Projects '61 Falcon Street/Strip Gasser Build

Welp, I have about 200 street miles on it now. It's about time to take it down the quarter.

 

I took the Falcon by my local hot rod shop to have it weighed on four corners. It was a couple hundred pounds heavier than I wished but I guess that isn't bad for an all-steel body, iron block BBF and iron case trans. This was with no driver and about 8 gallons of fuel.
I was happy with the weight distribution, though. With driver, it's 3217 total and 50.98% front/49.02% rear. This thing should wheelie.

 

Well I need some practice on that clutch and shifter. The car feels like it has plenty left in it if the driver would improve!
I think I was the only guy there who drove to the track and changed tires out of the trunk.

 

Fulfilled your dream, it can only get better!

 

With the power to weight ratio that little Falcon could be well over a second quicker. For a shakedown it’s pretty respectable though. 2.41 second rt…interesting.

 

I just scrolled through your entire thread just to refresh my memory.

This really is a fantastic car.

 

Haha! They were running single lane test-n-tune so I didn't care. I was watching the tach and trying to feather the clutch.

 

Thanks!

 

That's some time slip! Was there a particular shade of green you were waiting for? LOL!! I'm just kidding! It's all good news so far! Really enjoyed you sharing the build and the color is on point! I'm currently in the slow process of putting my 60 straight axle bird back on the street but it's pretty hashed and wont ever be as fine an example as yours.

Very Impressive! Keep posting!


-rick

 

""I think I was the only guy there who drove to the track and changed tires out of the trunk""

That's the way I did it. Girlfriend at the time helped quite a bit, we had a routine. Rather than feather the clutch [what kind?] I would adjust traction/tire/throttle. Either way you done good!

 

Thanks. It's a metallic Ram Powergrip HD single disc. The 3500 rpm launch was pretty brutal. I ran 20 psi in the 28 X 9 M/T bias ply slicks since I didn't know how stable it would be at the top end.. I'll try 14-16 psi next time.

 

Ram Powergrip HD (2800lbs on a 900 series metallic disc) is good for around 800
Ram Powergrip (2800lbs on a 900/300 series dual friction disc) is good for around 650
Ram HDX (2800lbs on a 300 series organic disc) is good for around 500

A lot of hotrodders don't realize too much clutch for the application is counter-productive in a drag race setting. The more torque capacity a clutch has, the faster the engine loses rpm when you dump the clutch, which in-turn increases the intensity of the inertia spike sent to the drivetrain/tires. Excessive inertia spike is also a quick path to bog/spin/broken parts problems.

The goal for a good 60' is to keep the engine rpm up where it makes power, which means something has to slip until the car has gained enough ground speed to keep the clutch from pulling the engine below its torque peak. You could play with air pressure and shock/chassis settings to create initial wheelspin, but with a diaphragm clutch a much better solution is to add external clutch control. An inexpensive ClutchTamer would allow you to adjust the rate that the clutch pulls the engine down without going inside the bellhousing, allowing you to take advantage of a much higher launch rpm which would greatly improve your 60'. I would also take that 900 series disc out and replace it with a 900/300 series dual friction which would drive much nicer on the street, you would still have room to add a little nitrous

For full disclosure, I want to add that I'm the guy that makes the ClutchTamer. Every crowd-pleasing screaming launch, dead hooking, wheelie carrying, diaphragm clutch equipped NMRA Coyote Stock car for the last 10 years or so has used a 'tamer.

Grant

 

Thanks for the tips, Grant. I went with Ram's recommendation, which was the 98988HD Long style, 8 spring hub for a 1 3/8 X 10 Toploader. It's rated at 650 hp, close to where I should be when everything is eventually tuned right. https://ramclutches.com/product/98988HD/
I've seen the Clutch Tamer somewhere. I need to look into it further.

 

A 12! i'd be very happy with that, car looks great. Out of curiosity, how's the header paint holding up?

 

Thanks. Not too good on the VHT paint! I've had it hold up well for a couple years when applied properly on another project but I touched these up a little too much after I got them dirty. The paint is lifting in a few places but the primer under it turned nice and black. It should stay rust free until I take them off and refinish.

 

Long, long time ago [1975] I found that you must [at least in my experience] sandblast the headers good and clean, not too rough but not smooth, should feel some "bite" with fingernail test. Rinse thoroughly with lacquer thinner to get any dust off. Never used primer, didn't know about back then. Coated with VHT of color choice, in my case light blue from spray cans, I think 2. Installed as clean as I could and lasted for a few years. When it looked like the paint was wearing thin I bought a quart of VHT from JC Whitney. Not wanting to remove headers I lightly sanded where I thought was needed and armed with a 3/8th wide artist paint brush I went to town. Long and tedious process for sure but it has worked well, getting some thickness to the paint and took about 10 years to need another coat. Some where around 2000 was the last time I gave them a coat. There is a small rust are area that I been watching for ten years. I'll get to it after I change the valve cover gaskets, at the rate I'm going that will be sometime in the next few years.

 

I have a 9" metallic 6 puck sprung center from Ram behind my 6cyl in my Comet, Ram didn't even know they had it. I wanted a HD [in case of supercharger] clutch and got it out of Mustang Unlimited with a 50k warranty as long as I had the flywheel surfaced! Pretty brutal on the street until I got the linkage adjusted and the clutch seated in. Still a handful taking off with light throttle; heavy throttle it will slip a hair [at which point the tires are spinning any how] but a Clutch Tamer would help especially if easy to switch between street and strip. Tire pressure: As long as accelerating tire pressure was not a squirrel factor; it was when first off the throttle decelerating in gear. Taking out of gear and some brake usually [at least for me] calmed things down if needed. This was in friends '66 Fairlane with 8" or 10" tire, if memory right about 12 psi was the least for the most bite and not get hairy at top.

 

No need to change 'tamer adjustment for street, during casual pedal strokes you won't even notice it's there.

Grant

 

I changed to a thinner head gasket to bump the compression up, recurved the distributor to 14 degrees of mechanical advance and switched from ported to manifold vacuum. It's now running 14 degrees initial and 28 degrees total mechanical and goes to 16 degrees initial with manifold vacuum. It's definitely more spicy than with 10 degrees initial and 30 degrees total.

My dipstick has been walking out a bit after high rpm blasts. The PCV valve wasn't up to the task so I added Moroso crankcase evac to both headers. They don't recommend it with mufflers due to back-pressure but I'm running 3" straight-through Porters. Even at idle, I can feel the evac pull a vacuum on the breather. I have baffles under the breather so hopefully they limit oil loss. If not, I'll have to look into catch cans.

 

Sick Smokies opened early registration to gassers for the 12-19 October event. That's a big deal since these drag and drives usually sell out within minutes of opening to the public. There are nearly 100 signed up and I'm in.

This will be epic. A few SEGA guys will run it, too.
https://www.sickthemagazine.com/sick-smokies

 

I ran the local drag and drive yesterday. The tune helped! I shaved a full second off my 1/4 mile time, running an 11.72 at 122 - even after bogging the launch and hitting the 6800 rpm rev limiter twice! I believe it would knock on 10s if I can find a good driver

 

I blew oil out the dipstick tube on my last pass. Leakdown is good but it was probably due to too much oil in the pan. So I reduced it by one quart and modified and then installed the poorly-fitting windage tray I left off earlier.

Here's another old trick I discovered. You can use an old spark plug boot to keep the dipstick from walking out. It looks more traditional than a modern locking dipstick.

 

I've been away from the HAMB for a bit, just getting caught up with the threads I follow. Your car is looking great and it sounds like you're in for a fun season!