Hey Guys. It's been a while since I posted but I need to vent somewhere, so I thought I'd vent to you guys

So a little back-story for those of you that don't know; I own a '68 442 and this summer I've finally started the long process of tearing it down and doing a frame-off restoration. Painting should start this winter and hopefully I will have everything done by next season.

Now to why I'm a little....upset, right now. So I have a buddy who has a 2012 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution. He's tuned it, suped it up etc. And dynoed it at 400hp. Now he thinks he is awesome and likes to act like he has the greatest car in the world. What makes me upset though is now he likes to act like my car is a piece of junk in front of everyone and anyone. Especially those who are admiring my car. And that happened again today.

Now because my car is being torn down and framed-off I want to build a motor that will make his car look like the piece of plastic that it is next year when he decides to roll up next to me. Any advice on where I should start? I don't think I have a lot of room to play with the 400 that is currently in the car so I want to look at building up a 455 to put in the car. Obviously I will need to put in a better transmission as well, since the TH350 that was put in this car will not hold up to the kind of power I'd like to make. This will also allow me to crate the #'s matching 400 motor that's in the car and save it from street-rodding.

Well, thanks for letting me vent. Any advice, tips etc. is greatly appreciated!

Thanks guys!

 

Finish the restoration, leave the original motor in the car, build it relatively stock and get a new friend. Much cheaper in the end and who needs a friend like that.

 

...and keep in mind that you have a cool factor that a Mitzu will never have. One of those drives past, I don't look twice. A 68 442 I would break my neck looking.

 

I've got to agree,get a new friend.With friends like that ,who needs enemas?

 

Hahaha!

 

I would rather have the old muscle cars then the shapeless more modern cars that are out there . Especially those 4cyl fart can imports . It's all about personal preference .

 

I'm with you Logan.
Find a good 455 g, c or h heads,
mild cam, save your original 400, they like
to blow up anyway then blow the plastic
right off that mitzubitchs doors!
You will make new friends right after the race anyway, ha ha.

 

HAHA!

Well it's been my plan to crate the 400 anyways, so I don't blow it up. And can put it back in when i'm ready for everything to original again.

I already have C heads on my 400 right now, so maybe I can swap those onto the 455.

Do you have any links or advice to build a solid 455? I will make sure to make a 455 engine build thread when I start, as well.

 

His car is going to run circles around you so I'd stop stressing about it. Besides, he'll have it wrecked in no time

 

cut the drama and bullshit and get a nitrous kit and make sure your total package can handle it and put that fart pipe inits place.

 

There are a lot of threads and fellas
on the forum that can send you in the right direction.
Depending on how much you want to spend...
I would like to see someone build one of those twin
turbo 455's...Put that monster on a dyno.
Man O man, one for the books for sure.

 

If the car really is 400 HP you have a mountain to climb. Its light and all wheel drive and should be able to run deep in the 11's if he 1/2 way knows what he is doing. I have a freind with one knocking on the door of 9.99 sec et and his make an honest 630HP

If I was you I would completely ignore him unless you plan on building a serious street / strip machine.

 

Richard, is that a 4 banger?
No way, has to be at least a 6 yes?
It is unbelivable how they get so much
hp out of some of these little engines.
Thing probably weighs half as much
as one of our old detroit irons too.

 

Amen to that; a new friend is in order.

Remember there is more than just HP or speed that can make a car cool, desirable, or just plain awesome.
The Olds has the look, the sexiness, the style! I got only TWO "nice car" comments on my Caddy. When I take Lady out, I strive to NOT get one each time we go out, but that has not happened. Always once, even if I do not stop anywhere! Had a cute middle age lady poke her head out a passenger side window at 70mph on the highway to shout "I love your car!"

Also the Olds has cross-country comfort, lots of interior space, a trunk you can bring home a dishwasher in, a high torque V8 which can pull your boat, the ability to repair with basic hand tools, no costly emission crap to fix, and so on...

