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12-11-07

Happy Holidays.

It's been a little bit since my last update. Guess you can say I was sort of burned out after loosing oil pressure. I didnt even look or touch the car until last friday night. I actually got it out of the trailer where it has been sitting since Pomona. And since then, I have been putting in more hours at work then usual and just trying to catch up on all the little stuff that tends to slip through the cracks and spend time with the family.

I recently accuired an old Bridgeport mill. Brought it home on sunday and had planned to make room in my garage before I unloaded it. But as usual, plans changed and my wife needed the flat bed trailer this week. So I went into thrash mode, pulled my motor out of my car, put the car back in the toy hauller to make some extra room. Jockey around the trailers and cars and got this 1900+ lbs of mill unloaded.

Knowing this was coming and mills typically are set up for 3 phase power, I made my self a static phase converter out of parts from a surplus store. (make a 3 phase motor start on single phase house hold power) Below I just did a trial and error test to see if the capacitor I got would work. Sure enough, it started my 3 phase drill press motor. Now I need to put this all in a box and mount it on the wall and get my self an idler motor to create the third phase power and in turn, run any 3 phase equipment.  The Idler motor (commonly called a rotory phase converter) once started will make its third leg into a generator to make the third phase power and this gives any thing it runs full power. If i just use the static phase converter to start a motor, then it only runs a two thirds power. Also with the static phase converter, I would have to jog the motor via this contraption below to make any thing run. With a rotory phase converter, I would turn the idler motor on and then I can start and stop and reverse any thing at any time by the controls right on the machine I am using.

At this time, now that I have a mill, I will be selling my drill press.

I got asked a few times how I was going to unload a 2000 lb machine off my trailer. I got the it on the trailer with a fork lift, but dont have one of those at the house. So this is how its done. Use a few pieces of pipe, a big pry bar and a little muscle. Using the pry bar, you raise it up a little at a time putting small pieces of wood under it to get it high enough to get the pipe under it. I just used 1/2 pipe cut to about 3 foot lengths.

I had also put a reciever hitch on the front of my van  (where I normally carry a spare gear box) making trailer moving real easy. Thus you see the front of the van instead of the back.

Once the pipe is under it, now it will roll just about any where you want. as the pipe comes out the back, you just have to stick it back in the front. Little time consuming, espeically when you are by your self doing it, but more then possible. As it goes down the ramps, I use a come along to lower it down. I also had to flatten the tires on the trailer and rotate the head 90 degrees to get it low enough to get under the garage door

And wha-la, I have a mill in the garage. I will replace the drill press on the right. The mill does need some TLC, but it had the right price on it and if i have to put a few bucks and a little elbow grease into it, in the end I will have a tool for life. Havent you ever been in the garage and wanted to make or modify something and though if  I only had a mill or a lathe or what ever that tool is. About the only down side to this is if I ever move, its going to be a pain in the butt and these things take up a lot of room.

10-22-07

As I got ready to go to the NHRA Sport compact race over the weekend, the rules in Quick 16 required me to have some sort of catch pan under the motor. So I went to my local metal surplus store and picked up some .062" 6061-t6 material. I had gone to this place the day before scoping out what they had and found 3 sheets of .040" but when I returned the following day to pick up the stuff it was gone. So I just had to deal with the .062" stuff. Any ways, I have been dreaming this thing up all year and now it was time to do it. My biggest issues were I ocasionally bottom out on the sump, and i have narrow wheelie bars that actually sit slightly higher then the sump. So I needed to build something that would literally rest on the sump plate and have sides removable to take the wheelie bars on and off easy. Although there were probably a thousand ways to do it, this is what I ended up with once I got started.

Unfortunatly, I do not have a break to bend this really nice, so I had to resort to using two pieces of steel in a vice, a little heat and a soft blow BF Hammer. Suprisingly, most of the bends came out nice.

A little plasma cutting in the right places, a few tack welds and things started to take shape.

My son Adam has the work gloves on and is ready to help.

Unfortunatly as I started to get in a hurry to get it done late night, I welded the main section just a touch off so it is actually a little out of wack. But at this point it doesnt really matter.

Hung some dzus tabs off the rear apron

Off the front there is what almost looks like an I beam configuration with one side extending onto the bottom of the pan and the other side bolted to the scatter shield. I did it like this with the intention of bottoming out on the pan and trying to not have it rip off.

Wheelie bars are on and things are gettign tight.

By the time I got to to making the side pieces on Wednesday, I was not feeling very good. Some sort of stomach flu or something of that nature. So I didnt get too many pictures except for the end results. I struggled to just get it done for the weekend and not throw up in my welding hood.

Basically the side pods are dzused on and are set up for quick removal.

Wa La. its finished.

And with it resting against the sump plate, I can jack up the car from the pan too.

After a final fit on the ground, I took this picture, pulled the side pods and bars off, and went right to bed and then spent the next day in bed.

Then on the weekend, I went to Pomona where I was getting that real confident feeling. Unfortunatly it wasnt to be. For me, I made a mistake and didnt put a 2 step chip in and first pass worked great, 11.11 qualified me well in the field. didnt hear any thing wrong or funny with the limiter. But on the second pass, I go to stage, get it up on the limiter and hear it stop (at the high setting probably) for a brief moment, then suddently the motor went WAY high, my first reaction, stop the rpms by dropping the clutch and leaving early. Car blew the tires off, 60ft was way off, slowed down a few tenths. At that point, realized what I had done and need to fix it. Got back to the pits to do some inpection of the valve train just in case. All looked perfect. Fixed my flipped fan belt, fired it back up and all was good. So I work on the limter stuff, get that in order, go to fire it up again and now i have no oil pressure. Shut it off right away and want to verify with my mechanical gauge on the side of the motor and fire it up again. Needle didnt even move. So my weekend is done. I know I had oil pressure coming down the return road on the last pass, so something had to have gone wrong right in the pits. But since it is the end of the year, I will just get an early start on the annual check up and see what we can find instead of going to Drag Day in Irwindale. So now I get to wait some more for that Wally.

On a good note, our buddy Troy Palmer did go on to win the Quick 16 and get his first Wally. WAY TO GO!!!!!!

10-10-07

Vegas!!!!!!

What a way to end the PRA season. Although the war was not won, I did win the battle at the track.

We had a plan to leave for Vegas Friday after work with intentions of running on Saturday during the day for some test and tune (actually enter one of their brackets for the day). But right before I left for work, I got a call back from the promoter of Saturday's event and they were preferring to run American made cars only. So we still left Friday but decided to just sleep in and enjoy some rest on Saturday morning and we will go ahead and test on Saturday evening.

Knowing that the Vegas track is always good, I went ahead and turned the shocks up some, add in some extra tire pressure and see what happens. First pass was in the 11.29 range with a little bogging out of the hole and me not being on the limiter for but a brief moment as the tree dropped. Second pass of the evening, the wind is picking up and its getting colder so my only adjustment for this pass will be to not do a burn out. Sure enough and 11.08 pops up. I think to my self, I think I will be quite satisfied with that number since the index I need to run up there is 11.10. By the time we get to run first round of qualifying tomorrow, the weather should slow me down just a touch and ill be right there. Then Hobi came by and asked if I could take his car down the track so I can hear and feel how the car is shifting into second and he could sit and watch from the outside how his car is working. OH YEA, that car is awesome. He had his new motor in and this thing can now actually turn that automatic. But somewhere along the line, the second gear shift needs to be slightly adjusted, but it managed to put me in the seat with a 60ft into the 1.50's range. Needless to say, I got out of the car smiling even though I got a little flustered when I couldn't get it into first gear when coming out.

