Previous updates for the 2000 season

1999 updates      1998 updates

12-28-2000

Since Sixto has plans to make this a turbo motor. I figure I would add in another oiling port for the turbo it self.

I took the primitive road to remove the plug in the top of the case. So all I did was drill a hole in the plug, and run a 1/4" lag screw into it.

Then to continue my primitive cave man style, I found a junk piece of wood laying around, used my big crescent wrench and closed it to wrap around the bolt, and pulled up on the handle to catch the head of the lag screw.

And it came right out.

I used a 7/16" ream to clean out the ridge just inside the hole and then ran a 1/4" pipe tap through. Now its ready for a nice fitting to feed the turbo.

And since I was right there and with the thought of fitting every think long before final assembly, I went ahead and removed the old distributor hold down stud and replaced it with the stud that comes with this cool MSD distributor. Nice piece of hardware.

Just though I would show this just because it looks cool. My brother picked this up for me. All it needs is to have the bug taken over to Feinberg to have it lettered to match my car.

12-23-2000

Had a few free moments this afternoon, so I hopped on Sixto's motor some more.Dropped in the crank to check for rotating clearance of the case.

This is a Scat 84mm crank with chevy journals (2 inch dia.) and Eagle rods.

I still need do to check the other half of the case and as soon as we have a cam selected, clearance will be checked there as well. not likely too much clearance of the cam will be needed. Some but not a lot.

Gobs and oodles of room in comparison to my motor using the same size crank with VW journal and Pauter rods pictured below.

picture from earlier this year of my motor.

12-17-2000

Added to link page. Some fellow PRA Racers.

12-10-2000

The stuff below is a little repetitive and I have shown this stuff before. But hay this is what I am doing right now and I though I would show it again. I am starting to get good at this. This is Sixto's second case for his new 84x94 motor. His original case had 8mm head stud set up and initially was going to be an asparated motor for his oval window. But as most of us have a speed demon we must satisfy, the decision was made to make this the turbo motor. So he took the other case back and swapped it with this one that had the 10mm head stud inserts in it. Now I need to clean this one up.

 Below I will show some of what you may get out of a machine shop that you can hire to clearance a case for the bigger cranks. I listen to what people have to say about running a bigger crank and they may feel a little apprehensive on putting a big crank in because of the clearancing issues. I for one felt that way at one time until I dug right in and did it. Now its not a big deal at all. And yes, that is Jim's car in the back ground. It is in temporary storage at my place until he gets settled into this new place. 

For the most part, when you take a case to have clearanced, they come out pretty close to every thing you need. (depending on the components uses.) But It would be nice to take it to a reputable machine shop that has lots of experience at this and has a good reputation for customer service, such as Engine Machine Service or Rimco. On this picture you can see an end mill was used to take out the corner, right above the center cam bearing surface.

Another end milling section above and below the cylinder spigot to clearance the rod bolts.

How they do this is beyond me. this section is radiused between the two head stud inserts. this way the cheeks of the cranks will not hit.

In preparation on this case, I was once told, if it feels sharp, it needs work. When you get a new case you will find a lot of sharp edges like this one on the edge of the center main surface. I will take a half round small fine file and clean all these edges up. Edges around the case sealing area will be checked as well.

 When you have a case done at a place like Rimco, it is done on CNC machines and they have a pattern to go buy. Not done by hand. In this case I will need to clean up some of the sharp edges left by the machining and any flashing that may be inside the case from the original casting, bla bla bla. The tool I use is a Sears 1/4" rotary die grinder. I use this to clean up the big stuff.

Here is a before and after shot of the clearancing needed at the top of the case for the rods. As you can see on the left, there is a pronounced edge where the mill stopped digging. On this motor, there will be Eagle rods on a chevy journal and I could just drop it in as is and it would fit. But I hate sharp edges. On my motor, using the much bigger Pauter rods with VW journal, I had to clean this area out to make it clear. But normal procedure would be to actually trial fit every thing until things clear. This may mean, dropping the crank in with the rods, checking for rotating clearance, pulling it out, grind a little more and check and recheck. Its only time.

12-1-2000

OOOPPPSS I was way off on the date for the VW Obcession show at West Coast Metric.

The show is Tomorrow morning on Dec 2nd. Sorry.

11-27-00

Hope every one had a great Thanksgiving. I know I definitely ate too much.

After a little time away from VW stuff. (taking care of house hold chores, such as finish up my new electrical service panel installation) its time to move on to the garage and play a little again. So tonight, I pulled out Sixto's parts for his motor that I will be assembling. one of the things I checked tonight was the CC's in the combustion chambers of his heads.

Earlier this year I went down to my local hobby shop (radio controlled air planes, cars, etc) and picked up a syringe that measured CC's (typically used to measure nitro to mix with model airplane fuel) I found this 140 cc unit for around 8 bucks. The disk I made out of a piece of lexan left over from making the windows in Jim's car. Wha-la, now I can measure cc's.

If your in the area this weekend, you should stop by West Coast Metric for a little car show that the local VW club called VW Obsessions will be putting on this Sunday the 10th. I plan on taking my car down and taking care of my VW fix for the week. See yea there.

11-8-2000

Well I am playing on the computer tonight, so I figure I should update on something.

so here it is. With the web growing at leaps and bounds, there are more racers putting up there own pages. Here are 2 PRA racers with there own pages starting out. First is John Redding's Pro Mod (former pro turbo) And then Richard Laitenin's Pro Eliminator and sometimes with his second car, runs supergas. So go check them out and have some fun.

10-11-2000

Attn: in the near future I will be moving my web page one more time. So stay tuned for new address. And if all fails. www.MufflerMike.com will get you there regardless of placement.

Las Vegas....The city that never sleeps. I think that's what they call it. For the most part, an awesome weekend. I had an opportunity to borrow a friends 20ft enclosed trailer to get an idea of how gas mileage would be, how hard it was to tow etc. The trailer has the cool amenities like bathroom/shower, stove, sink, bed, CD player, and an awning on the side. It was perfect. So now the wife and I are talking about getting one of our own. Assuming we can fit it in the budget. A special thanks goes out to Ken Gracy, (former super street driver) owner of the trailer.

Makes my van look a little small.

