Hey Tie, or is it Mr. Rod, lol-jk

Haulin' 8.1 · June 18, 2005

Is there anyone else who's building up an 8.1 based hot rod truck that you know of? I realize the guys at Raylar must be playing around with their goodies. As far as I know your the guy with the most mods. I WOULD be good competition for you but I've got too many other prodject vehicles (don't ask) and kids etc. I did pick up a Whipple charger for my rig but it's not installed yet. I'd like to get my hands on some stock heads to rework with porting and larger valves etc. but twice I've let a set slip through my hands on Ebay by not wanting to bid until the last, but then forgetting about them when the time came. I've got some plans for 4.56 gears, small blower cam, ported heads, big headers, an Duramax intercooler, and lots of fuel tuning. Then I'll probably stop there. If it cracked into the twelves I'd weld the hood shut and drive.

Vernon

Haulin' 8.1 · June 18, 2005

By the way if anyone else is building up a 8.1 for speed or knows of one speak up. It's not like there's fierce competition in our ranks.

Links to any posts etc. would be great.

Vernon

TieRod · June 19, 2005

I know of 2, aboadnan on Turbotruck.net is doing a STS turbo- Raylar set up on a 1500. Here is a link to some pix. http://www.neufamily.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=339

I sold chevy81 my old cam and he has got some good results with it. But his truck is more for pulling and the class he runs allowed 3 visual mods so he limited. I've hear of guys running Raylar stuff and Raylar has a truck they play with but it seem to be they are using his emission cam for the trucks. Ray told me that they built a stroker for a truck a month ago but I know nothing else about it.

I have 2 sets of stock heads. One set have been ported and the either set are being done right now. The first set are probably sold and the second set I'm planing on use on a swap for a 89' Chevy pickup that was given to me.

Hears a dyno sheet for a stock 8.1 with a tuned Whipple. http://www.dynosport.com/trucks/1.htm As you can see he makes close to the same TQ as me but power falls off up top. Whipple has a dyno chart on their site for a 496ho that makes 657hp with 5.5psi and the only real difference from a 8.1 and 496ho is the cam.

Comp Cams seems be a little small but Crane cams are too large for stock pistons.

Either way I think a properly sized cam Whippled 8.1 with ported heads would run 12's very easy. Hell Tbyrne got his Burb to run 13.90 with a Whipple and TOGs and thats it.

Just remember the piston are brittle. Allot of the boat guys running blowers have knocked out piston from running them lean or putting cheap gas in them.

I would love to see your truck run 12's with a Whipple that would be bad a$$. I've had a couple guys say that they can build just as much power with a small block as I can with a 8.1. I tell them that because you never seen someone really push the 8.1. I don't know why no one wants to build them ( maybe it's the bad gas mileage thing) but I think allot of people are missing out of a good engine.

P.S. Thanks to the boats we have speed part for are trucks.

TieRod · June 19, 2005

WOW, I think that's the longest post I've ever did.

Haulin' 8.1 · June 19, 2005

Well thanks for that, you write fine I don't know why that would be your longest post. Unless your typing with two fingers At least there are some others. We'll see how mine goes. I've been into Thunderbird SC's since forever now and have pushed one of those big cars well into the twelves on 3.8 supercharged liters so I know how to get the most out of a blower motor.

What kind of results did you see with the head porting and did you do them yourself or have a shop do it. How much did that cost you.

Vernon

TieRod · June 20, 2005

I'm getting really good at hunt and pick and thank God for spell check.LOL It wouldn't be so bad if I had it all typed out and accidentally erased it all and had to do it again.

I have a friend thats doing the porting, he's cheap and his work is alright. You pay for what you get. This is the first sets done but I don't have any results. Their wasn't much he could do on the intakes but the exhaust opened up nicely.

I forgot to mention before. You might want to do some upgrades to the Ally. The converter, second, and third was slipping on mine. I'm currently waiting on new parts because of this.

Dam 12's in the Super Chicken? I didn't know that the little 3.8 had it in it.

Haulin' 8.1 · June 20, 2005

Do what I do, before you send you save (copy).

Hehe, yeah a fast SC is more fun than than you would believe on the street with other "fast" cars always wanting to blow away this silly dude with a 3800V6 hood scoop on his Thunderbird, and then their mouths fall open as you leave'em hard. Some of the guys have stuff much faster than mine now with more wieght and power. I pulled a lot of weight out of that car and relocated what was left.

I was thinking about a truck convertor, mainly for the crank wieght reduction. Any recomendations? Twice my Ally has popped into nuetral during a WOT downshift around 50 MPH. I have to turn the truck off to get my tanny back. It sets a code for a shift taking too long so the PCM goes into nuetral to protect the trans. My tranny man drove it a long time with his scanner and said other than "That 8.1 has got some pep!" he couldn't find anything wrong with it. I would hope it can handle how I drive it around here.

I'll probably do my own head porting as I alway have and it's been good to me. On a power adder motor you can't make an exhaust port big/flow enough in my opinion. That's how I would attack the heads. I would probably just clean up the intakes and go hog wild on the exhaust with larger exhaust valves too boot.

Speaking of crank wieght, with an aftermarket BBC dampener fit an 8.1? I was eyeballing an aluminum one, nuetral balance.

Vernon

TieRod · June 21, 2005

The only converters I could find where heaver than stock being all the after market is for DMaxs. I found a local shop that did a 2800rpm stall with a single disk that was specially lighten for me but it still weighed 80lbs. They said if it was not enough they would do a double for me. ATS and Sun Coast insisted on their 3 disk and got pissy when I told them I didn't want all that weight on my crank.

Honestly I don't know if a stander BB dampener will work. The 8.1 dampener is the crank pull. I never looked into it.

I had a truck that run low 15's in the mid 90'. It got me out of lifted trucks and off roading in to drag racing. I built a 82' Camaro that went mid 10's. It was fun but not as fun as whipping on cars with a truck. I was well known around hear with the truck before the engine popped. I still get guys that I even don't know ask me when is going to be on the street again. I had one ask me if it was the world fasts 8.1. I was like I told him hell I know.

Haulin' 8.1 · June 21, 2005

80 lbs. on the crank! Holy farm use! How much did the stocker wiegh? Or should I not ask, lol.

I called Summit racing yesterday and one of the things I asked them about was the dampener. They had just happened to get the latest Fluid Dampener Catalog before I called. There wasn't any listing on the 8.1 so he talked to the tech guys. After some reasearch they didn't think anything was availiable. They make one for F-bods and the Vette with the pulley but they believe there's a balance difference between the small and big blocks. From what I've read I think the big block is nuetral but I'm not sure. I have no idea about the small blocks but I'd bet they were the same. Maybe I'll send an email over to Fluid Dampener to see what they think.

Vernon