Projects rebuilding after the crash

I located a off set drive late last night from a guy i know that sells fuel car parts. I should have it by the weekend. i can make new plug wires for it. the old wires can be taken apart and shortened that will give me some thing to do. i have the special msd pliers to do the job correctly.

 

Are the plugs different for the nitro than gas?

 

Yes the nitro plugs are very different. I will get a pic of one for you.
The offset mag drive showed up today. This magnesium beauty is just what I needed. It not only drives two mags it moves them forward on the engine. This is necessary do to the diameter and height of the generators. It allows the passenger side valve cover the room it needs to be removed. The small bracket bolts to the area were the water pump would go in a stock application to provide support. The support is needed with all the weight hanging out front. The drive is belt driven. There is a belt tensioner adjusted from the side. The oil pump intermediate shaft doesn't separate from the drive. It's all one piece. I will use quick clamps to hold the mag and efi distributor in place. This is a cool piece that's not usually seen in a street car application so I thought I would take some time to explain it.

 

I just happen to know a guy selling a pair of polished stage five hemi valve covers along with a enderle dual drive. The msd pro billet distributor is for sale along with a set of wires.

 

Too cool!

 

So can you adjust the timing of the two distributors separately?

 

Yes. The base stays locked in place. Each distributor has it's own clamp. They can be turned individually. The mag will be set at 50 degrees. The efi distributor is set at 36 degrees.

 

49 caddy man we use ngk side gap plugs set at .018 gap.
A few trial fit pics. The rt. corner of the intake had to have some material removed to make it fit. The idler pulley bracket needs a little taken off it to. I wanted to check the fit before I removed the heads.

 

Do both street & nitro plugs stay in the head when doing both kinds of driving?

 

Yes. The street plugs won't foul out during the short time it's on nitro. During the street driving I dont care if the nitro plugs go bad because I put a new set in before each pass.
I really dont think they will carbon up as long as the tune up is correct.

 

Thanks for sharing the information with all of us! This is great stuff, I knew very little about nitro before this thread, now I feel like I have a pretty good understanding of it. Thanks again for including us!


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View attachment 4082050 Good thing I did a trial fit before I took the engine out. Nothing fit. I had to cut a boss off the head. The boss was tapped and used to mount the alternator in a stock application. The idler pulley bracket was hacked on. I will need to make a new one that's shorter. The support bracket was too tall. It ended up in the mill to remove .125 off the top. The bracket also required some work to clear the water fittings. It's all good now. I borrowed a mag from a friend so I can make the wires. I have been burned in the past thinking things will all fit and then they dont.

 

That's looking pretty good. I just got back from St.Louis so its time to get going on stuff again. Glad to see ya got another pass in this year. Is to motor coming out to O-ring the water ports.
Tony

 

Before it comes out alot of work needs to be completed first. Of course nothing comes easy. The idler pulley hits the dual drive before all the slack is out of the belt. Getting a new belt is a call away but getting the right belt can get complicated. The centerline from the crank to the blower needs be measured. Then a wire needs to be wrapped around the existing pulleys for another measurement. Using a belt chart along with the pulley tooth count the correct belt can be selected. In my case I needed to change the lower pulley from a 61 to a 55. The top pulley went from a 48 to a 44. This keeps the ratio close to 25 percent over and allows one of the available belts to fit. I wanted to get this sorted out while I had a chance. The other big project was moving the shifter back 2 inches for a more comfortable position. Spacers were made then attached with the Lenco on the bench. The linkage needed to be modified for proper shifting. The trans went back in the car. The floor needed some slight trimming. The boot wouldn't cover the now larger hole in the floor. I had some extra sheet metal that was already powder coated that matches the floor so a piece was pop riveted in place. Making the hole smaller is also a safety thing. Less fire can come up through the floor. Another benefit is I can reach the fire bottle cables better with a gloved hand. Once you experience a good fire you think about these things. With the shifter back the passenger seat had to go back. I moved it 3 inches. The floor brackets had to have some material added so they could bolt back in place. My drag week passenger is over 6 feet tall so I'm sure he will approve of the extra leg room. There are a few other things planned. Stay tuned in.
The rest of my time has been spent prepping the trailer for winter and getting the shop ready for winter car storage. I will see you all at pri.

 

To just say it looks fast is quite the understatement! Definitely looks top fuel fast!

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Love that mag twin drive!!! The motor keeps looking tougher and tougher. Already looking forward to see what the car can do next year

 

thanks. I like your avatar. we plan on doing our own fire burn out photo shoot the third weekend in may at George rays hot rod wildcat dragstrip. located in Paragould Arkansas. I started a thread on it. we have pre approval from the track manager to do what we need to do to get the shot. we did some there some years ago with the 65 dodge. can you provide details on how you did you burn outs. was it plain gas or did you mix some things together? we mix gas and vht 50-50.

 

Thanks, it was a pretty awesome thing to do! Crisped the paint up a little but it was getting resprayed after anyway.