I exceeded what I went there to do. Since the points championship was pretty much in the bag, it was time to play. All I had to do is stage first round and that would have mathematically put me out of touch. So it was time to show off a little and see if I could do some big wheelies again. Sure enough, I managed to do just that all day long. Car ran a best of a 12.37 up at 2200ft elevation with only a minor jet change from Sacramento. I got to first round kind of expecting to loose because all I was doing was playing around. The mood was so light that almost every time I came to the line and did my burn out, there stood Dave Cormack in his usual position ready to take pictures on the side rail. Well at Sacramento, we all went out to dinner and found an inside joke about sticking a finger in a warm loaf of bread. (REAL LONG STORY) Well needless to say, right before I stage, here is Dave sticking one finger into his other hand, and I am just busting up laughing trying to stage the car. Just having a super great time. Well I passed first round. Now I am getting that competitive edge coming on and start thinking to my self, maybe I can pull this off. So in goes and extra pound of air in the tires to somewhat try to control the wheelies a little, (didn't really help that much) Second and then Third round passed and I am still in. Semi finals. I am matched up with Doug Berg who came all the way down from Washington I believe. We shook hands, and were both very excited to be able to race each other. The burn out came, all is well. As I got to roll the car to the staging lights, I did notice a lot of oil on the ground between the tire grooves. So I made the judgement that I can go right over and keep my tires out of that. I bump the prestage light, bring the motor up to get ready to bump into the stage light and then, I get all these taps on my door window telling me to shut down. Apparently one of the line officials said that my car was puking oil. I tried to explain to them at the line that there was a lot of existing oil already and it wasn't me. But all I got was shut it off. I was then pushed back and Doug was sent on his way down the track. After I got pushed back far enough, I got out, looked under my car. NOTHING dripping, I then fired up my car, winged the motor and still nothing. Then I questioned the starter's decision on the shut down. And boy did I get hot inside. After some calm discussion (very hard to do) I had to live with that decision. Even my wife came down and had a word with the starter and how he came to that call. By then, I had to just bite my tongue and get in my car and drive it away. There were even a few other people at the line that were surprised at what just happened. But some one must have thought they saw something and didn't want to take a chance on having to clean up the track or something along that line and called it. At that point, the starter is the one to make the final call, and doing his job, he probably figures he had better back up his crews call weather it was true or not. Was that a bad call or unfair, well if you talked to some of the people that were there, you would get an answer of yes, completely unfair or just a bad F__king call and they need some glasses. But after I had calmed down, I came to my own conclusion of they have a job to do and sometimes life is just not fair. But what a facility this place was. If you get a chance, got check it out. Its not very often we get to race at a top of the line, state of the art, new track.

I still had a great weekend and I am still smiling and reflecting back on another great year of racing and hanging out with great friends.

So now that the season is over, I am looking forward to next year already ,and will be trying my hand at the PRA's Super Gas class or 11.90 index class. A new challenge for the 2001 season. Coming up next will be the PRA Awards picnic at Mile Square Park on the 22nd of this month. More good friends and a lot of bench racing to be had.

On another good note, my buddy Ron Rice, managed to put him self in a good position and win the sportsman class and made for a real easy drive home. Plus Chihiro Abe and EMS Super Street car made there second final in a row. But unlike a killer win last time, a clutch problem plagued the final for them. Its almost as good a feeling watching your friends do good as it is your self doing good. If you cant win but your buddies win, it becomes just as easy a drive home as it would for your own win.

I will do my best to give some sort of updates during the off season. I know I will be doing some off season testing of a new turbo system from www.TGFab.com for the upcoming 11.90 index. I also have Sixto's new motor in my garage that needs some assembly, so I should be showing that fairly soon. (as soon as I finish up some unfinished household chores that I have neglected because of the racing.)

One more thing, our friends Jimski and K10 at OneSickVW has a few vid clips of me at Vegas. So go check it out. Thanks Jim

9-6-2000

Sacramento Bug-O-Rama

Well not the full weekend I was hoping for. But there were some pretty high points to my weekend. Not only did I meet more people from the internet, all great. My suspension testing for future Super Gas racing went much better then expected. Then I got greedy, and wanted to show boat a little. I'm sure most have either heard or saw. The 2nd and 3rd pass on Saturday night, I decided to loose the muffler, drop the pressure in the slicks and see if I can set the car on the bumper like I did in Whittman, but with my motor. Well needless to say by the 2nd attempt, I just miss dragging the stinger. So I had a talk with "Air Clyde" Berg, and had him loosen up those wheelie bars and arranged a early morning side by side wheelie show for the crowd. Needless to say, I think it was well accepted. I didn't get the front end as high as I wanted (like the night before) but I think it was good enough for a good showing. This might have been my downfall, I should have worked on my race set up a little more. But that's life. I was having too much fun. The next big high point came in first round. I took out the Queen of Sac. Nicole Linkhart. I gave here a good spanking. And I'd say next year it will most likely be her turn to win again, but im hoping not to be in that class. Round two came and I was feeling real cocky by now. And then the BIG RED EYE. Boy, that deflated me real quick. I think the car hooked up a little too good and pulled the front tires right out of the lights. But I got a personal best on the muffler with a 12.15 pass. (12.08 on the stinger against Clyde) The other high point was due to some bad luck that Troy Smith had (man I am battling in points) broke his primary gear box on Saturday night and his back up Sunday morning. And couldn't even make it to first round. Which basically handed me the points championship for the 4 year in a row. Not exactly how I wanted it, but I will take it. I do have to show up to Vegas and stage the car to make it mathematically out of reach. Id say a good productive weekend. See yea in Vegas.

PS there are some pictures and videos out there already. Look up Matt's page at http://www.geocities.com/surfbug63/

And there is a video of Clyde and I going at it in the morning at http://www.crosswinds.net/~maxwelton2k/wheelsup.htm. Complements of Max

8-17-2000

Muffler Mike Racing is pleased to announce the addition of TG Fabrication  as a new sponsor for the 2001 season. Owned and Operated by Tracy Grimm, TGF will be fabricating a new turbo system for my car to be debut early 2001 maybe sooner. If some early suspension testing goes well, this will allow me to jump class and go play in the PRA Super Gas class. This is an 11.90 index class that has the dial in fixed. Sort of a heads up class but more emphasis put on the driver and consistency of the car, instead of cubic dollars. You might be saying, with a turbo you will be able to go a lot faster, and you are right, but for me, I want to challenge my self by trying a different class and if testing does not go well. I will most likely just let the boost go and Haul A__ in the Pro Eliminator class.

So please join me in supporting TG Fabrication at www.TGFab.com and keep your eyes open for updates of my parts being fabricated. And be sure to tell them Muffler Mike sent you.

8-9-2000

Denver Fineline Bug-in

I finally Conquered the Mountain!!!

My apologies for not updating sooner. I just pulled in a few hours ago from our trip. What an outstanding weekend. Won the race and took a mini vacation. Left Friday morning for Denver, stopped off in Vegas for a moment, and got into Colorado that night. Saturday morning, we came down the hill, into town early, and since hotel check in wasn't till 3pm, we turned off and went over to the Coors brewery for the tour and FREE beer. We then meet up with our friend John Redding at the hotel and then proceeded over to Rick Mustard's place for some pre race fun and BBQ. Now these guys know how to do up a BBQ. Well not really a BBQ but more of a feast of food. Thanks Rick.

Sunday morning came, and it was race day. After a first practice pass big red light, I readjusted me and the car and was able to pull off some reasonably consistent reaction times. The car did its job well. All I did was change the jets over to the alky in the morning, and that was the last touch until the change over to gas at the end of the day. During 2nd, 3rd, and 4 round, the car ran identical 1/8th-mile times. So I was feeling good. In the final round, I meet up with Salt Lake City resident Doug Johnson. Doug had his serious game face on when he came to the line. But he turned on the red light with a .498, just .002 from a perfect light. And had he been .002 slower, I would have been a sitting duck. Now that's hard racing. Great job Doug, I'm sure you won't do that next time we meet. I have finally taken over the points lead for the first time this year. But we all know that can change real easy from race to race.

