1967 Pontiac GTO - Pro, Pro, Pro Your Goat

Project Tip: What's the biggest challenge to a frame and suspension build-up? "Compatibility," Hudson said. "We were fortunate in our project that the suspension was already engineered to work correctly with the aftermarket frame. When you're buying bolt-on items, you have to be careful that one manufacturer's items will work with another's. Try to get complete kits from one manufacturer whenever possible, and that will minimize the risk of mismatching parts during your build-up."

Set Your Horsepower Goals
Then Build Your Engine
The details of the engine build have been already been presented to readers (HPP Oct. '09, Nov. '09, and Jan. '10) and are summarized here: Wheeler Dyno Service began with a 505ci IA II block and stuffed it with a Butler Performance 4.250-inch stroke, a forged-steel crank with 4340 6.700-in length, forged-steel rods, and Ross forged, 49cc dished pistons. Then, Butler bolted on Edelbrock heads with 90cc combustion chambers, custom porting, SS 2.11/1.66-inch valves, and Comp Cams 1.5:1 aluminum roller rockers. A custom Comp Cams hydraulic roller with 258/248 duration, 0.541/0.541-inch lift, and a 115-degree lobe separation angle was chosen to direct the valvetrain action. Compression ratio is a boost- and pump-gas-friendly 7.96:1.

According to Wheeler Dyno Service owner Jeff Fiala, "John Balow of MCR came to me and asked me to build the most radical Pure Pontiac engine that still retains its street manners. In discussions between our two companies, we decided upon the IA II aluminum block, but it was not available at the time, so we settled for the iron-block."

The two companies decided upon a goal of more than 1,000 hp for the engine, and that goal determined how Fiala chose the specific components.

Project Tip: Jeff explained, "You have to do enough research to make sure you have the right parts selected to achieve your horsepower goal. You can't just say, 'I want 700 horsepower' and hope that's what you'll get on the dyno. The first selection is the cylinder heads because their flow will dictate how much horsepower an engine can produce. After that, you want to choose a good, solid bottom end, so it is reliable and will last."

For Hutchens' GTO, a stock-iron Pontiac block could not withstand a 1000-plus horsepower application. "We don't like to put more than 575-600 horsepower through a factory block," Fiala said. "That's why we went with the aftermarket IA II block, which is advertised to handle up to 2,500 horsepower."

Fiala had many head choices available for this build including excellent offerings from KRE, and the DCI Motorsports Tiger head available from Allpontiac.com. "Though there are more exotic heads out there, we went with the Edelbrocks because they were good enough to produce the power and torque required for this build-up. Considering that the head gaskets and head bolts are the weak points in the equation, the E-heads have a thicker-cast deck over stock, allowing us to add up to 25 pounds of boost."

"MCR told me the owner really wanted modern power with this block and that led me to a pair of Turbonetics 72mm GT turbos augmented with a Bell air-to-air intercooler," Jeff related.

Fuel and air are managed by a FAST XFI (with an Intelligent Traction Control System) featuring a sequential three-bar MAP, a 70mm Accufab throttle body, FAST 83-lb/hr injectors, a FAST electric fuel pump, a port-matched Edelbrock Victor intake, and a FAST ECM.

Ignition duties fall upon an MSD crank trigger distributor modified for cam sync, an MSD amplifier, an MSD Pro Power coil, Moroso 8mm suppression wires, and NGK BKR60 plugs.