Number One Qualifier!
By Emily | June 9, 2009
That’s right, you heard me - We got number one qualifier this past weekend! This past weekend was by far the best weekend we have had racing our Super Comp dragster and Chris and I are sitting on cloud nine.
The weekend started off great with afternoon racing call. Spokane County Raceways decided to start the Saturday session at 3pm to allow racers travel time that morning. It offered a great chance to rest up a little that morning and more than enough time to get our act together at the track. We said hello to old friends and met a few new ones. This group of racers are the sweetest, most generous people I’ve ever met. They make this such a wonderful experience.
Number One Qualifier Grins
We were able to have three qualifying passes before round one on Saturday. Our first pass, right off the trailer, landed us with a 9.053 (adjusted from 8.90 to an 9.05 because of altitude) in our pocket. Chris and I were stunned and even speechless when we realized this might give us the #1 position in qualifying. Our other two passes were close, but nothing could beat our fantastic run. After we finished the passes, I ran to the Woodruff’s trailer to check out the ladder and low and behold, I clinched that #1 position! Not only was I #1, but this position offered me a bye for first round. I couldn’t have asked for a better start to this weekend.
Try to Get the Friggin 4-Wheeler Started
My second round match-up was Chuck Lynne. Chuck has been racing for a number of years and as much as I tried not to be nervous, I was. I have a tendency to be so focused on the finished line that I always miss the win light at the end of the track. I rely on Chris to tell me over the radio how the race went. The only thing I heard after round two was screaming into the headset. We had beat Chuck with an .018 package! Now honestly, I could gone home right there and I would have been content. This day was the best day of drag racing that I had ever experienced. I’ve never been that high qualifying and I definitely had never seen third round! Unfortunately I was paired up against Bob Woodruff for third round. He won on a holeshot (beat me on the starting line), which made me realize I need to do some work on my lights. But honestly, nothing could ruin this day - It was perfect.
Sunday was a great day as well. We spent a little more time chasing our number and I spent the whole day chasing those lights. I got another bye first round when Tom Gresham had some engine problems and couldn’t make the call. My second round opponent was Mike Seekins (#1 qualifier this race with a perfect 9.050). Unfortunately I red lit this round. It wouldn’t have stung so bad had I not ran a 9.056 (.006 from perfect). Oops! This was about the time I came to the conclusion that we had done enough work on the car this year and I needed to do some work on the driver!
Changing the Oil - Righty Tighty...
When I first started drag racing, Chris bought me Tami Eggleston’s video set called Psyched Out! - The Psychology of Drag Racing. I have spent the past couple of days watching these videos, thinking about my driving abilities and figuring out some new ideas that I could implement this weekend at the Spokane Divisional. She also offers some workbook pages to help keep track of your progress and let you know when your driving skills are slipping. I plan to use these this weekend and focus on my driving. Hopefully this will produce some better lights and maybe even a win light!
Hope to see you all out there this weekend!
EMDUB
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Spokane Raceways - Two Weekends in a Row!
By Emily | June 3, 2009
EMDUB Racing will be in Spokane for the next two weekends! We wanted to extend the opportunity to everyone to come and watch!
Here our the two races we will be participating in:
June 6/7, 2009 (Saturday - Sunday) - PNSCA Race 5/6 - Spokane, WA
June 12-14, 2009 (Friday - Sunday) - NHRA Div. 6 Divisionals - Spokane, WA
I recommend the first one as you will get to see more of EMDUB Racing.
This race weekend (June 6/7) will be a double header. There will be a
race Saturday and a race Sunday. This race is with a local association
and has some stunning Super Comp racers. The second race weekend will be much busier, but it is a huge race and will be really exciting. This
weekend (June 12-14) there will be qualifying on Friday and Saturday and
the big race on Sunday.
For both races and all days the gates open at 8am, racing starts at 9am, except for Saturday, June 6th - the gates open at 1pm and racing starts at 2pm. My class usually doesn’t get a pass until 9:30 or 10am because they send slower cars down the track first to put some rubber down for faster cars. However, I recommended getting there early.
