VHRA Pendine was as great as usual, so big thanks to Neil and the team for all their hard work. Now I’m back and caught up on a bit of sleep I can up date you. I flat towed the car to Pendine, the last thing I wanted was to break it before I got there. The car ran great, never missed a beat. First run on Saturday morning netted me a 102.06 mph. The sand was slippery and I was still fighting to keep it straight through the timed section. I have an old cell phone with a speedo App on the dash, which read 100mph as I got to the first of the timed section flag. The second run, for me the sand felt better and I was all settled in before the timed area. First flag I had 102 on the speedo but a rear end step out between the flags knock 3mph off instantly. I only just managed to miss the second flags on the way out. That was it for the first day. Over night I removed the headlights and fitted some washers under the dump valve spring to get a bit more boost. Sunday there was a strong head wind. No way would the car be able to run faster. So 102 mph will do for this year. Happy with that. I got there and ran a personal best with the car, got the car home in one piece, what more could be better. I’ll leave you with some photos that I’ve taken from various photographers on the internet. Credit is to them and if they let me know who took which I’ll credit with their names.
Car sounded great Pete, and at least where we were staying it wasn't a long walk to the Springwell.... Despite your engineering prowess, your alfresco dinner menu is still work in progress
Pete, absolutely love your work! I'm @bangersmodified on instagram. Do you mind shedding some light onto your dry sump setup? I'm planning on doing something similar on a Sprint Banger I'm building.
On my engine, I used a Titan oil pump that’s belt driven off the crank. It has two scavenge and one feed. The idea is that the two scavenge pumps suck the oil out of the sump quicker than the one feed can pump it in. I have the feed from the oil tank to the pump, from there it goes straight to the oil filter. The oil filter is mounted on the side of the block which allows both internal and external oil lines. The internal line feeds the front and centre main, which in turn feeds rod end journals 1,2 and 3. The external lines feed the rear main, plus rod end 4 and 3. It also feeds a log manifold with small bore pipe feeding the four cam bearings and a line up to the head to feed the rocker shafts. I added a couple of extra lines to spray oil over the cam gears, en block valve chest and the over head valve area to give a mist of oil over these parts. Hope this helps with your project. Pete.
This is such a great build, love it & follow closely. Maybe mentioned much earlier, but, what oil pressure do you get with this great setup?
Thank you. The oil pump has an adjustable relief valve so I can set the pressure at what the engine wants. In this case I have around 40psi at idle going up to about 60psi. One thing about these pumps is the flow, they flow a lot of oil. It’s more set up for flow than pressure. Pete.
Glad you're reaping the results you were vying for Pete...quite a feat in engineering and the Hotrod looks fantastic...congratulations...
Been a bit of time since the last update, so here goes. The time between last years Pendine and this year was spent making some changes to the car. The big one that took way longer than it should was to replace the old Model A steering box for a series 2 Land Rover box. This was made more complicated because I wanted to keep the model A drop arm and the extension that I made for it. The A box has a square shaft and the Land Rover has a spline. I had to strip the LR box, machine the spline into a square, which was smaller than the A, then machine a square sleeve to take up the slack. I also made the tonneau cover that I had made a start on last year, just didn’t have the time to finish. That’s it for the car and engine combo. I’ve gone as far as I can go with it now with the time and money I have. To go faster the motor needs to be in streamliner or something similar. I thought about building one, but nowhere to store it means it’s not practical for me. So the engine is up for sale, including the ancillaries, ecu, electric water pump, oil pump and oil tank. I’ll finish with a few photos of this years VHRA Pendine Sands. credit to the photographers Thank you to all those that spent the time to read, and comment. Pete.
Amazing and bittersweet. I've got 2 acres (0.8 hectare, 8093.7 sq. meter or whatever you guys use for area these days) for storage, but it's not going to help you over there. Shame this is the end of this chapter, but looking forward to the next adventure. Sure hope whoever gets that engine has the skill to continue it's legacy.
You have mad skills @nutrocker...thanks for front row seats to your journey in Hotrod...you might be moving the ticker on but you didn't mention the racer so as others have said we look forward to the next adventure...Vintage Hotrod is truly in your blood...
That tonneau cover is a very nice piece of work Pete. Looking forward the the next part of your journey with this car.
@nutrocker This just continues to get better! I noticed in the first iteration of the car at Pendine there was a lot of sand on the bonnet. Do the rear tires throw any sand into the carbs, or do you have some protection from that happening?
The sand was from the return run back to the pits. That year the sand was very wet and an incoming wind. The rooster tails were blown over the car. I stripped and check both the carbs and the blower at home afterwards, no sand evident, which was good news.
Too cool. Did you go any faster this year? And out of curiousity, what's the asking on the engine setup?
I was 2 mph down on last year. The sand on Saturday wasn’t good, but the Sunday was very good. For some reason I just couldn’t beat last years speed. For the complete engine, blower, oil tank, electric water pump and controller, oil pump, ecu and sensors, everything from the clutch forward I’m asking 15000 uk pounds. About $18750.00 usd.
That it would! But while it's quite a reasonable ask for the work and parts in it, it's still a bit rich for me. Love it though, too cool!
on the digital gauge that is not longer fitted it was just shy of 10psi. The vintage aircraft gauge that’s now fitted reads 8psi.