Another build thread? Yep, my track-style T

[deckofficer]

Sure Jim, as I've enjoyed your build.

From this picture you will see I've "massaged" the aluminum panel a bit with the bulge to allow clearance for the engine's Ram Horn exhaust manifold.


In the beginning the transmission was a M21 Muncie 4 speed.


But that was when I was running a 355 sbc circle track race engine. Later I built a 383 sbc for torque down low in the rpm band, gave up 100 hp on the high end to have 516 lb/ft @ 2800 on the low end.

That amount of torque would have made the Muncie short lived, so swapped in a Tremec TKO 600 5 speed with 0.64 5th gear.

With the massive torque so low in the rpm band, was able to gear it really tall for cruising and good mpg. Broke 30 mpg on a couple of trips. This picture is up hill in 5th and about 1025 rpm.


As much as I enjoyed the grunt of the 383 over the 355, I missed the high rpm zing of the 355, so the next engine gave that back to me. You probably won't have to go to the extremes I've had to in keeping the engine cool with a radiator that fits inside our track noses, but mine is a 3 core and 2 core married to the same tanks and then a custom fabbed fan shroud to pull as much air as possible through it.