Here is all the pricing information you need:
June 6/7: $12 entry fee
(http://spokanecountyraceway.com/events/drag-et-drag-racing-series-7-lol-pnsca/
June 12/13/14: Friday - $15, Saturday - $20, Sunday - $25
http://spokanecountyraceway.com/events/nhra-lucas-oil-drag-racing-series/
Here is the website to the track for direction information:
http://spokanecountyraceway.com/
Hope to see you all out there!
EMDUB
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Of Friends and Fixes
By Chris | June 1, 2009
Em updated you on how we finally got our Boise bugs nailed and ran better in Bremerton (but not quite well enough to get a win light…). I thought I’d tell you how we did that. It’s really a testament to what good friends we have, and I love to talk about them.
We had several problems in Boise. The first, and probably easiest to fix was a stumbling problem, where the car would stall after the burnout or even on the launch. Em recounted how embarrassing that was, so I don’t need to reiterate that. However, we fixed that problem by realizing that Boise is at a very high altitude, and that we were probably pushing too much fuel through to match the thinner air.
Bob Johnson, our engine builder, and I had debated on the dyno whether to leave the size 96 jets in the carburetor or to go back to 95 (smaller means less fuel). Since it made just about the same amount of horsepower with either, we decided to stick with the 96s. But Boise seemed to need the 95s. Bob was pitted next to us and helped us figure that out. Less fuel works better with the thin air, so that fixed the stalling problem.
Bob "the builder" Johnson
The other problem, however, was much more confusing. The issue was that the car wouldn’t stay “on the stop”. And that requires some explanation.
When we leave the line, the car launches and then immediately goes on the throttle stop. The throttle stop is a device between the carb and the intake, and its job is to slow down the car for just a couple of seconds, then get out of the way. It does two things: it slows a really fast car down to the 8.90 seconds we need to run, and it provides us the ability to tune the car to within the thousandths of a second we need to run in this incredibly competitive class. We run a Dedenbear TS6 stop, and it’s a wonderful, top-of-the-line device — very consistent and very tunable.
The problem we were having in Boise is that the car wouldn’t stay “on the stop”. That is, it would drop to the RPM we had set, but instead of staying there for the duration that we had chosen, the car would continue to accelerate. Fortunately, we have a Racepak data logger on the car and could tell that this was happening. Without the logger, the car would just look very fast, and we wouldn’t known what was happening. In a future post, I’ll show you some output from this wonderful device and walk you through the myriad things it tells us.
The question then became, why? Why would it not stay where we set it? Was the stop broken? We tested it, and it appeared to be working. But working in the pits is not the same as on the track. Maybe something was broken inside the stop? I didn’t know. But with Bremerton just a few days away, I couldn’t take a chance. So I ordered another throttle stop from our friends at Jegs just in case, and had it shipped in by air so I’d have a spare.
But I didn’t think that was it. Something else was going on. As a “hail Mary pass”, I tossed a quick email to our friend Jack Beckman, the consummate professional racer who sold us the car and has been the source of much wisdom. I explained the problem, and pressed “send”. Within 30 seconds, my phone rang. It was Jack. We discussed the problem, and he came up with a half-dozen ideas, from loose intake manifold bolts to a flaky carburetor. Then I casually mentioned that we’d changed the way the car shifted… and all heck broke loose.
You see, after our test session in Seattle, Bob the Builder had suggested that, rather than shifting at a specific time down the track (like 1.2 seconds) we should shift when the car reaches a specific RPM (say 7400). It made complete sense, that’s the way you shift your car by hand - crank it up, shift when the revs get so high, and so on. It’s also the way to get the most horsepower out of the engine, it would be operating in the peak horsepower range longer. The car would go faster because we were running in the engine’s sweet spot, and because we’d be shifting out past the time on the stop, it would be more consistent. So I changed the car to shift on RPM before we got to Boise. (My winter re-wiring job had made this an easy change.)
Emily, Jason, Jack, Jenna, Chris
When I mentioned this to Jack, he went bonkers. Why would I do such a thing? Who suggested it? Has that person won the Super Comp world title, like he had? And so on… But, I said, it seems to make sense. Well, it’s wrong, he said. Why? That’s where it got interesting.
