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    Results 381 to 400 of 402
    1. #381
      Join Date
      Apr 2008
      Location
      Virginia Beach VA
      Posts
      381
      The "next attempt" tires arrived and Tire Rack gave a full credit and even paid for shipping to send back the others. So cool that they do that! As long as they are never mounted and don't have any scratches or issues they will ship them back and provide a full credit.

      So this time as mentioned we are trying to find a way to get a 325/30/19 on the rear using the Mich Pilot 4S tire. This will be with wheel well and lip mods only (not touching the frame). BS will have to be perfect. Need to confirm exactly what that BS will be so I can finally order the new wheels.

      On the front it's still a 305/30/19 but also trying the Mich Pilot 4S tire since it's .3" skinnier than the Hankook. I think we are going to still try for a 6" BS with the Hellwig bar. If it still hits on turn in I'll order a splined front bar - probably the one from ABC.

      If these both work they will end up being mounted on 19x11.5 rear and 19x11 front wheels.

      Updates and details to come.

      -Joe
      Joe Lincoln
      Lime Green 71 Olds 442 Convertible

      Upgrades thread: https://www.pro-touring.com/showthre...ible&highlight=

    2. #382
      Join Date
      Apr 2001
      Location
      The City of Fountains
      Posts
      15,971
      Country Flag: United States
      Those are impressively huge tires!
      1970 GTO Version 3.0
      1967 Cougar build
      GM High-Tech Performance feature
      My YouTube Channel Please Subscribe!
      Instagram @projectgattago
      Dr. EFI
      I deliver what EFI promises.
      Remote Holley EFI tuning.
      Please get in touch if I can be of service.

      "You were the gun, your voice was the trigger, your bravery was the barrel, your eyes were the bullets." ~ Her

    3. #383
      Join Date
      Apr 2008
      Location
      Virginia Beach VA
      Posts
      381
      I agree Andrew. I hope we can find a way to make them work with zero rubbing or issues. It's not going to be easy. My builder Frank has a method he uses with the wheel well for the rear where the entire wheel well is pushed inside the frame slightly so the top inside of the tire doesn't rub on the wheel well. This is done without notching the frame. I didn't understand at first but because the the top of the wheel well gets smaller at the top because of the curve, if you can get that on the other side of the frame, you can get a little more tire in there. We are only talking 1/2" but that's really all we're hoping to get to the inside. Then completely smooth out the outside edge so there's no lip at all to gain maybe another 1/2" to the outside. That 1" total is what we need. I'm currently running the 305/40/18 Nitto drag radial back there which is 12.13" wide and this will be 13". I also think the 3" tail pipes will need to be rerouted. I bet even if we can get it all to work, once I do some hard corners there will be some other areas that will rub that will have to be modded down the road too. Really hoping we don't have to get into pulling the wheel well out slightly but if it can be done without being that noticeable it's not out of the question. I just don't want to go with actual flares or anything obvious and can't notch the frame to the inside because of the down bars on the roll bar and my conv top. Or maybe I should say I don't want to go there because of those 2 issues.

      The front is going to be challenging as well with I'm sure lots of mods to the fender and inner wheel well and maybe switching to that splined sway bar as i mentioned previously. My front fenders are fiberglass so if some of the inside has to be "cut away" a little I'm OK with that as long as it doesn't show from the outside. I still have to have all the fiberglass clean up work done on the entire car.

      Going to try everything we can and I'll document it all in case it helps anyone else. We can always drop down one more size for each tire but hoping we don't have to! Bottom line is I'm trying to get all this done in case it causes or creates "body work" issues before I get the car painted or wrapped.

