Ha, the scales said it weighed the same when I put it on there. I'm not sure if they were right though, same scale at the track but maybe something screwed them up over the winter. I just don't see it weighing the same. A little update on what's been going on. Plugs looked a little light so I did a jet increase in the front carb from a 61 to a 63 and lowered the floats a tad to try and help a hot start issue. The car fell down across the board, went from a 7.15 to a 7.25 and lost a tenth on 60ft and one mph. I put the 61 back in and car fell on it's face after the wheelie, like it was out of fuel but mph was right back at the other end. My 60fts dropped horrible to 1.6's from a 1.51 before I messed with the jetting, the et was a 7.42 way off ! I raised the floats back up and the car went 7.13 but the stumble was still there but not as much with a 1.54 60ft. I will raise the floats a bit higher and hope to get back to my old 1.51 60 fts and also lower the timing back to 34 all in from the current 36 to see if that helps the hot starting issue. You would think with more float height it would have liked the bigger jet, but just shows that paper math doesn't always work on the track.
We wrapped a set of 1 3/4 primarie tube Heddman Headers for one of our 55's. Its more of a street car, but the wrap cooked the headers so bad all the first bends in the primaries Melted/blew out big time. New headers, no wrap now. Since yours is a drag car and no mufflers, hopefully this won't happen. Sorry to hear about your dad, lost ours two years ago this October. August 12th is a little harder, we both had the same birthday.
I just welded up a new frankenstein exhaust for the street with my old Speedway auger style baffle inside a gutted glass pack case. Now you got me thinking, damn you..lol
Sorry brother, but I hate to se ya kill your headers. Ours were off the shelf items, not real heavy duty, barely $200 bucks new. It was more of a nuisance than any thing. My brother drove the car to work for a couple weeks ( think L.A. traffic, and it killed em pretty quick. The new set (same header from Heddman)got alumacoated, and have been on there for 10-15 years
An old formula ford racer I used to work with said that header wrap holds to much heat in and will cause the tubes to be brittle and crack. They were running a lot of rpm though and probably ragged edge of lean too.
I have had the same wrap on an OT car for 8 years and no melting of anything or rusting or any other problem. However read the instructions that come with it and there MAY be problems with the area of overlap. Too thick (too many layers in the same area) MAY cause hot spotting.
Well it's defiantly cooler working around the engine that's for sure. Maybe later on I will get these headers coated, if they were just off the shelf items it would be a lot nicer...lol
I've driven front and rear engine dradsters with zoomie and collector headers in 107 deg' ambient heat conditions, and never have the headers added to any discomfort. If you are suffering from header related in car heat, in your enclosed car, then try using some of the heat resistant floor board pads that they use in circle track racing. A properly coated header gets coated on the inside as well which will prolong header life. All I was getting at is from one one of my very own experiences, wrapping an economy type header (lighter guage tubing) will decrease its life expectancy. If you think wrapping your headers will keep you from crashing your car while backing it up after the burn out, then go your hardest and get wrapping. By the way, I watched the video of that crash. If the guy was passed out, and the shifter is supposed to have a reverse lock out, how did the trans go from reverse back into a forward gear from an unconsious driver?
I also had a lot of interior heat transfer through the floors from my fenderwell headers. Once I put insulating mat on the floors the heat inside (even in the hot summer) was reduced by probably 30 degrees or more.
Still messing with trying to cure the hot start issue. I replaced the needle and seats, also the power valves and the coil...no luck. When I was in there I dropped the jets from 61's down to 60's and brought the spark plug gap up to .45 from .40, car went 7.24 . I pulled the front plug on each side which seem to be always rich, back 4 always run cleaner on this thing. Those front two plugs were way lean, so I replaced the jets in the front carb from the 60's to 63's. I gave it a little longer burnout and the car ran it's fastest pass ever with a 7.08 with a 1.50 60ft. Next pass a shorter burnout back to a 1.53 60ft and a freaking 7.20...uuggghhh ! First rd I did the longer burnout back to a 1.50 60ft and ran a 7.12 peddling at top end. 2nd rd big burnout 1.51 60ft car falls off between 330ft - 1/8 mi and it runs a damn 7.20 I'll continue to beat my head on the wall.......uuggghhhh !
Have you got an ignition cutoff switch Phil? If not try wiring one in, and then cut the ignition/coil power when cranking hot. After you start the crank, then hit the switch and see if that helps the hard start when hot. I've done this on a couple cars with the same problem and it fixed it.
Not really any updates so to speak, putting the car in the Calvacade Car Show here in March,it will be in the Gasser Gang of WNY display. My next move is to build a new chassis which I already have the Speedway complete gasser front axle setup sitting in the garage. I picked up a roached out stock Henry J frame to use as a template, so everything fits back in it's proper place. I traded my 8 1/2 slots that the slicks were on for a pair of 10's, not much going on with it.
That is how we wire all our drag cars, makes it start when hot or if the battery is a bit tired. Merry Christmas
What's wrong with the stock frame? They are already boxed. They were used as stunt cars so I'd think they'd be pretty strong. I did have one that had rusted through.
Clik, this frame already had a couple plates welded to each side to cover up something. Also once on a lift the feet of the lift was on the overlayed section of the frame and one section of the overlay was flexing. The stock frame is boxed but not fully welded, just a series of stitch welds like all 50's car have. Every time I tied the car down I was looking at the frame to see if anything was going on. I know the car didn't really flex and left nice and even. But for piece of mind I'm just going to replace everything instead of just loping off the front frame rails for the straight axle conversion. If this was a nice solid rust free frame, I would have no problem using it.
The stich welds just keep one piece inside of the other as I remember, they really don't need to be anything more. But if your frame is badly rusted....
A little update after taking the year off from racing, pounded the streets with it in this form I finished my shovelhead rebuild early summer and then back to car stuff I decided to do a blower motor for my truck and while caught up in the big block bug, I also decided to switch the Henry J over to big block as well. I should have a new chassis built over the winter and this is the new 489 that will motorvate the J. Other than that, I just had emergency pacemaker surgery 3 weeks ago do to a short circuit in a communication nerve between the two sides of the heart. No communication no beating of the heart, you fall down and go boom.
Glad to hear you've got the pacemaker and things are firing on all cylinders! The blown BBC should really take the J to a new level!
Not to fast now, the 540 blower motor is for the old black truck in the above photo. The J will stay a little simpler …ha ha
Sorry to hear about the heart issues. Glad the pacemaker install went well. Funny how the narrow view of a forum gives you a wrong perception. Always had you pegged as a - low buck-make the home grown stuff work - kind of Hot Rod / Gasser junky. Maybe brush painting the J had something to do with that. (Atta boy by the way) One picture and suddenly I'm informed you have a cool hot rod T and a seriously cool Willys pu... and a totally cool old/new school bike. (I'm so jealous about all of it) I now realize you are a completely and totally wacked gasser and hot rod junky. You obviously need more room in the garage so you should immediately sell me the Willys for some ridiculously low price - just because. (I'll even come get it... Next Sunday ok ?)
You won't want that old truck once you find out it's a chevy…..ha ha http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/41-truck-progress-update.434746/#post-4768797 it's just been modified a bit
p.s. : the 489 isn't brand new, just new to me, it was a mud motor that had 7 runs on it. I do have to say that it's not as rowdy sounding as I thought it would be for a 600hp/600tq motor with a 294/619 cam. I have swapped the pro comp intake it came with for the Holley Strip-dominator and added a 850dp I had.
The Jalopy Journal