It’s because the car is just too darn powerful, and the changes we made to get more horsepower over the winter had made it even more so. With the car in first gear, the engine is too strong, and just continues to accelerate, even though the throttle stop is restricting the fuel intake. It’s like a wild horse, just striving to be free. The huge engine just needs to run, and if you give it muscle (by leaving it in first gear), run it will. The trick is to shift into second really quickly. He even suggested that, with all our additional horsepower, we should move from last year’s setting of shifting at 1.2 seconds, down to shifting at 1.0 seconds. Our buddy Ed Hauter (the PNSCA president) said that some people who run the really big engines (the 632s and such) don’t even shift, they run in second gear the whole way.
This seemed a little “out there” to me. Why would what gear we’re in change how the throttle worked? But hey, as Jack said, he’s won the world championship, so it was worth a shot. And again, the re-wiring I had done over the winter made the change easy. I even made it so that we could switch back and forth at the track with just a chip change. And off to Bremerton we went.
The change was almost miraculous. From our very first run in Bremerton, the car stayed on the stop just like it was supposed to. Our only problem was that it was still too fast. But that was solved by slowing down on the stop and staying there longer. Soon we were back in the game, and ready to compete in this ultra-competitive class. Thanks, Jack!
Funny thing, the next Monday, my new Drag Racer magazine showed up and there was a tech question to the editor about this same issue. And the answer was just the same. Shift on time, and shift early when running on a throttle stop. Counter-intuitive yes, but it works. Oh, and on that same Monday, I sent back the new throttle stop I ordered, because we clearly didn’t need it.
So thanks to Jack for his help. I even called Jack on Saturday at Bremerton with another small problem, and he always took my call, and dispensed great wisdom. Bob, too, has always been there to help, even when I’m being stupid. Thank you, Bob, for always taking my call, and for not laughing (at least to my face) when I ask a stupid question. It’s friends like you who make racing so rewarding.
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PNSCA in Bremerton
By Emily | May 30, 2009
Fun fact: In the summer I like to pretend like I don’t have any responsibilities. It’s not a great excuse for my lacking of blogging, but it’s all I’ve got. But never fear - EMDUB is here!
Two weeks ago Chris and I packed up and headed to Bremerton with high hopes for our first Pacific Northwest Super Comp Association race of 2009. I finished up school that Friday and drove 5 hours back to the Seattle area. I immediately headed to bed and was on the road with Chris for Bremerton at 6:30am.
We arrived in plenty of time, set up and felt good about our car (especially after all the Boise problems were solved). Our first two passes were time trial passes and they both turned out pretty well, although a little fast. We were up against John Young in first round and knew it was going to be a tough race. We dialed in what we thought was best and headed up to the staging lanes.
Watch Out...
However, when we got to the staging lanes there was a frenzy brewing on the track. Everyone hopped out of their cars and headed to the starting line to hear the news. Although it was clear weather, days of rain had left their mark. In both lanes water had seeped up through and onto the track. They cleaned up as best they could and ordered us all to get into our cars. With many nerves less than calmed there was a bit of a discussion amongst the racers, and with the track owner, about the condition of the track. We came to the conclusion that it was safe and proceeded with round one. Fortunately (or unfortunately) we were the last pair up and were able to get a good look at the other drivers’ passes. Bob Woodruff was in the right lane in front of me and had quite a scare in his pass. His tailend swung out so far that he was almost in the grass.
With this on my mind, and last-second words of advice being whispered in my ear from the track owner through Chris on how to avoid the water (yes, I said AVOID the water - how does one do that in a race car?), I pulled up to stage. I had decided in my head that I was going to make this pass and had comes to terms with it. I let all other thoughts slide from my mind and focused on the task at hand. Fortunately that pass went just fine, except that I never saw that win light. John Young is a tough competitor, who later went to the finals in that race.
Once round one was over, the drama ensued. A number of drivers were livid about the track and nervous to continue. The association as a whole came to the decision that we would toss out the round, start this race over the next day, and attempt to do both races on Sunday. This seemed to be a fine decision and we all packed up our trailers. A group of us headed to Round Table Pizza for some dinner and then it was off to bed.
