Previous updates for the 2003 season

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12-23-03

Merry Christmas.

"IT'S ALIVE!!!!!!"

Saturday morning. I am caught on cam, under the car bolting the motor into my car for cam brake in.  What better platform then an actual car that has ignition, fuel, breather, and stable mounting.

And there it is. This picture above is after the first fire up. Had to move some things to make this work, but not that big a deal. Since this motor has an MSD distributor, I had to run a second pair of wire off my ignition box to fire up. Simple stuff to deal with. In the end, I will spend assorted 5 minute run sessions to insure the cam brake in. As of this picture, I have kept track of time invested in this motor, and I have cleared more then 90 hours. And by the time, this motor is picked up, I should be just under 100 hours. OUCH!!!! Yea this stuff takes a long time. So when you go to a shop and ask for a REAL performance motor, and they quote you a price that gives you sticker shock, all you have to do is think about how many hours can go into a motor, and their labor cost. Just think, if I charged something like $25-$45 an hour, (I dont, but would give a left you know what if i can get away with it) and did it on a time and material basis, This is well over a $10,000 motor. And its just a freggen VW motor. (ok, we all know better then that, LOL)

$25-$45 and  hour is a guestimate that I make with the assumption that a shop will have to pay the skilled builder,  pay for small supplies, etc. get their overhead cost covered, (utilities, insurance, taxes, bla, bla, bla) make money for the shop it self to stay in business etc.

I think I heard my car calling out, "I miss the IDA's"

12-19-03

The alternator bracket.

On the motor.The biggest question will be, will this thing get spun too fast. If so, the plan will have to change to use a bigger pulley on the alternator or somethign smaller and stacked on the crank pulley.

The adjustable slotted bracket came off of a mid 80's rabbit.

I cut the pivot rod just a touch short so we can slip washers in either side for belt alignment as well.

12-18-03

Its last friday night. Pictures come slow some times.

John wants to use this alternator on his motor. He catches me in this picture with that look of, what the $%#& am I going to do with this?

 Just maybe, we can hang it right here, just like we have seen in other pictures recently. At the time of this writing, I already have the hinge point made and top adjuster in the works. by tonight, the adjuster will be on.

On Saturday, I was greeted with a suprise B-day party. Dom  the burn out king and buddy Rob orginized with my wife and picked up this cake. Ever wonder why mufflers slow cars down? full of this breaded stuff and pudding junk.

 Needless to say, the party turned into some bench racing.

Johns big 2" header on display.

And of course, we had to brake in John's motor in properly when we bench race. So on go the beer cans. "Custon velocity stack extenstions" Get  yours today.

This motor will be fired by the weekend.

12-15-03

John's motor is coming along nicely.

John's box of goodies, expensive goodies.

Flywheel and rods are hung.

At first the plan was to use some wide mouth windage type stock looking pushrod tubes. but then John saw my JayCee tubes that I have been holding for next season. Needless to say, like the rest of us, we drool when we see the good stuff. So now,  after a quick check on replacement price, I am doing the assembly of the tubes for John's motor. It sure is easy spending other peoples money.

One head is on, and my kid  is already loosening the  engine stand to rotate the motor over to get the other side done.

The Little Things.

A stock disk will clear every thing as is out of the box just fine. but when you get into some of the other more exotic disks, the center plates are thicker, the rivits are bigger and start to interfere with things. Fortunately, John has already chosen a clutch disk so it was easy to make the decission to do some clearancing. The countersink holes in the flywheel were cut down to about .260" thick, and I took the bolts into work with me, so I could do a lunch time G-Job and took .030" off the top of the bolt head on the lathe.

Another lunch time G-Job. With the Comp Eliminator heads, the valve spacing is much farther apart then the stock configuration. Actually about .150" wider. So instead of stacking a boat load of shims, I made up some spacers out of a pices of Schedual 80, 3/4" pipe. It was close in size, and was some what easy to make. chuck up this piece of pipe on the lathe, bore out the inside just a touch to fit over the Scat rocker shaft, do a light cut on the outside of the pipe so it looks clean, then take a parting tool and start cutting off .150" slices.

The outside end of the shaft just happen to work out good for this. all that was needed was a quick flip of the aluminum end cap to allow the rocker to come all the way out to the edge of the shaft.

12-8-03

I cant believe it, Christmas is almost here. And at this rate, John should have a nice x-mas, but I dont think his girl friend will like having a motor under the tree.

What happens when you let John loose with a box of die grinder bits. You get Carburators by John. He went in and modified the wall oposite the accelerator pump to increase the float bowl capacity. A simple mod that can make a world of difference if you find the need for fuel.

 We made the trip to EMS (Engine Machine Service) to pick up the newly custom notched pistons, all the rotating parts that were balanced and started cleaning every thing.

We jumped ahead a few steps, and didnt clean every thing at one,  we cleaned as we went. So the case is now going together. With the flanged crank, I put the case sealer around the flange end seal and drop that in at the same time as the crank. This way I know that the green seal compound on the outside of the seal will not get scraped off during a push in style install like one would do on a stock seal.

Proud papa . Ready to go fast.

12-1-03

Happy Turkey Day.

Don,t know about you, but I sure did over eat. Twice. Once with the Family. A day to recover, and then off to a good friends for another turkey, but this time fried. mmmmmmmmm good stuff.

Slowly but surely we continue.

By this time, we have a good 50 hours into this motor so far. (spread over a month)

Time to start cutting on parts. Piston notching. No I dont actually do the cutting.But by this time, the short block is mocked up, the cylinders pistons, heads have been bolted on and off a dozen times. And now that the valve train geometry has been established, its time to see if the pistons hit. We already know they will, its just a matter of how much.

Off the bat, the intake hits. So to get a real reading of how much, I added in a cylinder spacer to bring the deck up that much higher. Then used the clay method.

Using  a sharp razor blade with oil on it,(wd-40) I sectioned the clay and did a careful measurement of how far the valve was from the piston, then did the math taking away the cylinder spacer, and wha-la, valve to piston interferance was established. Oh yea, the chamber and valves need oil as well so they dont stick to the clay. The clay I used, I got at an arts and craft store. (Michael's here in the L.A. area) just modling clay that comes in different colors. I chose orange for ease of visual.

Now that I have my depth  established, I need to establishe location of the valves on the piston. So out comes the old valve stem that has been cut with a point machined on to it.

  Bring piston to top dead center, install cut  valve, and give it a light tap. doesnt need much to mark the piston. Hammers and motors typically dont do well together, but in this case, it works nice.

