Nick Dailianis’s blown 360-cube VC Valiant

It’s fat, loud, blown and built with a licence to thrill …meet Nick Dailianis’s Valiant

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Photographers: Mark Bean

First published in the September 2004 issue of Street Machine

If there were ever a car that captured the heart and soul of street machining it would have to be Nick Dailianis’s blown Valiant. This VC looks as tough as guts with a polished pump hanging out the hood, bullet-straight tinwork, crystal chrome and attitude written all over it as it pounds the highways of Australia.

Street machining is a broad church but Nick has a narrow faith — his love is only for the mighty Mopars. “When I was growing up the idea of owning a VC Valiant was one of my dreams — I really liked their style,” says Nick.

“It was probably because the family car of many years was a VC. That old girl ended up being mine and though I loved it, I trashed that one fairly quickly.

“I started driving a Celica, though that only lasted as long as it took me to find this V8-powered VC. I bought the car from an 82-year-old man at Turramurra (in Sydney’s north) who’d owned it for 32 years. It was a steal at $1150!

“Being a typical rev-head motor mechanic I was always messing with it and trying to improve on my personal best times at Eastern Creek drags. With the old 360 engine in it ran a cool 12.7 over the quarter mile.”

Like most of us, the urge to transform the grocery-getter into a hod rod of the gods snowballed quick-smart.

“I started looking around for a new engine about 16 months ago and it had to be a blown 360. I wanted to build the engine and the whole car myself — I know it’s easier to get other people to do stuff for you and to pay them but I like the sense of satisfaction you get from doing it all yourself.”

Nick started scanning the Trading Post and found a reconditioned supercharger. He went and bought a metal polishing kit then sanded the blower, pulleys and all the bits with 800 grit sandpaper, then 1000, 1200 … and kept going until it was perfect.

“It took me weeks to get it all polished but it came up great,” says Nick.

Bit by bit it all came together, with Nick buying books and researching how to build blown engines. In the end he built the engine from carbies to sump and even did his own tuning work on it.

“I stripped the car and blocked it back, high-filled it and prepared the whole thing myself, got my cousin to paint it for me at Sands Auto Repair.

“I couldn’t wait to get it together with as much as possible of the original Mopar stuff. I shortened the snout on the supercharger so I could retain the original radiator with the Chrysler Pentastar stamped on the top tank — it looks mad!”

The driveline was freshened with a 3200 stall converter, while a Ford nine-inch found its way into the rear with a set of 3.0:1 gears. The early Mopar stud pattern was changed to late-model Chrysler with the addition of a set of CL Chrysler front disc brakes and Ford drum rears. A VE Valiant twin-piston master cylinder was thrown in to firm-up the pedal.

The standard interior provides something of a contrast to the external Pro Street blown look and seeing that 60s interior in all its gleaming splendour is nothing short of super-cool.

“I even fitted a radio from the era to make the interior look genuine,” recalls Nick. “The CD-player is in the glove box.

“It’s all about cruising and having fun at the moment. I drive it everywhere and am enjoying it more and more every day. Because it’s a street car it does have its limitations with the supercharger,” says Nick.
“It doesn’t run hot and cruises great but I haven’t been able to really crank it up yet and am running the blower at about eight per cent under the crank speed. That kind of equates to around 10 pound of boost, which gets it going pretty good on pump gas.

“I had a run with a mate’s XA coupe — it’s got a 450HP Cleveland — and I drove away from him on acceleration. I’m not pushing the engine real hard. The problem I have at the moment is that under full power the 110gph mechanical fuel pump is struggling to feed the 360-cube engine over 4000rpm. For now it will do. Once I get the bug to race it I will address the fuel system more seriously.”

All day sucker

Nick says: “Because the car is a cruiser and runs on pump gas I didn’t have to go too radical with the engine. Besides, Mopar stuff is super-strong.”

The combination is simple, reliable and quite economical according to Nick, who treated the engine to a basic blueprinting process. The crank and rods are standard and to drop the compression Nick fitted a set of 8:1 TRW blower slugs. The heads are factory J-castings with a set of Manley stainless valves to cope with the blower combination.

The cast factory balancer was upgraded to a steel Romac item to allow the blower to swing off it without fear of repercussion, while the standard fuel pump was replaced with a 110gallon per hour mechanical Holley.

A stainless engine fan pulls the temperature down through a five-core factory radiator and spent gasses tumble through a custom set of four-into-one headers.

“For the street it’s perfect,” says Nick of the small-block combination that happily slurps 98-octane gas, available at any bowser.

Nick Dailianis
Chrysler VC Valiant

Colour:Stark white
MILL
Capacity:360ci
Carb:Dual boost-reference Holleys
Manifold:Newby
Induction:GM 6/71 supercharger
Cooling:Five-core Mopar
Exhaust:Custom headers with dual 2½-inch system
TRANSMISSION
Type:727 Torqueflite with shift
Converter:3200 Dominator
Diff:Ford 9-inch with 3:1 gears
COCKPIT
Seats:New old stock
Trim:New old stock
Radio:Standard
CD:In the glovebox
BUILD PROBLEMS“Heaps! Nothing was straight-forward and every part of the build seemed to slow me up but I persevered. The other part of the problem was juggling my boss, the car (which took up all of my spare time) and trying not to upset my wife who was supportive, understanding and helpful throughout the project!”

Thanks
All my friends who helped and my wife, Angela.

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