Inliners International Forums General Discussion Bench racing Building a 67 El Camino/230 Stocker

I am finally ready to start building my 67 El Camino for NHRA V/Stock class. I will be using a 230 with a 3 speed stick. The rules are pretty restrictive, stock carburetor, basically stock internals, cam with any duration but no more than stock lift, but hearers are allowed. The ET Index for the class is 15.25 seconds - I don't know if this is doable, but I'm gong to try. I have traded e-mails with Billy Nees, whose 70 Nova with a 230 and a powerglide has run 14.51. I will listen to any ideas you guys might have.
Marty Knox

Run as much compression as possible..

If possibble, run at least a 4 spd. 3 speeds gearing sucks a$$.

You are going to need to run low rear gears & do a lot of supension work.

Take out all the weight you can. Drum brakes, with the brakes adjusted on the loose side, but safe.

Get a "SPECIAL" valve job. and some type of epoxy "example: JB weld" to improve the short turn radius.
Is porting allowed but stock volume?

Angle mill the head.

Have the carb nuts loose, so when you floor it the carb will tilt back allowing more air to get into the engine.
You would jet the carb a bit rich @ idle but it will be perfect @ W.O.T. & carb tilted.

Find the biggest "STOCK" 1 barrel carb.

Just some ideas.
Have fun!
MBHD

Under NHRA rules, you can mill the head, but they specify minimum combustion chamber volume. Stock valves with any valve job, no other modifications to the head, like epoxy or porting. I am planning on a 12 bolt with 5.13 gears, the Lakewood traction bars that replace the lower control arms. I have to run a 3 speed, 230's weren't available with a 4 speed. Has to be correct model carburetor, securely fastened.

Kinda figured there are rules about the carb, it was an old trick.

You are going to need to have the pistons come out of the block, meaning a positive deck.
Need to run the piston clearance close to the piston head.

Might be able to switch out gears in that 3 spd trans, the 2nd to 3rd gear change is a killer! RPMs drop off too much.

Most likely need an air bag in the right rear coil spring to launch straight.

Need to change the throat angle & open it up in the cyl head for max flow.

Maybe profile the intake port boss & try to make it look as cast/stock looking.

MBHD

The NHRA tech inspectors have seen every trick in the book when it comes to cylinder heads. They also have an engine blueprint sheet telling you what part # pistons you have to use, what deck hgt. you have to have and combustion chamber size for the head. The cylinder heads cannot have a die grinder, file, sand paper or any other device touch any part of the ports, chamber or bowl area that can remove or modify those areas in any way other than the valve seats. Same goes for the intake manifold. An NHRA tech inspection can be more brutal than an IRS audit....

You only find these kind of inspectors at the national events. Most local track inspector know NOTHING past a SBC !! LOL

I think that is the purpose of his build is for competition at NHRA events. Building one just to bracket race is pointless.

My purpose is to see how fast I can get it to go. I ran a 65 Bel Air with a 230 back in 1972, was .2 off the record at that time. Kinda unfinished business - got engaged, sold the race car, you know the old story...

Good luck with your project, post pics of it when you get to that point.

These are the true racers at the drag strip. I'm always amazed but the slower stock class cars that manage to get some respectable times out of what we would all consider to be slow cars.

I'm watching this thread.

C'mon Scrapiron some of us tech inspectors are inline enthusiasts LOL!!

First thing I'm going to do is get the El Camino weighed. It had a 350 and a Powerglide in it; I sold the 350. Tom Lowe says I can use the V-8 frame mounts with the block mounts from a truck. I'm going to drop in a 250 and 3 speed from a 69 Camaro just to get it up and running while I build a 230.

Back in the sixties we tried everything from window screen under the carb gaskets to hosea on the vacuum guage that could accidently fall off. They caught on to the loose carbs quick. Lots of fun stuff. Now they will make you pull your pan, heads, anything they choose to look at. If you refuse you get to sit out a year. There is still strange things going on but it's harder to find. Great classes.

I found a website that focuses on Stock and Super Stock Class drag racing. It's called ClassRacer.com. After reading all the gripes the racers have with NHRA I'm wondering if I shouldn't build the El Camino the way I want to - it will pobably be less money and more fun!
Marty Knox

Bracket race it.

