Projects Front Engine Dragster update

Ok, the unofficial car nuts meetings have resumed. Today we had Lenny and Tom. They both put in over time today and we worked a solid six hours.

First up was to develop a list of things that have to be completed for the Saturday morning start up. Looks like there will be good attendance as there are already three people that have spoken up that they will be there. I know of several others that are planning to be there that have not yet spoken up.
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This is the list;
Install the transmission cooler
Run the transmission lines from the transmission to the cooler (no easy task as they have to run around the engine plate (through the chassis))
Plumb the oil pressure gauge
Install longer header bolts (the ones currently holding the headers on are only in by a couple of threads)
Install the distributor
Install spark plug wires
Hook up the water Temperature gauge
Add ZDP to the oil
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Most of the tasks are very close to being completed or have been completed. We really had a productive day.
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Lenny removed the old header bolts and installed the new longer header bolts. Some of the holes had to have a tap run through them to clean out the paint that someone sprayed on the engine. He continues with incasing the wiring harness.
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Tom made brackets to hold the transmission cooler between the frame rails at the front of the dragster. There just is no space to put it anywhere else. He also wired the volt meter. The brackets were then powder coated. He also engineered the hole to run the pipe through the engine plate for the oil pressure, this hole is in exactly the right place and exactly the right size for the pipe. Look closely at picture P1200034.
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Other tasks that were worked on or completed were;
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The spark plug wires have been installed. These are the old wires from the firebird. I do have a new set (cut and fit) that will be installed once the valve covers have been trimmed down. The current set of valve covers are junk and were used to paint the engine. They will be pressed into service for the start up on Saturday.
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The transmission coolant lines have been run from the transmission to the front of the dragster. These are all hard lines with no rubber connecting hoses. They pass through the holes in the frame to get around the engine plate. The last line that will connect up the cooler still needs to be made. That will be done tomorrow.
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A bracket was created to hold the ignition coil. Than it was powder coated. This was done by adding to an existing bracket that Roo Man created to hold the throttle cable.
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We used a cross on the end of the pipe that Tom plumbed to added the oil pressure sensor for the data logger, the low oil pressure sensor, and the feed for the oil pressure gauge.
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The capillary tube for the water temperature gauge has been run but still need to have the installation completed.
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The ZDP was added to the oil.
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The engine was rotated to 28 degrees advance on the compression stroke of the number one cylinder. The distributor was then dropped in with the rotor pointing directly to the number one cylinder location on the cap.
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So what is left of the Saturday fire up?
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Mount the transmission cooler and finish the plumbing to the cooler.
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Wire up the coil.
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Wire up the low oil pressure light.
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Double check everything!!!!
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Get some ear protection!

 

Man I love the looks of the Pontiac Headers, wish I could of used Pontiacs in my Twin.

 

Ok, every task on the start up to do list is completed – the first fire up on the engine in the dragster will be 9:00 AM tomorrow morning!

The transmission cooler has been installed. A great deal of effort went into bending hard lines for the cooler. Many attempts were made and several pipes were discarded in order to get the lines to run side by side from the rear of the dragster to the front. I have been informed that I should not use hard lines as the dragster will flex and cause these lines to crack and spill fluids. Defiantly do not want that so I guess I will have to replumb with braided lines. I’m in a quandary however. I’m told not to put holes in the engine plate, and the holes provide in the chassis are not large enough to take the braided lines????

The old, fat, gray haired guy was caught working again (well he appears to be working; maybe he is just a good actor).

The low oil pressure warning light is functioning.

Fluid has been added to the transmission which means that all five fluid systems are full.

The coil is connected.

Although the start up task list is completed the overall list is still quite long.

Tail light wiring has been tested and is wired to be a indicator light the master switch is on (any time the master switch is on the tail light will be on (it is LED so draws next to no current))

Master on off knob has been powder coated red and now must be labeled “push off”

See you in the morning for the fire up, I suggest you be on time as I am anxious to hear this engine run.

 

There is nothin greater than the anticipation of the first fire, may she light on the first crank!!!!!!

 

It runs!

Some small problems;
There is a concern about heat transfer out of the radiator (not enough?)
Front seal on in the transmission is leaking a little (have to pull the tranny and put another one in)
Line to the oil pressure gauge needs to be replaced with braided line.
Scoop takes too long to put on and remove.
Safety wire caliper bolts
Catch can for transmission vent.

John posted this to U-Tube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyxcAcBJTGc

This is raw video with no editing. Tom is putting together an edited piece.

