Harold Rolls of Ontario Canada owns a 1969 GS clone which has run
solid 11 second times at Bristol, Bowling Green, Englishtown and Cecil County.
So this is a proven 11 second street legal GS. Harold can be reached from
the membership on this site via e-mail.
Vehicle: 1969 Skylark GS clone
Weight: with driver 3,835 pounds
Suspension: 350 springs in front w/Comp. Engineering Adjustable
shocks. Rear has Moroso "No Hop Bars", Boxed lower control arms,
air
bags (both sides) and factory sway bar.
Wheels and Tires: Weld Wheels all around, 5" fronts with 195x75x15"
tires. Rear has 8" rims with 27x11.5x15 Hoosiers Quick Time Pros.
Engine: 1971 455 block bored .030 decked .010 stock crank, speed
pro
forged 10.5 to 1 pistons, Stock rods were shot peened and have ARP
bolts, T/A double roller chain. The short block was set up and built
at Pee Gee Performance.Harold did the rest of the assembly
Camshaft: Scotty of Pee Gee supplied the cam with a 2.38 degree
intake lift at .050 and a .248 exhaust lift at .050 with a 112 lobe
center. Factory pushrods and factory stamped steel rockers are used.
Heads/Induction: 1968 430 heads converted to Stage 1 specs with Speed
Pro valves, 3 angle valve job and back cut. Port matched to a T/A SP
1 intake topped off with an 800 Spread bore Holley. Feeding the fuel
is a Paxton electtric pump with 3/8" lines. Firing up is nothing
fancy here, a nice simple Accel coil and stock HEI unit with Accel
coil wires.
Exhaust System: M/T Super Scavenger headers dump the exhuats into
dual 3" full exhuast system using Super Dyno Max mufflers.
Transmission: TH 400 with an ATI 3500 stall converter set up and
built by a club friend Martin Hutchines.
Rear: Chevy 12 bolt with 3.73 posi unit with aluminum brake drums
all
around.
Owner: John Massoud of MA 508-527-0543
Member of Northeast Chapter, and GSCA member
Vehicle: 1967 Grand Sport
Engine: 455 with Factory Stage 1 heads
Street Legal: Yes
Best et to date: 9.57 at 138 mph, 60' time 1.30
Engine: 1976 block, filled with hardblock, mains checked and honed
for straightness. Bored .038, decked .010, O-ringed, oil passages
along with timing cover modified. Block deburred and hand sanded.
Randy & Joe at Precision Racing Engines completed all the machine
work while John prepped and assembled the engine himself.
T/A block girgle installed, ARP main, heads and pan studs & bolts.
Topped off with a custom oil pan by Steffs
The crank cut to fit Big Block Chevy rods, shot peened, magna-fluxed,
stress relieved. Custom Eagle steel rods, stroke is 3.90
Pistons are BME light weight custom aluminum pistons from T/A
Performance with light weight pins.
T/A double rollar chain set with HD flex plate (NHRA certified.
Fisher damper. Short block balanced and blue printed.
T/A solid roller lifters, T/A pushrods and 1.6 roller rockers.
Custom Schneider solid roller cam: Intake .608 at 264 duration
at .050. The exhuast lift .640 at 284 duration at .050, 110 lobe
center.
T/A modified (by John himself)ported and flowed to match heads and
cam specs. The Stage 1 heads and all the port work was done by Greg
Looker of MA (close friend of John) Note: sorry guys I don't have the
flow numbers. The Stage 1 heads have stock size swirl polished
stailess valves and copper head gaskets used (do not have the size of
gasket)
T/A 2" headers with HPC coating with 14" extensions into
a pair of
Dyno Max mufflers.
Holley modified 1050 Dominator with Barry Grant 400 pump and Barry
Grant regulator. All lines 1/2" with 8 gallon cell.
MSD crank trigger distributor with MSD 7AL box.
True compression calculated to 13.5 to 1.
