FlatCad Racing's Quest for 200 MPH-a Cadillac Flathead Story!

Don, as usual, I'm in awe of your work!

VERY nice job!

 

You guys ever going to have those lifter blocks and roller lifters available for sale to some of us other Cadillac flathead people?

 

Too much! you guys amaze me. Keep up the good work!

Mad scientists. You got that right.

 

Unfortunately, no. Prototypes are time consuming and spendy to build, and the FlatCad market is very small.

We post these to give other enthusiast ideas, and hopefully help them with future builds.

Now, I'm not saying Pops29 might not build a set, for a paying customer, but I can guarantee they are not cheap!

 

Hello folks here is a quick update on the flatcad sorry for the limited pics but I've been hammer busy doin a lot of things that are not really seen in pictures and to be quite honest I havent thought about taking to many anyways here are a few pics there has been a lot of progress on the car the front end fiberglass parts grille shell hood and stuff is all painted a fresh coat of bright red, the car is now at the paint shop (Liles performance and auto body) getting some body work and fresh paint job as well we now have a full belly pan that I have fabbed up and am currently in the process of finishing i have also relocated the parachute to the trunk and made a new push bar that is shorter and lower so stay tuned this week there will be a lot going on and progress being made
















Chrome don't get ya home

 

Outstanding work, Randy! The car is looking great, and I love the carboard fuel tank we mocked up! Don has it, and is working on the tank!

I cant wait to see the paint and new lettering job!

 

This car just keeps better and better, I have to admitt I never relized how much work and thought goes into one of these Bonneville cars, they are all mechanical works of art,,,, Tim Jones

 

WOW! this is way cool! Us Colorodoans are pulling for you. 2 Club here we come

 

Tim, Paul-many thanks for the kind words!

 

How did the team like their Magazines from the Australian tag team?

 

Looks great and good luck in Bonneville.

 

Damn I wish I could run a belly pan. Talking with Trent last night about the latest photo of my truck running at Elmo and you can just see the mess of air in the dust behind the rear wheels. Oh well, running production keeps you humble. lol

 

Have been thrashing like mad to get the FlatCad assembled and ready to go to the dyno - worked all weekend and only have 3 evenings left to complete it. I hope the Flathead Gods smile on me and allow me to continue without any unknown drama coming my way. If everything goes like clockwork - I might just make it. It is down to the wire. To put this whole things together in about 40 hours of work is quite an effort . . . I sure hope I can make it (as I have a normal job too!).

Got the whole lower end, custom main caps, girdle, crank, rods and pistons in. Chris Daniels has been helping out - without him, not a chance I'd have gotten this far.

Bearings - Some Unexpected Goodness:

A good thing happened, but only because I screwed up on a part number that I gave Buddy for the main bearings. When you have a billet crankshaft made for a 'normal' engine like a BBC, you'll have 1/8" radius fillets on all the journals - for strength. Due to this, you normally run narrower 'N' bearings (so they don't get pinched on the fillets). Last year we just ordered the normal Clevite V-Series mains - with the N suffix. I didn't even think about it.

BUT - when I gave Buddy the part numbers for bearings this year - I forgot the 'N". As luck has it, we don't need the narrow bearings on the flatcad as the journal widths are about 1.250 - much wider than a BBC, so there is room for the wider bearings . . . and they are 11% wider - which is a lot more bearing surface (with 3 mains, we need all we can get!). Cool!

ORings:

As we're going to have higher cylinder pressure this year, we decided to redo the ORing setup - we now have stainless O-Rings in the heads as a receiver groove in the block. The grooves in the heads are .030 deep and .039 wide - we'll have a .041 stainless wire pushed into them. The block has a .010 deep receiver groove that is .0625 wide (it is centered on the head rings).

Mains:

Don and Kenny did one hell of a job on the new lower main and girdle setup. We created a splayed center main cap to replace our square one from last year and also a wider front main cap that picks up the sides or the block. Also, Don added dowel pins to tops/bottoms of all caps. This is about as strong as we can make it. Lets hope the lower end stays together.

Pistons:

You'll see the purdy coatings on the tops, dry film on the sides and a heat shield coating on the undersides.

Rings:

We're running Akerly/Childs HTD 'hellfire' style rings. 1.5, 1.5, 3.0 mm stuff - all from late model Ford mod motors.

Here are a bunch of pictures from when the block came home earlier this week and during the assembly process - I know, same old crap.

















Caught Chris Daniels in the act - of breaking the gap edges on the rings with a small file. He hates pictures . . . but not as bad as Buddy does!

 

I am so glad to see you working for a change !!!!! I know one thing u better hurry up Buddy is on his way to help and,,, he has a new HAMMER !!!

 

Lookin forward to seein you guys when you Dyno her!!!

 

Dale, ya big 'ol drama queen! The bottom end is together, so all you have is the top-what are you going to do with the extra 2 nights you'll have? LOL!

Seriously, nice job! I'll see you in a couple of days!

Cal, it will be great to see you again! I'm not sure when you're planning on heading over, but I'll be there Monday morning first thing. Is Jim coming with you?

 

Unbelievable great job you guys do, as always
Hope you get some high output number from her You have earned it!

Hope I will get some good numbers this weekend too

Kjell

..............................
Taildragger&fenderless

 

A little update on the car side of things I picked up the rest of the front end fiberglass parts this morning and delivered them to the sign shop so they can get all lettered up the body work that needed to be repaired on the car itself is mostly done and max said the car will be done tomorrow afternoon. Also while they have been busting hump on the body work and paint I have been collecting all the necessary hardware and such to bolt this thing back together also I scored some heavy steel plate from R&J welding for free so we can put some more weight in this pig anyways here is a few pics of the front end stuff










Chrome don't get ya home

 

Looks great....hope the sign shop uses a brush to letter it!

 

Unfortunately that's not in the cards this time as time and money doesn't allow it but I do have to agree you just can't beat a hand lettered car but we are on a time and money crunch plus the guy that is doing it lettered my afx dart and buddy couldn't tell the difference from 2 ft away so at 200 mph it won't matter either lol


Chrome don't get ya home

 

Yeah,guess there isn't alot of time left....Good Luck!!

 

Thanks for the support we can use all we can get lol


Chrome don't get ya home

 

Wow

 

Daaaamn! All the work, John, Max, and Randy have put in the body is really looking great!

 

Wow Wrehchbender that looks BEAUTIFUL!!!

 

Well Carl I can't take all the credit max at liles performance and auto body slicked it up and made it all pretty here is a sneek peek at the car as he rolled it out of the paint booth this morning




Chrome don't get ya home

 

That looks too pretty for Buddy to drive, I guess Dale should drive...........

 

Hahaha that's a good one Carl personally I was thinkin I should drive it lol I've put more miles on that car behind the wheel than buddy or dale at bonneville last year I was nominated to be the pilot to and from the pits and that's quite a distance back and forth lol


Chrome don't get ya home

 

Car looks Great!!!! Beautiful job on the glasswork,, Came out perfect!!! Tim Jones

 

Whoo-Hoo!!!! She's looking good!

I am officially not talking to you.....

Thanks Tim!


Well, we have a few engine issues to work through, so we won't be on the dyno Monday. I've spoke with John Beck, and Stainless, looking for a good plan 'B'.

We'll get the engine sorted out, then I'll let you know what plan 'B' is!