[muscle_collector]

beautiful car rick. I love the way you made the ram air 2 in the stripe.

[Greg Reid]

Originally Posted by RMahoney

For the record my white 68 Firebird has a RAII in it, it's not a 455SD anything.... It has RAII Heads, RAII cast iron intake with RAII exhaust manifolds and a 8270 Carb. It's gone a best of 10.22 at 135MPH. We will be in the 9's next year.

Rick

That bears repeating in this thread...

[MikeNoun]

Rick, thank you for posting!

Just curious, why did you say it had an SD455 if it didn't? Did you change blocks? It seems like you were pretty specific in the article.

The heads and intake all went atop a 1974 Super Duty 455 block, casting number 490132, chosen for its four-bolt main cap design and strong lifter valley: "A 400 block would've needed braces in the lifter valley, which would've just added more weight," Rick said. Though he said the total displacement is 462 cubic inches and that the crankshaft is a billet piece from Crower, Rick declined to give bore and stroke dimensions.

And thanks for flying the Pontiac flag at these events.

[RMahoney]

Originally Posted by MikeNoun

Rick, thank you for posting!

Just curious, why did you say it had an SD455 if it didn't? Did you change blocks? It seems like you were pretty specific in the article.

The heads and intake all went atop a 1974 Super Duty 455 block, casting number 490132, chosen for its four-bolt main cap design and strong lifter valley: "A 400 block would've needed braces in the lifter valley, which would've just added more weight," Rick said. Though he said the total displacement is 462 cubic inches and that the crankshaft is a billet piece from Crower, Rick declined to give bore and stroke dimensions.

And thanks for flying the Pontiac flag at these events.

Hey Mike,

We originally had a SD455 block in there, which is/was legal for the FAST racing series, but when we went fast there were some camps that cried foul and asked us to replace the block with a 400 block. We replaced the block after that first year (went a best of 10.56 with that SD block) with a 1973 400 block, we like the 73 and newer 400 blocks because there's no chamfer at the top of cylinder and you can run the rings higher up on the pistons. The current version of my RAII has 14.9:1 Compression, 490 Cubes and makes 686 HP at 5400 RPM. We're building a new motor that we hope to make 720-730 HP, we've definitely pushed the RAII combination to it's limit and our goal is to get into the 9's next spring and push for the record, we would love to be waving the Pontiac flag as the new FAST record holder next year !

Rick

[RMahoney]

Originally Posted by MikeNoun

Rick, thank you for posting!

Just curious, why did you say it had an SD455 if it didn't? Did you change blocks? It seems like you were pretty specific in the article.

The heads and intake all went atop a 1974 Super Duty 455 block, casting number 490132, chosen for its four-bolt main cap design and strong lifter valley: "A 400 block would've needed braces in the lifter valley, which would've just added more weight," Rick said. Though he said the total displacement is 462 cubic inches and that the crankshaft is a billet piece from Crower, Rick declined to give bore and stroke dimensions.

And thanks for flying the Pontiac flag at these events.

Hey Mike,

We originally had a SD455 block in there, which was legal for the FAST racing series, but when we went fast there were some camps that cried foul and asked us to replace the block with a 400 block. We replaced the block after that first year (went a best of 10.56 with that SD block) with a 1973 400 block, we like the 73 and newer 400 blocks because there's no chamfer at the top of cylinder and you can run the rings higher up on the pistons. The current version of my RAII has 14.9:1 Compression, 490 Cubes and makes 686 HP at 5400 RPM. We're building a new motor that we hope to make 720-730 HP, we've definitely pushed the RAII combination to it's limit and our goal is to get into the 9's next spring and push for the record, we would love to be waving the Pontiac flag as the new FAST record holder next year !

Rick

[RMahoney]

Hey Mike,

We originally had a SD455 block in there, which was legal for the FAST racing series, but when we went fast there were some camps that cried foul and asked us to replace the block with a 400 block. We replaced the block after that first year (went a best of 10.56 with that SD block) with a 1973 400 block, we like the 73 and newer 400 blocks because there's no chamfer at the top of cylinder and you can run the rings higher up on the pistons. The current version of my RAII has 14.9:1 Compression, 490 Cubes and makes 686 HP at 5400 RPM. We're building a new motor that we hope to make 720-730 HP, we've definitely pushed the RAII combination to it's limit and our goal is to get into the 9's next spring and push for the record, we would love to be waving the Pontiac flag as the new FAST record holder next year !

Rick

[brians]

Rick:
Out of curiosity being it is a complete RAII - Why not a 69 FB with a RAIV?

Thanks - Brian

[Alvin]

Originally Posted by RMahoney

Hey Mike,

We originally had a SD455 block in there, which was legal for the FAST racing series, but when we went fast there were some camps that cried foul and asked us to replace the block with a 400 block. We replaced the block after that first year (went a best of 10.56 with that SD block) with a 1973 400 block, we like the 73 and newer 400 blocks because there's no chamfer at the top of cylinder and you can run the rings higher up on the pistons. The current version of my RAII has 14.9:1 Compression, 490 Cubes and makes 686 HP at 5400 RPM. We're building a new motor that we hope to make 720-730 HP, we've definitely pushed the RAII combination to it's limit and our goal is to get into the 9's next spring and push for the record, we would love to be waving the Pontiac flag as the new FAST record holder next year !