The transmission used is a heavily modified TH400. As for the rear
John has a 12 bolt Chevy with Strange axles and spool with Richmond
4.10 gears backed with T/A's rear girdle cover and stud kit. THe car
is a 1967 GS which is back halved. Using 14x32 Phoenix slicks. It
should be noted that all of the lights, brakes, directionals and
wipers are in working order, John also has some massive street legal
meats for the rear. The car has been lightened to 3,254 pounds with
John in it. (I was present at the track and saw when this car weighed
in)The engine was never dynoed but from the speeds and weight they
figured it produces about 740 hp at the crank.
And yes John's '67 is street legal and is taken out on cruises in
his
home town.
1972 455 block and heads (minor port work at home with the dremel and a good polish) forged stock replacement 1972 pistons my goal is a blower so I left the compression low. Block has been honed and a good flash cleanup. The crank has had all the good stuff done to it turned .010 on the rods and mains clevite 77 bearings, balanced, polished, chamfered, etc. rods have been shot peened resized and new bolts Going in soon are the dual groove TA bearings the stock ones are starting to fill never use em for anything again. Camshaft is a Crower 304hpd grind, which is 304-intake duration 312-exhaust duration 530-intake lift 560-exhaust lift on 108-degree lobe center. Stock pushrods (Crower says they are ok) with stage one spec sealed power springs with .060 shims under them to get the correct pressure. HT969R lifters. Dynagear roller timing chain. Intake manifold is an Offenhauser 360 equaflow single 4bbl high rise single plane intake. Modified 800 cfm q-jet changed from stock as follows (biggest jets and smallest rods on the primary's smallest rod tips in the secondary with V hanger this keeps the rod tips almost out of the jets all the time hi flow needle and seat, marine style accelerator pump and the idle circuit opened up a little for the bigger cam also has the fuel filter removed and choke removed.). 1 7/8 headers with 3 ½ collectors mufflers bolted right to the collectors, Melling Hi volume oil pump with 40-psi spring, point distributor with MSD6Al ignition, 160-degree thermostat. All this is bolted into a 1971 skylark custom with a very heavy duty TH 350 behind it (the shop kept building me transmissions until I got one that didn't break) 2500 stall TC with 3.90:1 Richmond gear in a 8.5 10 bolt with positraction.
Breakdown:
Block Stock 1972 cleaned honed
Timing cover cleaned hi volume oil pump installed
Heads 1972 very mild porting polished stage 1 spec springs with .060 shims
Crank turned .010 polished chamfered balanced
Pistons forged 1972 stock compression replacement
Cam Crower PN52211 grind 304 hpd 304 312duration 530 560lift
Induction Modified Qjet Offenhauser 360 equaflow intake
Exhaust 17/8" headers with 3 ½" collectors
Timing Dynagear roller timing set
Ignition delco breaker point distributor accel 32oz points MSD 6AL box Accel
300plus 8.8 wires R42TS plugs
Cooling stock water pump 160 degree thermostat 7 blade fan with clutch 4
core Modine radiator PN 365
Coming soon: 67 430 big port heads with stage one valves, a super powershot nitrous kit (I got it cheap so I'm gonna try it), and eventually An 8-71 GMC blower with fuel injection on top of it
I have not had this combo at the track yet. I spent most of this summer learning how to setup a rearend without it howling, then trashed the cam bearing car feels strong on the street super power from 2500-3000 rpm on up to about 6500 rpm the speedometer goes up as fast as the tach and the gas gauge goes almost as fast in the opposite direction. Desktop dyno shows 450-500 horsepower so low 13's or high 12's is what I think it will do (will know for sure in the spring)
I would also like to give the dual quad setup a try. I know no one likes it but it looks cool, so if someone out there has a manifold they would be willing to part with cheap let me know
David C Sigman II
B4551971@aol.com
Reynolsburg Ohio
Engine:
Completely stock bottom end right down to the cast pistons. Crank is cross
drilled. Engine is a '74 455. TA double roller timming chain. The heart
of the engine is the cylinder heads. They are a set of early TA aluminum
tall ports that have been ported and flow 315@.600. Intake is a TA sp1 that
is port matched. It's fed by a 1050 with 2 in. spacer/adaptor for dominator.
Cam is also TA .584 lift, 256/262 duration on a 110 lobe center. Ignition
is MSD 6al triggered by an HEI distributor that is locked out at 34 deg.
