canadiancarguy

I am in the process of starting to put my car back together. It is a 91 camaro z28 that has been stripped down to the bare body, sandblasted, now needs to be primered and painted. I have a 454 going in there, I also have a spohn performance k member everything else they make for the car including subframe connectors, and 8 point roll cage. I have billet specialties serpentine conversion, with a dyers blowers 8-71 going on top. Dyers is currently modifying the kit to work with the serpentine belt setup, even though it uses a short water pump, the brackets push it out to a bit further than what a long water pump sticks out to. It is just a 3 or 4 psi pulley for now, 130 to 150hp over the 454 at the most as it is. I have solid mounts for the car, but I am told that I will not like solid mounts for street driving and some guys have recommended going with poly mounts and engine dampers or engine straps. What are your guys' thoughts?

I will be posting pix of the car and parts as it progresses, for some reason it is next to impossible to get floor pans or a rear reinforcement bar for the rear bumper.

five7kid

iTrader: (14)

I would guess with a 8-71 blown 454, you wouldn't notice the difference between solid and poly mounts.

canadiancarguy

To be honest I didn't think so either, but I never had a 454 OR a blower before, so I really am not sure, but I have had cars that ate engine mounts for breakfast if you didn't strap the engine down. The car is for my girlfriend to bracket race and cruise in this year. She is not a fan of stuff comin outta the hood, but for now what she doesn't know won't hurt her I think we all know who is gonna be spending most of the time behind the wheel

five7kid

iTrader: (14)

If it's going to see regular track time, solid mounts make a lot of sense. That's a heap of torque you're going to be building.

Apeiron

Or a plate

five7kid

iTrader: (14)

canadiancarguy

I was thinking of fabricating something up to tie the strut towers together along with the motor. But I am gonna see how the solid mounts hold up first. There is already a ton of weight up front as it is. Also was thinking of putting a plate between the trans and engine and making it out of aluminum. The guys at the shop wanted to make a rotisserie for the car today. So hopefully the car is mounted to it tomorrow or the next day (if they get it to work). The car is probably only gonna be sitting at the 500hp mark, the 8-71 is underdriven quite a bit as the 454 still has a stock bottom end; although the crank is steel and it is a 4 bolt main.

My biggest concern is how the 7004R will hold up.

five7kid

iTrader: (14)

Unless you spend a bunch of money on it and have it built to the hilt, it'll fail on the first full throttle pass. Even built to the hilt, they are only good for about 600 HP (and that's usually quoted for lower-torque, higher-reving SBC's).

If you want overdrive, you should probably consider a 4L80E. A TH200-4R can also be built to handle that sort of power. I think you'd be happier longer with the 4L80E, though (which will still require some building to be race-worthy).

I'm assuming "budget build" isn't a phrase you toss around much...

canadiancarguy

I built the 700R4 to the max of its potential. 600hp is the limit, but it is probably more like 450hp when talking big block torque. To be honest I never thought of using a 4L80E, didn't even cross my mind. I got a couple turbo 400s here, but I already had the torque arm and cross member for the 700R4, so I just had the one that was in the car built already. I realized that the 700R4 wasn't well suited for this application, but I plan on going with a powerglide after I get a nice stroker shortblock and aluminum heads next year. Since my Thunderbird drag car uses a powerglide I though it would be convenient to go with the glide so I just have to change the bell housing if one breaks. The camaro and the tbird also have 9 inch rear ends with 35 spline axles, so at least some of the parts will interchange. This car is for my girlfriend to try drag racing out, if she doesn't like it than I will sell the car, if she likes it than I will go more extreme for next year, probably going to shoot for 1000hp with an overdrive pulley. Right now the car will only be running 8 or 9 inch slicks when drag racing, so the 700R4 should hold out for the season (I hope )

canadiancarguy

The Tbird and the camaro are the first 2 cars that I purpose built for drag racing. So if I picked a couple wrong things here, feel free to let me know. I am somewhat new to race cars. I have always had fast cars, but never anything built strictly for racing. I have never ran a car on slicks yet, this June will be my first time racing in a race car.