Raunchy Rat Pay Off & Old Blue Hair Motor Upgrades!

Sounds pretty nice. Not bad. It'll be a lot better when we get done with it.

Hey, welcome back.

In case you think you got a case of Deja

Vu suddenly, don't worry. This is indeed the 1970 Nova that Lou built up on the muscle car show. You know, the one they called Project Blue Hair. Well, I got,

excuse me a minute.

I

never liked that cartoon. Anyway,

two words, Joe Anger Management. Now you gotta love what Lou did to Granny's grocery getter to make it a true sleeper. That could definitely give a wake up call to any hot rod who tried to pass it. The heart of the project is a GM performance parts LS two crate engine

after dropping in the motor. Lou wired it up to fast computerized controller,

created a loop fuel system beefed up the rear end with a neat and posse unit and 411 Richmond gears

added 28 sply carbon steel axles from superior.

Then he threw out the mono leaf

spring and

fed up some Mopar style super stock springs.

He bolted up on the cloud hydraulic clutch set up to complete the switch from automatic to a six speed

and helped to hook up with some Mickey Thompson rubber around stock looking Coker wheels.

So, what's it doing in here? You might ask? Well, the answer lies back under the hood.

The LS two is a proven powerhouse with a horsepower rating of 440 at the fly wheel.

But

is there ever enough

since the introduction? 05 components have come along to give the LS two a lot more power plus the adjustable a lot of you like when it comes to things like controlling timing and fuel curve.

Now, all these parts came right from the GM, performance parts

catalog

like CNC machine, higher flowing heads,

larger runner intake and much beefier cam. Now we're going to try them out on the Nova today and see what we get on the dyno

Jet a little bit later.

Now you may recall the LS two comes from the factory with the reluctant wheel that's controlled by a special electronic ignition that lou installed on muscle car.

We'll put that wheel to rest by using, get this a small block Ford distributor from MS D, one of their six A L ignition boxes and a blaster

three coil. But first, we've got to tear the engine down starting with the cooling system

that includes the shroud,

the radiator

followed by the alternator.

Next, the water pump

and the crank po

then we can remove the A T balancer,

take off the front cover,

pull the intake and carburetor off as one piece

and remove this valley cover

to remove the valve covers, disconnect the coil packs,

pull the plug wires

and remove the bolts

with the packs out of the way

we can take off the valve covers.

Next, the rockers are removed.

Then the push rides,

we can loosen the headers

and then remove the cylinder heads.

Now we pulled the lifters,

remove the oil pump

and timing chain

and finally the cam comes out

uh just made it.

We're gonna try out a hot cam kit from GEO performance parts in that LS two and it consists of this hydraulic roller cam shaft and 60 new springs that we've already installed in these heads.

Now, the cam shaft specs out at 525 intake, 525 exhaust with 100 12 degrees of lobe separation as a matter of comparison, this one I just took out specs out at 505 100.

Now remember with a hydraulic roller, you lube it with motor oil only

and be really careful not to nick the journals.

You know, we've heard reports of some of you guys mentioned and you gained up to 100 horsepower with this new hot cam set up, but we should be way ahead of that with the bigger heads and intake. We're fixing the bolt on, not to mention a few of the extra parts.

Welcome back to the horsepower shop today. We're giving this 1970 Nova Sleeper a wake up call with some serious boltons

from GM performance parts. Now, in case you just joined us, it's got an LS two crate engine that lou installed over on the muscle car show.

It makes 440 horsepower at the fly wheel,

but that'll change when we get done with it.

We just installed a new cam shaft from the hot cam kit, which also includes new valve springs. Now, these are necessary because the original springs are only good to 500 lip.

These aluminum heads are designed after the C six R race heads and they flow within 10% of them. Now, they come with solid stem valves that measure 216 on the intake 159 on the exhaust side. While Joe installs those heads, let me show you the intake upgrade for our LS two.

It's a GM racing design that takes no additional porting for maximum performance.

It weighs in at only 10 pounds and it's specifically designed to fit the L 76 L 92 cylinder head. It's also been machined to accept any 4150 style carburetor

with the valley cover bolted back up and a fell pro gasket in place. The intake installs with supplied mounting bolts

and before reinstalling the car, we're gonna add

this two inch billet spacer that will improve the air fuel mix into the manifold and the throttle response plus

with the car being off the intake a little bit like this, it'll also cool down the charge.

