Projects Bad Banana Resurrection - 55 Chevy Gasser

see what i said before rusty your dad wants it winning even if its after a change keep it up

 

Hell yeah Rusty, we're rooting for you buddy !

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

Congrats buddy!!! Always love watching you work in the pits and on the track! All business!

 

Here is the official video of the win in Ringgold, GA

 

Took my Ranchero out for it's first real drive ever. Went to South Mountain Dragway in Boiling Springs, PA for a "big" Nostalgia event. Where else to you drive a g***er? Anyhow, I was walking through the pits and saw a young lady wearing a Bad Banana shirt. So I said to her "Excuse me, but is Rusty here today?". She giggles and says "No", like I was a dumb*** for asking. Hey it was a longshot, but I can dream damn it!

So Rusty you were represented today, lol.

 

what broke

 

Hurt the engine. I am trying hard to get it back together for the next race. I'll update the thread with the whole story when I get a chance.

Sent from my SM-G950U using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

well damn the luck you will get it fixed

 

Here is the current situation. I believe I have 90 percent of the parts on the way. Hope to have it back together by next weekend. Next race is Oct. 14 in Myrtle Beach, S.C..



Sent from my SM-G950U using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

what all did it tear up

 

Bearings mostly. Hurt the crank and a couple rods. Biggest problem is the debris everywhere. I have everything apart cleaning it up. It should be fine if I have enough time to get it all back together. I'm not alone working on it. The old man is here with me. He says we can get it done. [emoji4]

Sent from my SM-G950U using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

yes you guys can keep at it jack and rusty

 

Keep on digging buddy! See ya in Myrtle!!

 

We're all pulling for you !!!

 

Hope you get it all lined out before the next race.

 

Not updated this thread in a while. Been very busy. Hurt the engine at Darlington. Not exactly sure of the chain of events but my best theory is that in testing at Ringgold on Friday night, the car went into a giant wheel stand and I rode it out but it still came down kinda hard. It broke the wheelie bars on that run. The next day on the first qualifier (very next p***) is when my oil leak saga started. I originally blamed a bad o-ring on my home made oil filter adapter and we fixed it by running a stock oil filter and we ended up winning the race. The engine was fine it seemed. Came home and got the proper o-ring and looked it all over and ran it in the driveway and all seemed good.

Went to Darlington and the first p*** I made was the qualifier. Came back and looked under it just to see if it was ok and ... DAMN... it was leaking again.. Not bad but it was dripping on the ground. Not much time before the next run so I made the same repair as I did in Ringgold and took my leaking junk off and put another stock type filter on it. Fired it up and MAJOR oil leak! Shut it off and the big o-ring had blown out from the top of the oil filter?? Took it off, looked it over and all looked fine. Thought maybe the o-ring wasn't in the groove right (I didn't really look I was in a hurry) and spun it back on and used a wrench to tighten it. Fired it up and seemed ok.

Drove it to the lanes. Seemed good. Rolled into the burn box for the second qualifier and started the burn out and suddenly everyone is waving their arms for me to stop??? I didn't know it had blown the o-ring out a second time. Towed it back to the pits and pulled the filter off. Looked again at everything. Could not see anything wrong. Block, ******, filter all looked fine. Started suspecting the oil pump relief valve might be sticking maybe. Got a different filter, filled it with oil, fired it again and initially it was ok then bang, blew the filter o-ring again.. Once more apart, looked at everything one more time and could not see any reason for the issue. Was convinced the pressure relief valve in the pump was intermittently sticking. Cranked the filter back one one more time with a wrench and it seemed to hold. Revved it in the pits and seemed ok. Drove to the lanes for first round and no leak. Said a prayer...

Somehow I won the first round. Car was off about a tenth and the mph was down about 4. Came back and no leak. Went back up for second round and my guy was broke and didn't tell me. Staged up and he never left. I made the run and didn't see him but the car felt like it was laboring. I knocked it out of gear before the finish and the engine just about stalled. Not good. I won the round but figured it might be hurt. ET was about 3 tenths down and mph was off 10. I came back and drained the oil to see if maybe I had it over full. I have no dipstick or way to check oil level really so I was guessing on how much was in it. It had the proper amount but it looked like metallic paint. The oil was so hot you couldn't touch it without leather gloves. I towed it to the lanes for the semis and faked the burnout, staged it and shut it off on the starting line and hoped my opponent red lighted. He didn't. We towed it back to the trailer and loaded up.

Got it home and it hurt the bearings. Spun 2 rod bearings and wounded the crank. Crank can be fixed but I didn't have time. Found a buddy who had a crank and I swapped it and the two rods and everything else looked good. Took it all apart to clean all the debris out of the oil galleys. I just put the engine back in today and hope to fire it tomorrow morning.

The pressure relief valve was sticky but I found the oil filter ****** adapter was cracked in half. I'll post a pic. Could not see it was cracked until I started taking the bolts out to remove it to clean the block and found it was in two pieces. I was one 5/16" bolt away from disaster!!!! If that one bolt had given up during one of those runs, it would not have been good. I dodged a bullet for sure. I think the filter adapter was cracked or cracking since the wheel stand in Ringgold but I couldn't see it. We have a billet piece on there now. I believe the series of leaks and most likely the o-ring blow out in the burn box probably did in the bearings. Luckily the damage was much less than it could have been.

 

Video from Darlington

 

Sent from my SM-G950U using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

Wow those bearings look rough! Sure hope you can make the last couple races and put a little 'nana in the winners circle!