Fuel System:
BG 280 pump with #8 fuel line to regulator and #6 to carb, RCI 16 gallon
fuel cell.
Car and Chassis:
'67 GS weighing in w/driver at 3500 lbs
12 bolt axle with spool and 3.73 gear and Moser 35 spline axles
M/T 9x28x15 rear slicks
Southside Machine Bars that have been massaged/Morroso frt springs and CE
shocks all the way around. Air bags in rear springs.
battery relocated to trunk and no alternator
Trans:
TH 400 w/TCI 4000 stall converter.
Best performance to date has been 10.95@124 at 800 feet with a 1.50
60ft.
Car runs consitantly at low 11.0's high 10.90's on pump gas.
Nothing real fancy but a great and affordible bracket combo.
71 Buick GS455
Original 455 motor
Motor was freshened by last owner. Honed, but not bored.
Pistons: original 8.5:1
Cam: original - supposedly a Stage 1 regrind ?
Heads: Standard valve 455 rebuilt, no headwork.
Intake: Performer
Carb: Original 1971 800 cfm Qjet rebuilt, slightly modified
Ignition: Rebuilt points distributor with early Pertronix
Exhaust: TA Headers (1 7/8) into TA 2.5" mandrel exhaust
Mufflers: Walker Dyno Max long case (17449)
Trans: Original TH400. May have never been rebuilt?
Converter: Stock - low stall (around 1600, maybe).
Rear: Original 8.5" 10 bolt rebuilt with 3.42 and Eaton posi.
Suspension: Hotchkis rear lower trailing arms, stock uppers
Air bag: passenger side only set at 15 lbs
RR Tires: M&H Racemaster DOT drag tires G60-15 (now worn out)
RR Wheels: Old 15x7 Buick ralleys
FT Tires: Cooper Cobra 225-70-14
FT Wheels: Buick 14x6 "Super Sport" wheels
Best ET: 13.43
Best MPH: 101+
Best 60 foot: 1.855 (before swapping stock intake for Performer)
Best 60 foot (w/Performer): 1.90
Best ET before headers/intake/exhaust/with 3.08 open rear on Cooper
Cobras was a 13.98 @ 96.8 mph.
I launch under light throttle (about 1000 rpm). Trans is left in
"D"
and shifts on it's own. Trans usually shifts around 5200 rpm,
sometimes it does 2-3 at 4700. It's ready for a rebuild and mild
stall convertor. Over 400 passes on it motor/trans.
Steve Everist
71 Buick GS455
original 1970 350 block,crank,heads,rods, rod
bolts, valves, retainers and keepers. HEADS- cleaned up the casting
irregularities with a mild port job(gasket matched) and as far as a dremel
tool will reach. concentrated on the roof of the exhaust ports and the
shortside radius and floor of the intake's, polished the combustion chambers
with scotch roloc brand abrasive discs, bowls blended and guides narrowed.
T/A 350 INTAKE- gasket matched and also ports worked on as far as air
tool(this time)would reach. three angle valve job and spring pockets cut
to
fit required springs. guides cut down for clearance and full teflon seals.
i
would strongly recommend a standard abrasives porting kit as all the stuff
is
in there for a good job except the air and die grinder. BLOCK- when i
originally rebuilt the motor in 1986 i spent good money on good machine
work(zabatts here in jax) and had the block align honed(checked first),
squared as one bank was not square and the deck heights as measured from
the
crank centerline corrected(tollerance's apparently were'nt real tight on
either of these from the factory) bores cleaned up at .030 over and standard
cam bearings installed, no reorientation cause i didnt know about it then.