We (Amanda and I) then headed out right after the race to continue our vacation, but with a big smile on my face. We made it to the Grand Canyon on Monday afternoon to view the big hole in the ground. WOW, that's a big hole. Makes you feel real small. Then by Tuesday morning we were in Lake Havasu where we stayed at Amanda's parents place. We proceeded to spend the day doing absolutely nothing and just enjoying the day together. This morning was spent getting the windshield of the tow vehicle repaired from a rock we hit the day before, a quick stop at the grocery store, and the rest of the trek home. I'm feeling real good. I even won enough money to pay for the entire trip and a few bucks to spare.

Next on the agenda will be Sacramento on Laborday weekend. Stay tune for some good news in the next few days.

7-30-2000

Well I'm sure by now, you know I have moved my page to this location. The good news is that if any one needs to find this and don't know the address, www.MufflerMike.com will find this page any where it moves. Thanks to some friends, I now have a nice place to put my stuff up.

What have I been up to? Well in preparation for Denver, I have done some needed preventive maintenance to the trailer, such as check and repack the wheel bearings, adjust the electric brakes and add a little mount for Jim's little 50cc motorcycle/pit bike

Looks almost like a full size 125 or 250cc but missing 200cc.

But this is how small this bike really is. But it is so cool. the first couple of times we took it to the track, we just threw it in the back of the van against the back seat and used the seat belts to hold it in place.

7-17-2000

Add to for sale page.

7-16-2000

I went out to the VW Panic show today, that was a blast, very cool location, right in down town Upland Ca. They had the streets blocked off in the area, we parked our car in the middle of the streets, took in the local shops in the area and soaked up the sun.

I have finally started a project that has been put on the back burner for a while. This is not really VW related in the normal sense, but it will contribute to a better work environment in the garage.

I am installing a new 200 amp service panel on the side of the garage.

From tips from some friends, I used a little air hammer, and chiseled the stucco to open the hole for the panel. This item works so well. I outlined where I wanted to cut, moved in about 3 inches, chiseled again, cut the wire and tare paper, and out came this solid piece that the hammer is sitting on.

Once again, an electrical contractor friend, picked up a whole kit that he can get a good price on from his wholesale house. Basically it came with the box, wire, armored ground cable, ground rod, conduit for the service entrance, the roof flashing, weather head, assorted grounding clamps and fitting, and 4 extra 20 amp single breakers. If I went down and got this same stuff from a Home Depot, it would have cost me an extra 50-75 bucks.

By Saturday night, I had the panel completely installed and just about ready for some new stucco.

The weather head is up. around my area, code states the weather head be 3 ft above roof surface. So Cal Edison wants 3 feet of wire sticking out. I went with 2/O wire with a 1 1/2" conduit for the inlet. I personally think this is a little small, but it passes code. The down side of using 3/O wire is I would have had to step up to a 2" conduit which is 2 1/2" diameter, this would have made the top sill of the garage mighty thin, and I would have had to do some extra supporting. According to the code book, the 2/O wire will take 195 amps at 90c, and I know the wire will not see 180-190 degree weather.I work in an industrial area where you size according to the book and make sure if taxed all the way it can handle it and not what you will really use. Soon I will be able to power a welder or a big compressor, etc. I still need to install ground rod, run some conduit for the power to the house, get it all inspected by the city and then I can play. Most likely another month from now.

7-9-2000

Palmdale Ca. (you could call it Palmdirt) LA County Raceway. Elevation, 3500ft, corrected altitude 5500ft and climbing. Gusty winds and sand storms.

Race 3 in the books. Well I wish I had better news, but this will just have to do. Over the last 4 PRA races, I have made it to 3 finals and no wins. By no means is this doing bad, but when you get there, you can taste it and you want it all. After 4 rounds of eliminations, I found my self going to another final. But it was definitely a hard road getting there. After 4 practice passes trying to get the slicks dialed in (yes I used the slicks) and fighting severe cross winds and ever changing air, it was a pain to say the least for all racers to make there cars work. I loss 3 mph from second pass to the 4th from weather changes. And the air never came back. I was actually having a good day at the lights, fairly consistent, with only one red light in practice with a .496 and followed that up with a .501. J I managed to take out a couple of the big dogs in the class at the same time. Richard Letinen, Robert Hemphill, and Troy Smith. All who can win and will win any time, any place. This was actually a bigger feather in my cap then the win would have been. Not just having to race one of them but all three. In the semi finals, I lined up against Troy, I dialed in at a 12.83 after running a 12.81 on an 81 dial in against Robert. (this is how hard I had to run to win that round) I figured the motor was hot so I upped the dial in. Needless to say, I cut a little better light then Troy, (this was my bad light for the day and we both sucked against each other. I know I was thinking don't red light against Troy. It's a mental game) My car fell of to a 12.87 and Troy ran 11.45 on his 11.45 dial in. Now that is consistent because he seems to run right on his dial in a lot. (This car is for sale) I might have crossed the line with in a foot or two in front of him and at over 100mph, that's real close.  Then the final came. The track had us come right back up to run the final, I'm thinking motor hot, slow down some more. I put a 12.94 on the window, cut a good .517 light, was out ahead, and didn't lift enough to reel my opponent in. I broke out big time on the brakes with a 12.88. So much for slowing down. My opponent also broke out, but I was much worse. That's racing. Still a fun day. I'm still spitting out sand that was flying around.

Next race, Denver. This is one I am really looking forward to. Although I have never done all that well there makes me want it even more.

7-3-2000

Its been kind of quiet here at the Muffler Mike camp. Kind of took a brake after the classic weekend. But now I am wound up again for another great weekend of racing coming up. On July 8th, there will be a local PRA Race at Palmdale CA. I am really looking forward to this. In prep for the upcoming race I have

 pulled out  the gear box for its annual check up. This is preventative maintenance, instead of wait until it brakes. I looked at the gears that came out last week and so far so good. It was a little better then usual. Very light cracks in the ring gear. This is a good sign to me.

I have also recently purchased a set of 7" slicks in preparation for the Denver trip. At the Denver track, they will not allow street tires to launch in the groove. So I am forced to either borrow or buy slicks or just spin in the marbles that they set the street cars in. These are Phoenix slicks, formerly Firestone.

 As my mind is always thinking of how to make things better, I decided to lighten a few things up that won't affect the image of the car.

I took my rear brake drums into work, off the clock of course. put these on the lathe and removed the outer ring that rides over the backing plates. I then preceded to drill 3/4" holes between the studs. It took me about 2 1/2 hours to figure out how to run the lathe and large radial drill press and do this work. Its actually a lot easier then I though it was going to be.

I can see the light. I weighted them before and after on a scale at work that only rounded off to the nearest half pound. They stared at 12 lbs a piece, and when I was done, they were down to 10.5 each. Thats a lot of work for 3 lbs but if I do enough things here and there, maybe it will add up. So when time permits, I will do the front drums. Then it will be 6 pounds and I can safely eat my Double-Double from In-and-Out.

Then this morning, the mail came, look, its my new clutch disk from Aircooled.net. This will be replaceing my old 1994 vintage disk that has all but two of my wins on it. Its time to pass on the torche.  Hmmmm maybe I should run the slicks at Palmdale and give this disk a real work out. Thanks John.

Thats all for now, hope to post some good news next week. Have a happy 4th.

