Bowtie Brody's Namesake 96 454

[Supercharged111]

We can go all day dude. The bang for the buck just ain't there. It's stupid logic in this application.

Brody how do you feel about spending near 4 figures on a hood that looks cool, sheds 40#, and makes you go from running a 17.0 to a 16.96 in the quarter mile with no measurable effect on cornering? I'd rather add 80# worth of supercharger to the nose and spank the ********* who put a hood on to go faster. My Whipple kit for the 1500 cost $1,000. Just sayin.

 

[leegrady]

Fiberglass hood for the truck doesn't cost 4 figures. I see them all over the Internet from $250-$400.

And I assure you a Whipple kit for the L29 will cost way way more than a 1000 bucks.

At my age I do my best never to attempt to make a point. However, at this point, I will make an exception.

IMHO weight reduction is just as important as adding power enhancements. Again, the fiberglass hood is just an example of where that weight reduction may be applied. From removing the spare tire to a full fiberglass tilt front-end, to Lexan, to acid dipping, etc, etc, etc...

-Peace
lee

 

[Supercharged111]

400 plus paint, around here you're looking at 800 or better to paint a hood and blend fenders. I'll restate my point that $1200 or even 400 if you want to be ghetto for a .04 second improvement is retarded. You may as well suggest he convert to a steam engine that runs only on burning money.

 

[BowtieBrody]

I'm with supercharged, you probably won't see much of a gain with the roller tip rockers. That said, when I rebuilt my engine I did swap to them. I really wouldn't mess with the valve-train unless you're going to do a cam swap, so you should probably do a cam swap haha

A tune and exhaust is going to help a lot. If you're going to ditch the cats I would just do full custom exhaust. And I would just tune for 89 or 91 octane.

Full custom exhaust is in the works, Gibson shorties, and full 2 1/2 inch pipe to an x-pipe before a dual in dual out Magnaflow, then 2 1/2 tail-pipes ran 45* with a set of rolled tips on the end, I'll probably tune for 89 as my wallet can't stomach a 93 Octane tune.
And a cam swap may be in the future, I want to tear this motor down, bore it out clean it up, find a suitable cam that can handle DD and towing duties.

Great score! Very nice looking truck... And...a 454.

There is no replacement for displacement

And while on the subject of performance I will add...

"Adding power makes you faster on the straights. Subtracting weight makes you faster everywhere.”. -Colin Chapman, founder of Lotus

The 454 weighs about 685 lbs.
A 350 weighs about 535 lbs.
A difference of 150 lbs.


So driving the 454 is kinda like driving a 350 with 3 bags of cement on the hood. Hence, decrease in performance return on the increase of cubes. And most of all.... Handling.

Perhaps a fiberglass cowl induction hood. That would remove one bag. Think those hoods look good too.

-Cheers lee

Thanks for the tips, I've got a buddy who had a fiberglass hood on his old 93 Foxbody, swore up and down that it was the cat's ass for removing weight; but Supercharged is correct, it would really be a negligible loss of weight.
Going from those heavy ass iron heads to a set of Aluminum ones might be a decent upgrade though....

The most cost effective way to add power is to add a supercharger or turbo, I would do that first.
Doing a bunch of little things will add up in cost, and you won't feel a difference nearly as much as forced induction.
Find a used whipple and get it tuned.

Though i'll probably get shorty gibson headers since at least its an improvement on stock design. The shorties are the only type i can get and pass smog in CA.

Curse you forced induction big block guys, stop trying to indoctrinate me!
Kinda sucks you've got such strict emissions testing out there;

If I was building a strictly tow-rig, a whipple would be the first thing on the list, then long-tubes, an aggressive 93 octane tune, and a full 3" single pipe exhaust.
I say all this and peer down from my room to look at the 99 C3500 sitting next to the camper.....

 

[cool_as_crap]

Going from those heavy ass iron heads to a set of Aluminum ones might be a decent upgrade though....

This would be a much better way to lose weight than doing the ugly hood thing.
Especially if you can find a better performing head.
Though from what I've read stock heads are setup pretty well for these engines already, i could be wrong though.

If you plan to replace the cam, I would do the roller rockers at this point, since you'll have everything apart anyway.
But depending on the cam, you'll need new springs and retainers.

Use the moto i've been telling myself throughout my build, "you've gone this far, might as well upgrade this too".
And now the only original parts are my block, heads, rods, and pushrods

 

[BowtieBrody]

This would be a much better way to lose weight than doing the ugly hood thing.
Especially if you can find a better performing head.
Though from what I've read stock heads are setup pretty well for these engines already, i could be wrong though.

If you plan to replace the cam, I would do the roller rockers at this point, since you'll have everything apart anyway.
But depending on the cam, you'll need new springs and retainers.

Use the moto i've been telling myself throughout my build, "you've gone this far, might as well upgrade this too".
And now the only original parts are my block, heads, rods, and pushrods

That's how I am when it comes to working on things. "While I'm here I should replace that, and that there could use an upgrade too; well if I'm doing those two I better get this thing here"
And thus the reason I've got close to $880 dollars worth of front end components in my shopping cart on Summit Racing.

So it's settled for my mods so far; shorties, full custom exhaust, and an 89 Octane tune. Now the question arises, shift kit or no shift kit?

 

[Cokeman95]

Shift kit

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[cool_as_crap]

That's how I am when it comes to working on things. "While I'm here I should replace that, and that there could use an upgrade too; well if I'm doing those two I better get this thing here"
And thus the reason I've got close to $880 dollars worth of front end components in my shopping cart on Summit Racing.

So it's settled for my mods so far; shorties, full custom exhaust, and an 89 Octane tune. Now the question arises, shift kit or no shift kit?

Nice list, I think you'll get some good results, especially after the tune.

And if you have to ask, the answer is always Yes

 

[BowtieBrody]

Shift kit

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Worried it might kill my transmission now that I'm looking at them, if I do a shift-kit, I want to run a Mag-Hytec and an upgraded cooler, but that might be introducing too much new fluid to the system and could cause my trans to slip? Am I overthinking this?

 

[Cokeman95]

Worried it might kill my transmission now that I'm looking at them, if I do a shift-kit, I want to run a Mag-Hytec and an upgraded cooler, but that might be introducing too much new fluid to the system and could cause my trans to slip? Am I overthinking this?

Oh I figured you were rebuilding your transmission. I wouldn't worry about it until you need to rebuild your transmission. At that point, shift kit!

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