Your car easily lasted over 40 years.
His car will very lucky to be around in another 20 years. I bet in 10, the plastic will be falling apart... And being a mitsubitchy, it may be junked earlier if it follows the path of the crappy galant made in the last decade. Ladyfriend had one and being totalled in a wreck was a God-send.

 

^^^ Well said Rob!

 

Big turbo and o-ringed block = big block power

Don't have any vid of his but here is a mid 9sec pass of one on youtube

 

I'm curious on how you even build something like that. How do you put that much extra PSI into a motor and not have it blow up in your face? lol I've seen videos and things of guys doing this and getting upwards of 1000hp out of it but I don't understand how you build an old school big bock to sustain that kind of air induction

 

Thank you Richard...I like your realist approach in this thread. To be honest, that 400 HP Mitsubishi is going to be one quick car. BUT, your "buddy" probably spent an arm and a leg to get there.

IMHO, a person like that is no "buddy" at all...he's an arrogant ******* that should ESAD. I don't know how old you are, or what your experience is but a guy like that wouldn't be a friend of mine for long if at all. I get enough crap from my wife, I WILL NOT take it from a supposed "friend". You shouldn't either...ditch his ***, then win a trophy at the next car show. Get pictures of cute girls by your car and laugh at him as you drive by. When all is said and done, you'll have a much better experience with your Olds than he and his gay little ricer buddies are going to have with his Mitsubishi and the dumbass tow hook he probably has on the back of it.

I'm sorry, that kind of crap really pisses me off too Back to reality...what is your budget? To build an engine that will compete with that car is going to cost you over $10K. Just being real. I'm not going to blow smoke up your butt and say you can do it for less. You're gonna need at least 550 HP and it's going to take good parts and machine work to get there...that all costs money.

Just like Richard said, they cut a groove around each cylinder that accepts an o-ring. When the heads are torqued on the o-ring seals the two surfaces together allowing MUCHO boost to be forced into the cylinder. You can build anything to accept boost, but it isn't cheap.

 

However, after submitting my last post I will ask one question...

How many Import guys have you ever known to actually make the power they claim to make? What does his car run at the track?

 

Well- without a lot of exotica, you can't. That's how they get those numbers out of those engines. It also shows how far engine technology has come in 40 years. Even though tuning a car with a laptop is still a foreign concept to me, electronically controlled engines are how they make all this power. Even the effin' military and NASA didn't have that kind of gizmo wizardry back then.



Does this friendship mean anything to you as in do you want him around long term, or is it a typical just someone to hang around with friendship?

If the latter, ditch him and don't look back. Don't even bother to explain why you no longer want his company, because I can promise he'll say aw man I was just playin' . Anytime someone tells you that, they meant to draw blood, no matter what they say. Sounds like he has a bad case of insecurity too, if he does it to draw attention away from your car.

He might have a quick car, but my experience with Mitsubishis is that in 5 years they are nothing but junk and ready to be scrapped. Modded as this one is it doesn't have a chance of lasting much longer than that. There are two vehicles that no one but a franchised dealer will warrant in the used car pipeline. BMW is one. Mitsubishi is the other. About the only used ones you'll see around here are Eclipses, and that's because teenage girls love them. There used to be a pink one running around here with "BOY BAIT" on the tags if that tells you the type of person they attract.

You OTOH have one of the classiest musclecars ever produced. G-block 400 notwithstanding, a 442 was top shelf in those years. More than one enthusiast magazine described 442 as the total package- straight-line, handling, and with new-for-68 disc brakes, stop. Add in Oldsmobile styling and fit-and-finish, and 442 = perfect ten.

Besides- what is a Michigan kid doing with a Japbox?

 

Hahaha! Thanks for the post, I got a good laugh and it really helped me to put a perspective on this whole thing.

I guess I will have to see what my budget ends up being after I finish the frame-off resto. Maybe I will just keep it stock a bit longer until I save up a bit after the restoration.

Thanks for the info as well! I'm not sure what he runs at the track, but he has claims to have dyno sheets to prove his HP claims, which I haven't seen yet.