RODS- resized and minor cleanup grinding on the beams and what they called
shot blasted. CRANK- also shot blasted and resized -.010/.010, oil holes
chamfered. PISTONS- trw forged 10.25 cr. which were the highest cr pistons
i
could order through them. whole assembly was ballanced ballancer to
flexplate. when i rebuilt it again in 1995 i just ball honed it stuck some
new rings and bearings in it had the cam(old kenne bell mark 2)reground
to
intake .448 lift 224 at .050 and exhaust .449 lift 235 at .050 110 deg
centerline specs. after asking me a bunch of questions thats the grind the
cam grinder came up with. he was right on too, its totally streetable with
enough vacuum for pwr brakes and sounds good too! i use ta 1 5/8th's primary
headers with full 3 inch pipes with the long case dyno max mufflers. 3.42
gears, 800 cfm quadrajet(reworked by me) and a unilite distibutor set up
for
16 deg initial and 18 centrifugal. car is a full weight 72 skylark 350 sport
coupe with buckets and console and weighed in at reynolds in november at
4015
lbs(eeks!)
best et to date is a 13.84 at 99 mph shifting at 6000 rpm on 275/60/15 ta
radials. best 60' sofar is 1.945. i have a 350 trans with a 10 inch aprox
3000 rpm converter. i drive the car almost 50 miles a day and almost all
of
that is highway so believe me if you've considered converters and gears
you'll get used to them real quick. this is not a fuel mileage engine or
combination so we wont go there. blah blah blah, yadda yadda yadda! and
for
those who wonder why i built a 350, its what i had. :-) i still get a kick
out of it when someone says " thats a buick 350? wow!" i've left
out
a bunch but i'm tired of typing.
David Butts
Orange Park FL
Block:
1972 455 .030" over, forged TRW pistons ( actual compression ratio
9.25:1),
engine was built in 1980. Stock rods and bolts. Stock crank, balancer
and flexplate. Bearing clearances were set at .0015" to .0017"
on all the
rods and mains which is fairly tight. The crank was turned .010" and
the
rods were resized. The engine was built for reliability not all out
performance. The shortblock was not balanced, the ring end gaps were not
checked. No oil mods of any kind to block or front cover.
KB 118 camshaft (used) and stock type timing chain. { 228/246 @ .050"
&
.490 lift on 118 LSA}
Heads:
1970 Stage 1 heads with the chambers cleaned up and simple casting flash
removed from the bowls (maybe 4 hrs. worth of work). Stock swirl polished
valves, the original 70 Stage 1 springs and stock 72 steel rocker arms.
Intake & Carb:
B4B intake (Holley square flange style) and #4781 850 Holley with the air
horn milled. Stock jetting, 80's on all four corners, 30cc pumps at both
ends, 35 front squirter and 37 rear, yellow cam in the #1 hole.
Headers & Exhaust:
KB 1 7/8" headers w/ 3 1/2" collectors (the original headers had
3"
collectors). Front 1/2 of exhaust is 3 1/2" out of the collectors with
a
smooth "X" crossover, Straightline Performance 22" mufflers
and 3"
tailpipes. The entire exhaust was homemade, just bought a box of 3 1/2"
and 3" mandrel bent 90's and 180's. A really SWEET sound.
Distributor & Ignition:
Mallory Comp 9000 billet distributor (magnetic pickup), 16* initial with
36*
total timing. MSD Digital 7+ ignition with a 4* retard dialed in set to
come on at 4000 rpm with a rpm activated switch.
Trans:
1970 Turbo 400 converted to switch pitch with a GM-1 (stock V-6) converter.
No shift kit.
Rearend & Suspension:
Ford 9" Lincoln Versailles disc brake rearend, with 4.33 gears, "N"
case,
Detroit Locker, Summer Bros. 31 spline axles. Art Morrison 32" adj.
ladder bars with a panhard rod locator. Cheap Gabriel rear shocks and
springs that are not set up for the weight of the car (too soft).
Fuel system:
Barry Grant 250 pump, BG filter and -10AN & -8AN braided S/S teflon
fuel
lines.
Factory Disc front brakes, fiberglass bumpers at both ends (homemade).
16
gallon Harwood cell in the trunk. Some aluminum tin work in the trunk
area. Optima battery mounted in trunk with a Flaming River battery cutoff
switch. All battery cables are 00 welding cables. Tilton Super Starter.
