Last Friday night I had the '57 at the track and my son was running the Camaro. I noticed a funny noise when I started up the '57 (this is background, bear with me), but it was only there at an idle. I drove to the track, made my time trials, and only heard it a little and again only at slow engine speed. The idle is a little rough, I haven't tried to "optimize" it (a time thing), so I thought that might be contributing to the noise.

After the first round of elimination (I won), I pulled back into the pit and the noise was getting pretty loud - kind of a slap/knock sound. I pulled the air cleaner off and played with the idle a little - the idle smoothed out some, but the noise was still there. I asked some buddies in the area to listen to it, we jacked up the front end and I pulled the flywheel cover (it's dark now, by the way). One torque converter bolt would turn when I put a wrench on it, and wouldn't tighten down - bingo, found the problem. Pulled the bolt out, it's partially stripped, have my wife bring out the tap & die set and my bucket of spare bolts, proceed to repair it. I still had the tap in when they called my class for the 2nd round, finished it up quick, dropped it off the jack, closed the hood, ran down to the staging lanes and dialed based on my last run. As I pulled under the tower (the point at which you cannot change your dial-in), I had the sickening realization that I hadn't put the air cleaner, with its cool air ducts, back on. Nothing I could do, staged, had a .04 better light than the other guy, but the car slowed by .08 seconds and I lost.

I realize this isn't a 3rd gen, but the principle is the same. Just thought I'd relay that little tidbit of hard-knocks lesson.

(FWIW, the noise was still there after the run. Determined over the weekend that the flexplate to crank bolts were also loose.)

Oh, and for a 3rd gen story: I had put the q-jet back on the Camaro after trying the Holley 6210 spreadbore DP experiment. 1st TT looked good, 2nd the 60' was slow again but ET was okay. 1st round my son treed the other person good & proper, and was able to back off, but 60' was even worse than the 2nd TT. I told him to try less stall-up at staging, he tried that, and it worked fine for the next three runs (until he bulbed out).

 

are you running a sheet metal air pan to help with underhood air reaching the carb? Or is the air cleaner blocked off another way?

 

It's the original '66 Impala 396 air cleaner with a larger snorkel tacked on in place of the original half-dollar sized opening snorkel, with another large snorkel tacked on the other side. Flexible ducts are routed to the original heater/vent ducts in the fenders on each side. Air is fed from openings above the headlights.

There's a picture here https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/carb...rbd-motor.html , #90.

 

I would see how that would help then. I was thinking open element for some reason and didn't see how that would matter much without cooler air from somewhere.

 

Similar thing Pomona Nov 2004 - first round the car seemed slower than it should have been, couldn't figure anything out, so I just decided to dial a little slower (I was near the 13.00 minimum for Sportsman at that time). While waiting in the staging lanes for the 2nd round with the hood open, the sun was shining almost straight onto the air cleaner, and I could see a gap between the lid and housing - somebody had loosened it while the hood was open and we weren't watching, apparently. I tightened it back down, went ahead and ran with the slower dial, but I tree'd the guy enough that I backed off and ran over my dial getting to the stripe first with him breaking out.

 

I always like any input from both of you guys five7kid and xpndbl3 you guys both know your stuff and was wondering what you think about this idea. I am getting a new hood eventually and was thinking about modifying the underside like this. You guys think it would be worth it, or be a waste of time?

 

You'd get almost no ram air effect, I'd stick with the cowl.

 

I was kinda thinking that myself since it's not sealed but wasn't for sure. I like the cowl a little better because it also helps at idle where the ram air has no effect unless you are moving.
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any of you guys used the gear vendors overdrive setups at all? I found one for a decent price that I was thinking about using with my th400 to get the revs down and not sure if they hurt at the track at all?

 

I haven't used one, but it would add a lot of weight to an already heavy TH400. You could build a good 700R4 for the price of one of those.

 

I found one for $500 minus the adpter because it was used with a powerglide. so around $600 the trans is being built to 1200 hp specs with JW bellhousing so for all I will be around $1500

 

Your wife actually knows what a tap & die set is??? Hell, I tried showing my wife how to change a tire and she didn't even know what a "lug nut" was.

 

I told her what shelf to look on for a black plastic case. . .

 

I too was amazed when you mentioned that. Then I had visions of making flash cards and going over and over them until she remembered all the different tools, then realized if it didn't involve shopping it's a lost cause.