Mag's Racing Updates

Magnethead

Magnethead

Admin & Resident Techie
Staff member
Joined
Oct 18, 2005
Messages
11,233
Points
783
Location
Ft Worth Tx
Blog + pic links:

http://magnethead794.com/racing-team/

All the vinyl's are from the previous owner. We're going to run the car with no decals at all.

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Whizzer said:
Verrrrrrry nice car Mag! Hope you do really well with it! Best of luck!
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Thanks. It's a 454 BBC block, with a 427 crank, punched 0.060" overbore, to make a 440. Then it has a 175 Nitrous plate and 250 nitrous fogger on it, with Dart Pro-1 345 heads. We don't know the camshaft or pistons so we aren't sure what the compression ratio is (the heads are 345cc). That's dad stranding, I'm in the ****pit.

We also only have a basic wiring diagram, I have to build the under-dash diagram.
 
Just about finished relocating the shifter tonight. Gotta weld up a couple gussets and splice the wiring extensions.
 
Well, the lawn mower is now powered by VP 112 Racing fuel. There was a gallon in the tank and the whole fuel system needs a cleaning, so we dumped the gallon into our mower gas jug and doped it with 4 gallos of pump gas. Should be an interesting result.

Everything is done except for the nut/bolt check and fluidics. All the antifreeze is out, all the gas is drained, we're gonna let the trans and diff be. Already did a leakdown test, all cylinders were at 4-8% except #7, which was at 15%, with leaks through both valves as well as the crank-case. Sounds like a good start to a project motor this winter. We just need to add water and clean the fuel system and we'll be done. Track-day goal is the 15th.

Dad ordered our competition number, he doesnt have an NHRA license, dont need one unless you run 9.99 (~6.75) or quicker. Hoping we'll be in the 10.50 bracket.

We found a few issues that will give us problems in the long run- the way the rack-and-pinion is mounted, you have to life the engine to get the balancer off the crank. This creates a problem if we ever want to change the cam, and almost impossible to add a supercharger pulley. The engine is already set as far back as it can go, with the distributor under the cowl, so our only option is to move the rack-and-pinion forward (which has it's own complications with the fuel pump and radiator).

latest pictures- http://magnethead794.com/coppermine/thumbnails.php?album=53
 
That is a beautiful car, dude. But, I can't figure out how to start a video from that link.
 
So...Mag...since you live in a subdivision now...are you worried about the neighborhood complaining about the noise?
 
Bucky Badger said:
So...Mag...since you live in a subdivision now...are you worried about the neighborhood complaining about the noise?
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YES. Shortly put.

We bought/made mufflers and slide adapters that mount directly to the headers. With all 3 garage bays open and the car holding at 3,000 RPM, it sounds only a hair louder than our friends uncorked '05 Ram 1500 hemi. Our neighbor next door is a car guy and the neighbor across the street works on aircraft and is a helicopter pilot- neither of them mind he noise at all, we havent asked how loud it is in their house. But it's alot quieter with the mufflers on it. We just just slide them off and put the open turn-outs on it for the track. You can see them hanging down under the car. The second pic, you can see where the turnouts are (barely peeking from under the car)

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That sounds almost as sweet as it looks! I really like the Texas outline behind the window. That looks great.
 
Benevolent One said:
That sounds almost as sweet as it looks! I really like the Texas outline behind the window. That looks great.
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All the decals on it are actually from the previous owner- We're going to peel them all off, I myself like it as well, would rather just peel the baytown and star off than remove the whole thing. We're still looking for a shop that can do that goldleaf for our numbers.

It's actually stressing from 1800-2500 RPM, but as best as we can tell, that's normal for the size carburetor that is on it (Dominator 1050CFM)
 
We tried to not fire up the race truck after 7-7:30 pm or before 10 am. When we really had too we closed the shop tight. We used respirators that were fed air from outside, like what painters use in a paint booth. Still burnt your eyes and lungs after a while.

It's not the guys in the neighborhood you have to worry about, it's the wives.:eek:

Taking pictures of their kids in the car will go a looong way. Believe me.:)
 
Magnethead said:
All the decals on it are actually from the previous owner- We're going to peel them all off, I myself like it as well, would rather just peel the baytown and star off than remove the whole thing. We're still looking for a shop that can do that goldleaf for our numbers.

It's actually stressing from 1800-2500 RPM, but as best as we can tell, that's normal for the size carburetor that is on it (Dominator 1050CFM)
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I spoke too soon. we just fired it after changing the carburetor configuration, dad already removed the decals. He left the texas, but not sure if it'll stay or not. The way he (decal cutter) did it, the star intersects the outline, so if we remove the star, there's a hole in the outline.

We had .088 jets in the primaries and .089 in the secondaries, with .130 needle/seats. We switched to .089 primaries, .090 secondaries, with .120 needle/seat, and it liked that combination alot better.
 
Fuel Filter and second fuel jug should come today. Waiting to hear from LenMar MotorSports to see if they're going to buy the nitrous system off us, we'rer offering $1200, the intake + electrical + plumbing + intake would be an easy $2000+ new.