It was done with just gas, about a gallon I think, the photo ended up on the album cover for Godsmack's '1000hp'.

Got a video of it here

 

There are a few things that we do to save the paint. We remove the parachutes as we wont need them. The rear of the car from the door jam back is covered with vasoline. The vasoline absorbs the heat. As it absorbs the heat it melts running off the car taking the heat with it. The other benefit to vasoline it allows the color of the car to show through with all the flames.
Our technique was to pour a large amount of mixed vht and gas behind the car in a arch. We then ran two lines of the mixture about six feet long up to the tires. We also put some about a foot in front of the tires. From the arch that had the most fuel there was a wick that ran over to the guy that was responsible for lighting it. It has to be long enough to ensure his safety and be out of the picture. Another crew member was in front of the car on the drivers side. He gave the go ahead to light it off and motion to me when the fire was big enough to hit the gas. I had two guys out of frame one on each side in front of the car about 30 feet away. They had fire extinguishers ready in case the car was on fire. I would do the burnout and drive up to them.
Having the arch of fuel behind the car and not under it was much safer. It produced the effect of a wall of fire the car was driving through. We plan on doing the same thing this time around. Famous photographer John Asher gave me the vasoline trick. Bruce USA Larson invented the fire burnout and passed his secrets on to me. They both arguable have the most experience doing these successfully. I thank them both for passing the info on to me.

 

Bruce knows his stuff. I have known him for years. He has a lot of old school knowledge.

 

I forgot to mention a few things. the vht produces a brighter flame. I wore my full fire suit with the pins out of the fire bottles. Only the people directly involved with the shoot were around the car. While fun it can be dangerous. If someone were to drop a cigarette or not be paying attention it could turn into a disaster.

 

Hope this is ok to post an old picture of your car. I took these at the 2007 Huntercar Pileup. Still looks fast.

Jim

 

It's ok. That brings back some memories. I was driving it around like that for a few months. I wanted to make sure everything worked as it should before I painted it. I ran it at the good guys event in Kentucky this way. It won the street car shoot out. Several guys in fancy high dollar paint jobs were not amused. The car was pretty rough at that time.

 

" Several guys in fancy high dollar paint jobs were not amused. ".
I bet that just broke your heart,

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I remember seeing you at the Goodguys in Wisconsin that year also.

 

I was off to see the wizzard the wonderful wizard of oz because because because of all the wonderful things he does. My wizzard resides in cedar falls Iowa. As I get ready for next season I bring you more nitro hemi tech that most likely wont be used by anyone here. The positive side is you can learn something. I checked the deck on the block. It was a mess. The sleeves were .004 above deck. This is normal on a race only engine as it helps seal the cylinder. On a street engine is nearly impossible to keep water in it because the head is held up off the deck. There were several low/ uneven areas. We cured that by taking .007 off both sides.
The heads were drilled for the second spark plug. Some of the work was already done by stage five. The tube hole and o ring groove were pre machined. A target for the spark plug was also pre machined. The second plug hole is at a compound angle to the existing plug. The new hole has to go in at the exact spot. It has to clear the valves and fit in the plug tube. There is no guessing and no second chance. During the early 90s roger was doing all the repair work on John forces heads. He made a cool fixture to aid in machining post repair. There are a set of dowel pins to locate the head. What looks like bolt heads are really spacers to hold the head up so the o ring wires wont get damaged. The fixture has threaded holes to hold the head in place. The bottom of the fixture fits tightly into the grooves of the mills table as its bolted down. The proper indexing prior to drilling it was then repeated after moving the table the distance of the bores spacing. The new hole was tapped by hand with the aid of a center placed in the head of the mill. This ensures it's going in straight. After they were all in the hole on the combustion side was sanded smooth.
While the heads were apart I checked the springs and valves. We changed one exhaust liner. The seats and valves looked great so a light lapping was performed. Do to a snow storm on the way I cut the visit short. The heads will go back together at my place.
I talked about o ringing around the water holes but after seeing how uneven the deck was we chose to try putting it back together as is. Aluminum blocks do settle some as they season.

 

You have me humming a familiar tune all of a sudden......and you're yellow brick road is always interesting...well thought out calculated, then engineered and machined till perfection...and then there's the up and coming season to put it all in motion...can't wait...

 

a cool benefit besides allowing me more timing on nitro is the streets may never be the same again. if i have nitro in the front tank i can now flip over to nitro any time i want. i no longer have to exchange plug wires. picture some poor bastard that revs up his engine to race at a stop light. all i have to do is turn on the mag and pull the fuel lever. the car becomes a street fuel coupe. they can't say i didn't warn them its right on the side of the car in gold leaf. this is going to be fun. nobody is doing this crazy stuff.

 

I think if you were into all things fast in the real world you'd have to have your head in the sand up to your ankles not to know you or that monster your driving...but yeah challenger beware...

Less hands on wrenching at the track is a bonus also.

 

Careful out their Bryan, you dont want to burn down your local Culvers or Steak and Shake.