Sunday morning was another early one, but started off as slow as can be. The track sessions were moving slower than the day before and the Super Comp cars were barely getting any track time. We finally made it to the redo of yesterday’s round one at about 11. This pass was gorgeous, except for that itty-bitty red light I had. Too bad because I had John on a double breakout. Oh well.
Green Light
The first race took so long to finish that a number of the racers left before the end of the day. It wasn’t until almost 5pm that we were able to start the second race - way later than we had hoped. Since a few racers had left, including my opponent, I got a bye first round and a guaranteed entrance to second round. Woohoo! My excited was short-lived however, when I found out I had Rick Dearinger in second round.
Rick and I have had many a match up and this guy gets me every time. I was not going to let him win on a red light, so I put a good chunk of time in the box and crossed my fingers. Unfortunately, Rick is tough cookie and beat me fair and square. I promised him that one day I would kick his butt and he said he knew that day was coming so he was going to rub his win in as much as he could. I just figure that I appreciate my wins more when they actually do come!
Unfortunately third round ended up being rained out and that was the end of the weekend. It was a bit of an unconventional weekend, but a good one all in all. With a few races under our belt, Chris and I are looking forward to back to back weekends in Spokane. Hope to see you all out there!
EMDUB
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Speedbumps in Boise
By Chris | May 12, 2009
Our first race of the year was in Boise, a few weeks ago, on the first weekend in May. I apologize for the long delay in posting, but things have been a little crazy.
Not only was Boise our first race of the year, it was our first entry into a major NHRA Divisional race, just adding to the butterflies. To top it all off, it was also Emily’s first time behind the wheel in eight months. To expect everything to go swimmingly would have been foolish. As such, we didn’t expect much. Good thing…
I drove the rig to Boise on Thursday, April 30th, tagging along with our good friend Ed Hauter. We met up before 6am at a nearby interstate exit and made the eight plus hour drive in a bit of a rush. Ed had a new engine in his car and was hoping to get there in time for an afternoon test session. Unfortunately, we missed the test session by a half-hour or so. But we got there without incident, set up our pits, and prepared for the next day.
Emily drove over from Pullman Thursday night and met me at the hotel (after a quick visit with her beau Mike, a Boise guy). We scurried to the track early on Friday, hoping to get in a couple of good test sessions in the books.
As you may have read from posts here, I had completely redone the car from the frame rails up. Not only did we have a completely rebuilt engine, now making about 890 horsepower (+90 over last year), but my serious case of “while we’re at it” meant we had all new electrical and electronics, a completely rebuilt transmission, new fuel pump, water pump and starter, all new plumbing, new tires, etc., etc. I even changed the way the car shifted gears. Basically everything that could make the combination different was changed. Sure, we have all new stuff, and some of the best stuff around, but it changed everything.
So we needed all the testing we could get. That was not to be. Our first pass was a bust because of a silly error. In warmup, we set the throttle stop in a kind of backward mode to test the “dead stall” (the RPMs when on the stop). We forgot to set it back. Funny thing about drag racing, going slower as you go down the track is not a good thing. So that pass, and any potential valuable info to be gained, was a bust.
Em Deep in Concentration
Our second pass was better, Em was on her game and cut a great light, and the car seemed to run well. Too well, in fact, we ran far too fast. Our target in Boise is slower than normal (9.20 seconds vs. the normal 8.90), but we still ran well into the 8.70s. Something was wrong, the car didn’t seem to want to stay “on the stop”, but just kept going faster and faster. It was just an animal dying to run fast. Hmmm… what’s up with that?
We were also having problems with the car stalling out. It just wouldn’t idle right, and died after Em’s burnout. This problem only got worse. On the third pass, it died twice before the launch, and we got pushed off the starting line. Ugh. Talk about embarrassing. And no data… Not a great way to end our first day at our first Divisional race.
Saturday dawned with threatening weather, and the track in a hurry to get runs in before the rain came. So instead of getting the two or three more test runs in that we had hoped for, we were headed into Round 1 of eliminations. Without a good run to our credit. Ugh.
