These are pictures of Mike Byrd's red '86 GT hatch (now deceased) and blue '86 GT convertible. The red hatch went 12.60 @ 108 but got totaled on its way home from the track 12/10/99. It's soul lived on in the blue conv. Alas, 10/31/00, the #5 exhaust valve commited suicide and caused catastrophic failure of the piston. Fortunately, the 85 1/2 SVO pictured was already bought a few days before the engine failure in the blue conv. The SVO is Mike's daily driver now. A new 306 went into the '86 'vert in Nov 2001 and ran for approximately 30 minutes or so before having the #5 exhaust valve seat come loose form the head. With the repaired heads, the 'vert went 12.57 @ 108.8 but still wasn't running right. Leakdown and compression check revealed several questionable cylinders so off came the heads again in April 2002. After re-installing the heads again, Mike decided to go with all new castings and get them ported. He also went with a new cam from Ed Curtis and a Holley SysteMax manifold to replace the TFS Track Heat. The car has now (5/03) gone 11.99 @ 114 on the motor.

byrdBurnout.jpeg Mike at the NMRA event in  Phoenix, Oct. 2000	Byrdsdash.jpeg Custom dash with Autometer gauges galore.	Byrdcragardrear.jpeg The red car with my brother's borrowed Cragars installed.	Byrdcragardrvside.jpeg
Byrdcragardrvrear.jpeg	Byrdweldsdrvfront.jpeg The red car with my Weld AlumaStars.	Byrdweldsdrvside.jpeg
byrdsvodrvfront.jpeg The 85 1/2 SVO.	byrdsvodrvside.jpeg Car has Eibachs, Konis, and  TSW wheels.	byrdsvopassrear.jpeg
damageblock2.jpeg Another view of the chunk taken out of the bottom of  the cylinder bore.	damagecylinder.jpeg This is what we found when  we got the driver side head off the engine. Ugly.	damagecylindercloseup.jpeg Piston debris. Note how rod is twisted. You can just make out the head of the sacrificial valve.	damageheaddamage.jpeg The valve head bounced in the chamber for a while before the piston finally shattered.
damagekibblesnbits.jpeg Some of the pieces we were able to retrieve from the top.	damageallcylinders.jpeg Piston bits were found in all other  cylinders upon removal of the  heads.	damageblock.jpeg Rod damaged bottom of cylinder bore.