Quote: Originally posted by 88IROC350TPI Question for ya... Why did you create custom pistons? In a post by you dated 5/5/04 you said you had TRW pistons in your motor then 19 days later you posted as to having custom pistons made by you? In 19 days you designed and forged pistons from the ground up by yourself? I can imagine how long piston manufactorors take designing, testing, and redisigning their product for maximum strength, performance, lightness, ect. Of course, for all I know you could have been designing your pistons for 10 years but it seems weird you'd put TRW's in your motor then suddenly switch to a custom set made by yourself. Now, I'm not saying you didn't make your own pistons but even if you did ...why? Like I already said piston companies must spend zillions of hours and tons upon tons of cash designing and casting/forging pistons. I know you said you like being different but that seems VERY excessive in my opinion... VERY. Would it even be worth the risk? Why spend all the time and money on building a 590HP engine to have it grenade on you because you wanted to be different and forged your own pistons? If it was me I'd much rather fork out the $1000 for a custom set made by a company that specializes in such areas... But, thats just me... If you do have custom pistons and they work out well for ya, thats awesome more power to ya but it just doesn't seem worth it to me. If I lived closer to ya I'd take ya up on the "bring your wallet" offer... Because even if I lost the money it'd be no big deal ...It'd be worth seeing if its the beast you claim it is and if we raced and I lost big deal I lost to a race car, if I were to win, it'd be wow, I beat a race car with my street car You fail to realize that I get extremely bored and chang things all the time. It takes me about 4 hours to pull the engine, strip it, change it and replace it. As stated this is a toy, but it is also a platform to which I base my designs against industry standards, so although it might be one thing today, it most very well will be something else tomorrow. How else would I know if I am wasting my time or if I'm on the right track? I designed my own pistons for one reason, I felt I had an idea on how to make them better, same thing as any r&d department. Can you imagine if nobody tried to better the other? We would still have 1800's technology in our cars. Think about it. This guy wants a sleeper. So to fool the others, he really needs to use his head and be creative. Or he could just built the biggest, badass 350 around and just say "It's a 350", who would ever know? I don't care what parts a person puts in their cars as I judge by the pulse and rythim of the sound of the engine, and I am not talking about the sap that throws glasspacks on a stock car either, you can tell those a mile away as they sound like they are laboring so hard just to get themselves to even move. You know what I mean. The rewards are all in the risk, if your too scared, go buy a Civic.

If anyone in Michigan can run Lonestar to substantiate his claims, please do. If I lived a little closer I'd be happy to. I'd like to see some close pics of your engine, just sitting there in the car Lonestar. Close ones.

I got a question for you Lonestar. How did you forge your own pistons? Did you do any heat treating to them. What is the composition of the alloy you used?

I made my dies, then pressed them in my press. Alloy I used on the last set was 2618.

Please do if you want, just don't bother bringing a 3rd gen with a torque arm as it is perfectly useless on a 1/4 mile car.

So you cold forged them?

No, heated then pressed in a closed die.

forging your own pistons takes about a 3,000 ton press. pretty impressive some one using that kind of technology would have a car with that old of technology. there are a few thirdgen's out there that have went 9's with the torque arm in place, i don't think it's that rediculous. one of them cars is from muskegon btw and he did it with a 408 sbc using fast burn heads and quite a few other parts. going 10's on some old radials is way impressive especially on only 590hp. getting 590hp out of a 327 cubic inch engine it is outragous let alone on stock gm castings. i'm more than willing to show up with money and a video camera, but at this point it's still the .

btw, where did you get the 590hp number from? desktop dyno, engine dyno, toolbox dyno? what stall are you using?

MY dyno...the real thing.

One word - Primer

This has gotten too far off topic, if you want to dispute with me, PM me. Anytime anyone of you want to line up, bring your wallet and your car. I have no problem running anyone as real world testing is where it counts anyways.

Back to original poster, I hope you have some good ideas as to what you want to do to create a sleeper.

As far as the torque arm goes, I have never had much luck with them as they seem to have a tendency of ripping the tailshaft off my transmissions, not to mention the mechanics of the system is incorrect for an all out 1/4 mile car.

:lala:

We just wanna see pictures that dont look like they were taken from the NSA's spy satelites

What are you exactly, some 17 year old kid? Has it ever occurred to you that if people can take their car to be dyno'd, then someone must OWN dynos.

