Hoover may look like an ordinary Daily Driven LT1 Corvette ,
but Hoover is just a little different ,
Hoover Runs 10's ! ! ! ! ! !
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I have always owned a hot rod
of some type or another since I was 17, but is my first Corvette.
I first picked up on December 27 1996. He had only 18,000 miles
on the Odometer and was in almost perfect condition. It didn’t take long
before I had to start making him faster. By March with 24,000 miles on
the clock, the cam was out. I was still thinking mild in these days, so
I elected the ZZ-9 from TPIS. With the cam change I also added a K&N
air filter, TPIS custom chip, DynoMax Mufflers, an adjustable Fuel pressure
regulator and a 58-mm throttle body. The rear end got a new center section
with 3.07 gears instead of the stock 2.59’s and I ported the intake manifold.
Now, felt much more lively. My first trip to the track was Corvette
Day at New England dragway, NH on June 28. It was over 90°, but managed a best time for the day of 13.4 @ 105.1. I was please with this,
but never satisfied. It seemed that Hoover’s weakest points were, his out
of the hole torque and exhaust always needs to breath free. At this time
it was still difficult to locate full-length headers for an LT1. I didn’t
want to settle for the shorties, all my brothers and friends had L98’s
with full-length headers and I couldn’t let them have that advantage. I
decided to buy full-length Hooker Super Competition headers for an L98
and make them fit. It was not a very complicated procedure, I just had
to adapt the EGR and dimple the tubes for the motor mount bolts. I then
got an SLP torque converter from Summit Racing. This Converter let my combination
leave the line at about 2500 Rpm’s, a big improvement over the stock 1650.
We all attended Corvette
Day at Lebanon Valley Dragway near Albany, NY. So I got the opportunity
to try my new additions. Between the headers and the torque felt
much snappier. Another hot July day, but managed a new best
of 13.159. This was quick enough to beat brother’s Super Rammed 89 who
immediately bough Nitrous Oxide. Naturally, I had to counter with my own
Nitrous system, a wet plate system from NOS. Back to the track. This time
cracked a 12.24 @ 114. That NOS sure works good! Naturally both
my brother and myself weren’t, and never expect to be, happy. We had true
daily drivers that got over 20 miles to the gallon ran low 12’s with out
that much money invested. The next step for us both was a set of AFR heads
and rockers. Unfortunately by the time we got them back together it was
so late in the season that we never got them back to the track.
As spring approached I was so anxious to try my new combination,
I was at Englishtown on the first Wednesday night they were open. It was
cold, so power was up and traction sucked. Apparently there were a lot
of impatient people, it was 45° yet I could only get 3 runs in the
whole night. First run out, 12.72 @ 110 MPH, Traction was bad, 2.0 60ft.
I was still running on last years GSC’s and at 45° that rubber was
stone hard. The next run I babied the throttle a little more, I managed
a 1.96 60ft which led to a 12.68 @ 109 MPH. On the third run, I spun more
again and ran another 12.7. After this outing, I decided I was going to
have to try tires that hooked a little better. I drive my car too much
(500-700 mile a week) to use any softer tires on a regular basis. I like
to feel that as I am driving to work, my car runs as fast as when I am
at the track, but it was getting hard to be consistent at all. So, I decided
to try some BFG Drag radials. These bit hard with my setup. Traction was
no longer a problem. For some reason Corvette day at Lebanon Valley was
early in 98. It was early May. At this event I ran with NOS. First pass
11.71 @ 121 MPH, second run was 11.518 @ 119 MPH with a 1.70 60 ft. I was
happy with my performance now, but I already had the next upgrade underway.
I decided that to fully utilize the flow potential of my new heads I needed
either more cubes or had to let it spin more. A new cam sounded cheaper
and easier than a short block did. I wanted to go to a mechanical cam,
I ordered the Comp Cams 236/242 from Lingenfelter but they sent me one
for an old style block. When I called them, they told me to use an old-style
timing set. Obviously this won’t work if you believe in having something
turn your water pump and distributor. I sent it back, and called Comp Cams
direct, they wanted 3 weeks to make one. I didn’t have the patients, god
for bid I had to drive my car as it was for a couple weeks. Next, I tried
TPIS. Their 241/241 sounded a little bigger than I wanted to go, so I though
maybe they could get me something with only 236° on the intake. Chris
said nope, and then talked me into trying the new ZZ-X. I said what the
hell, order it up! This was only the beginning of a long journey.
The first Saturday
after I got the cam, I popped it apart and installed as one day operation.
I forgot to bring my dial indicator and degree wheel with me so, I skipped
out on the degreeing part. I have degreed several cams before and they
were always within 2 degrees or so. Bad Idea! I had it all together, started
it up. I hope I can get this Idle a little better. It was idling with very
low vacuum, about 6”. This was causing it to ran very rich at an Idle and
would foul plugs. As I test drove it. He didn’t have quite the torque he
used to, but as the revs picked up it was rocking! I was thinking, “now
if I just had the cubes to help recoup some torque”. It wasn’t long
before, my brother came up along side me on the highway and hammered it.
I was on it immediately. He was pulling me,6300 RPM’s,
BOOM, trail of smoke! It looked cool but, Damn! A piston exploded, I mean
there wasn’t one piece of this piston bigger than a cubic centimeter! Pieces
of piston were pushed back up into the intake manifold, then sucked into
other cylinders, what a mess! When I pulled the heads off you could see
that the intake valves were just hitting the pistons. It looks like a clay
test would have been a definite good idea here. That was May 28, I figured
now it would take at least three weeks to get him back together with a
stroker motor. That was definitely an optimistic piece of thinking.
