This week I installed the new converter in the Sr Dragster. Previously I had a converter by Mopar Perfomance which was also a high stall but cheaper. This time I went for a Frank Lupo Dynanmic converter. Frank and Sean came up with a plan and made me a wee one then shipped it here. I installed it this week and also took the time to machine the high clutch drum for on extra fiber and steel (increases holding power by 25%) First p*** i was a little apprehensve and wondered all the things like will the converter work. Willl the trans work, are there any leaks? etc etc. The first p*** was a bit of a trial run then but as I drove out the back door the push on wiring blew off the fuel pump and I arrived at the return road without fuel or a running engine. Three cable ties later and a bit of wire rerouting then I was back to the line. The Beez was flagging then in his full Indian headress. He is right into vintage stuff so he could hardly wait forth the little rail to run. I backed into the water box , rolled out then pushed the hand brake on hard and gave a bit of throttle. I let go of the handbrake while burrying the throttle. The tires were on fire and I managed to make them screech and still get stopped before the stage line. I eased ahead. When the second light cam on I pushed the brake hard and brought the engine up to 4000RPM on the converter. Bob was doing the arm drop thing for me so at his signal I let go of the brake and "gave her" . Instantly i felt the front wheels lift and could clearly see daylight under the rh front tire. Quicker than I could think about it, it settled backdown and ran through real strong. "That's different" I thought. i never had a wheelie before but it was smooth and wel lcontrolled so i didnt worry about it. After they set up the lights later on I made several runs. All but one it lifted instantly on launch. Not a 3 footer or anything but a good solid 4 to 5 inch both wheels up launch. By the end of the day the car was running almost .45 seconds quicker than it ever had before. I was more than happy to gain that from nothing more than a converter change. The wheelies feel great too. I am really enjoying this Sr dragster. I broke solidly into the 7s (1.8th mile)and now know where I want to end up. I gave my video camera to my friend Bob and he shot some for me including the first wheelie run. For some reason i cant get it to upload to Dropshots. I may try You tube. All this running was done at Flatout weekend in Shannonville. I made so many runs I ran out of energy. I will post some pics here later after a shower and a snooze. Don
Great story! Glad to hear about the "The Beez" - aka - 'Bob Beezer' too - and that he's still around, alive and kicking and doing his thing! Mart3406 =============================================
"hurry up with that video man i wanna see that thing lifting off" I hurried. See You tube video above. The Beez is in the video too in full headress like the old days. In fact he even touched the rail before my run . I felt its value jump immediatley.
http://www.armdrop.com/DonAndBob/pages/BobDon%20(4).htm Sean from the Kingston Armdrop group shot this. He is 340fish on the HAMB. Best pic I have ever had . I can read the fuel pressure gauge. I can almost hear Beazer hollering at me as he flags me off. Several people have phoned and said they too have video of the wheels lifting. Some say even at the end of the burnout. I was not aware of that. I started a post about the flog that has started here ,to chronical the chase to get the Et lower which began with this converter. Somehow it vanished or I cant find it. Lest the off chance that someone thinks it isnt HAMB friendly the engine is a 1962 Valiant 225 which I personally removed from my own car so I know for sure. The front spindles are from a 1962 Chev Handy van. The front wheels are from a 64 Chevy II The rear end was an empty 8 3/4 housing I bought from a friend. It came out of a street rod and had a aluminum fill bung welded in it. The gears 3.91 with posi came right out of my 1963 Dodge Max Wedge car (which now has 3.55s) Everything else I made except the trans (TF 904)which I dont know what year it is but it is for sure post 66. Anyway I will keep track of the progress sorting this combo out. Just because I know it will help someone else along the way. Don
Is there a post on the build of this car, I would be very interested in reading it if it was available, thanks for the video.