 

I was wondering, every time you touch that car ,you must feel that strong bond with your Father. I have followed you here on the hamb for a while, and I often think of the interview you did with him at the kitchen table, you are a lucky man.

 

It's running. Sounds good. No leaks...lol. Now I just have to bulldoze the shop and start loading. Still have a busy week ahead of me.

Sent from my SM-G950U using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

Rusty Sampsel and his Wife are the most Dedicated racer in the Southeast G***ers ***ociation. I don't think there is even one member of the SEGA that thinks otherwise.

 

He spent a lot of time showing me how to tune my injection at Darlington and it wasn't really time he had to waste! My injection has never run so smooth. Really appreciated that Rusty!

 

Look up Southeast G***ers in the dictionary and there will be a pic of Rusty Sampsel. I was going to say he is our poster child but he's not pretty enough for that LOL.
And yes Rusty I'm going to put my man stacks back on next year.

 

See.... Yer Dad was right!!!

 

He and I spent a lot of time together the last couple weeks. I talk to him and the car a lot (not when my wife is around... she already thinks I'm not firing on all cylinders...LOL). I so much wish he could have still been around to see the Southeast G***ers. He would be so into it. I look around my shop and see all the home made tools and equipment he made me over the years. I used so much of it that I haven't touched in a long time the last two weeks. It has been a few years since I have ***embled a race engine but I have done a lot of them in my lifetime. We never had any money so you had to be able to do it all yourself. Engines, transmissions, rearends, suspensions, everything. No money to pay anyone to do anything but specialized machine work that wasn't feasible to buy the equipment to do it yourself.

I can still remember the first small block Chevy him and I did together when I was 16 years old. It was an old steel crank small journal 327 with double hump heads and a Crane Fireball hydraulic camshaft (used) and a cast iron quadrajet intake and stock point ignition. It was an engine from the junkyard that someone had tried to rebuild but it probably didn't run well. The rings were broken (we thought they were file fit and they didn't fit them) and the rear main seal was in backwards so I am sure it smoked and leaked. He took me to the machine shop to get the block sleeved because one cylinder was scored too bad to hone. We put it together and put it in my 1962 Chevy with a Saginaw 4 speed and 3.36 gear. I won a lot of street races (and broke a lot of transmissions) with that engine in that car in high school and the old man always suspected I was racing. He even confronted me one day after someone I beat told someone he knew about the race. He never said too much over the years because I had always listened to the stories of him and his friends street racing back before I was born so I think he felt he couldn't really ***** too much at me because he knew I knew he used to do it. I think he was hoping I never got caught and luckily I never did.

I have been missing him bad this year. I would give anything to have 5 minutes with him again.

 

You sir are a lucky man to have had that relationship with your dad.
I never had a good relationship with my dad. He hated hot rods and so I got to work on my junk in the yard summer or winter and I grew up in the U.P. of Michigan. You ever changed a clutch in Feb. in a 55 Chevy jacked up with a bumper jack and supported by tree stumps laying on an old blanket ?
When there is a 60x 80 shop 20 feet away with a wood stove . I was allowed to work in the shop if I was working on a log truck or a bulldozer, but not a hot rod and I would not drive anything that I didn't consider a hot rod. Just 2 stubborn people who never saw eye to eye.

 

Whoa, that was close with the bearings. Rock on Rusty, loving SEG all the way from Sth.
Oz..

 

I hear you I have been missing my parents a lot lately. My dad wasn't a Gearhead but we spent a lot of time in the weight room together.

 

Made the round trip to North Myrtle Beach last weekend. Its the second longest trip of the year for me. I was not able to test the car before we left so I had my fingers crossed it was ready to go. Got there Friday night and they were running a bunch of pony cars mostly with street tires from what I saw. None of the SEGA cars I saw testing was getting ahold of the starting line. I elected to p*** on testing and use the first qualifying run as a test p***.

First p*** it headed to the wall in low gear with the wheels in the air and I stayed with it. It touched down on the gear change then went back up but I had the wheels ****ed enough when it hit the ground that it aimed it back into the lane and we were able to run it out. Tied the quickest run the car ever made in legal SEGA trim. That place is at sea level and the qualifying times showed it. More than half the field in C/Gas was under the 6.50 ET that forces you to weigh. We ended up middle of the pack somewhere. As the day went on it got quicker and quicker. Had to run Doug Dobbins in the second round (we were tied for second place in the points battle at that point). He got just a whisker on the tree and it was enough at the stripe to get the win. I had made my best run ever by over a tenth and it was not enough. We loaded up and came home. Doug went on to win. He ran Danny Byrd in the Semis and Danny missed a gear and Doug's opponent went red in the final. If I could have squeaked by, I could have won the event. But woulda, coulda, shoulda, doesn't change the outcome one bit...LOL.

The car is fresh, running good, and ready for the finals at Shadyside on Nov 4. The pressure is off. I am a solid 3rd in points and have no threat from behind. Even if I didn't go I would finish the season in 3rd. However, the two guys in front of me are tied with each other for the lead. Pressure is on them. It's theirs to lose. I plan on being the spoiler. I am still mathematically in it. If they have trouble in qualifying or lose early, I can still move up. So only good things can happen to me they must worry about not letting victory slip out of their fingers. It will be epic. Stay tuned.

By the way, I took a new job and am moving to Oklahoma City area as soon as I get home from Shadyside. Good thing the season is over because I am going to be very busy for the next several months.