      -Joe
      Joe Lincoln
      Lime Green 71 Olds 442 Convertible

      Upgrades thread: https://www.pro-touring.com/showthre...ible&highlight=

    4. #384
      Join Date
      Apr 2008
      Location
      Virginia Beach VA
      Posts
      381
      A few new updates:

      Great news on my new 3 1/2 " Chromoly high speed balanced driveshaft. I've had a vibration in 6th gear only (with the 4.10 rear end) that started around 75mph since the Magnum trans was installed. As detailed in previous posts the driveline angles were changed by raising the rear of the trans slightly (as suggested by American Powertrain). That combined with the (9,000 RPM) high speed balanced driveshaft and all vibrations are now gone. To be clear the first driveshaft used that came with the trans balanced perfectly for a "standard" balance but completely failed during a high speed balance. For someone running a 6 speed with a numerically lower rear end this may not be an issue but for those running anything near a 4.10 like mine, you may want to consider this high speed balance if you have vibration issues. The new driveline angles helped but the vibration was still there. Took the car to Mexico for a quick test and it was glassy smooth up to 100 mph. Very happy with the results.

      In my continued effort to get the car more autocross friendly, I decided to upgrade the rear suspension parts to allow articulation. As recommended by Mark at SC&C I ordered the following:

      Currie Johnny joint kit for A body housing – installs in the “ears” then the upper arms attach to it.
      Currectrac Rear upper control arms
      Currectrac Billet Rear lower control arms

      All 3 of the above come with the sealed Johnny joints and allow up to 30 degrees of articulation. The sealed joints last longer and supposedly don't eventually start to squeak/make noise like some of the other brands available.

      What's nice about these parts is the articulation prevents the rear end binding my current setup has which will obviously greatly improve cornering but will also help with street driving and launching for drag racing. Looking forward to some testing on the car once these are installed. Since everything has already been upgraded on the front suspension, I really needed to improve on the rear to prevent the rear suspension from being the weak link.

      -Joe
      Joe Lincoln
      Lime Green 71 Olds 442 Convertible

      Upgrades thread: https://www.pro-touring.com/showthre...ible&highlight=

    5. #385
      Join Date
      Apr 2008
      Location
      Virginia Beach VA
      Posts
      381
      some pics of the new rear suspension parts:



      Joe Lincoln
      Lime Green 71 Olds 442 Convertible

      Upgrades thread: https://www.pro-touring.com/showthre...ible&highlight=

    6. #386
      Join Date
      Apr 2008
      Location
      Virginia Beach VA
      Posts
      381
      Finally have some updates on trying to fit the 325/30/19s on the rear. First the tire itself is actually about a 1/4" wider (13.25") then what it will be mounted on the 11.5" wheel (13"). Test fit pics below show 6" BS first then 6.5" BS. Note as you might expect the 6" BS has clearance from the frame to the inside but is pushed all the way to the outside against the wheel well lip and the 6.5" BS is against the frame to the inside but has a little clearance to the outside. I'm afraid the 6" BS will require at least 1" flares to the outside which concerns me on how radical it will change the look. I don't mind "stretching" the quarter panel wheel wells out about 1/2" if needed but I'm afraid it will take more than that. So that puts us back to notching the frame to go to 6.5" BS or more. The issue here as mentioned previously is lack of space with the roll bar down bars and the convertible top well. Originally we thought if we could only get 1/2" or 3/4" it would not be worth all the trouble but that actually may be all we need to solve the issue. If there's enough room to notch the frame that little amount and move the inner wheel well in and not have to mess with the roll down bar, that may be the way we go. That would allow us to do a BS of 6.5" or maybe even 6.625" or 6.75". It all depends on how much room is there. I think a 6.75" BS MIGHT give enough room to not even have to stretch the wheel wells to the outside. Before any decision is made we need to see what has to happen with the front 305/30/19 as far as "flares". Since my fenders are fiberglass the would be no stretching just custom glass work. If nothing on the "outside" of the glass front fenders had to be modded to provide more room, that will make me really lean towards notching the frame even for only 1/2".

