Finally made some forward progress today!

After spending the last few months ordering parts, taking things back and forth to the machine shop then what seemed like weeks checking bearing clearances, filing rings, trial fitting then trial fitting again, etc. I finally got the new 523 short block assembled today. Still have a lot to do but its nice to be making forward progress. Not sure I'll make the first points race at Gateway April 15 but I hope to make the 2nd one on April 27. Lots of good help from Lem, Charlie, Dave McClain and others on this site. Thanks again.

Mike,

I'm glad to hear that and we all wish you the best of luck!

Uncle Charlie

Congrats on the new short block...I noticed ur car is a little on the heavy side like mine and u listed some pretty good numbers..Would u mind sharing some info about ur combination, like suspension ,power adders etc?

Sure. The old motor was a 512 which I blew up last fall. I broke a cast steel Eagle crank after around 200 runs. I pretty much wiped out the whole short block. It had 4.14" stroke, 6.7" Eagle rods, flat top SRP pistons, Cam was a Comp Solid Roller .680" and .690" lift, 260 and 266 duration at .050". Out of the box P-51's except for a Charlie Evans valve job. Victor intake port matched with a 1050 Holley 8896 Dominator carb. 2 1/8" custom headers with 4" merge collectors. It had a Canton girdle and windage tray, John Kaase oil pump and a heavily modified front sump pan. Trans was a c-6 with the wide ratio gearset and rollerized kit. Custom 9" torque converter by Lenny at UCC. 4.11 gears, 31" x 11.5 W Hoosier slicks. Rear suspension custom ladder bars with Afco coil over shocks. Front suspension custom Strange Fox body struts with coil over kit, Granada spindles, Ford Escort rear steer rack and pinion. Notched shock towers, custom crossmembers. Stock front frame rails but connected to the 2" x 3" back half with 2.5" square connectors. Still all steel except the bumpers. Glass windows, full cage, -heavy. Whew that was a lot of info. Probably more than you wanted

Oh and no power adders just race gas.

Nope.. That was exactly what I wanted . Did u ever run the car with the stock suspension?

It has always been back halved but the first iteration was leaf springs moved in with competion engineering shocks and the same 38" ladder bars I have now. The front suspension was basically stock with lowered upper a-arm mounts and competition engineering shocks. This suspension worked well with my first 466 motor that I ran for around 12 years. It ran 11.20's. When I built the 512 and started making some power I ran the same suspension for a few seasons. It was a lot more violent on the starting line. My avatar picture was taken with that set up. We changed to the AFCO coil overs first and I ran it a little while. That gave me some more adjustability and maybe helped consistency but I really didn't pick up any ET. I noticed the most improvement when we changed the front suspension. We also added travel limiters and the combination of more adustable struts, and springs made a world of difference. The car doesn't waste so much energy jumping up anymore. It just goes. It is a lot more consistent especially when it comes to reaction times. It's not as much fun as when it was pulling big wheelies but it is a lot easier to drive. I picked up 3 tenths when we did the struts but we also made some other changes at the same time. The new strus eliminated the upper a-arms so we could build much better headers.

Here was my front suspension swap.

https://www.429-460.com/t9691-64-fairlane-strut-front-suspension-conversion-its-done-jit-for-the-bash

Thanks for the info..One more question . Im running a c-6 also,r the rollerized trannys worth the added expense?

Well the low gearset was not worth it for my weight car imo. I just had the trans gone thru also and we removed the low gear set. I replaced it with a TCI planetary set from Summit racing that has been machined for the thrust bearings. It has the stock low gear 2.46:1 I believe. I'm switching back to that because I don't think the low gear set (2.72:1??) was necessary. I had added that with the 460 and really didn't notice much of an increase. With the 512 I really don't think it was needed and I think it may have contributed to some lost races because on marginal tracks in the heat of summer I would occasionally spin the tires. When they went thru my trans they found the reverse planetary gearset was bad so since I needed to replace it I decided to buy the whole kit from Summit that has the roller bearings but not the low gear. It was a little over $300.00. My trans guy said he couldn't get the reverse planetary for that so I guess its not a bad deal. If you have a good C-6 that doesn't need a rebuild I don't think I would just add the roller bearings to pick up ET but I think its a good upgrade for your next rebuild. Car does roll a little easier.

Good info . Thanks again ,I'm interested in anything that'll make her roll easier..It has to be worth something.

congrats

Finally got the new 523 bullet fired up today! Hopefully it will run as good as it sounds. I definitely didn't break any records assembling this one. Seemed to take a while and I had several character building experiences but its nice to finally hear it run. Now I just have to find time to get it to the track. My schedule is filling up too fast and the weather around here is not cooperating.

Glad to hear you're getting closer to completion. Keep us 'posted'......

512Fairlane wrote:Finally got the new 523 bullet fired up today! Hopefully it will run as good as it sounds. I definitely didn't break any records assembling this one. Seemed to take a while and I had several character building experiences but its nice to finally hear it run. Now I just have to find time to get it to the track. My schedule is filling up too fast and the weather around here is not cooperating.

Glad to see you are back in business. Taking your time on assembly is a really good thing,it's also a very good learning experience. I've put together quite a few engines thru the years and I think I'am very slow. But at least I know that things were checked and if if it blows up it was indeed a parts failure and NOT something I overlooked. Good luck w/it. It should fly.