Messages

61

Spud Miller's Cave / Re: Time for some changes

« on: December 17, 2018, 10:47:04 PM »

Matt Hadford at Total Seal told us to have our machine shop that would be doing the honing call them to get the right hone program, because it's different when we are burning alky, rather than gas.
So I would call your ring guy about low %'s of nitro.
Back in the day , 60's-70's my real nitro JrFueler we ran 10.75-11-1 pistons on 98% nitro in a all iron 301 ci SBC. For a while we ran a dykes SS top ring, as suggested by our piston guy. We had a real hard time getting the ring to seal, but they said "it's the hot set-up', so we would take all apart after each week-end, and change the hone angle, clean it all up and run it again, after trying that program about 6-8 times we finally gave up and went back to a moly ring. I figured the SS was working good on gas, not so on nitro.
I've heard the top fast Heritage A/f guys are running around 12-1 on 90+ nitro, and they run in the 5's at 230+mph
Good Luck,
Jon

62

Jon's Wheel House / Re: Front Tire Bearings

« on: December 17, 2018, 09:52:15 PM »

Yes Hayden Wheels has in stock sealed ceramic ball bearings for Anglia spindles for wire spoke wheels., for $280 for all 4 bearings.
Also I'm working now on ceramic bearings for a blower.
Hayden, 800-624-3803
Jon 

63

Front Engine Dragsters / Re: cheap performance gains

« on: December 05, 2018, 08:48:42 PM »

So your wheels are not wire spoke wheels ? What kind of wheels and tires are you using ? You are looking for a tenth @ 1/4 , and .05 @ 1/8 ? If you want 75% back if you don't get those numbers, then I would want a say in your combo.
Cheers, Jon

64

Front Engine Dragsters / Re: fORD 9" full floater

« on: December 04, 2018, 10:55:14 PM »

I agrre alum, never broke or chracked in 20 years of racing a FED,  steel if you are racing a heavy door car, not  FED.

65

Front Engine Dragsters / Re: storing the wheelie bar in the Trailer

« on: December 04, 2018, 10:52:09 PM »

We stand the WB up , wheel down , and strap it to an upright in our trailor, simple, no issues

66

Front Engine Dragsters / Re: cheap performance gains

« on: December 04, 2018, 10:49:30 PM »

Wideopen, as to your question " why buy $1100 wheels and tires" well I tell my customers that one pound rotating weight is = to 9-10 lbs of static weight [ what you will put on your front end so you can streer the car] SOOOO if you got by the theory that if you take 100 lbs off your car you will pick-up a tenth, and you take at least 10 lbs of rotating weight off your wheels = 100 lns. I can build wheels and tires that can be as light as 7.75 lbs each with rib tires. How much do your current wheel/tires weigh ?
Cheers, Jon

67

Tow Vehicles / Re: Towing in the pits

« on: November 15, 2018, 01:51:54 AM »

Just wood located on the rear motor plate, and double tie-downs on the slicks, since 1997. No chassis damage.
Another JrFueler had his bladder blow out and it broke his lower frame rails, towing home.

68

Tow Vehicles / Re: Towing in the pits

« on: November 14, 2018, 02:08:59 PM »

We have had a couple of issues in the 15 years we have been racing JF with tow straps, but only two, and that was the dragster driver was not paying attention.  It helps when we have crew members on the tailgate of the tow truck to watch the strap.
Back in 1969 I used a tow bar that attacked to the front axle , lifting up the front end and a trailer hitch coupler on the other end and just towed it back, even at the US Nationals when we won the event. We also just had 1 or 2 crew. Wide-open you might want to build such a tow bar, you don't even need a driver in the race car with the tow bar. Just have to design the bar to work around a nose piece. You could tow to the staging lanes, take the bar off , leave it on the tow truck, race and come back to pick it up, alto if you have just one crew guy, he can drive to pick you up at the turn off.
Here is a photo of the dolly we use now for  just moving the race car around in the pits and by lifting the front end up we can load the car into the trailer and then lower the car down onto the chasis support in the trailer.

Cheers, Jon

69

Drag Racing / Re: 7.0 license category

« on: November 05, 2018, 09:04:09 PM »

That could happen, because they will have a TNT on Wed. You might want to call Mike Rice Div 7 director to confirm the license run.

Jon

70

Drag Racing / Re: 7.0 license category

« on: November 05, 2018, 03:23:01 PM »

Yes that's we had to do with our new driver last year 3 runs, but at least one under 7.50 to upgrade from an ET license.
Two runs in Fontana and the thrird in Phoenix.

71

Front Engine Dragsters / Re: looking for ideas

« on: October 28, 2018, 11:42:37 PM »

