Projects Chassis Research style dragster/Comp Coupe build flathead powered

Wrongway - would love to see pictures of your TE440.

 

thanks for the info Wrongway1320 i know what you mean about the leg clearance it's a little tight. but it's what I have for now , A tight fit in a race car ain't always a bad thing, post some pics of your car sometime we would all like to see it, feel free to post them on here if you want ,
Carl I would like to pretty much do the same as you are doing on your motor ,started takeing the other motor apart to get it to the machine shop to clean it and see how good it is ,didn't spot any cracks so far ,hopefully the machine shop doesn't find any thing to bad, the motor in the car now will have two strombergs and a set of eldebrock heads I got out of texas, and somewhat mild isky cam, ,and because its winter time out here, not much to do at nite, i started to build a blower manifold for the other motor,not sure how good it will work but at least i can say I built it, ,i was thinking 4.11 or 4.56 gears in the rear any thoughts? like I've said this flathead stuff is all new to me ,other than that I'll proablly get going on the body panels for the car, By the way whats your thoughts on brakes I had a set of drum brakes glaze up on me years ago in one of my other dragsters, didn't turn out so good , but I would like to do this as close to the old ways as possible Thanks Tim

 

Tim I have 4.11's in mine and I run out of engine before I run out of track way too tall , am thinking of 3.60's or 3.42's do some calcs on your tire and rpms to get what you are looking for see:
http://www.americantorque.com/graph-rpm-vs-speed/

http://www.csgnetwork.com/rearendgearcalc.html

I use drum brakes on mine because thats whats on the Olds rear I am running but I want to change to disc's as soon as I can its nice to go but its even better to wohhhh...............so far I have had no trouble stopping but I haven't got the race engine in yet or the gear change that will make a big difference in my stopping decisions......

 

Well,, Iowa winter boredom set in ,decided to start building a blower manifold for the flathead, Yeah I know I can go buy one ,But with limited funds and the mindset of, If I think I can build it, I'll at least try,Plus with the money I save doing it myself I can pick up a 3 71 or a 4 71 blower, So I started with a 1/2 inch thick Alum plate for the base, marked out a pattern with a intake gasket and started drilling and grinding the port holes , and grinding and grinding and still more grinding

 

Great work Tim
Your dragster is coming along nicely
As for the intake, that's what we are going to do for the next step, mayby next boring winter!

You might consider not to grind so much material off on the outside towards the heads, as
you might end up enlargeing the ports, maby "D" ports?
We ended up welding on material to be able to move the ports outward.

Br
Kjell

..............................
Taildragger&fenderless

 

Thanks for the heads up Kjell ,I haven't cut the corners or the sides down yet, welded the runners last week, but haven't loaded new pics yet, tried different angles before finding ones that didn't overlap eachother , working on tubes for the bolt holes that run next to the intake runners yesterday and today Thanks Tim Jones

 

coincidence or what!?
Yesterday, me and Roger was talking about making a new intake, he suggested to use long intake bolts in tubes ending on top of intake.
Then use hex bolts to mount flush.
I uderstand that what you have planed too!?

Br
Kjell

.............................
Taildragger&fenderless

 

Uh pics Tim.......

 

Sorry for the lack of pics Carl had to get to work this AM, Here's pics of cutting the runners, 25 degrees seemed to work best ,Welded the runners on , Our welders at work are trying to teach me how to Tig alum, so you'll have to over look my welds,Man they got their work cutout for them, after welding the runners I drilled 3/4 inch holes from the bottom of the manifold, so i could install tubes for the manifold bolts that the port runners overlaped ,I'm inventing as i go on this deal, layed the heads on the motor to see what I had for clearance Fenderless My intake bolts will be under the Plenum instead of through the Plenum under the blower, atleast that my plan right now , Could change though ,My design has changed a few times just getting to this point Thanks Tim Jones

 

You gonna make a plenum for this, and a burst plate or some type of relief? Your welds look fine to me Tim, we ain't makin an art piece here just an ol flathead manifold......

 

Hi Carl thanks for the coment on the welds , I'll get better with practice The Plenum is my next step ,I figured I better have a burst panel if i'm gonna race it ,got one on the way from Good Vibrations they sell one you can weld on to what you have

 

I dig it Tim! Great job so far!!!