We get our fuel from LenMar, $8 a gallon for VP C112. Sonoco Purple is $6/gal but we can't find any distributors. We bought 5 gallons last friday- we're out and the tank is dry. It drank all 5 gallons just to do the test and tune all weekend in the garage :eek:. It's a thirsty sumbeach.

Weather permitting, we're going to the track this weekend. Friday is Pro-Modifieds, Saturday is the monthly Bracket Race, Sunday is run what you brung and grudge racing. Hopefully somewhere in there, we'll be able to get 3 or 4 runs in.
 
Well, the car is back in 1 piece again. Tok another video + pics. Have them up shortly.
 
Dad dug out his old density altitude calculator. I put new batteries, fired right up. We're at 2,997.6 feet Density Altitude right now (669 ft real elevation). at 58% humidity and 82.9 degrees.
 
Mathmetician me made up a MPH/RPM/trap/control console in excel today. Going to work on a WX speadsheet tomorrow if I can. Also going to create an electronic logbook in excel for tracking things in a more technical way than the paper book.

I'm going to be the weatherguy/technician/statistician/book-keeper for the car. Basically, dad's going to drive, i'm going to do everything except drive.

Should be a challenge.

Track rained out tonight. Closed tomorrow for big bracket race. Hoping Sunday will be clear.
 
SlowNeasy said:
50% chance of rain and you'll never be wrong.
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LOL!

Dad bought one of those 12 dollar walmart specials on desk weatherstations. He goes and opens it, and for humidity, it says "High". Turns out it's operating range for humidity is 20-80% and temperature is 25-105 Fahrenheit.

Why would they bother selling that in texas? 99% of the time, we're outside of those ranges.
 
Went to the track for a couple of hours today just to kill time. No time trials allowed, but we were able to see track conditions and see how well the bracket cars were holding up. We left when a volksbug puked oil all over the right lane.

Weather permitting, we're going tomorrow. Already finished up my speadsheet, 27 items to log per run, plus the weather calculators and ET/timer/MPH/ect comparators. Click Thumbs for full size. I have everything set up for a 6.60 1/8 mile run as shown.







 
Well, no track time today. We got to the track, and when we unloaded off the trailer, the car didn't want to stop. Turns out the master cylinder had a seal fail it seems. So we have basically half the brake system off the car right now, we're going to re-plumb it and everything. Right now it has the origional Mustang2 brakes with stock Dana 60 rear drums.

The Master cylinder had the mopar star on it, so i started there, found out it goes to a 1984-1995 Dodge Caravan, as does the radiator.

So we're going to replace it now with the same as it has now, then when we can afford it ($1000), we're going to do a 4 wheel Wilwood disk conversion (possibly with wilwood cylinder).
 
TexasRaceLady said:
One good thing, you found out the brakes didn't work BEFORE you headed down the track. :D
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Exactly. 1600 feet of shutdown is not very long- we have a parachute if needed, but the Blue nova that was parked next to us, he said he blew the tires off the line (horrible track conditions on the line, bald sopts galore) but once he got it to bite, he was running out of room to stop on top end.

The track actually curves into a banked turn and turns into the return road, so as long as you can keep the brakes held down and turn the wheel and get the car to respond, it's fairly safe a doorcar can make it around without a chute. The promods have to use their chute and still get right on the edge of needing more room. We didnt want to take a chanc hand have the fronts fail as well.

http://magnethead794.com/racing-team/ said:
May 16, 2010- After a rained out Friday, we tried to go to the track today. Tried isn’t the right term- we went to the track today, but no further. Loading onto the trailer at the house, we found that the car was rolling a little more than it should when the brake was applied. When we went to unload at the track, the car simply did not want to stop. So after making a quick brake analysis, we found that the fronts were functioning normally, but that the rears had no hydraulic pressure. We even opened the bleed screws on both rear drums, and recieved no fluid what-so-ever with the brake pedal pressed. So we loaded back up (carefully), came home, and removed the entire rear brake hydraulic circuit.
We have found that the Master Cylinder had something fail internally, as we are only getting fluid from the front port when we bench bleed it. Thus, a new master cylinder as well as all the rear hard lines is in order.
We will leave the stock Mustang2 front disks and Dana 60 rear drums on the car for now, until we can afford the Wilwood 4 disk upgrade.
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Well we found the source of the ignition issues.

First, the autoshift failed.
Then, it ran crappy under 4K RPM
Then it just quit getting ignition power at times

Well, we put a voltmeter with it running- 10.5 volts at 4,000 RPM.

so, to solve "All of the above"..

MSD 7AL-3
Alternator
Alternator Pulley
Shift Light
 
Well, this was an eventful weekend. Put up 2 ceiling fans, put up borders and re-mulched the trees, and mot impotantly, got alot done on the car.

We determined that the RPM activated switch was bad, causing the actuator to not shift the car.

We replaced the front brake pads and re-bled the fronts and got a little more air out.

