Lessons learned from your hot rod build?

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Good morning. Hope everybody’s having a decent week so far.

I am working on acquiring a 1971 shell that will come to me as a roller, has RS flares on the rear already. I have a ready to run 3.2 L and a 915 gearbox waiting for a home and you can see how all this potential build started to come together.

I use my cars and I have a general rule of thumb that if I don’t look forward to driving it from Southern California to San Francisco and back on a road trip then action on it or I haven’t built the right thing for me. So another words very loud or too harsh or too high strung is personality a negative for me.

So with that in mind I was hoping to get some coaching from people that I’ve been there / done that to see what considerations I may not a thought of or ideas that people would be willing to pass along from their experiences before I get started.

One upfront question is would you leave the OEM fuel injection on the 3.2 L?

Thanks!

[mepstein]

Tom - The Motronic fuel injection is pretty sublime. It just works. (usually) no muss, no fuss. Very good gas millage, easy to find parts. We call it the turn key motor because on the east coast, guys put their car away for the winter and then in the spring, turn the key and it runs. Take off the electric blower and backdate the heat if you want to "pretty up" the engine and it removes a couple pounds from the rear end. Heat still works great. Good luck with the build.

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Thanks Mark - appreciate the input. That should be plenty of engine in a 1971 so I am inclined to error on the side of usability and civility since the bump in HP/torque from stock anyway.

[STEVES]

You may have to use big hammer to get the 915 box in a 71 chassis. If my old memory serves me the tunnel needs some modification

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You may have to use big hammer to get the 915 box in a 71 chassis. If my old memory serves me the tunnel needs some modification

I believe you are correct - I will do some searching here for past discussions on that. I was thinking 915 since I have one and it should handle the 3.2L power without issue.

Thanks for the response.

[Longballa]

Mount the transmission up with the 915 mount and a transmission jack on the back. Slowly jack it up and it will show you exactly where to hammer. It's really not that much or that bad. The 3.2 injection is just fine. It's heavy as hell but if it's working good then leave it alone unless you want to spend big bucks and put in ITB's for a better look, performance and to save weight. Or, you could put carbs on if you're a carb guy. Put a chip in the 3.2L if you keep the stock injection. Beef up the torsion bars and brakes. It never ends! Haha