Projects K-88 Dragster / 6 Cylinder

I was visiting with some Hambers the other night and they convinced me to start a build thread on this little fed dragster I'm building. I always enjoy seeing what others have going so with their push I thought I would share in hopes others might want to follow along.
We are planning on running this car and I'll start by saying that the lead Tech Inspector at our main track is very much involved with this and is providing guidance along the way. I'll leave it at that as I don't want this to turn into a Tech Rules debate.
I've had this build in my head for a number of years I decided awhile back to get busy and start making this dream a reality. I'll start at the beginning (a few years back) and will bring you up to the current status as we go.
A huge inspiration for this build was a man by the name of Joe Umphenour and his partner Mike Franckey. Joe and Mike teamed up in the late 50's here in Colorado and ran 6 cylinder dragsters in the late 50's through the 60's. Joe also founded the Chevruns of Denver Car Club in 1961 which is a whole other cool story in itself. Mike passed at a very early age and Joe passed in 2010 but many of us remember him and admire what he accomplished including being inducted into the Colorado Motorsports Hall of Fame in 2008.
Although Joe's first dragster was a TE-448 Chassis Research car my build is based on K-88 Chassis Research reproduction Chassis by Mike Wagner at Cornfield Customs in Loveland, Ohio. It will run a 302 GMC 6 cylinder, '59 Olds rearend with more details to follow.
Here's Joe's first dragster running a Wayne Equipped Jimmy that started this whole thing.



Here is the chassis at Cornfield Customs getting ready to be loaded on a truck.


Here's a shot of the frame the day I brought it home. Rolled the Jimmy out next to it and all we lack at this point is just finishing up.


More to come...

 

Kool stuff! Keep us posted.

 

Good luck with the project, looks like a good start.

 

Are you going to be able to get a Wayne head for your Jimmy? Those were the hot setup back in the day.

 

This is popcorn time.

 

Thanks Marty and I gotta say your build thread with Pat's car is one of the reasons I opted to share this. You mentioned we needed more build threads on here and I couldn't agree more. Now if I can only pull off a small portion of your talent...that's yet to be seen.

 

Stay tuned....

 

First order of business was trying to figure out what tranny to run and how to adapt it. Joe's car used a LaSalle 3 speed with a homemade bell housing/shield and after talking this through with the tech inspector he made it very clear it's going to be hard to tech it as a stick car and strongly suggested a p-glide. Plus the fact that we plan to run this thing at our local Vintage Drag Racing Association races I decided a p-glide would be best.
The next question was then how to adapt a 302 GMC to a powerglide - enter Colorado Legend, Inliner Record Holder, Inliner Hall of Famer (I could go on) Bob Corbett.
I had met Bob when I was a teenager - tracked him down and explained what I was up to. Bob and Joe were best of friends and Bob immediately got on board and continues to be a huge help in this thing.
The first thing he did was offer up to let me copy his design for making an adaptor to adapt a 302 to a powerglide. I had a local machine shop do their thing and here it is being trial fit on a mock-up block.

 

Once we got the adaptor nailed down we were able to move forward with a standard mid-plate. From there we were able to transfer the needed holes to the mid-plate so the whole assembly could then be bolted to the block.
The mid-plate will also be the firewall located at the front hoop.

 

I want to pause a bit here about Bob. This guy has forgotten more about inline engines than most of us will ever know. When he talks I definitely listen. Here's a shot of Bob running his roadster at CDR (Continental Divide Raceway) -12 port Jimmy Powered. He ended up wrecking this car at Bandimere - luckily he wasn't hurt and him and this engine went on to bigger things.

 

Now this looks like fun.I`ll saddle up and go along for the ride.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

 

So glad you started a thread Dave!

 

very kool! I have my own project to finish, but I will be watching! pass that popcorn!

 

Bob has built and raced several GMC Powered dragsters...here's his famed Yellow Car that still holds the Inliner International in both stock head as well as any head on nitro - 7.70 @ 174mph (and that was at a mile up!!)
Here he is with 12 Port Charlie Baker

And here is the same engine with a stock head...in this configuration Bob put Jerry Hall in the car and together they hold that record as well.

