Projects Austin Somerset Gasser Build (DragNasty)

Well here is some exciting news from the never ending saga of a little Austin Somerset that wants to be a race car! You
remember these blower pulley spacers from an earlier post? Well I got up early this morning and decided to install the spacer and upper supercharger pulley before I went to work. But when I tried to slip this little spacer over the boss from Weiand factory Spacer (for BBC and Short water pump etc.) it would not fit. It seems the hole in my spacer is only 2" and the boss on the supercharger spacer is 2.25" (can you feel my pain?).



After talking this morning with JEGS, The Blower Shop guys and the ever elusive Holley/Weiand Tech Department, I find out that no one makes one. That's right, NO ONE MAKES ONE! So I dropped my little spacer off at a local machine shop at lunch today. They are going turn the female side on a lathe to 2.25" and since the boss section is important for perfect centering etc., they are making me a ring to put on the boss side. This will allow the upper blower pulley to center before being screwed in place etc.

 

The saga continues.
Man I think if you fell in a bucket of tits you would come up sucking your thumbs.

 

My friend you have hit it right on the head with that....but I would still like to try a bucket of tits anyway!

 

It would make for a soft landing.

 

Maybe this build will be a lesson to the readers out there. I bring most of this stuff on myself constantly making changes and additions that were NOT planned. If you remember, I started this build with a very nice BBC oval port crate motor that only had about 1000 miles on it. I could have just put the damn thing in the car and been on the road. But oh no, I just had to install a vintage tunnel ram that I had on the shelf. However, it was for a rectangular port.

- which begot a set of High Performance Heads,
- which begot a bigger cam and higher compression pistons,
- which begot machine work on a perfectly fine block,
- which ultimately begot two E85 660 Carbs to feed it,
- which after it was all together begot the thought maybe I should have put a Supercharger on it,
- which begot tossing my brand new high volume dual radiator fan set on the shelf because no room now,
- which ultimately led to the discovery that I did not have any forged internals (as promised),
- which begot completely changing to forged Pistons, and forged I-beam Rods,
- which begot an internally balanced and forged Crank
- which begot new Howard Billet main caps,
- which overall begot having to convert my new never installed Super Dampner to a neutral balance,
- which after it was all back together begot an obvious needed change to roller cam and lifters,
- which begot all the high end upper valve train,
- which begot installing the stud girdle,
- which begot the fact the vintage valve covers don't fit anymore,
- which begot the valve cover spacers,
- which after finally seeing it all together begot the nagging concern we need bigger carbs,
- which begot two hand built 750 e85 units,
- which because they now have to sit sideways begot special carb linkage,
- which begot the thought of timing,
- which begot the (OT) MSD Crank Trigger debacle,
- which begot moving all the drive pulleys 3/8 forward,
- which begot me visiting a machine shop this afternoon!
Holy crap do I need a bucket of tits!

 

At work we call this "scope creep". It gets expensive quickly. Fun to watch from here on the sidelines though.

 

Almost as much fun as a bucket if tits. Saltflats I'm going to steal that line to use on my buds. Best quip I have heard in a long time.

 

Easy Breezy "wallet" squeezy! Back in business. The machine shop knocked out my blower pulley spacer this morning. They enlarged the rear entry to 2.25" as needed and created a ring for the boss to make it 2.25" as well.

 

I HAD TO LOOK THAT UP!

Scope creep (also called requirement creep, function creep and feature creep) in project management refers to uncontrolled changes or continuous growth in a project's scope. This can occur when the scope of a project is not properly defined, documented, or controlled. It is generally considered harmful.

THANK YOU WIKIPEDIA - DEFINE HARMFUL! LOL

 

I have been guilty of that. I have built my car 2-3 times with constant changes and I am still working on it after 10 years. Looks like the end is near though. I feel your pain.

 

Nothing new actually, I also can say I've had my share of the "one step forward and half a step back" routine. Almost to the point that I began to look forward to it, but not really.
A friend of mine who I called Macgyver had his share of (our) issues, but he always said it's these kind of issues that make a person a more rounded builder/fabricator.
I've followed this project pretty much from the start, and I'd say you've cleared most all the obstacles that you've shared here.
What's to be gained out of all of this is that you now have a "bank" of knowledge for most whatever comes up in the future; as long as you don't repeat prior mistakes.
Completely OT, but another friend of mind had a saying whenever I was successful in my search for stuff at swap meets. He would say "I bet you could stick your hand in a bucket of shit and pull out a Cadillac".

 

Thanks for the kind words DDD, but I am pretty sure it is actually all the Italian Food that is making me a more rounded builder/fabricator...

 

Certainly unique. Thanks for sharing.

 

You should be sure to sit down and write up all the steps you made and the solutions you thought up for the guy you sell it too. Because we all know there is never "this is my last car".

 

You are correct, I will play with it for a year or so and then sell it. I have already started on its replacement in the back corner of the shop. But something funny, when I sold the Pulp Friction Model "A" two years ago, I sent a very detailed account of how it came to be, including all of the mods etc. Then about a month after I sold it, I got an email from a HAMBer that said he thinks he just bought my old car. He chased it down through the HAMB Drags Tag on the firewall. Anyway the first buyer sold it to him but told him HE built the car from the ground up. He used the cheat sheet I gave him to talk about all the cool modifications he made to it etc. Bastard! At least the car finally made it in to good hands.

