Project Stink Ray

Hey, welcome. Once more to the horsepower shop. You know, over the years,

we've covered everything from mustangs to mo parts in our projects here. But

there's one loyal legion that keeps asking the same question. When are you guys gonna do a corvette? Well, that's a good question. And

I think we got the answer for you. We're kicking off a project today that in a way will help keep that Corvette legend alive. But before we do, what do you say, we look back at what made this America's favorite sports car. Now, more than 50 years

they call her Corvette

and she belongs to the highway.

After five generations of styling and power evolutions. The Corvette ranged proudly as America's Supreme sports car

milestones have been many

who could forget the first stingray in the early sixties with its independent four wheel suspension.

And in 1965 the first big block, the 396

or one year later, that fearsome 427 L 72

the newer generation vets may have more power for cubic inch, better technology and performance,

but all are part of a monumental muscle car legacy.

One that could last another 50 years, whether on the highways or the race tracks across America.

Yeah. You know, there's nothing quite like a Corvette for racing or restoration and for some owners, well,

there's a fine line between street legal and Street Lethal.

Now, this C five belongs to Ed mclean who's tweaked it to more than 1100 horsepower. Thanks to a pair of turbo Chargers and an LS based iron block that's been poked in stroke to 427 cubic inches

and just for giggles. Well, he's also added a double shot of nitrous.

There are some subtle body mods too like the tiger shark, front bumper projection head lamps and wheel tubs out back to house some 335 rubber on 12 inch rims.

Obviously, it takes a fairly fat wallet to build a car like this, let alone the initial purchase price of the car, but you can still get some classic plastic

cheap

if you're looking in the right places. Yeah. Well, we didn't have to look further than the other side of that camera. I shot.

This is Don Karet

who not only directs our show, you say you old hippie, usually with six or seven coffee cups in front of him, but also edits our segments on his high tech desktop system while we're spending Wrenches.

Don's a great director, but when it comes to taking care of his old vet,

well, you be the judge

man, a lot of horsepower memories out here in the parking lot,

there's the LS Gun and, oh, remember Project Kingfish over there?

Now, believe it or not,

this is Don's 76 Stingray,

a, uh, crumbling Corvette that obviously needs help on the outside.

And what we've got under here is what's left of a small block Chevy that hasn't run in several years evidently. And

I think Don's last project was trying to adjust the valves. Now, I guarantee the rest of the drive train is just as sad. Now, let's look at the interior.

Well,

this should come as no surprise. In fact, I think Don's been living in here. Look at this. Here's his cosmetic and medication bag here. He's got an old shirt, even a roll of toilet paper. Now, that's getting pretty scary. In fact, I think our first call should be the exterminator.

Well, what do you think?

I think if there was ever a candidate for a major makeover. This is it. In fact, I got the name for it.

Project Stink Ray. Hey, I like that. Now, we're gonna start this ambitious build up with the drive train. Yeah, to do that, we need a little road trip to Alabama to a place where the pursuit of high performance is all in a day's work.

Anytime there's a hot sportsman race car roaring down the drag strip and a winning driver behind the wheel. Chances are there's an engine under the hood that came from here. In Huntsville, Alabama.

You can't count as many national events and division races that everybody's won. It's just, it's just amazing to me that the, the customer base that we've, that we've grown to

from short blocks to completed motors, from street setups to full on racers. These guys have a reputation for building consistently high quality performance engines,

man, a lot of horsepower in this room

and whether it's a seven second sportsman motor or a more treatable Stroker like ours, it's pretty much the same drill before it goes out the door.

After a new GM block is Deb burned and race prepped, the surface is decked

and the cylinders hon to exact spec

honing, the mains is another critical step to ensure our short block is a fully balanced foundation to build on.

We weigh every rod and every piston and uh whenever we board the motor, we mark which pistons are gonna go on. What hole in case a man wants to take it down at home, you don't get confused.

The trick to bouncing. The crank is obviously making the crank shaft

counterweights weigh the same as the rod and piston itself. Speaking of rods and pistons, let me show you a few things. Here's a stock style GM rod that's good for about 500 horsepower. Then we can still up to an eight beam like we're using in our 383 Stroker, that's good for about 800 horsepower.

Now, if you want to get serious, check out Manly's race rods full aluminum, good to about 2000 horsepower.

But I don't think we'll have to worry about that. Don's not that manly

finally with a block machine and loaded with pistons and rods. It's ready for loading up and a short trip back to the horsepower shop. We'll get to work on it right after the break.

You

guys ready,

I guess.

Oh,

man.

When's the last time this thing was moved. Welcome back to horsepower where project stink Ray is well underway.