6-14-2000

If you haven't heard, the VW Classic weekend came and went. If you do not live in the California area and have never been to see the VW Classic car show, this is a must see event if you are into being in the atmosphere of VW's of all sorts. No, there is no drag racing, (maybe a burn out or two) but it's still the people that make it so great. My weekend started out on Wednesday night, when I dropped off my car at West Coast Metric for their annual open house party. Then on Thursday night, it was off to Dairy Queen in Orange County for the DKPIII cruise night. I was only there for an hour to mingle but managed to see the entire parking lot fill up with nothing but, stock and VERY hi performance street cars and even a few race cars. All VW's of course. Then on Friday night, it was off to West Coast Metric for their Classic weekend kick off party. Loren Pearson opens his doors of his museum for every one to see, I had my car there on display, along with Doug Harvey's pro turbo fast back, Clyde Bergs wheel standing race car, Jim Hagethorn's Street/strip car, and event he JCL new Beetle race car. Plus all the other people that stopped by, that was able to fit into the parking lot. What a show. Unfortunately for me, I had to work early on Saturday morning, so that just finished me off and I did not attend any thing on that day. What was going on was a Big bus show, a toy and literature show, the Berg Rally, and a end of the rally get together at Knolwoods where I have heard that I missed some real awesome burn outs. Then, on Sunday, the big show, the VW Classic at Irvine Meadows. Just think of a stadium parking lot and how big it is. Now fill half of that up with nothing but VW's. Whatever kind of VW you are into, you WILL find it there. I managed to run away from my car for a while and went over to hang out with the DKPIII club. They had all their incredible streetcars lined up. What a sight. All the members are a definite first class act. Thanks guys for a great time. There should be some new pictures of the Classic weekend on the Cal-Look.com page under Events.

Well, moving right along. I talked to Dan at Ocean Street Video, where he was showing his new PRA 99 tape. He showed me what he had put in this tape. ME, that's so cool. There are a few burnouts, a wheelie, and an in car cam ride with me during one of my elimination rounds at Phoenix last year. A must get tape.

He also had a tape of the Drag Day 3 down at Carlsbad from last year as well; this tape has another 3 ride along during a splendid day in So. Cal. If you're interested in something like that, get a hold of Dan at Oceanstreetvideo.com and tell him Muffler Mike send you.

The third item that I need to close off with is the test I did with the valve cover; well I have finally had a little time on my hands to show the passenger side.

Nothing like the other side, but I thought I would show it any ways. This is a picture at 5000 rpm. All it did was splash and sling oil off the rockers and on to the window. As I looked inside, all I was able to see was a small puddle develop just high enough to drain right back down the push rod tubes.

Next on the agenda is a Transmission check up (scheduled annual check up) and then off to Palmdale Ca. for another PRA points meet on July 8th. Gates open at noon, racing at 2sih and eliminations at 6pm, and race into the night.

Oh yea, cars for sale. If you are looking to get a turnkey car that will go fast right now, then here is your chance. Fellow racer Troy Smith is selling his 10 second turn key race car and Jim Hagethorn is selling his turbo street car. Look at the left side for the For Sal

5-29-2000

Sacramento Bug-O-Rama report

What can I say, another great weekend. I guess even a bad day of racing or even just a VW show is better then a day at work. Well here is the story. Arrived at the Sacramento raceway on Saturday afternoon, unloaded the car, made sure every thing was where it needed to be, made sure I had my Chevron Super unleaded in, (No alky for the night before, didn't want to have to go through the swap out at the end of the evening) go through tech, take the car up front, and ran a great 12.38 on the gas. Yee haaa, now we are taking. At that point, that's the fastest it has run on gas. Due to some minor spin off the line, I dropped the launch rpm down to 5600 from 5800 and made another lap. Wheeewwwwwww, It now rips off a 12.27 at just under 108. Yea buddy.

After a night of BBQing with some fellow VW nuts, it was Sunday morning. Feeling confidant, I switched to alky, ran 2 morning passes and netted a 12.36 and then a 12.35. Not as fast as the gas the night before, but consistent. But what I have learned about my car and how I have it running, I know it will do this sometimes, and come 1st and 2nd round, it wakes up a little and runs almost a tenth faster then the morning. Due to some big oil downs, our 3rd qualifying pass came around 1pm, and under normal conditions this is about the time 1st round of elimination's begins. So with that in mind, I make my 3rd pass of the day, and Boom it really woke up and ran a 12.20 at just over 108. But that was the fastest full pass I got. Went into elimination's, not all that comfortable with my reaction times of the morning, but with a best of a .544 reaction for elimination's, I think I did pretty good. I some how passed 4 other opponents only to meet up with my biggest rival at Sacramento. Nicole Linkhart Thomas. If you haven't heard of her, she is the queen of the Pro Eliminator class at Sacramento and still is a dominant force. This is now the 4th time I have meet her in the final at Sac. At this point I am 2 for 3 against her in the final. (2 for 4 in competition) Needless to say, I got my butt spanked. She cut a mediocre light and I cut .008 slower then her. She ran on her dial in time of 12.25 with a 12.254 and she did chase me a little so I had reeled her in at the finish line (I had sand bagged a couple of hundredths of a second) and put maybe 1 foot in front of her and I broke out by .02 of a second. That was pretty close. I saw her win light come on and I dropped my head for a moment, raised it back up, applied the brakes and had a big smile after. I had just got beat by some one who is Good. I didn't beat my self by red lighting and I know I made it a good close race. This has to be one of the easiest losses I have had. Nice job Nicole.

I must apologize for not updating like I thought I would be able to. I have had a real busy week working on Sixto's motor. All the way up until late Wednesday night. Just in time to get my stuff together and go to Sacramento. Yes, Sixto did make the trip too. He even made it to round 2.

I have some things to show, but that's all for now.

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.

On to the new project. Sixto (drives the green turbo notch back) droped by this morning with a big box of stuff. Its most of the parts for a 84x94 motor (2332cc) :-) Can we say, POWER. Sixto has given me the job to assemble his new beast. This is a kit from Scat that is pretty much complete with ported head and all the goodies that is needed to build it.

Since the wife was busy in the house making my life easier, I hoped right on this since I might be busy next week putting in a new service panel. Here we can see what shuffle pining is. On one side of the case it is boared out to accept a sleave that is pressed into the other side on the number 2 or center main sadle.

On the othere side of the case we can see the sleve that was pressed in. Now this is a debatable subject on weather to shuffle pin or not. There is two ways of looking at this, yes it does keep the center sadle aligned but you are also removing material to put this sleeve in. which can make it week and posibly crack. So its a catch 22. Good and Bad. This it the first time I have seen one up close. We shall see how it works. This case coming from scat, the workmanship on this piece looks great.

Time to pre assemble the crank and temporaraly hang the rods on to check for clearance. The case came pre clearanced from Scat, they do a job just like Rimco would. It is all put on a mill and hoged out in all the right places.