 

I got some good education from Aeroquip this morning on E85 compatible hose. I had a HAMBer PM me after seeing the fittings and hose I was about to install from earlier in the thread. He said he would recommend I call Aeroquip first. He was correct. The Braided Hose and AN fittings I purchased are not "quite" E85 compatible. My local performance shop was a bit misinformed as well. Aeroquip said as long as the car is driven daily, things would "probably" be alright but if it was going to sit for 3 days to a week at a time, the entire fuel system would have to be drained every single time. I am headed back over this morning to exchange everything for Teflon Braided Hose and Teflon style fittings.

 

Ugh!!!

 

Dang and we were all pullin for ya that you were on the short rows now.
We want to hear that mother fire up

 

Actually I am back on track. I have spent the day today talking with every freaking E85 expert in the country and while I will not say this is the definitive answer across the board, here is what I think. All the manufacturers say E85 must run through Teflon etc. However, it is hard to find larger sizes and a pain when it comes to fittings etc. At the same time, all the racers and car builders I spoke with say they use standard braided rubber hose with no issues. So how is that possible?

1. In our litigious society, manufactures are concerned about their back side (and rightly so). They are only going to advise what they are 100% sure will work and in this case, it is Teflon.
2. Back in the day and even now, most pure alcohol burners top oil their fuel to help with the corrosive tendencies.
3. E85 having at least 15% if not more regular fuel mixed in is a lot like top oiling so that makes E85 not nearly as an aggressive fuel with respect to rubber compounds. And according to the good folks at Gates (who should know rubber) any grade of nitrile rubber designed to handle refined gasoline will be good with E85
4. According to Aeroquip all of their standard braided rubber lines use nitrile rubber.

SO IN CLOSING (and sorry for the interruption) I am going to put the stuff I originally purchased on just as planned. After we fire it I will easily have it running at least once of week probably more often. I am not going to do anything to the fuel lines unless I plan to leave it set for a month or two etc. At that point, I will drain the system.

 

DOOH!! Was that you talking to Paul today?!?
Hopefully it'll be ok, I'm thinking the same thing about the CYA views from the manufacturers.

 

Check out that ugly ass purple and blue regulator now...LOL

 

Yep that was me. I think my little temporary detour took a couple of years off poor Paul yesterday! LOL
So now which spectator were you?

 

Looks like the regulator is taking wings.

 

I was thinking more like a...."tahdah" lol

 

I finally made it out to the shop late this afternoon....what a beautiful January day in the Ozarks. I finished installing the Fuel Cell (or reinstalling as the case may be). I also mounted the fuel pump. I am not happy with the factory bracket so I will fab up something better but that is pretty much where it will live.

 

I rolled the car out this afternoon to catch a few rays. Just before sundown I couldn't resist snapping a few photos.




I am really getting the fever to fire this thing. It won't be long.

 

Looks ready for business.

 

I actually wasn't there but one of my friends was there getting me a carb for one of my work trucks and he told me about Paul's "stress" going on. LoL!

 

I started this morning trying to wrap up a few projects in the trunk area. Up first, loose one of the 8 AN bulkhead fittings that the fuel cell came with and replace it with a 12AN. I am going to cap the other fitting. This will make it really easy to drain the fuel cell should we need to.


I mentioned earlier, I was not a fan of the supplied mounting bracket for the fuel pump. Not only is it way too small (about 1/8" thick) but it also just bolted to one side of the nearly 10 pound pump and would leave it cantilevered out in no where land. I felt that would be way too much stress on the pump housing.


There were bolt holes on both sides of the pump (so it could be mounted on either side of the car etc.). Unlike the factory supplied piece above, I wanted a bracket that had more support and used all four mount points.


This is what I came up with. It is made with .25" plate with raised custom mount points also cut from .25" steel. The relief area allows the pump to mount with out the extruding bottom section hitting the mount.


It was designed to fit over the 1.5" square tubing that runs across the rear of the car. If you look close you will see it also has a gusset that fits against the tubing on the other side.


After dropping it place and securing it with two grade 8 bolts, I got up in the trunk and stood on it. This thing is not going anywhere fast. Well actually it will be going somewhere very fast but that is a different story.


I dropped a set of studs into the bottom of the pump along with washers that were ground down a bit to clear the pump housing cap.


Then we simply dropped it in place on the mount and secured it from the bottom with nuts and lock washers.


Then I made a few edits to the angle iron fuel cell bracket which included reliefs in the back rail to remove the shock bolts if needed. Basically I had to get it in place and mount the cell in such a way to perfectly align its fitting with the one in the pump. This was a tedious endeavor as the elbow from the fuel cell and the straight fitting into the pump have to be in absolute perfect alignment. Why so perfect?


That is why. This is not simply a case of obsessive compulsive disorder here. Take a look above, that is only 1.5" of braided hose between fittings. Not much room for error! Actually no room at all! But she is in and ready to take her first big gulp!

 

Man that thing is going to flow like a fire hose.