Projects rebuilding after the crash

Man you are a font of knowledge on this nitro stuff. Keep posting little details like you have been doing I know myself and a bunch of other members are getting a course in Nitro you couldn't get outside at any price. GOOD JOB

 

Brian, great info. Does a person need the Z piece under the intake on all blown motors, or is that a nitro thing? Does it take a special gasket for that? Great tech and info thanks. Its getting close to getting the 38 in the garage and tearing it down for a hemi, so more questions are coming.
Tony

 

I would think it depends on the style of engine. The early hemis don't need them. I'm not really familiar on non mopar engines. I do know they seem to be a problem on my unblown sbc. They always come out.

 

I'll bet that saltflats is thinking the same thing I am, which is an A/C clutch doesn't have the holding power to drive a fuel pump and mag reliably. I've seen them slipjust because the A/C was a little overcharged. I would think it's doable though, just using something that engages a little more positively. Maybe a scaled down version of an ARB air locker system or a positive dog type system? Brian, does someone make those intake end seal retainers or did you fab them up?

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Brian, Is there another intake seal under the retainer also, not just on top of it?

 

No. The retainer is siliconed to the block.

Im in iowa today machining a five spoke wheel. It has Anglia bearings in it. We are modifying it for Ford's. This was the drivers front from the crash. It was already polished so it's going back on. We couldn't get it done last year. now every thing will match.

I also stopped at harris golf cars in Dubuque and bought a yamaha gas cart. Its painted the same color as the coupe. It needs some gold leaf.

I was greeted by this when I walked into Rogers shop. Its hemi heaven. In the pic is a brad Anderson billet engine. A brand new donovan 417 billet engine. A iron 392 blown gas block and Keith black late model. This is only one corner of the shop. If any one needs a hemi built Roger is your guy.

 

Blown fuel we are open to ideas. We are just starting to kick around ideas. That's were we started. We also talked about the clutch set up off a 24 hp lawn mower that engages the blades. I think i miss interpreted Tonys post.

 

I can't talk right now my tongue is hard.

 

You answered it perfect, its the answer I was looking for. Thanks

 

I bought a used Yamaha Drive golf cart on friday. No more pushing the car in the pits or disconnecting the truck from the trailer. When it's on nitro you don't put around the pits. It was a white two seater when i got it. I located a brand new body that's the color of the car. I put that on along with the black seats and roof. The rear seat flips down to haul just about anything I want. I buy and sell a lot of parts so it will be handy at the swap meets. To make it useful at night I put on headlights and taillights. I might letter it in gold leaf with the car number. I had to readjust the governor to my specs. I tried it in the trailer to see how it all fit. I had to modify the trap door that covers the winch. The door stuck up too high and hit the tire. Now I can close it and pull the car in.

 

PRO


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& it even comes w/a "cage"... .
Marcus...

 

It will be tough to find wheels to match the coupe!

 

Yah that will be a tough one. They do make craiger sst hub caps. I need to find a little moon tank and scoop at the swap meets.

 

I was at the US Nationals back in the late 80s or early 90s and watched The Ace drive his funny car from the first turnoff of the track all the way back to his pits.
There was some comment made about if anyone besides Goodyear man slicks he would be running them.

 

The push rods showed up so it's time to get the heads on. The angle of the valves on a hemi combined with bigger valves and a reduced bore can cause intake valve/ sleeve interference. I have a set of gaskets with a slightly smaller bore than what's required. I put them on and torqued the head. I turned the engine over and felt the valve hit the gasket. With the correct gasket there are no issues. Next I pulled one intake valve and changed the spring to a light checker spring. The head was set in place with no gasket this time. With finger pressure i could feel the valve hit the bore. So this tells me the clearance is too tight. To solve this the cylinder is packed with paper towel. A half round file is used to remove the sleeves edge at 12 o'clock. Not very much needs to be removed. The gasket moves the valve away from the bores edge increasing the clearance. After I'm done filing I vacuum the cylinder to be extra safe to get all the filings. Because I'm using water with a copper gasket a very light smearing of silicone is placed on both sides of the gasket. The new lifters were placed in oil for a few days to lube the axle. No secret info here just normal engine building procedures. Roo and I had a conversation about this topic recently.

 

Nice 66 Chevelle.

 

Thanks. The 66 was my high school car. 327 four speed 410 12 bolt bench seat

 

Recently blown fuel asked a question on the intake seals. I was going over past posts and realised I had not answered his question. There are a few places that offer the retainers. The problem I ran into none of them fit my engine. I took measurements off my block and made some on the sheet metal break. The foam end gaskets come in a few thicknesses. I use the thin ones.

 

I covered this subject in the past. I feel it's so important I will repeat the info. The intake gets torqued into place. It's then packed with towels. Good bath towels cover the rockers and injectors. The intake has lay out dye brushed onto it. It's then sanded until it's flat. I use a large plate with handles on one side and sand paper glued to the bottom. The third pic shows the low spots after just a few passes. I vacuum the intake before I remove the rags. Aluminum studs are then screwed in. I use anti seize on both ends of the stud. A o-ring is then placed in the groove. The blower is then torqued to 30lbs. Remember the clearances in a blower are only a few thousand any distortion on the intake deck is tranfered to the blower case. A crooked case is a great way to trash a blower. If paper gaskets are blowing out between the blower and manifold it's usually due to a uneven deck surface. Or if a clicking sound is heard coming from the blower when it's running.

