Are you just going to run brackets with it or is there a class where you want to compete?
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Very nice build, I see dollar signs and troubled sleep in those epics. I always lose sleep when I'm doing an engine, I will build one in my sleep in it's entirety before I actually do it; it's exhausting.
is it just the lighting or me? does the heads have different retainers on each head? Also valve tip length looks different plus set up is for lash caps???
I don't know yet. I do know I need to pick up an NHRA rules book and pass inspection next year with the car which will be a first for me as I've never entered a car for drag racing and am curious as to what they will be looking for, short of a fire extinguisher.
Probably just the lighting in the photo-one of the other pics looks they look same
with your comment about racing it next year-is your dampner and flywheel SFI approved with a dated sticker??????
Jerry I dont think they are as this was something I'd thought about once before. I don't see any sticker certifications on the flywheel or balancer. I don't mind spending the money to get what I need so I can be in compliance. My biggest worry is making sure that what i get still gives me the balance i need. The rotating assembly (which I'm going to change out after next season) is external balanced. Is it much of an issue to tell Summit what rotating assembly i have and to get me a part number for what i need while not jacking up any balance issues? If i need to get a new balancer, then i'd like to spend the money to have the 360 degrees stamped on there.
Here is the SFI list of parts that you will have to use to satisfy the speed or E.T. that the car will turn...
http://www.nhra.com/userfiles/file/T...eCard_2016.pdf
Begin on the right side of the page at the slowest E.T. and move to the left of the columns as you comply with the regulations....
For instance, the first offering is aftermarket rear axles and refers you to the NHRA Rulebook, General Regulations, Section 2.11.... Here is the verbage for that section....
2:11 REAR END
Welded spider gear rear ends prohibited in all classes. Four-wheel
drive permitted per class requirements. Aftermarket axles and axle retention
device mandatory on Top Fuel, Funny Car, Pro Stock, Top
Alcohol Dragster, Top Alcohol Funny Car, Comp, Super Comp,
Super Gas, Super Street, and 10.99 or quicker E.T. cars; also
mandatory on any car (regardless of class or E.T.) with a spool.
(example: one of the racers who ran every week at Firebird made a u-turn in front of me one evening and was scuffing the tires as the car made the turn. I asked him if he had a spool in the differential and he said yes, so I told him that I had missed that each and every time he had come to tech inspection, but now that I knew he had a spool, he would have to pop for aftermarket axles. Be careful what you do in front of the tech inspectors.
Here is the list of rules from the 2016 Rulebook....
http://www.nhra.com/userfiles/file/T...%20Section.pdf
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Dad and I got some more work done this morning by reverifying our lash and putting the intake on. We noticed that as we re-verified lash, we was just a hair off from yesterday. We first noticed that when you tighten the lock nut down to where lash is, then tightened the set screw, for some reason when you tightened set screw, it made lash looser. So we noticed that when you get lock nut where you want it, before you tighten set screw, turn the lock nut just a hair more and then lock down the set screw and the lash stayed where you wanted it. Guess that's how its supposed to be? Also had a question, and thanks to forum members Jerry and Richard for letting me know about the SFI certified flexplate and balancer as I'm going to have replace what i have with SFI certified ones. Question my Dad wanted me to ask: He has a near brand new 454 flexplate made by CSI Performance Products that is externally balanced. It was once SFI certified and the sticker showed it expired in June 2002. The number stamped on there is A356904. Would this flexplate work on our 383 and how does one go about getting something re-SFI certified? Thanks!
Did you have dist in the hole to alighn manifold?
Yes the way you did it the set screw will pull the outter adjuster nut up relieving some clearance. As a matter of fact for a drag race engine you could do away with the set screw because the girdle should hold your adjustment.
I don't believe you'd be able to recert something that old but a phone call to them to see might explain.
We've gotten some more work done on the motor and bolted it to the tranny among other things yesterday. Next week we plan to drop it in the car. Was disappointed the dipstick would not work with the oil pan as the baffle would not accomodate it for clearance. oh well. I've also got a clutch fan but don't know that we'll be able to use it due to the positioning of radiator. Will see. Honestly, this was my first time bolting an auto trans to a motor. I'm familiar with manuals so I'm glad I can add this to my list of things i've done. As far as 'splining/guiding' in the input shaft of tranny, it seemed pretty much the same as when you mate a manual to bell housing (use some bolt guides, push on the tranny, turn the shaft as needed until it mates flush).