I had to sharpen this picture up so it can be seen, but if you look in the middle of the port, you can see where I marked the piston. Then its off to EMS to have the pistons notched. With known depth and known position of the valve, all that EMS has to do is line up with the center point, and cut to needed depth and nothing more then necessary. Once notches are in, we will probably loose close to 5cc's worth of crush. This should put us right about that 13:1 area. Our original thought was a .045 deck and 40cc in chamber to accomplish that. but with the unknown of the notches, we opted for the 35cc chamber knowning we would loose 3-5cc.

If things continue to go smooth, I cant see why this motor will not be done before x-mas. for sure early January. Really, the major part to be done still with be to do a proper shimming on the rocker arm side clearance, fit the rings to cylinders, verify clearance of valves after the return of all the parts being notched and balanced, a good cleaning of all the parts and a final assembly. Then its off to brake in the cam, and put on the second valve springs back in.

tonights job will be the rocker adjustment with pictures to come. valve ring fit, then its wait for part to come back from EMS. probably by the weekend, we will be moving on with this project.

11-17-03

The motor build continues. A couple of minor problems found on the VW case. Oil pick up tube a little on the loose side going into the case. Had to add sealer. Oil pressure relief piston port had a taper at the bottom, so the piston would wedge it self in. Had to borrow a tool to clean this up.

 My son, checking over my work as I check end play on the flanged crank. Upon initial check, with crank in case half, end play would have been ok. But once the case is closed, end play disappeared. come to find out that the bearings were two different thicknesses on the thrust surfaces. So the 600 grit wet/dry sand paper came out and it was an hour of massaging the bearings to match each other.

  Then it was on to dial in the cam. So I added cam and lifters to the case, install a push rod inbetween the lifter and dial indicator. This will show the actual lift at cam only. Then I can rotate the crank and verify and adjust if necessary in comparison to the cam card info. Basically, set up at top dead center, set indicator to zero, roll crank until I see .050" lift, then check degree of crank and compare against card. Do this on the closing side as well and see how close it really is. Set Zero at top dead center is sort of important. as this is not the lowest part of the cam. If you roll the cam to the very back of the lobe, you will see it drop off some more.

Then its time to check out deck height on the Century cylinders and Weisco pistons. I might be picky, but what I did first was take only one rod, piston and cylinder, go all the way around with that set to check initial deck. This will show me if there is any inconsistancies with the case or crank with out having the variable of a different rod, piston, cylinder. and sure enough, I found a journal that was just slightly longer stroke. It was very minor, but when one wants perfection, we will deliver. And in the end, once I had hung all the rods and pistons, I had to sand down .003" off one piston to match the rest.

And since then, I took the heads down to EMS to have them fly cut to achieve a 35cc chamber to couple that with a .045" deck height and guesstamating on the notch of the pistons should end up right around 13:1 maybe a touch more. So next up will be checking for valve notching.

11-6-03

Whats going on, on these cold nights in So California. LOL. well cold to me. I'm sure it would feel like summer to some.

My gear box came out over the weekend. It was opened up on Monday. But to my supprise, it didn't look like any thing was wrong upon initial inspection. The stuck in first looks to be the cause of my U-turn shifting from first to third and the shift fork just got caught up inbetween the selector. (how? i dont know) The miss shift???? maybe with the heavy disk, I am actually not shifting fast enough??? if you can believe that. The box will be gone over with a fine tooth comb again, and we will see if we can find any thing. So my next move my be to try a ligher disk. My reasoning for this? Well, its been working great since the new pro ring, but at drag day,  I had the boost up and maybe i'm just winging that clutch too much. (my right foot never leaves the floor) Either way, its the off season and now I have time to breath and think about things.

So what I am doing in the off season? Building motors.

On the hot plate, John Troxell's new set up.

He was a runner up of Top Eliminator at the early Drag Day. Now that was a hook, line, and sinker. He is now addicted. And what do us guys want to do after they get the itch? GO FASTER.

And after a whole boat load of money, its time to build that 2332cc, with comp eliminator heads, with some real man's compression (somewhere in the 13:1 area.)

 Arg, arg, arg,. The Engle FK-89. No whimpy cam here.

And a Bugpack Flanged crank.

After doing the usual check of the case and case clearance, its off to see if we can fit ths cam in. 84 crank with a 3/8 bolt Scat rod, doesnt like sharing its room. So its time to do some cutting on the cam.

I used a good sharp carbide rotory file to do the notching. you will want to use something like this so it cuts instead of grinds. (at least that is my theory, as I feel grinding is too much friction, but then again, i havent tried it the other way yet) This way, there is no heat put into the cam. I just took a little off at a time, put my finger on the cut to make sure I am not creating any heat, check, take a little more off, until I am happy.

And in the end, it should look somethign like this. We could have went with the option of just having the cam turned down, but with the big springs that will be on it, I wanted to see as much material left in place on the cam. It probably took me a good 3 hours just going back and forth with cutting, and fitting.

10-30-03

I just realized that I forgot to upload the pictures of the last update.

Ok, now you can see what I am talking about.

Some techincal and some race stuff.

First the technical. What the heck is that? this is my home made boost assistance control for starting line only. There is a 12 volt solinoid valve that is in line with the bottom of the diaphram of the waist gate and the boost signal. Follow me so far?

Due to some of the bogging issues I have had as i keep turning down the boost  to make the car go slow enough was the problem of what I call waist gate creaping open before full desired boost. Thus not really on full hp when I really need it and allowing the motor to fall off before it is up to speed. How it works? This is a normally open solenoid that flows when not energized. Then there is a pressure switch below it, that allows the valve to close off and not allow any pressure to reach the waist gate to open it up until the last minute, or pre-determined boost. Thus, I loose the valve creaping open to early. I also have this hooked up to a limit switch that is only active in first gear. So, if I needed more boost off the line, I can still run my low boost down the track as the micro switch to render it, in-active. It did seem to work pretty good in Vegas, and that was one track that wanted to bog a motor.

Then I got a hold of this carb through fellow racer Eric Madson. And sicne we know each other pretty well from seeing each other at all the races and having BBQ's etc. He had this turbo prepped 750 vac secondary carb laying in his trailer, and said, try it out and see if this thing works for you. I did chicken out, running this at Vegas, becasue I was affraid that I might not be able to get the tune up on it fast enough and still be in the points. But, it went on for Drag Day. And so far, with the light hits on the suspension, I was seeing noticiably faster 60ft times and no hesetations. Now I just need to lean on it and do some fine tuning.

Drag Day

Good and Bad.

After a little shin-dig at Scott Bakken's house on Saturday night, I felt a little under the weather on Sunday morning. To me, at first, I thought nothing of it. I have been this way before. But it just never went away. As of this writing, 2 days later, I still feel like crud. I think I may have picked up some sort of flu that was just turned on by the after affects of a party. Needless to say, I think my days of partying are coming to a close. I'm getting to old to be in that condition any more.