 

Now that the top of the engine is on all 20 fuel lines for the nitro can be connected. When I was in Detroit for the autorama I stopped by kinsler fuel injection. I brought the manifold and blower with me. They can make custom length fuel lines while you wait. It was nice to have it sitting there all set to go on. The fuel tank and line was hooked up after some modificatios. The new 7 gallon tank needed new mounts. It sits just a little bit higher than the old one. The new position makes the feed lines angles much better from the tank to the pump. The line won't be able to restrict the flow due to small kinks. A lot of little things were connected regarding the efi setup.With any luck we should be making noise at bowling green. View attachment 3912351

 

That is gear head art right there......It's a shame you have to cover up all of that pretty machinery to run the engine.

 

Hey Brian,

Took a little while to find a good video showing how a ARB air locker works, but here it is. https://www.google.com/search?q=how...KHc82CzMQtI8BKAB6BAgBEC8#imgrc=EDi0WToJADCfWM:

And this one shows how they solve the problem of fitting a fixed air line to a rotating component (as the video shows, their method has removed for a little improvment).



Seems like something like this would be able to be scaled down to fit the blower snout.

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Thanks for the ideas. The clutch I need goes between the fuel pump extention and the dual drive. It needs to connect two hex shafts. I can get a good pic posted later today. My last post shows the dual drive.

 

Looks like it'll be maken noise very soon!

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That will be beautiful music, Hot Rod Hemi Rhapsody!

 

I love this thread!

 

After three non stop days of turning wrenches it's getting close to being fired up. A few loose ends need to be tied up first.

 

Tonight I will discuss the fuel system. Last year I ran a 12 nozzle system. It idled off four nozzles above the blower. As the rpm went up and fuel pressure exceeded 15 lbs a valve located at the rear of the blower opened sending fuel to the port nozzles. See pic one.
The valve has a spring and poppet inside. The spring can be shimmed to vary the opening rate. See pic two.
The barrel valve located at the front of the injector has a spool inside. The spool has a groove cut into it called a ramp. The ramps groove is machined based on engine size; fuel used; or blown. The idle is set using the throttle blades and barrel valve. The barrel valve is set by the leak down percentage using a leak down gauge. Pic 3 shows what the fuel sees at idle. The hole returns fuel to the tank. At 6 o'clock the beginning of the ramp can be seen. Pic 4 is full throttle. A big area is exposed at 6 o'clock. We set our leak around 80 percent on the gauge. When the car starts up fine adjustments can be made by turning the hex shaft. The pipes should look mostly dry with a little moisture on the ends. Too much fuel pollutes the oil and the engine does not build heat. There is also the chance of dropping a cylinder. Too little fuel causes a stumble on take off and the engine builds too much heat while staging. Getting the correct balance is key.

The new set up uses 20 nozzles. It will idle off the four above the blower. These four not only keep the blower cool they also help tighten it up as the fuel takes up some of the clearances. The other 16 nozzles perform two functions. The fisrt set of 8 are normal nozzles that are used for setting the idle. The second set of 8 have a spring and check ball in them. They are set at 15 lbs. See pic 5. The valve located behind the blower has the spring and poppet removed when using these. The advantages are it's easier to tune and the fuel is right at the nozzle with no delay in delivery. A larger volume can also be delivered. Running bigger nitro percentages takes a lot of fuel to go down the track under power. Burnouts and staging need less. To keep the plugs clean; build heat and save fuel a high/low valve can be plumbed in. See pic 6. The valve is controlled from inside the car with a cable. The valve is opened for the burn out. A pill inside the valve meters the amount of fuel returned either back to the tank or to the pumps inlet. When the car is staged the valve is closed giving the engine full fuel for the run. The engines rpm will drop and the pipes go from dry to slightly wet. The engines exhaust note be change. It's now go time.
The engine needs to be tuned with the nozzles. Spark plug readings become very important. We look to see how much cadmium has been removed. We also look at the ground strap to see if it got burned off do to a lean condition. Melted piston will also show up on plugs. Plug reading is a art all to itself. The idea is to get all the plugs looking the same and not too hot or cold. I prefer this method. Some teams juggle piston of different compressions or different thickness head gaskets to make a bank hotter or colder. There are many ways to achieve the same goal. Also seen in pic 6 is the shut off valve. These engines are shut off by running them out of fuel. Turning off the ignition can cause engine damage.
This is a quick intro to a nitro fuel system and is not intended to be a all encompassing read on the matter. It's more to point out some key parts and explain how some of them work. Now when you go to the track and see the nitro cars get worked on and run it gives you a better understanding of what's going on. Hopefully the trip to the track will be more enjoyable. It should also serve to give a better appreciation of what the teams tuner has to do. When the tune up call is wrong the nitro gods will cone down on you hard. Tough as it is there is nothing like nitro racing.

 

EXCELLENT SYNOPSIS as usual.