Projects My Model A Truck will soon Scream under new Power

A gentleman by the name of Dave Burke from Michigan sent me some short you-tube video of me playing with the Truck last weekend up at Milan DragStrip.......I think the first one is of my first burnout and the second is of me getting trigger happy off the line which was my 2 nd run........I had one more complete run, then a fourth burn out and then they shut me down at the line due to trans fluid left after the burn out......That's why my engine and trans is back out of the Truck to look at the trans.........At first I thought I cracked the case ...but that looks good.....will have to look inside to see what's up..Thanks Dave for sending me the links and taking the time !...Littleman

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Hey Dave, You're mentioned in the latest Iowahawk blog. Check it out.

http://iowahawk.typepad.com/iowahawk/

 

Thanks seadog, I have never heard of that blog before......It's filled w/ Hambers....I will say I do not belong on the same page w/ most of them.............Littleman Dave

 

To answer some pm's in one shot........It had a 1.475 ,60' time just by foot braking it in the video...It's actually the best 60' for the Truck to this date.......Littleman

 

Your a bad ass.

Wish you were in Austin for the Round Up!!

 

Amazing looking work on the carbs man, makes me wish I would have kept the 98s that I had layin arond instead of shipping them off to sweden, oh well guess Ill have to play with the holley.

 

Quick update on the carb's.......I finally have the upper venturi area's on all six polished as far as I am going to take them..they have a mirror like finish, it's hard to tell in the pics...These old castings have allot of marks and blemishes that need worked out.......next I start modifying the squirters and nozzle bars, I plan on attempting to make them more aerodynamic and give them a full polish as well......Littleman

 

Dave, do you have a flow-bench available to record the differences from stock-to-modified in airflow? .... or are you going to just do it the old fashion way of using the E.T. slip and MPH clocks ?
Glenn

 

Glenn.........The old fashion way......The DragStrip.........Dave

 

What gear are you running?

I am changing mine this weekend from a 4.11 to 4.86.

 

killer Dave...

 

Glen........as of right now a 4.88 is in the old Pontiac rearend.........Dave

 

I finished polishing all [12] nozzle bars and acclerator pump discharge nozzles.....it takes about 1 hour to do one nozzle bar x 12 each and one squirter x 6 each........Littleman.....I cannot wait to try this stuff out...

 

I have a few 94 carbs, that someone long ago took the top of the carb body...the part that holds the float......and milled and or cut the upper stack.....they cut off the upper 1'' or so where the air scoops set screws would have tighten against..........I guess one reason would be lack of room, tight quarters.........But I am wondering what the affect would be or another possible reason they would have done this.........Littleman

 

Congratulations... You made "Iowahawks" Blog... Now that's notoriety right there!!!

Of course "Stinky" the Austin bum is on there as well!!!! Hahaha...!!!!

"1.47 sixty footers... That's Hookin"!!!

About your carbs... you might think of velocity stacks or something to control the airflow over the top of them... my old Roadster ran good with velocity stacks but ran almost a half second faster when I ran the hood for that very reason!

Not as fast as your truck but the Best run of 10.92 at 123 mph with sticky street radials!

 

Lot of turbulence up there. That extra inch that is cutoff would be what you need to straighten your airflow. Think velocity stack to Funnel air in. As a matter of fact you have me wondering what would happen if you put that Velocity stack on the shortend throat.....increased flow with less restriction d/t length of the throat diameter is shortened?????I do know one thing, when you run your carbs open (like you do) ALOT of the air goes past and around the carbs instead of down them

 

I think it's time to make a sheetmetal cover thats about 3'' above the carbs, like Garlits did on his six-two digger along with others that did the same thing......It would cut down some of the turbulence .....and maybe give the carbs a chance for some clean air...........I should also fab up the opposite, build a scoop to grab the air and shove it down it's throat.....make a few runs with each and compare........Littleman

 

Your YouTube vids above are cool! That truck launches nice and straight!
I bet that's a wild ride!

It's cool how you aligned all your carb bodies,parts and tools in surgical procession.
That's telling...The way you do one thing is the way you do all things.
Very neat and clean.Nice.

