FLATCAD RACING Bonneville 2011 Build

Buddy, Looks like things are starting to roll ! Will be checking updates as they happen. If you do an El Mirage run I will provide you lunch or breakfast - your choice. My chorizo breakfast burritos are to die for . . . O.K, they are really good.

 

Shannon, it looks like about Christmas.Trying to get all the suspension, drivetrain, brakes, clutch, gauges, etc. done first.

Thanks Dave! I don't think I've ever turned down a free meal!


Hmmm- we still need a painter on the team......

 

Watching, with much interest!

 

I thought I'd share this pic. This is team member Pete1.

How cool will it be to see this pic, hanging next to the 2011 pic?!

 

looks fun! I know I have said it before, but is it august yet!?

 

Here's a sneek peek of the intake manifold in development of the FlatCad.

 

OK ... I am offically a fan.

Also, am I the only one thinking ...

La Salle tow vehicle ???!!!???

 

Nice looking stuff Roy! I like how you're using curved pieces of aluminum and now making a bunch of 'dead' corners. Will it have an angled plenum floor -- a peak in the middle? I'll send you some eMails on some other details of the block plate for the top (what we need to tie the block together).

 

Front end is in, and the car now has a new stance. This is how the car sits with 28" tires in the back, and 25" in the front.

and no, that's not my shop.

 

Lookin real mean. That chop will do it nicely. 4 wheel disk?

 

She's going to be BAD TO THE BONE!

 

Here's the latest stance, with front and rear suspension installed, 25" tires on the front, 28" on the rear.

 

Dang, you've got a ways to go.

Don't let me beat ya!

 

Looks good sittin out there!

 

189.75" Rules draw the line at 190" I wanted a buffer incase someone cant read a tape just perfect.

I see both sides. I share too much, and in offroad it has bit me more than once. And I've made some guy into enemys of mine because of the mistrust or taking advantage of my sharing nature. With the RMR build, it never saw the light of day or flash from a camara until it had the body on it. If someone was to walk up and ask questions I'm more than happy to answer. Its when they sneak over at night with a tape measure or pair of calipers and go to copying everything you've spent a lot of time, money, thought, and sleepless nights solving.

I've got a buddy that was trying to solve a driveline vibe on his desert car, and happened to have a chance to peek under Robbie Gordons Trophy Truck recently to see how they may or may not have solved the same issue. About the time his knee hit the ground next to the truck to swing his head under one of the mechanics came sprinting at him and ran him off. Was actually pretty funny to watch.

My old offroad car that I sold last spring, I'll share whatever anyone in that genre wants to know now that its gone, but my new one I'm building is all about clandestine.

Its just racing, nothing personal. ha lol Its all personal.

 

Good news! The FlatCad Racing support shirts are now available!

These are designed by Dart165 and Keeper, and printed by Oddrodgarage. Thanks guys!

C'mon, you KNOW it's a good cause!

http://www.flatcaddy.com/products/list.php

 

Great Build!! Thanks for sharing.

 

Cool shirt - nice work, should look good on my grossly over-developed and manly body Hope black is "slimming" like they say!

 

Are there any pics of how the engine will look when its all said and done?

 

No, because I don't think a lot of the stuff has been done to a FlatCad before. I'll try and explain some of the stuff, though.

The traditional; FlatCad has 3 exhaust pipes, like the first pic. Ours will have four, like the second pic. The second pic is as close as I can come to what ours will look like. The 3-5 pics are a mockup, before I decided to make a race engine.

In addition, there will be a Donovan gear drive on the front, with an angle drive magneto.Heads will look similar to the mockup pics. There will be a 4" intercooler on top of the intake, topped with a 6-71 blower. On top of the blower, there will be a mechanical injection Enderle bug catcher.

There will be no alternator.

****** will be a Muncie 4 speed.

Does this help?

 

Great lookin' t-shirts. Order sent.

 

Thanks!

BTW, that avator is freaky!

 

Buddy, Will be getting with you after the first of Dec. To order a couple of the shirts. Design is looking pretty darn cool.

 

Intake manifold ready for weld.

 

You're welcome, and.............yeah, ain't it?

 

Roy - you do some very fine work! I can't wait to bolt that ****er up to the intake plate . . . and even better, wait till we start this beast - it should snarl a bit! Medusa has less snakes on her head than this bad dog

 

Yes, Roy, that's going to be awesome-Thanks!