Sunday rolls around and I am feeling pretty dang confident. The car seems to work pretty good last night and I am doing my job as a driver and I think I can qualify in the top hand full or so. First round of qualifying, I think we really found the sweet spot and my car just up and left better then it ever has in Vegas and first pass turned out to be a 10.77 at 121. Now I'm thinking what the heck just happened here. I am way toooooo fast. Car literally road the wheelie bars out till I shifted and then got back on them for a long duration of second gear. I even remember shifting into third gear quite quick too. Things are working good, but too good. So for round 2 of qualifying, my thinking is get on the other side of then index, get in the field and then work with in on the third pass. With a pretty aggressive adjustment for round 2, I went up and didn't pay attention to the new high winds and their direction. Now we have a big head wind and I net a 11.28 at only 112 mph. BUT I'm in the show and not going to be the last qualifier. Now it's time to step on it again and with the heavy winds in mind, I make a fairly aggressive adjustment to speed things up again and right before I go out for third qualifying pass I see the flags drop off just a touch and click off a 10.98. Well at least I am only a pinch over a tenth too fast now. So in the end, I couldn't believe I ended up qualifying number 8.

First round of eliminations I am paired up with John Meade in his blue buggy. John was trying to play in the Super Comp class and Unlimited Street. But on one of his US passes, he ended up braking something in the transmission. (suspected input shaft), so he could not make the call for first round of eliminations. Basically giving me a freebie. I figure that's one more pass to tune things up. Although I missed 4th gear on this pass (I got to get my head on strait) the 1/8 mile time said I was on track for a pass right on the index.

Round 2 and now I am up against the number 1 qualifier, Zack "the Kid" Sacchette. Second generation racer and damn good at it. He tattoo's me at the tree with a .012 reaction to my .044. Mine is decent, but dang he puts one on me trying to show up the old man. At the top end of the track, things are getting close and I think he must have thought he was going to fast again like he did in his previous round and he lifted just a touch. It should have been his for the taking but my win light comes on with a 11.12 to his 11.17 and about a .018 of a second difference at the line when you add in the reaction times. Dang that's getting close.

Round 3 and now I am up against Bob Hemphill. For Bob this will make or brake his season. Get past me and hope Joel Carter goes out and he is the new SC champ. Even if he has to take out Joel in the finals, I think he can still pull out the championship. On the other side of the ladder is Joel and Allen Weiss. Needless to say, Joel and his crew are putting the beer bounty on Bob's head with me and Bob is talking to Allen about what will it take to put Joel out. It really is all friendly (but some what serious) banter, but that's part of the fun. At this point I know Bob is wound up for this match up and I know I am as well. I do have the feeling of confidence on this day. I have no pressure on me to win the championship since its completely out of my grasp, so I have nothing to loose. Well at the line, I get tattoo'd again at the tree. Bob puts up a .027 to my .066 and im giving up almost 3 hundredths. But as I shift into third and just take a quick peak where Bob is, he is not even close. I make sure I get it into fourth cleanly then start to hunt him down and make that judgment of weather I am going to fast my self or he has messed up somewhere. In the end Bob ended up having a little bit of a bog at the line and took his ET right out of the picture and we run something in the 11.20's-11.30's range.

I saw my win light come on and I was pumped and then I felt this low where I wanted Bob to win the championship this year and I now its gone. So it was a mixed emotion win. On the other hand as I rounded the corner and stopped next to Joel where he had just won his round against Allen, I pointed at him and gave him the number 1 finger. It was really cool to see his excitement that he had just won the Super Comp Championship. He even reached right in my car and gave me a hug. I know that feeling well and brought me back on my own high again. And now we are going to the finals. In the pits, there is nice air of jubilation over in Joel's Flying Turd pit. (Flying Turd is the name of his car) I go make sure I give him another congrats and make sure he is ready to give me a good dethroning.

Final round is now here. I know I really need to put on my A game for this guy. The .040's and especially that .060's light is not going to cut it. Both do the usual thing to get ready, he takes the left lane and I get the right. We both launch and I sort of expected him to be out front with this good working naturally aspirated car, but so far all day, I have been out ahead at the 330 mark and even half track. So its hard to really tell if I cut a light on him or he did on me. We both charge hard to the finish and as I see his nose close in on me at the finish line, I remember looking at this front wheel, and figure that's all I can do to this point and it is what it is weather he will catch me or not. I also remember briefly closing my eyes, or blinking and I turned my head forward again and when I opened my eyes again, the win light was on. Oh yea, I started doing the fist pump, screaming in my helmet and actually pulled on the wheel to the left a little and closed in on that center line pretty fast. WOW!!!!!!!. The final tally on the numbers were a .029 reaction on my side to Joel's .031. So just about even, but I did my job as a driver. And the finish line was an 11.11 on my side to his 11.13. Another nail biter. That was a very satisfying win. I was able to take out the number 2 and number 1 man in the points. And on a side note, I knew going in that mathematically I had a chance to pull out the 3 spot in the points, but it had to be one of those moon, earth and stars alignment days again like I did for the 05 championship. And going into this race, I really didn't think about it or count points. Basically I had to qualify 9th or better, have the 3 and 4 guy go out in the first round and I had to win. Fortunately, Troy Palmer needed one of those days to take the championship in Super Gas (and he did by 1 point) and I think I got a little bit of his treatment. So not a total loss. I am the only multi event winner in SC this year, so that makes me pretty happy as well. I just needed a few decent showings mid season and I could have been looking at keeping my 1.

A big Contrats goes out to Joel Carter and his entire crew. They did an awesome job tuning and running their car. And Congrats to Bob Hemphill for a long hard fight in the championship. I know that the number 2 position is just not the same, but it will have to do for one more year.

And Thanks to the rest of the SC group that really made it fun to race with. For that matter all the racers that show up at every event and make it just fun to be there weather we win or loose or have to sit in the loosers lounge (last section of the bleachers)

One of the other highlights were the Pro Mod's of Eric and Eric. They put on a real side by side 8 second final. Unfortunately I did not get to see it since I was at the top end of the track still. But if I remember right, the numbers were 8.64 to an 8.76 and both over 160mph with the win and championship decission going to Calebrise over Madson.

And like I previously mentioned the hail mary that Troy Palmer had to put up to take the Win and Championship by 1 point in Super Gas.

So after a little picture session and a collection of winnings, we headed back to state line to have dinner with Troy Palmer, Scott Bakken and crew. After dinner, I went into the casino where I ran into Jack Sacchette and John Troxell where we talked a little shop and fed the machines with a few quarters.

I typically mark up the wheelie bar wheels with chalk to put marks down on the tracks and if I see pictures or have a crew memeber out there they can see how centered things are or if im driving in one direction or not and for my own use to see how hard I am riding them just by looking at the ware, etc. I did it a few times and now it just beomes ritual weather I need it or not. This weekend I left a lot of white lines out there.

Next up is NHRA Sport Compact event at Pomona in less then 2 weeks. I need to build my self a motor containment device so I can run Quick 16, so stay tuned for that.

9-24-07

Car improvement time.

Day time and night time helmets.

Accuired a Kirkey seat to make my shoulder harness situation better.(been thinking about this all year) After doing Dom's seat earlier this year, I really liked the idea of welding tabs right onto the seat for mounting purposes.

Once again, have to have the rear support.

Ever time I get to weld aluminum, its getting better and better. Or at least I am not as affraid of it and blowing a hole in it. LOL.

Seat is officially mounted. Although I did use my old seat mount base, that will probably change in the off season once I have a little more time.

One of the things this seat solved was the elevation and penetration of the shoulder harnesses. With the old Beard seat, the shoulder harness hole was a little low for me. And once I went to individual shoulder straps, I had them wrapping around the head rest to get elevation correct along with a sternum strap so they would not separate on me. Now the shoulder harnesses come through the hole and pull more from a center point and now will close up on me in the event of...... And they are at the proper mounting height for me. this seat also gives me a lot of rear head support I didnt get with my Beard.

its now a wrap around instead of a mounting point configuration. This also opens the door to use a Hans device now. With the harnesses wrapped around the head rest, I sort of thought that this may fall off the edge of a hans and make the situation worse.

