rebuilding after the crash

The three parts make one gear set. This set is a 34 percent gear. Multiplied by my first case of 44 percent times my second case ratio of 24 percent I come up with a 1.78 first gear ratio. I removed a 34 percent front case ratio that gave me a 1.67 first gear. The 60 foot will go back to what it was a 1.14 on a good track.

 

Ahh yessss,,,,,,,,Planetaries !

The beautiful Lenco !
What a great design,,,,,strong as a team of horses !,,,,,and can be switched to change gear ratios.
A Nitro Elephant,,,,,sending power to a team of horses,,,,it doesn’t get any better .

Tommy

 

So I was actually trying to figure out how these worked the other day after seeing a youtube video about one. Looks like when you pull a lever you're actually removing a gear from the overall gear reduction and making that specific planetary set go from 1.XX : 1 to direct drive, until eventually all the levers are pulled and it's all 1:1 through the trans. Am I close?

 

That's it.

 

I'm in Iowa this weekend getting some things done. First up is decking the block. The sleeves stick up above the block by .025 when fully seated. The sleeves are really hard so passes of .005 are made. The block is placed in the machine. A indicator is used to square the block. After the sleeves are brought down a cut of .001 is done.
Next up is cutting receiver grooves. I use a Isky groove amatic tool. This tool works great. I wouldn't use it for the wire receiver grooves. It's not accurate enough for that. Alot of oil is needed to prevent chatter. A de burning tool is used on all the holes. The head will go on with a pair of valves without springs. From underneath the block I will look at the valve clearance to the sleeve. The sleeve will get marked for grinding.

 

Say hello to Roger for me! Hopefully I will see him next month at Wild Wade's swap meet.

 

I told him. Tomorrow's fun starts at 8am. We be driving 2hrs to pick up a few drums of nitro. The block needs just a little clearance on the bottom of the sleeves and that part is done.
All of the exhaust liners need to be replaced. They really take a beating. They are short and along with the not so perfect geometry they wear out fast with 340 pounds on the seat. A fresh valve job and it's on to a 5 plus hr ride home. It sure feels good to do hemi stuff again.

 

No question, it takes a major commitment to do Nitro! This isn't for the weak at heart or weekend players!

 

It's still fun and I still get exited about putting another engine together for the upcoming season. It's a big commitment to do. I forget all about it the first time I roll it over to the nitro side. There's just something magical about it. It never gets old.

 

You have a lot of faith in mechanical parts. Go Man Go

 

I stopped and got two barrels of the good stuff right away in the morning. Then it was on to checking valve springs. One spring was junk. Installed at 1.950 height the pressure is 340 lbs. Anything under 320 gets tossed. The valves were cut. Two intake and two exhaust were tossed out. They had clipped each other. During the last pass of the season the rpm went to 8500. The stator was too loose. It must have happened then.
All of the exhaust liners were changed. All of the seats ground. It's a busy day.

 

The intake side of the sleeve needs valve clearance. The head is placed on the block with the valve in the guide with no spring. Looking up from underneath its easy to see what's going on. The valve won't go to the seat. The sleeve is marked and ground. Checking for clearance with a extra .050 is the goal. I'm re using the head gaskets so this step was already done. Two areas of concern when grinding are the area going into the receiver groove. The other is were the top ring is in the bore TDC.

 

This is what I mean by a clipped valve. The springs couldn't keep up to the rpm. On a hemi the valves move toward each other. The valves start to beat each other up. They end up looking like this. Whenever this is seen the springs must be checked. The valves need to be checked for straightness. The exhaust valves can be straightened the intakes are junk.

 

Interesting as hell as always. Drive very carefully with that pickup load.

 

It's just before midnight and I made it home. We finished up early for once.

 

The plan is to get the block to a shop in Kenosha to put a finish hone in it asap. The sleeves are so hard only a diamond cutter will work. While thats being done i will assemble the heads. The short block will start going together this weekend if everything goes as planned. I'm on emergency call starting Friday for a week. I hope it's slow at the hospital so I can get things done. It's a fine balance between making money and making progress. I recently found this quote it surely applies to nitro racers.

 

I assume you use copper head gaskets. How do you seal the water jackets for street use? I tried 3 different types of goop around the passages and still had water in the cylinders.

 

It took a while to figure out how to get it to seal.
I use plain silicone on both sides of the copper gasket.
The wire on the head is usually set around .017 above the deck. I tried that and it doesn't work well with water. We set it at .010 and it works better.
The center five studs went from half inch to nine sixteenth. The torque value went from 100 lbs up to 135 lbs.
The exhaust side has around ten studs and the intake has four. The head can get cocked on the deck because of this. I torque the centers first. Then the inners to forty lbs. Then the exhaust to 40. Back to the inners to 70. Then exhaust to 100 lbs.
If there is any weaping I add blue devil to the radiator.
I have tried so many things over the years and this has worked best for me.
A work of caution dont get too crazy with the silicone. The steam holes; oil passages etc can get plugged up.

 

Brian have you ever used hylomar that is what we used on the copper head gaskets on out Bonneville car and we also backed off the wire to .010 sometimes more is not better the hylomar worked very well and we never had a leak

 

I have not. I am familiar with the product. They now have a spray. I bought some at the pri show. I will be trying it.

 

By chance do you recall which Hylomar product you used? I see they have have several Non-setting joint compounds as well as Silicone sealants. Seems an RTV Silicone product might not be the best choice. Inquiring minds want to know. Thanks

 

The hylomar does not set up hard like silicone. It's easily removed with solvents. The silicone takes work to remove. I think the spray is the way to go for a even application.

 

I agree Brian, I used a hylomar sealant on big Cat diesel engines for years and years, never had a problem. I have also used it on my coupe, all good.

 

It's very similar to Honda bond.

 

I tried Hondabond, Yamabond, and a red Loctite product for case halves. My wires are at .010" above the deck. Always lost water. Last time I tore down I had rust on 2 cylinders.

 

I used it on my new flathead caddy blower motor I just spray an even coat on each side of the gasket let it tack up and then install the cylinder head and torque properly that’s what we always done on the Bonneville car and it works real good also when you take it apart you can just use Solvent to remove and reapply when reinstalling

 

I see that a photo of your SFC in it's former build was used for a jigsaw puzzle, I ran across it on an online jigsaw site so I had to solve the puzzle!

 

That pic was taken only weeks before the big crash. I still like the way the car looks at that time.

 

A thought on coolant leak @/between block & head coolant from entering cylinders also milk shaken oil by keeping cylinder pressure from Pressurizing coolant @'block & heads.
I think you could block off coolant passages between block & head, circulate coolant threw block,enter front ,exit @ back,( or vise verse) each side ,the same with heads?
It would add alot of extra pluming,thought , experimenting , To accomplished with a mix , #8, 10, 12 size .

or maybe SS O ring all coolant passages? ( head & Block) piercing both sides of the cooper head gasket.

 

They do offer gaskets with the o ring material. The only problem with them they are one time use gaskets. The o ring material comes off the gasket. Regardless of how the water is routed there will always be communication between the block and head. The things I do have worked out for me. It's all about careful prep and proper torque.