Overnight, Em and I had decided to change the carburetor jets to compensate for the thin air, hoping that this would mitigate the stalling problem. Boise’s Firebird is an interesting track, with a silly, long staging area and a 180-degree turn right behind the water box. OK, if you’re in a little car, but in a dragster, it means a two (or three) point turn. Makes for some fun, especially when the car wants to stall. We hoped our last minute changes would fix it.
Ready, Set, Go! Wheels Up!
We scrambled, got ready, and got up there armed for round one. We were running a little roadster, and it all went well. No stalling, so that part seemed fixed.
Unfortunately, the “going too fast” part was not fixed. Despite slowing the car down a bunch, we ran an 8.91. Super if you’re in Seattle, way too fast in Boise (against the 9.20 index). So our weekend was done. As it turns out so was most of the racing for the day. They managed to get a few more cars in before the rain, but that was about it. Sunday was a “hurry up and wait” for most teams as they finished the racing between the rain showers. For us, it was mostly pack up and go.
We learned a lot in Boise: Emily’s still darn good on the tree, the car can easily run what we want, and we still love this whole racing thing. But we left with a lot to do, and fix. That’s part of the whole racing thing too. What we have going for us are some good friends, and great resources. We solved most of our issues the next weekend, with the help and advice from those friends. But that’s for another post. Stay tuned.
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Boise Divisionals: This Weekend!
By Emily | April 26, 2009
Hey Fans!
We will be out at Firebird Raceways in Boise this weekend, May 1-3rd, for the Boise Divisional. Time trials will start at 9am on Friday and we should get 2-3 runs in. Time trials will continue at 9am on Saturday, where we should get another 2 runs in. First Round will be at 3pm on Saturday and the race will continue on Sunday. If you are interested in coming out to the race, I suggest coming out on Saturday. Tickets will be sold at the track and should be around $20.
Hope to see you out there!
EMDUB
Firebird Raceway
8551 Hwy 16
Eagle, ID 83616
208.938.8986
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2009 Summer Schedule
By Emily | March 21, 2009
It’s finally here! Our 2009 summer racing schedule is finally together. Please feel free to check out the dates and hopefully we will see you all out there!
April
April 10/11 (Friday and Saturday) – Testing - Bremerton, WA
May
May 1-3, 2009 (Friday - Sunday) - NHRA Div. 6 Divisionals - Boise, ID
May 9/10, 2009 (Saturday - Sunday) - PNSCA Race 1/2 - Bremerton, WA
June
June 6/7, 2009 (Saturday - Sunday) - PNSCA Race 5/6 - Spokane, WA
June 12-14, 2009 (Friday - Sunday) - NHRA Div. 6 Divisionals - Spokane, WA
June 19-21, 2009 (Friday - Sunday) - NHRA Div. 6 Divisionals - Seattle, WA
July
July 17-19, 2009 (Friday - Sunday) - NHRA Northwest Nationals - Seattle, WA
July 25, 2009 (Saturday) - PNSCA Race 7 - Mission, BC
August
August 1-2, 2009 (Saturday - Sunday) - NHRA Div. 6 Open - Medicine Hat, AB
August 15/16, 2009 (Saturday - Sunday) - PNSCA Race 8/9 - Bremerton, WA
September
September 12/13, 2009 (Saturday - Sunday) - PNSCA Race 10/11 - Woodburn, OR
September 25-26, 2009 (Friday - Saturday) - NHRA Div. 6 Divisionals - Eagle Point, OR
October
October 29 - November 1, 2009 (Thursday - Sunday) - NHRA Las Vegas Nationals - Las Vegas, NV
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While We’re At It
By Chris | March 1, 2009
I promised an update on the engine, and you’ll get one. On Tuesday we’re taking it to the dyno, and you’ll get a full report and pictures after that. But I’ve been working hard on the car, and Em’s all over me for a blog update in the mean time, so here you go.
Perhaps the most fun part about winter with a race car is the chance to take a look at what you have, and imagine how it could be better. So this winter, as I started getting things out of the car, I began looking at improving things. And I got a bad case of the “while we’re at it”s.