Sixto decided to let go of the Scat rods that came with the kit (5.5"long) and went for some Eagle 5.7" long rods. (the are both pretty much the same rod) Now you might be saying that isnt that a little too long? Well the plan for this motor will be to put a Hair dryer on it.(Turbo) I stoped to think about it and this might be a good idea with a turbo since you do not have to have piston speed to pull the charge in and the piston will move a little slower and let the charge burn completly giving more power. All theory in my head of corse. Any turbo guys out there can back me up on this and tell me if this is true. Any ways, back on the subject. This is a place I have been recently with the clearancing on my motor, so this part came real easy. Fortunatly, the Eagle Rods are not quite as fat as my Pauter rods were. This made checking clearanceing that much easier. The first time I droped the crank in, it all cleared the first time. So all I really had to do is go in and clean up some close and high spots, sharp edges and corners, and left over  casting flashing and then do a double check.

4-24-2000

My car ran well at the last race, so there is really nothing to do with it except roll the car in the garage and put the cover on and wait until the VW Jamboree. During one of my hang out days at EMS, I noticed a set of rear rims and tires. Well they ended up being the rear slicks and Erco rims that came off of Hobi Oseguera's car after he crashed it in Sacramento last year. You probably seen this car, its the bright yellow with the torn checkered flag draped across the front and the good looking girl on the rear deck lid. Well, I grabbed them to get the slicks off of, but the rims are bent up pretty good. Then an ides hit me, these might be some good wall art. So my question to all of you is, is it worth any thing to you. I should have taken a picture of them. next time. But my though was, have a closed bid on either separate or a pair of crashed rims, and then I would pass that money on to Hobi to help him finance his new car, that should debute at the next Sac. race. Email me and let me know what you think of this idea. Maybe even have Hobi sign them.

On to the next subject. After seeing Frenchy's garage, I had to do something to make mine look a little better. Since I had nothing to do to my car, I decided to drywall one wall in my garage to make a trophy wall. So here is what I have been up to.

I had this in my computer/office room, but after the wife remodeled the room and put in a new desk, the VW stuff had to leave, it just got to cluttered.

These are the ones I am most proud of, a second place and 3 championship plaques.

So there has been my 2 weeks since the last race. On another note, I had a chance to buy a 300 amp , water cooled, all the bells and whistles TIG welder last week  at a good price, and was trying to figure out how to justify the cost.  For me its just a toy I must have, but for the house hold budget, it becomes an expensive investment, especially after paying for all the recent new parts and not coming home with the winning check. So I thought about getting into some small fabrication. Maybe like turbo headers, aluminium breather boxes that would fit behind the fan shroud or just big ones for all out racing, maybe some bung fitting set up for the bottom of the fuel tank. Bla, BLA bla, the list could go on.I thought about roll bars and cages, but I think that best be left to the pros like JCL Race cars  or RLR. So would there be any one interested in some custom fabing. Let me know by emailing me, and maybe I will buy that welder.

4-4-2000

With the Phoenix race in the books, its time to look ahead and concentrate on putting my self in the winner circle at Sacramento. It was still a great weekend even though I could not pull off a win. I got a chance to go over to Frenchy Dehoux place on Friday night and check out all of his cool memorabilia from the old Bug-In days all the way through to present day. On Saturday, I managed to get in 2 qualifying passes, first one being a 12.50 and second waking up and moving on to a 12.39 (rings must be braking in) and then on to eliminations. For my car, the starting line was going away fast, the tire were spinning more and more, and I should have known better and compensated faster then I did for the changing track conditions. But that was only half the problem, well I got to the third round where I met up with my friend Ron Rice. He has a yellow street sedan. Well he cut the better reaction time and put me on the trailer. And here I was giving him help on his dial in time. But I would do it again in a heart beat. It's not quite so bad when you loose to your buddy, this way you still know one of you is still in the show. Unfortunately he ended up braking out in the next round. That's racing. Jim Hagethorn made the trip as well, and after a minor problem with his fuel pump cavitating, he got his one qualifying pass and went out and ran a 12.509 on a 12.50 dial, in the first round, realizing his car was on a good full pass, he turned down his dial in to a 12.45 and then he got his car and him self in sinc and ripped off a 12.36 shutting off and braking out big time. But he had a big smile on his face because his car was hauling A__. The way I look at it, we had his tire pressure up at 20 lbs to make sure he would feel comfortable at speeds, (it can be a little bit of a weird feeling when your tires are at 12 lbs and the car feels a little light in the rear) and because of this, his 60 ft times were way off and he could easily take off a tenth off of his time, which would put his car in the mid 20's. Not bad for a car he could have drove out the gate and to the hotel with out changing even tire pressure. I am sure the next time he takes his car out, that pressure will be a little lower.

In other good news, I have now got a new domain name. www.MufflerMike.com

I have a few things I need to share still, but I have ran out of time for now, stay tuned in the next few weeks

3-27-2000

Great News!!! Muffler Mike Racing is please to announce and welcome aboard a new associate sponsor for the 2000 season. John Plow of Cal Look, the Shrine/www.Cal-Look.com will be flying their colors on the front windshield. Please show the sponsors our support and visit there web page.

While on the subject of web pages, the PRA has a new web page of there own. You can find it at  PRA2000.com

Ok, its on to the normal update stuff. My thrashing is over except for a few little details. I took my car around the block, put my foot in it and away it went. What a blast.I am ready for the Phoenix Bug-O-Rama next weekend (4-1-2000) Hope to see you all there.

I went down to EMS saturday morning (the body was picked up the night before) to check out the progress of Chihiro Abe's Super Street Car. Two words,,,Bad A__. These guys are assembling a car and will have it ready to race next weekend.

The very talented Steve Feinberg doing up some pinstriping. He also did all the lettering on the car.

By the time I arrived around noon, Steve had already did up most of the lettering on the front end including painting on the head lights.

The amount of work that goes into one of these JCL Race cars is amazing. This is the new air tunnel that will feed the motor.

The inlet of the tunnel.

And where it will dump fresh air into a sealed box that will fit around the tops of the Carbs.

It is very impressive to see how good the aluminum work fits around the cage. See the gray part to the left,, head liner.

The rear engine cover and driver door.

Bill Duncan resembling the rear wing. after all the parts were painted individually.

The doors are hung to set up for the lettering on the side of the car.

Dick Nuss, doing some final adjustments to the Berg 58 carbs on the dyno.

This little item painted by Steve many year ago on the car lift was compared with a real life image in the next picture.

How to keep the atmosphere light when theres a lot of work to be done. This was a comparison to the picture above. This person will remain nameless, but the people there will know who it is. Greg, print this picture and show the guys.

3-21-2000

This update is heavy on pictures.