Give us a little bit more horsepower for our mods. We specked out the 770 CFM Haley carburetor. Now it has center hung fuel bowls, vacuum, secondaries and an automatic electric choke.

If you guys plan on doing this swap, keep in mind you will need some extra parts like this rocker stand shaft and the actual rockers. Now there's one for the intake, a different one for the exhaust. Oh, and by the way, you'll also need different Len push rods. But don't let all that scare you away because you can get all these pieces for right at 380 bucks.

With the valve train finished, we can bolt up a new set of GM valve covers

with the oil pump bolted back up. It's time for another little interesting piece. This is a distributor drive fuel pump eccentric. This part drives the distributor which we mount up front. This lobe is for the fuel pump, but we don't need it since we've got one that's electric. Anyway, here's how it installs

this part installs onto the cams sprocket and of course, make sure you use some lock tight on the bolts.

Then the distributor drive heart attaches to it with a long hex bolt.

The next thing to go on is this new front distributor drive cover that comes with a built in timing marker

for a damper. We got a hold of the guys at A T I and they sent us one of their steel super dampers. Now, this thing is accepted in N hr A and I hr A and has an SF I spec rating of 18.1.

1st, we had to use one of the drill fixture kits to install a locator pin that'll keep the balancer from spinning on the front of the crank shaft.

Now, we can vote up this G MLS series water pump assembly especially made for our set up with the front drive distributor

made by Wagner Automotive. And it's the same one used by a lot of circle track racers. Our new water pump obviously moves everything forward so we needed some new bracketry to move up all the accessories. Now, Wagner Automotive helped us out with all this stuff too with some trick looking brackets, chrome alternator tensioner, power steering pump, pulleys belts and all the correct length hardware to install it all.

First, we'll bolt up the crank pulleys

followed by the power steering pump.

Now the alternator,

then the water pump pulley

and we'll wrap it all up with the belts,

moving on to electronics. We're installing the MS D ignition box on the passenger side floorboard,

then using a bracket, we're bolting up the coil under the hood

and finally dropping in the distributor.

You ready to hear this thing?

What do you think?

Here we go.

Yeah. Sounds pretty bad. But bad enough. No way we're gonna break it in real good. Then bring it back in a few weeks and you'll get to see what happens when we add a power adder to this LS too.

Well, I think we're getting ready to hear it with the cut outs open. Better hold your ears.

Well, we're gonna miss the good old raunchy rat, but it's finally time to button it up. Fire it up. Take it for a ride and say goodbye for a while. It's a rat ride that started with an old original 29 Ford body

that we dropped over a new reproduction chassis from Pete and Jakes that we got from honest, Charlie's,

what makes rat rod so much fun is you get to throw out the rule books and

radically make yours one of a kind.

In recent weeks, we built a Ford flathead motor for our, using an original block and some new aftermarket parts.

We also installed a Magna charger root style blower

and made it up the power plant with an S 10 transmission.

Later on, we installed a new hydraulic clutch and brake assembly,

laid down a floorboard consisting of sheet metal hush mat and street signs, modified the clutch and brake pedals to fit in the car.

Installed the throttle pedal and modified the new shifter.

Then we bolted up the starter,

cut the poles for the ages that we installed in our homemade console

and mounted that ever popular beer keg fuel tank.

Then we finished the fuel delivery system with a new pump and filter

mounted a radiator to cool our flathead

and bolted up the ignition in what used to be the gas tank.

Then we installed a basic street rod wiring kit.

Now, last time it was here, we finished up the exhaust, including these headers that got modified.

We also added some deep style headlights

and some old impala tail lights. We stole from a muscle car project.

Oh, and underneath, we installed our drive shaft, a custom made piece from CC I drive line. One of the biggest challenges with this ride was the steering. Now, due to the size of the motor, there was no way to make a straight shot to the steering box with an aftermarket column.

As you can see, we've already tried that once. So we moved on to some Borgeson double D shaft and hem

joints for Z shaped configuration. Now it ain't pretty. But hey, it's a rat rod and it works. As you might remember. The flathead uses a remote oil filter. So after shortening the hose, we mount our is right here on the firewall

to fill our tank. We thought about using this nice jazz filling unit, but it's a little too nice for the rat. So we made a trip to the tractor supply store,

came up with this galvanized goody. That's a lot more appropriate.

And a couple of hose clamps is the only hardware we need to make it stay put.

Well, you know, it's not exactly ready for the road yet, but we could at least fire it up.

