Projects Austin Somerset Gasser Build (DragNasty)

Anything can happen at the track. Hook up and 60ft. is critical for low ETs. We will see.

 

Exactly. There are a lot of unanswered questions lurking out there. The times and speeds some online race calculator or even your common sense point to are not based in the reality of track prep, tire size, barometric pressure or even "Cajones" etc. etc. etc. I was laughing with Jackson (@wrenchbender) this weekend about our up coming first pass. It most certainly will not be an Earth scorching event by any stretch of the imagination. Hell my 17 year old daughter in her Sebring with the top down would likely win that race if she were lined up against it. It will be a slow and cautious process to take care of both myself and the car.

To be honest, I want the car to be fast but it doesn't have to be stupid fast. It just needs to perform as good as it looks and put on a good show for the fans. It is most definitely a purpose built car. It is meant to do one thing and one thing only....show off! Sometimes that is on the track and sometimes on the street. But Dad and I have much more fun with the car when it is standing still.

Just hanging around and talking with fans and other racers. Watching people get up close and personal with the car is very rewarding. Don't take this the wrong way but it is fun to watch the folks pour over the Austin. They dream of owning or driving something like it, you can see it in their face. Maybe it reminds them of cars from the past and they relive a few moments of that history. They ask questions, they take photos, some even climb in to see what if feels like. A few have even gone for a quick ride.

It reminds me of going with my Dad to car shows and races when I was a kid. He would see some amazing car and we would go have a look. I remember the look on his face as he surveyed some wild machine and it is reflected on the faces of folks hanging around the Austin today. I can not tell you how gratifying it is to watch Dad hop up and go have a conversation with them about the car. To give him that opportunity is the real reason I built the car. If it makes a 10 second pass or a 9....that is just a bonus at some level. The real score is hanging with Dad now on the other SIDE of the pit rope... I am not sure which side if any is "greener" if you know what I mean. Personally I wouldn't trade the experience of either one.

 

This is how I spent the better part of my weekend.


All the sensor plugs are pre-wired into the harness which is handy. However depending upon your application, not all the pre-wired plugs fit their respective sensor. So we have done our share of cutting and splicing appropriate plugs in place of supplied ones etc.


For instance on the right is the pre-wired plug for the IAC or Idle Air Control however the sensor we have from Hilborn takes the plug on the left. So we have to go through the schematics to find what wires go where. In this case it was a pain because all four of the wires on the new plug were black. However after looking close they had very tiny letters (a,b, c, and d) on the plug case. The schematic from Holley showed these wires as B1, B2, B8, and B9 but there was a dash and then a single letter...like (B1-A, B9-B, B8-C, and B2-D). So I assume that is how the new plug is wired. We looked up each incoming wire color, wrote on green masking tape and stuck it to the correct new plug wire etc. Then we cut the supplied plug off the harness and installed our new plug according to our green tape guides with solder and heat shrink.

 

We did accomplish a few other things as well this weekend especially on the fuel line front. As is always the case with the Austin, space is a premium. Normally I might have dropped the lines down behind the supercharger but we have a ton of electronics now taking up that area from the EFI wiring harness. I could have plumed it from the front but I have space issues there as well. So I decided to keep it on the firewall and go above the harness and distributor etc. We started by installing the fuel block at the top of the firewall area dead center of the supercharger...





As eluded to earlier, the lines from the block to the fuel rails are 8AN and the line from the fuel block to the regulator is 10AN. Note the black line on the line in...we sort of changed our placement of the regulator and thus our line is a bit too long. I have it with me today to have it adjusted.


By moving the regulator up a bit we are going to be able to kill two birds...first we can use the roll cage bar in that area to help protect the fuel pressure sensor that sticks out and secondly it is further away from the big heat source etc. The choice also involved routing the lines differently. Before we basically ran right up the firewall there at the header. The fuel line was heat wrapped etc. But we thought it would be much better if we could avoid that area all together. The top line is Fuel in (10AN) and the bottom line - waiting for the an elbow fitting is the 8AN return line.


We also got the alternator back on and a new belt since we are not running the water pump any longer.


