A move to a smaller blower pulley put the car within a hair's breadth of the nines: 10.001 at 140 mph. "I was happy, but at the same time disappointed that I didn't get my nine-second pass. It never hooked well enough to run the number. It also seemed to run out of steam at about 6200 rpm." It was not long after that the engine started using antifreeze. Tearing it down revealed a two-inch crack in the No. 1 cylinder bore. "Since the 400 blocks are pretty thin-walled, I thought this was going to be a recurring problem at my power level." It was time to make a change.
That change came in the form of a Bill Mitchell Hardcore Racing Products Motown block. (see "Motown Magic," Aug. 2001). Hess also changed over to a solid roller that will allow the mill to reliably rev to 7000 rpm. The new cam did the trick, as the car made 613 rwhp with a very conservative 11.5:1 air-fuel ration, 24 of total timing and 13 psi of boost. "The new cam is much more aggressive and actually lessened the boost. But I'm still really happy with it because it made quite a bit more power."
While the engine was out, some suspension upgrades were also performed. "I talked to Madman (aka Brian Jeffries) about my traction problem. Anybody that has seen his car leave (on the rear bumper) knows that this guy has his suspension figured out. Right over the phone he told me the problem was the torque arm. The front of the arm was not high enough, and it was worse still on my car because it is lowered." Based on that conversation, Hess modified the front mount Spohn torque arm by welding two plates to the front mount, which raises the front end of the torque arm about three inches. What this effectively does is preload the rear suspension. Effective is the word, too, as the car's short time improved drastically to a 1.47 on the first pass.
Even with the new best short time, all was not well. The cam change was enough to flash the converter to 6000 rpm, well past where Hess wanted it. "With the converter tightened back to 5500 rpm, the car started spinning the tires again and lost 5 mph in the eighth. It's so frustrating because the car has the certified cage. I've had my physical, and made four of six license passes. I can't finish the licensing process because the car won't run in the nines."
It's been a long haul for Hess and his Formula, but he's not finished yet. "It gets really frustrating when you think you're doing things the right way only to find out the car went the other way." Besides getting the traction situation sorted out, plans call for a boost increase from 15 to 20 psi with a new pulley combination.
"Because the car is not aftercooled, I will be very cautious with the higher boost. I will pull the timing back to 22 and work forward from there. I've also got my eye on a Vortech XX-trim head unit. I think that may be a necessity. It would require a lot of fabrication to get it in there, but it's nothing I haven't done before," he laughs. Indeed, Tory, indeed.
We know all you third-gen guys are interested in how Tory fabricated and installed his Vortech blower kit. Get the inside story on all Tory's tricks on-line at www.gmhightechperformance.com.