Rick

Wow! Excellent! Are you running these times on "bias-ply" tires and "appearance" configuration such as shown above?

EDIT: I did read the Hemmings story of the original build from the link WarEagle previously posted:
http://www.hemmings.com/mus/stories/..._feature7.html

[MikeNoun]

Originally Posted by RMahoney

Hey Mike,

We originally had a SD455 block in there, which is/was legal for the FAST racing series, but when we went fast there were some camps that cried foul and asked us to replace the block with a 400 block. We replaced the block after that first year (went a best of 10.56 with that SD block) with a 1973 400 block, we like the 73 and newer 400 blocks because there's no chamfer at the top of cylinder and you can run the rings higher up on the pistons. The current version of my RAII has 14.9:1 Compression, 490 Cubes and makes 686 HP at 5400 RPM. We're building a new motor that we hope to make 720-730 HP, we've definitely pushed the RAII combination to it's limit and our goal is to get into the 9's next spring and push for the record, we would love to be waving the Pontiac flag as the new FAST record holder next year !

Rick

Rick, thanks for the info! Wow, at 490 cubes and 14.9 to 1 compression, I would say you definitely got everything possible out of a 400 combo! Tremendous job.

[RMahoney]

Originally Posted by Alvin

Wow! Excellent! Are you running these times on "bias-ply" tires and "appearance" configuration such as shown above?

EDIT: I did read the Hemmings story of the original build from the link WarEagle previously posted:
http://www.hemmings.com/mus/stories/..._feature7.html

yes we run on G70X14 bias-ply tires, Rick

[RMahoney]

Yes we run on G70X14 bias-ply tires, Rick

[Region Warrior]

Awesome!
Willing to share suspension set up?

Thanks; Mike.

[Wareagle]

Originally Posted by RMahoney

For the record my white 68 Firebird has a RAII in it, it's not a 455SD anything.... It has RAII Heads, RAII cast iron intake with RAII exhaust manifolds and a 8270 Carb. It's gone a best of 10.22 at 135MPH. We will be in the 9's next year.

Rick

Awesome Rick - heading for the 9's

[RMahoney]

We've tried a lot of different combinations with the suspension, best 60 ft 1.57

The current setup is:

Original 350 Firebird rear springs with 2 clamps ahead of the axle

We also lowered the rear by inserting some plastic blocks

Calvert rear shocks

6 Cylinder front springs , very weak and old with a spacer on the front left spring

90/10 Calvert front shocks

Aluminum front roller bushings, nice and free moving, very loose up front


Rick

[threefidee]

Originally Posted by RMahoney

For the record my white 68 Firebird has a RAII in it, it's not a 455SD anything.... It has RAII Heads, RAII cast iron intake with RAII exhaust manifolds and a 8270 Carb. It's gone a best of 10.22 at 135MPH. We will be in the 9's next year.

Rick

That's what I am talking about !!! 9's. Can't wait !

Jody

[turbo69bird]

Even at 490 cubes that ET is impressive on those tires.

It's certainly not our dads RAII though Neither are any of the other cars engines (meaning not stock displacement)

What is the difference if you use the 455 block? It's still a factory appearing package I didn't see anything in the rules saying you couldn't make the 455 block look like a 400

A little mar glass can make those 55s into 00s lol.

They always bitch when you best them don't they lol.


Great car no matter what though and a hell of an accomplishment. Super clean car too

Im sure you do all the tricks, my machinist did showroom stock road race 305 camaros for years its amazing what you can do within the rules if you put your mind to it.

Poly moly on the skirts, gold coat on the tops of the pistons and in the chambers of the heads helps, can you weld up the heads and go to a newer style heart shaped chamber?

The road race guys also sleeve the lifter bores to put things where they should be.

You can run the aluminum heads in fast can't you? As long as you make them look like the RAII?

Here's a funny story:
When I did race ATVs years ago all the guys were running forged pistons, theyd eat up wisco pistons ike it was going out of style. They'd race a moto, stop the ATV sit wait for the LCQ or whatever (it would cool) then start the ATV and race down to the start line.(pistons slapping in the bore) No heat in the engine. after seeing this a few times I knew why they were killing them. I switched them over (kicking and screaming) to cast watercraft pston w poly moly and gold coat, tightened the tolerances on the bore/hone and the pistons lasted a whole season after.(and made more power) They all cried the cast piston would break lol it was the best change they ever made. Then they outlawed 2 strokes and that was that .


Funny how the trick parts everyone always thinks you must have arent always the right solution. Obviously with that ET MPH you know how to think outside the box!

[turbo69bird]

One thing Im curious about is how they decide on the stock sounding Idle thing? I think I remember reading that in the rules. I'd think that would be a judgement call where someone could play favorites.


Can't even imagine running 9s on those tires, I run 9.70 at 146 on 13.5s and it black tracks that cars got to be a handful!