Reply to "351C NASCAR block for sale on ebay"

Working on a 427 SOHC and driving around town as a passenger with the owner, are some of my wildest early teenage memories.

His was the single 4 barrel version (615 bhp), the owner (named Don) bought a used 64 Galaxy 2 door equipped with a 390 GT, 4 speed top loader & 9" rear. Don bought the cammer over the counter, pulled the 390 & plopped the cammer in its place. That's when the fun began.

Do you know how long you can smoke the tires of a Galaxy with a cammer in the engine bay? Well, Don decided to find out! Within an hour, new tires were worn down to the cord. He, he, he. Don could burn rubber in any gear, including 4th, at will, from any speed, just by jabbing the gas pedal.

The motor never gave him any trouble. The valves didn't require that much adjusting, the cam chains did! No points either! He drag raced it a little, but mostly, it was his fun car. He drove it to work too. Remember, gas was only 35 cents per gallon back then. 25 cents when there was a gas war, remember gas wars?

The drive train was what broke on Don's Galaxy. He bent the leaf springs into "s" shapes. So on went traction bars. He snapped axles, broke carriers, stripped teeth off the pinion gear. chipped teeth on the ring gear. Snapped u joints and the drive shaft. Smoked more than a few clutches. Stripped gears in the top loader too. As each part broke, Don would spend the bucks for the heavy duty stuff. But damn, he didn't mind breaking his car, he was proud of it! He'd drop by, ask me to repair his car with the biggest grin on his face. He thought it was bitchen his motor was so powerful it could twist all those parts into pretzels. That was the late 60s. Working in the garage until 1 or 2 in the morning, music blasting on the radio, telling jokes, banging our knuckles. Don would tell me, "gotta get it fixed George, I need it to get to work in the morning" "Crap Don it's 2 AM! You gotta get up at 6!" He'd say, "you got school too!" We'd laugh. He had a muffler shop do the 4 muffler exhaust system, ever seen one of them? Don heard about it at a speed shop, they said its what all the Detroit insiders run on their cars. It was quiet, yet allowed the cammer to make the 615 bhp it was designed to produce. Each bank of cylinders exhausted into 2 mufflers.

Picture this, Don pulls up to a red light in a tired looking Galaxy. Next to him, in the other lane, is a new big block Corvette. Don had half the money invested in his car, compared to what the 'Vette owner spent on his. Don revs the motor & challnges the 'Vette to a race at the light, the 'Vette driver nods, thinking he's got the baddest car on the road, he can't lose. He's probably thinking the Galaxy has a 390 under that fiberglass bubble on the hood. The light turns green Don drops the clutch and leaves that big block 'Vette sucking tire smoke like his motor had stalled. I've been there, done that, as Don's passenger. The cammer had 200 bhp more ponies than even the big block 'Vette, that's 50% more power.

I'm a sports car guy, attracted mostly to sports cars. But I would love to acquire a cammer and drop it in a 1964 two door Galaxy, lower it, cut the wheel wells, make it look NASCAR circa 1964. The current Z06 'Vette (505 bhp) the current Viper (550 bhp) still, 40 years later, don't produce as much bhp with equal or more displacement.

Bitchen memories.