      6" BS pics:



      6.5" BS pics:

      Joe Lincoln
      Lime Green 71 Olds 442 Convertible

      Upgrades thread: https://www.pro-touring.com/showthre...ible&highlight=

    7. #387
      Join Date
      Feb 2019
      Posts
      270
      Awesome ride! Can’t wait til you finish it all up and painted. You and Frank make a great team building the vert!
      1968 Cougar - 408, FiTech, AOD, TCI, Currie, RideTech, Wilwood
      1968 Skylark - 462, TKO 600, RideTech, CPP
      1985 Mustang - 04 Cobra/Terminator Swapped
      1988 Mustang - Vortech V3, Boss 327, Magnum, MaximumMotorsports, StopTech

    8. #388
      Join Date
      Feb 2019
      Posts
      270
      Quote Originally Posted by 71OLDS View Post
      Had another learning session last night with Mark Savitske at SC&C mostly on things NOT to do. See my earlier posts about my previous learning sessions from him. As a reminder he has spent decades working with 68-72 GM A-body cars and making them handle better for street, track etc. I'm fully drinking the cool aide now and have most of his parts/suggestions on my 442. He also wrote the book “How to Make Your Muscle Car Handle”. Anyway my plan was to upgrade wheels and tires to a combo of taller wheels and tires. Was leaning towards 20x11s in the rear on 305/35/20 Nitto 555rs and either 20s or 19s in the front in a 10" wide or maybe even 11" wheel (if it could be made to fit) with a higher end high performance front tire. I was really liking the "square" setup look with 305s front and rear for example. I've seen a few cars done like this and the new muscle cars like the Hellcat and GT350 Mustangs are running similar sizes.

      After talking with him it turns out this would be counter productive with the other parts I've already added that currently work really with the roll center of the factory GM A body frame. Mark confirmed ideally the rear tire should be at or around 27.5" tall and the front should be at or around 26.7" tall. Since I'm currently at 28.78/27 I'm too tall now and didn't realize I could make things worse by going taller. Also Mark explained with my setup the wider front wheel/tire combo could actually make things worse and cause issues with turning radius and other things that were working really well as I have them now. He explained going with a 305 front and rear square set up could work but I would need to make other changes to accommodate (tear out stock inner fender, add wide body flares, because it makes the wheel turning radius even wider - have to alter several things - there's a long list here ). Additionally going that wide could cause issues for street driving including simple things like making a U turn, parking etc, plus could cause trammeling on the highway where the front wheels track left and right on imperfections on the road. And then there's the additional weight. Bottom line he suggested staying with an 8" wide wheel front or a max of 9" and suggested only a 245 45 18 front tire - better to stretch it on a 9" wheel vs the 255 45 18 I'm running now on an 8" wheel. He said he's had several clients win and/or do very well running only a 245/45/18 tire at autocross events and even put down faster times than those with much wider setup for the reasons explained above especially when there are 180 degree turns in the autocross event. For the rear he said an 18x10 with something like a 285/45/18 is all you need. I've currently got a 305/45/18 drag radial on an 18x10 which I explained had lots of room all around due to clearancing in the wheel well, rolling the outer lip, and flat spots put on the 3" tail pipes. He said that was great but told me he bets if I put it though an autocross event it would hit. We'll see but apparently my current tires are not ideal at 28.78" in the rear. Nitto 555r does make a 305/40/18 drag radial that is only 27.7" tall and he said that would be great for height but would need to be on an 11" wide wheel (10" would not be ideal) and if it didn't hit (again TBD) would be excellent for autocross at about 40 psi. He confirmed he's had several customers running Nitto 555rs successfully in autocross however he did forewarn that many autocross events require treadwear rating of the tire to be 200 or above to have your times "count" if you're trying to place. You can still do the event for fun and get a time but it won't count as far as placing. The Nitto 555rs are 100 TW rating.