Although, just as I though, the bad feeling didn't hamper my actual driving skill's. Come eliminations, I was no slouch on the line.

On to racing.

Went out for first round of qualifying. launch the car, feels real good, no wheelie, but just a good strait pull out. Go to grab second, and wing. Not there. So I stabbed 3rd and 4th for an 8.06@91 mph. As I come up the return road, I lightly click second, and it works. but that's when I noticed that the shifter was loose. Aaahhhh! I tighten that up and it was off for round 2 of qualifying. Once again, no second. OK, my theory was, when I missed it the first time because of the loose shifter, I boogered up the pro ring and it is not going to work after that. A typical known fact. if you use a pro ring, dont miss.

Well time for eliminations. I have concluded, I have no second gear. Did a guess on the dial in of a 7.89 and go out for first round with every intentions of going strait from first to third and don't look back. Well I tree'd my first opponent, went from my first to third, backed off the throttle to make sure I didn't brake out, didn't even click 4th and still ran an 8.0something. the car is quite quick even with out second. But then I really noticed a familiar sound of a real light grinding. Right there, I knew I must have bent another shift fork. Ok, as long as it holds up and I don't use second, I'm ok.

Round 2 and I line up with Allen Weiss.

I have a race on my hands here. And even in the crappy feeling condition that I was in, I put up a .519 light against him. (that's a good reaction time) Although, he was not too far behind me on the tree either. But as I went to pull it out of first and go to third, it didn't happen. I double winged the motor and was stick in first and there was nothing I could do. My day was over. Even Allen's wife Sue in his tow vehicle beat me to the finish line. It is still suck in first, sitting in my trailer right now.

So, in conclusion, the best I can figure is since being in the Super Gas class, I have been so wound up during the run, I must be trying to pull the shifter out of the floor and over-extending the internals of the transmission. On the last problem that I had in Sacramento, the shift forks were pinned to the selector shaft to help solve my little over-zelest shifting. Well maybe I just broke things this time. I'll take out the trans here pretty soon so I can find out what's up and decide if I need to switch to some sort of positive stop shifter like a Verta-gate or something like that.

Las Vegas Bug-in

Can you say DRIVER ERROR?

I can.

This was my race to win or loose.

Went out Saturday night for testing. The track was STICKY! But nothing new for this facility.

It took me 4 passes to really figure out how to make the car launch on the glue. 21 lbs of tire pressure and no burn out.

Sunday came, and it was off the pace for qualifying, but still plenty close to get in the program.

With the way the ladder was set after qualifying, it was totally in my hands.

I would meet up with Rick Oliver for first round. With #1 man Allen Wiess getting the bye in first round (because of the number 1 qualifier), I would meet up with him in second round. This is where I thought I would have my first real challenge of the day. Take him out to eliminate one threat. John Schuerger and Mike Meyer would be meeting in first round on the other side of the ladder. So that would dictate one is gone right away. So if I take out Allen in round 2, the only way I could see John or Mike, was in the finals. My mind is going a million miles an hour now. And the way John and Mike qualified, all I needed to do was win for the championship. All I NEED to do. Easier said then done.

I already know that Rick is not a killer on the lights like a Greg Decker. So all I have to do is keep up what I was doing and I can probably get by. Never under estimate your opponent.

We both take the tree and as I have my foot completely off the clutch and moving, I can see out of the corner of my eye, this red ghia pulling away. I'm thinking, "WOW, I just got tree'd bad".

I catch him at half track as I added in a little extra boost because I was not running the number yet.

So my thought was, if he tree'd me, then I have very little room for error if I try and take the stripe. (cross the line first) With the assumption that he can run that number, this might push me to a brake out. And if he doesn't run the number, there will be little room left. So what I tried was to just put a ¼ fender on him. So I paced him from half track on. I don't think I even looked forward from that time either. I judged my distance right from his helmet. Thinking I was a foot or two in front. I see the line flash between us, so I knew we just passed the finish line, I go to look for my win light and it wasn't there. WHAT!!!!!! OK, I must have broke out. I can deal with that. But once I got the time slip, we were not even close to the index, and I was not even in front of him like I thought when we crossed the line. Boy, did I screw that one up.

This one took a few days to get over. I always thought, if the car gives me zero trouble, as a driver, I can get the job done. And the car was working good. But the driver was off this time. Pacing my opponent was something I have done a lot of and thought I was pretty good at it too. At least as good as the next guy.

After a return to the pits, it didn't take me long to grab my favorite refreshment to take my mind off my screw up.

In the end, it was John Schuerger and Allen Weiss in the finals. At this point I am way out of it, but once I heard the call for these guys, I immediately ran to the stands to watch. This was it, all the marbles of the year came right down to the final round. I'm getting goose bumps again just typing this. He who wins will win the championship. Both cars were off the line pretty close to each other on reaction time. It actually looked like Allen took the tree as his car really 60ft'ed and wheele'd out of the hole. But at half track, John was on the charge and in the end, we all held are breath, I didn't know who to route for. It was a double brake out with John taking the win and championship. WOW!!!!!! That was a nail biter.

I have watched John go through some tough times with his car, and watch how much he keeps putting back into it. He is probably the hardest working man in Super Gas. Thus, well deserves the championship. Congrats to John and his family. Yes, it is a family effort too.

Its hard to take a loss, but when your friend win, it makes race day that much better. Watching John win, did make me feel good. Guess you can say, I'm a fan.

My other friend Ron Rice that came up with us, won the sportsman class for the 3rd time now.

Bill Duncan of Engine Machine Service, driving Chihiro Abe's Super Street car, took his 3rd win of the year and even in the final, ran low et and top mph of the day in the class. Not to bad a record they have. Went to 4 races, win 3. Had they went to all the races, I'm sure they would have walked away with the championship too. These guys are amazing, it seems they keep running faster as the day goes on instead of slowing down. If they had the opportunity to do a little extra testing to dial in the new tires, this would have been the ET record holder car as well as the current mph holder. (131.68mph I believe) This car was probably capable of running mid 10.teens with that Dick Nuss horse power.

Well now its time to go have some fun at Drag Day on Oct. 26th at Irwindale speedway. No pressure, just have fun. Since this is end of year, I will see if I can run some consistent hi 6 second runs again. (1/8th mile)

Although this time, I am going to try a vacuum secondary Holley and see if this helps the car launch to better 60ft times.

9-22-03

How did Sacramento go?.

Not as good as I would have liked.

Saturday was first round of qualifying and one practice pass. I went in with some new ideas in mind to help with the way the car launched. So all notes from previous races were out. I cranked up the waist gate to create more boost off the line but took timing out to slow it down. Practice pass seemed ok, but then I missed 4th gear. HMMMMMM!!! I have never done that before.

