It’s not off the table. Not yet at least. I have to get it running and driving first before I consider that though. By then I’ll be considering other options like boost though, so it’ll all go hand in hand.
BUILD THREAD “The Juggernaut”
- Thread starter Rktpwrd
- Start date
It’s not off the table. Not yet at least. I have to get it running and driving first before I consider that though. By then I’ll be considering other options like boost though, so it’ll all go hand in hand.
Awesome, great plan! Mark redid my installed heights and changed springs as my previous build did not do a good job.
Thanks, the iron heads and old school valve face grind is limiting head flow above about 4800 rpm. Mark said when I am ready to do aluminum heads, that in and of itself with basically no other changes not even the cam, it will likely do 520hp. Maybe one day I'll do that. This will look stock under the hood of my 1970 Cutlass as is, though.
Looking forward to more Juggernaut posts!
Awesome, I hope you reach that goal when you’re ready to upgrade to the aluminum heads!
If you don’t mind my asking, who’s and what cam grind are you running? If you don’t want to post the cam specs here publicly, you can always PM me. Just curious as it might help me make my cam choice easier.
I'll post it here as it is no secret haha. Crane special grind from 2006 when I started the build. Worked with Crane directly at the time. Only 3 years later, all Crane intellectual property was acquired by a motorcycle products company.
Those are healthy specs, the new Edelbrock like Donovan's would probably easily hit the numbers mentioned.
I did it the opposite. I had the block decked to keep the heads untouched. This makes it capable of being used on different engines and not worry about the clearance (head wise anyway)
Hutch
Hutch
Another bonus of the modern pistons, less than .020" in the hole on a virgin block. My 358 needed a .016" deck cut to straighten it. That left the pistons .003" in the hole, .045" piston to deck with Felpro Blue head gaskets.
Already full swing into the next project, I think you guys are going to like this one.
I’ve been sitting on a pile (5 to be exact) of old cut down G Body Malibu fenders, specifically the flared sections of them. They all came from front fenders, one for each of the corners, and one fairly damaged one that was still usable as a donor piece.
Why you ask?
Well because the tire to fender clearance on the front is virtually nonexistent, when airing the car down, the fenders rub on the tires.
Not good.
So I needed more clearance, but I hate the look of most aftermarket or custom fender flares. The factory got it right on the Malibu’s, and the shape is startling close to the Cutlass opening shape, so why not use them?
After stripping off all the old paint from the face and back of the two front flares I planned on using, as well as from the damaged donor piece, I was ready to start mocking them up into place.
The fender openings on the Malibu are about a 1/2” narrower than the Cutlass, so I knew I was going to have to cut the flares in half and stretch them to line up with the edges of the Cutlass openings. This is why the need for the 3rd donor piece. The shorted pieces would be cut from it, negating the need to custom fab them from scratch.
Mike was at my place for garage day today, and we wasted little time getting down to brass tacks. We tackled the passenger side first, getting it all figured out, and then decided to duplicate the process on the driver’s side while it was still fresh in our heads.
This is the progression of work on the passenger side:
Once we had the fit down perfect, we Cleco’d the flares over top of the fenders to keep everything from moving around on us. One final check of the fitment, and we flipped the Clecos around and installed them from the backside to make cutting around the flare patches easier.
Here the fender is cut, and the front flare section clamped in place with flush sheetmetal clamps.
Repeat the procedure for the rear section:
It was at this point that we decided to get the driver’s side to this same stage before we forgot how we did it. The second side always goes quicker than the first.
Continued >>>
I’ve been sitting on a pile (5 to be exact) of old cut down G Body Malibu fenders, specifically the flared sections of them. They all came from front fenders, one for each of the corners, and one fairly damaged one that was still usable as a donor piece.
Why you ask?
Well because the tire to fender clearance on the front is virtually nonexistent, when airing the car down, the fenders rub on the tires.
Not good.
So I needed more clearance, but I hate the look of most aftermarket or custom fender flares. The factory got it right on the Malibu’s, and the shape is startling close to the Cutlass opening shape, so why not use them?
After stripping off all the old paint from the face and back of the two front flares I planned on using, as well as from the damaged donor piece, I was ready to start mocking them up into place.
The fender openings on the Malibu are about a 1/2” narrower than the Cutlass, so I knew I was going to have to cut the flares in half and stretch them to line up with the edges of the Cutlass openings. This is why the need for the 3rd donor piece. The shorted pieces would be cut from it, negating the need to custom fab them from scratch.
Mike was at my place for garage day today, and we wasted little time getting down to brass tacks. We tackled the passenger side first, getting it all figured out, and then decided to duplicate the process on the driver’s side while it was still fresh in our heads.
This is the progression of work on the passenger side:
Once we had the fit down perfect, we Cleco’d the flares over top of the fenders to keep everything from moving around on us. One final check of the fitment, and we flipped the Clecos around and installed them from the backside to make cutting around the flare patches easier.
Here the fender is cut, and the front flare section clamped in place with flush sheetmetal clamps.
Repeat the procedure for the rear section:
It was at this point that we decided to get the driver’s side to this same stage before we forgot how we did it. The second side always goes quicker than the first.
Continued >>>
The donor piece cut, fit, and tacked into the void.
With the driver’s side stitched together, it was time to bounce back to the passenger’s side and repeat the donor piece tack welding.
Damn that’s a big hole without anything in there!!
So now all six pieces have been made into two again, and I can safely remove the flares for finish welding and metal finishing on the workbench. It’ll be much easier than trying to do it all on the car. After that’s done, I have another little mod that I’ll be doing to them before they get welded into the fenders.
But that’s for the next update, you’re just going to have to wait for that.
Thanks for looking in on the progress gents,
D.
