Event Coverage Sick Week drag and drive event Florida

Thanks that’s really helpful. I couldn’t get my head round why it’d be good for a tyre that in theory has less grip

 

Sorry to read that you're out of the event, thanks for keeping us informed.

 

Great effort. Sorry your adventure was cut short.

 

Well Joel, you did a great job with the coupe and I am sure had lots of fun. Sorry to hear it was cut short for you and Cam. I have been following along closely, there has been a lot of carnage and struggle's. Also lots of smiles to go with it. Thanks for keeping folks in the loop here.

 

OK, I'll back up to the beginning, it was a challenge just getting there!

Prior to the event, I'd been laid up for 6 weeks, recovering from a serious back injury, but I finally got up and around a couple weeks before I had to leave for Florida and started to work on the Hemi Coupe. I was going to be a mad thrash to be ready. I had found a LOT of problems with the Hemi. The heads had cracks, and a couple of valve guides were falling out of their cracked bores. The valves were making contact with the pistons around the perimeter of the valve reliefs in the pistons. Why? I'm not sure. The pistons rock about .030 in the bores. How much were the valve stems flexing?

So it has 8 new intake valves and 2 new exhaust. I needed to open up the valve reliefs in the pistons. I'm did it on the assembled block, in the car. Because I didn't have time to take it apart. It looked like a surgery patient, all covered up except a little hole where the cutting is taking place. I could work for about 2 hours, then I needed to lay down and rest it for an hour or 2. I was limited to lifting about 25 pounds, but I was able to lift the aluminum heads if I got positioned right. So I could check the clearance with clay.
I was hoping, I'll have it all back together by the end of the day sunday, a week before Sick Week and see how it runs. It's winter, so I wouldn't be able to test drive it. We were planning to go to Immokalee in southern Florida and make some test hits friday night before Sick Week, then do some street driving..

 

I got all the valve reliefs in the Pistons opened up.
After the mad thrash to be ready for death week, my shop looked like a tornado went through it but I didn't want to take the time to clean up so I'd been working in the mess. Finally today I got so sick of it, and realized it's been slowing me down, so I took most of a day to clean up. I felt so much better working in a semi-clean shop!
Since the heads got a cleanup cut in the mill, and with the cutting I did on the pistons I wanted to check where the compression ratio ended up. so I CC'd the heads and the piston domes. Right at 13.0 to 1. Good enough.

 

The cam end play was way off, so I ordered some shims from McMaster car and got that dialed in, then torqued the cam gear bolt with orange locktite. After I got the heads back on, Cam came and helped out. He got the intake cleaned up and ready to install and got the linkage for the 8 carbs all re-adjusted, and we lifted that on and bolted it down. The linkage has some of his new Nystrom Performance arms on the jackshaft to eliminate the slippage problems that I'd had in the past.
When we got everything buttoned up and started the car, water was pouring out under the drivers side header flange, staining from the copper seal head gasket sealer was visible on the outside of the block under the leak area.

 

One thing I forgot about is that the header studs go into the water jacket, so I didn't put sealant on them. So we fixed that. Then restarted it, and water was still leaking from the same area, but not as much. It was the head gasket apparently, that is why the copper coat stain down the side of the block. Then I discovered milkshake oil from water in it. Cam went home. It was monday, and I was still in MInnesota. I was planning to leave 2 days ago. Cams flight to Punta Gorda Florida is scheduled for Thursday, and I need to pick him up at the airport. Sick week starts Sunday. I thought long and hard about staying in or dropping out.

I decided to do my best to stay in until it became impossible. If I quit because of causes beyond my control, I have no regrets. But If I quit because I'm tired and discouraged, or the odds are slim and everything is going wrong, I'll always regret it later.

So I retorqued the heads, then pressurized the cooling system. It was slowly loosing pressure. How could the water be getting in the oil? Last time it was a leak in the intake port. So I pulled the headers and the intake and the spark plugs. With 20 PSI in the cooling system, I visually inspected and listened with a tube on my ear in each port and each spark plug hole. No leak sounds. I used the leakdown tester and pressurized each cylinder. No leak sounds except in the crankcase which is normal due to the old rings.

 

Then I got an idea! I removed and pressure checked the Mopar oil to water oil cooler. Sure enuff, it was cracked inside, allowing the oil and water to mix! So that came out permanently, and I flushed out the oil pan and refilled it. I started the engine and added a bottle of Moroso ceramic seal. That stopped the leak from the head gasket. As per the instructions, I drained and flushed the cooling system to get rid of the excess ceramic seal. But I could see in the top tank of the radiator that it had plugged up a bunch of the tubes. I wanted to back flush the radiator with a garden hose to try and clear it out. But I don't have water in my shop. And the hill up to the house was snowy and icy. So we towed it up the hill, and I devised a way to plumb in the garden hose. DUMB idea, the water just bypassed thru the block, thru the upper hoses, and shot ceramic seal out the top of the radiator all over everything. So, back down to the shop to pull the radiator and bring it up to the house to flush it. It helped, but I could still see plenty of plugged tubes. It would have to be good enough.

