Projects rebuilding after the crash

Cool man

 

You are not seeing things. This is not a old photo. Today we pulled the body off. Its easier to finish the sheet metal work with it off. The radiator came out also. before it was pulled and the trunk lid removed i tested the fans to get a idea how well the air was going through the louvers. it seems to work good. The lower hose elbow needs to be changed by a few degrees. We got the switch panel mounted today. Like everything else on this car the mount needed to go in the mill to make it fit. The mag switch and parachutes handle bracket were also mounted. the handle was placed so when the handle gets pushed up my hand is right at the mag switch. Jim has some cool things going on with the tank mount. We finalized our plans for the mag support. The wheels need pollishing again so i know how i will be spending a few hours on saturday. i tried to get a pic of how it looks from the drivers seat. the thing i hate the most is coming up next. wiring the car. View attachment 3279016 View attachment 3279016 View attachment 3279016

 

its funny how the so called reality car shows on tv never show the kind of work i do on my car. they make it look so easy. no one gets cut; dirty or burned and it only takes a episode or two for a major build to be completed. today i spent hours on the wiring harness. when i first wired the car the fuse box was in the trunk. the wires that ran forward were duct taped to the floor. when the harness was removed the tape came with it. it took some time to get all of the tape off. it took even longer to go over every wire individually with a brake cleaner soaked rag to get all of the tape glue off. what a mess. did i mention it was crazy hot today and the shop is not air conditioned? i wanted to save the harness because each wire is labelled every foot telling me where it goes. after 12 hrs of fun today i called it quits. i will be on it again for 12 more sunday. the forecast is calling for a heat index of 105.

 

95% of building a car is boring...

 

and it seems like 90 percent of the work goes into the last 10 percent of the build.

 

Amen. Those small details that seem kinda insignificant by themselves can really stack up when the light at the end of the tunnel is real bright.

 

I hate cleaning tape adhesive off of wire. I'd chuck and replace the harness before I'd spend two days cleaning it.

 

It took some time to clean it thats for sure but not two days. I was doing other jobs also. Enos wiring made the harness. They closed after many years. I was thinking i can make up the time lost cleaning wires by putting the harness back in because its cut to fit. Saving 500 dollars isnt bad either.

 

The wiring has begun. First up was the mag kill switch. The starter was next followed by the fuse box. The wires in the back of the car were covered by some antique motorcycle wiring protective sleeves i had laying around. The wires in the back of the car take alot of abuse from the burnouts. I hate wiring cars. I hate even more having electrical problems. Im very careful doing this job. I dont want gremlins or a fire. I also finished up the straps to raise the side windows. I had some old ratchet straps laying around. Cheap and easy. with the body off it made wiring the tail lights a easy job. i still need to wire the trailer harness back there. The pile of wires on the ground is the efi harness. Just getting things untangled and seperated into piles was a big job. the shift light was also mounted. i plan on setting up the tach with a pig tail so when i switch back and fourth on the ignitions i have the right trigger. that would be better than two tachs. That was enough for a 100 degree day.

 

Good idea, Brian! I don't have a pic handy (sitting in jury duty right now), but we have a very similar setup in our Nostalgia Top Fuel car. There are three handles down the left side of the cockpit, 1st is parachutes, 2nd is fuel shut off, and 3rd is fire bottles. This way if things really go to sh*t, one quick swipe down all three puts the car in the safest condition. I've been following the build for a long time, really impressed with the work! One quick note, (and I'm pretty sure you already know this), but I don't remember you mentioning a fuel shutoff yet. Nitro is a self oxygenating, compression igniting fuel, which can and will continue to fire without the mag lit, you will need a fuel shut off in there somewhere.

Blownfuel

 

The fuel shut off is coming. I feel that its so important that i want to be in the car with my fire suit on so it can be located in the best position. Today we are working on the steering column. Im glad people are paying close attention what im doing. The more eyes on it the better.

 

Hi Racerx. At the risk of sounding like a complete ass,could the fuel shutoff switch be placed on the steering wheel or the shift handle?OR does it have to be a mechanical device?Thanks.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

 

Not a bad question at all. Mechanical fuel injection engines can be shut off two ways. The mag switch can ground out the mag killing the ignition. The other way is to shut off the fuel. As mentioned above a nitro engine can diesel and stay running without a ignition source. If there should be a fire its critical to be able to shut off the fuel immediately. The shut off can be mounted any where as long as it can be reached quickly.

 

Not to sound like I know anything but with mechanical injection you have to shut the fuel off to kill the engine or you stand a chance of hydro locking the engine.
Correct me if wrong.