First qualifying pass produced a 12.20some odd. Every thing working right.

Ok, there is the base line. We will try some minor changes for the morning and pick it up.

Dominic "the burn out king" was out there with us, and we went through his motor the previous week. He wanted his 12 second pass. And after a few runs at 13.00's, He made a timing change and a pressure adjustment on the slicks and boom, His old gear box finally let go. (later found out that it was just the snap ring in the diff, popped out after all those 5+ minute burn outs.) But since he now runs the Trans West sticker on his car, I figured that my spare gear box is now community property, and my spare went into his car on Saturday night.

Sunday morning.

Dom gets his 12 second pass with a 12.88 on a spare box that was not geared for him at all.

I went out for my second qualifying pass. 11.895 OH SO CLOSE!!!!! (Not the first time I have been that close but on the wrong side of the index) So I figure, It won't take much to move with in the proper range. I added a little more slip to the clutch for the third and final round of qualifying. That's when things started getting out of hand. I go out feeling pretty confident that I am about to be real close to the number.

Car launches nice, pull second gear and it feels like the clutch is slipping. Stab third and it takes off again. 4th gear is good to. But OH NO!!!! Will this 12.20some odd even hold up in this field? Sure enough, it was good for the 15 of 16 qualifier. I was sweating till I saw the actual qualifying ladder.

But what about this second gear slip? On the return road back to the pits, I did a light pull and quick shift into second and it held. HMM! Ok, maybe it was my first gear only clutch shock absorber and I had it set too high and didn't catch on the latch and was still on in second gear causing only 2nd to slip. So I went on that theory going into eliminations. It also didn't hurt that I knew I was up against John Schuerger in round one and he had already dropped a valve in the last qualifying pass, so he was hurt. Knowing this, I used first round as a test run. John should not be able to run the number so it is in essence a free trip for me.

I turned off my clutch shock completely to eliminate that possibility. Round 1 and it slips again in second only. 3rd and 4th are fine. Could I have the second gear hub spinning???? On the return road, I tried harder to make second slip. It's fine.

Ok, I can deal with this. I have won with out a proper working second before. So I turned up the boost for round 2 of eliminations with the expectations of 2nd giving me a problem again.

I line up with Michael Meyer for the 3rd time this year.

I cut the light on Meyer, car launches good, click second, and the same slip is still there. But I didn't panic this time. I think to my self, "no problem", I will just stab third and be on my way. By this time, Meyer had just come flying by me. So I click third and there is that slip again, but it was only brief, then it hooked up and I rocket right up to his bumper. In my mind, I think, "I've got him this time". Went for the passing 4th gear and it was not there. NNNOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!! As Meyer drives away from me for the win.

This is the third time I lost to Meyer this year. First two because of a bogging problem. So I solved that for this race only to have something else go wrong.

The good news that came from this day was number 1 and 2 in points were out first round. I gained a few points on them, but Mike Meyer went to the final and moved into first.

As we go into the last race of the season at Vegas, it will be a do or die race for all of us, as Vegas is a double points race. So mathematically, the top 4, (me being in 4th) are all with in 1 round of points. So if we all qualify close to each other, the man that goes the farthest will win the championship.

Even the number 5 man is plenty close enough that he has a good shot at this as well. This Super Gas class is tough.

What happen to my fourth gear? I bent the shift fork. I think I had my shifter adjusted a little different then I normally do so I was overextending the selector. Even the hockey stick was bent. Never had this happen before.

What happen to Second gear? Nothing. it was just fine. BUT.......

The clutch disk I was running has an aluminum center plate. I was warned that this might cause a problem if I get it real hot. I tried a steel centered disk, but that was so heavy that it made my syncros in the gear box useless. So I switched back to this lighter disk that worked at the time. what happen was that as I slip this disk, the heat that is created softens up the alunminum and the pucks start to streach the metal and slide out. You can see the original impression of where this puck use to be.

5 of 6 pucks moved. And these moved enough that it pushed out and hit the inside of the flywheel. This is what I think caused the 2nd gear slip. Upon launch, the slip generated heat, causing the pucks to move, hit the aluminum, creating particles and dust that contaminated the pucks when I opened up the pressure plate going into second. So my theory goes.

So now that I have 2nd gear pro ringed, I can go back to the heavy steel disk. (on the left) I should have switched when I got the new pro ring, but upon inspection, the other disk was holding up just fine, or so I thought.

Now its almost time for the Las Vegas, Bug-in on Oct. 5th. I already have the gear box back in the car and working on a new self made boost control.

You ask why? Well the after the few bog sessions I have had and thinking I thought I had it under control, this is what I have learned so far. As I get the car working better and better, it goes faster, thus I keep turning down the waist gate. This in turn creates a problem of the waist gate creaping open early and not producing any hp right off the line. I sat around many nights thinking, "its pulled like a banchie in the past when the waist gate was binding up and holding the gate closed till the last minute and THEN pop open." Ding! the ligth turns on. So that is my new boost control configuration will be based on. Hold that waist gate closed till the last minute with pressure switches and solinoid valves. Then I can turn the waist gate down to slow my self down for the rest of the run. We shall see if it works in Vegas.

Also coming up, Another Drag Day at Irwindale on the 26th of Oct. the prize purse is going up on all the classes. For the quick 16 class that i have been in, it is now $750 for the win thanks to Kymco, the sponsor of the race, stepping up and putting in some extra money.

Both these last events should be huge. So BE THERE!!!

8-21-03

Wow, what a roller coaster ride I have had over the past few weeks.

Drag Day at Irwindale.

Wend to drag day just to test out the new tires and torsion bars and the new Pro Ring on second gear.

The whole plan was to make a pass or two, maybe three and put the car away.

I put my money in the quick 16 class in the event I need to make an extra pass and have to do it in eliminations. Well, that just happen to be the case. I had one more clutch setting I wanted to try and it happen to be in round 1 of eliminations. To me, it was, "if I loose, its not an issue, I wasn't suppose to run this much any ways." But what happens if I win? Well, I won first round. OK, I will go for round 2 and call it a day. I won in round 2! Oh wow. Ok, lets try it again, and I get a bye in round 3. Free ride to the final where I meet up with John Schuerger who happens to be the man on the top of the Super Gas class.

Low and behold, I cut a perfect .500 light and run .03 off my dial in on John and take the win in Quick 16.

WOW, how cool is that. But wait, there is more. I knew about the Top Eliminator or king of the hill class where all the winners and runner ups of all the classes do battle. Going into the final of Q16, I thought, I will bow out after this. BUT NOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!! The competitor in me took over, not to mention the thought of $700 for the win and the bragging rights. So I found my self back in the lanes and shortly there after a few hot laps, the finals. I raced a much slower car, nothing I haven't done before, but I was much faster. I ended up catching the other guy so fast, I blew right by and broke out even more then the other guy. So it was a runner up day in Top E. and only 10 passed down the track for the day.

