Projects Dragster project - Threw a rod. :-( Part 2

Mayham to the extreme !

 

Yes, I did spin it for oil pressure, you are right, his rods were not stock, they were a chinese copy of Carillo H-beams, around 20# at idle hot, 20/50.

Anything else?

 

RIP, I would relook the compression, cam lift, and boost. It does not sound right, even for alcohol. The next time out, boost it in increments. I realize pulleys do not grow on trees, but niether do short blocks. Let us know how it do, bad *** set up.

 

Kerry, I understand you are on alky and a different deal but I have a story you can relate to. We, meaning Leon, Larry and I built our dragster and Leon is our engine man. We wanted to run A/fuel. Leon ran a lot of blown nitro late model stuff back in the day. With the likes of Hank Johnson, Gordie Bonin (Jerry Verhuel), Twig Ziegler, John Collins ect. Well, the A'fuel deal is a different animal. No blower so we make power with static compression and nitro. Anyway, Leon said hell this is a different animal than I am use to but it is nitro so here we go. After consulting with many injected nitro people including Gene Adams, we set out on our adventure. Now we could not afford a Donovan, Emery block or a KB, so we built what we had. We decided a 354 was going to be our choice. Stronger mains we figured. After countless (and I mean a lot of) money, we were ready to go. We fired it on gas (bottle) and on alky it sounded awesome. We proceeded to go to the track and a crew guy did not understand when I said, put nitro in the purple jugs and alky in everything else. I grabbed an orange jug and I was tired and didn't think the jug was a little heavier, I was tired anyway and filled the warmup tank with 104% nitro. The nitro we had bought was clear. We spun it for oil pressure, g***ed it and she fired right off. Turned on the warmup tank and she blubbered and died, COLD. It did not huff alky out the pipes or act like anything was strange. Lesson number one. Never ***ume anything with nitro. We were one second away from being bitten by the nitro rattlesnake. Leon, ..***uming it was alky in the warmup tank, as I did also looked at me and shrugged his shoulders. He had turned the valve off on the warmup tank immediately so all was well, right? Nope. Nitro had dripped down out of the nozzle lines and filled a cylinder. We spun it over and I flipped the mag switch..........Luckily no one was hurt bad. Leon had a cut on his stomach and we were instantly humbled. We knew better but at the time it is a comedy of errors although not very comical. Tally..one block, one crank, both heads rods, pistons, rings, dented the frame, it even dented one front motor plate and blew the straps off the diaper. My reason for this post is this. When you have a problem, STOP. Start all over from square one. ****yze what just happened before you continue. Simply because you are dealing with something that can potentially hurt or kill you, or others. Kerry, in no way shape or form am I pointing a finger at you or anyone. And I'm not saying your engine hydraulic'd. I am putting this here simply to tell what can happen to us when we thought we had the Gold key to the ****per and didn't. And we knew better. March on Kerry, if this was easy, heck everyone would be doing it! No one is perfect. I was hoping we would be ready for Mo-Kan to make some short squirts, but not enough time and the other deal didn't work out. But I'll har*** Brian instead. Lippy

 

Oh, and like yours, it was a quiet ride home. Lippy

 

I appreciate the wisdom Lippy. I certainly did make some ***umptions... and mistakes. Talking to Leon showed me that some of what I'm nervous about doesn't matter as much as I thought, and other things I hardly considered matter a lot. Check, check, and when I know something to be true, check again. Like you said ***ume NOTHING!!!

I've rerun it over in my head a lot and thought of quite a few things I'd do differently now, but no smoking gun as to what happened. It really is interesting how many folks have advice who have never run anything like this. Other friends have encouraged me to post on this so everyone can learn. I hope somebody learns w/o going through this. It hurts but I don't need to tell you that.

Now to figure out how to put her back together. Humpty Dumpty has nothing on this girl.

Quite a number of folks have voiced concerns over the static compression/ cam/ blower %. Interesting thing is the guys I've spoken with who have some serious alky and fuel experience don't see that as the issue. Most of them point not to the cylinder pressure, but the rod's ability to handle it. I see aluminum rods in the future. Very likely an aluminum 6.625 BBC rod with the rod journals turned down to match. If the remaining four surviving pistons look OK I'm going to stick with the 10.25:1 pistons and order replacements plus a couple of spares.

A few have had issue with the cam having hydraulic lifters insisting that I should have a solid lifter cam so I can tell what's going on when I check her over. Very good point. I'd like to use what I have but I'll be looking into a solid lifter cam and this one will go on the shelf. I really want to keep lift under .550 but duration is negotiable. I'm going to give the guys at Engle a call next week and talk it through.