Nice looking project and you've made some good progress.
Congrats and keep up the good work.
Here is SFI's contact info. Ask 'em what it would cost to re-certify the part. Figure in shipping both ways. Might be cheaper to just purchase new.
Contact | SFI Foundation
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Hey i appreciate the contact info Richard. I'll give them a call. Our scatter shield for flexplate and tranny shield are both past expiration. So its a good thing we did not drop assembly into car just yet. I've also re examined that 2 page sfi 'quick book' you provided (thanks again) and hopefully i'll have it covered for the tech inspector. I've got a brand new ati balancer, new flexplate with tech card, will have certification on scatter parts so hopefully that should cover all of the engine side of things...?:) Did notice the safety harness specs state two years and i don't see anything wrong with what i've got but can't prove it on paper so guess i'll have to look into that as well.
Best advice I can give you is to put your driver's license together with all your SFI tags into a holder so you can just flip out any tag for the TI to see. Savvy racers will keep some time slips in there too, just to show that the car has passed technical inspection before. Always be pleasant to the TI, nobody wants to deal with a smart-@@@ and you could be just pulled off to the side of the tech line and made to wait. Be nice. Fill out your tech card with black ink, print legibly and sign and date it before you get to inspection. Know your E.T. limit before you get to inspection. We used to put the limit on the rear window with shoe polish after we determined what it would be for that car, so that the starter could watch the car go through the lights and know whether or not the car went too quick for the equipment in the car.
NEUTRAL SAFETY SWITCH....
The car should be race-ready when you go to inspection. Put the trans selector in park or neutral and click the starter. This tells you that you have power to the starter. Move the selector to reverse and click the starter. It had better not start or you have some electrical work to do. Some fellows get a little ruffled when you fire up in reverse and massage the front end of their cherry '55 Chevy.
Give all the seat belts a DAMNED GOOD TUG. I used to try to yank 'em out of the car. Mount the end of your crotch strap right under your gonads, NO FURTHER FORWARD THAN THAT, although it could be mounted rearward of your gonads. The idea of a crotch strap is to prevent upward movement of the lap belts and to prevent your forward movement in the seat. If you are mounting the belt to the floor, go up under the floor and use a 3 inch diameter washer so the end of the crotch strap cannot be pulled up through the sheet metal. If the strap is anchored forward, like I have seen some of them mounted out at the front of the seat, then you can submarine out of the lap belts and could have the belts tear the aorta out of the bottom of your heart. IT HAS HAPPENED. EVERY RULE THAT IS IN THE RULEBOOK IS IN THERE BECAUSE AT SOME TIME AND SOME PLACE, THAT PARTICULAR THING HAS HAPPENED. Under no circumstances should the shoulder belts be anchored to the floor of the car. They should go straight back and mount to the crossbar after going over the shoulder. If mounted to the floor, in an incident, your body will go forward and the belts will compress down on your shoulders, compressing and fracturing your spinal vertebrae. Not pretty.
MASTER ON-OFF SWITCH AT THE REAR OF THE CAR....
This switch must shut off the motor and all electrical functions. Test it at home before you go to the strip.
BATTERY SECURED....
No matter where it is mounted, it had better be secure in the car. I used to try to tear 'em out of the car. I would explain to the driver of the car that when he is doing somersaults at 90 mph, the 40 lb. battery is coming out of the car if it isn't properly retained with the proper hardware according to the Rulebook. Can you visualize the damage that a 40 lb. battery going 90 mph could do to a human body? How about a human body in a wheelchair? HOLY CRAP!!!!!!! Or how about it slamming into the side of that "just finished" $100,000 Deuce coupe?????????
The most frequent infraction to the rules is the short studs and blind nuts on a mag wheel. This included just about EVERY blind nut intallation that I ever saw. The fellows who took drag racing seriously threw those blind nuts over the fence and installed open nuts where the stud showed through at least one thread. I didn't have to do any nut removals to check thread engagement, I just walked past the wheel and eyeballed it. If it was an open nut with a thread showing past the end of the nut, I just kept walking. Those blind nuts generally don't have threads in them down in the hex portion of the nut. Want to be bulletproof at tech? Sling those blind nuts over the fence and install studs long enough to show at least one thread through your new open nuts. If the inspector is worth his salt, he'll comment on your wheel/tire retention system.
Measure from the flat part of your hood to the top of your scoop. Anything over 11" is not legal, although most tech inspectors will not catch this.