      So in summary my plan is to swap out my front Nitto 555 255/45/18s for some 245/45/18s and might even upgrade to a 9" wheel at some point. I found the Mich Pilot 4S tire would actually be 4.8" lbs lighter than the Nittos. That alone would be a huge improvement to drop almost 5 lbs of unsprung weight on both sides. Then for the rear I may upgrade to a 18x11 rim and drop down to 305/40/18 555rs. If they rub during autocross I can use them for street and drag race only and then buy a set of 285/45/18 tires to go on my current 18x10s. These could also be used if the 100 TW rating of the Nittos becomes an issue for certain autocross events.
      Thanks for this post too! Learning a lot here
      1968 Cougar - 408, FiTech, AOD, TCI, Currie, RideTech, Wilwood
      1968 Skylark - 462, TKO 600, RideTech, CPP
      1985 Mustang - 04 Cobra/Terminator Swapped
      1988 Mustang - Vortech V3, Boss 327, Magnum, MaximumMotorsports, StopTech

    9. #389
      Join Date
      Apr 2008
      Location
      Virginia Beach VA
      Posts
      381
      It’s been a while since I’ve had any updates. The combo of COVID and health issues of those who work on the car and their family members has completely stopped any progress. I’ve decided to forgo the plans for the 325/305 rim and tire setup because I’ve just been too long without the car now. The work required to notch the frame for the 325s in the rear is a huge project that is going to take lots of time and money to complete. Thankfully Tire Rack has agreed to take both tires back that were purchased for measurements only with a 10% restocking fee.

      The new plan is to stay with 305s in the rear and go with 265/275s front. This will require zero mods in the rear and hopefully only minor in the front (sway bar mods for turn in required lock to lock w/a 6” BS).

      I have ordered a new set of 18x11 wheels for the rear from Schott that will replace the 18x10s I have now. These look almost identical to my current Olds SSI style/Magnum 500 NewGen wheels. I’ll be keeping the 305/40/18 drag radials for street and drag race. The 10” wide wheels were on the low end of what’s needed for those tires so I think the 11s will fill them up better and make a bigger foot print. With the 6 speed and the big block Olds, it’s just not much fun street driving w/o drag radials. The 18x10s will then be moved to the front and will have 265/40/18 Mich Pilot 4S tires mounted on them. So I will run the 305/40/18 drag radials with the 245/45/18s for drag racing and swap out to the 265/40/18s on the front for street and mild auto-cross.

      When I finally start to autocross at my local club (Tidewater Sports Car Club) if a 200 TW tire is required or becomes necessary, I will most likely get a separate set of the same wheels in 19x11 and 18x10 and mount some 305/30/19s and 275/35/18 BFG Rival S 1.5s. I think these will be fine for at least a year as a novice. My first 5 events require an instructor which I’m sure will be really helpful for me. I have a few other projects to get done on the car but hoping to have it back around the May/June time frame. Will provide pics and updates here as always on the new projects.
      Joe Lincoln
      Lime Green 71 Olds 442 Convertible

      Upgrades thread: https://www.pro-touring.com/showthre...ible&highlight=

    10. #390
      Join Date
      Feb 2019
      Posts
      270
      Sucks to hear fk’n Covid affecting everything! Well 265 front 305 rear is still plenty fat I’d say! It’s still gonna look nice and handle
      1968 Cougar - 408, FiTech, AOD, TCI, Currie, RideTech, Wilwood
      1968 Skylark - 462, TKO 600, RideTech, CPP
      1985 Mustang - 04 Cobra/Terminator Swapped
      1988 Mustang - Vortech V3, Boss 327, Magnum, MaximumMotorsports, StopTech

    11. #391
      Join Date
      Apr 2008
      Location
      Virginia Beach VA
      Posts
      381
      Quote Originally Posted by STREETFIGHTER50 View Post
      Sucks to hear fk’n Covid affecting everything! Well 265 front 305 rear is still plenty fat I’d say! It’s still gonna look nice and handle
      Thanks - that's what I'm hoping. Can always do the frame notch down the road and upgrade to 325s or 335s in the rear but for now just want to get the car back this summer and drive it.
      Joe Lincoln
      Lime Green 71 Olds 442 Convertible