I found that new Pro ring is the hot ticket. Thanks Kevin at Trans West.

Denver Fine-line Bug-in.

Over all was a great trip. We packed up every thing for a vacation. Left on the Wednesday before the race.

That night was spent in Vegas on Fremont street. Next day, we rolled into Grand Junction, were I contacted John Redding, and proceeded to head over to Eric Madson's place where John Schuerger and his family was delivering Eric's Mendeola trans. So after a big BBQ with all the families, we watched Eric shoe horn this gear box in. (This is what its all about, just having a good time with friends.) Friday was a late , leisurely day over to Denver, where we all went out to dinner. We met up at the hotel where Eric and his family was staying, then all 15 or so of us piled into John's motor home and found the local Mexican Restaurant.

Next day, we were off to the Denver Zoo to show my son Matt some animals. After the zoo, we casually showed up at the track around 5pm and set up camp for the night with the Schuerger's and John Redding.

Race day.

On a corrected index of 12.65, I went and did my best to see what would happen during qualifying. I proceeded to put up a 12.718, 12.713, and the oh so close 12.645. and ended up with a number 4 qualifying position. I'm pretty happy, but as those three runs went off, my reaction times were slowing down from tire spin. So I make a tire adjustment to what I would have tried with my old Phoenix tires. Bad move. I meet up with Michael Meyer who was number 5 qualifier, and the same thing happen with the same opponent from the Sacramento race, and that little tire pressure change doomed me. The motor bogged badly. And I just couldn't catch up and was out first round.

The only good thing was John Schuerger went out the following round and then Allen Weise was runner up in the finals, so the points game is still with in grasp. But what it does mean, is I MUST do good at Sac and Vegas. With the way John and Allen drive, I probably would need a win in both races, and then it's a toss up if I would have enough points if they go close to the finals as well. But this is racing and any thing can happen.

After the race.

It's off to a local hang out and have dinner with every one again.

Reload the fresh water in the trailer for a long hot shower.

And the next morning, it's off to Celestial Seasonings Tea factory for their tour. We then cruised into an old mining town called Cripple Creek that ended up being all casino's, but very cool indeed. We tried to check out the Colorado State Fair, but ended up we were a week early.

Matt enduring the long ride in his Simpson seat.

We finally ended up in Durango Co. where we spent a few days camping out. WE GOT LUCKY, and got the best place in the campsite on the river. Campsite had full hook ups with cable too. This is not how I remember camping. This was too easy.

On the way to Durango, this traffic control guy, stopping us because of road construction ahead, is holding this  stop sign pole in a lightning storm. Brave man.

the camp site in Durango

Morning view out the window of the trailer

Standing in the river bed, looking up into the tree's where the trailer is.

We then moved on down the road where we saw some cool lightning storms, even had to pull over for a few minutes because of the storm. Our destination was Lake Havesu but on the way, hit a big wind storm when we pulled into a rest area. We squeezed in between a few big trucks and still got tossed around. Wow, that's some wind. Next morning, its bright and sunny, so its off to the Lake where we pulled into my wife's Parent's vacation house. There we spend a few more days just relaxing and doing absolutely nothing. It feels real good. The Schuerger's were even suppose to be in the area around the same time, and sure enough, they are down camping on the other side of the London Bridge on the island. So we hooked up with them for some more eats. It really doesn't get any better then this.

We arrived home on Sunday the 17th and I blinked and suddenly my alarm was blaring for Monday morning wake up to go to work. Vacation is officially over.

Next up, Sacramento.

7-23-03

Dominic "The Burn out King" wants to make his life easier by having a removable apron and move that one step closer to having a streetable race car. So out comes the die grinder and welder.

We started off by removing fenders.

I used a die grinder with a 4" thin wheel and cut right along the corner of the apron, leaving in place the rolled over part of the sheetmetal that is tack welded by the factory.

make a cut at the weld above and cut the inner apron (not shown as I was moving to fast to think about the camera at this time)

What was left , was the side inner fender wall.

Dom went out and got these Dzus mounting plates.  With a vice and hammer, I made them shorter and easier to weld on using a 90' bend in them.

After some measuring of actual placement, (measurements taken from my car since I have already done this) clamp in place and start welding.

then its off to mark the underside of the apron. We marked one at a time and after each one, use the loose Dzus to mount so it is held in place for a proper marking of the next hole.

With some assorted drills and a  Uni-bit, hole size was a snap.

The Dzus's that Dom picked up required a 3/4" diamter hole.

Underside of the apron after job done.

The mounting done. Just have to do some grinder clean up  on all the edges.

We also removed the remainder of the inner apron skin.

Drag day burn out  tire. Can you say, tire cord.?

After a hot day of work, its time to sit back and do some bench racing. Thats Dom on the right, Brian and my dog Cleo on the left.

And this is the way we treated Dominic's motor after a late night of bench racing.

Next up? Drag Day at Irwindale on Aug 3rd. And back to PRA points racing at Bandimere Speedway in Denver Colorado on Aug 10th.

7-10-03

With the addition of the smaller diameter tires, comes a lower ground clearance. When doing my initial mock up of tire diameter, I found that I would only have about 3-3.5" of clearance under the sump plate. I then mocked up what happens when 1" of travel at the shock does to that clearance under the sump. 2" disappears. So I made the next decision to make another step up in torsion bar size from 29's to 30mm bars.

Sway-a-way now come in red and reflect Powerbarz 2. What the 2 stands for???? They don't even list them on their web page yet. Fortunately, I found a fellow VW Enthusiast, Scott Dees, that is in the process of building a Super Street type pan car but will not be quite at that level of performance and felt the 30mm bars might be a bit too much for what he wants and the weight of his car. (my car being 400 lbs. heavier) So we agreed to swap my 29's for his 30's. Thanks Scott.

I made the swap last weekend, but didn't take any pictures of the process. But not to worry, I will be adjusting and can take pictures then. With the 29mm bars, I had the spring plates at a down angle of 5.5ish degrees down when car is level and before any tension was put on to get them over the stops. You can call this pre-load conditions I guess. So with this in mind, during the initial 30mm bar install, I shot for around 4 degrees of pre-load. And if the car was 1-200 lbs. lighter, Id say it probably would have been perfect.

This is one of the tools I use to set up the rear end. An inexpensive magnetic degree finder. Probably not the most accurate thing in the world. But does seem to do the job.