He's just been getting more like this since he's been hanging out with his little ricer friends. All Subarau WRX Sti's and Lancer Evo's. Like you said, I'm not sure I can call him my friend much longer if he just keeps acting like a complete D-bag.

I guess I'll just keep focusing more on the love I have for my car and less on how fast it is...for now

I'm only 22, so I know I need to just slow down and be patient and take this resto and do it right.

 

Well he's been a friend through High School and then he joined the Army. He's been stationed in New York for the last 4 years, but comes back to visit every now and then. In New York is where he got tied up in the tuning clubs and bought himself the Evo (which he wont even be able to afford the payments for after he gets his discharge papers). After only about 3 months of owning this Evo, he got it about end of May of this year. He has already blown the clutch, has a motor mount banging when he shifts gears and it stalls out every-time he puts the clutch down.

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE my 68. I just am scared to ever have "fun" with that G block lol

 

^^^Well put Logan.
I don't know where a video of J Leno's 66 toro
would be found but he's running some BB cheb
with twin turbo's and that sob's making about 1500
I think.
That bstrd would kick any street legal cars ****...

 

Do you have any idea what your frame off restored '68 442 is going to be worth when you are done?

You can get a 2012 Evo used with 25,000 miles for less than $30K. That is for one that isn't "tuned". Guess what tuning means for the resale on an Evo or any import? It means to any prospective buyer that it was ragged out and the value goes down...way down. Kids love Evo's...ever see a mature man driving one? Me either

Keep the 442 stock, do your frame off and you will have one kickass car. Also, check out this video on youtube, it was an experiment done by Motor Trend. It's 23 min. long but it tells you something. The guys learned that while the Lamborghini (EVO) is cool, it attracts guys. The rat rod is a hunk and is slow...but guess who checks it out the most? That's right...girls

 

Just remember , you have the cool factor.
Also your car is 45 years old, will his car make 45 years?

Build your car the way a muscle car is and drive it.

Gene

 

Ahhh...that explains it. I see it all the time with kids that wanna join the military. They join, have no bills...so they splurge on a car after one deployment. Once he gets out he'll realize he can't pay for the car and he'll either sell it or re-enlist. Happens all the time.

Usually by the 2nd (sometimes 3rd) deployment the light bulb turns on and they figure out that in order to get out they have to save their deployment money. Another problem is that guys join out of high school and want to be a tank driver or some other "high speed" job. Then they get out and realize that you can't be a tank driver in the civilian world. So they have to sell everything and go to school or work a dead end job to pay for it all.

I love to help recruiters but the first thing I tell any prospect is that they should pick a job that will teach them skills that they can use in the civilian world. That way the time they spent in the military isn't wasted. Your buddy probably just spent 4 years of his life doing nothing to ensure he'll have a decent paying job in the future. It's sad to see, but it happens all the time.

 

I can't tell you how many engines I have seen in rice
Burners that have been tricked out and attempted to be put back to stock so they can claim it under warranty because they blow them up !! Bottom line they think bigger turbo more air and fuel and computer programming is how you build a engine . Don't even get me started on how thay can't drive burning up clutches in less then 1000 miles and say you didn't fix it right !!!
And about 90 percent cry to mommy and daddy to come pay the bill when we denie there claim


Just my two cents

 

Thanks for the video, that was fun to watch!

Well he went in for straight infantry and did two tours. So he hasn't really learned anything that's going to go towards any job in the civilian world.

That's what I was kinda curious about. When they make adjustments like that to a tune on the PCM, and add extra boost without doing anything actually to the motor itself, are the engines meant to put up with that extra load?

 

Logan, those engines are tweaked at the factory. You can get them to produce more but as they sit stock, they are already making a lot of power for what they are. Adding boost or fuel or timing is only further stressing components that are close to their max. They usually don't last long if the owner hasn't done anything to beef up the internal components.

