Projects Front Engine Dragster update

No , we use a tow car for that.

 

A Woodie no less

Currently I drive to an from and would like to still be able to do that.

 

There is no battery in my car and my RCD blower starter has never failed me

 

I do have a battery, and a starter in the dragster.

I am planning ahead though, the belt gaurd I have is a RCD with the provision for a remote starter.

 

I am combining the car nuts meetings of 11/3/2012 and 11/10/2012. I will finally be caught up.
I have updated my web site with this update. If you view it there it will make more sense as the pictures are many more pictures and the are mingled with the text at the proper points to make sense.
The link is below
http://www.leverfamilysite.com/2010_Front_Engine_Dragster_Week_2012_11_10.htm
There will be no car nuts meeting for 11/17/2012
I received yet another injector hat in the mail, this one is a bug catcher that came with a bunch of other parts which we will be able to use. Packing was not great, and the items were not in as good of condition as hoped. Fee-Bay is always a crap shoot

We had a number of contributors through these to gatherings. Between Ray and Steve we were able to come up with plan for the spacers needed for both the bottom pulley and the idler pulley. The bottom pulley was fairly interesting as a number of things had to happen.

The pulley had to be moved ½ inch out from the hub to get the belt to ride in the center of the pulley, by doing this we lost the register for the fuel pump drive, also with the new crank hub the stock retaining washer was to small in diameter to reach the outside diameter of the new crank hub. So Ray machined a new retaining washer that had the outside dimension of the crank hub, the washer was stepped so that it would fit inside the crank hub.


With the outside dimension the same as the hub and sitting proud of the hub this became the register for the fuel pump drive. It goes together like this.


The Idler pulley was a lot easier, all it required was a 5/16 spacer to get the belt into the correct position.

I have been told a number of times that my gold colored valve covers are not everyone’s favorite, I happen to think that they go nicely with the gold leaf stripping on the body of the dragster.
An informal vote was taken amongst the car nuts and it has been decided to go to a set of fabricated aluminum valve covers, what do you think?


Oil was added to the gear housing on the blower and the snout bolted into place.
The four inch spacer has been machined in three areas, material was removed from the front top of the spacer to acuminate the retro outlet of the blower (A retro blower has it’s outlet further forward than a standard blower which is supposed to increase the efficiency of the blower).

The front outside was machined to accept a burst panel frame. The current BDS manifold has a pop off valve at the rear which is not acceptable by either NHRA or IHRA. Lenny installed the panel.

The bottom of the center rib was machined out to allow for better flow inside the manifold from front to rear.
In the vein of reasoning that nothing can remain untouched the Birdcatcher injector hat will not remain untouched. The barrel valve that was on it will be switched to a “K” valve, by Jack and Lenny. (Please no e-mails about the alignment of the “K” valve to the shutter leveler on the injector hat).

The hoses that were on the birdcatcher have been removed and new hard lines installed. The oil filter lines have been “protected”.
So here is the finial fitment check.

The valve covers do not fit right and will have to be modified, I wish the belt was centered more on the upper pulley.
Plans are now moving forward to the mounting of the pump. The pump will be remote mounted and driven by a belt from the bottom pulley. This pump came with the stuff from Fee-Bay. It is a Hillborn 150A-0 pump which turns out to be way too small for this application. The remote mount however appears that it will work out with some modifications.

That’s it for a couple of weeks, other projects require my time.

 

Looks like you guys are getting alot done on the new setup, just curious about your desire to drive the car to the starting line and back to the pits don't you think this new setup and horsepower will put alot of heat in the motor, just me wondering, Tim Jones

 

It hasn't been a problem in the past. I'm not trying to build a lot of HP, just want to get to an 8.5 index, been running 8.59

 

Not to be a prick (as others would call me) but you are going at it the wrong way.

My engine is a 375, nothing special or trick and for me to run a 7.50 class I had a weak 6/71 @ 5 over, 28 deg in the mag, and ran it totally fat. and no high speed, motor was not very happy and oil fueled very quickly. Could not get the consistency out of it to repeat ET's.