It's a build up on our director, Don Karat's

sad 76 Corvette that's been sitting in our parking lot for several years now, believe it or not, we're crazy enough to think we can turn it into a respectable driver

in case you're just joining us, we picked up a 383 Stroker short block from Huntsville engine and performance and we're ready to start piling the parts on. Now, earlier at the machine shop, I showed you the H beam rods that go in this thing. Now, check this out. The pistons are Ford's flat top design that will give us a compression ratio of about 10.5 to 1.

The crank is also a forged piece. Now, let me show you something, they machine the block to allow the rotating assembly to spin without interference and to top everything off four volt mains to hold everything into place.

Hey, did you know that a high volume oil pump can actually pump too much oil

oil.

And when that happens, too much oil winds up in the top of the engine and not enough down the oil pan for recirculation.

So with that in mind, we're going with this standard volume pump from Melling

and the guys down in Huntsville helped us out by welding up this moroso pick up to it.

Now, not to cut corners with the shaft. We're gonna go with this piece from a RP.

You know, compatibility is the key to building any stouthearted street runner.

So we're gonna use Holly System

X two component package system

in our small block build up. Now, right at the heart of that system is the camshaft. And what we've chosen here is a Lena

hydraulic flat tappet piece. Now, it specs out with an advertised direct

of 290 on the intake 297 on the exhaust and the lift figures speck out at 473 and 48 respectively. Now, you also have to keep in mind that since this is a hydraulic flat tappet piece, give it plenty of lube on both the journals and the lobes before you stab it into place.

Our system

X kit also comes with this double roller timing set. It

includes a cranks sprocket with three separate keyways here that allow us to time the cam shaft at four degrees, advanced four degrees retarded or in our case straight up start by aligning the appropriate keyway on the sprocket with the keys on the crank shaft

and slide the sprocket into place.

Now, we can install the cams bracket,

making sure to line up the dots on it

with the ones on the cranks sprocket.

Once the cam bolts are tight,

you can secure them by bending the tabs on the locking plate.

Finally, we can install the chrome timing cover and timing tab that we got from trans

depth.

Now, I'm ready to install the oil pan. Now, this is a seven quart piece from

Moroso and it has the extra volume. Thanks to the side kick outs. It also features a trap door and baffling to keep the oil in the sump to maintain good oil pressure. Now, we're gonna install this using a one piece gasket from

fro

well, that wraps up the bottom end. Now we're ready for these quick bleed lifters. Now, at lower RPM. S these things bleed off quickly to shorten the effective duration of the cam shaft to give us a better idle and more vacuum at higher RPM. S they pump back up to give us full effect of that performance camshaft.

A well, Mike installs those lifters. Let's have a look at these aluminum heads that come in our system

X kit. Here's something interesting

while the rectangular exhaust ports are in the stock location,

they've changed the valve angle from 23 to 20 degrees for improved flow.

Now the valves themselves measure 202 on the intake 160 on the exhaust side

inside a combustion chamber that specs out at 66 ccs

with Mr gasket ultra seals in place. We can drop on our heads

and snug them down with the kit's A RP bolts.

Now be sure to use the recommended torque pattern and specs when you torch them down.

Ok. With the push rods from the kit in place, we can move on to our rockers since we're going for maximum power and reliability. Well, we decided to step up to a set of these aluminum rollers from Leno.

Now these things have a roller, I Tron and a roller I tip with a stock 15 ratio.

We're also going to use a set of their lock nuts to help them hold their setting. Well, why don't you uh hold your setting for a while? We'll finish up this mighty mouse right after the break.

Hey, welcome back as we put the finishing touches on our small box Stroker build up for old projects. Stink ray over there. Now, remember what we said earlier about compatibility.

Well, the system max two package uses an intake and carb that are engineered to create power from about off idle to 6500 RPM.

The intake is a dual plane design with runners that feature a large cross sectional area.

Now let me get this gasket on here and I'll tell you about the carb.

Here we go. Now, the carb is a dual inlet vacuum, secondary Street Avenger Carb

that's rated at 770 CFM.

While Chuck bolts up that intake, I'm gonna go ahead and take care of the balancer down here. Now, the one we're using is a rattler from TCI that the guys down at Huntsville recommended and used while they balanced our reciprocating assembly. Now, here's a little tip for you always use a little assembly lobe inside the hub so it slips on to the crank a little easier.

Here's where our Matco tool is a lifesaver. And after running the balance her down,

we can bolt it in place.

You know, we sure want this mighty mouse motor to look as good as it's gonna run. So we got Holly to send us some cool chrome valve covers

and this air cleaner just to help dress things up a bit.