Ole trusty reliable and very comfortable Beard seat. Been with me since the beginning. 6 championships later and its going to retire. you would never guess, but this seat is about the same weight as the Kirkey.

My next project will probably be to make a catch pan under the motor so I can race Quick 16 at NHRA's sport compact event in Pomona.

9-18-07

What I have been up to.

Finally got the last project done before last weekend. The shield on the Berg wheelie bar mount. Corey, the person that got it sent me these pictures of it actually mounted. This is something that I don't normally get to see after the fact. So this is pretty cool. Thanks Corey.

Once I got the shield done and shipped last Thursday, I turned my attention to getting out of town and loading up the family and run off to Big Bear for the weekend.  (for the second time, use the trailer for somethign else besides racing) We stayed at the Serrano Campground again. This time we got spot No. 47. Much nicer then the 51 we were in last year. Yea, going in a trailer like this is not camping in the sense of having to rough it. We had the satalite dish up so the kids could have their weekend morning cartoons and the parents could watch the Discovery channel and Food network at night in the heated trailer.

About the only problem we had to think about was a forest fire that started up on friday. (Butler 2 fire) It was probably with in 8-10 miles and we could see the smoke from it all day Saturday. We got the notice that it was a voluntary evacuation and we had actually packed up, hooked up and got ready to leave. Then my wife started talking to another couple and we sort of talked each other into staying and seeing how things worked out. If it reached the little town of Fonskin right up the road about 4-5 miles, then we would defintly get going. So we listened to the news reports all day and the fire crews were able to stop the fire from reaching the little town.

We also got to do a little fishing. Matt and his first trout. 18" long.

So now we are starting a tradition. We will try and take the family vacation picture each year so we can watch the boys grow from year to year.

So the batteries are truely refreshed and recharged. Now its time to think about racing again!

9-7-07

Bug O Rama 60 at Sacramento.

BUMMER is how I would describe it.

By now, I'm sure some of you can figure out that after a race weekend, if I am not updating the webpage right away, something didn't go as planned. And sure enough, it wasn't the weekend I wanted.

After having 2 races in a row with early losses, I could not afford to do that again. We showed up on Friday afternoon with the intention of trying to dial in the car and see what we could do about snagging that number 1 qualifying spot. Off the trailer it was an 11.01. I thought to my self, not too bad, we are in the ball park. I make some adjustments and tell my self, this is probably a tiny click too much and ill probably run a 10.89. Go out and sure enough, 10.89. Now my head is getting BIG. I can tune and drive. Lets put the car away for tomorrow. Saturday rolls around and I decided to wait a bit and try to go out for practice and qualifying at the same time I did Friday. Thinking that the practice run should be in the low 90's, I would have a decent judge on where things lie. Well it ended up going faster to the tune of a 10.85 with a little tire spin. Wow, that's strange. Air is not quite a good and I went faster. Ok, take a tick out and go for first round of qualifying. I figured this is one good shot to try and put a number up now. But again it runs a 10.85 for first round of qualifying. Too bad it wasn't a 10.85 class. Oh well, I guess its time to cook dinner and get a good night sleep.

Sunday comes and with it being a full field, I decide to play it conservative and just get in the field in round 2 and then maybe lean on it again in round 3. Sure enough, plenty conservative. 11.04 is now my qualifying spot. But this is where the problems start to set in. Over the last few passes, I noticed I was having a hard time trying to get my burn out set and get it out of first and into second. Didn't think too much of it. Figure I might be slightly miss aligned on the hockey stick. As long as I can keep finding it, I'm good. But down the return road and at the ticket boot after the second qualifying pass, I couldn't get it into first. That's weird. Pull into the pits, start that investigation. Sure enough, ever thing I did there would not engage first gear. Now I'm thinking it must be around 10-10:30 am and eliminations shouldn't start until 1pm. I can pull every thing out and see if maybe the hockey stick has a booger or maybe the end of the shift rods have something on them. Unfortunately the full body car doesn't allow access to that nose cone, so out comes the motor and trans. Fortunately, I have lots of Gatorade and shade.

Pull the nose cone off and sure enough, I can not push the 1-2 rod into first. It goes into second ok. 3-4 work good and so does reverse. After a few minutes of pondering I think, I can either put it back in and stage the car in second gear or beat this thing into first gear hoping it might fix it and if it doesn't, I am still in the 2 gear boat again. No real loss. One ½" extension drive and a 15" crescent wrench/hammer later. I whack it into first gear a few times and it starts to slide in and out easy. Hot damn, I'm back in the game. Start cramming all this back together and back in the car with plenty of time to spare. Unfortunately I missed the third qualifying so my base line is a little out in left field. I start talking to a few people and this problem I am havng may stem from not quite getting a good hit on second, causing a galling situation on the slider and not allowing first gear to gengage. So maybe as I get old my shift timing is changing.

First round of eliminations and I am paired up with John Meade in his little blue buggy. In my mind, I know I have been a tick better then him at the lights, but that's still no free ride either. I also know he has the little oh stuff button and can drive around people at the top end too. So I put in a tune up that I had to guess would give me that 10.89 run again. Give my self that .01 cushion if something spins or turns on me at the starting line. But for some reason, my brain was out in left field. As I went in and staged. I am still hanging on the clutch pedal and think to my self, what am I doing, I need to get ready. So I set my self up on the limiter and sure enough the lights are dropping. CRUD, I know it's a bad light on my part. Although not as bad as I thought. At the top end, I am out ahead by a few cars. I am waiting for him to drive around me and I hesitate in lifting but I did just slightly thinking, if I have the tune up right, then I'm golden. If not, either he is running bad or we are going way to fast. And that ends my day and my championship hopes. I run a 10.84 to his 10.85. I am the worst offender.

So we will not be making it 3 in a row. I am so far back in points that the best I can do now is scrape a third place and that is going to be a long shot too.

Now I am in the business of being a points blocker. Pressure is off me and I have nothing to loose. I am now double committed to go to the last race of the year in Vegas and take it all away. Much easier said then done, but now there is no nervousness about the points any more. I can go out and have the time of my life.

Now this week, I got home monday afternoon. watch the kids on tuesday afternoon after work. Wednesday afternoon, and I finally get to cleaning out the huricane hit garage from last weeks thrash session and get my car out of the trailer. And this is where I am now after Thursday evening. Motor and trans are out and ready to be checked out. No time waisting here. get it done, get ready and be sharp for the next time.

8-23-07

I have been out of commision for a while.

I have been fighting a nagging back ach early this month and then I went in for a little surgery on my nose and throat to help a sleep apnea problem I have had for probably all my life. But after finishing all my good pain pills, I am back up and getting around again this week and I think I am now getting quality sleep.

Shortly before going in for my nose stuff, I did get my back up box out of the car, and sure enough, a nice ugly brake of the drivers side stock polished axle. I came to the conclusion that it probably had a crack develope when we had it in Dom's car a few years back. But thats racing.

And I also got an order to wrap a shield around a Gene Berg wheelie bar trans mount. Hopfully I have enough time to get it done before Sacramento.

