When NASA's space shuttle first went into service 30 years ago-yes, it's been that long-nobody ever intended it to be flying for three decades. To be sure, it's been upgraded, refurbished, and well maintained, but we've also lost half the fleet. The point here underscores the importance of regular care and upkeep on our antique hot rods. Even with the best loving care, it's easy for some very important items to slip between the cracks.

Last month, we built a 509ci solid-roller big-block Chevy, using the leftover block, crank, and oil pan from the 502 Ramjet crate motor out of Project X. We christened it the Pile Driver, because it pounded out 717 hp at 6,300 rpm and 651 lb-ft of torque at 5,100 rpm-all while sipping a diet of 91-octane pump gas. Those numbers are impressive, especially in light of the fact that we only spent $8,100 to build it, not including the parts from "X."inline_mediumwraptextright25817471/tech/0912phr_big_block_chevy0912phr_01_o+big-block_chevy+1971_chevelle.jpgTrue

Long before the first Pontiac automobile rolled off the assembly line in late 1926, the Pontiac Buggy Company, formed by Edward M. Murphy was selling horse-drawn buggies to giddy customers looking for that feeling of, well, 1 hp. As he looked toward the future, Murphy saw the horsedrawn buggy going the proverbial way of the buggy whip and created the Oakland Motor Car Company in 1907. A couple years later when GM acquired Oakland, they went through some serious growing pains, but emerged as a customer-savvy competitor for the popular Fords under the Pontiac banner. Unfortunately Murphy, true to the law sharing his name, was unable to bask in the success of his creation, having died unexpectedly the summer after joining the GM family.inline_mediumwraptextright26971705/tech/0912phr_dci_455_pontiac_engine0912phr_01_o+dci_455_pontiac_engine+headers.jpgTrue

For those of us old enough to remember '80s Reaganomics and learning about new math in school (what was the point of base 8 numbering anyhow?), our idea of tricking out a car used to be adding a set of Cherry Bombs and a Holley 750 double-pumper to the requisite '79 Camaro and promptly destroying a set of T/A Radials. A day or two has passed, and the LT1 F-bodies littering the Auto Trader have become the '79 Camaros of today. They're cheap, you can sort of work on them, and they still do great burnouts.inline_mediumwraptextright26968525/tech/0912phr_lt1_block_and_cams0912phr_01_o+lt1_block_and_cams+fedex.jpgTrue

Whether you dig the Pro-Touring movement, and its attendant propensity for big g-force turns or not, you will at some point need to turn the corner. Even drag racers need to turn, and if your tires don't mimic the directional input of the steering wheel, you, my friend, are in serious trouble. Virtually all muscle cars were equipped with recirculating ball and nut steering (sometimes called worm and sector). This type of steering box was almost universal in domestic cars through the 1980s; they're simple, they work, and their universal nature means they're compatible in cars of widely varying vintage (read: easy bolt-on).inline_mediumwraptextright31137477/tech/0912phr_1975_chevy_laguna0912phr_02_o+1975_chevy_laguna+front.jpgTrue

Just about any engine builder, whether a pro or a backyard hobbyist, looks at the completion of the short-block as a milestone in a performance engine build. Getting to this point in the process generally means that the grunt work is done, and the build shifts to dressing out the rest of the engine with a selection of high-performance parts. Getting over the hurdle of a completed short-block is almost always time consuming and sometimes frustrating. You might start by finding a good core, and unless you own a machine shop, the search will begin for a competent machinist who can do the work on time and at a fair price. All of the internal rotating assembly components must be reconditioned or sourced new, with everything sized and compatible with the rest of the parts going into the bottom end. With plenty of running around, phone time, and good planning, at the end you will have everything machined, balanced, and ready to assemble.inline_mediumwraptextrightDart's SHP short-block helps you take several big steps forward on the way to a high-performance engine build. We ordered one up in a 400ci version, with all the goodies needed to make reliable power.31135587/tech/0912phr_dart_short_block_crate_motor0912phr_01_o+dart_short_block_crate_motor+400ci.jpgTrue

A pile driver is a mechanical device that smashes the earth with tremendous force, and the term is a fitting description of this 509ci street big-block Chevrolet unleashed by Outlaw Racing's Andy Mitchell. As our story goes, we had a 502 Chevy Ramjet engine liberated from Popular Hot Rodding's Project X, a fine engine combination from General Motors, replaced by an all-aluminum 427 in the latest incarnation of our heroic project car. We found ourselves in the enviable situation of having Project X completely renovated by the crew at GM with an all-new mill, while the old engine was hanging from a hook waiting for whatever our collective imaginations might conjure.

