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The Generator
New Member Joined: 30-October-2017 Location: Billings MT Status: Offline Points: 9 |
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Posted: 30-October-2017 at 6:59AM |
Hi,
New member from Billings Montana. I recently inherited my Dad's 73' Gran Torino Sport. It's in fairly good condition, and my dad absolutely loved his car. He often took it to local cruise ins in the Portland Or area. My Dad inherited the Torino from his father in 1983. His dad worked for Ford and was given the option upon retirement to get a gold watch or something to commemorate his time, or a discount on a new car. So, he chose the discount. Now 44 years later, I'm the third to own this cool old Torino. I've built street rods in the past, so needless to say, my creative juices are flowing with what I can, and what I should do with this car. It needs to be brought back to some level of quality. My dad was partially color blind, and he had the car painted a gm teal green. It doesn't even come close to the interiors green, which we always found humorous and endearing. It's got a factory 400cu and C6 in it, so I am looking forward to either building that motor up, or dropping something else in. Anyway, great forum. I'm looking forward to gaining some wisdom , insight and enjoying other people's journeys on building and enjoying their Torinos as well. |
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The Generator
New Member Joined: 30-October-2017 Location: Billings MT Status: Offline Points: 9 |
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BTW, I tried uploading a picture of the car, but can seem to get this to work...
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goliver
New Member Joined: 10-September-2017 Location: Grand Coulee wa Status: Offline Points: 34 |
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Welcome from another newbie!
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Geary Oliver
Grand Coulee WA. |
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Big Bird
Senior Member Joined: 25-August-2013 Location: New York Status: Offline Points: 4194 |
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Welcome!
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"What we do in full frontal view, is more honest than your cleaned-up mind."
Randy 1979 T-Bird 2005 F-150 STX RCSB 4.6, 3.55 LSD How the Heck does a REGULAR CAB SHORTBED weigh over 5200 pounds? |
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72FordGTS
Admin Group GTS.org Admin Joined: 06-September-2005 Location: Ontario, Canada Status: Offline Points: 5802 |
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Welcome to the forum. I am in the midst of starting a 400 build for my '72. TMeyer Inc is the place to contact at the very least for pistons (he's the expert on these engines).
Let me know if you have trouble getting a photo posted. Here are the instructions here: |
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Vince
1972 Ford GTS Sportsroof - Survivor, One Family car GTS.org Admin |
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californiajohnny
Moderator Group Joined: 05-October-2013 Location: winlock, wa Status: Offline Points: 14606 |
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welcome! cool story
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JOHN
74 GRAN TORINO S&H CLONE 74 VETTE CUSTOM 90 S10 BLAZER 4X4 LIFTED 77 CELICA CUSTOM 75 V8 MONZA SUPERCHARGED 79 COURIER VERT. SLAMMED 75 VEGA V6 5 SPD 70 CHEV C10 P/U 68 MUSTANG FB CONVERSION |
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72GTS351CJ
Senior Member Joined: 30-November-2010 Location: NY Status: Offline Points: 1481 |
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Welcome!! Can't wait to see the pics
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72GTS Clint Eastwood Special
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legend onirot
Senior Member METAL GOD Joined: 18-January-2009 Location: hattiesburg ms Status: Offline Points: 3038 |
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welcome. great story
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malcolm 1973 gran torino sport (formal)... "Stacy Lynn" 1972 gran torino (formal)... "Mackenzie" 1973 gran torino sport (sportroof)... "Leela" |
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n2fordwagons
Senior Member Joined: 20-July-2013 Location: GA Status: Offline Points: 2252 |
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Welcome! Looking forward to your progress and pics.
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Jeff
71 Torino Brougham 72 Gran Torino Squire |
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The Generator
New Member Joined: 30-October-2017 Location: Billings MT Status: Offline Points: 9 |
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Thanks everyone. Man, I've tried posting pics for hours and for now I'm giving up.
Im on an older mac, maybe that's it? Anyway, thanks again!
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56' Ford Pickup
73 Gran Torino Sport 1 Amazing Wife 3 Crazy Kids :) |
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The Generator
New Member Joined: 30-October-2017 Location: Billings MT Status: Offline Points: 9 |
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Thanks for the info on building a 400. I'll contact them for sure.
I've never built one, but it sound like it can be done from looking at their site. If I can get 400hp out of it, I will be happy. Curious, what is your goal for your motor?
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56' Ford Pickup
73 Gran Torino Sport 1 Amazing Wife 3 Crazy Kids :) |
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MrSmog
Senior Member Joined: 21-January-2016 Location: Ky Status: Offline Points: 1407 |
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welcome and i'd love to see someone with a 400 use the 351c 4v heads on one,bet it could easily mae 400hp with 9-1 compression and a .500+ lift cam and still be mild.
Edited by MrSmog - 02-November-2017 at 2:15AM |
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Big Bird
Senior Member Joined: 25-August-2013 Location: New York Status: Offline Points: 4194 |
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Even with the 2V heads, a timing set and cam really wakes the 400 up.
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"What we do in full frontal view, is more honest than your cleaned-up mind."