I have been pretty busy all of last week. Since the 12th I have been going full speed working on my motor every day. I have been down to EMS (Engine Machine Service) at least 4 times last week. When I pulled  the cam out during this rebuild, I took a glance at it and saw that the lobes looked great, still a little dark on the edges, even after 12 years of service. But that wasn't a good enough look. When checking for clearance on the cam lobe to lifter bosses, the front closest to the cam gear seem to have a lot more room then the others, and at first I chalked it up to inconsistency in the new case. I then took my case back down to EMS to cut the bosses just a little and they said, check your cam to make sure its ok. So on Sunday the 12th, I was on a major hang over from my wifes birthday party, it was time to put the case together. I measured the cam at that time and found one lobe was almost .030" down. But under the impression that it was only the exhaust lobe and a head ache, I slapped the case together. On monday, I was seeing things a little more clearly, and realized that it would be a better idea if i just change out the cam now instead of some time later, maybe even mid season. So it was off to EMS to pick up a new cam and lifters, race back home and put it in. On Tuesday, I set up the oil pump drive to the cam (different case, different depth) and moving studs around to make the deep pump fit and a few other things, Wednesday cam and it was off to EMS to watch them Finish up cutting my new cylinders, coming back late and attempting to put them on. Motor building just dont work to well when your tired and have a few beers in you. On Thursday, im back to setting up the motor, verify deck height, check valve geometry. Friday its back to EMS to cut down the rocker bosses in the heads to make my new Autocraft rockers work. My old vw rockers were just plane worn out, they would rock back and forth and side to side. Saturday morning, rocker geometry is finalized and fortunate for me, Bruce Fordyce at EMS came in on saturday, so I was right back there to have my push rods cut to length. By Sunday, I stuffed the completed motor in the car, just in time to go in the house to watch X-files. Monday night at 7ish pm after I had pumped for oil and then install the rockers back on, I hit the starter button for just a moment and the motor was lit. What a relief. Its now tuesday night and I now have 15 minutes running time on the new cam. By tomorrow, I should have my 20-30 minutes in and then its time to fine tune the carbs and blast it around the block. I would like to give Bruce Fordyce at EMS a big thanks for all his effort. He worked on my stuff during the time they would normally wind down  for the end of the day and go home. With all the time I get to spend at EMS, I am fortunate enough to look at what goes on there and took a few pictures of Chihro Abe's Super Street car going together. Pictures shown below.

On Sunday the 12th, it was kind of a motor building party in my garage. Our friend Ron Rice brought his motor over to put his bottom end together as well.

Here, I am setting up rocker geometry with the new rockers. Notice the springs, they are light duty to make checking it a snap and to keep the adjustable push rod from collapsing. You might be asking what is that little shim looking thing between the spring and rocker tip. Its exactly that. They are feeler gages that I had to stack to simulate the rocker stand to be lower. What I ran into was at half lift, the adjuster screw passed parallel to the push rod. If it fell short at half lift I would have added shims under the stands.

Another look at the set up. I use an old oil pump cover bolted to the exhaust stud to give me a solid base for my dial indicator.

This is what my adjustable push rod looks like. Its an old aluminium push rod with a piece of 1/4" all thread  that has been threaded into the push rod with a couple of jam nuts. Once im done, I will take this to EMS and have them cut some push rods to this length.

Here is Bruce milling down my rocker stand bosses. I had him take off .065".

Something I dont think i have shown before. My heads have the 44x37 valves in it with some Siamese seats that EMS has installed. If you look close, you will notice you can see the seat material pretty clearly out side of the valve and that the center between the two seats come together. These seats are custom made to fit and basically support each other. No more missing or cracking material between the seats and no more loose seats. I think a must get for the high performance enthusiast.

Its Sunday afternoon and its all together.

I even opted for a new 4 quart  Berg sump.

This is Chihiro Abe's pan of his Super Street car waiting on a freshly painted body. This a JCL built chassis with all the bells and whistles. I believe on Wednesday, the freshly painted body will be back from Bob Godfry's shop and this car will take shape and be ready for Phoenix.

As you can see, there are bars comeing up from the front suspension. These bars have flanges on that will bolt to the bars that are in the body when it arrives. Its the same with the rear

Not shown here, but the steering is set up with a one piece rod from tire to tire to help solve any bump steer. (bump steer is when the suspension moves up and down the tow in/out changes)

Now this is trick, the guys at EMS set up and installed this new gate shifter.Not shown in this picture, but normally there are 3 different shift rods that come out of the bottom of this to the gear box. This is a strait  and very short push, pull with no side ways action and very positive stops to keep the shift forks from being beat up.

The rear torsion bar has been raised up to lower the car .

The front head that holds the beams has been tilted up to help lower the car and give it more caster and has been extended to go to the longest wheel base allowed with in the PRA rules. Also supplied through JCL are the shocks on this car, they are very adjustable to help in changing track conditions.

You will notice this car has stock rear brakes. Some cars you may have seen have disks in the back of other race cars but they are usually running a spindle front with no brakes up there, but this car also has stock front brakes as well and has no problem stopping. after a 130mph blast.

The heart of this machine. Now this is a cool image to see. Maybe just a little different then what you might have seen in the past. Dick Nuss is the master of this beast. Based on a Pauter block (if you ever get to see a pauter block up close and taken apart you will then appiciate why they cost as much as they do. Very impressive piece) If im not mistaken this motor configuration is an 83x98 using a pauter head that has been heavily modified by Dick. You will notice the cooling fins on the heads look a different color, this is because this is an all steel chamber head all the way out to the fins mated with the aluminium intake ports of the pauter head. There are no inserted seats in this head, the seats are part of the head. You will also notice the center pull linkage. This was made up by Jimmy at JCL to accommodate the new air box and air tunnel that will run through the top inside of the car.If i remember correctly, this motor has pushed Mr. Abe's old car to with in a few tenths of the super street MPH record. So you know this is makeing some big HP

More adjustable shocks for the rear.

This is a neat item made by JCL. Instead of using a rubber or urathane bushing under a torsion housing cover, here is a piece of aluminum with a bronze bushing inserted to keep the torsion from moving forward under load and changing the alignment. You can see the elevation of the torsion bars to the pan.

A different view of the shifter.

This is a cool place, this is EMS's race motor room with all sorts of pictures from over the years of being in the race world.

So how is that for an update, a little heavy on pictures, but if your like me, you would rather see pictures then any thing else.

3-5-2000

Its now time to get back to my motor.

Its been a busy weekend. If you haven't caught on yet, I have broken down and purchased a new case. My previous case has had it. After 12 yeas of that 84 crank beating up on the case, it finally gave up. Well I could have opened it up to .080 over line bore but that just wasn't a good option. I took the new case down to Rimco and had it opened up for the 94's, taped for full flow, clearanced for the 84 crank and rebush the lifter bores. Normally this cost $210, but fortunately for me, I won $200 in gift certificates to Rimco at the Carlsbad DD3 race. How often can you walk into a place like that and spend only 10 bucks. Puts a smile on my face. Now on to some more pictures.

After receiving the case on thursday, I knew there would be some more clearancing to do. Rimco did a pretty good job of it but it is a generic clearancing. I still needed to go in and clean up some of the burrs, flashing  and sharp edges left in the case. Here are some of the bits I used to make some more room.

When doing the clearancing its some times a trial and error. Drop in the crank  with the rods using a couple bearings looking for any place that hits or places that need more hogging out.

This is how close it can get.

Plus it can also get close to the cam as well. You might have asked, why did I bush the lifter bores? After talking to the guys at EMS, they have run across a few new cases that just cant keep a lifter in them. This was cheap insurance, plus im sure I would have done it some time in the future. Now I will never have to worry about it. Later on, I will drop the cam and a lifter in to check for clearance between the lifter and cam lobe on all the holes.

Found a spot, so its time to grind a little more off.

