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Messages - Curly1

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1
Front Engine Dragsters / Re: Over tiring a FED for bracket racing
« on: May 04, 2023, 05:44:35 AM »
Well the thing is you know what makes the car work, you want it to wrap up the tire some, barely hit the wheelie bar to help it get up on the tire and keep it from getting front wheels too high or climbing too fast. Sounds simple but it is not. I had to try a bunch of different tire combinations, one thing well worth trying is putting tubes in the tires. It stiffens them up some and on my car it really helped.

2
Front Engine Dragsters / Re: Battery Cut-Off/Kill Switch
« on: May 04, 2023, 05:32:02 AM »
On my Altered I built I put the battery in the back with a push off mechanical shut off. Then the battery cable goes to electric solenoid for a master kill switch that I can kill all power from inside my car. I turn main power on when I pull it out of trailer and use the inside switch during the day.

3
Front Engine Dragsters / Re: Thoughts on dynoing engine
« on: May 04, 2023, 05:22:10 AM »
I am a huge believer in dynoing a motor if you have a good dyno operator that knows fuel injection and blowers. They can get you a really good, safe tune up in one day that could take you several trips to track test and tune and that is if you do not hurt your motor trying to get that tune up.

4
Altereds / Re: Do I need a wing?
« on: May 04, 2023, 05:08:25 AM »
From my experience when I started running faster than 5.25 in the 1/8 mile the wing helped. In the 1/4 mile you could feel it get up on the tire and felt loose. Never did anything stupid but you could feel it. When I put the wing on it the faster you go the smoother it got. Also helped in the 1/8 mile when air was really good and track temps were cooler or marginal tracks. On a National event prepped track you may not ever need it but for me it was a big help.

5
Front Engine Dragsters / Re: Over tiring a FED for bracket racing
« on: August 04, 2022, 07:41:29 PM »
There is nobody that can tell you what tire you need here. A FED is a different animal than all other cars. Your car and mine to are different than even all others here. Depends on how stiff your chassis is, how much it flexes, weight distribution, power, converter, tire, wheelie bar, weather, track and a bunch of other things. I had to go through 5 different tire combinations to get one to work good and you have to do a bunch of testing with tire pressure and moving weight around before you know if that combination will or will not work. I had to go back and stiffen chassis, add bars, lower rear end in the chassis and raise cage.  I had to move a bunch of weight up to the nose. After all that work and money my FED would hook up and go right down the track every time. Still it is difficult in the short, rough shutdown tracks.  Some of these FED's are flimsy and flex like crazy, some weigh less than 1300 race ready, some have stiffer chassis, some have full bodies that may stiffen chassis up some. Just my battery alone I started with it in the nose, then moved it to the middle and then moved it to very back of car and now it is back in the nose with additional weight.

Even some cars that look similar are nothing alike when you look at all of the variables. If you want someone to tell you exactly what you need then get you a generic 4 link rear engine dragster with a BBC. They are all basically the same but you can pick your own colors but you still have to paint it with the tribal swirls paint job. (you choose colors though).

If you want to make your FED work you are going to have to take it out, try different tire pressures and move weight around and work with wheelie bar until you get it hooking good with out hitting wheelie bar too hard and no bouncing. Then if it does not work you may have to add tubes and if that does not work you may need to change to a different tire. Even with the weight I added up front I am sure under full throttle at the finish line there is very little weight on the nose. Our cars are a 150 MPH unicycle basically and weight distribution is critical. I think in the end you want front wheels to come up a little, chassis flex some and hit wheelie bar light then keep the chassis flexed under full throttle and enough weight on front tires to steer as you are going down track. Basically I am trying to keep almost all weight on the back tires until I let off the gas with out pulling big wheelies. I could set up my car where it bulls big beautiful wheelies but it would pop out of beams and go red and you could not steer it.

6
Spud Miller's Cave / Re: E85???
« on: April 23, 2022, 07:40:42 PM »
Anything E-85 will do Alcohol will do about 35% better and not stink like poo. Better cooling? Alcohol. Better performance? Alcohol. And yes you can run alcohol on low compression motors works great.

