So now you tell me Drewfus. When it comes to computers I need good instructions. Bob, it looks even better running and driving. Where are you at on having it completed?
Finally got the dragster to idle. I again changed carb base gaskets and drilled some matching holes into the plenum cover. Also replaced one carb base with one with a tighter throttle shaft. I sealed the base gaskets to the plenum cover as it is a bit thin and maybe not perfectly flat. Result is it goes into gear without killing but it stumbles at initial takeoff. Then it clears and runs good. I have only been at part throttle as I run out of room pretty fast. The engine was not warmed up so that could contribute to the stumble. So could dozens of other things. Still don't know if I have more than one forward speed. On the Fiat, I have to get a little paint from Bearded Bob to touch up one door. Waiting for Crabby Dave to come over and install the windshield. The thing has about 700 lbs of spung weight over the rear wheels. The single adjustable shocks proved way too stiff. Just built a new mount and leaned them about 30 degrees to kill some of their effectiveness. Test drive in a few minutes.
What? Sir, that's far too straight forward, simple, and easy! Don't you know you're supposed to spend considerably more time & money chasing down shelf-available retail adjustable shocks to fit your odd design? Just what kind of rodder are you anyway, some sort of old style know-it-all?
Well Bob, I am glad to see that you have made some progress with you carb problems. Ya heat in the motor has tons to do with the first 60'. This little 194 is real bad on hitting the gas peddle and stumbling if it is not up to 180 deg. I am sure I will have to stage and race it with the water pump only and then turn the electric fan on after the stripe. I was having some problems with tuning the two Holley 94 carbs. I picked them up from a local guy (100 miles away) that does a lot for Ford Flatheads. They were real clean, new kits, over size throttle shafts, very nice carbs. The front carb always acted like it was flooding after it ran a while. I fired the motor on Wed and about a pint of raw fuel came out the header. I pulled the top off the lead unit and found that the "NEW" float had a pin hole leak in it and it was 3/4 full. I pulled a used one from a spare carb, installed it and it runs way more better. So new or rebuilt ain't always what you think it should be. 107 today and 104 yesterday at home, we went over to the coast for a few days to have a little R&R (60 night / 72 day ), ya I am a wimp.
The dragster is fully reassembled and ready to run. It leaks a little trans fluid and a little motor oil but not enough to drip on the track. I got more heat into the engine (not hard to do as it has been near 100 degrees lately) and made a couple more driveway passes. It still stutters briefly but then seems to take off quite spritely. Need to get it on the track to try different launch techniques and to fiddle with the Carter BBD carbs. Even with the stutter I am expecting it to run fairly good numbers. It sounds pretty healthy. For the next two weeks I'm stuck at home dogsitting as my wife, son and daughter in law took the two grand babies to Australia to meet their other grandmother. Too hot to put a fire suit on anyway. Yes Dick, the two top priorities for any modification, apart from it being effective, is; simple and economical.
From what I've been reading, the stutter you described is due to lack of heat in the intake manifold. I was going to verify this story, then splice my manifold into the heater hose loop.
My exhaust header pipes run very close to the bottom of the plenum. I was hoping this would provide the right amount of heat. A few years ago I built a similar intake/exhaust for a 250 Chevy 6 & I did heat the manifold with coolant.
have you checked to see what acutal temp of the manifold is . wehave amanifold on our slant 6 that is similer in design with 3 one barrel rochesters and throttle respo0nse is instanous hot or cold. keep up the good work like your build L Jones
Moolooaba. They landed in Brisbane. Looks like beautiful seashore around there. Mudflap, thanks for the kind remarks. No, I haven't checked the temp and was actually concerned it might get too hot too fast. Thing that bothers me is I had the same problem with a different engine, trans & carbs. The constant is the intake design. Sitting still, you can "wing" the throttle and there is no hesitation.
Hoffbug, hard for me to judge, too little or too much? The accelerator pumps are working very well. Nice steady stream. Much better than me. Mudflap, are you using all three accelerator pumps?
yes on full stroke . a way to check volume is take the cap off a small ball point pen place it catch discharge should be about 3/4 full on fullstroke hope this helps L J
I spent most of last Friday loading the dragster on the trailer and gathering all the gear necessary to go to Test and Tune. Getting the car on the trailer was a real pain. After I built the trailer I lowered the front of the dragster 3" so it high centered at the top of the ramps. Got that solved and was locked and loaded for Saturday. Then...a kernel of guilt began to grow. My son needed help with an important project this weekend and I was deserting him. So at the last minute, I covered the dragster up and did the right thing. I'll get there eventually.
Family first Bob, it pays off big in the end. Car looks great on the trailer. Is your pickup done and ready for a road trip to T & T?