On Monday, I was getting my self re-aclamated to the garage when I decided to just look things over on my motor. When I checked the end play, it had grown around .002"-.003" from what I thought I had set it at. In the past, the end play has not changed on the flanged crank. So all these alarm bells went off in my head and then I went into panic mode and I spent Tuesday evening taring down the motor to see if there was a problem.What I found was NOTHING. it all looked perfect. Or perfect to the eye at least. The only thing I can think of is when I put the motor in the back up box, the rivits on the pressure plate hit inside the bell housing and that might have pounded the bearing just enough to give me that extra end play. So now that I am here, I might as well adress the extra end play and put in new thrust bearing. Thanks to Shawn Geers, he happen to have a set on the shelf and that should be at my door today. This means by the weekend, I should be up and running again. There was a very good side to this. As I was takign things apart, externally every thing looked good and there were no leaks or what not. I rolled the motor on its side on the stand and low and behold, the base frame on the oil cooler that can act like a cup, started to drip a lot of oil. Oh wow! My best guess is the cooler element just started to leak and the oil was being caught by the frame. So I dodged a bullet there. That would suck having to pop a cooler at the track at a time when there is no time to fix something that major.

Then it is off to Sacrmento for the Labor Day Bug-O-Rama. Don't miss it. The Pro Mod field seems to be getting bigger and bigger lately and the Super Street is really turning up the wick with Rodger Crawford and his 9 second pass at the last Bug-O-Rama. We may even see a full field in that class too.

On a different note, Dom sent me a picture he found that is pretty cool. Both of us on the line at the first Bug In at fontana a few years back.

7-24-07

The Drag In at Fontana.

I could only try to save the weekend.

I went out Friday afternoon to set up a pit spot for the weekend and do some test and tune Saturday. This sure makes it nice and leisurely as I got to tech the car Friday as well for Saturdays test session. Jimmy and Candy Larsen also showed up that evening and treated me to some baby back ribs. So we sat outside and enjoyed a nice dinner and killer sunset in southern California.

On Saturday, we ran with the NHRA Summit series event. I got my first test pass at about 10am. The run started out great but when to push it into third, I missed. I tried one more time and still no go. So I pulled into 4th and I could feel my shifter shaking like one of the pro rings were skipping off it self. I dumped the clutch, put it in neutral, release clutch and its still making all kinds of noise. As I move the shift handle around, I could find a quiet spot, but that does me no good. I get off the track, put it in first and things are still rattling. Best I can figure as of now (with out taking it apart) I must have bent, moved, or broke something that has to do with the 3-4 shift fork. So I come to the quick conclusion that this will not fly for racing tomorrow. And for the first time, the back up gear box that normally sits on my front bumper of my van is going into action. So I spent the afternoon swapping gear boxes out. Took my time, got it all back together only to realize with the newer case from last year, it pushed my flywheel back another .030" or so. Just enough where I had to pull the motor again and do some quick clearancing in the bell housing. What a pain. Took my time and cleaned up all my stuff, got a cold bottle of water, and then I heard the announcer say, Tnt lane still open. So I was all over that. I just wanted to make sure it all worked and my alignment didn't change, bla bla bla. So I did a nice soft roll out and got it going in second gear and blew by some newer mustang with a mid 13 second pass at 120mph. Good enough, save it for tomorrow.

On Sunday, I figured all I needed to do was go out there and just make the show. The problem is the back up gear box is really only a points collector box. It has a super diff and some stock axles, and a superbeetle main shaft, so it is not going to take the abuse that my primary box will. With this known, I pump the tires up, go around the burn out box and make a gentle pass for round 1 of qualifying. I think I put up an 11.85. At that point, I pretty much said I'm done until the elimination rounds. Then at the last minute of round 3 of qualifying, I take my car to the back of the line and see how many cars are actually in the program. If there are more then 16 that have bought in, I probably need to make another pass and get a little closer to the index, if there is not, then I will not do any thing stupid. Sure enough, there were only 15 cars that attempted to qualify, so I went up there and just staged the car to make sure I got my rhythm down and slowly went down the track.

Round 1 and I am paired up with Mark Prothero. I know he is slightly off the index, so I figure I have about a tenth of a second to work with. If I can get the car to launch, and not do any thing else stupid, I should be able to get by this round. I re-adjust the car to be a little more aggressive so I don't completely blow the tires off and sit in place, do a real minor burn out just to get the rocks off the tires and stage the car. Lights come down and the left axle says "NO WAY" and my day is done.

So now I have two gear boxes down for the count. Fortunately, the next race is not till Labor Day.

7-18-07

Not much going on here. Just getting ready for the weekend at Fontana. Come check it out. Gates open at 7am, not 8.

6-14-07

More of Dom's car and the Classic weekend.

The weekend before the classic (saturday night) I am caught on camera attempting to stick point A to point B. Welding inside of a car is a royal pain in the you know what.

All that nice powder coating messed up to weld up the mounts for the shifter.

That same night, Dom is mocking up the Big Wig Racecars shoot mount.

Then last Friday evening, instead of going to DKP cruise night, I was finishing up the welding on the seat brackets. It took till this day because I was lazy in getting set up on a larger tunstin electrode for the welder. The 3/32 electrode I tried to use would start to disapear as I put the heat to it.

Had to mess up some more paint on the cross bar to set up the seat back mount, so the seat is nice and stable. Dom came up with the idea of trying to use a clevis for the mouont. I think it came out good.

Then with a little touch up paint on the mounts so it doesnt look so bad, the shifter went in and the seat was bolted in.

All 3 rods are set up, welded up and working perfect. Even the bottom 1-2 shift selector clears the torsion housing. Dom will put on the nose cone/cover later.

On saturday moring, after I have taken my car down to West Coast Metric for their party that night, we rolled out Dom's car with some last minute finishing touches like steering wheel, and a few sponsor stickers. I think my son Adam is all ready taking over the driving chores for Dom. Then its time to load up and get him out so he can finish putting the tin back in for the Classic on Sunday.

Saturday afternoon and we are off to the West Coast Metric 30th anniversary party.

Jimmy and Austin at JCL brought down Doug Harvey's new beetle. WOW this thing is intense.

Surpisingly the turn out was not as good in years past. But still a fun time.

Busting a__ on Dom's car was well worth it. We got it down to the Classic and he (thanks to Brian, my number 1 pit bitch) had a model pose by his car and won 2nd place in the compention class to boot.

5-31-07

Sacramento Bug o Rama.

-.003

If your a racer, you will know exactly what that means above.

I kicked my self in the butt for that one for quite some time.

We started our weekend on Friday to get some test and tune done out there. Got settled into going to fast but knowing where I was. Also be arriving on friday, I got a prime pit spot on the main road.

Saturday arrives and I am ready for qualifying. I make a practice pass before qualifying and was still a tick too fast. Make my adjustments and go for first round of qualifying. But the rinnger here is as I put in a tune up that I think should be real close to were i want to be, we are held up from other problems on track and suddently the temperature is dropping like a rock while we wait. I think I need to take some more out, but decide to go for it. 10.893 was the first qual number. Dang, I should have taken some out. So I am not in the best postion, but thats ok, I had been smoking some baby back ribs all day long and the tri-tip for half that. Needless to say, dinner was REAL good that night.

Sunday rolls around pretty quick and its time for round 2 of qualifying. I decide to get a little conservitive and hope I can run a mid 90's range. Hopfully a 95. The good news there is I put up a 10.97. Pretty close to where I wanted to be and make sure i'm in a decent qualifying postion. So on round 3, I decide lets go for it and put in last nights 89 tune up. I kept going over to Roger Crawford's trailer to watch his weather station and all looks pretty good to repeat. Well I get up there and the track took a whole lot more then I expected, I 60ft'd and 330'd a tenth faster and sure enough it showed on the other end with a 10.83. Now I am stuck with a number 5 qualifying spot. But thats ok, we still have to race and we will take care of business there.

First round and I get paired up with Shawn Bergerson. I go over to let him know we are paired up for first round and his motor is out on the ground and he is trying to make his clutch work. Thats never a good sign. Needless to say, he continued to have clutch engagement problems and it was a fairly easy win.