The rest of the car is all steel and factory glass, full interior (including
glass front seats & 8 pt. roll bar). Manual steering and power assist
for
the disc brakes (small dia. 82 Chev. Cavalier booster 82 Buick LeSabre alum.
master cyl. with residual valve removed and adj. proportioning valve) with
Buick 15 x 7 rallyes with 225/70 x 15 TA radials and 15 x 8 (Specialty
Wheels) modified Buick Rallyes with a 4" backspace with BFG 295/65
x 15 Comp
Drag Radials. Car weighs 3555 lbs. without driver.
Car idles at 600 rpm with 18" vacuum. The car was most recently modified
to its current level for the alum. head Stage 3 roller engine, but its still
being assembled. With well over 100K miles and majority of those hard
miles it ran a best of 12.39 @ 108 mph through the exhaust & Drag Radials,
with a 1.70 sixty foot time. It has run a best of 11.70 @ 115 mph with
slicks and open exhaust (with the Stinger ignition). Very mild street
combo. with excellent driveability and decent fuel economy.
Dave Knutsen
Car is a 70 GS455 convertible, non-A/C car weight is 3995 with driver
and
a half tank of gas(weighed several years ago at Bowling Green)
Block is a SF code (70 big car) completely unrebuilt(factory pistons/rods/bearings etc) Cam is a TA212 218*/230* @ .050 lift I think is in the .470's on 112 LSA. 5/16 pushrods and later style steel replacement rockers.
Heads are 71 castings converted to stock replacement style stge 1
valves, no porting done.
Stock iron 70 intake and 74 Q-jet
Ignition is Stinger and I run 18* initial and about 32* total
Exhaust was Poston's headers and 2 1/2" pipes with crossover and Walker
Hemi turbo(large case) muff's.....Now running stock exhaust manifolds due
to header cracked after about ten years of use. this change cost about 2
tenths.
Trans is a SP 400 witrh a Poston 3000 converter
Rear is stock 8.2" posi....2.93 gear.
Misc....car was converted to disc brakes and suspension rebuilt, I run some
handling type(stiff) springs and KYB shocks, air bag in right spring about
15-20#, tires were 235-60-15 BFG Drag radials
Best performance to date 12.96 @ 105MPH (on a REAL hot Florida Day)
60' times are consistently in the 1.9's
Fred Dodd
OK, here is my buildup for the page, this combo has gotten me a best time of 13.31@102 on real street tires and pump gas in a 4800 pound 72 455 SportWagon
Block
1974 455, standard bore, honed cylinders, standard 1970 455 pistons and
rods(the pistons and rods are a set of used ones I had)
std crank, polished journals, standard bearings
Built and installed small windage tray in oil pan (AMP design)
Torque Tech Brute force steel billet double roller timing chain set
Heads
1974 455 heads, stock(yes STOCK)except for Crane valve springs
Cam
Crane HI-228/3000-2S-12, intake lift 480 exhaust lift 500 duration
intake 228 @.050 exhaust 240 @.050 lobe center 112 degrees, Crane HI Intensity
lifters
Induction
Edelbrock Performer, 750 cfm Q-jet from a 68 430, stock GS air cleaner with
a K&N filter fed by a aftermarket Stage 1 fuel pump
Ignition
Stock 1970 455 distributor re-curved with 18 degrees initial and 32 total
all in by 2400rpm, Blue Streak points and condeser(yes POINTS) and a Blue
Streak cap and rotor, the points trigger a MSD 6A and a MSD Blaster 2 coil,
MSD 8.5 plug wires, A/C R42TS plugs gapped at 50
Exhaust
Repo M/T Scavenger headers feeding into a Torque Tech 3" mandrel bent
system(A body head pipes, G body tail pipes...have to do it this way being
a wagon) 20" case Walker Dyno Max mufflers
Tranny
TH400 with Hurst street/strip shift kit and about a 2000 rpm stall converter
Rear End
BOP 8.5, 3.42 posi with a TA Girdle, Air bags in the rear springs and boxed
lower arms(did the boxing at home, they are BEEFY)
Ran the 13.31 on 145/60/15 Dunlop GT Qualifiers, now running 275/60/15s out back, as you can see for yourself this is a REALLY low buck build and if it was in a GS the thing would weigh 1000 pounds less and that has 12s written all over it!
Kurt"Wolfgang"Peterson
Fayetteville N.C.