Topics

61

Your Builds / Photo Gallery / Under a shady tree Down Under

« on: January 10, 2015, 03:27:17 AM »

Howdy
Many many years ago I ran a little 160" C/D here in South Australia. It was a small block Ford with a 904 Clutchflight. It's fair to say I was one of the many who make up the numbers but didn't get that far - not for lack of enthusiasm.
Here's the old car -




Life family house jobs all got in the way so I sat it out for somewhere over 25 years until I started going to some 1/8 mile races to help a guy who was just starting out. Last year I stumbled across an old 185" wheelbase FED and with my wife's encouragement decided it's time for a second go.
Here I am helping Kymbo out. If you know 5% more than the other guy that makes you a Guru !


We dragged the remains I'd purchased home and found the the  back of the chassis while it looked a but rough and tatty was of legal size tubing but front was under dimensional and bent like a banana and it had a broken and welded front axle. The roll cage looked like it would have fitted some one from Wrestle Mania. Undeterred we just cut the front of the chassis and the roll cage off. So what I kept was the back 5', a 9" with aftermarket axles, a full spool will 4.30 gears and a pair of Convo Pro's with some worn out slicks.


Around we went to a mates who has a tig and a lathe. Two week-ends later and I managed to find a second hand set of front wheels with new tyres hanging in a guys shed and we rolled out into the sunshine with a new front half and a smaller but still giant cage.
At the end of that dream sequence :-






To be Continued ...

62

Spud Miller's Cave / Incoherent ramblings of troubled and confused mind.

« on: December 23, 2014, 07:23:17 PM »

I wasn't going to post here because some of the things here are pretty high end but I need some Fuel Injection 101.
I’m too old to learn new stuff, hang on this technology is older than me.  It’s simple right a pump pushes fuel to a nozzle and that gives us one of the three things we need fuel compression and spark.  Trouble is we will have too much fuel at lower speeds if we have enough at higher speeds  –the solution is to bleed some back to the tank. Easy. How much we will determine by a restriction in the return line. Get it? Got it. Well it sounds pretty straight forward. So how come I’ve lost the plot to the extent I pulled the engine out of the car to stop wasting time on it  – now I lie in bed thinking about it.
The system I have is a New Old Stock locally made (Australian) single 4” venturi set up. The metering block incorporates the pill, a fuel shut off and throttle (connected to the butterfly by an adjustable length arm). The guy that designed and made these about 25 years ago as far as I can establish he made about 25 units and then lost interest and moved on to other things. A sedan racer won a national championship series using one so they do work. Well mine doesn’t – least not very well. The system is manufactured for Methanol fuel.  I have a new Enderle 80A-1 pump being feed by a # 10 line then #6 to the metering block. Between the pump and metering block I have a test port with a pressure gauge. I have a #6 return line to the tank. I have 31 nozzles and started with a 85 pill. The first set of plugs I had were some really old and dirty Denso W20EX-U at .025” gap fired by an internal coil Vertex. Fired up OK - flames in the pipes and running rough at say 3-4000 RPM broke the first pressure gauge going past 110psi. No fumes in the eyes or throat. 
Here it is - https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10201977283752322&set=vb.1792156888&type=2&theater   
Fitted a set of NGK BP6ES and a new 350psi liquid filled pressure gauge and went to a .105 pil.  Fired it up and saw 100psi @ 2000 rpm so figured I needed to lean it out further.  As well as looking a bit sooty the plugs looked wet so I figured I needed to go up a step hotter with the plugs as well.
Fitted a set of NGK BP5ES plus @.020”gap.  Couldn’t get it started cracked the delivery line at the metering block and at best a dribble on cranking. Cracked the line at the top of the pump and fuel present (gravity). Cracked the lines at the nozzles – nothing while cranking?  Drained the tank removed and blew out all the lines blew out the metering block (in situ). Noticed no pressure on cranking so went from a .105 to a .72 pill. With a fair bit of fuel to prime it I got it running but with a bit less that 20psi line pressure @1500 and something in the vicinity of 50psi at 4,000 rpm. Breaking down and rough as guts at 4,000 rpm. What the?? Where has my pressure gone?  I have a set of 37 nozzles I would prefer to run because to my thinking % changes to the area of the orifice are going to start to have less impact on a smaller pill if you get my logic. But I’m not keen on to many more changes now that I’ve lost my way.
When I was a kid my long departed father used to say 99% inspiration and 1% perspiration so as a result I’m a chronic over thinker. My heads hurting – thanks Dad.

