Projects rebuilding after the crash

glad to see your progress!

 

I just love the sound of gravel crunching in front of the house. It can only mean one thing. The big brown truck is out front. I had called nhra funny car champ ray goodman aka the tennesse bo- wevel for a nitro hydrometer. Now thats here. The pile from hilborn also showed up. Thanks andy and don. Dog patch pm me for info on the spring tester. I will share it here for all my hemi brothers out there.

 

Awesome! A picture's worth a 1000 words, but a word ain't worth a dime as Sturgill Simpson would sing - Man that explains everything.

 

Hi Racer-x.Thanks for the answer.Have a safe and productive weekend.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

 

We had to rescale the car. The first time we did it was to get a idea for the tortion bar. Now it shows 54% on the rear wheels. 2230 lbs without the nitro tank. We then added 500 lbs of ballast to simulate me and a copilot. That takes close to a thousand pounds out. This could get all kinds of fun.

 

Thanks for the pics Racer X, that is pretty much what I had in mind modifying my SBC one. Looks like my original plan will work. FYI, I'm also a dealer for Missile Rockers. Only 3 of us in the country - Hot Heads, myself, and Gene Adams. I just ordered 3 more sets this week for heads I'm doing.

 

Steve is a great guy.

 

Very much so, he has done some custom rockers for a few of my customers. Always there to help when in need. Recently he built a set of rockers for a Dodge D-500 build I'm working on for a Bonneville effort. Just went through your thread here......hats off to you, top notch build!

 

Most of the mechanical injection parts are now on the engine. Hilborn sent a assortment of fuel lines to me. All but one worked out. We need five more now so the idle side can be plumbed. To make the barrel valve work I had to flip the butterflies making the throttle cable a puller rather than a pusher. thats ok because i can use my clip on throttle stop for the burnouts. The manofold needed to be tapped to mount the distribution block for the port nozzles. All i need to make it run on nitro is the tank mounted with the two return lines and the mags coil mounted. It will be ready to fire up at the meltdown

 

That is a monster and I am sure its going to roar like one...The Green Monster...Grrrrrrrrrrrrreat... You must be pumped...gettin so close. I can't wait to see the thing in action either. We do have front row seats here...quite an honour thanks Racer-X

 

hot heads provided a set of their exhaust flanges so zoomies can be made. it will sound sooooo much better with 2.5 inch zoomies. bob from hot heads has competed in the engine masters competition for the last several years. one of his engines finished as high as second place. this a no holds bared unlimited funds effort that brings out the best of the best engine builders. bob has tried every possible combination of header design out there for the most power. he shared his secrets with me so i can build the best set of pipes for my build. i talked to roger lechtenburg tonight he plans on coming to the melt down. roger along with nitro neil bisigllia will give me a hand with the initial start up. it doesn't get much better than that. thats a lot of experience showing up.

 

Boy did i open a can of worms. i wanted to get the tps switch on the injector shaft today. Hilborn sent the adaptor piece i needed. I thought it was a bolt on piece. Was i wrong. The issue was making it all fit and work with the mechanical injection. The switch goes on the shaft. The shaft needed a flat cut into it to rotate the switch. The adaptor holding the switch needs to bolt to something that wont move. Everthing needed to come apart. A billet piece of aluminium went into the mill. This piece of aluminium will hold everything were it needs to be located. The throttle shaft had to be machined. next the adaptor needed .125 taken off of it so it would all fit. Its almost done. I got the shifter boot modified and fitting good. I also got the rear lexan window in. Its a pain to install the window in the first place. Now that the roll cage has to be worked around i found out how easy i really had it before. All of this took eight hours today. I said previously that i wanted to keep the roll down rear window along with the dual cowl vents and stock dash. Being able to save them was a big deal to me. We were able to save all of these cool features that make this body unique.

 

The fire suit showed up today. I had to try it on to check the fit. Not shown are the gloves. This suit is a sfi spec- 20. That means its good for all classes its the best protection money can buy. Skin grafts are alot more expensive . This is the suit they wear in top fuel and funny car. Its made of five layer fire retardent treated cloth. Its alot lighter than the old nomex suits. Even with the five layers the suits protection is only 30 seconds of direct flame contact before the skin starts to burn. With the addition of nomex underwear you get another five seconds. Thats not very much time to stop a car and exit the burning wreck. it gets warm real fast. The 20 lbs of cold fire i have on board will help the cause if things get too crazy. If you have ever been on fire and i have been several times you understand all of this. If you havent a word to the wise should be sufficient. Fires are no joke. I wont even get in the car to race it without my suit. i have seen enough people burned to death to know its not the way i want to go out. if a person is burned bad at first they are scared they are going to die. when the pain sets in and the grafts go on it changes to being scared they are going to live through it. please invest in yourself and be as safe as you can. if you cant afford a good fire suit then you certainly cant afford a icu stay for a few months and skin grafts with the rehab that follows.

 

I love the alternator mount, but will engine movement & vibrations cause the belt to slip?

Do you remove the belt when racing?

 

The engine is bolted solid to the chassis. The alternator bracket is welded to the chassis. Nothing moves. there is a deep groove large alternator pully to keep from throwing the belt at high rpm. I leave the belt in place to maintain 13.8 volts at all times. the electronics are very sensitive to voltage drops. turning the alternator uses very little horse power. Good question.

 

Your suit is impressive. It makes you completely unrecognizable ...and that is a good thing!

 

Really coming along nice! I always wear safety gear

 

lippy cool mask. I like the ones with the square eye holes. what brand is it? its hard to tell in the pics. the square hole masks were usually the early versions. years ago i was at rob bruces shop in flint michigan. we were talking about these masks. i have a picture of three of us wearing them. when i got home and developed the film i was shocked at what i saw. it looked like a kkk rally.

 

Wow, this is coming along very nicely.

 

We are getting there. Thanks everyone. This weeks work consists of getting the steering in place. I want to be able to push it around at the meltdown. i put in a lot of hours over the holiday weekend.

 

sounds good chucky. i will be unloading it thursday around 6-7pm. knowing how thirsty a guy can get pushing a race car around i will have plenty of cold beer on hand. funny how the cars always go a few tenths faster after a few.

 

Hahahahahah yeah , about a tenth per 3 beers LOL

 

so if I did my math right 30 beers should get my a second. I could do that over the weekend. makes me wonder what a liter of ever clear would get me. what ever I don't finish we can pour it in the moon tank. that's a story for later. it works.

 

Jail LOL That is a Simpson mask, I have had it for 40 years. It has been down a lot of tracks. Lippy

 

Wow.just wow. Gonna be better than ever!

 

There is not enough time to finish off what we need to do and build a set of zoomies before next weekends unveiling. A good friend of mine don francis came through with a set of old cragar funny car zoomies. These are beyond rare. While not exactly the look i wanted they will get me by. On the way home i stopped by mike the polisher. He called to say the wheels were done. He will fully polish the wheels after i park the car at the end of the season. Jim told me do not stop by for the next four days. They are locking the door so they can finish up what needs to be done so it can make the melt down. So there wont be too many updates in the coming days. I need a break anyway.

 

Man I wish I was going to be there to see this one in person.

 

I would say that is a genuine HOTROD! Lippy

 

I'm stunned at what you've been able to do in less than a year. The complications of building to the level of performance you've done shows your high level project management as well as top quality venders and craftsmen on your team. If the crash had not happened, was this still the future plan for this car? Or was it your "what if" dream if you could do it over?