 

Here is (LtoR) Bob Corbett, California Bill Fisher and Joe Umphenour....priceless picture imo. The head on this car is a one off 12 Port designed by Bob Corbett that set and still holds the record. We'll have more on Bob as we go.

 

Hey thanks Mike!! Your Bachelor Button thread is a prime example of what I mean about enjoying other peoples threads and hoping I can maybe give something back.

 

My brother ended up finding me a gennie CAE axle that turned out to be perfect!! No idea what this came out of but turns out the batwing perches are at the perfect width for the K-88 Chassis. We'll get this re-chromed before final assembly.

 

Next up was I lucked out on finding an Olds rearend housing. I was after a third member and turns out the guy also had "some sort of short rearend housing" and I couldn't pass that up. I got it home and it was the perfect width!!
As you can see, the housing still had some mounts on it and pretty sure this rearend was at some point in time in a Chassis Research car. Not only was the width perfect but even the old mounts lined up - too bad to pass tech I need a different reearend mounting configuration but kind of neat I thought.

Luckily Mark Williams Enterprises isn't too far down the road so I lopped off the old brackets and took the housing down to them to be fitted with some new axles.

 

While we were waiting for axles it was time to start figuring out a front engine mount and then work up a template for the mid-plate.
For the front mount I just took some 1 3/4" pipe (same dia as the top rails) and notched in a flat spot for the front engine mount to sit. Once the final engine location is determined, I'll drill and tap that front mount for 2 bolts to come up from the bottom. With this design I'll also be able to shim the front of the engine if needed.

Got it in the chassis and then went to work on the mid-plate template - I used 1/4" hard plastic.

 

Very cool project. Looking forward to more updates.
The Rock

 

Dave, great post, looking froward to the nest post

 

Ordered up some rearend mounting hardware from Don Ross Fabricating down in Texas. Don has great products and has been a huge help. The upright straps are then welded to upright bars once installed.

 

With the rearend back from Mark Williams it was time to start figuring out the rearend mounting. One of my goals in this was to have the mid-plate of the car also act as the firewall at the front hoop. In order to do this the rearend needed to come back in the car a bit and mocking it up here with a pinion angle at zero degrees. The strap obviously needs to come back and then there will be a vertical bar in the frame for the strap to be welded to.
Car will have a wheelbase of 107"

Getting the straps set before bar placement..

 

Upright chassis bars are in. The straps will need to be fully welded to the upright bars on one side and then stitch welded on the other. (1" every 1"). At final assembly the bolts holes will get reamed out to 7/16 and need to be 7/16 x 20 Grade 8.

 

Driveshaft....

 

Who Wants Pie?? Couple of 15x8's from Towel City Tire outta do the trick.

With these and some borrowed wheels from my brother, we were able to get the back on the ground...starting to get a feel for it.

 

Cool little fun fact about that Eelco Fuel Tank....it ran on an Anglia in the mid-late 60's and ironically enough...supplied fuel for a little 6 cylinder Anglia. Here is the car and you can barely see the tank inside the grille.
It'll now go onto feed another 6 cylinder.

 

An area that needs concern/looking at is after you weld the rear end brackets to the housing as the housing will shrink in those spots and the housing will have sever toe-in. Sometimes you can heat the back of the housing and it will shrink/pull back straight, or you might have to remove the bearing ends and re-weld them straight on the housing with a line-up fixture/bar

 

Thanks dreracecar - great tip and Thank You!! When I picked up the axles at Mark Williams the counter guy made a comment that when the time comes to weld brackets they could "put it in a fixture" so I'll probably take them up on that - thanks again.

 

So even though Joe's car was a 12 Port, the plan for my car was to run a stock headed GMC - I didn't think I'd ever be able to find or let alone own a 12 Port. Then one day I was notified of a Fisher equipped Jimmy for sale out in California (I'm in Colorado) and out of curiosity I inquired about it.
The gentleman only had one picture of it and wasn't willing to crate or ship it but the price was right.
So...I called my brother and asked him if he wanted to go to CA to pick up a 12 Port GMC and with that we booked a couple of 1-way tickets, rented a SUV, loaded it up and drove it 1100 miles back to Colorado.
Here's the only picture the gentleman had of the engine and with that we were on our way!!