Years later, same engine, fresh blower,18 over, 34 lead and the high speed working, and trimmed back the fuel, and it runs consistent 7.0's

I just think you went a little overboard for just a tenth if all you want to do is run 8.50

 

I was originially going to purchase a street 6-71 because I need very little boost to get where I want.

I had purchased this 8-71 high helix, retro, striped blower two years ago to build a serios engine, but never got to it.

It was suggested to use this blower instead and under drive it.

Made sense as I had it along with a bunch of other parts.

We will see if I can get there, I might end up at an 8.0 in stead of the 8.5

When you think about it it isn't a tenth. 8.5 is .09 from 8.59 (one tenth), however there has to be room to tune to weather so add two more tenths. I am most likely ading 150 pounds or more with the blower spacer pumbing, pump etc. so ad another two tenths to be safe. So instead of just needing .09 tenths I really need 5 tenths of a second. That is quite a bit.

I would rather know now what is wrong than later.

 

Glen, This is where I am comming from.

You are using parts that were designed to run 6.50's, and trying to trim 2 seconds off of them makes tuning difficult.
It only takes 550 hp to get a 1700# car to run 8.50's (theory) but you are using a blower that consumes over 200hp before you start to make signifecant boost, A bird hat that takes longer to fill and compress at the speed you are running (160mph), K- valve (without port nozzles) and a high speed that will never come into play.

 

Alittle bit of nitrous work's wonders!

 

All motor all the time, no nitrous for me.

 

Current engine is 640 HP, dragster weight is 1690 with me in it.

Best run 8.59

Attached is data logger fo that run where I hit the shift point exactly and launch was perfect.

Also attached it Dyno run and HP Table data

 

I tried to darken up the tables

 

Well today is a cold and snowy day.

<O</OI have some small tasks I could be doing on the dragster, but am waiting on parts.

<O</OI scheduled some stuff to be listed on Fee-Bay.

<O</OI have decided today would be a good day to go back in fill in some missing updates to the dragster on my web site.

<O</OHere is a link to the first one (from 2010 12 28)<O</O
http://www.leverfamilysite.com/2010_Front_Engine_Dragster_Week_2010_12_28.htm<O</O

Another
http://www.leverfamilysite.com/2010_Front_Engine_Dragster_Week_2010_12_29.htm

Another from 2010 12 29

http://www.leverfamilysite.com/2010_Front_Engine_Dragster_Week_2010_12_29.htm

another from 2010 12 30

http://www.leverfamilysite.com/2010_Front_Engine_Dragster_Week_2010_12_30.htm

another from 2010 12 31

http://www.leverfamilysite.com/2010_Front_Engine_Dragster_Week_2010_12_31.htm

 

that is a beautiful car! im planning my first trip to roos place soon. everytime i see his work im impressed! not to take away anything that you and the group are doing! wow!

 

Looks great Glenn... What trans, are you running, I may have missed it in your post ?

 

A Reid case Powerglide

http://www.leverfamilysite.com/2010_Front_Engine_Dragster_Week_2009_12_26.htm
here it is

 

More updates


2011 01 09<O</O
http://www.leverfamilysite.com/2010_Front_Engine_Dragster_Week_2011_01_09.htm<O</O

2011 01 11<O</O
http://www.leverfamilysite.com/2010_Front_Engine_Dragster_Week_2011_01_11.htm<O</O

2011 01 16<O</O
http://www.leverfamilysite.com/2010_Front_Engine_Dragster_Week_2011_01_16.htm<O</O

2011 01 17<O</O
http://www.leverfamilysite.com/2010_Front_Engine_Dragster_Week_2011_01_17.htm<O</O<O</O

 

With the holidays and some jobs to be completed around the house not much has been done on the dragster, but that is now changing. It must as racing season is racing towards us. The Gasser Series schedule has been posted, NDRL schedule has been posted and we want to go to the Inaugural East Coast Hot Rod Reunion. Club racing organization meeting is fast approaching, so as you can see time is running out.,..
After many measurements, talks with DJ Safety, the blower bag and five strap restraint has been ordered and will be here next week (there will be a car nuts meeting next Saturday!
Jim spent some time and completed the plumbing for the "K" valve. The hard lines for the idle, return and high speed lean out are now complete.

