug per cyl
15% overdrive.

I may later run a 'hotter' combo for match racing and absolute ET/MPH attemps.
Also want to eventually build, or buy, a streamliner for wheel driven speed record attemps, Bonneville, etc.

There is still the distant possibility to build an alum tall deck 577" if a need is seen.

 

gotcha- thanks for the explanation. i worked on a super comp/super pro, and my machinist is putting a 860CID nitrous engine..... was just curious. thanks!

 

That steel will be beyond bullet proof, but just out of curiosity, wouldn't aluminum been a little easier to handle and work with ?
Have you projected what the finished block will weigh ? How about the whole completed engine ?
Sorry for all the questions and interruptions, but this is most interesting to follow.
Tom S. in Tn.

 

Damn, what does a forging like that cost?

 

Wow, you're not messing around!!! I'm speechless......

 

Excellent post!

 

Steve, add these to your list of suspension mods needed!

 

Steve,
I am blown away by what you have going on here...speechless.

I am going to be in Phen, AZ March 20th for a few days for work...wish it was the 30th.

 

Thanx Richard. I was really afraid to ask that one. Tom S.

 

Please do not ever be sorry about asking questions here. Having people showing interest in this build also motivates me to finish it sooner and, hopefully, will encourage others will some of my ideas.
Tom, your point may be valid, not sure. remember, most of this thought and build was done 15-20 years ago. I know more now than I did then. Still, I was advised to use steel since it will be ( is ) bolted, torqued directly to the block and a custom iron sleeve fitted into it.
Yes, alum much easier to work on, etc.
Weight? hmm, a million pounds! it is a heavy one 'fer sure'. Another reason why I do not plan to put it in the Fueler. Remember, as mentioned earlier, this is a 'down stream' or 'putter' project now. Have more powerful engines and designs, primarily on nitro, , than this 577" that is why i am making it s street/strip deal.
On the other hand, there are guys who race that weigh 225-250 pounds. I weigh about 50 less than that and my T/F driver is 20-30 pounds lighter than me. I guess it is all relative. the block will also be hard blocked and am using a steel clutch can as my Fueler does.

 

I remember the pair costing me 5-6 grand. I supplied all the dimensions and type of metal. Both were certified, etc.
this was a time when I was working a lot of overtime and had money to burn. Glad I bought them when I did. could not afford it now.

 

he he. I would love to be able to learn to drive the car most of the length of the track on the back tires for exhibition runs. Much more coming on this build and many more ideas and custom stuff. Most all of it 'home made'.

 

Look me up my Christain brother! lets break some bread 480-899-7873 I am outside of the city of Maricopa, about 40 min from the airport.

 

Here are a few pics of the competition supercharger drives I designed and made for myself and have sold some too. There are no competition drives available for Pontiacs so, I did it myself with help from friends.





the drive on the Tempest will be almost exactly like this.

 

ooops, my mistake. I thought those 2 big forgings on the pallet where steel. Sorry, sometimes I can't interpret what I see on the screen too well. Thanx kindly; Tom S.

 

OK, I thought your question concerning using steel was about the 2" deck plates for the tall deck. yes, block forgings are high qualilty, forged and certified alum. Not sure what they weigh as delivered, would guess 500-600 pounds each?
when I was ordering these, I was referrring to them as 'ingots'. the company told me an 'inigot, is a casting. These are actual forgings with grain structure, etc. Much stronger, more dense than an ingot. That is why they are referred to as 'forgings'
Most of the patterns to carve out the block are finished too. in an earlier post, there is a pic of an alum Ram Air V block. When I bought that casting, it was raw except for the cam bore. Some friends and I ( who have more skill than me at the time ) , made patterns and tools to align things off of the cam bore. We were able to put in the mains, oil pan patern, timing cover, thrust plate, bell, deck, lifters, etc.
With this tooling, I will carve these out myself on a large mill. No cnc deal, it will be real do it yourself. It will not be as pretty as a billet cnc peice but, since this is a hamb, I should be here in the right place to tell this.