7
Altereds / Re: Hand Brake?
« on: April 23, 2022, 07:10:03 PM »
My old Altered I added a hand brake with another master cylinder and it worked very good. You have a lot of leverage with the long handle. I do think the brake was dragging some under hard acceleration due to weight of the handle so I modified it some. 

8
Front Engine Dragsters / Re: Thread "locking up"?
« on: February 27, 2022, 07:52:53 PM »
On the threads I started I could not read the responses unless I posted again? And on the FED build thread I could not read the last few posts yet pretty sure there was more.

9
Front Engine Dragsters / Re: bracket racing a FED
« on: February 27, 2022, 07:49:03 PM »
Be careful with 16 volt battery they are rather deceiving. They spin over faster but also go dead faster and with mechanical injection you may learn it the hard way.

I think you have to run radiator and fan if you are going to bracket race. If not you will have problems and lose rounds and races because of it. We need all the help we can get and in bracket racing part of consistency is being able to control water temp and other variables as much as possible and to compensate accurately for those you can not control Weather etc.


10
Altereds / Re: Thoughts on cooling systems
« on: February 27, 2022, 07:38:31 PM »
I built several of my cars with the Honda style aluminum radiators. You can get them on Ebay cheap and they are nice. I do run a fan with a thermostat controller so when it gets temp I want fan comes on. I can turn it off when I want to build heat. On my new car I put a oil cooler type radiator but have yet to try it.

11
Spud Miller's Cave / Re: My Fuel log
« on: January 30, 2022, 06:39:45 AM »
I like that, it looks clean, simple and effective.

12
Front Engine Dragsters / Re: bracket racing a FED
« on: January 30, 2022, 06:35:18 AM »
You can Bracket race a FED and they can be consistent in fact I set up my FED so I could bracket race if I wanted to. I have a good cooling system with fans and good transmission coolers. Still the FED is not as easy to load, unload, drive around the pits, get in and out of, get suited up and in the end it is rather a pain to bracket race. That takes a lot of fun out of it. Also some tracks will not let you burn out past the line in a bracket race and that is rather a pain to get a good burn out and get lined up right. That to can be done but just another little inconvenience.

For weight on the front end my car was pulling to the left and scrubbing rubber on right side of tires. Added some weight on the nose and it goes nice and straight. There probably was not 10 Lbs of weight on the nose when it was full throttle before. With a FED it is a balance deal and also if your reaction times ever seem out of line add a bunch of weight up front. They are bad about popping front tires out of beams, setting down then the front tires may come up slowly and set down soft. It is that quick pop up the ruins your reaction times.

As for not being able to turn around to see your opponent behind you, who cares? You are going to be faster car 99% of the time any way. You will be chasing them. I think in the last 10 years and hundreds of passes only 2 times I remember other car was faster and it was like .02 which is basically heads up.

I do think you need to get a bunch of passes on the car to work out the issues and if that is bracket racing go do it. It is a FED you WILL have issues to deal with.

13
Spud Miller's Cave / Re: Going Price for SBC Fuel Injection System
« on: January 23, 2022, 07:41:38 PM »
When I first went to injection 8 or 9 years ago I found a really nice nearly new Enderle hat, SBC manifold pump and all for $1200. Everything I needed to hook it up and go and it did. Picked up about .10 in the 1/8 mile.

14
Front Engine Dragsters / Re: FED Build
« on: January 23, 2022, 07:38:28 PM »
Electric fuel pump is fine for carbs. If you are concerned about the safety you may consider doing like I did. I have a manual shut off in rear of the car but I also have and electric one that I can shut off master power from inside in an emergency. When I get to the track I turn the main power on in back of car and leave it on until I load it up at end of the day. During the day I use the interior master to shut down power. That way I am not jumping in and out of car to turn on power.

15
Spud Miller's Cave / Re: Pump speed V delivery
« on: November 21, 2021, 11:33:20 AM »
I would not slow the pump down much, I would just return more of the fuel back to the tank. With right check valves you could set idle pressure at 5 or so and have 10 wide open if you wanted.

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