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Originally Posted by Robert Swartz
Yeah, pretty much they have. I have "most" of the pieces to put a SBC crate car together. Lack of time and motivation have kept me from pursuing it. I have a set of Parson's heads and the matching intake. Comp Cam and new Sherman lifters. Ross Pistons and a couple sets of good rods both stock and super stock. A legal carb that I got from Jeff Ross, built by a reputable person. The car already has a prepped rear with all Strange parts. Cal tracs and mono leafs. Have the pucks in the front subframe, need to rebuild the rest. Got the wheels and tires. Roll bar and frame connectors, just need to get them set up and welded in. Got a good 4 bolt main block with a steel crank, a donor from an old truck to build the engine from. They'll probably abolish the class before I finish the car.
Bruce told us we could expect to have $1600 or so in the block and crank work. I imagine with extras that figure will close to double. I gave him my modest expectations of what I expected the car to run. He laughed and said, if the car was set up at all, he didn't feel we'd have to worry about going that slow!
I love the PS concept. It's what Stock USED to be. My little FWD car won't fit into Pure Stock. Wish they pushed the same number of weight breaks as regular stock.
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From my limited experience in Pure Stock running both a LT1 and LS1 car it's my observation that it's easier to make those run near or under the index without going into the engine. Things like gears, converters, headers, tune, etc. will get you there without having to even remove a valve cover. I have no first-hand experience with racing a carbureted SBC but I would guess you would have to have head work done as well as fancy lifters, a cam, good carb. etc. to run with the late-model fuel-injected cars. Are the new cars making more power or perhaps put in classes with soft indexes? I don't know ... maybe both. I do think that if someone was to get serious about a FI race engine with all the bells and whistles in Pure Stock it would be pretty easy to go well under a second under the index. Heck, our car in good air will be a second under now and will easily set a National Record however I've never had a head off and don't exactly know how to on this particular car and definitely don't want to learn for the first time in a teardown barn on the road.