What rim width are you running with your D2585's ?
Most of the NHRA Heritage JF cars run that Goodyear, including our JF B car. We ran 10" rims for lot of years, until I made more power , then needed 11" when we needed more traction in Bakersfield in the final when the sun went down, and the track cooled off. And when I made more power we went to the class limit on width 12" . BTW the Goodyears grow the most on the 10" rims.
We mostly run 6lb pf pressure , but when I'm looking for more tire speed I lower the pressure 1/4 to 1/2 lb. We have tried GY 33x12 tires for acouple of races, still not better ET's yet. But at the Heritage in Sacramento we had such bad tire shake we crossed the centerline All because of dead hook, because the track ran Jet cars before us and over prepped the track . if I was smart and quick enough, I would have told our crew to lower the tire pressure 1/2 lb after seeing Don Enriquez have bad tire shake in the same lane just in front of us, to get more tire speed.
The tire shake was so bad it twisted both axles, and cracked a cross member.
Another thing we ran into,, our car weighs 1450 lb with driver, and 325 lb of front end weight, and we were racing in Bakersfield a few yesrs ago running low 7.0's on our 11" rims, and another racer was running 11" rims too, but he was having traction problems, so I offered to let him use my mounted 2585 on my 12" rims , he ran a 7.03, but when we reached the final, he said I suppose you want you wheels/tires back, and I said as a matter a fact yes , because we were getting loose about 800'., cold and higher dew pt track.
Now the rest of the story , the other racer built his own super light JF car weighing 1355 lb, with driver, but his front end weight was the same as ours, so that means his car was 95 lb lighter than our car in the rear = less weight on the slicks .
My lesson is if we dead hook, tire shake, check axle twist and check complete chassis, altho when we have had tires shake in the past that we checked  our chassis, it was only in the front , even tho you would think it would be in the rear.

72

Front Engine Dragsters / Re: looking for ideas

« on: October 26, 2018, 04:17:36 PM »

What tire pressures with your D2585 GY's

73

Front Engine Dragsters / Re: calming the car down on the starting line

« on: October 25, 2018, 01:48:53 PM »

Crider , I have benn following your posts, and I may not have THE answer, but here are a couple of my thoughts;
I assume your chassis and rear-end set-up is good since your car was going straight before, with no chassis changes, just more power ?
But again check the roll out of your slicks, and try swaping tires to see if it still turns right at about 30' .
If it was my JF car I would add at least 40 lbs to the nose if you are getting a quick yank of the front wheels at the hit, that might be adding to your problem if you have a short or stiff wheelie par.
My WB is a 5 foot 3 bar CM with no connectors between the bars, so I get some flex in the WB , a stiff WB will only make your problem worse when the WB hits.
Again , if it was my car and I added pressure to the right tire and it still goes more right, I would think it means the right tire is spinning more so the left slick steers the car to the right.
I notice you and a few other racers are using the M/T 33x10.5x15 tires, and just so know all the 10.5 tires were built for the 10.5 door car classes, where the cars weight 2-3k+ and shift allot more times than your PG , which means the sidewalls are stiffer, and softer compounds for better traction. Where as FED 2 speed cars want/need enough tire spin the keep the engine at it's HP RPM range.
I have tried the MT 33x10.5 a few times on our 1450lb [ with driver] Heritage all iron JrFuel car, mostly because a buddy of mine could not get them to work on his Heritage A/F car, mostly because he was looking for more tire growth , because it was a a stiffer side tire he did not get what he wanted. With our JF car we did get a bit better 60' times, but the GY 31x12x15 gave us better ET's, AND it drifted to the right, probly not the reason you are going right.     
What I would do if it was my car is keep adding front weight until the front wheels don't come up, raise the WB up to 2-2.5 "  check roll-out, check for chassis cracked or broke tubing [ we have cracked tubing from tire shake] try different launch RPM, or leave off the foot brake and tire pressures [ MT suggests 7-7 .25, but i see some guys are running 5-5.25, but check to see how fast they are running]. One thing that helped our 7.0's 186-189mph car is changing to a 1.69 first gear so it will not hit the tires so hard, and I run a looser converter [ 8500 rpm] that also helps not hit the tires so hard.
About converters, your car will improve when you get the converter to cloer match you engines power range. example your converter is stallin/ flashing at 6.2k but if you engine "come-on" at 7k she wil struggle for 1000 rpm. best way to get the right converter is to dyno your engine, if that's not possible ball park idea is it should stall about 1000-1500 below your shift RPM.
Another idea is to aim your GoPro camera at your tack to play back the goPro to see what the RPM drops to right after the shift [ which is your true stall rpm].
This is no dought too much info, so feel free to call me , 805-444-4489, cell
Jon     

74

Spud Miller's Cave / Re: et change with engine temp

« on: October 23, 2018, 12:37:04 AM »

To stage your car at the perfect temp, depends on your combo, Greg has alum heads and I don't know if he runs water in his heads/block.
My JF engine must use iron heads & block, and we always run water because not only does it even out the temps around the two center cylinders but it does make more HP because water supports the clynders better and has better ring seal. also cuts down on the cyclinders from having harmonics [ like ringing a bell] , I've seen it on dyno pulls. OK enough on that subject.
We don't have a temp gauge on the car, I juse a infared temp gun to check the temps on the front of my heads just before it pulls into the lights, and I like 160-170° so it's up to 180-190° at the top bulb. alky fuel likes a hotter engine, it burns better. When I check the head temps after the run it can be 200-220°.
I had another engine in another teams JF car and they did not run water, so I kept the temps around 150°
I know of an ex NE-1 [ 7.60] team that fine tuned their car with engine temps , like if they ran a 7.55, they would run the engine cooler, like 10°, I think,  to run 7.600.
You'll need to find the temps your engine likes, of course all that can change if you burn some nitro, I don't run any nitro, Heritage JF rule is pure alky only.
BTW when I have helped other JF teams staging and checking temps some take way too long to get any temp, because they did not lean the barrel valve enough, I set mine at 18% using a cylinder leak down gauge.
Jon   

75

Events / Re: 27th Annual California Hot Rod Reunion

« on: October 18, 2018, 12:07:01 AM »

Glenn if you do come out to the CHRR be sure to stop by the JrFuel pits, look for the Hayden Wheel display and our all orange FED
We will have 10 JF teams racing, and of course the CACKLEFEST
Have a good trip
Jon