Projects K-88 Dragster / 6 Cylinder

Absolutely, know the family. Good people!!

 

Get er done and come on out to Eagle Field for the V8-6Cyl clash........

 

I definitely need to get this out to Eagle Field Carl - that would be a blast!! I was talking to Rocky last summer a bit about it and it solidified our need to take this thing west. Also - been following your Flathead dragster (Forever 43) build and what a great car you built!!
Good luck running it this weekend at Eagle Field and I'll be looking for updates!!

 

There is an Inliner in Utah with quite a few GMC 12 ports. It's not a joke as I have seen them all. He started collecting/using them in the mid 70's. Some are "as cast" and not even machined; he even has cast iron GMC 12 ports. Sometimes a little hard to deal with but really an OK guy at heart. I've purchased an Arias from him with injectors and all. They are out there but not ez to find or buy for the most part. Enclosed are photos of my Skinner I have the rockers, cover, and injectors also.

 

Very Cool @jimmy six and Thank You for sharing those shots of your Skinner head! Such a piece of art in my opinion. And the fact that you have the other items including injectors is way cool!!
Neat story you shared about the gentleman in Utah and wow...some of them being "as cast" and well as a few cast iron ones...man talk about some rare items. I read where Bill Fisher cast a couple of his head first heads in iron and then went to aluminum - mine is one of his aluminum. I'm haven't been lucky enough to find a gennie injection for it though -maybe someday. I know of an Inliner that has 2 of them but not for sale and I get it....I probably wouldn't sell them either.

 

I mentioned earlier that 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 (especially with a homemade shield) and strongly suggested a Powerglide.
So with that I was on the hunt to try and see what I could come up with. An SFI case was not in the budget so figured we'd go the shorty glide with shields (tranny & flexplate) route.
One day while cruising our Hamb Classifieds I stumbled upon a shorty glide and the deal was done.
Turns out the tranny has a "Rossi" end plate on it and here in-lies a question. Didn't Vince Rossi (Pomona, CA based shop) do this when he built shorty transmissions?? I'm not 100% sure on that but either way I think it's kinda cool and it's going in the car.

 

nice

 

Who's your helpers in the background?

 

Security Staff...

 

Time to start figuring out a brake setup. The car will run the stock '59 Olds drum brakes with a hand brake. It's a 50 Chevy Master Cylinder and if my bore calculations are correct should work pretty good. The black bracket bolts to the lower which will be welded in the car.

 

Eyeballed a hand brake handle length and we'll start with this - hope you can see it in the picture. I might have to lower it (not sure I'll be able to reach it with arm-restraints on) but I like the look of it so we'll leave it for now.

 

Not a lot of long runs for brake tubing, haha. I didn't think about arm restraints, but I guess they'd be as valuable in there as in the sprint car I used to run. Although you're much less likely to get upside down.

 

arm restraints or not , you will still get hurt if this car goes over without more protection

 

This is an incredible build already! I must say I'm liking the constant rotation of Chevy's in your garage as well!

 

I was wondering if some one was going to bring that up.
I thought it odd that the tech guy was concerned with the trans but did not mention the roll cage.

 

To be able to run the car at NHRA strips there will have to be many more changes to the cage structure. I used the SFI book to build my fed, and the requirements for the r/e were a bit different. I wanted to build a k88 type but I also wanted to run faster than 10 sec.
Keep up the good work.

jim

 

I have been looking for a gennie Chassis Research steering box for way too long and came to the conclusion I'd have better luck finding Bigfoot. So with that I was able to find an early Ross box and that's what we'll go with.
Dragster Steering Starter Kit:


The input shaft had been lopped off but I sent the whole thing down to Don Ross Fabrication in Texas for an overhaul and to replace the input shaft as well as extend the pitman arm shaft. Don does great work and I highly recommend him.
With the box back it was time to figure out how to mount it in the car. I opted to do a mount at the box, gauge panel and then on the pitman arm shaft. I took a Chassis Research reproduction gauge panel from Dennis at O'Briens (great piece by the way) and went for it.

Fitted it to the top cross rail and mocked up box for where it needs to come through at. Had to stick a gauge in it to get the full effect!!

Now I can make a template for the box mount.


And on the box...

 

With the mount in the car I could move forward with the other mounts.


The Pitman arm shaft mount needs to move out more. With this setup the shaft has a bit of play in it that I don't like...more on that to come.

 

Here's a shot of one of the intakes that came with the engine... Kay Sissell made this and it's pretty dang cool imo. Looks like he had the "1 carb per cylinder" approach in mind....wonder how it worked??? Guess we could find out.

 

Hey Dave I just saw this today. Its so cool. Will it be ready for Julesburg? Either way I'll see you there.. PS. I'm the guy that sent you the video last week Johnny.

 

Thank you again Johnny for not only taking that video Johnny but then tracking us down to share it with us - that was very cool of you!
The dragster won't be done in time for Julesburg this year but we do plan on running the roadster out there again and looking forward to seeing you there!!

 

Nothing like having a part or two with history adding "soul" and "history" to the car .

 

Now yer talking!!! Thanks for sharing that Carl!! Was that at Eagle Field?

 

Great build thread...You gonna bring it to Mo-Kan for the HAMB Drags when finished? Like the el camino and wagon are those yours?

 

Oh yeah papa.....The Hamb Drags are a must when this thing gets done!! To me K-88's and Mo-Kan go together like peanut butter and jelly!! Can't wait for that!!

 

Started to put a seat in this thing and had several iterations before I ended up with a couple of 2" x 1/4" thick straps that I heated and bent around an old harmonic balancer. This way I was able to get down in the car a bit and get more comfortable.

Took a sheet of 18 gauge to make a seat but wanted the edges hemmed. Since I don't own a sheet metal brake I just went for it - bench style.


Kind of got into it and forgot to take pictures as I went but here it is in the car. It's actually pretty comfortable if I don't say so myself. I still have to do the back which will just be a flat piece.


Also fabbed up a Anti-Rotation device for the rearend which you can just barely see in front of the seat. Also figured out where seat belt mouts need to land.

 

Many guys just left the main chassis tubes open on Chassis Research cars and after way over thinking it...I decided to cap them.

 

yep he runs at Eagle

 

nice so far......