Event Coverage What are YOU doing to get ready for the 2015 Meltdown Drags?

Well it's a Christmas Miracle! Got the 55' Ford back together today! After 2 plus months of work, after a costly Tuesday night at Great Lakes Dragaway! Things done...
Rear end housing, had powder coated & 31 spline axle upgrade plus disk brakes. Had AJ's help with 3rd member, he put Detroit Locker in & switched yokes... Thanks AJ!
New driveshaft & 31 spline yoke...
Upgraded trans from T5 to TKO600. Sold old T5 with Lakewood Bell, clutch & flywheel... Had used Lakewood TKO Bell powder coated. New Fidanza aluminum flywheel... Clutch, pressure plate & Throw out bearing. Had to get new Vehical speed sensor, gear & trans mount.



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Also had driveshaft powder coated. Drained trans & filled with new trans oil. Started it up tonight on jack stands in garage & ran her thru the gears a few times. Need to adjust clutch. No strange noises! Need to bleed rear brakes, must have some air still in lines! Rear tires just kept spinning when I hit brakes. Gotta back out of garage & clean up mess & organize garage! What a relief to have it together! Jim


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Plus I think RIC & Scott(pwrshftr) have me talked into switching from Cross Ram intake or as RIC says Choke ram to a Weiand tunnel ram intake too! RIC says I'm giving up 30-40hp & Tq using Mickey intake... I would of never thought that! Jim


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The M/T SBF Cross Ram is cool looking, & rare, but its a turkey in the HP department.

 

RIC I agree, the Mickey looks REALY cool & something different sitting on top of the engine... I had a couple guys lose there minds at the last Meldown!!! (Scott comes to mind) LOL! They'd never seen one or didn't no M/T made SBF Cross ram! A lot of people asked where I got it, I said my brother Scott picked it up at Great Lakes Dragaway, a guy had it for sale on the back of his trailer. Scott asked how much? He said $200! Scott bought himself a M/T intake, not REALY knowing how rare it was! True story! Jim...


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Jim-

Great to hear it is all coming together man. I love the car and can't wait to see it again once we thaw out.

If you thought Scott lost his mind at the last Meltdown, wait until 2015. The Lakeshore Mufftang is going to have a long ride back to Canadia...

 

Jeff,
In the trades we have a saying when working with cranes and lifting
heavy loads:
The area of extreme danger between a heavy load on the hook,and any immovable object,where a person is likely to be crushed to death in a very gory and spectacular fashion, is known as the "Hospital Side".....

The Okie Doker is definitely on the Hospital side of the Shaker.....And it ain't gonna be pretty....

Ron,if you're listening:

BUY MORE MOPS!

Cause after I'm done "Mopping the floor" with that ol Chevy,you're gonna have to clean up the mess he leaves on the track when he windows the block trying to keep my tail lights from getting reeeeeeeeeeeal small in a BIG hurry. lol

Scott


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Oh boy Jeff you did it good this time! Getting Scott riled up!!! Hope you can keep up with the smack talking!!! This is going to be fun! 7.5 more months of talking smack! This race is going to be bigger than the Hulk Hogan/Andre the Giant Wrestlemania match! LOL!!!

Jeff got 55' Ford of the stands & took her for a stress test thru the hood!!! He he he he! Jimmy likey! Felt good to burnout again with the smell of burning rubber! Jim...


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Just got this bad boy for my 56. Cage is next.


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Glad to see you're out bangin gears again Jim!

With a t/r that car of yours is gonna be one mean mammy rammer!

Scott


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Wide gear, or narrow, what ratios did ya get/

 

LOL, Scott I was trying to figure how to hold my phone & record doing burnout from inside the car! Then send YA the video! Thought you'd get a charge out of that! But then I thought I'd better pay attention to what I'm doing!
You may have to change the name of your car to the Okie Hunter! LOL! I'm picturing Elmer Fudd saying, Be very very quiet! I'm hunting Okie! Ha ha ha ha!
Jim...


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It's a wide ratio 2.93 1.84 1.33 1.0
Has road race sliders so it can see some street time.
I bought it as a package trans bell housing twin disk clutch aluminum flywheel and shifter.

