FLATCAD RACING Bonneville 2011 Build

You're looking good! Keep at it, the salt awaits you. I will be stating body prep myself this weekend.

 

Updates - Lots of Small Crap . . .

Valves and Top-End: Mike the head/valve man at Fowlers did some research on valve lengths and found what he believes will work – a performance BBC exhaust valve – 1.940, length looks to be close. I’m taking the camshaft to Fowler’s tomorrow to mock-up the cam, lifter block, lifter and valve package to see if everything will fit with the new seat heights and all the custom parts. We’ll either run a stock length or .100 longer. If this works out, then they’ll cut down 8 of them to 1.780 for the exhaust. The goal is to use off-the-shelf Manley Severe duty valves – that way we can replace them with stocking parts. Looks like another good BBC part for the FlatCAD – guess we like GM stuff hugh!

Cam Snout: I did some test fitting on the gear drive to the cam snout – snout is .0015 to .002 too big . . . upper gear drive gear doesn’t seat down correctly. I’ll have Dennis the crank grinder put it in the machine and grind just a tad off of it. I’m glad I noticed as the gear wants to “rock” a bit (as it isn’t flush) and it screws up the thrust clearances I’d calculated. This is a classic example why you have to check everything – no matter who makes the parts! It is supposed to be standard BBC snout dimension . . . obviously it is a hair too big.

Crank and Rods: I’m also going to checkout the crank and rods tomorrow – they came in from Crower. Fowler has about ½ the block work done (for the lower-end), so now he can complete it. Hopefully he’ll get all the hard stuff done next week while we wait for the pistons. I don’t think we’ll see the pistons until the week after next.

Head Gaskets and O-Rings: I talked to a custom gasket mfgr - they will make us some custom soft copper ones with a rubberized coating – which helps seal the water jackets on the deck. Anytime you run soft copper you should also run O-rings . . . or they won’t seal. Due to this, Fowler is going to put the heads in the CNC and O-ring them (to our combustion chamber pattern). We’ll only do the heads – too tough to also get a correctly aligned ‘receiver groove’ in the block to match. We can’t do this at Don’s in that we need to surface the heads at Fowler's and set the quench height to the pistons – pretty much a hand fitted thing. Then they’ll just use a DXF file to do the grooves. I’ll specify to Chris what I need as far as the O-ring offsets from the chambers.


Good news is that I have a 4-day weekend, plan to get all the rest of every last design detail complete – even the exhaust exits from the top-girdle. Ordered some steel elbows so I’d have something to prototype with.

Enough for now . . . keep on humping boys!

 

Works of Art!

Was at Fowler's today - doing some "imagineering" with Jeff, Chris Daniels and the crew, making some decisions, etc.. I also made sure I reviewed the crankshaft and rods from Crower and did some prelim measurements with a dial caliper. I've learned over the years - measure everything, assume every custom part has something wrong before you use it

On first review - all the initial dimensions look good. We'll know more once the block work is done and it is ready to accept the crank. I will say that the quality of the work looks to be fantastic - Crower makes some nice parts!

Here are a couple pictures . . .

a) Crankshaft -- heavy as hell . . . a big "thumper" if you ask me!



b) Rods -- 8.75 inches long - nicely done Crower!



We have a lot to do, but I'm getting excited about seeing parts and knowing that work is getting done.

Dale

 

Wow, you're almost done!.............................NOT! Keep it up, you'll git 'er done!

 

Car is in paint- here's a sneak peek!

Looks good from 10 ft, and better and 20ft, if you close one eye, and cover the other! Lol! It should look good at 150+ mph....

The car is now being reassembled, so that I can take it to Bored&Stroked's place, to receive the engine, exhaust, and final plumbing.

 

Bitchin'!!!!!

 

Go Buddy!
Lookin good from over here!
TP

 

Buddy, Wishing you and the team all the best in Aug ! go Man Go !

Dave

 

Are you sure you have time for Assemble-blow apart-send for coatings-reassemble? At this time If I had it together I think I'd run it. Plenty of time to do coatings after Speedweek. But you know your schedule.

 

Excelent work guys with your speed, you get the build record!
We shure hope you make it to Bonneville

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

 

It will be real tight - we'll have to play it by ear. My biggest concern is the worry of "What if FedX Lost It?" - there would be no way to recover from that. We'll know more in the next two weeks - but I'd really like to get everything completed, assembled and preliminary tested somewhere in the last week in July (which is going to be a real bitch, but I'm going to enlist some local help . . . guys who have helped me on road-race cars.).

I do plan to do everything possible to fire the motor in Columbus and put the car on the chassis dyno - we should be able to make that happen.

That's duh plan, I'm sticking to it!

Dale

 

Coating the pistons, head chambers, and valves, along with most of our gears, is a priority for me.

Having said that, let me clarify that it is not such a priority that it will keep us from running. If there is any way possible, the stuff will get coated. If the only way we can make Speedweek is to run uncoated pistons, then they'll be uncoated!

 

Keep pushing guys,just got home from a 4 day thrash at the machine shop myself.
When the car pushes back ,just take a deep breath dig in and push back harder.Theres lots of midnights between now and August 13th,you can do it.
See ya in tech inspection and I won't take no for an answer!!

Tim

 

Thanks Tim, we'll se you there!

I had really hoped that we would get this together in time to take you up on that pre-inspection offer, but..., well- you know the routine!

We'll be there bright and early the first morning of tech, the 11th. I want to be sure we have plenty of time, if we've over-looked something.

 

Wish I could make it out and see you run, maybe next year when you come back to shatter that record.

 

Well, we spend so much time talking about the FlatCad, that I sometimes forget there are other Cadillac flatheads out there.

This is Garry Odberts Flatcad roadster, that will be on the salt this year. It's got a Procharger supercharger- way cool!

Thanks for the pics, Garry!

 

That's good thinking. I plan on being there the 11th also to get tech out of the way. It can get pretty crazy on Friday.

 

Tim, If we make it through tech on Thursday, I'm getting drunk Thursday night!

You in?

 

See you there!

 

Good luck with tech Buddy and company!

 

Not sure which Tim, but count me in,thursday's the only night I can have a few(to many) beers as there's no racing till saturday.I'll be arriving there wednesday night give me a holler on the electronic leash (cell phone) when you arrive. I'll pm the #
Keep Thrashing!!
Tim

 

I guess there is more than one Tim here, maybe we could drink in shifts.

 

If we're done with Tech on Thursday by midnight . . . I'm drinking with whatever dang "Tims" show up

 

sounds good I'll take the swing shift,BTW I hope you guys like coors(rocky mountain goat piss)our push truck will be loaded with the stuff.

 

Mike, thanks!

Thanks Mad-Cad- I'll give you a call when we arrive!

So, Tim, Tim, and Dale, we NEED to pass tech on Thursday. I'll be coming off a 3 week hitch with no booze, and if passing tech is the only requirement for drinking....

 

Did someone say "Colorado Kool-aid" ?

 

I'll be bringing some of Milwaukee's champagne and lots of ice.

 

Sounds like a good way to start the week.........................................

 

I don't drink, but I'll be the designated driver..
Duane.

 

That"s all right Duane I'll drink your share....