I dont remember if I posted it or not. Maybe the last part because I remember designing and building it before i knew of HA/GR so I missed the rules.(No auto trans thingy) Much of the build is on my website listed below I can tell you it is for sure FUN and runs real straight too. Any posts would be under Senior Dragster or SR Dragster. I have now been running it four years. Something happened Sat when the front wheels left the ground. The little boy inside me i thought was gone came to life. I have been working on it all day everyday since Monday. Today i reworked the carb. It took all day but was enjoyable. Tomorrow is a bit more set up and then i am going to make the trans self shifting at 5900 RPM since i am so cranked when driving it I leave it in drive anyway. (Hey wait till you get old and grey!:>) It was the Dynamic converter that brought the little bomb to life. I owe Frank Lupo a big thank you. Don
THe two convertors are pictured above. The grey is the Mopar perf econo unit 175K which is not a bad converter but just not enough for this combo. The black is a Frank Lupo Dynamic 8 inch custom made for the car. It sure woke this little rail up! Also the headers were a set of slightly reworked Clifford street headers. Length varied from 36 inches to 50 inches. A little Creative surgery got them all 37 inches + or - 1 inch. That should help a bit. Usually shows up in the MPH but we will see. Wednesday i spent rewoking the carb and rejetting. I went down one size on the metering rods. (used from my carter metering rods instead of Eddys to get the size i wanted.) and up two jet sizes in the sec. Today i am reworking the vavebody to try and raise the shift points from 4500 and 4300 respectively to something approaching 5600 to 5900. What the results will be I am not sure but usually the flog pays off well. Some things really work and other seemingly make no difference but you have to try them anyway.I want this car solidly in the elevens if possible. If i stay above 10.99 I avoid a lot of rule problems and expense. It wil be harder getting to the 11s then worrying about staying out of the tens for sure. The car is currently running high 7s in the 1/8 mile which is somewhere in the 12s but it is going out the back door in the quarter at fairly high speed.. Last weekend i got no 1/4 mile times so i dont know what. I just know it scared the heck out of me and my helmut even with its full face shield kept trying to lift and blow up. Normally with the face shield that was never an issue. Now it is. If i can go out the back door in the 1/4 at 6000 rpm or so i wil be happy. It might take awhile but I am back in the hunt anyway. The engine has a lot of power , I can tell in the burnout when I get to above 5000 i can fry the tires even on the sticky stuff at will. It is getting to the power band that is the problem. Now i have enough converter for a wheels up launch. If i can correct the shift points upwards times will improve. Don
AWESOME. Frank builds great transmissions & converters. I swear by them. I have a Lupo turbo 400 & converter in my car for 6 years now. works as good today as the day I put it in.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RrGDPXOQtI Franks Converters are not loose. That is the part people do not understand. The converter is stopped slipping by the end of the wheelie. Driving it around the return road and in the pits you would never guess it had 4000+ stal which is btw no small feat on a 246 cubed motor. In fact in normal drivng around it feels tighter than the 175K Mopar converter but when you ask for launch, it is there!!!!!!! A fellow racer today brought me this video he shot of my third run. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RrGDPXOQtI The car hooks hard , just lifts about 4 inches for a hair over 1 car length. Darn near perfect to my way of thinking. Last full race converter I had from Frank was in my 74 Charger from the Old Reliable book. When I put in the Lupo converter which was 5100 stall et dropped 4 tenths. Miles per hour rose 5 MPH and finish line RPM dropped by almost 500 RPM. You have to remember these gains are not over a stock converter. They are over the compe***ions converter!! I sent Frank my Dyno simulation sheets and told him that while not perfect they are likely to be within 10% based on past experience. I have used the same program for planning builds for almost 15 years and have gotten very good results from it. Judging from the performance I think it was about right. Now to wring the rest out of the car. This is the part i really enjoy. Thinking your way through that 1 second gain I have come to expect from the first solid p***. I am now abouut 1/2 way there. And yes to answer your unasked question I do have a good cooler. I also by the way have a Lupo Dynamic converter in my street car. A 9 inch 3800 stall. I have over 40000 miles on it. It drives like a stock one till i ask for some launch but it allows my radical cam profile in street use. It does not however have that big "whaaah" slip we have come to expect from hi stall converters. If you watch the video of my rail staging you can see it also goes up on idle with no coaxing and yet gives me the 4000+ stall when I push the brake and giver er. Hard to believe i know but tis true. Don Don
