57 Chevy Gasser

Well, this is a little bit about how easy it is to get sidetracked and go from one project to another, and it can happen for many reasons. This all started when I was cleaning my shop to get a little more room to organize My Camaro parts so they didn't end up lost, and realized that that I had collected all the parts to put my first love 57 Chevy Gasser back together that I showed in outdoor shows from 1979 to 1989. Since it had been a garaged for the past 20 years, and the fact that I now had EVERYTHING I needed to put my baby back on the road with a brand new Attitude... once again the Camaro project was put on hold while I emptied shelfs one by one (remember I needed more room?) and put the parts in one place where they belonged. I have now created a freaking monster that I never dreamed of, that now drives out of the garage instead of being pushed, while satisfying my right foot's desire to bend the floorboards at the same time. Now my baby of over 30 years has a 871 Blown Small Block that dynoed out with 768 HP @ 7500 RPM, and over 680 Ft Lbs of Torque from 2500 to 6200 RPM on pump gas. Knowing full well that if I raced it without a cage and broke out of the 10:99 class I would be banned permanently from the drag strip... I went to one too far away for regular runs, promised them it was a just going to be a shakedown run, lined up and ran a 9:66 @ 141 MPH on the first (and only pass)!! I was then IMMEDIATELY escorted off of the premisis by the maddest bunch of assholes I have ever seen, and waited while they took a photo copy of my drivers license, and then a picture of me in front of the car, pictures of my truck and trailer, and then was told in no uncertain terms that if I ever came back, they would rip off my head and shit in my neck... and I'm tellin ya what, after seeing them walking in circles about 35 mph and frothing with their eyes all bugged out with smoke coming out of every oraface on their bodies while they looked for something metal over 3/16 thick to chew on instead of my ass... I plan on keeping my promise this time, after they told me they would come and take turns kicking MY ass if anyone who even LOOKED like me was ever seen there again... some guys just can't take a joke I guess, but I probably had it coming, and finally quit shaking after tossing them a barden bumper to munch on knowing I was outa there without a new collection of knots on my mellon, sporting lumber the entire 100 mile trip home...
When I made this run, I had the blower set up one to one, and ran 110 octane race gas, as the final compression ratio with 12 lbs of boost was close to 18:to 1. My MSD Boost Timing Master kept detonation to a minimum when making the maiden run... but when I got home and started driving it on the street again I encountered a problem.
The 1st problem was, it's against my genetic makeup to take horsepower away from anything I drive once I have it.
The 2nd problem was, forgetting to reprogram the Boost Timing Master to eliminate detonation with 93 octane pump gas.
The 3rd problem was I was foolish enough to think I would be able to "hear" detonation, as when you are on the throttle the only thing you can hear is the motor buzzing up to 8500 RPM plus, tires (305x15 Comp TA's) complaining from lack of traction, and the sheer delight of hauling ass on the edge of being out of control. After several eticket rides to scare the crap out of my buddies and shifting it @ 9000 RPM, a noise started coming from the motor while putting it on the trailer at a car show several weeks after my last bonsai run. I was having trouble pinpointing where it was coming from, as there was no loss of oil pressure, overheating, and it still ran on all 8 with no miss or any other signs of catastrophic failure . So dejected because I had only had it back together 4 months and wanting to work on my Camaro, I decided it had been apart too many years and ran now... and opted to put the Camaro on hold again and pulled the motor out for teardown. I wanted to identify the problem before I was able to see parts sticking out of the oil pan, block etc. giving me the answer without disassembly. When I took the Blower and intake off, there was babbit in the valley, so right then and there I knew I was screwed. After pulling the pan, I found a spun rod bearing which told me detonation had indeed occured. Thinking that was the extent of the problems I was optimistic and started a complete disassembly to clean the babbit out of the various places it probably went... then reality me like a hammer. Funny thing is I never heard anything even at idle indicating any other problems existed, but when the heads came off I was welcomed by 8 melted 7:1 to 1 blower pistons, with 2 out of the 8 missing chunks from the top down to the 2nd ring land. What was even stranger, I could find no pieces of the pistons, and the melted part of the pistons had actually bonded itself to the stainless steel valves, and looked like it was "power coating" that had been sprayed on the valves. So now my prepped and blueprinted short block, steel crank, TRW blower pistons, polished rods etc. was a boat anchor. Bummed out completely I couild not bring myself to cripple it for another 20 years, and made the decision to get another block and components and reassemble it, knowing I would have to fess up to being stupid instead of making up an excuse for the meltdown . Now close to $10 thousand dollars later, it runs again and I have learned a lesson once again that I already learned years ago. Removing horsepower is one thing... being stupid and ignoring the principals and physics of the effect boost has on your final compression ratio and blowing up a high dollar motor to teach myself a sickening lesson is quite another. My advise to all of you... don't be blind to things you know will hurt your motor because you are having so much fun driving something like you stole it. Now with the blower running 12% underdriven, a different cam, and the Boost Timing Master set up pump gas and for the conditions the car is being driven under on the street, it still runs as good (although I haven't ran it through the 1320 yet) and I am finally getting a start on the original project.... My 67 ProStreet Camaro, with Yenko implications...

So there ya have it... after a brief detour I have a bunch of shelf space for my Yenko Camaro parts, gaining a half a dozen new friends at the race track that I won't need to send Christmas cards to, and
got that itch scratched so I can take my time putting the Camaro together... with a 525 cubic inch monster, sporting an old 8 stack Hilborn Fuel Injection setup converted to EFI, to make it driveable
on the street, still haul ass, and something you don't see at every car show you go to.

My first love... 57 Chevy Gasser