Randy 1979 T-Bird 2005 F-150 STX RCSB 4.6, 3.55 LSD How the Heck does a REGULAR CAB SHORTBED weigh over 5200 pounds? |
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72FordGTS
Admin Group GTS.org Admin Joined: 06-September-2005 Location: Ontario, Canada Status: Offline Points: 5802 |
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TMeyer Inc can easily help you get 400 hp from a 400. He has 400's stroked to 434 making some serious power, check them out here if you're interested: For my engine, I am looking for somewhere near 375-400 hp and 450 ft-lbs. I am probably sticking with the stock Iron heads, using TMeyer's pistons for 9.3:1 compression, and going with a roller cam. I'd also upgrade to roller rockers, and stainless valves. I am hoping to get my engine out in the next month and then figure out exactly what I am going to do. When you are trying to post the pictures, are you trying to upload to the site or are you trying to use a photo from a third part page? Try uploading to the site directly, just make sure your photos are resized to 800x600 (or close to that) and are less than 500 KB's in size. If it still doesn't work, you can always email me the photos and I can post them for you. |
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Vince
1972 Ford GTS Sportsroof - Survivor, One Family car GTS.org Admin |
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The Generator
New Member Joined: 30-October-2017 Location: Billings MT Status: Offline Points: 9 |
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Hi guys, let’s see if this works- still attempting to load a pic, this time from my phone... I just had the rear ended gone through and upgraded- I had a posi with 3:50’s put in and now next is the motor... |
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56' Ford Pickup
73 Gran Torino Sport 1 Amazing Wife 3 Crazy Kids :) |
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7T9_Tbird
Senior Member Joined: 04-December-2017 Location: Athens, Alabama Status: Offline Points: 495 |
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Welcome! Very sweet ride!
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John
79 Thunderbird Heritage 79 Thunderbird Town Landau 02 Ram 1500 Sport Quad Cab |
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72FordGTS
Admin Group GTS.org Admin Joined: 06-September-2005 Location: Ontario, Canada Status: Offline Points: 5802 |
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Nice GTS!! Have you decided what you are doing with you engine build yet? My 400 is being built now at TMeyer Inc.
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Vince
1972 Ford GTS Sportsroof - Survivor, One Family car GTS.org Admin |
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californiajohnny
Moderator Group Joined: 05-October-2013 Location: winlock, wa Status: Offline Points: 14606 |
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nice!!! yes the pic worked
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JOHN
74 GRAN TORINO S&H CLONE 74 VETTE CUSTOM 90 S10 BLAZER 4X4 LIFTED 77 CELICA CUSTOM 75 V8 MONZA SUPERCHARGED 79 COURIER VERT. SLAMMED 75 VEGA V6 5 SPD 70 CHEV C10 P/U 68 MUSTANG FB CONVERSION |
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The Generator
New Member Joined: 30-October-2017 Location: Billings MT Status: Offline Points: 9 |
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Wow, that is awesome! I contacted them, and they got back to me quickly, but I just don’t have the funds yet to pull off a full serious build quite yet. What are you having them do to your 400?
Until I can pull the trigger on a full rebuild, I thought about doing some easier top end work, like putting on a new 4 barrel carb and intake, cam and headers. Not sure how much hp I can get off a soft rebuild like that but I have some of the parts already, and it would be fun to do. I’d reuse the parts later on the full rebuild. Just not sure how much HP I’d gain without doing the pistons and heads... I’d love to hear how your build goes, see some pictures and hear about what you have done! |
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56' Ford Pickup
73 Gran Torino Sport 1 Amazing Wife 3 Crazy Kids :) |
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torino335
Member Joined: 27-December-2016 Location: ca Status: Offline Points: 119 |
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welcome
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jversch
Senior Member Joined: 25-March-2013 Location: Canandaigua NY Status: Offline Points: 324 |
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welcome , great bunch of people here .
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Jerry VerSchneider
1972 Gran torino formal roof H Code 1973 Gran torino fast back H code. |
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72FordGTS
Admin Group GTS.org Admin Joined: 06-September-2005 Location: Ontario, Canada Status: Offline Points: 5802 |
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I am doing a complete rebuild, including TMeyer's pistons to bump the compression to about 9.3:1. I am going to have a custom roller cam, roller rockers, TMeyer's oil system mods, but I am using stock iron heads, with an Edelbrock intake and Holley carb. I may go with TMeyer's Duraspark distributor with the integrated HEI module if it's available. Nothing too crazy, but it should make a ton more power than stock. I did a 4-bbl intake swap, Holley carb, decent exhaust, removed the emission controls for the distributor advance, and tuned the ignition on my 400 before all this. That stuff alone made a significant difference in power and performance. Yours being a 73 will have a few more emission controls and the retarded timing set. If you just did the timing chain, along with the other stuff I did it will wake it up pretty good. Changing the cam might not be worthwhile with the low compression. I contemplated doing that, but held off until I could do an entire motor job.
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Vince
1972 Ford GTS Sportsroof - Survivor, One Family car GTS.org Admin |
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The Generator
New Member Joined: 30-October-2017 Location: Billings MT Status: Offline Points: 9 |
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Thanks for sharing! Man, It sounds like you are doing your build the right way.
Did they give you any ballpark idea what the hp rating would be after the build? What Holley did you go with? I was going to pull the trigger on doing a powerful rebuild and then we had to have money for a down payment on a house- I’m still not totally over it yet haha! But a house is a very good thing :) |
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56' Ford Pickup
73 Gran Torino Sport 1 Amazing Wife 3 Crazy Kids :) |
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californiajohnny
Moderator Group Joined: 05-October-2013 Location: winlock, wa Status: Offline Points: 14606 |
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JOHN
74 GRAN TORINO S&H CLONE 74 VETTE CUSTOM 90 S10 BLAZER 4X4 LIFTED 77 CELICA CUSTOM 75 V8 MONZA SUPERCHARGED 79 COURIER VERT. SLAMMED 75 VEGA V6 5 SPD 70 CHEV C10 P/U 68 MUSTANG FB CONVERSION |
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