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Messages - Dolmetsch

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1
Front Engine Dragsters / Re: Wilwood rear disc brakes
« on: November 13, 2014, 03:58:15 AM »
After a local racer crashed his RED twice with pad failure with his lockhearts which failed (lost a puck both times about two years apart)his wife forbid him repairing it and he sold the car to a friend. We had two other at our local track have similar failures. I do not like the set up and so did the math finding that a set of normal caliphers from a minim van had more then sufficient ability to stop the car and were a much better made piece incapable of that failure so I made asset of adapter plates to replace the airhearts, machined up two  spacers to pop in the pistons to bring the calipher and pad in proper contact with the hats already on the car. I used a ceramic hi quality pad available at  any parts store in North America. That was over 10 years ago and the car is still run regularly and has been tagged with no issues two times. He reports braking is not an issue and in fact since the change I don't believe he has ever used his laundry although maybe I just aren't always there. Pad life has been good . In fact I think they are still the ones I installed. That is how we solved a bad problem on one car. Why do you have a resid valve on disc brakes? Unless the master is along way below the caliphers (which is near impossible  on a fed or RED) a resid valve should not be installed and even then it is a bandaid at best. Resids are for drums. And they are a very misunderstood device.
don

2
Front Engine Dragsters / Re: From first run to last of the Senior Dragster
« on: November 11, 2014, 04:37:06 PM »
LIFT = When fear exceeds nerve lift your foot from the throttle.
During a recent hospital visit (in a white truck)for another health issue it was discovered I broke my spine at L4 during the mishap in Sept. It is now 7 weeks and I can still not get put of bed on my own. They told me 3 to 6 months healing. Still wouldn't trade that last run. She was really cookin!
don 

3
Thanks. It has been a wonderful adventure. Just finished winterizing it. Even gave it an old pat on the slicks like you would your pet. Been a great car, and still is!
don

4
Front Engine Dragsters / From first run to last of the Senior Dragster
« on: October 20, 2014, 06:01:57 AM »

Short video pics and old video original set up with six snowmobile carbs and mild street cam at Shannoville several years ago. First pass ever on the car .
Next I went to a self designed custom made cam, Single four Eddy carb and Offy intake. That is when the front end started coming up at good bite tracks.
I sold the reworked Eddy carb for a fortune so tried a reworked Holley 600 DP and installed a A&A governor kit for adjustable auto shift. This was the first easy shakedown pass on that with a in car camera and its video quality is much better then the handheld's. By now I am only running at Picton Airfield.
Next installed and debugged the new tunnel ram twin Holley 2bbl set up. I think this is the second run that day. This thing is now going too fast for me and I lift just before the traps. In fact you can see me reaching for the brake.
The last is a still photo taken as I just flash by the traps. This will be my last pass driving this car. Too fast for me now and too hard to get in and out of now.
These span about 8 years.
don


5
Nothing more fun for me then running a six with all homebrew stuff and being able to run with the big dogs.
Just got the Video clips from the last three races I ran at. I am down to only one fellow who will run me. The rest refuse even when the starter motions them to pair up. The race organizer and race tech guy along with track video man where here last night till midnight. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.
According to them when pressured as to why they wouldn't run me they said the feeling was if we beat Don it is no big deal as he has a couple of hundred cubes less BUT if he beats us we take so much teasing for the next month or so about being smoked by a six cylinder we just aren't going there.
Now that I have retired the car they can sleep I guess.
don   

6
I found TDC and installed the distributor then found a fuel pump gasket and installed the stock fuel pump I used with the six Tillotsons.
Little trick for finding TDC comp.
First always write your engines firing order on the shop wall and write it with the split.
1843
6572
So you know what cylinder is on the opposite stroke.
For me with the six
153
624
so if 1 is on comp then 6 is on overlap.
To find which one is on comp, put a hose snuggly in the spark plug holes 1, then 6 and blow in each one. One will have no resistance and one will build pressure and that one is the one on compression. Crude, simplistic? Sure. Effective? Absolutley!

7
I am poking away at the gasser as I recover. Motor and dist are done. I have also been going through some of my old stuff from the sr dragster. I found two old videos from the first day I ran it. I don't know who took them and they are not great but made me grin again. They are FLV format and I don't know how to convert them for current use but this laptop will play them under protest. The first two years I ran it with 6 snowmobile carbs and it worked quite well. However I had to prime to fire just like fuel injection as I had removed the chokes. Often when I needed a prime my crew would be off visiting and I would have to undo and climb out squirt then get back in so I took them off BUTwhen I saw Glenn's setup for priming his injection I realized I could do that easily as well. In fact three of the carbs have hose nipples on the base and would do a fine job priming. Once it kicks it takes care of itself. Three carbs was all I ever squirted anyway. And so today I decided to install the six tillotsons on the gasser providing there is enough room. An IR setup has some very distinct low rpm advantages as there is no inter cyl fuel dilution  and so low RPM idle and response is exceptional. Much better then a 4bbl or tunnel ram. I dug through my spare parts box and discovered I still had the first fuel pump I used with this setup. In fact it was the whole motivation behind the slant six project in the first place. I had wanted to try the six snowmobile carbs. It was on my bucket list. Hopefully since I drained them well they will not need any work even though they have been hanging up for about 5 or 6 years. I am starting to get excited! Here we go AGAIN!
don

8
Gassers / Re: Another VW gasser
« on: October 10, 2014, 04:23:23 PM »
I started recurving my distributor this week. Still have to go very easy as I am still hurting form the accident. My brother stopped by and did a couple of things for me at floor level that I cant do at the moment.
don