Spent the morning installing a TCI kit in another valve body. (SO i always have one that works regardless.) It is supposed to raise the Shift RPMs . Whether it will be enough we shall see. Got to rest now and mow the lawn. I have also watched the video from my pal several times . The car RPM dips slightly as the converter reaches coupling speed.(just as the wheels touch back down) It might seem minor or even unoticable but this is hurting my short times. (60 footers) I will try everything I have done for now but after next weekend if it still does it I will be advancing the cam 4 degrees. This usually cures such minor ills . I also am now on the hunt for a moroso electric water pump drive. With everyone going hi tech and buying Miezere electric pumps etc there must be 50 of these things lying around locally. Not a big deal but a few more free HP. Little by little we will wiggle our way down. I am also on a new way of eating. If I can get my 306 back to its original 243 when I had no sag and feared no man there is about .04 et reduction too. It all helps. Don
Today I switched valve bodies. I am hoping the shft points willl be higher, 5000 or better which is my peak torque range. Idealy i think 5600 to 5800 will work best but we shall see. I also J gapped the spark plugs. An old trick from back in the day. The new valvebody has a full kit in it as well as a blocked ac***ulator. It is supposed to raise shift points but time will tell. I am also hoping that the quicker shift promised is not just an urban tale but that it actually shows up on the time ticket. Now I am at the point where I worry and start second guessing myself. I have learned to ignore that over the years. Doesnt mean it doesnt happen. It just means I now know it is angst and nothing more. Don http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RrGDPXOQtI
When you get your first time slip, please post it. I would like to know how you compare with like cars in Tulsa. There are a couple of /6's here (soon to be three). Also could you give me contact info on the converter mfg., please. Jr. Clark "CrkInsp"
contact info is small block Ford, big block chev 9203, or 302 454 9203. You will be talking to Sean. Car ran a 7.90 (1/8)on a slippery p*** just after the track was sprayed during the day. It spun a bit instead of lifting the wheels. I would have waited for a few street cars to burn in the sticky but I had already been strapped in for over 30 minutes and my feet were going to sleep. The other p***es were not timed or I didnt stage right like in the video. I am getting over 4200 stall but I have to remember to use all the brake pressure I have . Sometimes I dont and redlight. If I stage at 4000 it is not a problem but sometimes I get stupid in the excitement of the moment. My goal is deep 11s in the 1/4 . I believe it is possible. The difference in the car the converter made is like night and day. It went from a fun ride to a serious race car with that change. I will post my times from next outing with shift points raised. As you can hear in the video. It is shifting around 4200 or so which is too low. Both shifts are done before 150 feet. Then it is the long hard pull to the finish line. When i get used to driving with the launch i will again pay attention to the rpm and such. Engine will pull to 6300 but probably likes 5900 best. Don
That is awesome, kick*** slant six! I have always heard Frank Lupo's converters were the best, you have proved it again. I know shift kits say they will raise shift points, but I never had reliable results that way. The only way to change the shift points for sure is to use different governor weights or modify the stock ones. TCI carries a few different varieties of weights (you probably know this already having been around a whiie, but it bears mentioning). http://www.aandatrans.com/Departments/Chrysler-727-Trans/Governor-Kits.aspx
Yeah I had tried making a weight which worked before (on the 63 MW Dodge)but this time I didnt get enuf. I have spent the budget for this month ($100) and am out of energy to pull the trans again so i will live with whatever i get till fall anyway. I have a spare trans and may do it on KILL! Thanks for the tip. I have the throttle valve hooked to a lawnmower throttle handle and set it full back for running, but on the return road i can pull it back and let the trans shift up into high gear for loping back to the pits. It is about a mile at our track since we return on part of the road course. I am really nervous that i wont get what I expect from the shift points too. I dont know why. Just thinking funny i guess. The car though certainly is an absolute ball to drive. I hope no one heard me yelling "YABA DABA DOO" on my wheels up p***es. Don
