Hot Rods The "Whatever" project

I bet Bruce would gladly take it also. But, no, I haven't had a "backlog" of engines since the 70s. Besides, did you look at the ideas that ratrodder suggested? Maybe he can talk his father (my older brother) into letting us put it in his A Sport coupe. He doesn't know how many times I looked at the frame and one of the 350s in our mom's garage and made measurements to see what clearance issues I'd have had to deal with 45, 50 years ago...

 

So here's a question: are those heads reversible? If you could get the exhaust out the other side of one, then you could build a side by side engined vehicle like that twin Pontiac engined roadster on the cover of Hot Rod magazine back in the 60s. He had twin differentials so neither engine had to be reversed rotation. And with today's electronically controlled transmissions, it might actually be somewhat practical.

 

Dave
Here's the 355 in my moms' garage about 1975.

 

Here's mine, same timeframe
Outside of my mom's garage. 492 angle plug heads ported by Mondello, Hilborns on methanol, Reed roller cam, Vertex magneto, and 14:1 compression ratio. No idea what it put out, it was competitive with the typical carbureted big block engines running a single 4 barrel on gasoline. Those engines ranged from 440 cid, to just around 500 cid. And on 12% nitro one night, it ran like the proverbial raped ape, leading 33 laps of a 35 lap feature. Ran out of fuel with 2 laps to go. 40 gallon sprint car tail tank! Had maybe a quart left... too many cautions that night.

 

Dave, I wish they were reversible. But they are not. I would of rather have the intake on the driver's side, but it is what it is!
Get one of your small blocks together and put that injector on and go!,

 

Been there, done that in a street stock. Opening night, going for our first win. Nobody had anything for Jamie that night. Ran out on the backstretch of lap 25 of 25. Back in the pits we had lots of kind offers to bring us some fuel the next week.

 

Those Hilborns are 2 1/16 throttle plates, just right for a small displacement engine. Hmmm! And the 283 has a steel crank. Found a source for a set of forged pistons, 0.030 over. And heads for those 305 sprint cars have nice small combustion chambers. And will work with the 283 bore size. Sounds like a plan to me...

 

I am going to have to call Wimpy on those 2 1/16 throttle plates! lol my 4 bangers have 3 throttle plates! I just had a manifold cast for my Autolite inline carb for the 3rd one. It has 2 1/4 throttle plates!

 

Are you trying to cause me throttle plate envy?

Seriously though, you're feeding how many cubes per throttle plate? A 30 over 283 is 288 cid. Divide by 8, we get 36 cid/cylinder. Probably oversized for good driveability. Not that it matters.

An interesting side note. That 350 was very driveable running those injectors. Jim never had any issues on restarts. In that era it was typical to be in high gear once rolling, and the pace laps were not that fast, probably 40ish coming to the flag.

 

Just playing with you Dave! I am at 60 ci per cylinder. I will have to say my Enderle for my 327 is at 2 3/16 throttle plates. Also I am a straight line guy, never did have to go around in circles! lol So I know nothing about your style of racing.

 

Ahem, cough, cough... I have no experience with your form of sanctioned drag racing either! Straight line competition at night for bragging rights (okay and some $$$$$), on the other hand...

Wow! Regarding your 4 bangers! That is approaching Offy sizes! Holy...stuff! If you slam the throttle shut at full chat, how does it not swallow the throttle plates?

One of those in the Whatever project would certainly make a statement!

 

I am sure whatever ends up in the Whatever project will be as much fun as I am having with mine! I have about 300 miles on it before I put it away for the winter. If we have a decent summer, I hope to have more, then next winter the bigger one goes in. It will be at 65 ci per cyl. more cam... well more of everything!!
Now get back to the Whatever project and lets get it done for some fun!!

 

Just WOW!

 

You'd likely be the only one with a twin-engined... something at the local cars-n-coffee!

 

And I could see flatrod17 using all 3 of those I4 engines. 2 in a streetable car has been done, why not 3? 12 cylinders, 3 engine management systems, side by side engined. I can see it in my head...

On the Whatever front, the garage is essentially cleaned up, with only one small pile of stuff on a portable bench to get sorted and stored away.
Here's the bench with stuff on it...
Easy peasy!

Here's the new roll-around... yeah, I know, big nothingburger. And it's mostly organized. And the bottom drawer is currently empty! That won't last long

Starting on the T10 transmission. That big shaft needs to go inside the transmission! One of the cases will be filled with gears, bearings syncros, bits and bobs, and all of the required stuff that makes a transmission transmit. I just need to get a rebuild kit for it. Got a few sources bookmarked and I'll be calling them tomorrow.
Now here we have an interesting part. This engine mount came off of the 283. It's another piece of evidence that further verifies that the engine is as reported, a low mileage engine. These appear to be the original mounts. The rubber is not deteriorated and the grime on them is comparable to the grime on the engine.