We opened the trunk and found out half our voltage problem. The ground strap for the batteries had came loose and arc welded itself to the bolt. Plus it was a 1/4 inch bolt, not 3/8 like it should be. So we welded on a 3/8 bolt and got all new battery cables and such. So all is good electrically back there.

We also made the lower alternator bracket, mounted everything, and the belt. Waiting on an upper bracket to come tommorrow to finish it up.

Also got the alternator wire ran, so everything is good.

All thats left is the upper alternator bracket and the 7AL3 conversion.
 
Started the car yesterday with the alternator installed. BIG difference. Went from 9.7 volts cranking/10.5 running, to 9.7 cranking/14.2 running (the dead battery doesnt help the start, we'll know true start voltage soon). Also spins over alot faster with the redone trunk wiring.

Gonna head over to work, then start chasing wires again. We've already pulled 15 feet of wire from the car, just to do the AL3 conversion.
 
Fliped the car and got track box ready. Bout to head to work. As plans are now, going to track tonight. 200% improvement with the AL3 box. We figured, the only circuits that we didn't modify was the fuel pump, water pump, and radiator fan. That said, we did move those wires, we just didnt add anything. Illumination had somethign added, ignition had 3 things removed, entire ECU (AL2, AL3) was removed and swapped, a guage was added, a shiftlight was added, ect. Plus we redid the bettery cables. so yea, wholesale electrical system revamp.
 
SlowNeasy said:
uhh, making any money yet? <g>
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Doesn't sound like a money making venture. But, if you love what you are doing and can afford to keep dumping money into the car, it does sound like finally getting it running right will be a great experience. It sounds like a great bonding experience too.

I really wish I was physically able to do something like that with my son. My dad was 47 years old and pretty beaten up by the time I was born, so we had very few chances to do things like that together. He also still worked two jobs. I do remember the few times he was able to help me work on cars in the driveway. I remember being amazed by how strong he still was even in his 60's. I do try to spend time like that with my son when I can. It is a great time when we can do it. There's just something about working together on a big machine with your dad/son that is pretty cool. We realy like working with wood too.
 
SlowNeasy said:
uhh, making any money yet? <g>
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Money, in racing? I don't know what you're talking about.


Made 4 passes last night. Definately not what we expected- Actually slowed down from last week.

The new ignition made a world of difference, it starts instantly instead of cranking forever, it doesnt die under load, it doesnt stumble so badly at 2500, and it's just crisper throttle response. But it actually slowed down on the track.

First thing i noticed in the videos, is that the wheelie bars are too low, they bounce down track. Dad thinks their fine, but I think they're to low. When it's parked, they're about 2" off the ground.

It's wrapping on the tires then spinning them off the line, so we went down from 7 psi on the first 2 runs to 6.5 psi on the second 2 runs, it didn't help any. On the third pass, we even took the launch chip out, and left on the convertor. That was a bad idea, it spun the tires badly and really slowed down. So we put the chip back in it.

Run 1 we made with .089 primary jets and .090 secondary jets, and the plugs were dry, so runs 2 and 3 we used .092 primary and .093 secondaries, and they still looked dry, so we went .094 square. We havent pulled a plug yet to see how they look now. Right before we got to the track, we also had made a plug change from 3934 to 3933's (a step colder).

Dad noticed how quickly it was putting weight back on the nose in my videos, so we also changed the shock settings from 2 to 4, and that didn't help any either.

We're gonna go again friday, wth a few changes. We're gonna go from 7psi starting tire pressure up to 8, and go up with each run. I'm also gonna slip in there and go up an inch on the wheelie bar. We're gonna make a decision on jetting after looking at the plugs.

http://magnethead794.com/coppermine/displayimage.php?album=54&pos=4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMVV6ZLzuqY
 
Two words sum up tonight: HOLY SH!T!

I'm pooped. There were 75+ cars there easily. Pit side spectator parking was full. Spectator side was 3 rows deep the full length of the track. Pits were sardined in AND in the overflow sections. Frankie Taylor reset his records twice- previous record from 2 months ago was 3.80, in round 1 he ran a 3.79, in round 2 he ran a 3.78.

We still can't get the car to make up it's mind. It liked the final run best, with 8.5psi of tire pressure. We made 3 runs, and left everythign exactly the same except run 1 was 7.5 psi, run 2 was 8.0 psi (but there was an oil down by the car in front of us, and dad got out of the groove), run 3 we went to 8.5 psi and it ran a 6.62 with a 1.495 60' time.....and we didn't even get a burnout in. So we think we could get into the 1.48 60' times and the 6.59 range if we fix the line lock.

Tomorrow we're gonna go up to the speed shop, get a new line lock solenoid, and we're gonna remove the proportioning valve completely, replace the line lock, and move the line lock away from the headers (currently it's right on top of the headers). Then hit the track sunday afternoon. We're making a bet that 1) the line lock solenoid is weak 2) the line lock solenoid if not brake fluid is getting superheated by the headers 3) The proportioning valve is stuck
 
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