A long overdue clean up of my GT-E

I last did anything major under the hood in 2005 to get the GT-E (8F93W537844) ready for Pure Stock Muscle Car Drag Racing series. At that time I swapped from a stroked 452 CI side oiler to a stock bore and stroke engine, reinstalled stock carburetor, intake, and exhaust, and smog system. I kept the MSD 6AL and tach adapter located in the console, and the Accel coil. It has had a Pertronix Ignitor since 1995 that ran the ignition system from the stock C7OF-F distributor.

Now my goals are to make the engine compartment fresh, rebuild the front suspension, and return to stock ignition system. Not sure about the Fluidamper - maybe it will get painted and retained.

The engine compartment will get:

  1. Rebuilt (by me) stock points distributor
  2. Rebuilt PS pump with new hoses
  3. New alternator (rebuilt by me)
  4. Water pump - the original one rebuilt by me
  5. Repainted engine
  6. New hardware
  7. Rebuilt PS pump - Chockostang

The steering and suspension was last rebuilt in the mid 1990’s so it will get a refresh too:

  1. Rebuilt original upper A arms
  2. Rebuilt original tie rods
  3. Rebuilt original PS control valve and slave cylinder (Chokostang)
  4. Repro lower control arms
  5. A set of Koni shocks front and rear
  6. New PS hose set

This is the water pump - I rebuilt it with new bearing, shaft and seals from Dead Nuts On using their special seal installation tool.

Very cool! Looks pretty clean to me already!

Sounds like you are going to have a bunch of fun doing things that you enjoy.

Much of it is from 1994 so 26 years ago. I threw away the radiator hoses because the clamps were too rusty - they looked like original Autolite hoses but where repros from those pre - internet days. The paint on the engine is from 2006, and there is plenty of little oil leaks and water leaks that have caused it to look old and faded too.

Royce, did you do any good in pure stock? I thought about it once upon a time, until stock exhaust and rear tires changed my mind. Back then, the Hemi car and Corvette were kings.

It’s organized in brackets so the guys who have the fastest cars and the best drivers run against each other. The two fastest cars at one meet were Bob Karakashian driving his hemi Cuda in the high 12 second 1/4 mile bracket. He was paired against a lady driving a 435 HP Corvette. At the same PSMCD event the slowest two cars were a GT500 Shelby convertible and a '63 Studebaker running mid 15 second times.

My car runs about 14.00 in drive with me leaving the shifter alone. One year I was paired against a 435 HP '67 Corvette. Another year my opponent was a '70 Torino 429 SCJ. Both times I won the first two runs, making it unnecessary to go a third time.

The car will run mid 13 second times if I do everything perfectly but it can also turn into a smoke show on the line resulting in a poor ET so I leave it in drive at these events.