 

I always shut off the 65 with the kill switch. When the truck came to tow me back we connected the wires to the coil then rotated the engine backward. Any nitro that drips into the cylinder is cleared out by pushing it out the exhaust valve. Bad things happen if a engine is rotated with fuel already in it. Real bad things. i have never seen a engine lock up from turning off the ignition. I'm not saying it can't happen i just haven't seen it. i would think it would be hard to do on anything other than a big show car.

 

We always back down(turned the engine backwards) the sprint cars because you never know how the driver killed it.

 

The advantage of a hemi with the exhaust valve on the bottom side of the chamber/bore. Beats the crap out of pulling the plugs on a big block Chevy. In the NT/F car I always used the fuel shutoff and turned the mag switch off later.

Roo

 

i actually leave the engine running until i make the turn off. several times i needed the engines power to avoid a bad situation. i have had a anglia upside down on fire doing cart wheels across my lane right down to large parts coming off some cars that i needed to avoid. there have been too many strange things happen to me after the stripe. so i leave mine running until the pass is for sure over. my thoughts are it probable doesn't matter for me because the engine is at a idle when i shut it down. another advantage of rolling the engine over after a pass is the exhaust valves are so hot and deformed it helps straighten them back out.

 

Today was another busy day. Jim made the column today. Before i left the shop i sat in the seat so its placement could be determined. It took several tries and several trips to the saw to get it right. Mounts will be made then a final fitting before its welded in. With the column fitting going on the seat was also being fit so the holes for it can go in the floor. Then the floor goes to the powder coaters. I got the trailer wiring in. Doesnt every nitro street car need a trailer hitch? The small details took a good part of the morning. The parachute handle was able to come back too far. I was concerned it might get bumped before a pass and i wouldnt be able to get my gloved hand on it. I made a sleeve out of some tubing that covers the cable. It acts as a travel limiter. Now when the handle is back its always in the perfect place. Allen bolts were welded onto the frame to serve as grounds for the gas tank; kill switch and coil. A seperate wire was added from the mag base to the ground. The throttle linkage was completely reconfigured. I moved the throttle arm to the back of the injector. It was too busy up front and impossible to get a cable on it. In the back of the injector is the tps switch. The shaft rotates the switch telling the computer how far the blades are open. We had a idicator on the shaft and we know its straight. The switch was rocking a little and binding. Its now set up were the switch floats. The bolts are safety wired in place problem solved. seeing as i had everything off the front of the shaft i took some time to get the barrel valve linkage set up correctly. its one thing to do a engine start up and another thing making it race ready. On the way home i stopped at mikes. He was done with the cross bar for the steering. Not too bad today. We got alot done. The clock is ticking louder and louder each day.

 

That last 10% of the project that seems to take 90% of the work...

 

All the little details! Very interesting to see. As the saying goes Brian, the devil is in the details.

 

Monumental project.

 

Hey Brian.... Great seeing you at the Meltdown! The car turned out awesome.

Got any video of it running?

 

Nice meeting you also. One video was posted. I dont personally have any. I would like to see more if anyone has some to share.

 

Hi Brian.Thanks for the answer.Looking better all the time.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

 

I think I got the only video of your second startup. I missed the actual start, but here's a few seconds of running. It's running rich, that's raw fuel coming out the exhaust headers.

 

Once we flipped the pump cover it ran on nitro. The barrel valve has a screw driver slot with a number stamped into it. At full throttle the slot should be horizontal with the number on the top. That is if the valve is mounted in the rear. We have it in the front. To do that the whole fuel block needs to be flipped so the inlet fitting is pointed in the right direction. Flipping it also makes the valve 180 out. One look at the pipes and we knew what was going on. I spun the valve 180 and it ran perfect. For a first time start up im ok with just having to adjust two things. The other way to set the valve is with a leak down gauge. I ran out of time so it wasnt done before i left. If i had time it would have been set at 70 percent leak. Im sure we are within a flat or two.

 

Then when your in a flat or two will be all it takes.
Hope to see you at the HAMB Drags

 

the adjustment bar that goes between the barrel valve and the throttle shaft has six sides. Each side or flat is about 1.5- 2 percent richer or leaner depending on which way its rotated. I was out so far the bar couldnt be adjusted to make up 180 out. The barrel valve arm has a pinch bolt that needed to be loosened up so i could spin the spool 180. We started it up again and found a slight mist coming out of the pipes. I leaned it out three flats while it was running with the desired results. I also played with the air valve. It works great at 50 percent open. The engine will talk to you. You just have to listen.

 

For sure a tuners ear is worth a dozen or more drivers ears.