63

Front Engine Dragsters / Slick goes flat

« on: December 06, 2014, 12:46:21 PM »

I have M/T slicks with no tubes. One goes flat in about 2 days. It is currently off the wheel so I can get a small adjustment made to the backspace. Short of fitting tubes any thing I can do to the slick while it's off to stop or slow this?

64

Front Engine Dragsters / Just for fun little guy FED combos

« on: November 21, 2014, 10:24:17 PM »

Howdy
I'm putting a just for fun combo together to go racing on a couple of 1/8 mile tracks. I see guys here talking about 10,000 RPM small blocks using 7,000 RPM converters. Now that's way out of reach for a lot of us so lets talk about our home built low buck just for fun combo's.
I have a 150" chassis, 31x12 MT tyres, 4.3 gears, 904 TF trans with an 8" converter - no trans brake so about 3000 is about where I can hold it with my hand brake. Engine wise a 360 Chrysler with an old Racer Brown ST 21 cam, mechanical injection and a Vertex wil be getting the show on the road.  That's it no electronic driver stuff, no data loggers, no radiator, 4 feet of wire and nothing much else. I haven't run this down a track yet - waiting on some body work. I'm hoping for high 5's on the eighth. What are you little guys building and  racing?
Cheers
Tony

65

Front Engine Dragsters / Motivation - keeping the fire alight

« on: November 08, 2014, 02:42:18 AM »

Howdy
I bought 3/4 of a car in May '2013. Since then with the help of a mate I front halved the chassis it was 185" wb now it's 155". I've built an injected 366 Chrysler small block and a mate built a short Torqueflite trans. I have 4.56 gears in a 31 spline 9" and 31" tyres.  In total there is 47 inches of wiring in the car. I have fired the engine and all seems well. I'm an old school guy and have done everything here at home and what I haven't done has been done by some like minded mates - lots of cut and shut, ground, weld and modified here rather than speed shop blister pack parts. All I have left to do is build some side panels and a cowl but I have run out of steam. I'm going to send it out to a shop for that but I just don't seem to have any enthusiasm left. How do you guys get over these motivational humps?

66

Spud Miller's Cave / Loctite 577

« on: October 08, 2014, 12:15:40 AM »

Howdy
Is Loctite 577 suitable for use with methanol?
Cheers

67

Spud Miller's Cave / Pump notchy ?

« on: September 27, 2014, 06:48:45 PM »

Hi
I'm a newbie to fuel injection so a basic question. I have a new 80A-1 pump. It feels notchie when I turn it . I put a drop of oil in it and it seemed the same and so I tried a drop of fuel in it and it still seems notchie but maybe a little better. Is this normal?  It doesn't seem right to me and I don't want to fit it an bugger the pump.
Cheers
Tony

68

Front Engine Dragsters / First fire up next Sunday morning and I'm looking at another chassis !

« on: September 18, 2014, 03:08:46 AM »

Howdy
25 years since I went down a track now I'm nearly ready to rock and roll again and first fire up will be the week-end. I figure the local Lutherans will appreciate a bit of back yard tuning about 10.00 on Sunday morning! I have a terrible track record with getting things finished as I'm always looking at the next project. I've been offered a new built chassis built from S&W race cars blueprints.  Does anyone have any pics of a S&W race cars chassis or complete 200" wheelbase car built from S&W plans? Has anyone used them are they a good thing.
Cheers
Tony

69

Spud Miller's Cave / Oils and Methanol

« on: August 22, 2014, 02:23:24 PM »

Howdy
Are Synthetic Oils compatible with methanol? If not what do I use - a 20/50 detergent mineral oil?
Cheers

70

Front Engine Dragsters / Trailers - getting it there in one piece.

« on: July 25, 2014, 04:01:06 AM »

Howdy
Many many years ago I ran a 160" WB FED with a mild steel chassis and a VW torsion bar front suspension. I used straps over the back tyres and some stretchy elastic strap about 3" wide from a furniture maker over the front axle to hold it all down on my open trailer. Never had  a problem.  Fast forward to today and I'm about to go racing again after at least 25 years away. I have an old chassis which I've front halved and this time I have solid mounted (welded) the front axle to the frame. How do I tie this to an open trailer on leaf springs without breaking the frame on our less than ideal roads? Should I suspend the chassis just forward of the engine?
Cheers
Tony