 

No they are not made to handle it number 1 cylinder always seems to go first then it takes the rest tomorrow I will post a few pics of wall of shame parts that I have I have a piston that looks like it got chewed up and spit out . A oil pick up tube from a car that was so over heated it melted the plastic oil baffle and liquified it and started to suck it up the pick up tube can't remeamber if I kept the clutch disk that was gone and only had 600 miles on it on a 2012 car I have a strut that broke from the lowering kit that was wrong for the car it's crazy how much I have seen in only two years of working with imports

 

Haha, wow. That's what I was thinking.

Well thanks for the info and talk guys! I will try to get pics up and start a resto thread when I "officially" start the restoration this winter.

Oldstata, If you remember it, it would be fun to see those pics of the "wall of shame"

 

Not to send this thread on a tangent, but this is truth. I've been in 21 years now and STILL see it, and being military is NOT a secure job anymore like it once was. We are now a one mistake military, or once and done. I've seen 16 year veterans get booted because they can't pass the PT test. There are people still lining up to join, waiting for slots to open in Basic.

So this guy is going to learn the hard way. We call this Karma. He's making fun of your ride now, when he's about to not have one. Just smile, nod and let it go. His is coming. Do what YOU want with your car, and be happy with it. Don't let ANY young punk assclown sway your vision of YOUR car.

John

 

Logan, let me give you a few parting thoughts. Your car is what it is..a classic from an era where cars were built differently than they are today. Like has been mentioned, these cars had style, presence (and still do) and were powerful in their time. They were also not mass produced as compared to what we see with today's cars. Learn what you have and take pride in owning a rare classic. Production on 68 442's was somewhat limited. Worse case is you have a 2 door hardtop with automatic and that style only had about 16,500 copies made. All versions of 68 442's with all trans options was only a little over 36,500. Given the survivability rate, let's say there are considerably less out there today. Who knows, you could have 1 of a few thousand 68 442's left. So take pride in what it is and know that not everyone will own one or can own one. Preserve it for what it is and the value will increase.
As for your friend, I would first say I appreciate his service to this country. He has my respect for that. Not so much when it comes to putting down other's cars in order to make his seem better. Ever thought he may be jealous of what you have? Might be the case so don't take the bait and mess up a nice car trying to beat someone on speed. Your buddy's car will eventually be worth very little and who knows, maybe it will get busted up at some point due to him driving beyond his capabilities. To offer another point of view (geez...I'm getting old to go down this path) look at the future. You are 22 and there may be a time in your life where a house and family will be the main priority. Having money available to enjoy life a little or to have a nicer house (with a garage) will be more important that it may seem now. Treat your 442 as an asset and an investment. You'll likely never recover all the money you spend to restore it so be reasonable with what you do. The knowledge you gain is worth something. Someday you may want to convert that asset into an investment in a house. I know when I was your age I sepnt a lot of money on my cars. Kinda wish I had done something different back then with the money. I still would have had my cars but maybe been a little more conservative on what I did to them. Bottom line is have fun and spend wisely. In the future, you can look back and be glad you did. And you can also take pride in knowing you preserved a piece of American automotive history.
Brian

 

Here is strut pistion and connecting rod brake rotor and oil pic up tube

4D78C218-1E05-4C62-ABC5-A558EFDF6A59-20921-000011853DC511A5_zps8a657fb5.jpg
75FF9213-61F2-4D0E-BF13-4B44A9BC3E74-20921-0000118550E4E364_zps0efe7a5f.jpg
A88FC410-9DEA-47F6-96DB-3F33E84D81BF-20921-000011856F5F331F_zpsbcf5d804.jpg
16C8894A-54DC-45DB-9085-28FB6E8BCB87-20921-000011857AFFB70C_zpse7643179.jpg

 

Lol makes me laugh every time I see these

 

Ick.... What is the little blob above the connecting rod?

 

The piston

 

And all these parts are from different ricers

 

F8B4BE7E-F1D4-4C2F-B449-EE6F5F0FB1BE-20921-0000118A22F018AC_zpse026b344.jpg

Pressure plate I just pulled out

 

Any ways I won't go left field here any more love your car loose your buddy your ride will out live him and his ride all day long not to mention its a chick magnet