Project: Royal Bird - Tranny/Drive Train How-To

Hang on as horsepower head to Orlando and the Super Bowl of street car drag race.

But first, our Pontiac motor just made big numbers on the

dyno and today we're going to drop it into our sexy silver firebird here.

Now, just to bring you up to speed on this project, we're transforming this 69 classic that belongs to Royal Purple into a real showstopper. Here's what happened to it a few weeks ago,

we sent the bird to hillbilly graphics who first prepped it before spraying it with a brand new line of PPG silver paint

back in the shop, Mike and I used a lizard skin process to coat the undercarriage,

the car's interior and even the trunk.

We loaded a new curry crate nine rear end with Hotchkiss leaf springs before boating them under the car

and we added a bear brake rotor and caliper setup for stability. We

fed up a rear sway bar, installed a new fuel tank for Rick's Hot rods loaded with a high flow fuel pump and finished up the front suspension with more new springs and shocks.

Today, we're dropping in this 474. Now, this thing came from Butler performance with an all aluminum block. Then we brought it back to the shop here where we finished it up

for rotating assembly. We installed an eagle crank shaft, followed by Ross pistons and Eagle rods.

Then came our comp cams valve train.

We used Edelbrock for former RPM S for the heads

and the intake manifold

and defeated one of their Thunder series A BS carbs. After it was finished, we took it for a ride to Young's performance in Decatur Alabama where after some tuning and several pulls, it cranked out 525 horsepower

and the spur

on fly pretty high with numbers like that.

Before we drop in the motor though, we're gonna lay these in place. They're ceramic coated two inch headers from Dugs that feed into three inch collectors

while we've got the room. I'm going to go ahead and install this high torque starter we got from G pe.

I've been looking forward to seeing this thing here. Oh, yeah, it's gonna look good. Come on down

how we do have it cleared? Everything. Go forward a little bit. Pull the lift out back. Yeah.

Hang up. Ok. No more. Yeah. Calm down. Easy, easy.

Come in.

Ok. Come on down a little.

All right. It's touching. We're good.

Well, we were afraid this might happen. It looks like it did a little clearance problem with the stock air box. We'll handle the cooling situation some other time. Meanwhile. This thing's got to go.

No surprises with our transmission. This is a Turbo 400 we picked up from TCI. Now it's one of their street strip versions. So it'll be more than plenty to handle our 600 ft pounds of torque the engine put out

and to transfer the power, one of their street fighter torque converters with a 24 to 2600 RPM stall

with the transmission bolted to the engine. We're ready for the cross member, but here's another roadblock. We're ready for

the new train and engine are about 4.5 inches longer than the originals. So we'll need to cut off this bracket, bolt it to the transmission mount, tack, weld it to the cross member and drill new holes to make everything fit.

Another option would be to custom, make a cross member from scratch,

but this is quicker a lot easier and there's less room for error,

man. That thing looks pretty stock, which is great. Now, if you ever try this at home, make sure to have the drive train square in the transmission tail shaft square with the yoke on the rear end. Now, there's still a couple of things we need to finish out here today.

First running the fuel lines from the new tank we've installed

and taking measurements for a new drive shaft.

Well, here's something we got that's not only going to keep our 474 cool, it's got some pretty cool show quality looks itself.

It's a polished aluminum custom built radiator from Afco

that mounts its own high velocity shrouded electric fan.

After we mounted here in the stock location,

we're gonna install new fasteners

and new radiator hoses. Then we connected our fuel line to this hall, a fuel regulator on the firewall and a line from it on up to our A BS car that we've reinstalled.

Now on to some of the wiring. Now we're going to fire our motor off with this MS D six A L and we found a pretty trick spot to mount it down here inside of the cow. Now,

not only will it stay away from engine heat

but all your buddies at the car shows will be asking where the hell is it

with the box mounted? I ran the wires through a hole I drilled in the firewall. Now, make sure you use a grommet so they don't get damaged.

This blaster coil is twice as powerful as a stock and we're mounting it here on the firewall so we can run a short wire from it to the distributor.

Hey, can you believe this is all we need in the way of a wiring harness for the Firebird?

It comes from M and H electric fabricators and has all the stock plugs and connectors

and it plugs right into the fuse box on the firewall.

Since we installed an aftermarket ignition, though, we will have to modify these connections from it to our ignition box, but we'll handle that a little bit later. Meanwhile, we'll keep thrashing during the break. You stay with us. There's a lot more ahead,

man. This thing is coming along great. Why don't we give them the mustang instead? Oh, yeah, I bet they'd love that.

There you go. It's pretty heavy.