I was checking over my converter today. i wanted to shim it back into the case a bit and made some washers to do so. I removed my converter bolts and was surprised some were not a tight as they were when i installed them. Further investgation revealed that only about 3/16 was into the thread of the converter pad. There was room for a lot more. With my double flex plate (which i run since there is no SFI plate avaialble for a slant six) it is not enough to my way of thinking. I measured the holes through the flex plates and found they gcould take just over a 3/4 inch long bolt. 2 bucks later and a trip to town I bought some grade 9 7/16 fine thread bolts one inch long. Using a nut as a guide I removed about 3/16 from each bolt's threaded end to get the right length. I reworked all the threads first Tapering the ends with a grinder in the lathe then chased them all with a 7/16 fine thread chasing nut. I then chucked each one in the lathe and reduced the thickness of the head by 1/2 . Iinstalled each one with locktight and was satisfied as I tightened them that I had a real good strong bite one all four. I shimmed the whole deal at the same time. Minor stuff I guess but i have seen guys so often with stripped or messed up converter bolts and know this is why. The bolts they are using are too short. Yes it took me all afternoon. But I like to run when I go to the track, I am not into wrenchng at the track. After that was all done I fired the little six up for the first time since my mods. (Carb rework and header rework.) It sounded crisper and reved quickly. Tomorow I will jack it up and check out the shift points. Hopefully I will get a few p***es on it Saturday night. Don
Tested it all today. Trans shifts but I dont have the nerve to take it to 6000 on the jack stands and watch each shift. Anyway it is all prepped for the weekend . Tomorrow will charge the battery and load it . Truck is g***ed and ready. Now if only we had a decent driver! Don
Went last night. It was quite a bit cooler . They had put no sticky down so the bite was off. (they often dont for a test and tune. ) The trans shifted higher but a bit unpredictable. I will know more when i get the video from Gary. I am not totally happy with how it works so i have some thinking to do. Gains from carb mods and headers ? zero. Engine is still running very very lean. I ran accross this once before with a six cly ford and a 750 Eddy. While the carbs drive well and all it was impossible to get them fat enough for tuned headers and open exhaust. I figured it was just the one carb but even with rejetting an inspection of the plugs showed they were serverly white and dry. A fellow racer is lending me a 650 Dp to try and I am free to modify it as I will. Converter was perfoming just excellant BTW. The stall is really quite high when the trans is warmed up. Almost 5000. Because the bite was off I was spinning rather than lifting the wheels but I did mange to get them up after a long past the beams burn out. Short times which were on Flatout at 1.71 were as high as 1.864 last night. i am am aiming for 1.52 and wont be happy till i get here. (And I will!) Don
Got the video from Gary. Actually the trans works pretty good. Could be the driver we need to work on. Anyway I shall press on from here. I am uploading the video and will post it shortly. Don
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWRrRTulzBY New video with modified valve body. Despite my worries it is shifting much better. A little fine tuning will help it get a it more definate. I have the line presssure on "Kill" right now which is usually for full comp use. I may back it off to hot street setting or closer to allow the auto part to have a bit more definate control. I can see a govenor kit though in my future this winter. Before i had made both shifts before the escape road you can just see in the left of the track. Now I am well by the road when I can hear it make the 2/3 shift. You may wonder why didnt i know that from driving it? Wait till your over 60 and squeezed in a little bomb riding down track at 100 mph plus with you best parts snuggggled up to an old 8 3/4 diff. . See how much you remember! Best part I like is after the mustang has finished his run you can hear the slant six working its little heart out as it clears the eyes. When it gets down to business it sings a clear sweet song. Don Are we having fun yet? YES!!!!!!!!!