 

Thanks Justin, you'll have to wander over here sometime

 

I plan to!! I think I started a deal with a cat in Blairstown to drive his Super Comp RED. So, I'm starting to fill in my free days now!!!

 

Welded up the plenum for the manifold, nothing real fancy, although my welds are getting alittle better, The burst panel i ordered had too large of an opening , so had to get one with a smaller opening, one for an early hemi manifold had the right size , so I'm waiting for that one to come before I can make the blower mounting plate ,Haveing trouble loading pics tonight I'll try more in alittle while

 

Wow that looks stout Tim Good job, you gonna use studs for the mounting of the manifold?

 

Thats makes perfect sense Carl, Coments like that is the main reason I started my build thread on here, Sometimes you look at something so long and can't see a better idea when it's right in front of you, one of my worries was haveing enough room between the plenum and the bolt tubes for a bolt to drop in and still grab enough threads in the block, Then one quick coment from Carl , Problem solved Thanks Carl

 

While I'm waiting for the other burst panel to show up,I figured I'd hijack my own thread, I'm restoring the fighting Irish funny car, the other day a buddy came up with a Windowed KB block for it, I asked one of our welders at work if he thought he could weld it up for me , This is the same guy who welded the chassis for the dragster, Garrett is one hell of a Tig welder so i had no worries about him giving it a try, so here's some pics to pass the time, Other than fixing a oil pan that looks like a grenade went off in it ,this project is back on the shelf for a while and back to the flathead dragster

 

Right on Tim! The more photos I find of that car, the more in love I am with it! Such a neat car, and a great paint scheme! Does it help that green is my favorite color? I need to come visit and check out your projects!!

 

Wow Tim that boy has got skills.....

 

Does that oil gallery in pictures 2,5 and 7 connect at the front pad for the oil pump? If so be sure to check that repair for blockages and leaks. Not saying you missed it, just seeing it as something I might have missed.

 

Looks sweet Tim!

 

Thanks Tom , KB blocks have a screw in plug at each end of the main oil line ,so I was able to stick a scope in there to check, there's still alittle more repair work left to do so I was going to grind some and have him beef up the welds around the line inside and out,I worked on fuel cars in the 80's and 90's, So I learned not to take anything for granted, on those cars you never knew what was going to happen, One car I worked on the driver said he felt a vibration on the run , all the bearings, clutch rear gears all looked normal so the crewchief, Clayton Harris told me to drop the crankshaft ,i dropped the main caps and the crank came out in two pieces, The crack was right on the edge where the main bearing sits, this car had just run a 5.40 something at over 200 MPH, So you just never know Thanks again Tim Jones

 

Thanks Rocky maybe when you win we'll be able to line up aginst each other, you'll have to give me a head start tho

 

IA is very "doable" be great to shake your hand my friend!

 

Well back to the flattie dragster, Yeah! My burst panel parts came today plus the blower base gasket, now i can get some stuff done, got all my marks on where I need to put holes in the plate and Plenum , looks like I'll be doing some triming on the blower base plate as well ,I decided that when I trim the sides of the blower base plate I'll leave enough room to use a 6-71 just incase someday I want to build a killer flathead, Hey a guy has to dream Right? Hey Carl your not kidding Garrett has some talent, Best of all he's not even a car guy ,so when I come up with some hair brain idea I never hear Oh I don't think that will work, he just says Cool man, I'm in Thanks Tim Jones

 

Well got a few minutes today to use the plasma cutter, tapped my bolt holes tonite , gonna try to finsh some grinding and weld the base plate for the blower on tomorrow , might have to stay late to get it done , Now if I had a 4-71 I'd be set, got to admit the 6-71 looks pretty nice on there, Also picked up a sweet chrome push bar

 

Yea that 671 does look good on there, might be worth considering..........

 

Burst panel pic, Leaning towards the 6-71 also Carl

 

Well I thought long and hard about useing the 6-71 ABOUT an hour and figured scince I hadn't started to build my new motor anyway, and I already have the 6-71 and enderle injector hat, I'd go that direction with the engine build, plus it looks bad ass on the car and thats what this dragster is all about , having fun and having a cool lookin car and hey with help from all the flathead dragster guys out there, it might even run worth a dam, Too bad IA wasn't alittle closer to CA