09-06-10- Max Cackle Photography Posted these photos on their website of our car.

Image © Max Cackle Photography

Image © Max Cackle Photography

Image © Max Cackle Photography

Image © Max Cackle Photography

Image © Max Cackle Photography

09-05-10- Our 3 days at the track concluded with the Semi-Final round of the Kennedale All Out race. Videos:

09-04-10- We ran the bracket race today at Kennedale. The afternoon track conditions were absolutely miserable with a track temp of 125-133 degrees, the common complaint through our region of the pit area was spinning the tires off the line. We lucked our way though first round by being second in a double red-light, then underestimated the track conditions once it got dark. We were debating what to chose for a dial-in, we had ran 5.95 and 5.94 at night yesterday, but because of the greasy day-track, we weren’t sure how much to compensate. It turned out that the conditions had much improved, and we broke out of our 5.96 index by running 5.951, dumping at the first speed-trap cone. We still did good in our own right, for being our first bracket race.

09-03-10- Just made a few passes at Kennedale in preparation for a long weekend. Running te Bracket Race tomorrow, and the “All Out” race on Sunday.

8-29-10- We changed plugs and oil yesterday morning, before heading to Crandall. There are a few things we still aren’t happy with, but at least we’ve gotten somewhere with it. It ran just as consistently as it did at Kennedale, but was .02 seconds slower consistently at the start, .04 seconds slow consistently at the 330 timer, and .08 seconds at the top end of the track. So we believe that either Crandall’s clocks are long, or Kennedale’s are short.

Kennedale
Pass 1:
RT: 0.145
60: 1.337
330: 3.843
660: 5.955 @ 114.01

Pass 2:
RT: 0.107
60: 1.334
330: 3.833
660: 5.941 @ 114.74

Pass 3:
RT: 0.039
60: 1.354
330: 3.852
660: 5.96 @ 114.54

Pass 4:
RT: 0.042
60: 1.332
330: 3.829
660: 5.933 @ 114.32

Crandall:
Pass 1:
RT: 0.006
60: 1.363
330: 3.879
660: 6.023 @ 114.34

Pass 2:
RT: 0.006
60: 1.359
330: 3.875
660: 6.015 @ 114.57

Pass 3:
RT: 0.002
60: 1.358
330: 3.876
660: 6.021 @ 114.16

Pass 4:
RT: -0.003
60: 1.352
330: 3.862
660: 6.004 @ 114.42

Pass 5:
RT: 0.019
60: 1.385
330: 3.906
660: 6.052 @ 114.26

Aug 27, 2010- Just got in from Kennedale. Made 4 passes, all in the 5.94-5.96 range. We were hoping to be in the 5.70′s with the new engine combination. A few things aren’t to our liking, and could be contributing to lost speed. We will be taking the oil filter off tomorrow to check for metal, then may possibly head over to Crandall for the Automatic Pro-Mod show. Pictures are online HERE.

Videos:

Aug 18, 2010- We’ve had a couple setbacks with the assembly of the engine but the schedule that we are on right now, says that we should be able to have car buttoned up by Sunday. We’ve measured all the bearing tolerances, assembled the rotating assembly (less one piston due to ring issues), measured valve-piston clearance on 2 different cylinders, and done everything else it takes to get an engine together. Right now, the main question mark is whether or not the torque convertor will be too loose for the newly built power.

Below is our tenative schedule. It can and will change based on the performance of the car, weather, and other anomalies.

Fri, Aug 27 Test and Tune, Kennedale
Sat, Aug 28 Pro-Mods at Crandall (Dallas Raceway)

Wed, Sept 01 Test and Tune, Kennedale
Fri, Sept 3 Test and Tune, Kennedale
Sat, Sept 4 Pro-Mods at Crandall (Dallas Raceway)
Sun, Sept 5 ALL OUT at Kennedale

Fri, Sept 17 Pro-Mods at Kennedale

Sat, Sept 25 5.80 Index Race at Crandall

July 17, 2010- I finally got some new pictures uploaded from the garage (see the “Near-Live Update” link above). Reher-Morrison, 5 miles up the road, has possession of our engine block and all components. They are boring it out to .100 over (454 block), and we hand-picked our rotating assembly, which will put us at 505 cubic inches. With the engine out, we have sent off the G-Force seat belts to be Re-certified, and have put Wilwood DragLite Disk Brakes on the car- 11″ Front, 12″ Rear. We are also going to make a few ergonomic changes inside the cockpit.