I always check the car over between races and was going through things when i discovered some broken parts in the distributor mech advance. I fixed it this morning and reinstalled. i doubt it will affect Et because at full throttle it would still beat full advance but it was acting a bit strange at idle and this explains why. It is steady as a rock now. Also did a fuel flow test. Have enough flow to sustain 676HP so i guess that is not a problem area. I still check all this stuff though. I like being totally ready when i go to the track. Don
That car sounds awsome, big thumbs up!!. Need to do an in-car video going down the track. Any progress on the Jag FED?
Yes I think that would be good too. I need to make a bracket to hold the camera.The jag is sleeping now. I am having too much fun wth this deal. Jag is more a winter project anyway. I have a nibble on the new ch***is from a 6 cyl chevy guy. If I got the motor build and I did his last one I could live with that. Tonight when I got home a 650 Holley DP in rebuildable condition was sitting on the front step. MY pal John Morton said he was bringing me one as the Edelbrock does not respond properly to jetting. It works good but is lean. Probably the p***ages are just not big enough to allow it to be fattened up much. I ran into this once with 750 Eddy before. So today i will pull the new carb apart and see what is good or bad in it and get this one underway. I found a problem last night with the air valve in the secondaries on the Eddy 750 as well. My last two runs were for sure on the two barrels only. I told my wfe it just didnt feel right and so have checked over everyhing I could think of. I fixed the problem last night but the holley is going on anyway. Am also making a tunnel ram for it between everything else. i have that build posted here elsewhere. You know once it pulled the wheels after installing Franks converter my life changed. I am back to my ol self searching trying testing thinking dreaming. My goal is low 11s with this motor and I sincerely believe I will get there. Don -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RrGDPXOQtI
Turned out the holley was a 600 DP. Perfect for my engine size. It was pretty scuzzy and was missing a bunch of parts and jets and gaskets but after a week i scouted up everything and cleaned it, modified it for the test and installed what i believe will be the right jets at least to establish a good baseline. It replaces the Eddy. Eddys are great carbs. Especially on the street but sometimes in an all out race application they reach a point where you cannot enrichen them enough. This carb was acting that way. The holley on the other hand will do whatever you want . I had to rework the linkage slightly and reroute the fuel line but after about a hour it was ready to go. It is extremely responsive. Surprisily so. No doubt in part due to the fact that it is now running at the proper mixture. Whether that transfers into reduced ET one can only hope but usually it does. Don
I needed a place to put on a permanent number . I decided a scoop would be the ideal place and made this today. Sure glad I was the first in my family to atend kindergarten. I used skills I learned there to make it. Thank you Miss McLean from kindergarten, Gracefield Public School Toronto. Don
Today I went to Shannonville with the Senior dragster. It is our last race weekend this year. The car worked very well. After a full p*** to blow the "trailerdust " out of the car I pulled right back in for a hard p***. We were running 1/8 mile today as I had entered the Pro race. Second p*** was great. I had aimed for an ultimate 60 foot time with this car of 1.52 sec. (As an old racer i watch the 60 footers like a hawk) much to my surprise the car gave me a 1.648 and ET'd at 7.651. Lifted the wheels easily on launch. I stopped for lunch (havent missed many!!!) I dialed in at 7.64 and waited for Pro to be called. The car I ran was similar in time. I staged high on the mighty Dynamic converter. When i left it left so hard it hurt me physically. It skated slightly to the right about 10 feet out and I may have hesitated just a split second. I never saw the other car so I figured I had this one in the bag. Apparently I left slightly "prematurely" (.471 light) A friend took my camera and tried to shoot a video but the sun was so bright and it has no view finder he couldnt really tell if it was aimed or not. Anyway here it is . You can hear the converter stall and if you look you can see the front wheel just at the top as it falls sideways on the lift. You can also see the car go a bit sideways. (a couple of inches.) I was happy anyway. The car worked great. I achived my goals for the year and know my 1.52 short time is now doable. Time to put the rail in hibernation and get ready for next year. A fellow Hamber came down from Bowmanville to watch . We had a great time discussing this 6 cyl stuff. Good to meet him. I think he will,be buildding one or something similar soon. Are we having fun yet? DEFINATLEY !!!!!! Don
The Jalopy Journal