Yeah, sure is. Hey, welcome back. As you may recall, the firebird came from the factory with this funky old column shifter set up that we're gonna lose for something. A lot more modern.

Claiming river makes this cool polished aluminum column that comes with all the levers for turn signal tilt and the hardware, we need to install the thing

using mounts from the kit. We first loosely put the column into place.

Now we can use the U joint to connect the steering column to the steering shaft.

Then with the floor mount snug, we can tighten the clamps.

Now connect the mail plug to the wiring harness.

Now, in case you were wondering where the ignition switch is on this new column. The answer is nowhere. Flaming River sent us this remote switch and I found a pretty cool spot to mount it

right here where the cigarette lighter used to go and the dash gets sandwiched with this lock nut.

Here's the steering wheel. They sent us to match the column. Now, this thing is called the waterfall because well, to tell you the truth I don't know why,

but I do know it's got billet accents and it's wrapped in really nice Italian leather.

The horn is an easy hook up and once that's done we can bolt the cover back into place.

Well, I know I'd call this thing a piece of junk after 37 years of use and abuse. That's pretty sloppy. So, we'll swap out this stock throttle pedal set up for a new one from low car. Now, this thing is made from cool billet aluminum and has these rubber inserts here for your foot. Pretty cool piece.

Now, let's get that thing connected to the engine.

We're using one of their high tech throttle cables

to make the final link to the carburetor.

Well, reddit, we've gone ahead and install one of their flexible trans

dipsticks.

Well, this Firebirds come a long way in the last few weeks and of course, part of that was upgrading the brakes with this all the way around. Now, we're gonna use some even newer technology to finish the job.

Hydrotech makes this compact hydraulic brake assist system that replaces the booster by using the power steering pump for vacuum. Now, that way it won't be affected by things like a larger cam and should require less pedal pressure to stop this thing.

No modifications needed here. This unit bolts right up to the firewall. In the stock location.

A pair of pressure lines make a loop from the power steering pump up here to the unit,

then we can mount our master cylinder

in our case, a new one from bear.

After that, you can connect the pedal to it and you're pretty much done with this installation.

We're mounting our shifter above the floor here on the transmission tunnel. Now, this thing came from low car and it has a built in neutral safety switch.

It also came with three different arms to offset to make it really easy to hook up the linkage

drill your mounting holes,

cut a slot for the shifter arm

and drop it in.

Then underneath with the shifter and gear selector in the park position, we connect the threaded rod from the transmission

to the shifter

while I'm underneath the new drive shaft came in. Now, this is an aluminum one piece shaft from the drive line shop and it was custom built to the specs we sent them

since we like the cool looks we got going on under the hood of this car. We're gonna mount this off from a battery in the trunk

using a relocation kit from Taylor. This will also add some weight back here which will even help the car hook up a little better.

After that, we can fill it up with fluids.

Of course, we don't have to tell you what brand of motor oil and lubricants we're using.

Then after some premium gas in the tank and a few last minute checks hit it.

I don't know about you, but that's music to our ears. Now, next week we'll have the bird back to make it look as good as it sounds. Meanwhile, stay where you are. The legendary World Street Nationals is next. Come on, do it again.

Baseball, you got the World Series football, the Super Bowl, of course, in hockey,

I don't watch hockey, but for drag racing it's here at the World Street Nationals. If you don't believe me, just ask the racers, it just

got its own reputation of being, you know, the big one where everybody wants to go.

Well, I think it's got some momentum. You know, it's had a lot of good history, a lot of good races and, uh,

everybody really looks forward to it like the finals.

It's the best race. It can possibly be. There's never going to be another one like this.

Yeah,

the annual World Street Nationals wraps up every year with a Thursday night party outside the race rock cafe.

Then it's on to the street for a power parade.

But it's serious business on Friday with qualifying rounds for hundreds of the country's top racers

fighting for 32 spots in four classes,

drag radio,

heavy streak,

outlaw 10 5

and the king class Super Pro streak

won last year by Chuck Samuel in his turbo charge 2000 mustang

when there's, uh, you know, 70 plus cars qualifying

for 32 spots.

You have to

do a good job. Just to get in and then once you're in, you have to work your way through the program. I think we got a good plan this year. We're going to just try to be a little more conservative than we've been

in. I try to overpower the race track. Just win the race. Veteran, Super pro streeter, Pat Nesey knows the drill here at speed. B

better than anyone

have your best set up. Ready to race. Hard, take it to the line for qualifying rounds and lay down a number strong enough to make the program without breaking anything. In

this case. A pretty stout 676 in round one.