Casting
The casting of the Boss 351 block starts with a brand-new tooling. Over a century of experience pouring blocks was put into the design of these molds and the way they are poured. Critical elements to a high-quality, repeatable casting are the sand used, number of cores, keeping the molten iron moving, proper venting, quick cooling, and keeping areas thin enough to cool properly but thick enough to give the required strength. Ford Racing uses flow dynamics and analysis to help determine the best way to cast the block, with what end up and where to put the vents. Unique to their Boss blocks, Ford Racing uses a two-block mold that doubles productivity without hurting quality.

When brothers Dale and Glenn Robinson decided to take up the gauntlet and enter the 2008 Engine Masters Challenge, they knew they needed every advantage they could get. They had to know all of the rules inside and out, and create a combination that could wow the crowd and still stay within budget. Their approach to building this little 307-based Olds mirrored their team name, Robinson Analytical.

Assembling The Hoses
Instead of using hard line or regular rubber hose, we used Earl's Pro-Lite 350 hose. This stuff is really easy to work with and it's very pliable for routing. Though not required, there are some special tools that help make assembly much easier. We used Earl's aluminum vise jaw liners, Earl's aluminum -AN wrenches, electrical tape, and a cutoff wheel.

Muscle car magazines have rarely been advocates for progressive and socially responsible behavior, but our past transgressions of apathy are about to change with Project Fox. PHR's '93 Mustang notchback is very green-Ford Calypso Green Metallic to be exact-and with a 532ci big-block Ford mated to a GM TH400 trans, it boasts the latest in hybrid technology. Making power is only half the battle, however, and getting Project Fox's 775 ponies to hook on skinny 10-inch-wide drag radials and a stock-style suspension is no easy feat. Or is it?

Over the past few years, we have seen massive cubic inch increases thanks to new blocks, heads, and a desire to build the ultimate pump-gas street engine. The trend has always been to build it bigger, as the hot rod clich of "bigger is better" tends to hold a lot of truth in most applications. The build-it-bigger motto has led to massive 800ci and 900ci engines that have eclipsed the 1,400hp range in naturally aspirated trim while running on fossil fuel from the local gas station. As cool and exciting as it can be to own an engine the size of an IHRA Mountain Motor Pro Stocker, it is hardly practical-let alone the fact that it's rather expensive. The extra cubes come in the form of a physically larger package size when compared to the traditional low-deck, big-block platform. Shoehorning these engines into a muscle car almost always necessitates custom fabrication and a hood that requires a periscope to view the landscape to the right.

Modifications to a performance car take on a variety of forms, and for traditional muscle cars the most obvious mods are those underhood contributing to the "go." Probably just as important are changes just a little further down that focus on the "whoa." Safety is just as much a concern here as performance, especially considering many cars of the era were factory equipped with barely adequate drum brakes. Our '71 Plymouth Satellite project was thankfully equipped with the optional factory front disc brakes, a system greatly superior to drums, but even here we saw plenty of room for improvement.

Just like that, General Motors has morphed into Government Motors, and Chrysler is counting on Tony to fix it again. If the thought of buying a car from a government-owned automaker, with a loan from a government-owned bank, and driving it back to your government-refinanced house doesn't get you excited, what will? In the midst of all this madness, a leaner and meaner Ford is asserting itself once again, recently selling off ballast such as Jaguar, Aston Martin, and Mazda to reduce overhead and dedicate its focus on the Blue Oval brand. As the only U.S. car manufacturer that hasn't been bailed out or gone bankrupt, it's not surprising that Ford seems the best adapted to meet the daunting market challenges ahead. Chief among them are new 35.5-mpg CAFE standards that will be phased in by 2016, and the public's growing demand for more fuel-efficient vehicles. All this doesn't bode well for the V-8, and new car manufacturers are already rolling out a new wave of high-output six-cylinder engines in response. Ford is in on the action, too, having just introduced its 3.5L EcoBoost V-6 in the 2010 Lincoln MKS.

Holley has been manufacturing the revered "Dominator" series of high-capacity carburetors since the first 1,050-cfm units were developed in 1968 to meet the voracious airflow demands of Ford's NASCAR engine program. Based upon Holley's respected 4150 Series of four-barrel carburetors, the 4500 Series Dominator carbs featured up-sized architecture for serious flow. Although the Dominators shared many common parts with Holley's standard four-barrel carb, including the tuning components, metering blocks, and float bowls, the most significant change was a spreading of the bore centers in the main body to allow a substantially increased venturi size and bore diameter. The large main body featured an integral baseplate, and required a manifold with a 5.380-inch square bolt pattern to accommodate its girth. Holley's Dominator quickly garnered the status as the carburetor of choice in racing applications where airflow is at a premium.

