Thread: 302 Stroker??

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We met with Gapp & Rousch at the New Hampshire drags.. probably 71 or 72.. we were pushed off into the dirt pits 'cause the big names were in town..

My boss Ben had struck up a conversation with one of them and we were later invited to their rig. I was in awe! but by todays standards it was not much!

I want to say they were running the Tiajuana Taxi but I just don't remember the car! I was maybe 19 or so and standing in front of 2 guys who had done it all as far as I was concerned!

Rousch is/was a mathmetician / engineer. Back then I didn't know anyone who might be an engineer! Never mind a mathmetician!

Ben had made a name for himself playing with 351's. The first year of the cleveland we ran a big question mark on the hood scoop as the track had a hard time keeping up with which engine was which, and we would swap out the windsor for the cleveland or vice versa.. so we kept the competition guessing and taking the weight advantages!

Then toss in the 2 barrel heads vs 4 barrel heads... it took the tech inspectors months to get it all straight! And then they started threatening teardowns each weekend.. After that Ben started to play "nice".. On weekends that we'd go to Englishtown, Ben really had to behave as those guys had no sense of humor!

Definitely good times!!!! Then, just when the "other guys" figured out the difference between the Windsor's and Cleveland's, out come the Clevor's!!!!!

I need to go find my old pictures.. I should have a pic of my old cougar. It was a rolling test bed for the Maverick. The Maverick was "our" points car and the Cougar was the grunt. Plus at times it had to fill in as my daily driver! That car was back halved loooonnngggg before anyone ever heard that term! It wasn't anything special at first but it got beat on every weekend with 3 or 4 different motors and a top loader. I got really good at replacing pushrods as I was almost guaranteed to bend at least one! All a part of the wierd combos we were coming up with. If it was a small block Ford from the late 60s and early 70s then it took a turn in that car. Carbs, ignitions, cams, valves.. pushrods.. we threw it all at it!

We didn't know what we didn't know and we tried all sorts of stuff to prove that it couldn't work.. I really wanted to copy the SOHC and even went so far as to cut up camshafts to weld'em together and mounted them on pillow blocks just to visualize a layout. I lost interest as I had neither the time, money or equipment to take it further.

I had named it "White Line Fever" after seeing the movie!

Were the bent pushrods from a Cleveland project??? First Clevor set-up I ran, could have changed my named to Mr. Push Rod Changer!!!! Finally got Mike (the other Mike, my machinist buddy) to cut down the stud bosses and put some studs and guideplates in, got a set of custom length pushrods (as in the right length), and no more problems!!!!

You're right, we didn't even know what we didn't know and went fast in spite of it!!!!

Originally Posted by Dave Severson

Were the bent pushrods from a Cleveland project??? First Clevor set-up I ran, could have changed my named to Mr. Push Rod Changer!!!! Finally got Mike (the other Mike, my machinist buddy) to cut down the stud bosses and put some studs and guideplates in, got a set of custom length pushrods (as in the right length), and no more problems!!!!

You're right, we didn't even know what we didn't know and went fast in spite of it!!!!

Yep! Anything cleveland would eat pushrods 'til we learned what guideplates were for! ROFL!! I remember playing with pushrod lengths and different mounts, playing with angles.. driving myself NUTS! But we would spin'em to the moon!

The last time out with the coupe it wasn't shifting right, didn't feel right, just pissin' me off. I haven't touched the car since as my aggravation level was just to high. So tonite I figured I better do something with it and after thinking about it all week, I decided to first verify the Throttle Valve pressure setting and discovered that the linkage moved and I had zero pressure when I should've had 22 to 26 psi with the special tool installed.

For those that know, this spells instant death for an AOD, don't supply the right pressure to the clutch packs and bands and they overheat and cook instantly.

My fluid is still pink so I'm holding out hope it'll be okay. But, we'll see tomorrow when I'll try it out. Not a great start to the weekend.

Originally Posted by 34_40

For those that know, this spells instant death for an AOD, don't supply the right pressure to the clutch packs and bands and they overheat and cook instantly.

My fluid is still pink so I'm holding out hope it'll be okay. But, we'll see tomorrow when I'll try it out. Not a great start to the weekend.