Round 2 and now its time for Bob Hemphill. I have a chat with him before we go up and say, this is the race of the day and we both know, who ever wins this round will go on and win the race for the day. (being confident and cockey at the same time) and he likes the sound of that and agree's.  Well earlier in the day, I made an adjustment to the cltuch and put it a bit on the close side. As I go up and stage against Bob, I do my usual thing, bump into the lights against my line lock and put it on the rev limiter. Thats when I notice my car is starting to roll forward. It flashes in my head, this has happened before and I got a good decent light, so I said to my self, got to go for it, this is Bob we are racing. And as I launch the car and start to aproach the chrismas tree, there is that big RED LIGHT on the bottom nice and bright. DANG!!!!!! -.003. Oh so close. So my  race day ended right there. But low and behold, I end up doing a little crewing for Bob and there he is going to the finals. We talked as he was preping for the finals and was wondering how he is planting his new wheelie bars. So I offered to go up and get him in the water box and watch how his car is working so he can have some experienced feedback. Sure enough, BOB TAKES THE WIN. And im sort of on a winning team still. LOL. The only down side to this is if the math is right, he takes over the points lead be 3.

One more lesson learned. Dont go over the edge on clutch set up and not enough brake pressure.

Since I was up at the starting line for the finals, I got a good view of the Pro Mod finals with Calebrese and Madson.

And im sure by now, the frequent readers here may have noticed when I win, updates come pretty fast. When I have a LONG drive home, its a little slower.

Next up should be the Drag In at Fontana and I think it is on July 22nd.

5-21-07

Can you say  One Blue anodized JCL shifter.

Last week, I had Dom over and sit in his new seat, and then give me an aproxamate elevation and location of neutral for the shifter. From there I tacked in the rear mounting post where i can still change elevation a bit, rotate and lean as needed.

Also mocked up the reverse rod since this will some times dictate how much of an angle i can put things at or if I need to modify the clevase or rod. This does have a cover, just havent put it on yet and dont need it for mocking up the rods either.

Dom was back over feeling the shifter out. the minor adjustments we made were another 1/2" farther out from the seat, and a lean forward. Tacked that in place and refit him again. He is like a kid in a candy store. Getting every thing to fit him instead of him fitting to the car.

5-14-07

Doesn't this car look good in my garage? LOL. Dominic (Burn out King) brought his car over for a little work. We will be installing a new seat, a JCL V-gate shifter and a scatter shield.

Instead of trying to re-engineer every thing to fit the seat, I came up with making the seat fit the existing mounts. So as not to mess up too much of the powder coating.

What better way then to weld tabs onto the Kirkey seat instad of bolting things to it.

Just had to be a little creative on the brackets. this is the front bracket tacked in that contures the front lip.

on the rear, I just need to add in some horizontal stiffeners so these brackets don't fold over.

In the end its a perfect fit.

What Dom doesnt know is I am actually setting up the seat just for me. LOL.

stay tuned. as soon as I weld up the brackets completly, I will be setting up the shifter some time this week. I love those JCL gate shifters.

5-11-07

Some more pics and sponsor info from the Blow it up show.

 http://www.weblewitup.com/

there is a link under the first picture that goes to a photo gallery.

5-9-07

Last week was defintly a full week of fun. On Monday, I flew out to the Quad City airport in Moline Illinois where I met up with Jake Raby's wife Beth who was also flying in at the same time. She picked up a rental car and we were off to find the race track.

When we got there, Art Thraen and crew, plus Jake and his crew were already there from the morning setting up camp and making adjustments.  It was probably 4pm before I actually sat in the car for the first time only to realize the angles and such are considerbaly different then my car, so the measurements I gave them for seat placement didn't really work. Here you can see Brent and Dave doing a little thrashing to relocate the seat back another 4 inches.

Car is pretty much ready to go. About the only thing we were lacking because of the time frame and thrashing on the car, was no line lock on the steering wheel. So i had to get use to a toggle switch on the dash.

The cockpit I got to use. SDS rich/lean knob, Nitros Express bottle right there next to me and the Hydraulic shifter. Hydraulic shifter?????? Yup, thats what it was. Its an AJ SpeedShift unit. sort of a sequential shifter. Has a center default positon and as you want to go up in gear, just give the handle a pull back and let go. Want another gear, pull back again. When its time to downshift, push forward. This was actually quite interesting to get use to, but surpisingly it worked great. I expected that to be the hardest thing to get use to, but i think the hydrualicly driven throttle is what gave me the most greef. And with no launching rev limiter, I was tryign to remember how i use to do it from 16 years ago.

My look out the cockpit was nice and simple. tach and shift lite. It almost felt like I was in Pat McDermott's Fiat. Small and lowwww. In the end, Hot lapping really doesnt give you much time to think. And I think because this car was actually quite stable, I didnt feel the things I should have and only interpereted things I heard, like my first impression was we were blowing through the clutch when on the bottle. In hind sight, I should have thought about the tires and tried to see if i could take some air out, but with out the metnal debriefing I would normally do after I get out of a car after a pass, it just never hit me.

Needless to say, I had a blast. thanks to Jake and his team.They truely worked their tails off getting this car done.

For the rest, you will have to watch the show on Speed Channel some time in June or July.

I then flew home on Wednesday night. Took care of some personal business and kissed the wife and kids on Thursday and then it was an early Friday moring departure for the NHRA Division 7 race in Fontana.

Unfortunatly, I can not show up with a number 1 in the window

So I had to do a quick window swap with my older number and I was ready to go. For the front and back, I just uses some static cling number on the inside of the window to change the small number.

If I heard right, the announcer said something like 700 cars were in attendance. If you have been to Fontana, you will know how long the pits are and they were completly full all the way down to the sand trap at the end.

We arrived early Friday, but parking actually started Monday, so we were put in the overflow lot of the back 40. Notice the large signage to the right of the trailer. Those are for the 2.5 mile oval and we are at the East end of that track and the drag strip runs on the north side the entire distance of the oval. We actually disconnected my van so we could go to the grocery store and drive to the front so we could watch racing between rounds.

the back lot and its still full of money. nothing small back here. mostly high dollar rigs.

Even the parking lot on the west side of the starting line was full of racers.

Weather was quite bizzare out there. Friday was windy and gloomy where I got 2 qualifying passes. And since I was playing with the electronic boys, I had to make sure the reaction times were on par with them. So with the guess from the last nhra race i was at, off the trailer, I cut a .009 light. Yea, that should get some attention. But also ran to fast with a 10.81. (on the 10.90 index of NHRA Super Street on a 5/10th pro light) On the second pass I was a little quick on the tree with a -.004 light but on the positive side with a 10.96. Still plenty good to keep their attentions. On Saturday morning, the sun was out, and the wind was down, and there was finally some heat in the air. With a slight adjustment, my final qualifying pass came  up with another double O light with a .003 with a 10.97. Looks almost like I have a delay box, doesnt it. (i dont have one) And since we didnt exceed 64 cars in my class (there were 63), there was no first round of eliminations on Saturday afternoon. So we enjoyed the day and evening watching races and grilling up some burgers and enjoying some decent weather.

Sunday came around and it was time to get it on. I added in just a bit more adjustment to slow my reaction time down since I felt I was just too close for comfort. First opponent and I rip off a .013 light, nice and safe with a 10.96 getting out of it since the other guy seem to have a little trouble. After passing first round, the people started to come by and see what I really had. Then about 4 hours later it was time for round 2. At this point, we are now laddered and right before my pair gets pulled out, some one opens up the rear of the their car right on the starting line and pukes out a bunch of synthetic gear oil. Forunatly, the NHRA crew on hand did a rather speedy and Very good clean up and prep. Witch may have been my downfall. I do my usual routine and then proceed to turn on the red eye with a .010 light. The car did a little bogging out of the hole, so my best guess is I hooked up a touch better then before and pulled the front end out of the lights that much sooner. Or maybe I was just wound up. In the end, I pissed and moaned all the way down the track and my opponent had no idea I red lit. This guy ended up cutting a .016 light and some one said he also ran a 10.91. So It would have been a tough race short of me being on my game on the tree. After the fact, the guy I raced came by my pits to shake hands and told me he was actually scared to race me since most of the spy have already  been watching me mow down the tree earlier in the weekend. He was very cool about it all and said I need to come out and race with those guys more often. As a driver and self tuner, that defintly made the weekend satisfying on top of all the thumbs up I got for being the only VW on the premisis. Well after the first NHRA attempt and going out first round and then this making it to second round, the goal will be to make it to round 3 the next time around.