In the past, during most of my installs or adjustments of rear end of my car, it just so happens to work out that I go with about a 1/2 degree more pre-load of spring plates on the drivers side to compensate for my weight on that side. (non adjustable spring plates)  This time, I decided to see if this was actually the right thing to do. So off to Home Depot to pick up 4, 50lb. bags of sand to simulate my weight in the car. The good thing about the purchase of the sand bags, is they will not go to waist, they will be used for a sand box for my son to play in.

And sure enough, both axles were even after the addition of the sand. But I didn't get the angle I was really after. I was about 1/4 degree negative after 2 days of full weight on the bars. Plus the bars being new will or at least should settle a little bit more. So this weekend or early next week I will make another adjustment and add in about 1/2-1 degree into the spring plates to get me that 1/4 or 1/2 degree positive at the axle. Hope the week of weight on the car will settle them in enough to where I don't have to worry about them for the rest of the year. (I go out and bounce on the car every day) The 29mm bars seem to react in the same way as far as settling. One Big Thing I noticed was bouncing the rear of the car with no shocks, that the 30mm bars are WAY stiffer then the 29's. That's why I picked the 29's over the 30's previously. According to Sway-a-way spec sheet the 30's have like 250 lbs. of pressure more per degree of twist then the 29's. So if you figure just 2 degrees of twist, with the assumption that this is for each bar, that's a 1000 lbs. extra under a load. That's more then half the weight of the car. This being all theory in my head too. I may have a hard time tuning the suspension as the bigger your bars, the smaller the window of tuning gets.

7-02-03

WOW! an update that didn't take a month or two. LOL.  

From previous conditions in the last few years since the turbo addition, I have found it necessary to change springs a little sooner then I thought. The first year on the turbo ended on a funny note that had a miss at the last race. Come to find out, the valve springs were way low on pressure. =valve float. The second year, half way through and during the change over to flanged crank, I had the springs checked then, and sure enough, they were loosing pressure. Not enough to be bad, but bad enough to warrant a spring change. So I threw $40 at it and changed them. So now I am into changing springs twice a year. When naturally aspirated, the springs lasted all year and then some. I started to change every year because they were too cheap not to. But with the quicker acceleration of the rpm's, maybe having to push against boost pressure or what not, the springs are taking a beating.

This is all I have ever used. Engle VW o.d. dual springs, part number 6602. And yes, I could move to a larger spring that would last longer, (and I have thought of that) but right now, these don't beat  up everything and are cheap.

 This year, the motor is not coming apart as it has in the last two. (WHooohoooo!!!!! The flywheel is staying on) So I didn't want to pull the heads off just to pull valve springs. I went down to my local VW parts store and looked at a spring removal tool for in place heads. $60 was the asking price. My Butt must be getting tight in my old age. I said no thanks and went home and made my own.

Fortunately, I have been in the habit of keeping all my old junk parts. This was an old galled up berg rocker shaft that had the center spinning collar. Chop the collar in half, weld on some steel (Thank god for having a welding machine) and wa, la. One homemade spring compressor. Then I pulled out my leak down tester spark plug adapter, hooked up the compressor, and presto, changoo of the springs.

6-30-03

Some of you may have noticed that this web page was briefly down. We had a server problem and it took a few weeks to iron things out. But it's back up and on a different server now. So note the new address.

What has happen since Sacramento? Well, we had the VW Classic weekend that was full and jam packed with VW's. Even took the car down to Carlsbad right before the classic to see if I could solve the bogging once and for all. (Mission accompanied)

We also went to Magnaflow Muffler's where VW Trends put on a second Dyno Day. This happened the weekend between Sacramento and the Classic. That was a cool experience. After a couple of pulls in the morning that didn't go as plan. They asked me to put on the front line lock if I had it, to help keep the car in place. (This was a chassis dyno) I thought, no problem. Stuffed it in 4th gear, got up to about 4000 rpm, gave a nod and mashed the throttle. Went right to 5800 rpm where it started to sputter and pop and wouldn't go any higher. I had Marty Staggs watching my boost gauge, while I watched the tach. It was reported that the boost went right pass 20 lbs. and kept going. Oh my. The crew then asked, want to do it one more time? I thought Sure! Marty did a quick investigation in the rear to see if I popped off a plug wire or something else that may have caused the miss. I also turned the boost knob down in the event that it was actually running into a lean out condition. Pull 2 and the same thing happened. 5800 and a sput and pop. well it still read 279hp at 5600 at the wheels from the first pull that went past 20 lbs. of boost. Not to bad. Pulled it off the dyno. Let it cool. Pull a plug. No lean out conditions. Walked around a few hours. Chew the fat with Chris Lauffer, and he mentioned something about a 2 step rev limiter. Then this light went off in my head. Holding down the line lock also holds on my two step for launching. CRAP!!!! I was fortunate enough to squeeze in one more pull at the end of the day and made a clean pull to 7400. Now we are talking. at 18 lbs. of boost, it showed 283 hp at the wheels. Now that's more like it. But maybe next time, I will allow a big boost pull and see what it can really do.

Lately, I have noticed that its been taking less and less tire pressure to make my old Phoenix slicks to work. After the Carlsbad event where I was running 11 lbs. I checked my tires out. Low and behold, both tires JUST braking through to the cords. On the way home from the Classic weekend, another ligth went off in my head. Launching my car has not been the easiest thing since the turbo. In reality, I hit the tires with about the same hp as I did with normally aspirated, until the boost really comes on. But with gear changes, I am running a taller 1st (by the overall ratio) and have an extra 80 lbs more on the same hp. So how to solve this problem with out changing main shafts again or more like avoiding to use a 4.25 first.

THE ANSWER? Well I hope this is the answer. A smaller diamter tire. (left: 26 tall Phoenix/old firestone, right: new M&H)  Definitly see a size difference. I needed new slicks  anyways, so why not try it. After thinking about the smaller tire issue, I then realized, this has been done before up in Denver a few years back with Dave Perkins' Super Street car. (help compensate for lack of hp at high altitude.) Well then you start to think about Shawn Geers running the smaller tire when he has to carry a lot of weight during the IDRC all motor class, and then Scott Kelley in the same boat and running a small dia. tire. Lots of weight, will aways need shorter ratios, but how to keep things strong and short at the same time. thus the smaller diameter tire. This should also help on the bogging issues that show their ugly head once in a while.

So I contacted the new manufacturer of M&H Racemaster Tires and ordered up a set of 8.5x24.5x15's. I talked to John Hashim at M&H and got great service. This guy has been out to a few of our VW events to obviously promote his product, but support and give any technical advice he could offer. So I went on line to there store and ordered up. http://www.mapautoparts.com and the price was very reasonable. Ordered on a Thursday and Friday afternoon the big brown truck pulled up. It did help that they only have to travel 120 miles from their place but this showed me, get order, don't mess around and get it shipped out.

