Glad you are feeling better. Definitely shows your experience of timing the inspection in the correct sequence. I've seen the tears on fully finished rides failing something minor, and needing to back up a lot of steps to fix it. So now on to paint and assembly?
First off this is probably the coolest build thread I've ever read on the hamb. I haven't logged on in about a year and found this yesterday. I ended up reading the entire thing. I applaud you guys that run nitro. It really is a crazy step. Your thread shows what it really takes run a fuel car from the safety aspect, to talented people involved, the pure amount of extra work and dedication. I'm really intrigued in your setup because I also have an idea for a dual fuel system, all though Gas/methanol. What kind of power levels are you expecting on fuel? Do you have concerns of reliability using a factory block with water jackets and not a Donovan block? Will you be swapping pulleys? So you don't get a little over jealous on the street and break parts when your on 89 octane? I loved this car before and it's going to be even better now. Keep up the great work.!
im not worried about the block at all. they can handle a lot of hp. the problem with the donovan is you can't run water in it. over the years several big names have tried. they all failed. on the street we run 93 octane with 15lbs of boost. the fast ecu retards the spark based on the map sensors input. due to the way the cam is installed for nitro I'm giving up a lot of cylinder pressure. along with the alum heads i can get away with more boost. its not the ideal street setup but it will allow me to do the nitro boogie at the track when i want to. its all a big compromise.
Hauling the car on a open trailer in a snow storm caused a huge mess. The rearend was bare steel. It flash rusted with the road salt. The rear wheels looked horrible. Luckily i had treated the frame with gibbs so it didnt rust. The rearend came out while car was still on the trailer. It got acid etched then epoxy primed then painted. I used single stage that was put in a spray can. The wheels were completely polished back to new. Lots of elbow grease. Weather permitting it goes back to jim monday.
A few more things got done today. A radiator was mocked up out of cardboard. This will be shipped to georgia for jim walker to make a cross flow aluminium radiator. The rear disc brakes went on after the new caliper brackets came in. Some how the brackets got bent in the crash. The calipers were pressure checked and the hats with the rotors on were put in the lathe to check the runout. Next up was a pump saver fuel line. When you lift after going full throttle the fuel pressure can spike so high it can swell a cast pump making it junk. With the extra line the fuel is returned to the inlet side of the pump. The drive shaft was measured and dropped off to be shortened a few inches. I think that was enough for today. View attachment 3184250 View attachment 3184251 View attachment 3184253 View attachment 3184250 View attachment 3184251 View attachment 3184253
I was on emergency on call for my department at the hospital for the past week. Now its back on the car. i got the pinion angle set using jims cool old bubble gauge. then the spacers on the shocks were taken out so the car could be lowered so they bottom out. this was done to make sure the driveshaft would clear the cross member. The gas tank was modified to fit the frame. I painted it and put it back in. A mount was made for the pump. I made all of the fuel lines for the efi side today. The system one filter mount was made and welded on. The lines were made for that also. The alternator brackets were tacked on. i upgraded the alternator to a 185 amp unit. the extra fan and electric water pump would have placed too much load on the old unit. It took some fooling around to square it up. I just need to finish the water lines i started then it goes on the scales.
getting there! can you mount a fuel distribution block within 6" of the plane of the flywheel? I don't remember the rule, but a friend pointed out to me when I was building my car, that it was against the rules to put a fuel pressure regulator on the firewall....might want to look into it? hopefully I'm wrong, but better to know now
the picture angle is a little deceiving. the regulator has three lines connected to it and its over 20 inches above the bell housing. its also forward from the flex plate several inches. the bell housing is sfi approved. I'm running a torque converter now but i still mounted everything as far away as possible. most of the lines are not secured yet. they are just hanging there. the fuel line coming from the tank will be protected from the drive shaft with two driveshaft loops.
i reread your post jim. the regulator is mounted high and forward from the bell housing. I'm going to the shop tomorrow. i will ask jim about it. there should be a rule book there some where. it would be interesting to know if this applies to a automatic. i could see the rule for a stick car.
Looking good Brian can't wait to see this thing run as for the fuel line deal that Jim was talking about I'm not sure on nhra rules but at bonneville it doesn't matter whether it's auto or not and if any fuel lines or brake lines pass by the flywheel area they have to be run through steel tube in that area it's a safety rule
i will have a spec-20 fire suit and a fire system for this year. i really don't want to test it out so i will be looking into this.