And we got all the Crank Trigger (MSD flying magnet) back in place

 

We also finalized our super charger restraint system mounting points. We had been playing around with the standard header bolt areas but to be honest our straps were a bit two long. I am not sure how it happened but they were supposed to be 15" but in reality they were 18". This was a fact we missed until the entire injector unit etc. was already installed. So unseen here on the build thread the first thing we tried was fabricating a loop bar on the mounts. Sort of like a heavy duty belt buckle. We welded bar stock across the bottom of the bracket so you basically fed the strap through the bracket near the bottom (around the bar) and THEN up to the where the aluminum pin slides through the loop. This pretty much burned the extra length up. Fairly ingenious I thought. But after getting the mounts in place it was a pain to thread the strap through etc. Basically we had resigned ourselves to just unscrewing the mount at the header to remove the straps (which while fairly straight forward, was still going to be a pain).

Instead, we took Brian's advice (@RacerX) as he mentioned earlier maybe mounting the straps to the roll cage down tubes. So that is what we did (besides those bars need some touch paint anyway). We slid .040 aluminum scrap pieces all over the area to protect the engine and the rest of the car. After creating a nice little welding nook, we attached what was left of the holders from round one and ground the welds pretty good.


Followed by a few quick finger Bondo jobs around the welds and some light sanding of the entire bar. Then we carefully masked it all off and shot it black again...



The restraints are good and solid and super quick to remove. Also running them down and then up from the bottom under the bar really helped the straps from a strictly aesthetic standpoint lay flat and look nice.

 

looking good.

 

Blower belt gonna whack the water pump at hi revs?

 

It does look close. There are a few ways to solve this. There is alot of room in the idler pulley slot to go with a longer belt. With the pulley moving away from the center of the engine the belt will angle away from the pump. A larger bottom pulley and smaller top pulley would help but not as much as the longer belt. It looks like a 5 inch idler pulley is already being used if not more angle could be gained there. One thing about belt angle as its increased tooth engagement decreases. The ideal situafion is to have zero angle. This puts the belt in contact with the most teeth on the pulleys. Due to this blower not being driven real hard i dont think it will be a issue. The proper way to set the belt tension is to turn the engine counter clockwise. It only needs to move a little bit. This puts all the slack on the idler pulley side. Dont get crazy on the tension. Just hand tension. Those aluminum heads will grow taking up slack. They will also increase your valve lash as the engine heats up. Dont be surprised if you end up with a hot and cold lash setting that varies .005 or more. A aluminum head and block combination can go as high as .010

 

We are definitely closer than I would like to be. Basically an inch of clearance on that side. My idler is a 4". My belt length is 56.7" the next step up appears that brings 59.5 " even though I have a ton of travel for the idler, I don't have that much room.

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the angle of the pic made it look closer. you have plenty of room.

 

So we are clicking along (kind of) counting down one week from the dyno. I am having issues with my Brodix Heads. I need to mount two sensors, one in each head using the factory cut temp sender holes (one for my temp gauge and the other for the ECU unit. I have to have a bushing to adapt them both from 1/2 NPT to 3/8 NPT...no problem right. In fact one of the sensors actually came with its own bushing. So I screw it in and it just keeps spinning in until the shoulder of the bushing hits the head (it never seals). So I back the bushing out and look it over. I had another one that came out of the original factory head so I tried it. Same thing...it just screwed right on in until the shoulder hit the head.

So I am thinking these are straight cut holes and will need a fitting with an o-ring. Honestly I am happy about that so I head off to my local performance shop and they don't really have anything for sure and suggest I call Brodix and get a part number. So I call them. I am told it takes a 1/2 NPT tapered fitting. I said I don't think so. They said they were for sure as that is the only size and style hole they cut in any head. I explained what the NPT 1/2 tapered fittings were doing and they said I was wrong. They even went out and tested a head. They called me back and said yep...NPT 1/2 tapered fittings. They said they put it in and it went about 3 or 4 turns and tightened up leaving several threads still sticking out. They further said they can prove my heads have this thread style because they are water tested before shipping and they plug the holes. They said there will be a big 0 stamped on the front of them if they have been water tested etc.

So I ask for the maker and part number of their fitting, they gave it to me. I don't have it here tonight but today I crossed referenced it online and matched it with an Everco. I bought another one. Same deal. So I made this video to send to Brodix...



