Ace-Garageguy

Exhaust manifolds look kinda like the 426 Max Wedge factory cast-iron units, and the timing cover, water pump, fuel pump and upper water neck locations look Mopar big-block to me. The block also has the extended skirt of a big Mopar. Sump is odd, and the starter location is wrong. Intake manifold looks to be from something else, which would account for the appearance that the distributor is supposed to be rear mounted. The Ford Y-blocks had visually similarly upswept cast-iron exhaust manifolds, but nothing else here looks Y-block except the deep block skirt. Whoever built some of these just stuck bits together without particularly caring if it was right or not, so it's hard to identify them exactly...like the half W, half big-block Chevy.

...good will toward men.

With the economy the way it is, it may be the only entertainment-outing the family can afford.

I missed one...the light blue one in your post #7 is a Cadillac 331-365-390, 1949 thru 1962 (same engine as the green one above it, but not as crisp a model).The plug and port spacing, and the water crossover in front are the giveaways. I believe the trans is another style of Hydramatic housing (compare it to the Hydramatic behind the black Olds just below it).

Oh yes, very nice.

Man, that's a good looking little Mustang !! The stacks look great too.

First one is a Mopar 383-413-426-440 RB engine. Auto trans looks like a Ford AOD. Second one looks to me like a Chevy W348-409 block, but with the wrong heads. Borg-Warner 4-speed manual trans. It could also be a big-block Chevy...it has the right exhaust-port spacing, and the oil pan and oil filter look right, but the blob at the right front corner is wrong...that should be the fuel pump location for either a W-block or a big-block. It's hard to make out the angle between the block decks in the photos, which would identify it for sure as a W-engine of not.

Lotsa stuff coulda irked me supremely yesterday, but I'm practicing limiting how much I let stupid stuff get to me...for my new year's resolution to be a kinder, gentler grumpy old SOB.

Glad it worked better for you. Just for the record, another modeler on here posted it first, but I don't know who. It wasn't my idea, but it works so well I've tried to spread it around whenever someone needs search help.

Try this instead of the search function here. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Go to Google in a separate browser window, type in site:modelcarsmag.com, a space, and the the topic you're looking for. Example: site:modelcarsmag.com alclad Much more relevant results.

Dark blue and red ones look at first glance like Revell Pontiacs, going by the blower and valve cover, and the overall shape, and after comparing carefully with the parts-pack and other Revell issues i have...they are the optional Pontiac engine in the Revell '56 Ford pickup kit. It represents the same basic design Pontiac used for a variety of engines from the 1955 287 through the 455 engines of the '70s. Dark green is a Revell first-gen OHV Cadillac 331-365-390 (1949-1962) backed up with a '39 or so Ford top-shift gearbox. Black one with the blower is definitely Revell first-gen Oldsmobile OHV V8 (303-324-370-394, 1949-1963), this time from the Beatnik Bandit kit. Backed by an old style Hydramatic...the ones B&M modified into the famous "HydroStick" for drag racing.

I think the chuck from an old power drill is the hot setup. You can often buy entire power drills at yard sales for $1 or so, and it doesn't matter if the 'power' part of the drill works or not. (I've kept some 50 year old tools running this way.) The keys, if missing, can still be sourced at hardware stores. An old chuck lets you hold the drill with one hand, and the work with the other hand...no vise or fixture needed. You might want to try "step-drills" too. They machine lovely ROUND holes, which conventional drill bits often don't.

One thing to bear in mind when building a model is what kind of engine it has and what kind of racing it would actually do. If you go beyond building for a 'look' and not caring about how things work, just remember that injector stacks are tuned to a particular rev range on a particular engine, and show up in the real world in any length imaginable. Short stacks will usually be on an engine that winds tight and makes its peak power at high RPM, like the small-displacement Cosworth Ford V8. Longer stacks help low-end torque, so you'll tend to see them more on drag-racing engines that need grunt off the line. BUT...that's not always true. Just do a google image search for "hilborn injection". You might also notice that some racing engines use staggered stacks, to broaden the torque curve.

"Siamesed" (so nicknamed harking back to the Siamese-twin moniker that preceded 'conjoined' of post-PC days) exhaust ports were common on a lot of engines in earlier days. Knowledge of gas-flow in to and out of engines wasn't as complete as it is today, and it wasn't thought to be necessary to provide separate full ports for every cylinder. In some cases, there was a cost reduction in tooling for both the cylinder head and manifold that helped to justify a not-great design idea. Siamesed ports, both INTAKE AND EXHAUST, show up on a lot of earlier engines including inlines, vees, and opposed designs.

Bulged or flat...just a matter of degree. Here are some ideas. http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=40659

Still a treat to watch such fine work. What's especially impressive is how well you have the moving parts fitting their openings. Scratch-built models often fall down in this area, but it looks like you've got it beat.

SEMA's opinion on the Cash for Clunkers deal: http://www.sema.org/sema-news/2009/05/sema-confronts-cash-clunker-myths If you don't want to read it all, this is one of the closing paragraphs: “Scrappage programs as proposed will also hurt thousands of independent repair shops, auto restorers, customizers and their customers across the country,” said SEMA Vice President of Government Affairs Steve McDonald. “This industry provides thousands of American jobs and generates millions of dollars in local, state and federal tax revenue. It is time to help the entire auto industry with programs that focus the incentive on the purchase of new vehicles, not destroying valuable old cars and parts.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ SEMA News, Dec.19, 2013 regarding Cash for Clunkers: http://www.sema.org/?q=node/1701

The accuracy of ALL the '33-'34 Ford kits has been discussed at length here: http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/?showtopic=81776 The Monogram convertible kits are for CABRIOLETS, not ROADSTERS. There are differences in the cowl, doors, rear deck, cockpit surround, etc. between cabriolets and roadsters. The Flintstone is a Monogram cab modified into a sortof roadster.

Hmmmm. See post 4. I make a lot of 1/25 parts from fiberglass and mine aren't "horrendous" to work on at all. I wonder why??

Last time some guy asked me about the 550 or the 911, i forget which..."Hey man...izzat a Porsh?", I just said "gesundheit" and smiled.

Yup, and another really good illustration of what happens when knee-jerk politicos and business managers who SHOULD know better but don't, stir the pot without having a CLUE of the inter-relationships and who might be hurt down the road. But I still hear 30mph mommies and their soft-handed husbands saying the CFC program was a good thing for getting rid of all those horrible ugly old deathtraps. I used to be able to buy a complete good-running 4-dr granny car for a few hundred bucks, and get a dandy rebuild-able V8 engine, gearbox, and rear end, part out most of the rest of it, and come out even on the deal. Hot rod parts, ya know? Nevermore.

Bunch of know-it-all smart-azz pronunciation-nazzi experts.

Yes sir, I assumed you knew...I was just clarifying more in case someone didn't think to scroll down on that page.

Yes, and just for those who don't already know, the shield is for "RF", radio-frequency radiation from the spark-plug wires that would otherwise interfere with radio reception on a fiberglass-bodied car. A metal car body usually provides sufficient shielding. Fiberglass (Corvette) does not. And the carbs, though blobby in detail, appear to me to be right-side-up, with the squarish float bowls on the bottom.

And honestly, once you master doing brass tube-chassis work, it really isn't more difficult or time consuming than doing high-quality chassis work in styrene...just different. It has its own set of tricks and tools to make it not so frustrating as it may appear. Some of the model RR guys are real wizards.