Double throttle return springs are not required by the rules, but they are A DAMNED GOOD IDEA. I like the GM springs from the 70's that are a spring within a spring. I witnessed a rear-engine dragster go ballistic following a stuck throttle. Because of safety equipment, the driver survived with nothing more than getting his bell rung pretty good, but the car went airborne, then turned on its topside and carved a large "U" in the dirt where the rollcage cut through the earth. The driver was all jammed up in the cage from all the dirt around him. The only thing left of the car was the cage and drivetrain. We picked sheet metal out of the trees at the end of the track for the rest of the night.
Be sure and have a minimum 16 oz overflow bottle mounted to contain radiator overflow.
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Today we got the flexplate and tranny shields installed and dropped the assembly into the car! Next week we plan to take a look at the headers, some wiring etc. Biggest parts I still have yet to get are a carburetor and distributor (i have the alternator but need to order a bracket which is why you don't see it in pic). The car is set up for a double pump carb and we were thinking of going with an 850 cfm double pump. Any recommendations for a carb? Also, any recommendations as to type of distributor? Thanks!
ps we noticed when this forum's servers went down, all of the pics were lost except for the ones i've posted since 'it came back up.' I'd wanted to use this forum site as a kind of 'diary' that would always be there. do you guys know who I need to contact to see about getting our pics since we started this build back up on here? :)
Since our last entry from to Saturdays ago, we've installed the headers, had to adjust the starter so it'd not make contact with headers (starter has 3 swivel settings), put radiator back in, mounted alternator bracket hardware and alternator on, put hood back on, radiator hoses on, belt on, drive shaft in, connected tranny linkage, and a few other things. This thing's coming together. Only thing i don't like right now is looking at the starter gear's clearance in relation to the flexplate. Man its tight. In some spare time this week, i've took an initial read through on the delay box and shifnoid the previous owner had in the car. These two devices are still in the car and wired up. Would appreciate any feedback any forum members have towards these two devices as it relates to a soon to be rookie racer like me. IE, we've never had a car with them , used them, or know much about them.:o
Well its been a while since I last made an entry to our build so thought I'd share where we're at. We've added an 850 Holley DP, bought an MSD distributor (not installed yet), and shored up a few things. We realized the oil filter was too close to the header and header would have to be taken off, any time we wanted to change it so we opted for a remote oil filter. Summit shipped us a ford remote filter and finally got it straightened out and installed the chevy assembly yesterday. Afterwards, we primed the motor to check for oil leaks and found a tiny one at the remote oil filter. Noticed some very tiny cracks on the remote filter so we put some JB weld on the area today and tmrow, i will give it a prime again and see what happens. I'm believing the jb weld will do the fix and save me from spending another 70 bucks on a replacement.
Last part i need to find is an air breather (hardware) and we've been having quite the problems finding withing the span of dimensions we'd like to have. We're also getting close to the first fire up and am going to check around where I can get some 110 octane.
Summit is great about fixing issues.
Talk to customer service, tell them the first part shipped was wrong, and this one is defective, and I'll bet they accommodate you.
Like it that you got the fuel pressure guage where you can see it----------I actually went to an electric guage with the sender mounted into the dumb side of the float bowl of my rear carb-----------guage then right by tach and oil pressure guage----------streamlined for MORE speed------
I really do like Summit as I've ordered most of my parts for this build from them. They are super easy to work with and have just about anything you need. My only thing was i wondered if they'd accomodate me this time on a return as I'd done cut the hose to length, jb welded the remote filter topside, etc. As it turns out, I primed the pump a few minutes ago, checked for leaks around the jb welded are of filter (and other areas) and found none:)
Robert, I just noticed that the car is up on concrete blocks. DO NOT GET UNDER THE CAR WITH IT UP ON CONCRETE BLOCKS. THEY WILL BREAK AND KILL YOU. HAS HAPPENED MANY TIMES.
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Thanks for the heads-up on full PM's. I just cleaned her out.
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Cinder blocks are bad.
They can be improved with plywood cushions on both sides of the block. (I'm living proof) but they are no substitute for steel jack stands!
I read recently of a young man who was working under his ride which was being elevated with concrete blocks. His mom hadn't heard any noise from the garage for a while, so went to investigate, finding him crushed after the concrete blocks failed. What a tragedy.
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The use of those concrete blocks is even worse because they're laid on their sides. Concrete blocks are made to have the voids in the center vertical, not horizontal. I'm not advocating their use, but putting them in their weakest position is as bad as it can possibly get.
