Here is a shot of my car. Shift light is on the back of the blower. Tach is just for checking stall speed during warm up.
What I'm looking for is the best places to put switches and handles. I think I will put the shifter up high on my right and the switches over the rearend housing. I'm with you Lippy on the trans. cooler I just don't think the oil will get hot enough to warrent it, one less thing to worry about. One more thing I noticed the lack of gauges in most of the cars, I have already got a tach, oil pressure and water temp gauge so I will install them even if I rarely look at them.
I've done a little bull riding when I was younger and I've got a hunch that strapping your ass to that rearend housing would generate about the same adrenalin rush, I'll have to try that some day
You need to be sitting in the car. Suit on ect... to position things where you are comfortable. Just looking and putting things in there won't work or be safe. You MUST be able to reach things easily. As far as the shifter, do you have a hand brake? Is it on the right or left? On the right then it's a given your shifter will be in the middle or on the left. Think about leaving the line, with a hand brake you will have your left hand on the wheel and be holding the brake. The car will be in low, now you must quickly grab the wheel with your right hand and bump into high with your left hand so the shifter must be easy to hit without hunting for it. Now think about shutting the car down in the lights and all the movements you will make, you don't have time on a short shutdown to THINK about where everything is. You must hit the chutes, wait for the chutes to hit, then grab some brake, pull the fuel shutoff, hit the mag switch and turn off the track. We run our chute release on the brake handle so I can make a sweeping motion on the handle and be on the brake if I need it fast. Fuel shutoff in the middle with the H.S. and fire bottle knob. Take your time and sit in the car and think it out. And the less stuff in the car you have the less confusing it is and you don't have to worry about bumping stuff when you get in and out. One guage, OIL. Temp guage is for? Even if it gets hot, what are you going to do? you have a problem elsewhere then. Stop and get some water somewhere? Voltmeter? Why, unless your running a bunch of electronics that require a bunch of juice. If you run a mag, then a kill on the wheel, a starter button somewhere, plug in the batteries to start it. Go have fun. JMO the less stuff you have on the car the less chance there is of something going wrong at a bad time. K.I.S.S. JMO Lippy
Lippy, are you saying you'd run a blanket instead of a trans shield or in addition to???? IIRC The cost was the same, but the shield was "cheaper" in the long run because it's CERT was for a longer duraction and I felt it'd keep the trans cooler. Again maybe I am too fixiated on trans temp. As for the shutoff at the rear of the car - origionally I didn't have one - after we had a chute pop on the line with me ready to go (not knowing) we decided that having a kill switch there would be good for my crew guy to safely shut me down. The switch there is momentary only - so there's no forgetting to turn it on. I hear what you're saying with the trans cooler - Pro's and Con's to everything . Sometimes there's no right or wrong - you just have to decide which Pro's and Con's make you more comfortable in the car. I've switched my thinking on certain things as we've had things bite us and then we adjust. I had a couple guys tell me I'm nuts because there's no "nut plate" welded to my rear axle... to each their own.
Hemi, I'm saying a blanket in addition to a shield. We are on fuel though. On alky I don't know. A fuel car will try to drive through a powerglid in high gear at the shift. I think the shutoff at the rear of the car is fine for a gas or alky car, but no one is going to shut off our nitro engine but ME, and only when my brother tells me to and no one else. You can't just pull the plug on it with fuel in it. The nut strap on the rear is ok, we have one, but I have never seen a ring gear come out. Our housing is not braced either. You are completely right, what works best for you is cool. I am only suggesting some things I know work for us. Your mileage may vary.
Lippy, My perspective is Injected Alcohol - so not only am I coming from a much lower level than you, but I also have much less experience than you. Unfortunately here in Ohio there's not alot of (real) experts to ask although there's rarely a shortage of people wanting to tell us how to do things at the track - ha ha ha. So basically we have had to learn most stuff the hard way. I definitely appreciate your comments - I don't mean to contradict any of them. Just wanting to clarify.
I sure as hell don't know everything that's for sure. In a nostalgia type of dragster I believe the less stuff you have to deal with the better. Make it as simple as possible. easy to work on, easy to fix. I've seen the simplest little thing break and cause havok. And it turns out the simple little part didn't need to be there! Carry on fellow FED's.
