30-30 Cam and the 409?

[Duke W.]

Re: 30-30 Cam and the 409?

I worked for Pontiac as a production engineer for a few months after I got out of college. I left to go to graduate school at the U. of Wisconsin Engine Research Center.

I recall the area I lived west of Pontiac was called Union Lake, but I'm not sure if it was an incorporated town, and I don't remeber a lake.

Duke

[George J.]

Re: 30-30 Cam and the 409?

Duke,
Interesting. You must have liked it so much you never came back.

George

[Duke W.]

Re: 30-30 Cam and the 409?

Well, at least it was summer/fall (hot and muggy) in Detroit. Detroit was followed by two winters in Wisconsin and three in North Dakota with the Air Force. Then the AF moved me to Southern California, and I put down roots. Other than business trips to the East Coast in the eighties I haven't been east of the Mississippi since.

I've always been a "west coast guy". I like water to the west and mountains to the east. I grew up in Seattle, but got fed up with the rain.

Yesterday it was in the low eighties. Walking down the hill to the grocery store on Pacific Coast Highway I watched the sun set over the Pacific Ocean. I always think of "The Last Resort" from The Eagles 1976 "Hotel California" album whenever I see the sun sink into the sea.

"And they called it paradise
The place to be
They watched the hazy sun, sinking in the sea"

Duke

[Stuart F.]

Re: 30-30 Cam and the 409?

Too bad you folks in California can't wrest that beautiful State away from those awful politicians. Sometimes it takes more than beautiful countryside and decent weather to make it worth staying. If the State doesn't slide off into the pacific, they will destroy it anyway.

Iknow, much the same could be said for the whole country, but California's about the worst example.

Stu Fox

[Duke W.]

Re: 30-30 Cam and the 409?

California has been getting screwed up ever since Jerry Brown became governor not long after I arrived.

Now he's running again!!!

I'm not dependent on the CA economy, and I am shielded from the most oneous taxes by being in the same house for 35 years and a clever income tax strategy.

But pressure is building for a taxpayer revolt - like what happened in the seventies with Propositon 13 that limited property taxes. People are really getting fed up.

The next big "financial crisis" will probably be a state going into default or some sort of effective bankruptcy and beg the feds for a bail out. It could be CA, but at least a half-dozen other states are in similar straits due to excess government spending, and people are reaching a limit on how far they will let government get into their pockets.

The politicians in this state are funded and controlled by special interest groups including public employee unions and various environmental groups like The Sierra Club, but that won't last forever. A revolt is brewing.

Duke

[George J.]

Re: 30-30 Cam and the 409?

Duke,
those state bail-outs you are predicting happened this last year. Michigan would have had to make drastic cuts to stay solvent without the "stimulus money". They will need to make those cuts for next year.

At least you'll still have that great view to look at no matter how it turns out.

George

[Steven B.]

Re: 30-30 Cam and the 409?

It's an interesting design, but a big, heavy lump of cast iron. I don't think it could ever have been shoehorned into the Corvette without major surgery.

Duke

Correct you are Duke. Back in '63 knew a fellow who ordered a '63 Riverside Red/black coupe with 4 speed and 250 HP 327. Upon getting it he promptly painted it Mustang Poppy Red and installed a 2X4 409. The front end really sagged until he had some HD springs wound for it and the fender wells cut up. Hedders were a real problem. IIRC he had to alter the steering. It would have been alot easier (and cheaper) modifying a 327. Once saw a '61 with a 348. It was mutilated, also.