And for some added flash, we tap trans

dap for one of their oil and transmission dipsticks.

Plus we've got this chrome thermostat housing and even a throttle return set up.

Hey, man, this thing is almost looking too good for old project stinker over there. You know what they say, you can polish on a turd all you want. But in the end,

all you end up with is a shiny Turd.

I hope we can disprove that theory and we put some paint and body parts to the vet. But hey, that's another show. Well, let me show you the wine water pump that we're gonna be using in the meantime. Now this is their team G aluminum piece here. It's pretty cool. It's got an oversized high efficiency impeller back here and it uses a three quarter inch shaft with oversized bearings. Now, here's something you guys running roller cams will really appreciate. It's even got an adjustable built in cam thrust stop

last, but not least today, we're gonna bring that vintage vent into the 21st century with this new ultra serpentine set up from March performance. Now, besides the billet pulleys, it also comes with this unique power steering pump, compact ac compressor and 141 wire alternator.

It's a setup that not only looks cool but bolts up easily starting with the pulleys,

followed by the AC compressor and alternator as an assembly mounted on the water pump.

Next, the power steering pump

and the tensioner.

And finally, we're out the serpentine belt

man. That's some nice jewelry there and you know, projects stink, right? I'm starting to smell a whole lot better already.

You won't want to miss next week's show though because we're gonna drop the engine and transmission in it and by the way you can get rid of those nose plugs. Now, Joe's coming up with Quick Tech right after the break.

Horsepower T V's Quick Tech is brought to you by

Wyotech.

What we got here is a 1969 Novo with a pretty decent paint job if you like this color.

Only problem is, well, parking lot accidents will happen.

It's got a nasty scratch right here.

It's pretty good candidate for a technique that you might, could use called spot painting.

And instructor Jim Buchanan is gonna take you through the steps, uh, using a couple of pieces he's brought into the shop. What's first Jim?

Well, first I'm, uh, I, I've, uh, determined that the scratch just goes beyond the surface of the paint, it just hit the plastic. So I'm just gonna scuff this up and fill it with polyester. Phil. Go ahead.

So I'm gonna start with 180 grit. Sandpaper on a sanding block.

Next up for GM is to mix up some polyester fill

and apply it to the area he's working on

now, after it dries, he can sand it again with 180 grit paper.

Finally, he hits it with a red scuff pad to help the primer stick.

That's it,

wipe it down and we're ready to primer. But

speaking of that, Jim's got a piece over in the paint booth. It's ready for face too. Let's go.

This bumper has already been primer and tacked with three different grits

right now. I'm gonna wipe it down with DX 330 wax and grease remover.

Um, that'll take off any contaminants on it. My fingerprints

any of that stuff. Then the next step is put, uh, the D BC 500 base clear on the whole panel

and that goes on just to help the base coat lay down.

Um,

it's not mandatory. You don't have to use it, but it helps blend out the color.

Next geo

mixes reducer with his base coat. By the way, the recipe called for nine different colors to get the right shade and put one coat of base on medium. We

so,

um,

let it flash 10 minutes,

give it another coat.

I let it flash 10 minutes and then I tack it with tr

that'll take off any dust that may

be accumulating on it

over spray

and then I'll give it another coat of base coat.

Of course, to get the paint to come alive. Jim now has to fill his gun with clear coat.

Now, I'm ready to put clear on it after about a 10 minute flash, 15 minute slash,

I'll give it two coats a clear.

Then after it bakes for about 40 minutes at 100 and 40 degrees. Well, this bumper is good as new. You'll never know it was scratched.

That's what a pro spot painting job is all about.

If your transmission is telling you, I don't give a shift. Well, maybe it's time for an attitude adjustment. Now, TCI S thunder stick shift will do that with his rugged aluminum steel base and shift mechanism.

Plus it has a billet aluminum handle and a positive reverse lockout.

Now,

this thing is tough enough to handle regular street duty. Plus it meets all the racing safety mandates.

It comes with a neutral safety switch and an optional reverse light switch. Plus you're gonna get a heavy duty cable, all the arms and brackets you need in the kit and it's only gonna cost you about a buck 85.

Well, here's the latest scoop from Jags. Literally,

they call this there in jag

tour

scoop. And

yeah, it's modeled after the ones you see on those 330 mile an hour top fuelers. Now it's cast from aluminum. It's fully hand polished and it features three huge four and three quarter inch butterfly openings.

Now, the thing is designed to work with most dual and single carve setups comes to your house with an air cleaner fasteners and all the mounting hardware. And, well, it's available only from Jags for about 320 bucks.

And the next edition of Horsepower is available only right here. We'll see you then with more Project Stink Ray.