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I decided to sell my previous motor & start with a seasoned "010" 4-bolt main block out of a 75 pickup truck. I decided to order up a 383 stroker kit.  the kit is externally balanced & features a forged steel crank,  5.7" forged steel rods & Keith Black (kb111) .100" dome pistons.  Minor grinding of the oil pan rails  was required for the crank counterweights to clear.  A Melling M55HV high volume pump keeps it oiled feeding from a stock sump pan.  A Comp 284XE Extreme Energy camshaft(240/246 @ .050",  .507"/.510" w 1.5RR) was chosen to pop the valves open in the World Products Sportsman II cylinder heads.  I decided to use ARP hardware to keep things tight featuring a main & head stud kit. A Streetdampner keeps things balanced & looks sharp in the polished finish with a few coats of clear to keep it from rusting.
 
 
 
 
 

On top,  was an Edelbrock RPM intake topped with a 770cfm Street Avenger Holley carb. The plugs are lit up by a Holley Strip Annihilator ignition system.  I chose this ignition box because it had many features which could come in useful in the future.  Features include up to 20deg of timing retard on startup making it easier for higher compression engines to turn over and allowing you to run as much initial as your engine can take without having it lock when trying to start on those hot days.  It also features 3 rev limiters including a main-overrev,  a line lock limiter & a transbrake limiter as well as 2 separate RPM activated switches which can turn a component on or off at any desired RPM.  The Strip Annihilator is used in conjunction with a Holley Laser shot 500 coil which feeds an MSD Pro Billet Distributor firing through Accel Spiral Wound wires.  The system is nice although i have sent the box back twice to Holley for repair.  Apparently there is a recall on some components they used. All this would come to breath through 1 5/8" headers and into 2 1/2" pipes leading into Flowmaster 2 chamber mufflers.
 
 
 
 
 
 

It was an interesting season to say the least.  When I put in the new motor,  I had replaced the motor mounts with some Energy Suspension inserts.  The motor mount pads although would not sit into the inserts properly so they had to be trimmed.  Well I am assuming I trimmed them too much because this motor ended up breaking 3 different transmission bellhousings.  With that & other problems,  I could only muster a measly 13.4 @ 101.3 mph with the setup.  The converter was way too small for the cam .  My season ended short on October 18th 2001 with yet another broken bellhousing.  I had decided to call it quits for the year & possibly sell the car in the spring.
 
 
 

Well what can I say,  I didn't end up selling!  I sold the Crager chrome rims in the winter & bought a set of Aluminum Z-28 rims which needed to be painted.  In the spring,  I decided to pull the motor & swap out the Energy Suspension inserts for some new GM Heavy Duty rubber mounts and found some used motor mount pads since I had to cut the others.  I then invested $2200 CAN into a 700R4 fitted with a Vette 2200 stall converter (still too small).  Well that turned out to be a nightmare again!  I went through four 700R4's in the matter of a month.  Although the shop held up their word & warrantied every one of them,  it was still very frustrating.  After the fourth one broke,  I decided that I wanted them to build me a th-350 instead.  The th-350 was fitted with a manual valvebody & another 2200 stall converter(I am hard headed!).  Well guess what,  two turbo-350's & two Intermediate sprags broken.  This was all with street tires,  as I hadn't even put the slicks on it yet.  They built me yet a 3rd th-350, but before they installed it,  I supplied them with a brand new 10" 3500 stall converter I had purchased.  Finally I had the whole combo & knew it was good for a decent slip if these transmissions would hold up! In the meantime,  I bought a set of M/T Et Streets(28x12.5x15).   I had decided to take the car up to the track that upcoming weekend and mounted the new slicks on the car. Well it was a Saturday & also track time!  I arrived home from work at 1pm & immediately started preparing the car by dropping in fresh oil (as I do every time before the track),  checked all the plugs and everything I could think of at the time.  Before heading up,  I decided to take the car for a test drive and make sure everything was normal.  One launch with ET Streets was all it would take to break yet another bellhousing.  At this point,  I just laughed to myself and said "As If!"   There was no warranty on broken bellhousings as the internals were still good.
 
 
 

Well I pulled the motor again!  This time I yanked the motor mounts & pads from both the frame & the block.  I ordered up some Moroso steel motor mounts & pads.  Dropped these new mounts in along with the motor & a used transmission I bought from my friend.  This transmission was rebuilt a year before he took it out of his pickup truck.  It sat in his shed for almost 5 years before I bought it.  Cost me $100 for the th-350 & $52 for the Hurst shift kit I put in it.  The power train went in on a Friday night,  the following day i checked for leaks & took her for a test drive.  Worked excellent,  shifted excellent.  Incredibly,  I went to the track at about 1pm that Saturday & came home with a best slip of 12.8 @ 103.9 mph!!!!!  Finally,  after almost 2 seasons of bad luck,  I finally hit my goals of breaking into the 12's.  That was a very exciting day,  I felt an awesome 1.74 60-ft time which was accomplished on a bone stock 81 Z-28 suspension including rear factory air-shocks.   Being used to  my previous 2.0 60 ft's,  it was quite the shock when I launched!. On a side note,  I think it would be a good time to put subframe connectors on the car soon since its launching that hard out of the hole!  That converter was an excellent purchase,  it was worth every dollar.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Being very excited about the new times,  and surpassing my goal of 12.99 I decided to borrow my friends Victor Jr. intake manifold.  That week,  I swapped out the RPM intake & bolted up the Victor Jr.  I arrived at the track the following weekend & took my 1st run,  12.9 @ 104.1mph.  It was a tad disappointing but i had not touched the carburetor jets or timing yet so I knew things should improve.  A few jet changes & timing changes netted my my fastest pass of the day,  12.62 @ 107.1 mph and a 1.7360 ft!!!  Now i was really excited!  After so much work things are starting to pay off.  My goal was only wanting a measly 12.99 out of the car even though i knew it should have been better than that.  I'm sure with a few more hours of jetting & figuring what kind of total timing the motor like with get me into some 12.50 or maybe even 12.40 passes.  All that's left is time,  and there isn't much of it.  In another week I'll  be heading up to the track again to try & better the time.

Launch Picture