You have never bothered to ask what I do for a living, but since you seem to lack in maturity, I don't think it really matters. I can tell you one thing for sure though, while you are out there flapping your jaws, I am just going to keep excelling at what I do.

As I said before, you are only like 10 miles from me, bring your ride out and let's see what happens...don't forget your wallet.

And I personally don't want to give away all my secrets, but I will see what I can do. I think I can pull the audio off some of the video I have and let you all hear it run. I don't do much with video so my pc is not set up to tranfer video tape to it, but as stated before, I can most likely get some audio on there.

i'm far from a 17 year old kid, that's why i'm not buying the b.s. i'm also willing to run you with something.

What secrets? You yourself said your car is no sleeper so whats there to hide? I mean you layed down what its made of and what it ran so what else is there to hide? 99% of us don't live anywhere near ya so its not like we pose any competition to ya. All small blocks look the same anyway, right?

I'm just trying to end the BSing back and forth so whats a picture going to hurt? You put all the time and money into it why not be proud of your work? You gotta understand you claim a lot of semi far-fetched stuff and further make it far fetched by not helping prove your claims.

Remember he wants to patent his piston design.

My, my, does anyone remember ODB? Gave just enough info for people to run with then owned them after. You guys should be asking a bunch more question rather than shooting off. Family in the industry for 40 years... maybe owns am old subsidiary of GM? You never know who you'll bump into. Hell, how would you know if Carol Shelby popped in here if he were using a screen name?

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying he is or is not full of anything, however, I have yet to see anyone ask anything substantive with regard to his actual full set-up. Same thing toasted a lot more people with the ODB thing. Granted, he at least left plenty of clues in other threads.

Two examples that come to mind right off the bat. 1) What is the weight of the car? 2) Is there nitrous hooked to it?

Those are the obvious questions. Plenty more to ask before you lose money. Believe me, it's easy to set people up to lose money. ;

BTW, I'll ask, what do you do for work?

Occupation: Structural Engineer

Taken from his profile

So if that's true, he's gotta be pretty smart and be awesome at math. Right?

This is pretty interesting, I'm hoping we can get some more info too.

Im not trying to tell you guys to stop conversing, but could you maybe focus on the real topic? lol, i get pretty excited to see my post being responded too, but then it ends up being some guys getting hot bout their cars. whatever, it doesnt matter, but it'd be nice to get info.

You must be clairvoyant. Or maybe just a mind-reader. Psychic? Psycho?

I have been reading this and thinking the same thing. I'll bet ODB is just rolling in cash from victims.

I don't find it a completely wild claim. I had an NA 355 running on pump gas and a single POS Holley carb and doing 423HP in the old electodynamic dyno. It wasn't anything wild, either. Pump gas and no boost/bottle. It was just goofy in a '50 pickup with no rear end weight and 3.73 gears. I never could get it to hook, and it didn't help that I couldn't row the old T-10 worth a darn to boot.

Just keep it clean and civil, and we can keep begging for more details. If Lonestar is nice enough, he might even tell us a few secrets. If it gets too heated, The Force may have to be invoked...

I would be curious about the forging process, though. I used to be in cold forging, and I know a little about the process. Doing one-off pieces is not that difficult, but can be time consuming. I'm hoping you kept an eye on net density and any porosity. then again, if it's running, it can't be all bad.

i was waiting for you to pop in here vader. i figured you were reading, i used to post alot at one time and had fun even then. wish i still had the post count i once had since it has been dropped down a couple times. i'll keep it clean from here though, i'm also a mod and i understand the situation. i will say though that 423 hp is far from 590 with less cubic inches. you and i know what it takes to run 10's on a vehicle with slicks at a prepped track let alone on the street with street tires.

on the sleeper thing, has anyone seen the corvette that was in the (i believe it was car craft) magazine that ran 8's? i'll see if i can find the issue of that, but that was one of the best sleepers i've ever seen. he pretty well had everything taken care of.

As I recall, I was laughing the whole time with you since we noticed the early post of no rear brakes. First tip off. 'Lightening holes' or some such was the other along with the gutted interior. Can't really remember much else, but it sure was fun watching him reel in everyone!! What did he have for a running weight, just over 2k lbs.?

