Finally Got a Henry J

Try more initial timing.

 

I was reading an old 1979 PHR tunnel ram tech article and it said to put as much initial as you could turn over on a hot engine. Getting the distributor out to change the advance is a pain in the ass, it's kinda under the firewall...lol

 

Make a set up like a model A. Use a rod or cable and move the dist. from the dash.

 

I ran into my old neighbor from about 12 years ago, he's in his upper 70's. I told him about getting the Henry J and he started laughing. It seems when he was 17 he and his buddy would go to the local drive-in and cause trouble in his Henry J.
They had a windshield squirter pump hooked to a can of kerosene, with the outlet hose fastened above the carb. They would shoot the kerosene down the carb and it would smoke out the drive-in. He really had a light in his eyes while telling me of his misguided youth, "As long as you could keep it running, it would smoke out the whole place. Nobody could see then we'd tear hell out of there with that flat four"

Good stuff

 

I ment to pull the distributor and recurve the advance to get more initial, I'm running pump gas and don't want to go much higher than the 36 degrees total.

 

Sorry swade but I have to ask. Wisenheimer, any info on the West coast HJ?

 

swade, we put a toggle switch for the ign switch in line to kill the ign power on our race cars and when they are hot and don't want to turn over with the advance we run we turn off the ign and then while the engine is cranking over turn on the ign sw.

 

Don't know how i missed this thread, great story and a great car mate

 

Have you tried adjusting the timing at all for the bog problem? I had a similar problem with one of my cars and installed the two heavy springs in the dist (MSD) to raise the RPM for full advance to come in later. Just a quick and easy (10 minute job in my Ford motor....just realized where your dist is) trick to try .

 

22-24* initial should be o.k.. Get the engine nice and hot on the street, play around with the initial timing and starting situation, note, and pull the distributer once. Could go to electronic dizzy. Spending your money, Heh, Heh, Heh. I'd also invest in five galleons of race fuel. You can blend it with street fuel if the race fuel is unleaded. Don't need to rattle the engine even if it has forged pistons. What rpm do you leave the line? Do you have vacuum advance? All in by 3500 should be fine. Too bad you don't have retard for top end. Something else to play with. Main thing is to tune it to run the best at the strip and still run well on the street.

Best of luck, John

 

Thanks wise for the info, pic's.

 

Cool Henry Phil

 

Not yet, kinda afraid to put more into it and go over that 36 degrees....lol
Yesterday I went back to the 60 jets in the front carb and left the 63's in the rear. The rear 4 plugs looked pretty good, so left that alone and will try this and see what the plugs look like.
Today I will move my ladder bars back down after I finish the transmission lines on the silverado, what a sucky freaking job that is !

 

Thanks man, not as great as what you're doing but I'm still having fun !


Didn't get those bars moved today but everything is ready to get them out. It seems the trans cooler fittings from the dealer were the wrong ones for the silverado. So I spent the day driving around chasing the fittings but now that job is done. I can tow the J without worry of blowing a line ..woooo hoooo

 

Hey, got past the first round...lol
Jet change, ladder bar back to middle hole and a couple degrees out of the pinion angle and put my timing all in at 2450.
The car went 7.36 last time out and with new changes went 7.33 @ 93.76 on first pass. I was able to get that down to a 7.26 @ 94.02mph with a little better launch (1.590 60ft) and cooler air. So no big change in the launch with the new ladder bar location and no change in my slow reaction times either !

 

I've decided on two changes before the big Gold Cup race this weekend. I bought a couple 50cc pumps off a fellow HAMBer , if they get here in time those will go in.
The other will be a jet change to 61's in both carbs, then.....let the fun begin !

 

Oh yeah, put my new valve covers on too, gotta look good for the race..lol

 

Phil. Not being a wiseguy, but don't you want the breathers be mounted toward the inside of the motor ?

 

Ha ha, the big debate..lol That's the way they were mounted and also the only way I have ever seen these style mounted. These still had the factory gaskets still under them and have a heck of a baffling system designed into it. I did make new cork gaskets and took the liberty to cover a little bigger area.
I did run some Offenhauser 90 degree breathers the same way on my t-bucket for 3 years with no drips on the headers. Those pictured on the dummy engine now

 

When I drilled the vette covers for Moon breathers I did put them on top. This is what's on the t-bucket now

 

Well with those changes the car picked up to a 7.23 @ 95.14 right off the trailer and a 1.56 60ft. We are having fun !

 

Which helped more, the acc. pumps or the jet change? Have you given it more initial timing?

 

Good deal. ( I think the M/T valve covers did the trick. )

 

No on the more initial , just changed springs to bring the total in at 2450. The accelerator pumps and pump cam sure did the trick.
I got the car down to 7.18's on Saturday with a 1.54 60ft, huge difference off the line !

You are exactly right, they had my wheels a foot off the ground according to the spectators. This shot is early or late...lol

 

Thanks, I've been trying to save all the ones I find..lol

 

I just wanted to share a couple runs I made on Saturday, if it did this all the time it would be easy...lol
I tried scanning these but didn't work but check out these two time slips and how it was down to the last digit for separation.
The first at 7:04 pm and the second at 9:44 pm which was first and second rounds on Saturday.

60 ft -- 1.545 / 1.540

330 -- 4.604 / 4.600

1/8 -- 7.188 / 7.183


mph -- 94.63 / 94.61


amazingly close runs I think

 

Running like the Pro's. Now to consistantly cut that .500 light is the trick.

 

Looks like you finally got rid of the gremlins and the bad juju, hopefully no more broken parts or body damage. I enjoyed watching you and the other gassers run at Empire last Saturday.

 

Glad you had a good time daliant and Baron oh so true. I had a 5.04 and a 5.14 last weekend but had a few 6's and a 7 too...lol Now that the bog is gone I should be able to work on those lights, there's only 3 races left to do it.

 

Well racing was rained out here so I gave myself a task of retro fitting some chevy ll front drag shocks to the J. The first attempt had great lift but were bottoming out a little to soon on the downward move.
So learn a little and plan 2 worked out great, made new brackets and lowered the bottom of the shock down to get more travel. Manually working the suspension all looks like it will work great, I set them on the 90-10 setting.
I also got my 8 yr old out to turn the fuel pump on and off to set the floats. One was a little high and the other three were low, I set them with the car at a slight uphill grade like acceleration would put it.
Kinda excited about testing this out !