What We Drive - Dave's '68 Chevelle SS

11/28/2012
10 min read

What We Drive - Dave's '68 Chevelle SS

11/28/2012
10 min read
Dave is our resident gasket expert at Mr. Gasket, which is obviously a huge responsibility. It's a responsibility for which he is well prepared, with some serious engine building street credit. In high school, Dave rebuilt the engine in his 1966 Pontiac GTO and converted the transmission from automatic to a manual 4-speed. "I knew at a very young age I would be involved in the automotive industry because of my fascination with cars and how they functioned." Dave also class raced a 1968 Chevelle Malibu 327 at Dragway 42. For that car, he converted the transmission from a Powerglide to a TH400 with a high-stall Vega torque converter and changed the rear end from the 10-bolt to a high performance Chevy 12-bolt with 3.90 gears. His current restoration project is a 1968 Chevelle SS 396, which is his personal favorite. He purchased the car as a rolling chassis with no engine or transmission and used a 396 engine that had been sitting in his garage for 20 years. The engine was bored .030" over to 402 and assembled using rebuilt and refurbished pistons, rods, crankshaft and cylinder heads. While restoring the engine, Dave used Mr. Gasket MLS head gaskets, our Ultra-Seal III intake gaskets , Ultra-Seal exhaust gaskets and edge molded thermostat gasket. Our MLS head gasket is simply the best sealing head gasket for high compression or high horsepower applications. He also installed a Mr. Gasket mechanical fuel pump and Mr. Gasket super intake manifold bolts. For the suspension, he dipped into Mr. Gasket's sister brand, Lakewood, for 50/50 rear drag shocks and traction bars. This is going to help him put the weight of the Chevelle in the right place to launch off the line. On the ignition side Dave used our ACCEL extreme 9000 ceramic boot ignition wires and a 300+ CD ignition system. The ceramic boot wires are the best option available for avoiding burnt plug wire boots. An ACCEL Ultra Coil ensures that power output does not drop off under load or at high RPM. These are considered the best performing and most flexible coils on the market. On the Mallory side, he installed performance water temperature and oil pressure gauges. He rounded it all out with a Hays Clutch assembly. Now the Chevelle is rated at 450 horsepower and 440 ft/lbs of torque. I think Dave deserves a pat on the back, but since you're not here, we'll settle for nice Facebook comment on his photo album. Click here to view more photos of Dave's Chevelle

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