So I was looking at these, and thinking about the mounts for the Whatever project. I've been planning on redoing the mounts because I don't like the first setup I made. I don't think it's a good idea to use these as is. But I can make the frame side to fit, include a Lord mount bushing for a little bit of compliance. And delaminate the mounts from the rubber, and weld a solid spacer in. Is it the long way around the barn? Probably! But the fitup will be easy. Maybe...

 

The answer to your question is GL-4

 

I'm so confused! What was the question? GL-4

This is like the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe. 42 was the answer to the ultimate question of life the Universe and everything.

 

Nice progress on the garage clean-up! You can finally get to all the things!

 

Got the T10 apart today. Found a little surprise inside. You may remember the transmission was shortened for use in a dragster. It was also modified on the input shaft to bang into high gear... kind of like a poor man's dog ring transmission system. There's a custom machined thing welded to the input shaft where the synchro ring should be. Nicely machined and the welding looks like it belongs on an aeronautical object. But probably terrible on the street.

So now I'm searching for sources for a new input shaft. 2.20 low gear close ratio T10. Anybody who has one that could be for sale, let me know.

 

You can use a Ford input shaft but you will need the matching clutch disc.

 

If that is the case, I may have more parts Dave can use!

 

More Alaska to New York! Yes, what have you got now! I laid out the last batch of parts today to see what I was going to need. You set me up pretty good for the hard to get stuff.

Tomorrow I'll look at the input shaft to count the gear teeth. Everything else looks good. Including most of the input shaft. That welded on custom part however means that I now have an input shaft to modify the in out box I have to be a clutch drive box. So not a complete loss

 

I'm going to have to get pictures of the gearsin the T10 transmission. I took it completely apart this afternoon to get a good look at the gears, syncros and anything else that will need replacing. 1st gear had no synchro ring. Not surprised, as it was in a dragster. Stick it in 1st, if it's even used, sitting still. No downshift needed ina drag race.

2nd and 3rd, like the input shaft, have custom machined things welded to them, for the same reason. Kind of a poor man's dog ring transmission system. I'm assuming that once launched, the driver just hit the rev limiter and banged thru the gears. No clutch used.

So after getting it all apart this afternoon, I priced out allof the required replacement parts for it, and also looked at the cost of new Super T10 transmissions. As it is, so far I have $150 in it (parts from Alaska...).
Bottom line: replacement parts and a rebuild kit will be just under $600 for all new parts, not used. And it appears that the going cost for a Super T10 transmission, is just under $2400, from numerous vendors. These costs don't include shipping and taxes.

So I guess it's cost effective to get the rebuild parts. It is a 2.20 low transmission after all. And I didn't find new with the close ratio gear sets. More later...

Oh, and I'm still going to look at the T5 transmissions and see what that option is going to take to get sorted out. Or maybe both will be looking for a new home...

 

I paid $1300.00 for my trans new from ? Summit ? but that was over 20 years ago.
That price did not include the Hurst shifter.
The neat thing about these is the availability of different first gear ratios, mine is the 2.43 version, note torque ratings.

 

It seems that transmission was last seen attached to a small block Chevy. Why don't you just crate the whole shebang up and send it east. I'll give it a good home...

 

Kinda Sorta, not an OEM SBC but a reasonable facsimile.


Thanks anyway for the generous offer!

 

But look! It's already on a shipping pallet! It really wants to see the east coast...

 

Oh well... I tried! But instead I'll show you some pictures of the modifications done to the T10 transmission gears.


The input shaft. Look at that thing welded on where a synchro ring would have been.
And one of the sliders. 2 out of every 3 splines missing...

2nd and 3rd modified the same way. And no synchro ring on 1st gear. It's otherwise not modified. So once I have replacement parts for it I'll get it back together. So now on to other things...

 

Started working with the two T5 transmissions today. They came apart easily, and the insides of both look clean and in good condition.

So in no particular order...

S10 transmission with the Camaro tailhousing. Anyone need a good condition S10 4 banger T5, but with a camaro tailhousing, come and get it! I'm not going to put much effort into it, other than bolting it back together so it stays clean.



This one is a V-8 Camaro T5. It looks like it either wasn't used much or someone had it rebuilt. It's a NWC T5 with brass synchro rings. Mechanical speedometer drive.I


Back to the S10 T5, but its original tailhousing sitting next to it.



Here's the insides of the S10 T5. Nothing wrong by the looks of it.



Same


Camaro V-8 T5.


Same. Looking good inside also. Those brass synchro rings are in good shape. Not going to do anything else inside, just bolt it all back together.


See that plastic speedometer gear? And the other one has a metal tooth wheel for the electronic speedometer sensor. And people say there's various ways to make an adapter. Well, I've got an idea for an adapter. And a lathe now to make it. I'll attempt to make the electronic speedometer sensor wheel position where it needs to be. I can see it in my head, but can't explain it yet. I'll be working on the idea tomorrow. We'll see if it's a good idea or a nightmare...

 

we're on the edge of our seats!