 

you can drill the motorplate, I drill them low and near the chassis, put a couple bulkhead fittings there and plumb off either side.

 

Love to hear a baby say her first (angry) words! Congrats sounds great. been following this one for quite a while can't wait to hear how she runs.

 

That is how my trans cooler is plumbed also two #6AN bulkhead connectors and braided line off each side

 

Great idea.

 

Tom has worked his magic and come through before his self imposed dead line and produced another excellent start up video (the third one for me, two on the firebird, and this one)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLTuVDhOotw

 

One very, very cool video and congrats it sounds great!!!!!!!

 

well you should have a woody for more than a little while after that. LOL
Congratulations!

 

Glen I see that you have a Hoosier tire on your car . Could you tell me what size and coumpound it is ? I have to put new tires on mine this spring and I am looking for some options.

 

Ok, had a great turnout today and it was very productive. A lot of the tasks on the board were crossed off.

Lenny and his grandson (I cannot remember his name, shame on me) bled the drakes one last time.

Bill crated a bushing to go around the transmission coolant lines where they pass through the chassis.

Steve installed the drive shaft. The engine was started, the transmission was run through its gears, the transmission brake was tested, and reverse was tested (this transmission has a pro brake in it so you have to hold the transmission brake in order to get reverse). All worked correctly.

The fire bottles were removed by Steve, Lenny and Lenny's grandson for the trip to Indiana as they are not allowed to freeze (garage is always heated so up to this point it was ok to leave the bottles in the chassis). All the fire suspension lines were check for tightness.

Jack added a clamp on the fuel line as it was unsupported in the upturn to the carburetor.

Tom made yet another bracket for the dragster, this time it was to add support to the remote oil filter lines.

The valves covers are back from the machine shop were the insides were machined out to reduce their weight. These are case covers and weighed a ton. They are taller than the stamped covers that were used to keep the paint off the rocker arms when the engine was painted. Tom and Vince adjusted the spark plug wires so that the new valve covers would fit under the wires.

As if there was not enough going on we had a side project going on. That project was to build some stanchions that will be used to rope of the dragster at the upcoming show. Billy, Don, worked on this project. We are build these stanchions from an interesting collection of items. The bases are old rotors (which have been sand blasted), the posts are 2 inch electrical conduit, The conduit is fastened to the rotor with conduit connectors that have had their retaining nuts welded to the rotors (they can be unscrewed from the nut welded to the rotor), The top is a fence post cap that is fit on top of another conduit connector that has been cut in half.
The stanchions will all be powder coated so all the pieces match.

The tail light has been installed by Vince. The plan is to light the tail light at the show with a small power supply.

The throttle cable was move to run under the oil pressure gauge line as it was kinking the line. Braided line has been ordered to replace the plastic line.

The valve covers have been powder coated gold and then clear coated on top of that. Burns down tubes have been added and the completed covers have been bolted on the dragster.

As a finishing touch for the show Lenny and his grandson bolted on some wheel caps on the wheels.

So as you can see a lot of small tasks were completed today that have been hanging on for dear life on the to do list, but are now complete.

The body that is sitting on the back porch will be coming back into the garage and be reinstalled on the dragster this week. There are a number of tasks that need to be completed to go racing (not the least of which is to address the overheating problem, can anyone guess how that will be addressed? It will definitely get you attention when you hear the solution.)

The current plan is to load the dragster this coming Saturday, Sunday, or Tuesday depending on weather. We will need a number of helping hands to get it down the driveway. I know that Sunday is the super bowl but this can be done in the morning and should not take too long. Let me know what days you can help out and I will add that into the mix of the weather. I did watch the extended weather tonight and Saturday looks to be promising at the moment. ​

 

Ok, had another unofficial car nuts meeting today, there will be no meetings Wednesday, Thursday or Friday

The load date has not yet been picked, Saturday the temperature is supposed to get to 32, Sunday a little warmer and Monday they are saying 36. I am leaning towards Saturday as we are ready and that has been a normal official meeting day. I still want to wait and see what Tuesday is supposed to be like

We finished the tail light wiring, made the pig tail so the light can be on at the show, got the CO2 bottle installed (charged), finish incasing the wiring harness, installed the rod catch pan and the two lower rear body panels (they had never been on the vehicle). Only one Quarter-Turn Fastener Button springs had to be twicked. All the rest of the body panels went on with very little effort

The tail light is on in pictures DSCN127 & 128

Take a look at the pictures they tell the story better than I can.