 Then you might ask, 8.5 wide under a stock width fender? This is why. I mocked up one of my old rims with a 4" inside offset (7" wide) (still a glass fender with no inner lip) the 8.5" will  also help compensate for lack of diameter pach that I got with the 7x26 tall not to mention lack of sidewall flex it may have.  

The offset of the rim puts the tire up against the spring plate. This is a view from the back. Good thing I got the non adjustable spring plates, otherwise I would need a wider fender and a rim that was farther out. Now that I have a good idea of rim offset that will work, I will order up some new Randar Drag light wheels.

The the Proud dad moment. My 20 month old son, Matt. He watched me pull the tire off. I walk away and he picks up the wrench and nut and trys to re-assemble.

Matt, doing his pit crew job and sealing up the battery box. Isn't that cool? Now that he is getting older, I can now do some work again in the garage while he is around. I think he is going to be a wrench head like his dad.

5-30-03

I took one picture at Sacramento.  

This was out of the side window of my trailer first thing Sunday Morning. Right side, my car, far left, Dominic Carollo's car (we pitted face to face since we dont need a tow vehicle) in the middle, Jorrie Estrada's freshly painted, JCL Built, Heads Up powered Super Street Ghia that was still being finished in the pits. The night before, Steve Demann was still rubbing out the pain and applying pin striping. Far right, Doug Harvy's 8 second fast back. and on the closing side of this pit was Jimmy Larsen's HUGE trailer. makes mine look like a tonka toy. But the way we were pitted, made for a nice corral of cars, (all touched by JCL) good friends and good eats the night before. a big party.

5-29-03

Sacramento Bug O Rama.

Ever wonder how come there just doesn't seem to be enough time in the day to get any thing done?

That is what I have felt like since Phoenix. Ok, maybe since the beginning of the year.

Amanda (wife), Matthew, (son) and I, ran around shortly before the Phoenix race and ordered a new trailer to make our lives at the track a little more survivable. We looked high and low for the right size that would fit in the back yard, and had the right floor plan that we could live with. We really wanted a bed up front. But most were 30+feet long to accomplish this task. And after looking at most of the toy haullers out there, and we were looking at modifying a Weekend Warrior, we sumbled appon this. This trailer is made by Skyline Corp, that makes the Aljo, Nomad, and a few other travel trailers, and this one was under the Aljo's Rampage name.

We took delivery mid month of May and I had to do some personal massaging, to make it my trailer. Make sure the car would not fly around inside by adding a couple extra 5000 lb tie downs mounted to the frame, make sure the bed above the car wouldn't touch it, add some spray units into the black tank so I can clean it out with out touching the cr_p. But this thing worked like a charm. Wife was VERY happy. Had the heater going at night, air during the day, tv running, microwave running, the whole nine yards.

We ordered the smooth skin option, and the box is actually 25 ft long. 118 gal. fresh water capacity, 40 gray, 40 black. 24 gal of gas for generator and fueling station located on the other side. External speakers for when you feel like having a big party outside. Awning of course.

it has a 7ft tall door that you can open up with one finger.

 We also got the Winner Circle interior,  give it that racing look. Refrigerator, freezer, microwave, stove, bla bla bla. right door is the bathroom.  under the bed is mostly storage and where the generator fits.

In the back, there is 13ft of cargo room. the benches fold down into beds and fold up when car is in. the bed above the cargo area, is a nice spacous queen size. This made for a very plesant trip. We arrived at 2am in the line for entry. it was mid 50's, so when we crawled into the trailer, I went to the thermostat on the wall, turned the heater on, set it to 70 degrees, and went to sleep. Now this is roughing it. :)

The down side to this particular trailer is, it is about a 1000 lbs heavier then ever other trailer we looked at, but when you look around, you can see why. a better built trailer, (at least I hope so.) Then we got almost all the options, and that adds up quickly.

As for the race it self. I went in with all my settings from Phoenix thinking, maybe a tenth or so faster and that's easy to control. First practice pass and it ran 11.61, I thought, wow, but no problem, make my known adjustments that should slow it down. (half turn out of the waist gate) And on to first round of qualifying. This netted a 11.51, oh shoot, did I turn it the wrong way?????(But I didn't, the air is just that good out there) Round 2 of qualifying and another adjustment. 11.68. Man, still way to fast. Yet another adjustment and round 3 and the last chance. During the run, I look up and I'm at 6 ½ lbs. of boost, I think, ok this is it, but yet I panic a touch and lift off the gas about 100 ft from the finish and still ran 11.81 fortunately this was still good for the 15th qualifying spot. I'm in the show.

During my earlier passes, the traction was going away even though I did chase it with minor adjustments, so I thought, I need some more traction to help with reaction time. So I made the fatal mistake of making too many changes going into eliminations. What I ended up doing was hooking up way to hard, and bogging down the motor too much, that I just couldn't recover and I was out in first round. On the return road, I found the number 1 man in points with his head down like me. And it might have been a good thing for both of us, to see each other had gone out. Kind of makes life that much easier when you know, the points are not being run off with. This put me 3rd in points, but well with in grasp of #1. I am 4 behind #2 and only 19 or less then 1 round behind #1. So stay tuned for the Denver race as John Schuerger#1, Allen Weiss#2 and I battle to make things happen.

Next up, Dyno Day at Magnaflow Mufflers at 22961 Arroyo Vista

Rancho Santa Margarita, CA. We will be strapping my car down on their chassis dyno. On May 31st starting at 9am.

Then its off to the Kymco/Cal-look.com party on June 6th and then the VW Classic where my car will be on display. (that means I have to clean it up again. And its only a race car)

BEEEEEEE THEERRRREEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!

4-30-03

How many stickers can I fit on my car? LOL.

MMR is pleased to announce another associate sponsor to join our fun.

Randar Wheels.

The new Drag Lite Wheels.

For more information please Contact Randee at randarwheels@aol.com

4-16-03

My apologies for lack of update response. Been very busy.

Since the last update, I have changed the rear suspension components with 2 different sizes in torsion bars and raced twice.

I had a talk with Jimmy Larsen at JCL Race Cars and picked up these superwhammy adjustable shocks., and then picked up some new Sway-a-way spring plates as my stock ones were worn out around the bushing.

upon recomendation that I brace up the shock towers, I got my head under the car and welded up a triangulation off the shock towers to keep them from bending and flexing. With the new shocks, I would say, this is a must. They can be VERY stiff if you end up turning them up all the way.

 Also from Jimmy, the ultimate in keeping the spring plates and axles in alignment. Aluminum with bronze bushing spring retainer plates take the place of the stock cover and flexable bushings. Now I have pushed my rear end alignment to a tow in condition since I have removed most of the possible flexing.  With these changes, I found my very first pass at Irwindale to feel slow until I saw the time slip. A good sign that I have it set up right.

