[PB]

Nice Steve, can wait to read all about it. Can you share how you got your car featured?

[njsteve]

I met the editor Terry McGean at the Musclepalooza event two years ago when I brought the 73 SD Formula. We have been trying to get the SD shot for HMM since then but could never get our schedules aligned. He finally made it out last November during the last week of nice weather and while he was there he asked to shoot Gramma's car as well as my Grandfather's '71 Lincoln Golden Anniversary Continental for their classic car magazine.

I never really considered Gramma's car as anything even remotely rare or special (i.e. magazine-worthy) to anyone other than our family but he said they were doing a family heirloom edition of the magazine coming up and it would fit nicely in there. I guess it is kind of rare to see a car go through four generations in one family and never leave.

The funny thing is that I don't know why I waited all these years to finally put some horsepower under the hood. They photographed the car while I had the 455 shortblock still on the engine stand and the original 350 was still running. I pulled the 350 out a couple weeks later, did the shortblock transplant and bolted it in. A month or so after that, HMM asked for some updated engine photos, and voila! - she's now famous.

[Lloyd-TX]

Well done Steve (and son) - congrats!

[78Macho]

Steve-

Congrats on the feature in Hemmings Muscle Machines! I just got it in the mail yesterday and quickly flipped through and was excited when I recognized your car! Very cool! Awesome story!

Jim

[njsteve]

Took Gramma's car out yesterday to fill it with gas. Since my daughter needed gas in her car too, I filled both tanks up with the regular, lowest 87 octane stuff. The car did not complain one bit. Not a ping to be heard with the 9-1/2 to 1 compression! Hurray for cheap gas!

[Judge273]

Sounds like you need a new project..what's next?

[njsteve]

I've been working on my '95 K2500 diesel Suburban recently. Getting it ready for Summer vacation. I replaced the front ball joints and upper control arms. I then replaced the factory, failure prone, aluminum and rubber oil cooler lines with braided steel hoses that use real AN fittings (not just a stupid 3-cent hair pin clip), replaced the harmonic balancer and hub pulley (also failure prone item on a 6.5), the front and rear driveshaft u-joints, and the rear pinion seal. I used all AC/Delco parts. Most of it came from rockauto. I am running out of stuff to do on the truck now...

I did get the 2001 WS6 running last week - the battery was stone dead from sitting over the winter.

[njsteve]

I just noticed that Pypes posted the step by step installation video up for the exhaust system they installed on Gramma's car.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LEzDmlCyA14

[TransAmRIP]

Originally Posted by njsteve

I just noticed that Pypes posted the step by step installation video up for the exhaust system they installed on Gramma's car.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LEzDmlCyA14

I hope that was you driving it?

[Formulabruce]

Originally Posted by njsteve

I just noticed that Pypes posted the step by step installation video up for the exhaust system they installed on Gramma's car.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LEzDmlCyA14

Video is messed up, ( 41 seconds) he says Drivers side Tail pipe goes in the lower "INLET", ( should be Outlet?) and the pass side goes in the UPPER "INLET" but its Clearly in the Lower hole ( which is an INLET?) I guess this gets corrected later it seems
The picture on the ground beforehand makes more sense.
This set up is just about like the Factory Walker Chambered Exhaust my 1968 Z-28 had, pipes go straight through basically..
I helped a guy fit one of these and it too required cutting and some Forcing as I recall. Sounded nice and didnt "drone" or vibrate.

[njsteve]

The system sounds nice and I couldn't beat the offer of free installation if I paid for the system and the manifolds. Good people there, in the Pypes garage.

And that was the install guy test driving the car. Gramma's car can sure move on down the road now. No comparison bwteen the log manifolds and tiny duals to the Pypes ram air manifolds and the their big exhaust.

I will probably bring the Gramma car to the open house in June. Stop by and say Hi if you see us.

BTW, I just noticed that they also posted the installation video for the ram air manifolds:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XsgWVUQ48s

[Formulabruce]

Great Vid, I have never attempted a R/A manifold swap in a car. Are they Pypes only manifolds? ( not R.A.R.E.?) are they 2.75 inch?

[njsteve]

They are the new revised 2-1/2 inch manifolds they just added to their line. They come already ceramic coated as part of the price. They fit nicely and the performance improvement on the Gramma car was really noticeable compared to the old 1975 log manifolds.

[danpaul]

Nice car. I love the color.

[njsteve]

Well, I finally got some new tires for the Gramma car. Discount Tire Direct was having a sale with $50 off a set, plus another $50 off if you used Paypal on ebay, plus another $50 debit card rebate from Nitto and free shipping! So I ended up getting the tires at around $97 each instead of $140.

Those BFG G-Force T/As were just too darn short for the wheelwells. They were 275/40xZR17 and only 25" tall. The replacements are Nitto 255/50xZR17which are 27" tall. Nitto seems to be the only company that makes a reasonably priced tire in that size. So instead of 2,800 rpm at 60 mph, it is now 2,600 rpm at 60 mph. And the best part is that they fit the wheelwells properly.

So, with that in mind does anyone need a nearly new set of BFG G-Force Sport T/As in 275/40xZR17 with around 500 miles on them? These are the same size that came on the 1998 to 2002 Camaro SS and Trans Am WS6, by the way.

Before:



After:



Before:



After:

[The Boss]

How much you want for the tires Steve - I could use them on my SLP Formula 350.

[njsteve]

Boss, Ill send you a PM

[unruhjonny]

it really does looks great.

I can't help think that it still looks like your wheel/tire combo is a little small...
I would think that it might be the springs, but your gap is even around the whole wheel well;
Am I the only one thinking this?

[njsteve]

At 27", the 255/50x17 tires are now the same height as the factory FR78x15 radials that came on it new. The car does sit up there. It after 41 years it still has all its original springs and suspension components. You think it would have settled after all these years and 80,000 miles.

Here's a shot with a set of 255/60x15 Rally wheels from a couple years ago. Big wheelwell gap there, too.

[SD455DJ]

Steve, It looks sooo much better now. What rear gear do you have? 3.42's?

Dennis