GASSER MUST HAVES and cant haves?

Some very sanitary front ends here. Great ideas for when I do mine.

 

I found an old aluminium cool can in a****st a load of stuff at the weekend, its actually got a 1966 date on it, made me wonder if they got used on g***ers ?

 

If I remember correctly (take it for what it's worth), they were used on a lot of carbureted engines. I really don't remember seeing them on engines with injectors.

 

I've often wondered why cool cans seemed to disappear in racing, even with carbed cars? At one time every carbureted car at the drags was running a cool can, then suddenly they disappeared.

 

Don't know why they stopped

Fuel/Air: Any method of artificially cooling or heating fuel prohibited (i.e., cool cans, Freon, wet rags, etc.), except as noted in Cl*** Requirements. Cool cans, wet towels, etc. are permitted in Super Stock, Stock, Super Comp, Super Gas, Super Street, and E.T. cl***es. Wet towels, rags, ice, etc. must be removed before vehicle leaves staging area. Ambient-temperature air only; cooling or otherwise changing the conditions of the intake air is prohibited. Spraying of intake with any artificial spray or coolant prohibited.

 

It sounds like it's still allowed in the cl***es you noted Phil, but I don't see them on any cars when I hit the weekly drags during the season. Just wondered why they seemed to totally disappear, especially if the other cl***es still allow them. Or am I misreading this? Does it mean that even if allowed the ice has to be removed before a run?

 

I don't really remember seeing the Aluminum Cool Cans being available and popular until the 1980's. anyone remember them earlier, or have pics.

 

I don't have pics, but I raced my '71 427 Camaro from 1973-89, and put a cool can on it in around '75-'76 time period. It really did make the car perform better in hot days. Can't say as I noticed any difference on cooler days.

 

Ice does'nt have to be removed from the cool cans just the ice packs and towels that guy's pack on their intakes. Also the ones I saw at Indy this year were plastic.

 

The cool cans leaked water and I think that's what ended them. We were running them when I got drafted in 1966 and when I got back in 1968 there weren't many left.

 

we messed with it in 1969...
and even tried the dry ice -n- alcohol.

 

I'm pretty sure I have a picture of Landy's 65 AWB Dodge with one before he went injected. I will look tonight.

MELTDOWN DRAGS
JULY 18-20 2014

 

We used home made cool cans in the 70's made from coffee cans. Probably part of the reason they got banned. You can see one peaking up here (white). To give you a time line, I got rid of the Vega around 1976.

 

The Grump had one on his first Vega Pro Stock ('71?), and I'm pretty sure on the '69 & '70 Camaro's before it. I had one on my first street/bracket car. I had the jetting etc. really, sorted out well. First time I tried the cool can the car instantly slowed down. I figured I could change the tune for the cool can, but then I'd always have to maintain it between rounds, and didn't see the point. My brother-n-law and some friends race Stock/Super Stock today, and most don't mess with it as its worth a couple hundredths at best, NHRA adds weight/refactors HP rating to your combo if you run more than a second under you cl*** index which most guys can, so usually its not worth the mess. In heads up cl*** eliminations, if someone is a little slower than there next foe, then you may see the ice/towels etc. come out. Most Pro Stockers today and some Comp Elim. cars pump icy slush water thru the engines before they run, and leave the starting line at 60-80 degrees, better add a couple thousandths of piston to wall clearance for this though or you'll black death some skirts.

 

My first cool can was homemade also. I used a 1 gal. paint can and bent up copper tubing around a piece of old pipe to make the coils. I brought the end up to the top so both inlet and outlet were high on the side of the can. Used the lid that came with it when I bought it from the local paint store to keep water from splashing out the top. The lid was a pain to tap on and pry off, so I went to a professionally built can with latches to hold the lid on. Ran that one right up until I stopped racing in 1989.

 

This is Landy from 68.

MELTDOWN DRAGS
JULY 18-20 2014

 

That was my thought on why they fell from popularity, leaky, sweaty, drippy, slippy!

 

ran one in the mid sixties --- Mr Gasket i think...

 

Actually, Cool cans were commercially available starting in the late 60's. Mr. Gasket and Eelco were some of the early sources. They were quite popular here in N.E. Ohio all throughout the 70's and 80's on drag and street cars. I just scanned what I had nearby, so here are 69 Eelco, 71 Mr Gasket and 72 Midwest Auto Specialties catalog pages. Notice that the Eelco is made of orange colored plastic and has their famous "foot" logo molded in. The earliest home-made cool can that I remember seeing was on one of Dave Koffel's Flintstone Flyer cars in the mid 60's and it was fashioned from one of those old insulated milk boxes that the milkman would leave the milk in on the porch!

 

I've seen some that were wrapped in cork from the manufacturer.. I think they were Moroso. I'd guess it was to combat the sweating/dripping/leaking problem the aluminum ones had from condensation.
Not sure of the year, but nobody has mentioned the cork versions yet.

-Brad

 

Yes, the Moroso "insulated" cool cans, wrapped in insulating cork, mid 70's. Scan from a late 70's Summit Racing Equipment catalog.

 

Sweet! Those are the ones I was thinking about.

-Brad

 

Cool, that's what I wanted to see. like I said, I wasn't sure.

 

Here is what appears to be a cool can in Kelly Chadwicks Chevelle AWB car in the Dec. 1965 issue of drag racing.

MELTDOWN DRAGS
JULY 18-20 2014

 

This is in Jay Broderick's 1966 A/SA coronet. It's featured in the July 1967 Drag Parts Illustrated. I have not found a single picture of one on a Gas cl*** car, but I wouldn't doubt they were used.

MELTDOWN DRAGS
JULY 18-20 2014

 

This one is in Les Ritchey's A/FX Mustang in the Sept. 1965 Hot Rod.

MELTDOWN DRAGS
JULY 18-20 2014

 

Baron: Thanks for the compliment..I liked going to Rhinebeck in september, color full two hour ride on the "back" roads, wife liked that show..When it was moved to July I sort of lost interest..Haven't been to West Springfield, MA. yet..Maybe 2014...

 

Here is the one in **** Landy's AWB 1965 Dodge. Its kind of hidden down in front of the radiator. June 1965 Hot Rod.

MELTDOWN DRAGS
JULY 18-20 2014

 

The one I have is a Mr Gasket made one

 

Thats good to see Steve, the one I have is a Mr Gasket and looks exactly like the pic you posted except it has copper tube coil inside instead of aluminium.