MetallicaMatt

iTrader: (19)

I'm finally getting serious this year about racing, and I'm finally getting around to throwing the car together. I bought an enclosed trailer, and I've been spending my time getting that ready.

I've got the car up on my lift and have the 6spd out, and should be getting my TH400 this weekend.

So till then, here are my questions...so far.

Thanks ahead of time to everyone whose helped me so far, especially JL whose become my "E-Crew Chief".

Please let me know what you guys think, and if you have a part or something in mind, show me, because I know I'll ask "where can I get that?" lol

1) Right now I have the stock harmonic balancer...do I, or should I upgrade to a different one?

2) I'm considering replacing the K Member, etc with an aftermarket piece, but I'm tempted to say screw it and just get things together so I can race, but I was thinking of upgrading that, and getting a manual rack, though I haven't seen where/who has a manual stearing rack

3) I'd like to have an electric water pump, so I can cool it down after a pass, but I see the Meziere is $650 What about a remote water pump?

4) I'm thinking about dropping the engine down right now to just check everything over, shouldn't be to hard with my lift. I've got a header bolt that started to strip years ago I need to fix I'm also thinking about tearing off all of the A/C (is there a write up??)

5) If I drop the motor, are there any "minor" internal upgrades I should do? I'll be spraying the car, so I think right now I'm stuck at around 150. I've got a TSP Magic Stick 3 that I did a couple years ago. I want to say that I thought the connecting rod bolts were a weak point? Pop the pan and upgrade those? If I'm right...how much more could I really spray it? Or Heads? Though I rather not drop the coin right now.

Just curious, since I'd like to have a strong motor for a season or two, then do a build during the winter


I haven't a clue what the car will run, I'm just excited to get out there and start racing. Also, I haven't posted up all of my mods already done, so if you need to know if I have something, or should have something, ask and I'll let ya know.


Thanks everyone!

chvypwr31

iTrader: (4)

if you get a tubular kmember and manual rack and such ull drop a lot of weight off and get some good weight transfer. and what do u need to kno about taking the ac off?

dlove

iTrader: (23)

I'm not sure how you have almost 3000 post and have been here since '05, yet can't answer most of these questions...? Have you been in multimedia or something the whole time?

Half your questions can be answered by how much money you have, the other half by some quick searches.

JL ws-6

iTrader: (50)

At the end of the day it could eat itself quickly, or it might last a while. Get every uneeded thing out of the car, less weight to push, less stress on parts too. That would be your best bet, and come up with a strict maintenance regiment to do, check all suspenison bolts, change oil every X amount of passes, etc. That will insure that you're keeping an eye on things, and may/hopefully catch stuff before it gets too bad.

MetallicaMatt

iTrader: (19)

Thanks JL

Would I be able to spray more with upgraded rod bolts? Again, trying to put gain vs money/time

I thought about dropping the motor just so I could do the rod bolts, remove the AC, ABS, fix that header leak etc

The valve springs have probably 3k miles on them? Still swap 'em out for new?

And the only reason I asked about heads were if I would have some "massive" gains by getting a set to go with my cam and nitrous.

Thanks guys!

JL ws-6

iTrader: (50)

The heads, never hurt, as long as you get a set for the CI and application, obviously a 265cc port on a 346 that won't see more then 7000 rpm isn't gonna do you any good, 215 to 225cc intake runner sized head, one that would bump the compression to 11 to 1 would be good, a budget set of 5.3 heads for a stock shortblock usually work decent.

Rod bolts, you might be able to get away with 200 hp, the pistons are the real weak link here, and added compression will make that worse too.... so pick your poision on that... some guys have gotten away with alot more then others, some guys have stuff go right away, it is heavily tune related IMO.


Valve springs, check them and see where they are compared to when they went on, that way you have some idea what kind of life you can expect. Race setups eat springs alot faster, since you're at 6000+ rpm most of the time that it's running.


I'd leave the motor in unless you're going to do the rod bolts, the a/c and all that comes right off without a problem.

Also, the elec water pump, if you ditch the pwr steering you can put a bmr alt bracket on and just run a little 4 or 6 rib belt off the crank pulley to the alt, then you can put a race water pump on, they're a good bit cheaper.