Looks like fuel distribution has to be 6" in front of flywheel housing on RWD cars, opposite side of engine compartment on FWD.
when i drive it on the street the gas comes from the tank located in back using the regulator. when i race it the fuel will come from the tank in front of the engine. no fuel line will be close to the flywheel. i wonder if this will be ok. i would think its some what of a grey area.
Heres from the rule book I found online quick. 1:5 FUEL SYSTEMS Location: All fuel tanks, lines, pumps, valves, etc. must be outside of the driver’s compartment and within the confines of the frame and/or steel body. Cool cans, fuel-distribution blocks, etc. must be located at least 6 inches forward of the flywheel/bellhousing area on rear-wheel-drive (RWD) vehicles, and on opposite side of flywheel/housing area on front-wheel-drive (FWD) vehicles. Fuel pressure gauge isolators, with steel braided line, may be mounted on firewall.
I just did a quick search of NHRA rule book. YMMV. Hate to get dinged at tech for something no one thinks about.
very true. I'm sure with the nitro they will be looking it over very carefully. i have been down that road before.
It's always better to think ahead on safety stuff after building the flatcad bonneville car and seeing the safety tech we have to go through it sure makes a person think long and hard about decisions we make when building the next one I've not built a nhra tech specific car yet but scta is very technical and picky on inspection but I look at it this way there is a reason for it and history of accidents and injury shows me its safer driving a bonneville car at 200 mph than it is driving to the grocery store in the late model lol keep up the good work Brian
Even though you are running on the forward fuel tank there will still be fuel in the lines from the rear tank and I love this build!
First off thanks everyone for your concern on my safety. I was lucky enough to limp away from the last wreck so this build will be all about safety. I never gave any thought to fuel lines around the bellhousing. I mentioned this to jim. He got right on the phone with nhras tech director. We are awaiting his call tomorro. For today the work consisted of making a spacer for the idler pully. The blower belt was too close to the water outlets. The battery cables were laid out. The cables and fuel lines were all secured to the frame. No zip ties here. The frame rails were drilled and tapped then eveeything was secured. I finished up the day putting the seat in to get a idea were the lenco shift lever needs to go. There are several options available. The most comfortable was on the right side of the trans at the front of the reverser. We needed to determine that now because jim is starting on the tin work tomorro. Jims tin work is always amazing so it will be fun to see how it turns out. The cool adaptor for the water lines is from massier. The cool water will leave the radiator by a 2.25 line it will thensplit into two 12 an lines. These go to the block were the water pump was.
Stunning work on the chassis. The car coming along really nicely. Fantastic! I'm looking forward to see how it will look in green metallic.
Thanks for the compliments everyone. With more and more parts going on the car its getting harder to take good pics of the progress. I got the dj safety spark plug wire fire sleeves on. The sleeves protect the wires from fire coming out of the pressure release valve and they clean up the wire routing. If there is any kind of issue with the valve train on the intake side there is the potential for a huge explosion in the intake. I have seen intakes completely blown apart. The pressure opens the spring loaded valve releasing the pressure. I will be converting this valve to a burst panel very soon. Its required and safer. hamb regular steve morley aka trickey steve donated the blower belt guard. This is another required safety item. A broken belt can saw right through fuel lines. The dangerous side is always the drivers side. I went to a swap meet today and found the holy grail of injector units. I picked up a enderle three rib magnesium bug catcher. This would look perfect on the car. I might have to look into putting it on the car. mag parts look so cool.
it's a sheet metal panel that will burst when the pressure is too high. lets a lot of air move quickly.
The panel has a pattern pressed into it that allows it to split open. The panel is sandwiched between two alumimum frames. To keep the panel from cracking due to vibration we lay a bead of silicone between the panel and frame. The inner frame has a x. While illegal everyone does it. The panels will stretch. On a pro car the guy that services the blower will change the panel every round. lower budget teams will use a depth mic to measure the stretch. The panel will start to bulge outward. Some teams write on them how many runs they have on them. I have used the same panel sometimes for a few years. Having a spare panel with you is a must.
The Jalopy Journal