Another new purchase (wife is going to kill me when she see's the credit card bill) Since I got the new case, I suspected that I would have to get new shims. And with my old barrels (right) being worn out (pistons starting to clank inside) I opted to get some of the new Century Cylinders (left) These are .800" longer then a cima. If you look a little closer to the right cylinder you can see the .512" shim on the end, leaving almost nothing to stick in the case. In other words, they were practically floating on top of the case. That was one reason for getting them, the second being my pistons came out of the bottom of the old cylinder that if you could see inside, the wrist pin hole was poking its self out just a little. The new cylinders will be able to support the piston much better.

Another comparison. I picked these up from JayCee's on friday afternoon. They run $250 (fortunately again I had won $50 gift cert. to Jack's place at the DD3 race) I will be using my old cima pistons with the new cylinders.

I finally got to a point to set up the new cylinders. This is where I will need to set up the deck height so the compression will be were I want it. I personally like to use a dial indicator to find top dead center of the crank. Don't trust your degree pully as they may be off. Even the Berg pully was a 1/2 degree off. (or my crank is off) This really amounts to nothing, but if its off by 1 or 2 degrees you will get the wrong reading.

Then I use a 4" depth gage (range is 0 to 1") I went back and forth looking for piston combinations that match deck height on both sides of the motor. With my previous set up, I had my #1 and #2 pistons cut down .004" to match the 3 and 4 side. While setting this new case and cylinders up, I found that there was a difference from one side to another, so I tried to put the 1,2 pistons in the 3,4 side and it was a near perfect match on both sides. I came up with a deck of .446 on 3 of the holes and a .447 on one which I will put in the #3 spot. (theory being that #3 runs the hottest and it will end up having just that little lower compression, But it really wouldn't matter) Now I will take the cylinders down to EMS and have them cut off .296" off the bottom to get my desired .150" deck height. I haven't really decided if i will stick to that or maybe bump up the compression a little more. (a side note, when measuring deck, check just above or below the center line of the piston, depending on what side your measuring. this will keep you from reading the rocking of the piston. The wrist pin in a cima is slightly off center so look before measuring. You will be able to see it happen)

After a job well done and spending some 8 hours in the garage doing the above, I treated my self to a long island ice tea. Ok this is my second one.

2-28-2000

OK James here is what you have been waiting for, the update. Hehehehe

Well I have been a little on the busy side while trying to get Jim's car up to speed and going on a little business trip last week. What has happened since the last update, went like this.

We got Jim's gearbox back on the 18th (Friday), Jim got the box bolted in that afternoon. On Saturday, I came by his house to pick up the car, bring it to my house, installed the motor, made a pass down the street, and wired up the new battery disconnect switch and closed the garage. On Sunday I left for my little trip coming back on Thursday afternoon. By Friday the 25th it was time to open up the garage and load up Jim's car to go get his car teched at the Import Race in Pomona. Saturday morning came along, and the weather was near perfect. Sunny and cool. They let us make our first pass (me driving) at about 9:15 ish or so, and went out and did my thing. First pass off the trailer netted a 12.27@107.48. We are smiling now. Then came the feasco, The pro cars came out and one after another had a problem with oiling down the track or just dropping parts all over the place, including 2 different crashes. It must have been 3 o'clock by the time we got to make our next two passes. This produced a 12.306@107.55 and a 12.308@107.58, now is that consistent or what? Sunday morning came around and it was time to get down to business. I dialed a 12.30, went out for my first round of eliminations and it was over that quick. As I dropped the clutch, it just seems to spin in place. The first thing that went through my mind was lift because 1 gear may have broken again, naw that's not it, it was to smooth on the sound, either way, I lifted as a normal reaction. Well in my car, this is not a problem due to it being aspirated and the hp is on tap. The second I lifted to try to stop the spin, it just came right down like it should, but it also drooped off boost. (Bad) I mashed the throttle and it started pulling out but nothing like my car would until it came back on boost again. Looking at my opponent pulling away, A thought came to my mind, maybe he cut such a bad light I can catch him or as I catch him, he might push to hard and brake out. Needles to say I didn't catch him and he didn't brake out. That's racing. I picked up the time slip only to read I had cut a way better light then my opponent but also ran a dismal 2.09 60ft time. More then 4 tenths slower then Saturdays times. The only thing that brought a smile to my face was the fact that the lady that was passing out the time slips said she really liked Jim's car. And then the bad mood was gone. Unfortunately for the other racers that did pass first round, Including Richard Leitinen and Sixto, who I think was the only 2 vw to pass first round, the skies opened up and it began to rain. It stopped for a little while and we packed up and got out of there and as we pulled away it began to rain really hard, witch must have made the track officials call it a wash out. Now I truly believe God is a drag race fan and he would have stuck his finger between the clouds so he could see what was going on, but out in Phoenix, there was a NHRA National event going at the same time and I am assuming he was watching that one instead. You might have noticed that we are a 10th slower then the last time out. This could be because of the gear choice that was made during the rebuild. It use to have a 2.21 second gear. Nice expensive main shaft. In the consideration of finances, we chose to use a superbeetle main shaft which has a 2.06 second. Now the difference of the gears is usually good for a 10th of a second. Why didnt we go back? Well we had some theorys of a longer gear would drag the the motor down creating boost quicker (some times you have to just try somethings to prove if it works or not) and the fact that the diff, ring and pinion, main shaft, sincros and some bearings were all done and assembled for less then what a new FTC or what ever main shaft cost.

In other news, after some more inspection of my case, I have decided to purchase a new one and I am waiting for it to return from Rimco with new lifter bores bushed and clearance etc. You might ask why the lifter bores? After talking to the guys at EMS, they have been noticing even some of the new cases have had some of the bores spread. Plus, while at the Carlsbad DD3 race, I won $200 in gift certificates to Rimco. Got to use them up.

2-9-2000

Well I have continued to work on Jim's motor last week. And this is where I am now.

First off, you must have something to keep you motivated, such as a beer or maybe even the PRA 98 tape, so you can hear things like Kris Lauffer's 48's barking during a burn out. (you can get these tapes from Ocean Street Video a must get tape)

It was time to put the rods on, There are many ways to go about this, but here is my way. I have applied a small amount of white grease to the bearing, and with the journal closest to me, I apply the rod cap to the journal. The grease will keep it inplace. Oil will also do this but not quite as well.

I will then roll the crank 180 deg. and insert the rod with one bolt on the end of a socket and extension, while reaching around the back side and making sure the cap does not move or get pushed off. Simply reach your hand in the opposite hole and push on the cap. If this sounds a little odd in the way that you might have an accident and drop the nut or bolt, the worst that can happen is you will have to fish it out with your magnet or open the sump up and find it that way. Then if your serious into beating up your motor at the track, this is something you will have to get use to. I check my rod bearings at lease once a year with out splitting the case, and this is the way to do it. (on the above method, if you have stock rods, that have nuts, you can put the cap on then rotate just the cap on the journal so your studs are pointing toward you) Just remember to put he cap on the right way, top becomes bottom before you rotate the crank or cap.

One of the things we did with Jims's case was, have the pick up tube welded on instead of clamped on, to insure we would not suck up any air. You will also notice the cow magnet, just as a precaution because there is no pick up screen used.