I put the radiator back in and started cleaning up the mess. That's when I noticed that the timing cover was now bulged out and cracked...

 

By This point, I was really tired and really in a hurry. Time was running out. I called Cam and asked if we could change his flight from Thursday at Punta Gorda to Friday night at Orlando. We would skip the test and tune at Immokalee, and go right to Orlando untested. That would give me more time to fix the car, get everything ready, and drive to Florida. He said OK.

I pulled the damper and the front cover and found that the cam bolt had backed out. I KNOW I torqued it, and i KNOW I put orange locktite on it. I fixed the cover with epoxy, chased the threads in the cam and on the bolt, and cleaned them both with carb cleaner and compressed air. I used red locktite, and torqued 10 lbs over spec. Then put everything back together and let it sit overnight for the locktite to cure.

 

Tire comes from the slick literally folding on the track surface and the wheels pulling over the folded up tire causing a violent chattering effect. I know an instant wear a top fuel driver was knocked out cold from tire shake.

 

Tuesday Morning, I started the car and let it warm up to 210 degrees before I turned on the fan. It was holding in all its fluids and the oil was clean and clear. So I drained out a gallon of water and dumped in a gallon of antifreeze, then opened the overhead door and drove it out into the winter air. I drove it about a mile, up and own our long driveway with no apparent issues, then back into the shop, did a few last minute things, and started packing tools and supplies. Cam came over after work and helped.
Wednesday morning, I threw my luggage and some food and stuff into the camper, hooked the trailer behind the old dodge with the camper in the bed, loaded the car and finished loading all the stuff, then about mid afternoon, I hit the road for florida. Luckily, I was just about an hour ahead of a nasty ice storm, but I had dry roads. Friday night, I made it to the airport, just 1/2 hour after Cam was ready to be picked up. We drove to a Cracker Barrel and had dinner, and spent the night in their parking lot. I was so tired, I was in a fog. Saturday morning, we drove to a Walmart parking lot close to Orlando Speedworld. The Sick Week instructions said that there was no admission to the track prior to Sunday at 7:00 AM, so we were going to unload the car here and go for a test drive, and start organizing stuff to bring with on the Sick Week drive, plus buy anything we need at Wally world.
The rear view morror had fallen of the car and the glass broke, so I went into walmart for a mirror. The best I could find was a pink rimmed cosmetic clamshell mirror. So I bought it and some JB weld. I felt like I had to explain to the cashier that this was not for my make-up. Back at the trailer Cam found the pink mirror to be quite hilarious. So I made him install it.

Then we ran into some other sick weekers who said they were letting folks in early is they bought a spectator admission for the Saturday event. So we packed up and drove to the track and got in. We unloaded the car and took it for a 10 mile drive. After not having driven the car since Drag Week 2021, it seemed kind of sketchy, but I figured we'd be OK. I was still in fog from over fatigue. It's a good thing Cam had a clear head, he really took over on the brain work and organization side of things.

 

I am curious as to why the cam endplay was way off. I would assume that once it's set it is set. What changed?

Thanks for the multiple posts regarding your journey

 

I didn't set it when I originally installed the gear drive in 2020. I'm not sure why?

There is a reason why I am providing the details about the work on the engine prior to leaving for Florida. Something came back to bite me. I'll continue when I have a bit of time.

 

I’m enjoying the details, please do continue when you can!

 

" The Ox is slow, but the earth is patient "
Famous line from the movie, " High road to China "
Hang in there @Hemi Joel , "Perfection cannot be rushed"

 

This is a incredible effort you made Joel. Much respect to you for the do or die attitude. I would say there is no regrets that should ever be felt. I've got to say, I may have gave up and not made the trip. My hat is off to you sir.

 

Saturday night, I decided we would change the oil and filter, to flush out any remaining water that might be left in the pan. To my astonishment and dismay, Cam came out from under the car with a bolt stuck on the magnetic drain plug, along with a few metal slivers. It looked like one of the bolts from the timing cover. I thought long and hard about what all bolts are in the crank case, and was certain that it could not be from within the engine. The only thing I could think of was that it must have fell in that last time I had the timing cover off. But I don’t remember having a bolt missing. Come to think of it though, I did hear an odd clink-clank sound when I restarted it after re-tightening the cam bolt. But I only heard the sound once, then it quit so I continued.