I'm thinking a 4.30 rear gear because I have 28" tires out back

I'm looking forward to banging gears. I had a close ratio muncie but saw that as a weak link.


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Nice package. I would dyno the engine before I picked a gear, may want a 4.56. We had a 4.30 in ours at the Meltdown, with nearly the same trans ratios, & 29.5 regular (not a W tire like Quains guys run), and it wasn't enough. We are currently 3200 lbs. though and the engine tune wasn't right, had it been, it would've ran thru the gear box quicker & been turning more rpm and speed at the stripe. You'll be real close I think with the 4.30, but just might need the 4.56 for those SEG 1/8 mile drags.

 

Thanks for the info. I was thinking about doing that. I have ruled myself out of the SEG drags because the blower. I'm hoping to be around 3200 but not sure if I will be. I'm planning on getting a fiberglass trunk lid. But I'm going to use real glass in the car.


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I've have a shock question, on the front of 55' Ford, I have an eye to eye measurement of 13.75" with tires on ground. How much shock travel do you typically want to have? Or maybe should I jack car up on front frame, pull shocks & take measurement with tires off the ground? Jim..


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Ladies and gentlemen...it is time to get staged for the 2015 Meltdown Drags!


Pre-registration for the 2015 Meltdown Drags will begin at 12:00 AM CST on January 2, 2015. More details in the near future.

What better way to start the New Year?

 

Betcha Scott red lights.

 

I thought Eric was the KING of red light starts...

 

You don't want the car to bottom out on the shocks. If the car has an axle, you can probably use the shocks to limit how far the suspension drops.

 

Squirrel, yes it has straight axle. I need to pull a shock to see what full extension is? What I'm wondering is I for weight transfer, say I measure shock full extension is 14.5". I don't want the shock travel (14.5") to stop the weight transfer as front suspension unloads? Correct? It measures eye to eye bolt now 13.75" as it sits on floor. Jim...


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I set mine up so the car has about 3" down travel, and about 4" up travel. On mine, the front shocks do not limit how far the front suspension can go in either direction. Seems to work pretty well.

 

Ok, Thanks Squirrel!


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Another thing...I took several leaves out of the springs to get the car to settle down where I wanted it. Many modern gassers seem to have way too stiff of front springs. I guess it looks neat, but if you're trying to go fast, it might not be the best approach?

 

what kind of tranny and shifter is that? I have a Richmond T-10 and Hurst shifter in my avatar Falcon, and it doesn't shift worth a ****. I have tried adjusting clutch, linkage, you name it, still from 1st to 2nd, seems like it just wont go smooth. I thought the Richmond would be good, but I am very disappointed. I probably lose a second or so in the quarter just trying to find second gear.
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That was hurtful Kip.....

But yes,I will be logging in and ready to pull the trigger for 11:59 FO SHO!

Scott


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That's a Jerico trans & a Long shifter (Leonard Long). One of your shifting issues may be too much clamping pressure from your pressure plate. If you're using a "rag" clutch disc as in the usual street/performance kit, these discs have smooth release, but slip more easily, with aggressive driving, especially with the inertial of steel/heavy flywheels. To combat this tendency, discs with that material are typically paired with pressure plates in the 2800-3500 lb. range, and that along with heavy flywheel inertial makes it harder to shift in the upper rpm ranges. McLeod & Ram both offer ceramic discs that work nicely in dual purpose cars. The ceramic discs offer improved grip with less base pressure un the pressure plate, usually 1500-2500 lbs. depending on the application & flywheel weight. Twin discs in both disc materials work similarly, because you have twice the disc surface area, you don't need high pressure plate loads.

 

Leadsled51 I would pull the cover and look at the gears real close for me if the small teeth that engage with the shift collar don't look perfect it would never speed shift.

 

What Rick described sounds exactly like my set up. It has a Ram clutch and pressure plate, with the what you would call "rag" clutch, not the ceramic or metallic clutch, along with the 2800-3500 range which you were talking about. This car is not driven on the street, strip only, so maybe I should go with the more racing clutch either the metallic or ceramic with less pressure plate pressure. I think someone on here said you never buy or spend the money the first two times you get stuff. Sounds about right