Projects rebuilding after the crash

I havent posted much in a while but that doesnt mean we are not busy working on the car. After the pri show work began taking advantage of all the good deals there. Rods; pistons; cam; tools; sleeves and safety equipment were ordered. Anticipating faster speeds and lower ets i ordered several things from dj safety. Two 12 foot parachutes will replace my single 10 footer. Two chutes are required over 200mph. Burn down tubes by sae will go on the valve covers to prevent a fire if a piston is burned. If a piston gets a hole in it the crank case pressure will push out gaskets. The resulting loss of oil can hit the headers starting a fire. The tubes allow the pressure to vent into what is called a puke tank. I got the fire bottles recertified. I also picked up some dj safety driving shoes; head sock and under wear. This will up my protection to 40-50 seconds before burns. Fires are a real threat to nitro drivers. A big pile of parts was ordered from john dunn racing. Bearings; rings; spark plugs; ignition wires etc were bought in large quantities. Its a million details that make this all work.

 

Have said this before, admire your dedication/obsession, love of the sport/hobby. Have at it !

 

Thanks for following along. I think its just the normal progression for the car. We can now fight it out at drag week without one arm tied behind our back. The iron block had become the limiting factor in all of this. It would be fun to beat up on the turbo guys with some old school nitro.

 

You going to go with double wall headers now that you are steppin up?

 

For sure. I talked to chris from hedman during pri about them. They are in the mail. Not only do they offer some fire protection they also provide additional safety if a weld should break. The chance of running over a pipe is greatly reduced. While they are not vissually correct for a sixties car i feel the safety concerns dictate they be on the car.

 

I got the crank out and this is what i found. Three of the main caps webbing were completely broken. This is on top of all the other cracks posted previously. I was only a hit of the throttle away from re enacting the magic muffler car. This is why the kb block is a safer way to go for me.

 

That block died with it's boots on!

 

Good gawd Brian, I think you won the lottery, really dodged the bullet on that one.
You must be living right!

 

I got lucky. Ussually this kind of damage is found after a on track incident. It gives me the chills to think about what could have happened.

 

Damn. Surprised that it was still running with all that disconnected metal. Lucky indeed that you didn’t try to make one more pass.


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Got your money worth out of that one.

 

The pieces were all in place when the crank was in the block. When i removed the crank i pulled them out with my hand. Im surprised at how thin the casting is. I will save the block for a conversation piece.

 

Danuuuuuuuummmmmmm!!!!


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I got the new chutes mounted today. I still need to add a second handle and cable. So do two chutes make my cars ass look big?

 

Yes it does.....butt that's OK.

 

Haha, baby got back!

 

Yeowwww!

 

after seein' the pics of your broken block reminded me of a fuel racer here in Australia , West Australia in fact , that built his own Hemi blocks outta 3/4" and 1" plate , all hand fabricated and welded , I'm talkin' more than 40 years ago , they stayed together too .

your doin' good ............cheers

 

The gear drive i got with the engine had a flat cover over the cam. I run the dual drive off the cam so a different cover is needed. John dunn came through with the correct part. Some details to notice are the large radiused relief in the casting. This is for clearence when a large lower pulley is used and i will be using a big one to generate 25lbs of boost. The other thing is the support bearing in the cover for the drive spud that runs the dual drive. I received it already polished so it will match the block.

 

Looks nice.
The machine lines under the cam gear look sharp could be a stress riser.
Maybe a ball mill tracing the line.

 

Junk n the trunk


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I never had a problem with them in the past. Its a very heavy duty thick part.

 

Just me lookin from the outside in.

 

Its not a good pic to see the detail.

 

I didn't go back in the pics but did that block have all 5 steel main caps? Or just the center 3 ? I bought another 392 block from a guy that used to live in Wisconsin and he said he built your radiator - AutoRad - nice guy. He had a bunch of 392 stuff and didn't really want to part with it but he's 30 minutes away and I talked him out of a block

I'm just wondering if 3 billet center mains and a TR Waters girdle is enough for what I'm doing. You really popped your block. Worries me.

 

Look closer--the relief is radiused where it counts--there is no stress where it transitions back to the outer surface.

Roo

 

I was looking at this part but as I said just me looking from outside or should say from the key board.

 

Jimmy walker is from my home town racine wi. I have known jim for 30 years or more. He is a great guy with a 64 dodge altered wheel base car he drives on the street. It been powered by a 392 for as long as i can remember. He builds custom radiators. They are the best.
The center three caps were hot heads. The front was a steel cap that im not sure of its origin. The rear was stock.
The problem with mopars blocks and this includes b; rb and hemi 1st and 2nd gen is the area between the cam and mains. This has always been the weak point. There have been several ways to help support this area. Some work better than others. Steel caps; cross bolts; girdles and the like are all band-aids that dont address the real problem. Dont get me wrong these things do work to a point and are neccesary to making the block live. We just exceeded the limits of what they can do. Detonation; high boost levels and high compression are hard on the bottom end. I would think in your case being injected gas the block should live forever. For a stock block they are tough.

 

The rods showed up today. They are grp. The length is stock hemi and so is the big end. The small end has been increased to 1.300 for durability. The nitro can pound out the smaller stock size and the larger diameter pin can take more abuse before it bends. The rods are made with a sculpted big end. This is due to the stock cam location and stroker crank.. The big end can hit the lobes of the cam due to their size and angle. Thats why they came out with raised cam blocks. Any time the lift goes over .700 the fit should be checked. Look at the specs closely. They are nothing like specs for steel rods. The bolt stretch is higher than the old rods due to higher quality bolts being used. A torque wrench is a innaccurate way to tighten these bolts. its used only for reference. a stretch gauge is the way to go. Grp will service their rods for free any time i want to send them in. Each rod has the job number engraved on the cap. If i need more all i have to do is give them this number to get exact replacements. These are premium rods machined from plate aluminum. View attachment 3757425

 

They look like jewelry!