The current case of it started with a simple little problem. As we started working on the engine, Bob pointed out that we really should fix the fuel pressure gauge. You see, the engine was out and the fuel lines were on the floor, but it was still reading pressure. Probably should fix that. And it would be great if it was in the dash, so Em could know if there was a problem. OK, maybe we can work that out, I thought.
Old Dash Now Empty
Then, we realized that with the new vacuum system we should probably have a gauge for that too. And that created a problem, a really crowded dash. Or what could be called a “10 pounds of stuff, but only a 5 pound bag”.
In addition, we wanted to have the Racepak record those pieces of data. This isn’t a big deal, as it can record all kinds of things. But the dash was a real problem. Fortunately, Racepak makes a neat electronic dash (the IQ3) that easily connects to our existing data recorder. So, the answer was simple: replace the tach, water temp gauge, and oil pressure gauge with the IQ3. And we’d get all the other data there too.
This means rearranging the whole dash, and building a new one. I’m up for that, I thought, no problem. Of course, that caused another problem: the Dedenbear CC3 delay box wouldn’t fit on the dash in the new configuration. That’s OK, they make a smaller box (the Lightning) that has all the features we need and will fit. Then the next problem, all the switches wouldn’t fit. Tried a new Painless panel, but it wouldn’t fit either (gotta love the narrow chassis…). So I ended up returning it, getting all new switches from Painless and committing to redoing the existing switch panel as well.
All in all, I ended up gutting the dash, and starting over. A project I was looking forward to. Until I got into it. The more I tore things out, the more I found that needed to be fixed. Wires that were patched, some were undersized, and some that were completely unnecessary now that the Racepak was going to handle it all. So, another case of “while we’re at it” came, and a complete rewire of the car was added to the to-do list.
Gutted Car
And if that’s not biting off enough, as I got into the rewire job, I found more and more that needed to be done. Several circuits that should probably be on relays were not. So in came a Dedenbear Multiple Relay Center, a neat solution to the problem.
The back panel behind the seat would need to be organized, with the new vacuum system, and much of the wiring was connected to it. It would also be nice to move the radiator overflow catch can up there (from back by the read end). And it would be a neat place to put the relay center. So a new back panel had to be crafted.
When I stared laying all of this out, I realized the MSD ignition box was a) old and out of date, and b) bigger than ideal for the space. And if I got a new MSD 7AL-3 box, I’d have the latest box, and would have an even better place to put the relay center.
So, a serious case of “while we’re at it” has resulted in a car that is completely gutted. I’ve spent so much time tearing it apart, I’m not sure if it will ever go back together. But I’m sure it will… with time.
Unfortunately, I only have a month. We’ve decided to do our first test session on April 10-11. That gives me very little time to stop tearing things apart and starting to get them back together. It will all start with the engine and a trip to the dyno on Tuesday. Stay tuned.
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Rain Nationals
By Emily | February 15, 2009
Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines! Or not…
Maybe we'll see some racing!
Chris and I had been eagerly waiting the kickoff to the 2009 racing season. The off-season work on the car has kept Chris (and Bob) pretty busy these past couple of months, but nothing gets the blood pumping like hearing those engines run. Chris and I had planned our trip to Pomona months ago and could hardly contain our excitement for this past weekend. I planned to fly out to Seattle Thursday night and meet Chris for our 7am flight the next morning. We made it to Ontario early on Friday holding our breath for that day’s qualifying. The weekend was supposed to be filled with rain, but Sunday was looking like the clouds were going to part and bless the track with some racing.
Friday was a complete bust. We headed to the track, just in case the rain held off long enough to race. We walked around, said ‘hello’ to a few friends around the track, and ultimately ended up underneath a tent while the hurricane ensued. We finally gave in and decided to head to the car only to be caught mid-storm. The result was two soaking, cold and grumpy race fans hiding out in the rental car. The rest of the day consisted of course work for me, programing for Chris, and naps for all.