Next up with the the Sacramento Bug O Rama.

This week I also have Dominic's car in my garage for a seat mount, JCL V-gate shifter and scatter shield install to take care of. But our good friends Mike and Heather Contraras (has the Scion XB that I worked on) had their second child on Monday and we will probably be over at their place this weekend instead of working on Dom's car. But stay tuned, we might squeeze in a picture or two of Dom's stuff.

4-25-07

Whats this?

Well last month, Jake Raby from Aircooledtechnology  called me up and asked if i would be interested in driving a car on TV. Well thats pretty much a no brainer. So after a bit of figuring out what was going on, Jake build up a Beck Spider and put a healthy motor in it.

The way the show works is just as it sounds. Drag race till it blows up. One car vs another. For our show, it is more along the lines of VW vs. Porsche. Sounds pretty simple to me. But there are a few rules, but not many. A manditory bottle of NOS is to be opperational. Sounds fun, doesnt it.

Probably way toooo much motor for this car. I might need to bring an extra change of cloths.

Fortunatly, We will have Art Threan from Aircooled Engineering in the other lane. This puts me at ease since I know Art and have raced him in the past and he  has a nice level head on his shoulder and will not do any thing stupid.

Well this event will happen next week on the 1st and 2nd of May. Like Pinks, its free to attend and watch. So if you are close to Cordova Illinois, come out and watch us play.

for more info on this even, you can go to the next few links. www.aircooledtechnology.com/radio The spider club Cordova Dragway http://www.launchhour.tv/blowItUp.html

Then once I get back and take care of some personal business, I will be heading out to Fontana for some NHRA Division 7 racing on the 4th, 5th and 6th, where I will try my hand at Super Street racing again. Maybe we will get by first round this time.

4-18-07

Phoenix Bug O Rama.

Hot Dang!!!!!

Hard work has paid off.

We (Red cup brigade and John Troxell) left for the 7 hour drive to Phx on Friday so we could do some extra testing on Saturday morning. The trip was uneventfull and we arrived at the hotel around 6pm. I had also opted to take my little flat bed trailer instead of the toy hauller because of gas prices. It was cheaper to split the cost of a hotel room then pay for the extra gas to get the big trailer out there.

Saturday morning came up pretty quick and we were out at the race track by 8am. We go out and make sure we are close to the index for the good qualifying number on Sunday.

My first pass was a good .027 light but a bog off the line and an 11.13 et. Oh yea, I forgot i'm running with the v8 guys. Traction is good. So I make my adjustments and rip off a 10.92 and said, i'm done for the day. So now we consentrate on John Troxell's set up. With a few words, he learns how to slow down his car to run Supergas (11.90 index) and whips up an 11.86. Yea! Now we're talking. He puts his car away as well and head back to the hotel where there is a Birthday BBQ and general hang out going on.

Pull up and the outer lot is already filling fast with long trailers for the event.

I caught this picture early on as well. By the peak of it all, there must have been a good 75 people running around enjoying life. And at the same time, Frenchy is having an open house just up the road. What a cool weekend.

John Meade holding up his cake. He is one of my competiors in the Supercomp class.

His girl friend has this cake whipped up for him. Is this cool or what?

Sunday rolls around real fast when you are having fun the night before. Fortunate for me, I had left my car and pit set up at the track, so when we showed up, we were not rushed to get set up again. We do the usual meet and great with friends we havent seen since last year and then get down to business.

Round 1 of qualifying. Feeling pretty dang confident from the day before, I get out there and do my thing, rip off a good light only to miss third gear. Thats a quick way to pop a bubble.

Round 2 of qualifying and we try it again. By this time, the temp is close to the day before's good run. So I make sure all the same settings are in and with a good light again, I pull one out of my --- and click off a 10.909 and I am now number one qualifier. But because of the winds, the had announced that this would be the last qualifying run. But with in 15 or so minutes after I ran, the wind started to taper off and the track officials decided on a third. Im thinking if i was in Supergas, I had left too much on the table. (scary thought isn't it) But in Comp, I figured I only had a few guys that were really capable of getting in that hole.

Round 3 of qualifying. I almost decided to sit it out, but figure I need to stay sharp on the tree and get one more shot. I could have been bracket racing out there. I put up a run thats only .003 slower then the previous with a 10.912 and I hold on to the number 1 spot. Confidence is high now. Even my thorn in my side Bob Hemphill said, driving like that, your probably going to win it all today. I wanted to say He-- yea, but I know better then that.

Round 1 of Eliminations. Because we didnt have a full field and there was an odd car count, the number 1 guy gets the bye and thats me. And I will take em any way I can.

Round 2. I am paired up with the birthday boy John Meade. I cut a light on him and get out ahead. Sort of knowing I cut the better light, I had a little room to spare, but John came charging hard and was about to pass me, so I stayed in it and wanted to take the stripe. We both end up braking out, but me with an 10.86 to Johns 10.60someodd.

Round 3. Now I am paired up wtih J. Carter. Sorry I didnt catch his first name, but I know they are out of the northwest where Jeff Lovell is from. They had a new car out called the Flying Turd 2. nicely set up and has potential. I put a little bit of a tree on him and he was right there at my side most of the track but at the end faded. Then this is where I felt how bad the track was getting. I lifted out of the gas and the back end of the car started moving around, get back into the gas and it would ease up. By the time I crossed the finish line, I was right up against the center line. Win light comes on and we are going to the first final of 07.

Round 4 final. This is probably my next torn. Rob Meyer. We have raced each other a few times and has some real close races so far. This was going to be no exception. I put a little advanage on the tree and we are close all the way down track, and what felt like an eternity to see who's win light came on, it was a huge relief to finally see it come on in my lane. In the end, my final ET was a 10.905 to Rob's 10.86

What a feeling. Race win's are defintly too few and far between. So I make sure and savor these things while I can. So on the way back to the hotel that night, dinner is on me. Thanks to my number one "pit b-tch" Brian Getches and number 2 "pit b-tch" Scott Hall for the help and John Troxell for a very productive day.

Troxell had continued his slowing ways from the day before and qualified with an 11.99 on the 11.90 index. Although he went out first round, he also put up a 11.96 in first round. the fact that he was able to control the car was a win. So now, that we have the timing down, we will then get him working on the tree for the next race and maybe take a win by the end of the year.

4-13-07

Other last minute items. From drag day, I some how either left the data logger on or hit the switch when loading or unloading something.

any ways, it had completly killed my battery for probably the 1000th time. And on the recharge, the batter just didnt seem to be at full potential any more, So I ordered another one hoping it would arive on time and sure enough it did.

New battery on the left, Odyssey 925. On the right, the OLD Preditor Black Panther. This give you an idea of how old this battery is. They look identical dont they. Its because of a name/ownership change that happened a long time ago. the Black Panther battery has to be at least 10 year old now. For a battery that has been drained way too many times and normally sits around between races and off seasons, i'd say, it's a great battery. That is why I went right back to the same thing, just called Odessy now. Not to mention, its small and about 15 lbs lighter then a normal battery. Both happen to be steel cased, top termimal. Odyseey model number PC925MJT.