Then it's back to the pits for more thrashing before the next round

after Friday's qualifying rounds. A pair of triple cars left the top fastest classes. First. Annette Summer posted a 640 at 220 miles an hour

in her air shift at 63 Corvette. A setup that's finally coming around for her.

I mean, it's not like I have anybody here holding my hand

saying do this and do this. It's all we've had to learn it on our own

last year's outlaw 10 5 winner Tim Lynch and his mustang were leaving his pack after a best 697 at 205.

Plan is gonna be a step up a little this morning to see what the track will take. Uh, try to keep that number one qualifying position.

What would it feel like to go two in a row? Two championships in a row for you two championships would be great. Uh, never been done in Orlando before. So, uh, we're definitely gonna try to repeat

in Saturday's final qualifying round. Steve Kirk B

lin to number two with a 696. Et, but in that summer held in the Super Pro Street lead as the track heated up along with the competition

in this last shot for a coda

spot in Sunday's eliminations.

Yeah, and we'll be back with the finals from the Wall Street Nationals right after this.

Hi, I'm Amber. You better stay tuned to horsepower or you'll miss the exciting climax.

Hier

TV.

Well, hi, ladies and welcome back to eliminations at the premier contest of Real World drag races

or the money's big. The competition is bigger and the crowd gets its spill of fast heads up down and dirty competition.

The

street nationals attracts some of the most impressive looking race cars in the world.

But here in the hot Florida Sud where it's easy to get squirrely in more ways than one.

It takes raw nerves, quick reflexes and plenty of horsepower to make your way through eliminations

was getting all the win lights in Super Pro streaks until round three when his night was injected. Pontiac literally blew its top in a race against John

G

top

qualifier. Annette Summers championship dreams also faded in the same round against Billy

meanwhile, pro life veteran Shannon Jenkins was steadily working his way to the top in his nitrous fed 68

round by round consistently in the 640.

It outlawed 10 5 top qualifier. Kirk went down in round four to Bryan Carpenter

while Tim Lynch was consistently killing the competition to earn a spot in the finals.

Ok. Here we go. The final runs of the 13th annual World Street National

in Drag Radio. It's Wade Hopkins in the bus thing against

Snooky Hall in the Camaro

and Hall is two thousands too quick as his red light sends Hopkins to the winner circle.

We've worked hard for the past two months just getting this car together. We went to Memphis last weekend. Won that one, came here and won this one

and it's, it's just, it dreams come true

next heavy street. And the weirdest win of the weekend has run to Lobo red lights

against John Schroeder whose

cro had lost the first gear. Go to stage the car.

No, first gear.

Something busted in the tranny. So I'm yelling to my man Scotty. I don't have no first gear.

So bring it in, bring it in in second

and just do it. So I pulled it in second gear and I just started bumping it and bumping it and bumping it.

He left.

He went red

in outlaw 10 5. It's lit against Brian Carpenter

and the turbo pony can't be cut as Tim takes home his second trophy in a row.

We got the car down the track consistently and that's what we wanted to do. Just go round by round out here. And, uh, I'm

happy to be in the finals again. And, well, if we pulled it out,

finally the baddest class in the land

and Tony Gilli just can't catch up with Jenkins and his super tech enhanced Cerro

running again in the six for

I was driving very well. But the car this car would wait in, it just

be

flawed.

I mean, I think we've almost get it down a dirt road. We tried hard enough, but, uh,

it's a good car balanced well and, uh, you know, the motor done well, but we, we, we please.

Well, congratulations to all the winners

who can enjoy bragging rights. That is until next October

and the next real World Street Nationals.

You might need some shades for this first hot part. It's a good way to put a smile on your face and a shine under your hood.

Edelbrock now offers its dual quad manifold carb kit in their exclusive enduro shine finish.

Each one comes with an RPM air gap intake that mounts a pair of 500 CFM Thunder series A VS CARBS. One has an electric choke, the other has a manual. Now, the kit also includes things like progressive throttle linkage fuel line

and gaskets for the intake. You'll just have to output about 1170 bucks. Ok. Shifting gears a bit. B and M now offers a pro ripper shifter for the 05 Mustang. Now, just like the others, it offers a 35% shorter throw for a smooth precise shift. It comes with AC NC machine billet base and the collar and all the hall

hardware made from stainless steel. The handle is adjustable in three locations. It takes about an hour to install and comes with a million mile warranty. Now, if you want to bolt one of these up to your pony plan on shifting out about 200 bucks. All right.

Well, one more show and we finish up the bird that flies out of here. Yeah. And we're going to get flying out of here too. We'll see you next week.