Cold and Silly Looking
Saturday offered a little more hope for racing. When we arrived they were busy drying the track, and the racing started, better late than never. We were thrilled to hear those engines start up again! They made it through a couple of pairs before they were forced to stop because of rain. The whole day was stop and go racing due to the rain. And it was cold and windy in the stands. But they managed to get one qualifying round in, which was enough to race on Sunday. The forecast was looking good for race day and Chris and I were crossing our fingers.
Sunday proved to be a huge disappointment. It started only 30 minutes late, but a few pairs would run, the rain would start, and two hours of drying would take place. Rinse and repeat. It was like that throughout the entire day until the unforgiving rain canceled the whole event. NHRA was barely able to make it through one round. It wasn’t until Tuesday that they were able to finish the race. I can’t tell you how much I wanted to see those final pairs.
As Chris often says, “I love this sport, but we really do spent a lot of time waiting.” If I had one complaint about drag racing it would be the ridiculous amount of time I spent on my behind waiting for the next pair. Ah, well. You take the bad with the good, right? All in all, I’d pick a rained out weekend with Chris over nothing at all.
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Engine Work
By Chris | January 10, 2009
Bob Johnson with our Block
As I noted in the last post (here), we managed to get the engine out of the car and over to the home/shop of our wonderful engine builder Bob Johnson. Bob had the thing torn apart within something like an hour, or at least it seemed that way. The guy is amazing. And given that he does all this work in his garage, his den, his kitchen, his driveway, etc. he has the most understanding wife in the world.
Once he had the engine apart, he started going over the parts and checking out their condition. We bought the car from the world famous Jack Beckman, and the engine is the very one that he used to win the Super Comp national title a few years ago. But it has had 290 runs since the last rebuild and we just weren’t sure what the inside was going to look like.
We’ve told Bob that our objective is to get a good, solid, and reliable engine, and get a few more miles-per-hour at the top end. We’re not trying to build an exotic 1200 horse monster, and we’re trying to keep the expenditures under control. So with that in mind, we started with the idea of saving most of the parts, yet still shooting for 900+ horsepower (up from what we think is somewhere in the low 800s).
Cleaned Up Pistons
Bob had mostly good news after the teardown, even for an engine with that many runs. The pistons were in very good shape, with just some galling on the wrist pin area. It seems the wrist pins were a little tight last time around and not enough oil got in there. But in general, they looked great.
The heads are an older style, but are in good shape so we’re going to run another year with them. A new set would cost another $3k, and would mean we’d need new pistons. That’s an expense we hope to wait another year to confront. We are pretty sure that, next year, we’ll need to go with new pistons (see below), so we’ll tackle the new heads at that time.
The block, a great Merlin piece, is in very good shape. He had it honed and almost all the scratches came out. There are some remaining, but we’ll live this year with them. Next year we’ll tackle the project of going to a slightly larger bore size with its accompanying requirement for new pistons (see above). But the block looks super, and now that Bob has painted it all a pretty black, it almost looks new.
Cleaned Up Block
We are going to replace the intake manifold. The current one is an older one, and Bob’s pretty convinced that a new Edelbrock Super Victor intake will give us a solid boost in horsepower. Mercifully, these aren’t that expensive, and rank high in the bang for the buck sweepstakes. Bob’s going to tweak it to match the heads and we should have a super combination.
We’re putting in new valve springs, just good insurance for another year of smooth running. But the valves themselves were good to go after Bob cleaned them up. We’ve decided to go with a new camshaft as well. The Comp Cams guy suggested we needed some more duration on the exhaust, so here again, we’re making an investment with a good return on the investment. And of course we’re replacing all the seals, bearings, and gaskets.
The last major update to the engine is we’re going to install an active vacuum system to provide negative manifold pressure. This will replace the puke tank we have in the back of the car, and should give us a solid increase in horsepower. Bob’s never seen a vacuum system add less than 19, and he’s thinking we’re likely to see something closer to 30 additional horses over and above the puke tank setup that we have today. This will require new valve covers, and we have a special surprise coming there. Stay tuned.
Most of the parts arrive here this week, so Bob can get it back together soon. Then we’ll head for the dyno to see how much we gained in the way of horsepower. Next up is the transmission. We’ve found some issues there, but that’s a subject for another post.
Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for more updates.
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