Dale, how about telling everyone some of the 'trick' stuff they can expect to see in the engine build?

 

Okay Gang - Time to Share Some of the Details on the FlatCad Engine Build:

Background:

Before I begin, would like to preface the conversation/build with the fact that none of us have ever built a FlatCad . . . yet we're designing the engine for one the toughest applications there is, the Bonneville Salt Flats.

This engine needs to be able to run for a couple minutes at continuous full throttle . . . not just a few seconds on the strip. Are we doing exactly the right thing - who the hell knows Do we have a wide range of Flathead, engine design and racing experience from all corners of the USA, yep . . . will it work? . . . guess we'll find out.

Basic Build Overview:

I won't give all the intimate details -- first, because it would take too damn long and second - don't want to give away ALL that we're doing . . . at least until we have a chance to race the damn thing. I will share the basic design ideas, parts that we're making (or will have made), etc.. You'll see that the only thing in the engine that came in the engine is the block.

1) Biggest Challenge to Overcome - Keeping it Together!

The FlatCad is a beast of an engine . . . has a huge crankshaft (90+ lbs), has a rod length of 8.750 inches (yep, you heard right!), 3 main bearings (like a flathead Ford), no material in the intake valley to hold the sides together, etc.. I'm not worried that we'll make horsepower -- the real engineering challenge is to keep the block and lower-end together with probably 3 - 4X the original horsepower and a red-line RPM (we hope!) of between 5500 and 6000 RPM. Originally this engine was a LOW RPM torque monster, had little compression and put out about 150 HP.

So . . . here is how we're setting up the lower end:

1) Crankshaft - Billet Steel, Crower: We're having a custom billet crankshaft made - with 3 main bearings like the original, but different journal diameters for the mains and rods. We're also changing both the front snout of the crankshaft and the rear flange to a more modern setup. This makes it possible to buy blower drives, flywheels, etc..

2) Rods - Billet Steel, Crower or Oliver: The rods will also be billet steel and custom made to match the crankshaft - and will utilize modern bearing sizes, etc.. They will still be 8.750 length -- as that is what the deck height needs. We're exploring whether or not we can include wrist pin oiling - as the pistons are a LONG way from the crankshaft. The original FlatCad rods used pressurized pin oiling as well.

3) Pistons - Forged Aluminum, Venolia: Given the above, about the easiest part of the rotating ***embly is the pistons. Once we know our compression height - we'll specify what we want and order them from somebody like Venolia.

4) Steel Main Caps - Main Support Girdle: The block is a big *******, but it only has 3 mains and we'll be pouring the boost to it. The block pan rails, extend past the main bearing mounting point - like a 426 Hemi, Donovan 417, etc.. We are designing a 1" thick steel girdle that will pickup the entire pan rail and all three main caps (kind of like a Donovan 417). The main caps will use 9/16 studs that go all the way through the girdle and the stud nuts will tighten on the surface of the girdle. The caps will be custom made out of steel as well - the tops of the caps will be flush with the bottom of the girdle, with a slight 'crush' fit.

5) Oiling System - Dry Sump, Priority Mains: Given all the custom parts, the last thing we wanted to do was drive an original oil pump in the pan. Also, getting as much of the oil away from the crank as possible will result in HP gains. We'll be using a 3 stage dry-sump setup (Barnes) with an accessory drive water pump on the same shaft. The oil pan will be custom made out of aluminum - it will bolt to the bottom of the steel girdle. The FlatCad has a nice oiling setup -- the main oil galley goes down the side of the block and feeds the main bearings first . . . guess 'priority main oiling' was nothing new to these boys

---------------------------------------------

That is it for this evening . . . need to get some more CAD work done and get some more parts made.

Pictures ??? . . . don't have any other than the bare block, will post some detailed ones tomorrow evening so you can see what the stock block and lower end are all about.

Tune back in mid-week, I'll talk a bit about the top-end, valves and ports of the FlatCad.

 

Bored&Stroked, sounds awesome, huh?

Car is blown apart, and at the bead blasters. We'll finish the frame up, and paint it first. I'll have pics in a couple of days.

In the meantime, here's a 'blueprint' print, that Dart165 did for us.There will be a series of three, one for each cl***!

 

That's gonna be one ***y Cadoo!