Hi All,

I was just daydreaming about the early to mid '90s era at Car Craft magazine when David Freiburger was editor-in-chief and some really crazy no-buck and low-buck stories were done, like how to run 12 second quarter mile times for $2000 (stuff a 440 into a Dart). While surfing the web for info is great, I love the feeling of kicking back and browsing a magazine too. Unfortunately, even today's stories about supposed "beer budget" projects are generally way beyond the scope of my budget. Does anyone know of a magazine doing regular truly low budget projects? I'm thinking stories like buying a junkyard engine, stabbing a cam into it and taking it to the track to see what it will do, or stories about home porting junk smog-era heads, then taking the result to the track for testing.

Does anyone know of a magazine doing fun stuff like this? Heck, I would take an online only magazine if it was well done. I just hate wasting my hard earned cash on a subscription to the big printed magazines only to find that 98% of the stories are out of reach. Dreaming is fun, but I want stories about something practical I can do for a few hundred bucks!

 

The only publication that still does that is Car Craft.

 

I agree, Car Craft is not bad, but not at the level of zaniness that was going on in the mid 90s. I remember them being accused of being too cheap, which was just about perfect as far as I am concerned...

 

car craft had way too many features on new imports;
probe,eclipse,stealth,300z etc.back in the early '90s

I have stacks of DIY car magazines from ~1978-2000
and it is amazing how simple and low buck most of the
cars were compaired to todaywhere spending 100K+
is common.

 

Best low buck of em all - forums! You won't find a better source for that kind of info or a better self policing system for sharing stuff like that.

 

HP Books publishes a few manuals on building the small block Chevy V8, from race prep to street performance. These books provide information in one small publication that would take alot of searching through other sources to find.

 

David Freiburger , man those were some good times, I had forgoten all about him. I agree those were some of the best/fun articles to read.

 

The trouble with so many magazine articles is that they are not really real world situations. The TV shows are not much better.

I just got my shortblock back from the machine shop. I supplied all the parts. All they needed to do was machine the block which included boring out the cylinders, checking the line hone, decking the block then assemble the shortblock and make sure all the clearances were good. There were a few other charges in there also like degreasing the block, resizing the rods to maximum spec to get more clearance, honing the lifter bores etc. Final bill was $2300. That was just labor and doesn't count all the new parts I bought. The assembly itself was only $450.

Those low buck buildup need to have machine work done unless they're dropping in a bone stock engine. They either own the equipment to do it themselves (nobody adds the cost of that equipment) or get the work down at a cut rate that a normal customer doesn't get.

Then they include freebees. "Well just just happened to have an old set of Brodix heads sitting on the storage shelf so we decided to use them". OK, you already had the parts so the cost was nothing but they should include the replacement value of things like that because not everyone is so lucky.

"We found a running 440 out of an old Coronet to drop into our Duster. It cost us $500 for the car then we sold the car without the motor for $300". Sure sounds great but again, not really real world. A few people can get lucky doing this but not many.

To me, real world build ups is using stuff that's inexpensive and readily available. Finding a set of Vortec heads in the junkyard is real world stuff because that's something that the majority of us could do.

I can't remember the magazine but there was one story about dragstrip tuning. Took a car to the track for an all day T&T to see what they could do. With nothing more the timing, tire pressures and lots of carb tuning, they knocked almost a second off and picked up a few MPH doing it. Now of course you never know how badly out of tune it was before they started but it does show potential to what can be done very inexpensively.

 

car craft!

Chevy HP, and Camaro performers often spotlight some real affordable mods. I recommend a subscription. They also review a lot of products. That alone will help save money if you were thinking about buying something new that sucks. Or trying something new that doesnt suck.

 

Gotta disagree on both counts. First, having been a pro automotive machinist, I did an awful lot of work that wasn't really needed, and have done many builds that made sick power with parts that nobody believed capable of half what I did. The old Junkyard Jewel builds were the closest that any magazine ever got to reality. You in fact can get a junkyard 454 truck engine for under $200, do the cam, intake, headers, oilpan and nitrous, and have a 650 HP street car that'll be fun for another decade. Durability is entirely in the tune. You just gotta pick an engine with no spun bearings and no ring ridges. Same deal with spraying an LO5 to 450 HP. Finding Vortec heads in the yards is near-impossible, the demand is so extreme. It's gotten to the point where it's easier to find a 4.8 or 5.3, complete, than to find 062 or 906 heads. When you find one, it's already pulled, and has "the Vortec crack" ( between the center 2 chambers ). Cheap power is no challenge, avoiding costly machining is no challenge. The challenge is building your 700R-4 successfully, to hold that power. The good kits run around $300-350, and a decent converter adds another $350. For the 454, you gotta swap a TH400 or 4L80E, and converters for the 80E are really costly. Still cheaper than getting a T56.

 

Man, you aren't kidding about the TV shows. That always burns my butt, the way these bozos pretend that these are low buck projects when in fact they're installing $1000s worth of donated parts. It's a joke. Remember Monster garage? They were one of the worst. "We built this race car/ garbage truck for $3,000". And we watch as they slap on $2,500 worth of donated parts and burn through expensive steel and other materials. They never mention what all that costs.

Right again though as to what can be done for almost nothing. I remember one article, I believe it was in Popular Hot Rodding, back in about 89 or 90. They took a bone stock 350 Formula right off the lot and with no more than a few free mods, which included some timing changes and removing the hood scoop plug, they had it running corrected high 13s in the quarter mile. Very good stuff.

 

I had to really laugh when they did a "we'll just notch the frame and cut off the factory hanger rivets with our plasma cutter". How about doing it like someone in their garage would do it. Cut and grind with a disk grinder or if you're lucky enough, have oxy/acc torches. There was another episode I saw where they were building a cage and were notching the tubes with a milling machine. Not even a hole saw jig but a big ream. Nothing like overkill. I notched all my tubes with a 4" disk grinder.

Stacey from Trucks really impressed me. He was going to do some add ons to a diesel truck with a tuner, NOS and propane injection. What impressed me the most was before he even started installing everything, he said that the transmission, clutch and drivetrain were already upgraded to handle the extra power they were going to make. To most people, they just see the engine buildup for more power and seem to forget about the rest of the package. How is that T5 and 10 bolt going to survive that 600 hp low buck engine?