I knew that almost everyone that builds a stroker motor, uses a 3.75” 400
crank to build a 383. I also knew that if I had an L98 as my brothers did,
I would go straight to a 400 block. I could not put a fortune into a new
motor that allowed other to have a competitive advantage. I decided to
use a 3 7/8 stroke and bore .060”. This gave me 401 cubic inches! That
would be enough that, if properly assembled, should defend against anyone.
This was a great Idea, but no one made a piston to do the job. That meant
custom pistons. I called many piston manufacturers and the fastest was
Ross Piston. They said they could have them done in three weeks.
phil tobin, , 383 , 383, 396 , 406, 396, , motor, Stroked fastest vette quickest vette using custom pistons
Fast ECM, ECU, CALPAK, PROM, Fuel map, fuel maps, timing curve, L98,
Fast, Quarter mile, 1/4 mile, injectors, Air Flow Research, AFR, Chevy,
Stroked FFC, Horsepower, hp, ZZ-X, Top Gun, NOS, Nitrous Oxide, Ross Pistons, Vigilante torque converter
trickflow rods, Dana 44,Dana 36, 1320, 60ft, mustang ,383 rebuild, engine rebuild, , 383, 383,
Camaro, Firebird, L98, LT4, LS1,performance, supercharge, supercharger,Vortech, vortech, blower,
lown, injector, injected,fuel injection, TPI, tuned port injection, nitrous, horsepower, torque, forged parts,
forged pistons, forged rods, bore, stroke, Vette, manifold, port, ported, head, heads, solid roller
intake, intake manifold, header, headers, Lunati, crank, crankshaft, cam, camshaft, throttlebody, throttle body,
58 mm throttlebody, 58 mm throttle body, torque converter, roller rockers, roller rocker, fuel, fuel injection,
fuel injector, Air flow Research Heads, Trickflow Rods, 58mm Throttle body, Nitrous Oxide, ZZ-X Camshaft,
Custom Ross Racing Pistons, Dana 44 rear, fuel injection phil tobin, , 383 , 383, 396 Stroker, 406, 396, , motor, Stroked
Fast ECM, ECU, CALPAK, PROM, Fuel map, fuel maps, timing curve, L98, custom pistons
Juiced Fast, Quarter mile, 1/4 mile, injectors, Air Flow Research, AFR, Chevy,
Stroked FFC, Horsepower, hp, ZZ-X, Top Gun, NOS, Nitrous Oxide, Ross Pistons, 14 mile
trickflow rods, Dana 44,Dana 36, 1320, 60ft, mustang ,383 rebuild, engine rebuild, 383, 383,
Camaro, Firebird, L98, LT4, LS1,performance, supercharge, supercharger,Vortech, vortech, blower,
lown, injector, injected,fuel injection, TPI, tuned port injection, nitrous, horsepower, torque, forged parts,
forged pistons, forged rods, bore, stroke, 383 383 manifold, port, ported, head, heads, solid roller Vigilante torque converter
intake, intake manifold, header, headers, Lunati, crank, crankshaft, cam, camshaft, throttlebody, throttle body, Vigilante torque converter
58 mm throttlebody, 58 mm throttle body, torque converter, roller rockers, roller rocker, fuel, fuel injection,
fuel injector, Air flow Research Heads, Trickflow Rods, 58mm Throttle body, Nitrous Oxide, ZZ-X Camshaft,
Custom Ross Racing Pistons, Dana 44 rear, fuel injection phil tobin, , 383 Stroker, 383, 396 406, 396, Stroker, motor, Stroked
Fast ECM, ECU, CALPAK, PROM, Fuel map, fuel maps, timing curve, L98, 14 mile
Juiced Vette, Fast, Quarter mile, 1/4 mile 14 mile injectors, Air Flow Research, AFR, Chevy,
Stroked Horsepower, hp, ZZ-X, Top Gun, NOS, Nitrous Oxide, Ross Pistons,
trickflow rods, Dana 44,Dana 36, 1320, 60ft, mustang ,383 rebuild, engine rebuild, 383, 383, Vigilante torque converter
Camaro, Firebird, LT1, L98, LT4, LS1,performance, supercharge, supercharger,Vortech, vortech, blower,
lown, injector, injected,fuel injection, TPI, tuned port injection, nitrous, horsepower, torque, forged parts,
forged pistons, custom pistons forged rods, bore, stroke, 383 manifold, port, ported, head, heads,
intake, intake manifold, header, headers, Lunati, crank, crankshaft, cam, camshaft, throttlebody, throttle body, solid roller
58 mm throttlebody, 58 mm throttle body, torque converter, roller rockers, roller rocker, fuel, fuel injection,
fuel injector, Air flow Research Heads, Trickflow Rods, 58mm Throttle body, Nitrous Oxide, ZZ-X Camshaft,
Custom Ross Racing Pistons, Dana 44 rear, fuel injection
EFI Naturally Aspirated SBC Daily Driver ls1
EFI Naturally Aspirated SBC Daily Driver ls1
EFI Naturally Aspirated SBC Daily Driver ls1
supercharger, roller rockers, Camaro, Firebird, supercharger, roller rockers, Camaro, Firebird, supercharger, roller rockers, Camaro, Firebird,