Jeff Smith

I just finished replacing the clutch in my ’72 Nova and put the Hurst shifter back on my Muncie four-speed but when I drove the car, something is definitely wrong. When I shift from Second to Third, the rpm drops way down – much more than it should. But then when I shift from Third

I race a Corvette in the vintage road race classes and I have had a rash of broken rocker arms. The rules prevent me from converting to roller rockers. Is there any way to prevent these rockers from breaking? The failures usually occur right in the middle of the rocker arm but the pushrod also

I’ve been looking at aftermarket billet aluminum oil filters with a stainless mesh filter that you can disassemble, clean, and re-use. Are these any good? I don’t mind taking a filter apart and cleaning it. I’m thinking it might reveal problems before they really get bad but I’m not sure I’m getting as good a

I have a question. My 1970 SS Chevelle has a 350 crate motor. When I start the engine now, there is a loud whiney sound coming from my distributor. Is this a bearing maybe or something else? Have you ever had this problem? The distributor is a Mallory 85 series. Ricky SS Jeff Smith: Let’s

A friend of mine just added an EZ-EFI 2.0 EFI to his big-block Camaro and while it runs great, it has definitely lost much of its old rumpy cam idle characteristics. Is that normal for EFI engines? Why does this happen if the cam has not been changed? D.S. Jeff Smith: This is a really

I bought a 4L80E automatic trans out of a late model pickup to put in my ’66 Bel Air. We swapped a big block Chevy into the car a few years ago with a TH-400 transmission and now I’d like to add an overdrive transmission. What will it take to convert this new trans into

I’ve heard that changing cams in an LS engine is really easy, but I’ve never worked on one of these engines before and I don’t want to screw it up. Do I need any special tools to install a cam in one of these engines? I put a 5.3L truck engine in my off-road Jeep

I’ve always thought that vacuum advance was something just for stock engines and something you didn’t use with a performance engine. In fact, I’ve heard guys say they’ve locked out their advance and just run a fixed timing amount. Is this a better way to go with a street engine? I have a small-block 350

I was helping my buddy remove the heads from his truck this last weekend. We ran into a problem where two of the collector bolts on the passenger side header flange were rusted so badly that we rounded off the bolt heads. This left us no choice but to cut them off with a Sawzall.

With the upcoming addition of the 454-cubic-inch big block to my 1966 El Camino, I begin to worry about the durability of the 8.2-inch 10-bolt rear. It currently houses a 3.36:1 gear ratio which I am very happy with. The car itself is a driver, I do not drag race, nor do I anticipate ever taking