Took off from work today and among other things, bought 5 gallons of race gas, antifreeze, drank a few beers, and decided to put some stickers on the car. On Friday, Dad and I plan to give it that first fire up, check things out, etc. Should be exciting, just hope not frustrating as this car has wanted us to modify just about everything to it along the way! It has not been without the frustrations that's for sure, but enjoyment as well and time spent with me and Dad. PS Dad (rdobbs) Stickers win races, LOL! C ya Friday,:LOL:
It's very cool that you and Dad built this together.
Good luck on the fire up too!
Post a video on youtube.
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Ok Richard and forum members, i've never created a YouTube video but attempted my first today. Two YouTube links are below at end of this message (each about 30 seconds). Let me KNOW if you are able to access and view the video so i know i did it right. Today, Dad and I attempted to fire the motor for the first time and GUESS WHAT--she fired right off the get go! No leaks, cooling looked good, oil pressure there, adjusted fuel pressure, ETC. We let her run up to temp and after about 12 minutes cut her off. Round 1 was a success. Mind you we've not even touched the carb for tuning yet, barely advanced the distributor for initial. Tomorrow we plan to do what we can to get timing in. The cam card has no specs so we're going to base all in at 34. Mechanical springs are set to 21 degrees. With roller cams i've been told you 'dont have to break them in like a flat tappet,' but like a good friend on here told me, you want to 'treat the roller' like the flat tappet on break in so we plan to look into that tmrow. Not to be political, but today was like a person winning Florida and Ohio as a huge first step! Links to video:
https://youtu.be/qHRCqcIEbd8
https://youtu.be/g5H4Vq2NMRc
YEP! You did it right.. sounds great too. Congrats.
Nice work, it sounds very nice!
I realized it'd been some time since i updated my log and i still need to upload some old pics to replace them for the ones that got lost when server went down months back. Well, Dad and I have been busy since last time I posted on this thread. We did decide to replace the mechanical water pump with an electric one from Mezier and I will say you can notice a big difference in the cooling. I know with electric we sacrifice the bulletproofness but like anything else, we gain in other areas too by going electric. We also installed a Kirky seat and fire extinguisher. We shot about a minute long video today and i'll work to post a youtube link once my wife gets home and does it for me. Only thing i need to buy for the car now, unless something goes wrong, is a set of four tires. Still need a trailer and truck to pull the car but i'm getting there. On monday we plan to pull the car out of shop, disconnect shiftnoid, put it in gear, and see what it does. Previous owner had a dedenbear delay box and shiftnoid in it. I don't know much about them and was hoping some of the racers on here can give me some knowledge or experience they have with them, how they work, etc. I think i'm not going to use the trans brake as a rookie but do want to use line lock and would appreciate also if anyone has a step by step routine they can share when using the line lock. I need to determine if the line lock is run to the delay box because if i'm not going to use delay box for a while, i'll still need to get 12v power for line lock somewhere else. Or as a rookie should i use the delay box and shifnoid? Again, I've got no experience with them and this is the first drag car I've ever built (with Dad) and I'm a rookie racer whose not been on the track:)
Try this link, DEDENBEAR-Technical Library-What Is? it'll go right to the OEM manufacturer Q&A library..
also you can get the wiring diagrams there too!
Sounds great, absolutely LOVE the air filter assembly.....LET 'ER BREATHE !!!!!! :D
This is a good lesson for you other fellows who want to build a hot motor. Just follow the instructions and you will be successful like Mr. Dobbs.
No break-in necessary with a roller. Fire it and go.
Robert, please get me a couple more photos of your seat arrangement and the belts. Does the crotch strap come up through the seat or come around the front of the seat to fasten up with the lap balts/shoulder belts?
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That looks really nice! You've got to be pretty excited to get to the track now!
Richard, appreciate that man--you've been a great help to me since we started this build!!:) I'll work to get you some more photos of the seat arrangement. Crotch strap does come up through the seat, got a lap belt that comes through both sides of seat, and harness also comes through the top of seat.
As an update to this post, we put the car in gear for the first time today. Drove her out, backed her back in. After doing this and getting to work the gears, now it really wants me to take her to the track as soon as possible! This motor really does exude some power and i got a chuckle after my neighbor came over to our shop yesterday and told me that when we crank and run the car he can hear it all the way back at his house which is a pretty darn good distance from our shop.