And on another last minute subject, I got a call last nigth while loading up my stuff for the weekend that a fellow racer needed a scatter shield for his pro mod car before he went to Phoenix.  So I bent one up ASAP and Hector Urais stopped by last nighth and picked a raw one up fresh off my jig. So he is thrashing to mount it up before he departs.

4-11-07

On Monday, I was doing some quick checking up on things in preperation for the weekend. Warmed up the car on Monday  afternoon and all looked well.

Tuesday afternoon and there is a spot under the car. So I clean ever thing up and fire up the motor again and look for where it might be leaking. Ever thing looked good and even the suspect item looked good while the motor was running, but after i shut it off and it cools down, my swivle fitting starts to weap.

puts a litle drop on the ground.

So at the last minute, I am digging into my stuff and changing out the swivle fitting comming out of the oil pump cover that I have had in service for 18 years. WOW, not too bad. guess I got my moneys worth out of it. Best guess is the o ring inside the swivel finally started to brake down.

Fortunatly, I had another one laying around and swapped it out so I do not have any issues with it at the race this weekend.

Now I have two afternoon's left to clean and service the tow vehicle and trailer and load up for friday morning departure. Shouldn't be too much of a problem. part of the normal rutine.  

If for some reason you are un-aware of the race this weekend, click here.

4-9-07

Got 2 done over the weekend.

4-4-07

My goodness, updates only 2 days apart.

Still doing some final fit up on some shields and getting my numbe 3 cylinder clearance set up.

Having to get one mounted on my spare box so I can get some more measurements.

Final result is that notch  on the left side. But now I have the last fixed measurement so I am not pullin my own motor in and out to make cut and grind to fit.

Easiest way is to pull out a case, cylinders and a head and make sure it all fits.

at first I set it up with stock lenth cylinders with no spacers. make sure it clears the head.

then once their is a .400" shim under the cylinder similar to the width my motor is, then there is all kinds of room. (a .400"ish shim would be something like an 84 stroke on a 5.7 rod) If one had non finned barrels, there would be no need for this clearance.

I also bent up a shield for a super street car. But with out seeing the car and not knowing how things worked, I just made sure it would cover a good 4" + trans raise off of the frame horns just incase. Then they will do all the trim and mounting.

Now i just need to bolt up and add some adjustment tabs to the other 2, and those will be complete. Now will any one take them? that will be the question.

4-2-07

FINALLY! I got back into making up a few flywheel scatter shields.

Picked up a couple sticks of cold rolled flat bar

got a couple of set ups bent up.

Should have 2 complete by next weekend. (the one behind is my template so I am not pulling my motor out to make sure things fit again) A third will be bent tonight and goign on a Super Street car and the fouth, can ether be a custom one or i need to find another mount.

IF you are interested in one, shoot me an email.

3-27-07

Just a non thrashing weekend. Car is in one piece and I am actually collecting material to make a few scatter shields.

But over the weekend, Steve Mortesen came by so I could assist him in rewiring his car.

I didnt really do much. I sort of helped lay things out, get him a parts list and he did most of the work while Jim, Brian and I had some cool refreshments in the warm california sun. We played the city worker thing. 3 guys watch while one works.

Some of the old timers might reconize Steves last name. This car use to belong to his dad Tim. But it has long since changed its appearance from days gone by.  (the 68 with the 8 spoke rims) First time I saw this car, I was probably 14-15 when I would go down to Mostly Metric with my brother.

Has a pretty strait forward 78x94 motor with Dick Nuss Superflo's and custom Dick valve covers with a different rail and o ring set up. Last time this motor was on the EMS dyno, it put out 235 hp.

My 2 year old son Adam is a natural born driver grabbing gears feeling safe in the JCL cage. LOL

3-20-07

Hot VW's Drag Day.

I think it was just one of those days where it was the opposite of cant do no wrong.

I think I was just a little off and couldn't quite get a handle on it. Although there were a few other veterans that were in the same boat.

After thrashing till almost 6pm on Saturday to get every thing on the car done that needed doing, I finally got to load up.

Sunday came around and I figure I will do the show off thing for at least one pass and keep the wheelie bars off. Once again, right turn on the hit. So that was an aborted run. But I did click off a 504 light. (.004)

Second pass and the wheelie bars are back on. Except for the big red eye, the car worked flawless putting up a 6.83 at 99mph. So I'm happy.

On the third pass, my mind is no where to be found. I start my burn out in 4th gear and not second like I normally do. I think this just threw off my whole game plan. I forget to turn on the 2 step, and launch at big rpm and another red light. Car is moving, but my mind is still not there, and I miss third. So it's a no go again.

Now its round 1 of eliminations. With the sun starting to poke out and knowing the air is changing, I put on a 6.85 dial in. At first I we think I am going to be paired up with Lance Gregory and he puts the same dial in for some fun heads up type of racing. Both he and I are looking forward to this. But as we get pulled out, there is one car that was either broke or pulled out or got pulled out and now the car count changes and I have Bruce Fordyce behind me that I now get paired up with. Hate to race good friends in first round, but that's just how it has to be. I give him my best and click off a very good .512 (.012) light. But Bruce is up to the challenge and give me all he has with a .503 (.003) light. Not really knowing this, I come by him at 15 plus mph faster and just blip the throttle at the very end taking the stripe, but it was not good enough, I end up running a 6.842 on the 6.85 dial in. I am first round looser. What a bummer. But the way I lost was not all that hard to take. First it's a friend, and second, he put up a good run to push me out.

So as I think about packing up, the boys are all saying, "go run the jack pot class". Basically the looooooser class. The boys say, we are paying for it, so you have to go.

I then pull up into the JP class line only to find Mike Lawless, John Schuerger and a few others with all of us using the big fore finger and thumb in the shape of an L on our for heads and have a good laugh.

So here is first round of JP class and at first, we figure there is one car in front of Lawless and I will have to run the slower car behind me. And again at the last few minutes, there was another car up front we didn't know about and this puts me paired up with Mike.

I knew he red light in first round of Q16, so he was having a hard time with the lights like me and a few of the others that have gotten use to the pro light. I figure he will be conservative or go red. My thought was also to stay a little conservative as well. He launches and puts up a .610 (.110) light and is pretty much a sitting duck when I cut a .560 (.060) light. Even though that light is not all that great, its still much better then Mike's and I notice, I am catching him real fast at the top of second and then I proceed to miss third again. DANG!!!!! I need to go back to driving school. Time to put a video camera inside the car and watch my foot to hand timing and see if I am loosing it or not.

So there is my weekend. Thrash till the last minute, make sure the car idles, and go racing with good performance. The new rockers worked like a charm. Every thing seemed to be right on in place. So now its time to wait until phoenix on April 15th and catch up on some of lifes normal stuff again like mow the lawn and such. Its bad when the lawn gets overgrown and you come home from racing and the wife had to do it.

3-14-07

I am behind schedule. I am trying to get ready for Drag Day at Irwindale this weekend, but my wife has not been feeling well, so I have lost 4 afternoons worth of work. (had to deal with kidney stones) But I should still be there. Just have to thrash till the last minute now.

Here is some thing NEW! CB Performance has come out with some 1.3 rockers. Constructed very similar to their 1.4's but just a shorter ratio.

So this year, I wanted to put a touch more duration back in, and see if I am imagining thigns or if the duration really helps my set up out. So the ole Engle 125 will be put back in. Kind of cool looking in black.

Almost a perfect fit. On a regular VW OD spring, they would be a  no brainer. but having these larger springs make it real close. it took just a light touch of clearancing so the spring doesnt hit the rocker on the Comp E heads.