      Upgrades thread: https://www.pro-touring.com/showthre...ible&highlight=

    12. #392
      Join Date
      Apr 2008
      Location
      Virginia Beach VA
      Posts
      381
      I'm working on a new plan for the 442 for some air vents actually mounted inside the repro hood ram air scoops. I eventually want to put a front splitter on the car to be combined with the front spoiler that's already on it. I want to have all the current fiberglass parts (decklid, hood, fenders, front bumper, front spoiler) cleaned up with the proper gaps and just a better, tighter fit. I also need to have some foam inserts put on the inside of the fenders to stiffen them up for high speeds. I have a guy local to me in Virginia Beach so it's possible to get all that done this year. Once that's all done I will mock up a front slitter to be made that will hopefully work with all those cleaned up glass parts and be removable. With a front splitter installed I'll be worsening the situation of air being trapped under the hood with no where to go. Thus the need for the hood air vents which will really come into play at higher speeds. You can see examples of these hood vents on many higher end autocross cars like this Camaro and this Chevelle:





      The problem was trying to find a location to install them with the repro glass ram air hood. I'm hoping they can be installed in a similar location to the fake chrome vents/louvers on the non ram air 71 -72 442 hoods like this:


      You can see from the under side where the studs stick out where this lines up:

      Also for my ram air hood I've have a factory appearing screen covering this area like this:

      but if the screen was cut down to be just over the breather section it would open this area up. Here's a pic I found showing that with a doodle of the location for vents:

      Here's an even uglier doodle of the location of the vents from the top side:

      I found a set of vents by a company called Verus that are 5" wide and 8" long on the longer corner that I think might work:




      Lots more to figure out including a way to prevent water issues if I get caught in the rain or when I wash the car. Also my car runs too cool in the winter with the oil cooler when I'm on the highway in 6th gear. I'm guessing with these open vents that may worsen that situation. So I'm trying to figure a way to be able to block them off when needed. I'll provide updates and pics as always on this one assuming we actually move forward with it. It's something I've been trying to figure out how to do for a few years now.

      -Joe
      Joe Lincoln
      Lime Green 71 Olds 442 Convertible

      Upgrades thread: https://www.pro-touring.com/showthre...ible&highlight=

    13. #393
      Join Date
      Feb 2019
      Posts
      270
      I like the style vents on the red Camaro and white car (2nd to last pic), but would be better looking mounted more towards the rear part of the hood IMO. Probably more functional too
      1968 Cougar - 408, FiTech, AOD, TCI, Currie, RideTech, Wilwood
      1968 Skylark - 462, TKO 600, RideTech, CPP
      1985 Mustang - 04 Cobra/Terminator Swapped
      1988 Mustang - Vortech V3, Boss 327, Magnum, MaximumMotorsports, StopTech

    14. #394
      Join Date
      Apr 2008
      Location
      Virginia Beach VA
      Posts
      381
      This is the only location that is possible for me with my current hood:

      Joe Lincoln
      Lime Green 71 Olds 442 Convertible

      Upgrades thread: https://www.pro-touring.com/showthre...ible&highlight=

    15. #395
      Join Date
      Jun 2012
      Location
      Chicago burbs
      Posts
      247
      Country Flag: United States
      Hey Joe,
      Fellow Olds guy here, love the build. I'm caught up on the last couple pages of your build, but need to spend more time on the earlier stuff to fully remember everything. I had two suggestions that you may know, but might help others if they see this.

      Adding vents to the hood first off looks awesome IMO and to ensure flow goes the right way(out of the hood) they need a positive pressure differential between the inner and outer hood at speed. Magnehelic gauges are about 40 bucks(and a water manometer is even cheaper ) and the tubes are placed on either side of the hood where you want to put the vents. We tried doing this on one of our long haul semi's and found that we actually needed to duct the underhood area to a remote location more towards the front in order to get a dP worth the effort.
      The miata boi's are big into this and there's some good threads out there, some of them even ran CFD to optimize placement.