Two weeks left to race up here. I went to Test and Tune today. First run was terrible. Worse than my stock '48 Chev in 1957. Pulled the scoop and found it was filled with a red squirrel nest. It sat on the trailer covered with a car cover for the last month. So the squirrel took over. Unfortunately, the second run was equally bad. So many problems I won't even get into it. I'm kinda at a crossroads. Can't maintain two drag cars. Don't know which one to dump. They each have their attraction and their drawbacks.
Nothing like a nice intake scoop to build a home for those cold/cold/cold Minnesota winter nights. And it was nice of you to cover their new home from any early snow's. Hope you keep the HAMBster, but I know two race cars is one to many.
I'm thinking that the squirrel should soon be deceased, or at least arrested for trying to mate with a HAMBster.
It's 6:30 in the morning. I'm getting ready for the Sunday Old Boy's breakfast. Flip on the computer (addicted?) and see 64 Dodge 440's quip. It is wonderful to have such a hearty laugh this early. Should be a good rest of the day. Hambster builders are funny people, in the best way. Thanks 64D440.
A couple posts ago I was questioning the wisdom of keeping two drag cars. Well, I can't abandon the dragster. That would be admitting failure. And that word is not in the HA/GR and SDRA lexicon. Been thinking about the intake setup. Remembering the $100 Craigslist engine ran pretty good with two Holley 1 barrels. Also recognized the BBD's should have been mounted sideways. So in true 1950's-style cussedness I've decided to go with three Holley 1 barrels. Should get good fuel distribution with my manifold design and jets are available. The healthier new engine should handle the extra carb. Was at the metal supply store today and spied an aluminum plate that will become the newtop of the manifold. I just hope I'm not increasing the headaches by a third.
Bob, I for one am glad to hear that you are going to keep making improvements on your dragster. Your builds are very informative and great inspiration. You keep making carb modifications and you will have a great stock of top plates for slant 6's. I scored a Clifford High Ram 3x2 intake from a guy on the HAMB that I am going to use on the "Big" 250+ build this winter. It is in the power manual page 143. I'll drop a picture on my build in the AM.
Spent the day working on a different hot rod project. Lots of heavy work. I needed a break from the bull work so pulled the induction system off the dragster. After supper I made this top plate which will hold 3 Holley 1 barrels. Even though the racing season is over around here and I put the car in the deepest darkest corner of the back garage the fiasco at the drag strip a couple weeks ago kept bugging me. If the weather can hold out another week I should be able to try the new carb setup around the neighborhood. (The county cops only drive through once a day). Really need to determine if the transmission is okay. It seemed funky at the strip but so many other things were going wrong, I can't be sure.
Looks nice Bob. At this rate maybe Fri/Sat for road test. Hope the trans is OK and the problems were from the carb setup. Is your truck done? I like how the Dragster looks on your trailer. I have decided to sell my Powerstroke dually crew cab and maybe my 24' enclosed trailer and build an open trailer that will hold my cart & the dragster. I am looking for a restored Chevy 49/50's 5 window to pull the new setup. I think it would be a lot of fun to be my daily driver & tow to the tracks.
Since all the West Coast boys are racin' the old HA/GR forum is pretty quiet this weekend. Thought I'd jump in with something just to give anyone stopping by the forum something (even though it's small stuff) to look at. Here's the almost completed carb setup. There's stands for three return springs and brackets to hold the fuel log. Still need to make the little hoses from the log to the carbs. Waiting for a kit to rebuild the third carb. Tom, I'll be following your 250 build with great interest. I think you will enjoy towing with a vintage truck. Get you in the mood on the way to the track. My Plymouth truck is essentially done. Probably needs valve guides. I haven't wanted to drape my body over the fenders to pull the heads. Also needs a stiffer sway bar in front, or a rear bar and it needs tail pipes. The fuel cell I put in it messes up installing a rear sway bar and also routing the tailpipes. I might have to change the fuel cell to a shallower tank.
Make your plenum 1/2 the cubic inches of the engine, the bottom of the carb butterflys should be 13 inches from the bottom of the intake valve. Use 2 inch runners and cut triangles in the runners and neck them down to port size. Small straight runners rend to slow down the incoming charge while narowing them at the port seems to speed them up, like a venturi in a carb. Are your one barrels 250 cfm? they are easy to tune because you are either at idle or wide open throttle.
Bob, your new intake is looking fine, when you going to have it on the car for a street test? This was one big learning weekend for me, full report in my build thread tomorrow. I will say that this is not like dropping a BBC in a tube chassis with these cars, I got spanked by the track and sent home to do my "home work". I will say that it did feel "real good" to be back in the seat again and to be around all the good people that we know at the track.
The Jalopy Journal