Kind of reminds me of a certain suburban too.... ahhhh.....

We have had a few people say we think alike lately, no? So cut it out!! mumblemumblepsycoticpsychicmumblemumble....

Now back to our subject. Most people will believe the sleeper image unless the have some good knowledge or play/have played this game themselves. My SHO is a decent example. Tag is body color v8 badges look almost like the stock badges and unless you know the difference between a gen III SHO and a regular taurus, you won't figure out what the hell happened. Most people laugh when they pull up next to me. I laugh last. Can't win if you don't put you foot fully into it.

Make it look stock, or just barely modified. Dirty bigmouth and AS&M runners on a motor that *looks* stock at first glance did wonders. Some of the Dynomax exhausts are excellent at concealing idle and just off idle sound as well.

No really, I only got headers, a dynomax exhaust, a K&N and an airfoil...

Yeah I remember that guy too... never quite lied, but never really told the truth either..... said he had a 305 with a mostly stock TPI on it, that his motor had a Lingenfelter cam in it - the 211 I think it was - and some stuff like that, then talked about how his car went low 11s or high 10s or something.... had every 305 guy on the board wanting to know his secrets about how to get his 305 to run 11s... finally turned out, the 305 was some completely other motor besides the one that ran 11s, and the 211 cam was in yet some other motor, and the one that ran 11s was a carbed 383 in a shell of a car that was hollowed and drilled and punched and removed so much that it was just barely still enough of a car not to collapse under its own weight, with about a 200 shot on it besides. He did the same way, got a bunch of the gullible people going, never did come clean about which tale went with which car and which motor. Even had people from his local track post all about what a straight up guy he was and how he had a "hella fast" car and they'd seen it run blah blah blah. The usual sucker em and reel em in routine just like this one. Pretty funny except that it made the bulletin board look like a circus. Just like this one.

Personally, I'm not too interested in watching a huckster ply his trade; it's too easy to tell em what they want to hear and then take their money. I see it too much in real life.

RB, you have to admit, it has it's entertainment value at times. And it has been a while since we have been 'graced' by odb. I find it amusing and entertaining... for now. You need a vaca methinks.

lonestar post:
The heads started life as Casting #3927186 1969-302/350
64 cc Camel Hump/accessory holes
but I have extensively modified them to flow like mad. I have an engineering background and computer modeling software that lets me design before grind.

Your 406 should be easily capable of pushing that kind of horsepower if built correctly, and at a lower rpm. A buddy of mine was running low 9's with one in his Monte Carlo and he was shifting between 5000 and 5500 rpm's.\

I am curious what this engine will do in my '85 Firebird. I had it in a S10 and pulled a best of 9.89. The 'Bird is heavier though...we'll see.



got this from another older post of his. after reading his older stuff and realizing that i work and spend just about all of my time in the city he lives in, it makes sense. this info not only doesn't match the ultra rare 58 cc heads he mentions in the other post, but i'm interested in a 9 second car with a 406 that only has to rev to 5000-5500. i understand some guys are just really damn smart, there is one of them living out by me that is ungodly smart named dixon smith with a 427 in a honda civic along with many other toys. i just don't get that same vibe from this guy. i also know that if he's from grand haven, he's seen alot of my work then.

edit: another lonestar post
I have a '68 327 with 13.5:1 compression, 58 cc camel hump heads (extensively modified to flow like mad), 3000 - 7500 cam, full roller valve train, stall converter.
It has a Holley 700 cfm mech. secondaries on a weiand single quad tunnel ram.
Question...how in the dickens do you tune the carb for this setup? I understand it is going to be difficult, but jeez. The engine only carries about 6.5 in. of vacuum at idle, so I put a 2.5 in. power valve in. I drilled small holes in each butterfly which allowed me to close the plates far enough to properly calibrate the transition slots. It still run excessively rich. I don't care about idle speed as this is just a toy, not a dayly driver, and I don't want to change intakes as now it is a challenge.
Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Thanks

is it just me or is the compression higher in this post than others? is anything consistant with this car?

If you don't mind me asking what computer modeling software are you using. I am thinking about drawing some stuff up in Solidworks and running it through Cosmos Flow Works or ANSYS.

here's a decent sleeper. this guy is from one of the sites i frequent and also is on one i moderate.

video link

I'd bring this if you lived closer. Complete with torque arm even.