It's one tenth the cost of a currently competitive class car.

Plus, you'll meet a lot of nice new friends.

Xs 2 on the Bracket race it. Anything goes when it comes to building it.

X3 on bracket racing it. You can buy a nice house for what it costs to actually build a "legal" competitive NHRA class racer. In 1988 I was going to build an A/S big block Camaro for NHRA racing. We were doing engines for a guy that had just moved up from Stock Eliminator to Super Stock, and he was going to give me a hand with all the tricks he had learned. He had the fastest 302 Chevy in the country at that time in a record holding Camaro, but when he told me it cost him almost $40,000 dollars a year to be at the level of competition he was at. Just his cylinder heads alone cost almost $6500. Your probably wondering how in the world can you even do $6500 dollars worth of work to a set of stock heads. Thats just how advanced Stock Eliminator was in 1988, just imagine how much farther it has advanced since then. I realised it was too rich for my blood. Im sure the costs have gone up even more today. Even the guys that are at the end of the classes at the V,W classes and farther have a load of money in their cars and engines and still struggle to run the index. Its more than just bolting parts together in class racing today than it was back in the 70's when the average had a fighting chance to compete in it.

I don't know much about cost but a little about cyl heads for Super stock heads I believe the class was.

I don't know if you guys have heard of Bob Lambeck (SP) but @ the time him & his son used to race I believe 1990's Camaros

The engine of there choice was a standard 300 HP 350 SBC's
you had to run 10.25 compression, stock volume heads, porting was allowed, had to run factory sized valves.
Exhaust manifolds had to be cast iron, they were cut opened & ported then welded back together. Same for the intake manifold.

IIRC, the best time they ran was a 9.7 in the 1/4.

The heads did not look anything like stock, the short turn radious' was a big difference, the intake ports were raised as much as possible.
The intake port was really smaller & narrowed. (they had to have stock port volume)

They were all epoxied up w/a 2 part epoxy.

IIRC, the heads flowed about 300 CFM ( I would have to refer to my friend that did his cyl heads)& the engine made alot more than 350 HP, can't remember off hand but maybe around 500 HP?? It's been a while.

The pistons were super light weight, short skirts, lighter smaller OD wrist pins, low tension piston rings.

There is a lot to mod a SBC engine just to be competitive.

But I am sure there are faster cars now, but can you imagine a 10.25 SBC 350 running 9's.
The cars would just hook, wheelie & go! Big tubbed rear tires.

MBHD

I was in the mix in the late 60's and up untill they killed Jr. Stock class's. Other than three angle valve work and milling to the exact chamber cc's and setting valve springs to allowed height and seat pressure was all you could do. No touching the head valve pockets any where with a grinder. Some port alignment was ok. I once deslagged the oil return holes and they fussed about that.Sometimes I would go through 100 valve springs to find a set that would make it to the 55# allowed at the required hight. The 57 Sedan Delivery 270 hp solid lifter motor would rev to 7200 rpms with fresh springs but after 20 passes it would loose a tenth. New springs would bring it back..My best speed trick was being in tight with the Chevy Dealer parts dept, and got all the latest list of superceded parts. Some of the cams and heads were much better. I was ahead of NHRA on some of them..$6500 in 1960/70 dollars was still way more than I spent unless my time was in the mix...!!! The short block was another can of worms..Racing was fun back in the day !!!

Like you said Scrapiron, back in the day an average guy could compete and make a good go in class racing, now it seems it has become a rich mans sport.

Back in 1972 I built a 65 Bel Air for O/Stock, which was 24 lbs/hp that year. I was working at a speed shop, and 'blueprinted' the engine. You were allowed .035" over and I bored it out to .030". The record was 17.4 at the time - the first pass I ran an 18.0. I ran a best of 17.6 and won Stock Eliminator at Island Dragway one Saturday night. Then I got engaged and she didn't want me to race so I sold the car. So, this is sort of unfinished business for me, but the world and drag racing have sure changed!

Major factors in stock class racing:
1. are you really close to your weight/power ratio? If 24 is allowed and you have 25, just stay home.
2. are there any cars in the class that have weight distribution, transmission, etc. advantages and have held the record since...?