At this point, I was on a pace and didn't take any pictures of the pistons and heads going on. There was really nothing to it at this point, the pistons and cylinders were never removed from each other, so we could use the same rings. (they were working so great so far) What I did when I disassembled the motor was slide the cylinders up just enough to see the wrist pin, push it out, and set it aside. This way, the rings stay in the same groove that they broke in on. But here is something that you might have run into or will eventually. I have drilled small holes in the lower cooling tin, slipped some safety wire around the head studs and slip it through the holes and twist. This helps keep them in place. It works the same on the small tin or the super cool tin like the ones I have used on my motor.Dont forget to put these on before you bolt the heads down with the push rod tubes. You will kick your self in the, well you know. I have done it more then once.

From the last update, I have spend another 5 hours to get to this point. I guess you could say, I have spend a complete work day on assembly of a motor with another couple of hours of rocker shaft, tin and some other little nick nacks to do.

1-31-2000

After having Jim's crank polished, and the pick up tube welded on instead of clamped on, its time to reassemble. I have taken a few pictures of this process.

With  Jim's and my motor we are using Kolbenschmidt mains bearings and metal leve cam with the double trust and rod bearings.

Its time to put on the cam and distributor drive gear. I have now found that using an inexpensive hot plate instead of the wifes toaster oven makes in real simple to heat up the gears so they will slide on over the end of the crank. And not to mention, keep you out of the dog house. In the past I have also used a propane torch. Dont forget to put on the #3 main bearing, the little spacer ring between the two gears and the snap ring at the end of the gears.

Cam and crank set in. nothing special. What I did do  was set in the distributor drive and point the rotor to number one. Then drop in the crank with the #1 rod journal and the 2 dots on the cam gear that is on the crank, pointing up in this picture. this is top dead center of number 1. Then roll the crank clock wise a little bit and then drop in the cam aligning the dots on the cam gears.

At this point, I have bolted the case halfs together, torqing the main bolts to 30 ft pounds and the outer nuts to 18. All the time as I torque the mains making sure that the crank still spins freely. I start at 10 and work my way up in increments of 5lbs until I get to 30. In this picture, i'm now ready to check end play of the crank. I have used an old oil pump cover for a nice flat surface to attach my mag base  dial indicator. I like to check it from the front of the crank instead of the flywheel, so I do not read the flex of the flywheel when I push it back and forth. I have set the end play at .0045"

A little note about flywheels.When you go out and purchase a flywheel or have yours lighten, here is a spot to look for. Both flywheels weigh 14 lbs but if you look at the one on the right, the surface where the clutch disk rides on is much thicker then the one on the left. The one on the left, has material removed from the back of the flywheel, and the one on the right has material removed from the end and under the ring gear. When material is removed from the rear, this well let the flywheel flex that much more and create an uneven surface for the clutch disk to grab.

Another view. here you can see the difference. the one on the right is the better way. Although the left one will work just fine, and you will not likely notice it.

Well its time to attach the flywheel for good. What I have been using is a snap-on 4 to 1 torque multiplier. This enables me to do this job my self. I put in 75lbs in one side and it comes out 300 out the other with little effort. This tool can be a little pricey, so i would suggest a torque miser that Kymco has. I have never used one, but i'm sure it works great. Better then grabbing that 4 ft cheater bar and lifting your friend off the ground as he stands on the opposite head. To this point I have spend 3 hours checking and taking my time not to make any mistakes. It could take a lot longer with a new motor because of the end play set up, with the addition of double and triple checking all the measurements and clearances. On Jim's motor, I put in the old shims in  and it came up right the first time. I think the first time that I set the end play on this motor, it took me some 2 hrs just do do that, and this time it was 10 minutes to check.

1-15-2000

Well I have been busy, the race season is coming up real quick, There is a Import race at Pomona at the end of February, so Jim and I have plans to take his car out there again. So we opened up his motor to do some check out, get some history, and freshened up. Plus today I pulled my motor out and tore it down as well. Here is something you may not hear from every racer, but during the last race of the 99 season, in the semi and the final round, I saw my oil pressure light flicker at the top end of the track. (my pressure switch is set at 30 psi.) This is just one of the reasons for pulling it down. Any way, since I had it down tonight, I thought I would show you some of the items that you might run into as far as clearancing when running a larger crank. Hope this helps those who have asked about it.

Jim's motor parts down one bench in my garage. My garage is starting to look just like a real shop with all these parts laying around.

All my motor parts layed out nice and neat, almost looks like a kit you might buy, except for that Bass Ale in the picture.

Just a little tip, when rebuilding your own motor, take a box and mark it up to keep your lifters organized. This is one of two i have. One is a Rimco box from something we got and this one is a Simson Seat belt box.

The next few picture from here and below, I thought it might be a good idea to share what it might take to make a 84 crank and even an 82 crank to clear all the other components. Here we see notches taken out of the cam to clear the rods that swing around.

One of the down falls of my motor is how far the pistons come out of the cylinder. You can see the ware marks on the piston. Notice the barrel spacers. not to much going into the case, but it works. I am using a .512" spacer to accommodate a .150 deck using a 5.7" rod.

When using a big crank, this is one of the spot that needs to be hogged out to clear the rod bolts.

Other places in the case that need to be opened up.

Just some of the other things I thought I would throw in. Here we see where my case has been drilled and taped to open up the oil galleys, this way they can be cleaned up properly. This was done when I loss my rod bearing in the 98 season to clean out all the crap that might have went through the motor.

A couple of more plugs put in.

cant forget this one.

Here is something you dont see every day. If you dont believe a crank cant flex, here is a perfect example. This is the center main, and the other mains look new and not showing copper. Now there are things that can help this problem. Using a different journal on the rods that that help the rigidity of the crank like a porsche journal and even moving up to a 411 center main. I never had a problem with this in the past, until I switched to the alky and stopped using the berg large pulley. So I might try another heavy pulley and hope i haven't found the end of the line with hp on my crank.

Another tip I have learned from Gary Larsen. Here on my VW 1.25 rockers, the end of the rocker has been ground off even with the bottom of the arm. When building Jim's motor, I ran into the problem of stacking too many shims under the rocker shafts with the addition of the lash caps, so I took this part off and it worked well. You will notice how much of the adjuster sticks out of the top. This is how much shorter the rocker end is.

This is one of the best investments I have made in a while. When taking apart Jim's motor, he suggested we buy a solvent tank. So we ran down to Harbor Freight tools and picked this up for 99 bucks. Its big enough to stick a case half in.  Oh yea, and a good place to put them stickers on.

Ok, I had to put this in....48 IDA arg arg arg.

well i hope this helps out some. Im thinking of making a motor tec page of how to, like above. what do you think?

1-13-2000

Happy New Year. no problems here. Well during the xmas/newyears weekends, Jim decided to take his gear box apart so we can see what really went on. Jim use to work with Gary Peloquin, so he is familiar with pulling boxes apart.Here we see Jim pulling his box apart.

The diff and R&P look ok

When you dont have the right tools to do the job, you must improvise, here we see Jim with the assistance of Ron Rice pushing back the Pinion to get the gear cluster out.

Problem found, first gear is gone. Phoenix main shaft down the tubes. Well S#!# happens. If you race long enough, you will brake something.