What kind of setups are the weekend warriors running?

Positively Ralf

Well-known member
Been a while since I've posted here and now I'm back :) (what sucks though I can't find my damn FordSix book)

Anyways, I've decided to forgo my daily driver idea and just make my car a weekend cruiser. figured since I live in NY, the snow seasons are too harsh here so I'd rather just focus on having a fun driver to cruise around and speed around on the weekends. So to get an idea, can anyone with weekend cruiser chime in and share what kind of setups you have on your car(s)?

And a question on the tech side of things, at what mileage should one consider an engine rebuild for these engines? Mines only has 48,000 miles on it but I've seen people on here having done rebuilds with lesser miles on theirs. Or should I just skip this for now and just work on a large log head for now?(which is my initial plan for improvement)

Cheers!
 
a question on the tech side of things, at what mileage should one consider an engine rebuild for these engines? Mines only has 48,000 miles on it but I've seen people on here having done rebuilds with lesser miles on theirs.

I don't think miles are a true way to look at it because it's the condistion and way its been taken care of that matters most. Do some simple tests to find out like compression or a leakdown test, oil pressure, also if you have had the valve cover or oil pan off is it clean or not (sludge) any nosies?
 
An engine modified in a mild degree won't need a rebuild unless there are leakdown issues or gunge or metal fragments. If its to be used hard and leaned on, it's a different story. Like a nitrous oxide and EFI equiped 200 running a 15 second quarter mile verses a 20 second stocker, the extra power is eating away at the piston integrety and ring lands. In a similar way, Linc 200's revitalised 13.5 second quarter mile 200 1984 Mustang which started off with an 82 200 cube Mustang Engine transplant. It died down the quarter mile with broken pistons.

So if its just a mild rework, it'll be okay. If its extensive (cam, nitrous, turbo) then your in for better than stock pistons, rehoned bores, better than stock rings and bearings, better quality con-rods and clamping of rods and head. Detonation and blow by from old tired rings suddenly asked to cope with greater cylinder filling and a lot more load generally cry enough earlier than you would like.
 
8) since you want a weekend cruiser/back up driver, you can get away with some things that you would not want for a real daily driver, such as a rougher idle, slightly less fuel economy, etc. to that end a slightly larger cam with slightly narrower lobe centers is not a bad choice. add to that a fair sized two barrel carb, or a three one barrel set up, and a good set of headers, and you can have a decent power package for a weekend warrior car.
 
Here is mine..

Re: Anyone running Clay Smith 264/264 108 L/C camshaft
by kevinl1058 » Thu Feb 17, 2011 11:53 am

http://s50.photobucket.com/albums/f345/ ... con2-1.mp4
Here is a short video of my 61 just to give Idea of what your cam would give you if you have a similar build. I am running headers but no exhaust at the time. I will say that even running the super 44's it didn't make much of a difference. Still aggressive.
 
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