Bill took on the task of blocking off the BDS Pop Off valve as we have installed a burst panel, and contributed to the design of the new fuel pump mount. Note that there are no longer any springs holding the pop off valve in place, which it is now solidly bolted in place.

Bob took on the fabrication of a bracket for the G-Force sensor and rerouting the wires for the fuel pressure, temperature sensor, and boost sensor for the data logger. The wire for the boost sensor needs to be sent back to RPM performance to have the en put on it.

The throttle cable has been rerouted from the left side to the right side and now is on the front of the engine. We still have to do something for a return spring, and I finally want to get to a foot cup for the go pedal.

We also made great progress on the fuel pump mount bracket. We puzzled over how to locate the pump so that the feed and return lines could run in back of the front engine plate, and be able to mount the fuel shut off valve directly to the pump. It turns out to be a very simple solution. All we had to do was turn the pulley for the fuel pump around and it pushed the location of the pump back to just the right location so that the plumbing is in back of the front engine plate and there is enough room for the shut off valve. We were unable to complete the finish height of the pump because the 90 degree elbow for the lower side of the pump has not arrived. Another task for the car nuts. I really want to get this done so that the fuel system can be sent out to be flowed and a tune-up supplied.



Well guys Thanks again for showing up on a bleak winter day and helping out. As always all are welcome.


I have updated the web site and many more pictures and commentary is available for your viewing pleasure at
http://www.leverfamilysite.com/2010_Front_Engine_Dragster_Week_2013_01_12.htm

 

What you did with the barrel valve will work... but I think you can improve it. I would advise against tying the returns of all three check valves together. The high speed and idle check valves will be flowing fuel at the same time going down track and the one return line may be restrictive. Also, it may be a bit tougher to leak the BV down with all hard lines.

 

I will be stepping up the return to a -8 right after the "Tee". This is a low power (700HP) blower engine, I think I'm ok????

 

Made some progress this morning. Bob showed up to help out.

Ray finished the machine work on the remote mount bracket for the pump and we were able to clamp it in place, fit the belt and get the correct length on the rest of the lines.

Fuel supply and returns are complete and can now be sent out to Spud to be flowed and a base line tune up supplied.

There will be an official Car Nuts meeting this Saturday starting around 9:00 AM. Lots of small projects to do.
I have updated the web site with additional pictures and commentary. This is the link http://www.leverfamilysite.com/2010_Front_Engine_Dragster_Week_2013_01_20.htm

 

Glenn,
Don't know if you've sorted the return spring issue, but here's a similar setup I made for a Can-Am car a few years back. The spring goes around the cable end and pushes back on a washer mounted under the throttle heim. The spring works in compression, so it won't break and it can't come off unless the cable breaks. The drilled tube in the photo is a spacer I made so we could run a shorter spring.

Not my idea, I stole it from the factory McLaren Can-Am team... There's a really good picture of the setup on the Web, but of course I can't find it TODAY...

 

I can not see the spring, but believe I know what you are explaining. I have not address this issue yet, but my thoughts were to put a compound return spring between the hat lever and throttle cable bracket, so that even if the cable was to break the hat / barrle valve would return to idle.

 

Lookin Good Glenn,, Good to see you got a bunch of young kids working it Tim Jones

 

So attached is a link to this week's Car Nuts meeting. I have incorporated it into last week's update and completely reworked it.
You can find it at this link.
http://www.leverfamilysite.com/2010_Front_Engine_Dragster_Week_2013_01_20.htm
We got the fuel system completed and sent out to Spud Miller

Marked up modifications needed to the blower bag and sent out to DJ Safety

Got the restraint strap brackets mounted

Got the gaskets cut down for the spacer and blower.

Fixed the POOR fit of the aftermarket valley pan and intake manifold

Got the coolant outlet mocked up

Got the burn down tubes mounted on the new valve covers

So all in all had two good weeks

 

FWIW, here's a little better pic.

 

Ok, I got the idea! Neat.