Lippy, I'll second that!!! KISS baby! Keeping it simple not only makes it easier to drive, but adds fun for EVERYONE involved - that much I definitely do know!!! ;-)
How many of you run a foot brake? I am worried about something happening where i need 2 hands on the wheel and wont be able to shut down with a hand brake. Although a hand brake would be easier to hook up i think.
so i have a question, how fast would i be allowed to run this car, i would like to keep the single hoop, the main rails need to be replaced as they were cut and spliced at some point, but i want to keep the over all look, thanks
Budd, just get the chassis done and get it tech'd. Then when you go to run it if it is tagged for 10.0, run it and when it goes 8.50, just say OOP's, I never figured it would go that fast. You probably won't be allowed back there but.....
Parts Man, I run a foot brake on mine with the PG. I set it up to be easily changed to a handbrake - if you see the pic I posted earlier -in Lenco mode the shifter handle becomes the hand brake and the brake pedal becomes the clutch pedal. We've had zero issues with the 'glide and were looking to keep things simple so we've never installed the Lenco. So for now mine is strictly a footbrake deal. Personally I don't think either one is really easier to install over the other - both are easy. Pick the one that makes the most sense to you - or do like I did and have it easily changeable.
Thanks for the input guys, esp. about not needing the brakes if something happens. That makes me feel way better. LOL I have decided to not use my chassis i have and build a new copy of it. I just aint feeling good about trying to get this one to pass tech and i know my motor will be capable of running faster than 10.00 When is the last time you saw a 210" dragster in the back of a pickup???
Great pics and info guys! Lippy, you know from some past questions that I was making it way more complicated than it needs to be. That's what I'm addressing. No hand brake Lippy, Just a foot brake. I've got a wheel type steering wheel, not a butterfly and it's on a circle track quick release, for ease of entry and exit. Down to I was thinking of putting the kill switch in front of the shifter. I also planned on having the fuel shutoff in front of the shifter to the left of the kill switch. Starter switch will be on the left side of the wheel. A friend gave me a very cool ring style chute release but I'm having a hard time figuring out where to put it. Thanks again friend! I've looked at a lot of pics but haven't gotten any ideas I like yet. One shot shows Garlits with the cable snapped to his chest so the ring is right in front of him. Suggestions? I'm down to just the oil pressure guage and it'll be mounted on the top of a piece of black pipe on the engine. I whipped out a quickie guage pod for it yesterday.
Lippy, thanks for all your in put it all makes good sense. KISS is one of my favorite Kelly Johnson acronyms and if it works for the SR-71 it oughta' work for my little C/GD. I will be going with a foot brake and the shifter on the right up high but nothing will be set in stone till I'm sitting in the car like you said. I like to know how others do it but in the end it is my car and I want what I feel comfortable with, I am leaving out the stereo for now at least.
I have a short car,134'' It was built to sfi specs and has passed tech 2 times. Some of the things to think about have been mentioned. I don't run a o/p gage in the cockpit. my crew sees I have o/p and sends me to the line. Kiss is the best way to go. I have not needed a license till now. The car has picked up due to some tuning and scaling of the chassis. I have talked with lots of people with short cars, and the opinion is that you should have about 350/400 lbs on the ft end with the driver in the car.When driver gets in the car, the wt goes behind the axlemaking the ft end light. with my big butt, we had to add about 110 lbs to the ft. car empty is now 1300. Car has 26 % on the ft now with me in it. My car looks like a 60-63 car, injected sbc/alky. The big reason for hand brakes is if the car bounces during braking ,hand brake works best, foot brake, leg bounces and gets out of sync with braking, making the car bounce more. Good luck .
