Well, time for yearly freshen up for the race cars. Anyone else doing theirs? I found a few issues with mine...but I go through it with a fine tooth comb so to speak. First, I found a broken engine limiter. I made it out of cheap aluminum tubing so it was no surprise it broke. Engine looked great inside, even at 247 passes I found no problems whatsoever, other than one broken inner valve spring which I knew was broken for quite some time. New set is on the way. The powerglide was perfect. It had 361 passes on it, 359 were footbrake and 2 launching with the button & delay box. High clutch clearance was .085" and reverse was .100". I put it together initially with .080" and .085" respectively. I went ahead & put new frictions in just for peace of mind. Pump looked great as did the geartrain & valvebody. The rear end was broken and apparently had been for a while. The tail bearing and part of the case were laying in the bottom of the housing. I had a few extra chunks already so I swapped everything over and put new bearings in. Didn't hurt anything else. I did notice at about mid season that a weird noise has been coming from the rear end, but you could only hear it if you shut the motor off & coast. Didn't affect anything though. Gears & spool looked fine. I bought new CM rod ends for the 4 link back in Sept, so I changed those out. Nothing wrong with the old ones, I just like to change them every 2-3 years. Especially the lower ones. You ladder bar guys had better change yours a lot more often as it is the only thing between you & disaster, and there's only 2 of them on the front....and they take a helluva beating! I reset everything back to what I had it at last spring when it was working so well, or at least got it real close with a tape measure & some math. A couple runs at the track will get it fine tuned. The right rear spring adjuster nuts were backed off all the way, which explains why the car was launching right and why the left front was lifting more than normal. I should check those things more often. Other than that, so far so good. I even wired the headlights, brake lights, and tail lights in just in case I want to run a street class on sat. night. Take this as an example, if you're going to race, you'd better make a routine inspection of your equipment part of an outing. At the very minimum, a once-a-year freshen-up is in order. I generally will jack mine up before every week's race and have a looksee, though I missed the coil-over somehow...probably got distracted. Just putting it in the trailer, going home, and going back out next week isn't good enough, especially since our racers are getting faster & faster. If the car is acting weird, even if it is something simple like driving right or left after the launch...park the car and find the problem before it parks you. Especially you ladder bar guys. Those front rod ends are critical, and take both upward and forward loads at the same time....then when you let off the throttle, just the opposite directions. The loads are tremendous. When one of them breaks disaster usually follows...and hopefully they've got safety straps so the rear end won't move TOO much.
i went to the track in tucson last weekend. first run was a 12.31. i was pretty happy with that as i built the car to run 12.00 at firebird raceway in phoenix which is about .3 quicker than tucson. 2nd run was 13.37, then 13.39, and last was 13.59. put it on the trailer and headed home. felt like i was leaving in second gear. guess, i'll check the plugs and rocker arms, springs etc. and if nothing looks out of place, i'll replace the tranny and convertor. i've got a new spare and i'll send these out to be rebuilt for spares or if i get energetic i'll rebuild it myself. we don't get too much down time here. in fact the first summit series team race is january 14th.
If their is one good habit I've got out of all this it's puttin the car on jackstands every week and goin over the underside of the car, I figured if I look at enough when everything is right I'll know when something is wrong. I'm having to go into the engine to replace the rings on #2 piston so I figured if I'm gonna do that I might as well take the bore out to .125 increase the lift to 750 and put some pop tops in it. If not for that throttle plate screw I wouldn't be doing anything internally for another season, but as my mentor would say..."that's racing"..... uh huh, yeah, ok...grrrrrrrr
i am working on the rear end this christmas but i ran into a snag... so im not sure what i am going do now,...
Our off-season will be spent looking for ways to lighten the car a little more. I want to get it under my minimum(2530), so that I can put the ballast box back in the trunk. I put up with a cramped driving position this year so the plan is to relocate the roll bar and gain about 6" of legroom for my 6'-7" chassis. I weighed the Mustang buckets that came with the car and found a 10lb advantage in switching to a bench seat. The trans needs to be freshened and I'm going to set-up a carrier with a 5.43 gear set. Not sure what our final tire dia. will be, but we'll start with the 26" Hoosiers and see if its tongue hangs-out!! If Santa comes through with a playback tach, it will be added as well. All in time for Rockingham in April Happy Holidays!! Dave Turner
I did the following: -Adjusted my valves hot-they were about 2-3 thousanths loose from a cold adjust -bumped the timing from 30 to 34 degrees -added a engine torque bar and polyurethane tranny mount -new fuel pressure gauge -re-wired my fan, fuel pump and water pump with better relays and fuses and added a switch panel -put on a Grabber hood with holes in the scoops -added safety items I'll be putting in some Cal Tracs and split mono leaf springs this weekend-T&T is Jan 6. I'm working on ordering a 9" rear and slicks...hope the 8" doesn't break and cause me to crash before then.
I have so far gotten to NONE of my plans for over the winter except I ended up with a new carburetor. I have an overheating problem to overcome that I'm pretty sure is a combination of too large a diameter water pump pulley and a crappy inadequate stock radiator.
Replacing my 1 1/2 primary x 2 1/2 collector shorty headers with 1 5/8 x 3" full length headers. Hope to make the Sacramento New Years race, I'll report an improvement I hope! Got to try to improve my timeslip to stay ahead of ya Erick ______________________________Rocky
Ibr, tell me more about the Sacramento race. Is it the start to the Summit series (points race) or what? I think my car might be ready by then for the first run down the 1320' in 22 years!
Scott, Yes, according to my flier it is an ET series race. Last year I understand Sacramento didn't participate in the Summit Series so you'll want to check. Thier web site is www.sacramentoraceway.com . __________________________Rocky
Doing a little more than a freshen-up this year, new motor and cage so I will probably be sitting on the bleachers this coming race season. Unless I win the lottery!!!
Brutal. The .060 over might make it a little cranky heat wise as well. Yeah, it's kinda neat to have a broken down rig. Now I can kick back, dink on the computer, and live vicariously through other folks.
The only real draw back is the physical side. As one becomes more and more sedentary,...the love handles and pot belly continue to get worse. The lean tissue disappears and the lipid deposits increase. In effect, you become a "fat skeleton". Sheeesh!
Ok, well the slop went down a little bit because of the OT I've been pulling. But with fuel hitting unobtanium status again and the tranny trouble....what better excuse for not driving it anymore?
I'm getting geared up for my maiden voyage down the track this year in mine (finally!). Things on the To-Do List: 1) Fix starter to flexplate misalignment issue 2) Re-fab the roll-bar "foot-pads" (they are currently not up to spec - too small). 3) Fab a Shock-Tower Brace 4) Dzus fasten the hood(s). 5) Attach Nitrous solenoids. 6) Take to Dyno - burn A/B chip (motor/N2O) 7) Wire the Transbrake 8) Install 5-Point Harness (last on the list because of re-certification duration) 9) "Nut and Bolt" (make sure every nut and bolt is tight) Whew! I'd better get busy!
