The drive shaft is still not balanced because it was shorten and then just welded back on without trying to balance the shaft. That reason behind that was because it will just be replaced with a new one anyways after the new transmission is installed. So we were going easy on it and not trying to really have fun nor be stupid and wreck stuff.

Here is a video of the my dad and I taking it for a little spin.

This last Saturday my dad and I took the Sleeper out for a drive. I am documenting what the rear-end and front-end look like since I have talked already about it. She turns nice and sharp instead of that barrel roll that she use to do.

After the new rear-end was installed, my dad took it out for a test drive. The suspension is much better now, it rides more flat around corners, but the rear-end still will only spin the one wheel. The next thing to do is to put a Detroit locker in there to keeps thing equal. I don't know what will be done. I think things will wait until the transmission is installed along with the drive shaft.

Keep posted and we will see how this turns out.

My dad called not to long ago telling me that the rearend is now installed and the disc brakes now work. Remember, the rearend is out of a 94 cop car and it went in perfectly like nothing changed from a 85 to an 94 caprice classic. There was some hangup with the bolt pattern on the rotors but that can be fixed by replacing the front assembly. The driveshaft was a little to long after the installation so they (Dad and Mark) shorten the drive shaft by a little and weld it up. It is not ready for racing until a new driveshaft is installed but it is ready for the transmission. Slowly but surely they are making progress on the car. I wish I was there to help in all of this work but we have remodeling going on which keeps me home when my family goes up to see family.

My father sent me an e-mail telling me that he found a rear end for $200. Here is his message. "
I just bought a used 1994 squad rear end , posi with disc brakes and frame , control arms etc....200$$$ , I measured everything and it should fit, we will have hook up brake lines and I don`t know how the brakes are going to work....oh well!!! , I just put her to bed last nite also at home, she takes up alot of room!!!...later"

I think this says it all. We were thinking about getting a 9 inch rear end but this one is much cheaper and also ready to go. We will not have to do any additional work besides hooking everything up.

I got a call from my dad the other day. He was telling me that he was getting a new rack for alignment and was getting rid of his old one. His old rack consisted of a drive on hoiste and a seperate computer station. He sent word out to ther shops seeing if they would be interested in a drive on hoist and rack and the only person that responded back was a transmission shop guy. He came to my father's shop to review the hoist and said I will take it for the price that you are asking for, $1000.00. Then dad got into his wheeling and dealing mode and said to the guy, "All I want from you is a 700R4 transmission, 2200 rpm stall converter, 4 gears, and a manual/automatic shifting." The manual/automatic shifting allows the user to either have it in automatic mode or if they plan to race, shift it manual style.

Dad told him that it does not have to be done right away, but he would like it before the next summer. This will grant the guy plenty of time to do a great job on a transmission that will need to be beaten and also just driven.

All now that is left is a Ford rear-end and disc brakes and the drive trane will be complete.

It is hard to keep the tires from spinning and also being able to take off relatively quickly. Since the rear-end is still stock, the one tire will spin at a seconds notice, but I thought dad did a great job keeping it together and not spinning it out.

The idle was adjusted to something a little higher. This way we can avoid fouling out the plugs. We were just about to go into McDonalds for some breakfast when I thought about video taping the car as a 360 view. We are going to slowly see some changes in the future on this car. We are looking at a 9 inch rear end and to add on top of that, going to put on rear disk breaks. You won't find to many caprices in that year with disk breaks on the back.

Here is how the engine was tuned for the 400 plus horsepower.

Engine was bored 30 over.
The heads were ported and polished
525 camshaft
Holley 650 Spread Bore Carburetor
Stock Exhaust Manifold
Edlebrock Performance Manifold (matched to the engine)
Mallory Performance Electronic Ignition
Dual 2 1/2" Xlerator Performance Mufflers
Stainless Steel Exhaust Tips

The transmission and rear-end are the next to be worked on. I will be posting specs on the tranny soon.

Last time I was up to see my family, dad told me that the engine kept over heating. His thoughts were because of the radiator that he had just put in. He didn't think it was quite right for this engine so he replaced it was an aluminum radiator built to cool down a 1000hp engine ($650).

Needless to say, the radiator did the trick and the car has zero faults in it.

The car does have some weak points but those will be getting replaced. 1) The transmission is a 350 turbo which will not hold up to the engine if you give it to much. The transmission will be replaced with a 700R4 with a manual shift. 2) The rear-end is still stock and not built for 400hp. 3) The rims and tires are old and not wide enough. The width on the rim is determinate to the max with that the car can handle on all four locations. We want to be able to service this thing with some ease and not be replacing rear tires every so often. These are later topics to talk about.