Let me tell you about short! 96 incher. Runs straight though. What Lippy said about everything needs to be where you can find it without looking. Blindfolded is a good way to test. I am unable to take my eyes off the track safely. I have a hand brake , right hand in easy reach. I also have a line lock with an HD foot switch for my left foot. I can give me lots of brake pressure then touch the switch with my foot and I am locked ready to launch. My shifter is middle mounted and is a gate type so I do not need to look but just push it. I have to push twice (torqueflight 3 speed) Now for the moment of confession. I have been unable to so far remove my hand from the hand brake during the run so I have let the trans shift in drive. It doesnt do a good job as it shifts way below where the cam starts to really pull. Last fall after an Alky dragster friend took my car for a rip full throttle (right on the road in front of my house!) and actually had the front wheels dangling in the air in first gear I started training myself driving around the property with my hand off of the hand brake and shifting through the gears. I worked at it for a couple of weeks and was getting comfy with it but the next race was rained out then came the snow!. I will be out early this year. Mistakes I made were I didnt put the tach in front of me and even though it has a shift light I cannot look down and over at it at speed. I will move that before april's race. I braked too hard on a run after rewoking the hand brake leverage and locked the wheels in the lights. A blown alky altered pilot friend saw me and told me dont hit them like that. Just bump them a couple of times till you scrub off enough speed to apply them. That was excellant advice and works well. You see I am not a real good driver but i love making stuff. I spent many years building and racing door slamers. Motors are my thing but this fed thing has me addicted now and I have another jiged up in my shop and work on it almost everyday. I will try to correct all the errors I made in the first one. Don
So..... I can't believe I'm going ape ship over this after all I've gone thru.... But... So, I am a so at the tipping point of building a "Dick Around" car that it's not funny anymore. Now by saying "Dick Around" I mean building a car that's not really for some spec NHRA class..... I would like to do a Cacklefest car / Burnout / HAMB Drag fun fest but I would also like to weld up some pipe and see what happens.... I'm thinking the following: 140 to 150" WB SBC Clutch i.e. Direct Drive, no reverser 8 3/4" Chry Rear End very much the Don Long / Woody Gilmore car of the 1965 era? 400 CID block, 350 Crank, Hilborn Inj, Direct Drive, Simple fun.... This is really close to happening...... Your Thoughts? Robert M.
Start here Dolmetsch. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=230419&highlight=dragster+chassis
Bump for a few questions.... Early-mid '60's rails....gas vs. nitro vs. alky. Other than the engine being built for the fuel source, were the cars essentially the same? Or did the "slower" cars run a trans as opposed to direct drive? Which fuel source, alky or gas, is cheaper and "easier" on parts to run? Blown and/or injected..... Thanks!
My car is very simple being a direct drive top fuel deal but here are some pix anyway. Chute levers are on the right just behind the brake handle (which is a push--a first for me) so that I can roll into the brakes until I feel the chutes hit. Fire bottles are the lever on the brake handle. Mag kill is on the "dash" right under the butterfly with the reverser handle right above the rear end housing. Fuel shut off is on the lh frame rail, straight across from the butterfly grips and it is a push to turn off. Oil pressure is on the back of the block--standard old time T/F deal with a short pipe screwed into the block and the gauge on top of it. Roo
the engines would vary in compression & choice of cam ,more overlap for a blower car ect (although I new a guy who ran a blown nitro rail with stock junk yard engine's- usualy blew up each week too) blown applications ran direct drive, injected & carbed usually ran geared trans's hi-low using 2nd & 3rd gear as a set up. best fuel to run is alky. runs cooler makes power and is easy to get you just need to build your engine & fuel system for it . nitro is hard on bearings and requires more attention then most racers are willing to give there car (engine/fuel system maintenance & tuning). just my .02 cents
Very tidy Rooman. I would have never thought to add the fire bottle trigger to the brake handle. Is this the car that you took to the March Meet? If so what was the paint scheme so I can check it out on the BangShift video loop.
Thanks for that info...so, on a blown alky FED, direct drive would be the "norm"? What if an unblown, yet injected engine made alot of HP? Does a fella need alot of HP to run a direct drive car? Blown cars rule, but is it required? Would a carbed, alky big block Mopar (440 based) look goofy (out of place) in a 140" or so FED? Alot of questions I know....but trying to weigh all options and learn as much as possible on this stuff.....
Gentleman, If I could I'd like to comment on FED'S footbrake vs handbrake. My first fed was in 1965, 301sbc, 2nd and 3rd gears in a 3 speed manual trans. Left foot-clutch, right foot-throttle, right hand-handbrake. From 1967 to 1997, I had 4 feds, 2 reds, 1 A altered, unblown-blown. I am right handed, push or pull, a handbrake is a natural in an open car. I would not trust my self with a leftfoot brake in an emergency. Just my 2 cents, thanks.
The Jalopy Journal