With the 27mm bars in, we went to the Hot VW's Drag Day on March 23rd. This was a good chance to do some testing for the season. The 27mm bars turned out to be a little on the soft side and during the passes, I actually lightly rubbed the sump. BUT, it all did what I asked it to do. We got 2 qualifying passes and eliminations. I put up a .521 and .515 reaction time on a .500 light for qualifying for the quick 16 field. And also put together 2 passes that were very consistent with a 6.96 and 6.95 in the 1/8 mile. Round 1 was here and I turned on the red eye. The good news was another 6.96. So from a test session, it was very productive. The first round loss isn't that bad as it is only a 30 minute drive home and it was not a points race.

PHOENIX BUG-O-RAMA.

Make the change to 29mm torsion bars. Do the necessary check and maintenance to the car and I am feeling fairly confident. A slight rocky start to the weekend as friend Dominic "The Burn out King" installed his fresh motor only the night before departure, was having some difficulties firing up for the first time. But what fun is it if you are not thrashing till the last minute, and in this case, the last second. Departure time was scheduled for 7am. The motor fired up at 7:30am. Aahhhhhhhhh….

I went ahead and did some test and tune on Friday night at the track to make sure I was in the ball park. Off the trailer, 11.83 (shooting for 11.90 index) That's a good feeling. I'm not completely in left field. Make a rear suspension adjustment and add some slip to the clutch, turn the boost down, and another 11.83. I am happy now. Put it away and go back to the hotel for a cool refreshment and some minor adjustment on Dominic's car in the hotel parking lot.

Saturday is the big day. Make another adjustment and the car slows to a 12.06 on a bad 60ft. OK, the track conditions changed from last night. Drop the tire pressure and its an 11.87, with a good hook up. aahhh I'm right there. Add another click into the shocks and just a touch more slip into the clutch and round 3 of qualifying produced a strong 11.92 for a brief number 1 qualifying spot until Alan Weise pulls out an 11.91 to bump me off. But none the less, a very strong and good points paying qualifying spot.

Elimination time.

Ken Porter first round. He had some shift linkage difficulties. A good thing because he cut a much better light then I did. But a win is a win. Round 2 and I am against Robert Hemphill. I know I have my work cut out for me on this one. By the way, Robert drove his car out to Phoenix from Victorville Ca. Can you say HARD CORE!!!!!! But as in usual fashion, he is well up for my challenge and truly tattoo's me at the tree. This race I should not have won. The only thing that saved me was I ran an 11.91 and just pushed him out to a brake out condition to give me another win.

Round 3 and now I'm up against Doug Berg in his light weight rail. Talking to his previous opponent, he told me, his reaction time was spectacular. I can only imagine how good it was with a very light weight vehicle. So now its time to start sacrificing the gear box. Drop the tire pressure some more and loose the soft launches I had. Well I picked up a whole .05 off my reaction time and put a whooping on Doug at the lights and only saw his front tire at the end of the track. OH MY, I'm going to the finals.

Final round. Who is in the other lane? The current S/G champ, John Schuerger. I figure if I could do what I did in the last round, I stand a chance. But the other thing I was sweating was at the end of my last run, my fuel pump was making all kinds of the wrong noise. It was clanking and clunking, you could hear the fuel pressure surging in and out. And all I could do was kiss my car, beg and plead to give me just one more pass worth of fuel. John and I, flipped a coin for the lane choice as we both wanted the same lane. But I loss the coin toss. I figure no biggie. The burn out was a little off. Car wanted to turn sideways out of the box so I had to let go just a touch early. I don't think I got enough heat into the tires, but I didn't worry to much as I took another ½ pound out of the tires figuring it will compensate. The light dropped, tires spin a little and cost me that .05 on reaction time. John wasn't perfect either but still .05 better then me at the light. But in the end, the fuel pump kept me full, but that just wasn't enough to beat John's 11.93 to my 11.87 pass. See that? .05 lost on reaction time at the light and I had to make up the difference and was .06 faster in ET, but that was too fast for the index. I was bummed for about 500 feet of coasting, but after that, I had to admit to my self, I was a little lucky today and this is the best start to a season I have had in a few years. Not to mention, I got to hold my hand out at the end of the day to pick up a few bucks too. So this weekend was a complete success in my books.

2-15-03

Here is something I have been meaning to show for a while. My version of an anti-shocker. But mine is located in the car.

You will notice the cable between the shifter and monstrosity on the floor. This cable pulls on a latch to release the small shock absorber. then once the clutch is all the way back out, the latch catches the shock and is disabled through the rest of the gears.

The way I use it, is once prestaged, i pull up on the reverse ring to release shock.

 This shock absorber is made by Ace controls.  it is quite a bit bigger then the Washington anti-shocker model. this one is an MA-900 purchased from Clayton Controls in Costa Mesa Ca.

 What i did was extend the clutch pedal shaft so it sticks out the passenger side of the tunnel. then put this flap on it to give the shock something to ride on. The side and travel of the flap partially dictated what size shock I needed, and that was the stroke involved.

 I also put this plate in place with a bronze bushing to give the shaft some extra support.

 I finally got off my butt and built my own large capacity breather box. I have had this material laying around the garage for 2 years. Now i can replace my two cheap little boxes that has served their duty well.

 It will even fit behind the fan shroud. although this may restrict some air flow is I used this on the street.

 The aluminum case.  It checked out fine so far, and now the long block is back together. This time, it will stay together for the whole year. (i hope)

1-2-03

My Aluminum case update

Happy new year all.

I finally did it. Motor is completely apart.

Now remember, these findings are only limited to use. I don't have that much use and abuse to really dictate how much these cases will take. On the other hand. The off road guys are the ones that can really tare a case apart. And I am hearing they are doing very well in comparison to a stock case.

Ok, on to my stuff. Its been together since August. I have around 35 passes on this. The last 15 or so was pushing my car pass 120mph even a few in the 125 range. So I am pushing on it a little, but its really hard to compare a turbo abuse to the same hp of normally aspirated use. As my rpm is much lower then a motor of N/A. With that said. Preliminary findings looked real good. (a visual) I then took the case down to EMS to throw into their jet wash machine so I have something nice and clean to work with and measure. I did this on the Friday after X-mas. And at that time. The jet wash was off. (takes time to heat up) and they were having a shop party. (The original reason I went, but it was convenient to take my stuff down at the same time) So my parts were left on the counter, while I had a burger and festive beverage. Needless to say, I have yet to get back down there to clean and pick up. Maybe today, I will try and get it.

But over all, so far, I am pleased. And saw exactly what I expected. With the extra boost I was running, even the rod bearings looked as they should have. New on the cap side and signs of normal ware on the load side. PERFECT!

I will verify all measurements and report as I can.