Fast cars call for fat tires. Drag racers can get away with installing wheel tubs, bringing the tire in as far as possible. This works well, but what about the guys who need big tires in the front too? Fender flares can give us some room for the extra rubber. They also give us more clearance for lowered cars. The great thing about fender flares is that even if you don't need the wider meats, they look really cool.

Our November issue featured a story on building a NASCAR side-exit style exhaust using components from Dr. Gas. We brought our Laguna down to LP Racing in Rancho Cucamonga, CA, the brainchild of builder/fabricator, Lang Paciulli. Lang is an expert TIG welder, and that's the technique he used to assemble our one-of-a-kind exhaust on our Laguna. We learned a lot about TIG welding from Lang, too much in fact to squeeze into our print story. We decided to compile all our extra knowledge into a web-exclusive story, which we promised in the November issue. Here's the text from our interview with Lang, along with some helpful tips for the beginning TIG welder!

E85 is a blend of 85 percent Ethanol, a grain-alcohol made from corn, and 15 percent gasoline. This mixture gives the fuel a much higher octane rating than gasoline, and is cheaper than pump gas, race gas, or methanol.

I have a passion for big-inch motors, and this has led me to ignore Ford's 4.6 Mod motor and its potential. What a mistake, and one we're about to rectify. The reality is that Ford's modular engine, especially the 4.6, is a cheap buy on the used market, and has way more potential than the modest displacement might suggest. But as Andy Wood of Cross Roads Performance (Gastonia, North Carolina) will demonstrate here, the lack of inches is not the big handicap you might think-as long as all mods are done right. In small, low-budget steps, we're going to show you what can be done for the mod motor.

From the beginning, Project Talladega has stuck doggedly to a NASCAR aesthetic. Right or wrong, we feel the stock car racing theme is the most fitting one for a '75 Laguna, since that is primarily how history will remember that marque. So far, we've successfully pulled off the bodywork, paint, graphics, wheels, tires, and unique NASCAR-inspired exterior pieces, but only recently started on the serious performance pieces. Early on, we discovered that the suspension experts at Global West specialize in chassis bolt-ons for '73-77 GM Colonnade A-bodies like our Laguna. Since one of the eventual goals for Project Talladega is to do some road course and autocross work, we had to avail ourselves of Global West's full line of bolt-on suspension parts, which we detailed in our June and July issues.

Of all of the processes involved in assembling a high-performance engine, properly setting up the valvetrain is perhaps the most critical. Failure to pay attention to the fine points can spell disaster, so it pays to fully understand what to look for as it relates to the engine's requirements. While an engine using mostly OEM parts can typically be bolted together with minimal fuss, as the list of aftermarket and race parts gets longer, it becomes increasingly vital that the system is validated by checking, measuring, and dialing-in the entire system, as required. We stopped in at Andy Mitchell's Outlaw Racing Engines in Upland, California, to look at the principle techniques and tools to do the job on a 509ci big-block Chevy we'll be covering in a future story. Nevertheless, the same ideas apply to all types of engines.

Chevelle Headers
Q. I am a longtime reader of your magazine. I recently completed building a Brodix Track 1 headed 383-inch small-block Chevy for my '67 Chevelle. Here lies the problem:

There's a lot to love about a vintage muscle car. We can swoon over the seductive styling, the purposeful simplicity, and intangible raw element of power that seems to emanate from these classic American machines. While a classic muscle car fits in your garage like a jewel in a case, bringing that beast onto the streets in a usable fashion often presents an entirely different concept of reality. Technology has been steadily moving forward in the decades that have elapsed from those automotive glory days, and taking to the streets in old iron is enough to drive the point home.

The second-generation Camaro was designed in the late-'60s with one goal in mind: Put one in every driveway. Between 1970 and 1981, Chevy built 1.9 million Camaros, while its sister division, Pontiac, built 1.3 million Firebirds. Everyone drove them, from Sunday school teachers to hot rodders. As such, they were not designed up front to be fire-breathing corner-carving machines. Although some small compromises were made to accommodate enthusiasts in some models, the second-gen F-body was largely a flexi-flyer built on a unibody platform, and shared most components with its econo-car X-body (Nova) sibling.