9
Thank you.
I am in several chapters now. Had a phone call from OTTAWA tues night also suggesting I do it and the fellow had no idea I was into it already.
I have Roland Osborne of Chrysler Power magazine,  the Hemi Owners Assoc and CPPA to thank for my writing. It was he who first started me writing tech and such and he who got me to publish the first book (which is still selling BTW. shipped one out just yesterday) All started when I wrote a letter of rebuttal to something I read. He put pics with it and published it as an article then kept asking for more. Without his shove I would never have even tried. I dint know!!!!! Still do a bit for him now and then.
don

10
Front Engine Dragsters / Re: Sr Dragster Retires
« on: October 08, 2014, 09:27:02 PM »
That was the last run video but I think you meant the Gearz Video. I can't do video from here as I m on rural dial up internet and have to go to a wifi location to do any of that. The gearz episode was called Knucklebuster and is the episode where they are doing an 80 Chev halfton. At the end of the episode there is a segment called "what are you workin on" and that is it.  I thinking searching Geaz Knucklebuster would find i.t Has been years since I looked at it but it should still be there on You Tube.
don
https://www.youtube.com/user/StaceyDavidsGearZ

11
Front Engine Dragsters / Re: Sr Dragster Retires
« on: October 08, 2014, 06:49:11 PM »
It is called Don's Senior Dragster Run and is by 4408roadrunner.

12
Gassers / Re: What did you do on your Gasser TODAY?
« on: October 07, 2014, 08:55:43 PM »
OK. Well first tis true a stuck throttle is a stuck throttle. What stuck it was so small it would make one sick when they discovered it and it was so preventable. I hope and pray I never  give it a chance to happen again on any car I own.
However the dragster was getting too fast for me. Why I don't know. I just felt since I put the tunnel ram and headers on I wasn't comfy  at the far end of the track. Most of my race cars ran between 116mph and 122 mph in the traps and I was always comfy with that. I still enjoyed pounding the daylights out of my 426MAX Wedge 63 Dodge. So I would just lift early, hundred feet or so out and all was well. But that alone wasn't the only problem I had. In 1990 I slipped in my shop while carrying  440 block in with a friend and landed with my back stuck into another 440 block on the floor. After several months of goofing around they discovered I had torn the intercostal joints on the left side of my back and ribcage and they now move quite a bit instead of holding the ribs snug to the spine. So I lived since then in constant discomfort.  Getting in and out of the Sr dragster was never easy for me even with the large roll cage but the last year or so it has been pure xxxx. Enough that by the time you are in a buckled up you really don't feel like bothering to run. In fact when I got in in Set 20 I knew for sure this would be my last time climbing in the car. On top of that I had developed the bad habit of riding the brake hard all the way down. The faster I went the harder I rode it. I could talk myself into putting both hands on the wheel after launch which made a huge difference in performance but then I would forget to stage up on the converter or something. I finally came to the conclusion that I am just not a good FED driver and am not likely to ever be. I am in my 65th year so I didn't feel too bad .Certainly my dad and my granddad were not doing anything like this when they were that age. The performance I achieved from this little rail and its slant six far exceeded anything I imagined when I built it so it was OK all around. In the VW gasser I sit normal. I installed a school bus seat so I can get in the passengers door and slide across to the driver side where the door bar is to protect from side hits. I knew I could never get over it going in and out so I planned ahead. It has a foot brake so I will only be on the throttle or the brake  I hope. It weighs more by about 400 to 500 lbs and has less Hp , probably only about 270hp and does not have a Frank Lupo converter so it will be a much slower car easier to enter and more comfortable to drive.  I suspect 13s or high 12s will be all it will do and I will have to be happy with that whether I like it or not. My max wedge runs around there in street trim so I know I can handle that. I have to stay safe, I have to be inside my personal comfort zone and I need a car I can get in and out of without enduring a lot of pain. I am not ready to stop racing but tis time to turn the page and this is what I am thinking and why. I had a phone call tonight from a shoe I built BB mopars for for almost 20 years. He drives a RED currently and offered to shoe the Sr dragster next year at the Shannonville track. He has driven for me  before (The car pictured below)for several years and would do a good job I am sure but I did not build the sr dragster to race competitively in Bracket racing. Nor do I any longer have an interest in competitive racing. Spent too many weekends chasing the rainbow. Bin there dun that! I built it in my retirement to explore a few old ideas I never had time to look into before and so I could have  little fun myself. It has fulfilled that role more than I ever hoped for and I would like to tie a ribbon on it right here. The VW will give me an excuse to go to the Picton track a couple of times a year just for the pure enjoyment of it. Make a couple of passes against my friend Bill's VW Chev powered gasser and sit around enjoying the company and conversation with friends I have had now up to 40 years in this sport. I really enjoy that now. I hope that helps you understand where I am coming from.

13
Gassers / Re: What did you do on your Gasser TODAY?
« on: October 07, 2014, 10:14:40 AM »
Hobbled to the shop and began reworking the distributor for the VW, I have to behave myself with this car and build it just for fun as the other one got too fast for me. I know you young lads won't understand that (yet) but I would rather slow down and have easier entry and exit then quit all together. 12s or 13s will be ok. Anyway I m back at it.
don

14
Still very sore but bored stiff I went to the shop today and began working on the distributor for Das Auto's slant six.  The motor is already done awaiting install but I may as well do this and install it as it will be hard to reach afterwards. I shorten the curve slot by 1/3 which allows me more initial but less total advance which is what these engines love. Spent about 1/2 hour working at my bench then welding up the slot. That was enough for today but progress none the less.
don 

15
Front Engine Dragsters / Re: lets talk helmets
« on: October 07, 2014, 06:38:10 AM »
I am very happy with mine. Just gave it the severe test two weeks ago. No issues despite the beating I took. Wish they had helmuts for your back and spine. Even more padding under my bum would have paid dividends.
don

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