 

I had the Truck out this past weekend, it ran 11.20's-11.30's......I am still searching for the combination.....went out with fellow Slick Devil members and had allot of fun @ QuakerCity DragStrip.......I new problem has definatly cropped up.....The front suspension does what I call a deathwobble 60' or so off the line, due to the load and unload of the chassis and the Trucks new found power..It is really starting to twist the chassis and carry's the front driver's side wheel every once in a while..I have a front steering stabilizer coming to put on to see if that helps....It's like driving a jack hammer for a moment, I had to back out of it once it was so bad..It's almost time to build a real DragCar ! The Truck needs to survive the summer then it's retired from the Track......I have it almost ready to go back out.....Brian from the Slick Devils came over last night and we scaled and weighed the Truck.....It was 2,437 w/ me in it.........We also scaled DeathsDoorStep and it was 2,315 w/ me in it, but it still needs finished....I was happy it was still fairly light..I feared it was alreay over 2,800 lbs.............Littleman

 

Dave,
Were your 60-foot times still in the 1.47 range ?

 

Glenn, it dropped off to low 1.5's.......I made a big jet size change...I gave it allot of fuel this time out...maybe too much. I am looking to get it into the 10's again soon....it will happen in time, if I make the right choices and not chase my tail which is real easy to do with this setup...at times it will give you conflicting info....Dave

 

I always thought the main reason for the carb covers was to keep out the debris that the slicks would kick up when they got sticky especially when towing the car through the unpaved pits they had in the old days.

 

I figured out why I lost in the final round in my class last weekend at Quaker City Drag Wars race..and it still sounded great while running.....Littleman

This pushrod went on strike......

 

hahahaah Mr. distructo!!


Thanks for the tees!!! that was really cool of you.. I'll were them with pride!!!

P.

 

ouch, that sux. tear anything else up in the process?

 

I need as of now to buy a pushrod and one aluminum rocker....still need to do a leak-down test on this cylinder to make sure it did not hurt the valve.........Littleman

 

ya 10-4, hope nothin else got hurt

 

From the way it broke I take it that it WAS heat treated chromoly?

What brand rocker?

Crane Gold series is the way to go once you started upping spring pressures. Harland Sharp and Scorpions also good but have a slightly lower threshold for abuse, both are still a good product.

Are you running 1.5's or 1.6's and did you check all the clearances (especially with the 1.6's) since you shaved the heads? I don't mean just valve to piston, but also pushrod length, angle and guide interference? Valve spring coil to bind? One small change can have a big effect on Valve Train Geometry.

I found out the hard way, busted roller rocker, bent valve, cracked head, hole in a forged piston, bent rod and shrapnel ALL over from running too tight of clearances and no revlimiter! Pisser was I checked everything during assembly. Motor lived quite well....until I winged it way past redline once. KABOOM rear cylinder on a bike....aimed towards the jewels!!!!

If this was a street car I'd pop a 'rod and rocker in it and let her go, but since this is not the case I'd pop that head to check things out.....cheap insurance.

On the other hand good to see that answers one BIG question you've had on your mind....(and in a fading background voice....Altered....altered....altered)

 

Hey Curly, Its a moly Manley pushrod, I may be able to fix the rocker..I hope....I found the pushrod in the lifter valley and no other small bits, just the two that match perfectly....These pushrods are to special length to this set up after the -.030'' off the head and bolted back on measured and ordered after what size was figured that was needed..This was a polylock issue......I got real lucky with this one, could have been much worse....I do not mind...it comes w/ the territory....I took the Truck to an industrial area that I knew would be empty Saturday..off loaded it w/ the idea to figure out where the stall converter was flashing...so I could pull out later the entire engine and trans so I could take the converter to have the stall adjusted..to optimise the setup.....It ran great into the trailer, but after off loaded and rolling in a straight line..I shifted the manual shift body from 1 to 2nd and into 3rd rolling about 20 mph and stood on it to read the tact to see when the converters stall was about....It really ran terrible and I could see fuel dancing above cylinder two's carb.....Got it home and off loaded running great, you could rev it no problem, sounded evil...got out the heat gun and started checking the header pipe temps and found that #2 was way cold..I ran thru the basics plug ect......then pulled the cover and saw I was missing a pushrod...Put the whole thing in the air and tore it down...............Good times, Littleman

 

littleman = legend! your cars are so good and ol skool!

much respect, matt .UK.