Our buddy Dan Dvorak provided us with a custom cam that would fit in a stock motor and launch a heavy car on street tires. It's got .465/.488 lift and 224/234 duration @ .050 lift for you cam geeks. I don't think I have anything to hide. It's a very mild, maybe a touch hotter than the famous .484/.484 "Purple Shaft". It sounds cool through the open exhaust but nothing like a typical race motor. It makes power from idle up to 5200 rpm with a sweet spot from 3000-5000.
At some point somebody gave once us a set of "902" heads with fresh springs and a basic valve job. They looked just like the "906"s that came on the wagon motor originally and we figured fresh valve springs and a valve job couldn't hurt so we bolted them on. We're still using the original style stamped rocker assemblies that suck. We didn't have any aftermarket rockers kicking around for the project. The problem with the stamped ones is that they don't have good enough quality control so they aren't uniform and the advertised 1.5:1 ratio is actually somewhere between 1.4:1 and 1.47:1, reducing cam lift and accuracy. That being said, we have conducted side by side testing and determined that good rockers aren't worth that much on a "low performance" motor like this one so I wasn't too concerned.
I spent a day cutting a hole in my perfectly good hood and installing a $60 "Six Pack" hood scoop. It really looks great, if I do say so myself. I didn't do it for looks, though. I did it to clear more radical non stock intake/carburetor combinations. We started with a 2" 4 hole phenolic spacer and a K&N Stub Stack. We switched from the Carter/Edelbrock type carb to a dual feed Holley configuration. We like Carters on street cars and we have to run them on our Max Wedge stocker but for an easy single quad drag race application there is no substitute for a Holley double pumper (or even a Dominator).
We had a fresh tow worthy transmission and 11" torque converter that wasn't doing anything sitting in a dead car in the yard so we installed it in the Big Green Wagon. I regret not putting a better converter in when we had the chance. Converter swaps are no fun and take at least half a day, even with a lift. The dead car also gave up an aluminum drive shaft with big yolks and U-joints and a 3.23:1 Sure Grip to replace our peg legger.
Somewhere around this time, I decided that the car was too good for the street so we replaced the full dual exhaust system with some 12"X3" turn downs straight off the headers. Now we're making some noise, baby! Then it was time for my specialty: gutting. I know how to cut some weight out of a car. By the time I was done I'd taken out almost seven hundred pounds without altering the outward appearance of the car or using any fiberglass. Now it weighs a little over two tons plus the driver. I love making my street cars into race cars so much that my friends make fun of me for it. "We knew it was just a matter of time!"