Cam filled up the oil and installed the diaper around the pan, then we called it a night.

Sunday morning starting at 8:00 AM was tech, both for Sick Week rules and NHRA safety. I decided to give the lights and horn one last test before heading up there at 7:30. Lights, check. Blinkers and brake lights, check. Horn – yikes, no horn! I did some snooping, and found the the horn relay was clicking when activated, so that was good. The old ahooga horn sits between the right hand frame rail and the engine block and was covered in oil. We cleaned it up and messed with the wire and thankfully, it started working.
I had seen a sign on Saturday announcing the location of tech. So at about 7:45, with all the safety gear and required paperwork, we drove up towards the sign. When we got there, we learned that there was already a long line heading off in the other direction. So we found the end of the line and took our place. I was kicking myself for having spent the night at the track, but yet not being at the beginning of the line. I counted 40 cars in front of us out of the 400 entries, which helped me relax with the realization that with 300+ cars behind us, weren’t in too bad of shape.
Walking up the line a bit I saw some familiar faces, and introduced them to Cameron whenever I got a chance. Time to start plugging him into the social pipeline.
While in line, it dawned on my that I should test the remote kill switch. Oh no. It didn’t kill the engine. I KNOW for certain that it used to did. I figured it had to be something wrong with the alternator that was back-feeding. So I figured I’d just unplug the alternator before we got to the front of the line. Cam suggested a couple times that we test that theory, but for some reason, I didn’t think it was necessary. I can’t remember having anyone check it at past events anyway.
When we got to the front of the line, I was greeted with a man-hug by my friend Keith Turk, who was the head tech. Then I heard another familiar but unexpected voice greeting me. It was Joe Timney from Delaware Chassis works who was now part of the sick week tech team.
We went through all the usual stuff: putting numbers on the windows designating class, run group and car #, scrutinizing the paperwork, tire width check, etc. Then a nice NHRA tech lady told me that my window net was expired. Honestly, I didn’t even know they had a date. I asked if she would pass it this time, since it is like new. She asked how fast the car goes. I told her low 10’s so far, but I’m hoping to get into the nines. She asked me to start the car, and while it was idling, she went to the rear of the car pushed the cut off switch. The Hemi just kept right on rumbling away! Oh-oh, very awkward moment. I was dumbfounded. But why didn’t I follow Cams advise and test it again? I tried to explain that it used to work and I’d take care of it, do I pass tech? Joe was inspecting the arm that attaches to the shaft on the cut-off switch. He said in a way that everybody could hear that the set screw was loose, and if I just tighten up the set screw it will be fine. I knew that the switch had killed everything except the engine. And it is a single pole switch. Either the switched worked or it didn’t. What was Joe thinking? Then it dawned on me…

 

Joe was trying to make it sound like a super simple fix so that the NHRA tech lady would pass the car. At least that's what I think he was doing. It's great to have friends who have your back!

Next thing I know they were telling me to go over to the tent where the ladies were completing the paperwork, but nobody ever said whether I passed tech or not. So I went over to the tent and was greeted warmly by the ladies who gave Cameron and I our wristbands and all of the necessary paperwork. When we got back to the trailer I figured out that the wire for the water pump somehow got moved and was hot even when the master switch was off. Somehow that must've been back feeding into the ignition. So I got that fixed. But I still didn't know where I stood with the NHRA tech. So I called Keith Turk on his cell phone and asked him. He said I needed to bring the car back up there and just demonstrate that the master cut off switch worked and I would be good to 8.50. By now, there was a couple hundred cars in line and getting back in line would mean burning up the whole day and being deprived of my very much needed test passes! That was a very real possibility, and one that I definitely did not relish. I didn't want to be presumptuous and assume that I could skip the line, so I asked Keith if I need to get back in line now, or if I could make some passes first and get in line later. He said no, don't get in line. Just go around the line and pull up to tech, they're only going to test the switch. Exactly the answer I needed to hear, yippee!
So I drove back up there, parked the car in the tech area, and went off looking for Keith. Then Cameron came trotting over to me saying "you need to move the car, somebody's really wound up about where you parked it!". Thankfully when I explained the situation, the guy calmed down and pointed to a spot where we were okay to park. He said if all we need is that switch checked he can do it. He checked it, it worked, and he wrote down on the clipboard that I was good to 8.50.
We went back to the trailer and started getting ready to make passes!



I don't have any pictures of this, but I made it into vice grip garages video at the seven second mark.

As usual, I didn't take enough pictures, and I was so focused on my own game, I can't report too much on what everybody else was doing.

 

Enjoying the story so far.