mike honcho
Knuckleheads
You going to XRP tomorrow?
What Next?
- Thread starter Magnethead
- Start date
No, car is parked till we head to tulsa for the divisional. Can't break parts if you don't run the car.
I'll be at Motorplex running the truck tomorrow.
Want to know something sad? We would be qualified #3 in the promod field right now.
See photos:
See photos:
Tulsa divisional is in the books. Expensive weekend, but luckily not because of the dragster.
Left at the asscrack of pre-dawn and arrived at the track around noon on Thursday, in the middle of a rain storm. Let that blow through, unloaded the car, went through tech inspection, loaded the car up, and went to the hotel.
Friday was Q1, we went up with the conservative tune from testing and laid down a 6.28 at 217 - acceptably dismal until we looked at the data and found that dad lifted at 6.11 - was probably a 6.24 or 6.25 run. The 6.28 was good enough for #14 in the field.
We checked all the valvetrain, all the fittings, nut&bolt check, then did a planned fuel system change - swapped out all 8 port nozzles and the main pill to raise the fuel pressure. Went up for Q2 in great air conditions, car left good but started going left down track and dad shut it down at 5.00 . Most others improved but we did not, and dropped to #19 on the qualifying sheet.
Loaded car in the trailer and went to the hotel.
Slept in Saturday, got to the track around 9:30. Pulled the car out and immediately went to work checking the valve train. Decided to change blower pulleys and go to full timing map (no artificial traction/launch control) for a kamikaze run for our final qualifying attempt.
Amazingly, ran a 6.15 @ 228 MPH. We were happy and the announcer was happy (He made it well known it was our first NHRA event in 22 years). That was good enough to put us in the field at #13. That was the good news. The bad news - we were paired up with a team car for round 1.
The graph from Q3 had a few points of concern, but the track was going to get minutely better from the 2PM Q3 to 6PM round 1, so we didn't make any changes. We figured the sun would be dropping, air temp and track temp would drop, and we would be running immediately after alcohol dragster and funny car, so track would be the best of the weekend.
Dialed a 6.15 to the team car's 6.46, but our car made a violent left turn at the launch and dad had to quickly get out of it and correct to stay in the right lane. Other car shut off at 1000 feet to coast out the back door. He ended up losing at 4 cars this morning in round 3.
Saturday night after Round 2, we had a triple-pit party with all the team cars. Had 2 BBQ's and a deep fryer going.
The way home was the expensive part. Never mind the $19 toll each way on I-44 between OKC and Tulsa, but shortly after the toll booth, we had an inside dual on the truck blow out violently, taking the fender, mud flap, and several bits of wiring with it. We put our only truck spare on while sitting on the side of the road, and managed to make it home with little other damage.
Left at the asscrack of pre-dawn and arrived at the track around noon on Thursday, in the middle of a rain storm. Let that blow through, unloaded the car, went through tech inspection, loaded the car up, and went to the hotel.
Friday was Q1, we went up with the conservative tune from testing and laid down a 6.28 at 217 - acceptably dismal until we looked at the data and found that dad lifted at 6.11 - was probably a 6.24 or 6.25 run. The 6.28 was good enough for #14 in the field.
We checked all the valvetrain, all the fittings, nut&bolt check, then did a planned fuel system change - swapped out all 8 port nozzles and the main pill to raise the fuel pressure. Went up for Q2 in great air conditions, car left good but started going left down track and dad shut it down at 5.00 . Most others improved but we did not, and dropped to #19 on the qualifying sheet.
Loaded car in the trailer and went to the hotel.
Slept in Saturday, got to the track around 9:30. Pulled the car out and immediately went to work checking the valve train. Decided to change blower pulleys and go to full timing map (no artificial traction/launch control) for a kamikaze run for our final qualifying attempt.
Amazingly, ran a 6.15 @ 228 MPH. We were happy and the announcer was happy (He made it well known it was our first NHRA event in 22 years). That was good enough to put us in the field at #13. That was the good news. The bad news - we were paired up with a team car for round 1.
The graph from Q3 had a few points of concern, but the track was going to get minutely better from the 2PM Q3 to 6PM round 1, so we didn't make any changes. We figured the sun would be dropping, air temp and track temp would drop, and we would be running immediately after alcohol dragster and funny car, so track would be the best of the weekend.