 But changing rockers means changing push rods too. So another set of CB's dual taper .090" wall push rods are going back in. But the hardest part is how do you put a taper into a lathe and cut it? Fortunatly the center of the push rods are flat for a short distance, so one can grab on to them with a lathe with out a wabble. But having the push rod stick out that far out of the chuck and trying to cut from the side with out it flexing just seems wrong. So the simple solution was to find a spot facer tool with a pilot and stick that in the tail stock with a chuck. Here I just took .290" off the end.

Got to love it when your son gets into it too. Matt was watching what I was doing and wanted to play, so here he is setting up the rocker geometry.

on another note, Troxell is moving forward on his motor pretty quick. unfortunatly, he found a crack in his last crank, so he has switched to a DPR crank. The only problem was his case was cut for a flanged crank, but nothing a Chicago Rawhide seal cant take care of.

John also changed over to some Raceware head studs. The problem with those is the nuts that are used.

they use a 12 point aircraft style nut and a regular crows fit doesnt fit on the top two center studs any more. So I whipped up this little tool. JT went out and found a cheap socket and wrench. I turned the socket down so there was only the hex drive left and cut the box end of a wrench off and weld together.

 That along with a swivel end extension and now we can torque the center studs.

Part of the Red Cup Brigade hanging out while JT and  I do motor work.

2-28-07

Havent updated for over a month. Been a little busy doing all kinds of other things. But finally getting back on track. My motor has finally been pulled for its annual check up and inspection. Will be changing some minor stuff like rockers to something new. (stay tuned)

My case on the left is fresh out of the jet wash on the left and John Troxell is getting ready to close up his case on the right. not too much new and exciting here.

While at EMS picking up my crank from being mag checked, I saw this thing. So I broke out my new cell phone that has a camera in it (i am finally catching up on the times and having modern toys) and snapped off a picture of this early 50's Fiat 2 litter 8v motor. Yes 8v, not v8. Something about fiat not wanting to infring on the name v8.  It is something like a 70 degree V motor, and small. Only a small hand full made and this is their second one they have brought back to life. Weber carbs on top. It really is cool if you are a gear head.

Well I need to get my self up to full speed and get back to working on my stuff to be ready for Drag Day on March 18th at Irwindale. Hope to see you there.

1-18-2007

Back many moons ago, I had played with the number 3-4 valve cover and watched how it filled up with oil rapidly from oil sling off the crank and the build up of oil on the 3-4 side under the pushrod tube drains. Not that it ever really created a problem for me, but I had an idea on how I might help the situation, but only recently got around to trying something this year. I decided to relieve the side of the case to give the slinging-build up oil a place to go. thus the hoses off the side of the case in the picture below.

And because we could and we were there, not to mention, it cant hurt, and should only help, we did it to Troxell's motor earlier this year too.

Below was my orignal test. and after that, there is a video I did last night of the results of my toubles. It has changed considerably.

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4-29-2000

Didn't think I would update that fast huh. Another week has passed. And I have held off with the welding machine until I get some real power at my house. I am in the works of putting in a new 200-amp service in the side of my garage. MORE POWER arg arg arg. So now, I have been thinking about a small oil leak I had at the last race. It was just enough to give the left head a light film of oil. (drivers side.) So, during one of my trips down to EMS, I had a little talk with them about the issue. Originally thinking I had a pinhole leak in my breather line or the fitting in the side of my cover, I brought up the subject of putting a drain in the bottom of the valve cover to drain the oil back to the case. Knowing that the windage of the crank will sling the oil up the push rod tubes and flood the cover. My thought was that maybe the oil was going up the breather tube where I think I may have a pin hole and wanted to be able to drain the cover sooner. Well, its definitely been done before. One of the ideas the guys at EMS had was that my spring bales may be getting week and the oil is sort of hydraulicing and lifting the whole cover and giving me that little leak. In the end I did find the real leak after some experimenting. The little bosses that you screw the cooling tin to the top of the head above the valve train had these studs in them, and during the last rebuild, the stud would always get in the way of torqing the head unless I used a shallow socket. So I took them out. Come to find out that at the bottom of the hole above #3, there is a small pinhole into the valve train area. Well I would never see it while it was sitting and running in the pits or the driveway, until I did this little experiment shown below. The guys at EMS let me use one of there old testing tools. Its actually cool. it is a valve cover with a window in it. I took it home to really see how much oil got slung into the left side.

you can clearly see there is no oil in it yet. Its weird to actually see the rockers in operation. Something you dont normally see.

I started the motor up and brought it up to around 2500 rpm and it is about a third full. At 3000 rpm it was half full.

On my way to 5000 rpm. This is why this is the easiest place to see if your motor is going away, pop this cover off and you will see any junk in the bottom of the cover that settled. its faster then pulling your filter apart. It all gets pushed over to this side.

At 5000 rpm. it is full. This when I saw my real leak on the top of the head. If you think about it, this area must hold a quart or a quart and a half of oil. No wonder you need a deep sump, otherwise you would have no oil to pick up. One of the ideas the guys at EMS gave me was to braze up the tips on the push rods so I dont send any extra oil up in the vavle cover. It definitly has enough with out it. And if you think about it, to do that would lighten up the push rod it self if there were no oil in it. Now I would say, this is not a good idea in a street car where you idle on a regular basis, but for my case where I really only race this, I am alwasy on RPM. But its not likely that I will do that yet.

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This is my first attempt at putting video on the computer, and it worked pretty good. The down side was this video doesnt show how fast the valves actually move at idle. The Movie Maker only caputures 30 frames a second so at idle, it looks like the valve opens only a few times. In the video below, I bring it up to 3000 rpm and then 5000, let it idle a bit, and then bring it right back up to 5500rpm and hold it for 10-12 seconds. Oil push has defintly been reduced. I do have one more test that may have biased the first and that was the lean of the car forward that may have pushed up the 3 exhaust and I hope to do that test tonight, to either verify if that changes any thing or not. Any ways, enjoy the video. its around 2 meg in size, so it might take a while to load for dial up. If you cant get the video to work at all, (my problem at work)  I think there is a link on that page to actually download it too.

http://media.putfile.com/5500rpm

1-2-07

Happy New Year.

Well we are back on line. Sorry for the disruption. My web page host was making an ISP change over and we had to go offline for a bit.

So what have I been doing since Fontana. Not a whole lot. My car still sits in the trailer, but that will change this week.

I have been working on a friends car recently and got a stainless downpipe fabed up. We also purchased some of the stuff called SolarfluxB that acts as a flux for the inside of the tubing when welding, so I wouldn't have to purge the pipe to get a clean weld.

Scott did catch a few pictures of me actually working.

 Getting the flanged tacked level with the 2.5"x3" reducer.

This is the fun part. trying to find  the angle to make things fit. Scott purchased two U-bends to complete this project. In the end, that was perfect.

  First piece tacked in place.

Squeezing down making sure it clears every thing with some minor trimming on the apron.

The intention was to just dump out the bottom, but as we played around with the pipes, we started thinking it might look cool coming out of the stock notch. And if you are wondering, Marty Staggs did the initial turbo set up.

A few ideas was to cut it to match the angle of the apron or even just a strait cut (closer to the apron then this)

And as usual, when the Red Cup Brigade is over, we must initiate the motor and try to make it faster. Hay, it matches the breather boxes.

What the snake is starting to look like.

Then at the last minute, with consutation of the RCB gang, we decided to put a slight roll down on the tip.

I think in the end, that was the right decission.

Looks nice, clean and simple.

And the last to go on, was the O2 sensor bung. With the addition of re-indexing the wastegate so the ports do not interfere with the new pipe.

Also somthing really cool. Aircooled.net now offers these cool nuts.

These are 8mm nuts BUT with a 3/8" hex and flange and at a reasonable price too.  The picture on their page represents the 8x11mm nuts.

Perfect for those tight spaces like the center bolt of a manifold on a comp or super flow head, maybe 1 3/4" or larger header, ect.