      The second idea I had was that you could have those vents 3D printed out of ASA, Nylon or polycarbonate. That route would allow you to custom mold them into the hood. Just a suggestion though. I'm usually all about ideas that delay projects and add complexity.
      Keep up the good work man.

      1969 442 6.0L LQ9 T56
      Fab9 w/ custom 3 Link conversion
      FAYS2 Watts link
      Thanks to Mark at SC&C for his honesty and passion for the sport, and Ron Sutton for the wealth of knowledge that has helped shape so many of the cars on this site.

    16. #396
      Join Date
      Feb 2019
      Posts
      270
      Funny I just got delivery of my steel 2” cowl hood with vents for my Foxbody
      I bought it from CJPonyParts. I thought it was made by Dynacorn, but the box says MuscleCarGT.
      https://www.cjponyparts.com/cowl-hoo...-1993/p/HD114/
      1968 Cougar - 408, FiTech, AOD, TCI, Currie, RideTech, Wilwood
      1968 Skylark - 462, TKO 600, RideTech, CPP
      1985 Mustang - 04 Cobra/Terminator Swapped
      1988 Mustang - Vortech V3, Boss 327, Magnum, MaximumMotorsports, StopTech

    17. #397
      Join Date
      Feb 2019
      Posts
      270
      Check out their website. Looks like they do pretty much all Muscle Car sheet metal. Stock and upgraded stuff.
      https://musclecargt.com/

      1968 Cougar - 408, FiTech, AOD, TCI, Currie, RideTech, Wilwood
      1968 Skylark - 462, TKO 600, RideTech, CPP
      1985 Mustang - 04 Cobra/Terminator Swapped
      1988 Mustang - Vortech V3, Boss 327, Magnum, MaximumMotorsports, StopTech


    18. #398
      Join Date
      Apr 2008
      Location
      Virginia Beach VA
      Posts
      381
      Thinking about a little different plan for the hood vents. Got the idea from the factory original 69 Shelby GT500. I actually think the convertible has a similar look to my 442:

      black roll bar and white interior just like mine. Anyway back to the hood. Even has hood pins that look like same as the Olds ram air hoods:


      they have the front air scoops that the air comes in but then rear scoops that lets the air out in almost the exact location I'm planning for on my ram air hood. The mouth drops down in the actual scoop:



      you can see the screen and location well from the underside:



      Trying to finalize exactly how I want this done but I like this option/idea better then the flat vents on top. Still need to get the stock screen off and check spacing/room available to confirm everything. Frank confirmed he could fab the scoops out of metal into the fiberglass hood. Will update again if there's any progress/final decisions here.

      -Joe
      Joe Lincoln
      Lime Green 71 Olds 442 Convertible

      Upgrades thread: https://www.pro-touring.com/showthre...ible&highlight=

    19. #399
      Join Date
      Jun 2012
      Location
      Chicago burbs
      Posts
      247
      Country Flag: United States
      That's a real cool look. I'd love to see how you integrate into the olds sheetmetal(fiberglass whatevs).

      1969 442 6.0L LQ9 T56
      Fab9 w/ custom 3 Link conversion
      FAYS2 Watts link
      Thanks to Mark at SC&C for his honesty and passion for the sport, and Ron Sutton for the wealth of knowledge that has helped shape so many of the cars on this site.

    20. #400
      Join Date
      Apr 2008
      Location
      Virginia Beach VA
      Posts
      381
      Quote Originally Posted by jetmech442 View Post
      That's a real cool look. I'd love to see how you integrate into the olds sheetmetal(fiberglass whatevs).
      Thanks - hoping we can find a way to do it and have it function properly and still look nice in the ram air hood.

      Randomly just saw pics of the 2021 Shelby Super Snake today. Note the ram air hood with the drop vents in the rear of the scoops. Same concept:

      Joe Lincoln
      Lime Green 71 Olds 442 Convertible

      Upgrades thread: https://www.pro-touring.com/showthre...ible&highlight=

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