You want to? No, I'll give you the honors since you're almost as old as the car. Oh, very funny.

Oh, I love that sound.

If we could jump in the rat right now and hit the road, I know where it would go out to some of the warm weather, cool car events going on all over the country.

In fact, here's a little sample of some that Mike and I hit in the past year. That sort of proved the high performance lifestyles in high gear. More than ever.

There are two hot rod reunions every year and each one is a celebration of speed, cool rides and hot racing history.

It's a one of a kind of event that attracts thousands of cars and car people. How you doing? Doing

nice ride here?

Thank you.

Now, watching the quarter mile competition is like traveling back in time

with nostalgic hot rides, competing for trophies and bragging rides, bringing back muscle car memories for the fans.

One of the coolest things about this reunion is being able to get up close and personal with some of the cars and drivers who made racing history, whether it was on the circle tracks, Salt flats or the drag strip.

Here's one of the Barracudas, the late Ronnie Sock drove to Superstock fame on the strip.

And the 63 me

that Parnelli Jones made winning runs with on the oval tracks.

Recognize the

hemi if not, you'll definitely identify the swamp

rat dragster and its famous driver.

And it's fun to have been there since the beginning. Seeing this thing grow into

this unbelievable sport that it is today from

just some guys racing their cars on the street.

The monthly Saturday summer nights cruise is a tradition that grew from a handful of hot rods parked on the Downtown Square to well, this over 1000 cool cars from several states.

Love it, love it, man.

Five years have been in existence, started with just 275 cars. Now, we're averaging well over 1000 cars and you can see how it's growing. We're branching out to different locations all up and down the strip here in Somerset.

Now we've all made the burnout contest where drivers smoke their tires till a buzzer sounds well, here they smoke them until they hear the sound of busted baloney.

Then there's the Saturday morning drag racing. No serious competition here.

Just a chance to see what kind of ETS they could get out of these classics from muscle cars

to truly old antiques

to six second race cars.

No doubt, fun is fundamental at summer nights. No competition or trophies. Just the joy of being part of a big, cool, small town tradition.

Now, if you want to show off your car with the big boys. Just book yourself at the nearest good guys event.

But it's also fun just to look and anybody can do that. Even Lo San Diego, good guys. Rod and Custom Association started back in the mid eighties in California

and spread like wildfire across the country now with over 70,000 members at 25 annual events.

Oh, it's a Jetstar.

Yeah.

Instead of just putting a few coats of paint on it and some wheels, everybody does their own thing anymore. And that's what makes a lot of these cars so unique.

If it's pre 1973 chances are you'll see it here. Whether it's a muscle car, a street rod, a tricked out truck. Hey, you name it.

And the work some of these guys put into them is phenomenal. Like one guy's gorgeous GTO now powered by the popular LS one engine with an interior. That's nothing short of artwork.

Good guy events may have started

mostly street rods, but now they've also got the share of horsepower and muscle,

just everything that you can think of, uh, muscle car wise and it just adds a really neat addition to the show.

Um, I mean, we love the 32 Ford. Don't get me wrong, but we also love the 69 Camaro.

Hey, we love any of that celebrates the entire spectrum of hot rods and cool cars.

If you want to get more cold air into your late model Mopar

hot rod. Well, air raid now offers its quick fit intake system for the hemi

power charger. Among other applications, each one comes with a reusable filter

and splash guards to protect that filter from engine heat.

After a quick assembly, it installs in the stock location using oe clips and clamps. The result. Well, up to 20% more airflow and 18% more horsepower for a price of about 330 bucks.

Here's a new improved way to monitor your carbureted engines, air fuel ratio.

It's a E M's wide band Uego controller and a gauge that allows you to switch bandwidth and the flick of a switch. Now, it has an led display with a sweeping gauge that changes colors as it goes from lean to rich. It comes with all the wiring 02 sensor face plates and a bezel. Now, the 52 millimeter gauge size allows it to fit in any pod. The price right at 300 bucks. Well, finally, here's how to give your late model Mustang a class

Shelby look, it's a dual light grill shell from street scene. That's a direct factory replacement. It's made from durable injection moded plastic and uses all the stock mounting locations. Now, just add a pair of these 55 watt driving lights and you got a late model pony with a definite vintage attitude. Well, this should help your attitude. Both the lights and the shell go for less than 300 bucks. Well, believe it or not, our time is up. We'll see you next time with more horse power.