Yikes, Mike!! I hope you caught it in time!! Fortunately mine was already set from the donor car. Let us know what's up. Here's pullin' for good news!!

Thanks Randy! Took her for a spin and it seems to be okay! (WHEW!)
Then about a half hour into riding around it started doing it again. Seems the linkage isn't secure enough and slips under the nut.
What bugs me is that it was fine all last year. Not sure why it won't stay put now.
I'm not sure I'll but to much energy into it as I have to rework all the linkage for the dual quads anyway.
But the tranny seems ok! And that makes me very happy! LOL..

Got the linkage "more secure" and took it out early Sunday morning before it got hot out. I think I want to adjust the Throttle Valve just a touch more to hold the shift points just a bit longer.

At one point on the ride I jumped on the highway and ran it up to 70 / 75 and suddenly my gauges go flukey.. Tach swinging all over the place, speedo the same - it was weird!! So I've been thinking about and I'm thinking it was the cooling fans freewheeling and acting like generators. I know others have had this happen but don't remember what they did to negate the effect. I've been mulling over installing diodes to stop the backfeed..

So anyone remember this saga and what was done ??? TIA

Originally Posted by 34_40

Got the linkage "more secure" and took it out early Sunday morning before it got hot out. I think I want to adjust the Throttle Valve just a touch more to hold the shift points just a bit longer.

At one point on the ride I jumped on the highway and ran it up to 70 / 75 and suddenly my gauges go flukey.. Tach swinging all over the place, speedo the same - it was weird!! So I've been thinking about and I'm thinking it was the cooling fans freewheeling and acting like generators. I know others have had this happen but don't remember what they did to negate the effect. I've been mulling over installing diodes to stop the backfeed..

So anyone remember this saga and what was done ??? TIA

Well, Mike, we all know I'm not a wiring guru (surprise!) so I have no idea why your gauges went all flukey but freewheeling fans acting like generators probably would have never come to my mind. Just curious how the fans are controlled? Was your "flukiness" confined to the gauges or did it also affect how the car was running at the time?

Originally Posted by randyr

Well, Mike, we all know I'm not a wiring guru (surprise!) so I have no idea why your gauges went all flukey but freewheeling fans acting like generators probably would have never come to my mind. Just curious how the fans are controlled? Was your "flukiness" confined to the gauges or did it also affect how the car was running at the time?

Seems I also missed some of your questions. I have a relay which is controlled by a "sending unit" in the intake. At 180 degrees the S.U. closes to establish a ground circuit and the relay latches closed. At 165 degrees the S.U. opens and the relay also opens. I can't swear what all the other gauges were doing, but, I know the tach and speedo were going nuts! Once I got back to 65 and below.. the gauges returned to normal.. HTH..

I'm thinking an intermittent ground problem, a battery going to ground or an alternator getting crazy. I can't buy the motors acting like generators.

Originally Posted by rspears

I'm thinking an intermittent ground problem, a battery going to ground or an alternator getting crazy.

I'd be looking/checking ground, it is the common link, and would be easy to check. Two alligator clips and a some wire, not knowing how the instrument cluster sits. Just throwing out the idea you figure out the attachment point. Jumping all over says to me intermittent connection.

You could clip on the mounting bracket of any one of the gauges, again the common link to all, go to a different body bolt beyond the dash. Or to make sure you eliminate all the ground paths from the body go straight to the bat -, then go for a test run, I think you said the threshold was 70, see if it repeats, or is stable. Then remove the giant ground jumper you have and have another run at it. If this is a glass body then I would think you have a ground buss that all the gages tie to, it that is the case attach your jumper there.

Originally Posted by pepi

I'd be looking/checking ground, it is the common link, and would be easy to check. Two alligator clips and a some wire, not knowing how the instrument cluster sits. Just throwing out the idea you figure out the attachment point. Jumping all over says to me intermittent connection..

Good thought and relatively easy to do! TIA!

I guess nothing is impossible.. intermittant ground? I don't know, as the ignition didn't skip a beat.
And I have heard of this before, just don't remember where I read it. So I thought I'd ask here if someone remembered the topic.