Based on the table of information that Reher-Morrison has informed us of, our prediction is that we should be able to go 5.60 in the 1/8 mile, up from a 6.60 with the (slightly hurt) 427.

The 427 that was in the car, was built specifically to be a nitrous motor. It was a 454 4-bolt passenger block, with a forged 427 Crackshaft, Low-Compression (11.5:1) pistons, a custom-ground camshaft by Crane Cams, and Dart Pro-1 345cc heads. Of that, the heads and block are the only parts that we are re-using.

Our “not gettring re-used” pile is growing quite large. We have the entire Nitrous package (bottles, heaters, wiring, Edelbrock 454-R intake with both stages installed), MSD 7AL2 ignition, MSD Three-step box, MSD Timing retard module, 427 forged crankshaft, the custom-ground Camshaft, Timing set (with unknown degree bushing), oil pump, basically everything except the block, heads, pushrods, and distributor.

New package: Scat 4140 Forged steel 4.25 Stroker Crank, Callies Comp-Star H Beam Rods, Ross 14:1 Compression Pistons, Erson Reher-Morrison Spec Camshaft, Comp Cams Roller Lifters, Manley Timing Chain, 4.350 Bore (.100 over). So far, Reher-Morrison has line honed the block and surfaced the deck, and the block should be bored this week. They are also going to do a Mock-up to check Valve-Piston clearance before Ballancing the motor and handing it back to us.

June 20, 2010- I’ve been trying to put off writing this post, first because I just don’t want to write it, second, so i have the most accurate information to post here.

I’ll just say it first off: We broke the motor on Friday (June 18, Pro-Mod + Test/Tune night). We will not be back to the track for a solid month at least.
Everybody always asks what motor it has, then what color it is. It is a 454 Chevelle block, with a 427 crankshaft to help compensate for the NOS. Thankfully, this isn’t where our problem came from. That was the top end- Dart Pro-1 345cc heads. The valvesprings had previously been soft, but after the overheating accident on Friday (the water went beyond 250 degrees F), they lost alot more tension. Enough that we are afraid that one may break and drop a valve soon. The car as a whole is painted in House of Kolor Tangelo Pearl Orange (PBC-32).

As a result, we will be pulling the engine apart today (June 20) to start sorting parts out for the rebuild, to see what we broke and what we didn’t. Being a former pro-nitrous motor, we have no idea what to expect inside the engine, but we know it won’t be pretty. When we bought the car in April, cylinder pressures were at about 140 psi with 5-8% leakdown across all cylinders except #7, which was 15%. We chacked them today, and #1 has no leakdown (0%), which means it got better than it was previously. However, the other cylinders went down dramatically, as 3 were at 12% and #7 maintained 15%.

We don’t know our long-term plan of action yet. We do know that we will be meeting with engineers at Reher-Morrison Racing Engines very soon, about our current heads as well as our engine package for next year. The idea we are currently hoping to use, provided the bottom-end checks out alright, is to simply change the valvesprings, and get the engine to last until winter. Then we will either change the bottom end for the origional 454 crankshaft to put us at 468 cubic inches, or buy a 509 or 540 short block, and use our top end on it.

-Steve Jr

June 13, 2010- We made big progress today, by making 4 passes, and having 3 of them all be almost good enough to call it a bracket car. The video from today has already been uploaded to the gallery. The first pass was a 6.578 at 103.71 (not bad, considering we were first car down the track), the second pass was a 6.602 at 103.44, Run 3 was a 6.596 at 103.76, and Run 4 was a 6.603 at 103.97. We tinkered with the launch chips, bouncing between 4900 and 5400 RPM to see how the changes effected the car (Run 1 was with a 5200). Our next scheduled track day, time permitting, will be this wednesday night. The plan is to launch without the chip, and see how it effects the car to leave on the convertor (old-school method).