Dialed a 6.15 to the team car's 6.46, but our car made a violent left turn at the launch and dad had to quickly get out of it and correct to stay in the right lane. Other car shut off at 1000 feet to coast out the back door. He ended up losing at 4 cars this morning in round 3.
Saturday night after Round 2, we had a triple-pit party with all the team cars. Had 2 BBQ's and a deep fryer going.
The way home was the expensive part. Never mind the $19 toll each way on I-44 between OKC and Tulsa, but shortly after the toll booth, we had an inside dual on the truck blow out violently, taking the fender, mud flap, and several bits of wiring with it. We put our only truck spare on while sitting on the side of the road, and managed to make it home with little other damage.
Great pics, Mag. Saw that your "guard" dog was on duty. 
Too bad about the blowout. Lucky it didn't do more damage.
Too bad about the blowout. Lucky it didn't do more damage.
especially for being an inner dual. Comprehensive insurance should cover it, but it's hard to say how much. I'll have to get under it this week and figure out what wires go where. Know it wiped out reverse lights, ABS sensor, marker lights, and a couple others. Bent some of the metal for the bed itself, and completely pretzelled the mudflap brackets. Pretty sure the mudflap getting slung around did more damage than the tire itself. The truck had/has 18-wheeler sized mudflaps on it with three 1/4" bolts, and it ripped the flap right off.Great pics, Mag. Saw that your "guard" dog was on duty.
Too bad about the blowout. Lucky it didn't do more damage.
Not gonna talk about how Topeka went this past weekend. Let's just say we have A LOT of work to do and some more money to spend. Car came home in one piece but it's still fighting us every step of the way. Luckily our chassis builder was there and we got to poke his brain a little.
Here's some film....it's even in 1080 HD for those with fancy monitors. This is the long edit, not the facebook (short) edit.
Here's some film....it's even in 1080 HD for those with fancy monitors. This is the long edit, not the facebook (short) edit.
Good video, Mag.
Got the transmission out tonight. Torched the low gear band, high gear clutches were definitely slipping/skipping/chattering, and the fluid was full of clutch and band dust.
You'd think, and usually, 275 PSI of hydraulic pressure is plenty. That's the whole reason for having the pressure transducer on the pump. Clearly, something, somewhere, went wrong.
Chassis already has 1/8" of rear-steer in it, w're going to add 1/16 of an inch more.
You'd think, and usually, 275 PSI of hydraulic pressure is plenty. That's the whole reason for having the pressure transducer on the pump. Clearly, something, somewhere, went wrong.
Chassis already has 1/8" of rear-steer in it, w're going to add 1/16 of an inch more.
That is NOT a good thing.
The fact that everything was new 20 runs ago is not a good thing, either. When it failed, it failed rather catastrophically.
Went from 6.30 to 6.39 to 6.47 to 6.56 in 4 runs.
Went from 6.30 to 6.39 to 6.47 to 6.56 in 4 runs.
We were hoping to have it turned around for a local race next weekend at XRP @mike honcho but FedEx wanted $200 to send the convert off on 2nd day to be there Monday, only $40 to be there Tuesday by ground. It's a 1 day turnaround, but getting from Ohio back to here from Wednesday to Friday is a tall order.
Abruzzi said we had the wrong band, green kevlar and should have had black carbon. Coan said we had the wrong high clutches, smooth red's are good except they don't allow the fluid to drain from between the clutch and the plate. Going to waffle blues, which are softer and will allow the fluid to drain out.
Dad took the drum to a machine shop around the corner and spun it on a lathe against sandpaper real quick to clean up the burned top layer.
Abruzzi said we had the wrong band, green kevlar and should have had black carbon. Coan said we had the wrong high clutches, smooth red's are good except they don't allow the fluid to drain from between the clutch and the plate. Going to waffle blues, which are softer and will allow the fluid to drain out.
Dad took the drum to a machine shop around the corner and spun it on a lathe against sandpaper real quick to clean up the burned top layer.
Bobw
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No kidding. Who knows what UPS would have wanted. Monday is $200, Tuesday is $60.... What exactly is that $140 paying for? Surely it wouldn't be the only package going from DFW to CLE....This is a job for ROAD TRIP!!!
mike honcho
Knuckleheads
Hopefully FedEx hurries.
Stay tuned for the race on Aug 11th. If we can get the converter back, we'll make it. If not, we might go crew on a friend's car in the same class. I might go just to shoot photos. Hard to say.