Sure wish the answers were easy but like you said...

Sorry to hear things didn't work out for your's Lippy. You and I can gang up on Brian. ;-)

 

I just read your post that told me you are running alcohol. All my opinions had been based on fuel. But before I shut up I will say that I don't believe that a blown alcohol combination like you described would have what it takes to hydraulic [hydro lock] your engine and brake it like it did yours.
I think you had a rod or rod bolt give up.
Just stay after it man, it will come around. JC

 

Yank the engine outta your coupe and throw in there for the hamb drags, may not be as fast but it sure would be fun!

 

Yeah JC, I can't see it as a hydrolock issue either.

Not gonna rob the coupe. She's my baby. I'll be driving her at the drags but I'm not sure if I'm even going to bring the slicks this year. I'll just slide around on my street tires.

 

Kerry you're right, I have no alcohol expirience (except the kind you drink) static comp. seemed high for a blown motor to me but gas is all I have experience with. I'm sure you will work this out and I will be right here watching to benefit from your experience. You never know, there may be some alcohol in my future. Good luck to ya.

by the way I watched your SCTV clip, "blew up real nice!"

 

Hang the parts on the wall and point to them the next time you and your bench racing buddies are playing "can you top this".

 

I know of quite a few Big Block Chevys with between 11:1 and 12.5: static. Blown , Injected on alcohol. 3300lb cars in the 7's and 8's.

And "Hey that is **** Routhit" that owns the Goat Roper pontiac watchin your pontiac in that photo.

 

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Wow , Kerry. That looks good.

 

Thanks for piping in Brian, and for the kind words. Tell us how you setup the engine in Zorba's Ghost.

I don't know **** so I'm not sure. Plenty of folks around here are pretty sure I don't know ****. ;-)

 

Really? I don't know Jack ****, is he related to ****?

 

I went to school with Vernal Equinox. They lived down the road. Wait, I do remember a Dip **** who may have been Jacks younger sister. Lippy

 

Ok well before this snowballs out of control. Lets get back on the subject of Kerrys motor.

I was pointin out that my friend was watchin Kerrys coupe.

 

Hey, Kerry this is Mike I met you at Salina I am Gary Rs friend. Just checking for an update.

 

Well, progress is slow but it is progress. After I got it all apart the crank looks pretty good and rings true. Magnaflux will tell the real story but I think it'll be OK.

I picked up a gently used set of 6.635 BBC billet aluminum rods made by Fowler. Nice rods!!!

Talked to Donnie Johansen. He and I came up with a solid roller cam setup that will work well for my purposes and ordered it from Natchi Contreras at Contreras cams. He bought Donnies company. He was making early hemi billets when I called him so one has my name on it. I told him there was no rush.

Working on getting a cruise for the Plymouth suburban and just bought a used aluminum radiator from another HAMBer for it. She was plenty hot towing the digger!. Gary R will need to help me weld the water fill back in at another location.

Next purchase will be some hard chromed rocker shafts, collars, and exhaust rocker reinforcement ribs from TRWaters. I'll need help from Gary welding those rocker braces as well.

 

Thanks Mark, I'm running a 2" 1/2" drive belt but I am running a 3" pulley on the bottom.

With the alcohol I really don't think I want to slow it down. It is an just an unstripped 6/71. When I was talking to Donnie Johansen the combination I have didn't seem out of line at all. In fact he kept reffering to how mild I was setting it up. I guess compared to the all out guys it is but I said that while it is mild now, it would have been impressive back in the day. He did agree with that.

All that said, when I do get her running I might drop you a line about them if I do need to tweak it a bit. How many teeth do they have and what is the offset on the mount?

Thanks!!!

 

OK, a few things here.
Yes stock rods would be too week for your c/r and a blower on alky. Used aluminum rods usualy = not good. Aluminum rods, while stronger than stock are only good ,In your combo, for 30 or so p***es.
I saw the info you had as far as cam.
It is waaaaaay to mild. You need a ton of overlap and Duration on a blown alky motor. With the mild cam you had you built a TON of cylinder pressure.
I wish you the best of luck but please don't listen to every one just find one seasoned veteran and listen to him.
Good luck.

 

Yeah Rob, I got it... in spades. Like I said Donnie made some good suggestions and we talked a lot about how the combo would work together. I've got a another guy who I am using as my advisor... JUST him, but your advice has been heard.

 

Thanks for the update. Hang in there!