So am I nuts? Am I missing something?

 

Looks like that hole is flat around it with a 45 deg bevel cut at the top of the threads. Just for giggles..... See if that is the same thread as a O2 sensor.

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I would say that You have proved the head is not pipe thread.

 

A pipe thread will not start very far unless someone ran the tap all the way down.

 

O2 sensors are metric thread 18x1.5 I think is the size. I don't have one here to verify but I am 100 % sure they are metric thread

 

Yes.... But real close to 1/2 npt.

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Well that little video changed Brodix' tune. Suddenly I am not the idiot that couldn't tell an NPT pipe thread hole from my own ass. LOL Not that they said anything of the sort but it was sort how I felt after talking with them. They responded by saying it appears the Tap has been run all the way through (See There James @saltflats you were correct). I knew you were as that was the only explanation. Brodix said however to be sure he would need the heads sent back so they could examine them!

I responded, the car is basically complete. The heads have had all the valve train installed, there are some fairly high dollar head gaskets involved not to mention it has been on a 2 month waiting list for a Dyno Tune session that is supposed to happen in 5 days with hefty deposit holding my place. Waiting to see what they come up with. Here is my thought (after I collect some cash from these guys for the my trouble)...Install the sensors in the bushings before putting the bushings in the head. Then black RTV the threads in the head and on the plug and install it all the way down til the shoulder hit the head.

Thoughts? or any other ideas?

 

Do you have room to go up to a 3/4 pipe?

 

I thought of that, I am pretty sure I have the room to do it, but I hate to have to do it with the heads already on it. There is no way to keep from scattering a few aluminum shards through the cooling system. Not sure it would hurt anything but I still hate to do it.

 

Try an O2 sensor like I suggested earlier. It's just to check the threads.

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Will do. But the only issue is even if it works where do I find an O2 sensor bushing to adapt to a 3/8 pipe for the sensors...LOL

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If the O2 sensor works take a gasket seat spark plug and gut it and tap is for your 3/8 pipe.

 

Were both heads that way or just one? I think I'd go this way.....

 

You could try sealing the threads with Locktight Anarobic sealer. Its blue and seals very well, we use it on fittings on our big CAT diesels. We have sealed up some pretty messed up pipe threaded holes in heads with it, and they never leaked.

 

You could coat the 3/4 npt tap with grease, to collect the bulk of the chips. Then flush the water jacket through the thermostat house down to the block drains. I am sure this nothing anyone hasn't thought of already.

As soon as I got a race car, I never saw another hundred dollar bill.

 

Well here is what Brodix said. They went out and purchased a 1/2 NPT Bushing from the local Parts Store and found it did the same thing in their test head as it did in my video. They say however their plug goes in and performs perfectly. So they think there is some difference between NPT plugs and bushings. I don't buy that nor does the big plumbing supply place here in town.

However, they fabricated two bushings for me from the plugs that they say work. They drilled them out and then tap them for my 3/8 NPT sensors. Furthermore they say the plug they have and an OEM temp sensor both fit their heads perfectly. I went to O'Reilly this morning after our conversation and purchased a GM 454 OEM Temp Sender. It of course had 1/2" NPT Threads. I pulled out the bushing from the video and compared them and they looked the same to me. Then the parts guy ran back and brought up a 3/4" to 1/2" NPT Bushing. The temp sender screwed in and tightened up as it should: SO DID THE BUSHING......!

SOO00ooo....we shall see. Brodix already shipped their fabricated bushings to me this morning so hopefully they will be here tomorrow and we can check. I think the real tell-tale event is coming tonight when I get home and try to screw the OEM Sensor in the hole....stay tuned. As if I don't have bigger fish to fry...tick, tock, tick, tock....

 

if it was easy everyone would be doing this.

 

Find an old plumber that can make a plug and not run the die down as far.

 

Take them to 3/4, put that sticky red grease on the tap,won't hurta thing. There is about a 1000 ford 4.6's running around with inserts in them from where they blowed a spark plug out. I taped for the insert the same way.

 

Took the day off today...here is our knock out list for the weekend...lol



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