I am limited to the number of pictures that can be posted here. I have added a bunch more of the body on my web site, see this link.

http://www.leverfamilysite.com/2010_Front_Engine_Dragster_Week_2011_02_01.htm

 

Hey Glenn, where did you get your body for this car. PS, looking better and better. Hope you post where you'll run this summer. I'd like to try to make it to view in person. Cheers, Bill

 

The body was hand built by Keith Burgan "Roo Man" on this forum, and can be reached at 1 317 852-4547 or Roo Man MotorSports 464 Johnson Ln # B Brownsburg, IN 46112-7811 additional dragsters built by him can be seen at http://www.leverfamilysite.com/Keith_Burgan_Car.htm. If you call him tell him I sent you.

 

Did a couple of little things today on the dragster.

One of those was to get it up on scales.

The fire bottles are not in the dragster as I am getting ready for the trip to Indiana and do not want them to freeze, and I am not in it.

Turns out it is a lot lighter in weight than thought.

Total weight is 1505, left front is 160, right front is 181, left rear is 605, right rear is 559.

Weight bias front to rear is 77.3

Weight bias side to side is 49.1

 

glen, very impressive work, really like your helmet bar plates. 1st. class stuff.

 

Hey Glen,at a glance your weight distribution looks like it'll have a tendancy to move to the right out of the gate.
I assume you checked the tire pressures before putting it on the scales.
Most cars like a little more left frt and rt r weight as the engine torque over picks up the lft frt and the driveshaft rotation trys to lift the rt r.
Frt to r looks livable for testing purposes.
You can soften the r frt and add air to the lft frt to change the bias a little,or move the left frt torsion bar down 1 or 2 splines and check it until you have the afforementioned heavy lft frt and rt r.
Is the front axle square or is it staggered 2" ?
That is one gorgeous hot rod.
Does it have a name yet?
T.

 

Glenn and I had the weight distribution discussion yesterday after he put it on the scales and he is going to move the torsion bar arms to move some lbs to the left front/right rear.

Roo

 

In addition the floor is not flat. If you look at the pictures you will see a drain in the center of the floor and the floor does have a good pitch to it. This weigh in was more to see what it weighed rather than to balance it out. That is a project that will happen before racing, but after the show.

 

See notes above, no name as yet.

 

We had yet another official car nuts meeting this Saturday. Fruit, bagels, cider, pop, and coffee was on hand to keep the hardy souls that showed up full of energy to face the cold.

First up was to change some of the suspension setup. Once the engine and misc. equipment was added to the dragster the front suspension collapsed to the point that the tie rod was at the top of the "U" channel provided for it in the body. First the torsion bar links were swapped side to side (that made it to high), next they were swapped back and the spline was moved on notch down. That helped a lot, but will have to be twicked some more.

Next up was to weigh the dragster. There has been great speculation as to how much it would weigh. Dire predictions of up to 2,300 pounds have been put forward. The builder predicted around 1,400 pounds. The fire bottles are not in the dragster as I am getting ready for the trip to Indiana and do not want them to freeze, and I am not in it. Turns out it is a lot lighter in weight than thought. Total weight is 1505, left front is 160, right front is 181, left rear is 605, right rear is 559. Weight bias front to rear is 77.3 Weight bias side to side is 49.1

It should be noted the floor is not flat. If you look at the pictures you will see a drain in the center of the floor and the floor does have a good pitch to it. This weigh in was more to see what it weighed rather than to balance it out. That is a project that will happen before racing, but after the show.

Now to the major task at hand, move the dragster from the garage to the trailer for its trip out to Indiana doe the World of Wheels car show. It was a nice warm balmy day, actually one of the warmest days we have had in a while, and next week we are once again headed into the an Arctic freeze.

The over center jack for the front axle is not yet complete so some boards were used to get the dragster over the "Bumps" in the road on its journey to the trailer

Only car nuts stand around out in the cold when 50 feet away is a warm heated garage. The question came up, what are we going to work on now, well the dragster may be show ready, it is not yet race ready and there is a Kaiser Henry J that needs its (little tiny 429 ford) engine removed. Also in a weeks&#8217; time the dragster needs to make the trip back up the driveway

The full update can be seen at this link

http://www.leverfamilysite.com/2010_Front_Engine_Dragster_Week_2011_02_05.htm
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I looked, but have missed, if you said what the wheel base is?

Tony

 

200 inches.

 

Car Nuts celerbrating their hard work

 

Congrats, Glenn. Bet your wife didn't mind seeing it leave the Den.

 

It's back again though, thanks

 

Start another thread on the Henry J if you haven't already! Killer stuff man!