Keep at it Perry were enjoying your rides almost as much as you!
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Keep at it Perry were enjoying your rides almost as much as you!
Well the last test runs were not that god to be honest ??
The first pass on Saturday was with the nitrous settings I had last week with the 1 second delay and the slower build time. This gave me a 10.01 pass at 137mph. So I put the boost and nitrous setup back to normal for a 9.6 pass, and then added another 20% to the nitrous launch power and dropped the build time from 1.2 seconds to 0.8 of a second. On paper this should have been able to see a low 9 or a high 8 second pass. But I had a head gasket blow off the line and ran a 9.9 pass. Bummer!!
You can see in the vid that the launch was lazy and the run was not too dramatic. So I'm off next Sunday to a mates workshop with some friends to pull the engine down and fit new gaskets and do some clean up work and fit a new inlet gasket as well. I'm going to glue the head gaskets on this time. Even though i know the converter is slipping I should still be able to run back down close to my old 9.6's from last season as I'm now saving for a new toirque converter to match the engine.
I'm pissed at not running the 9.59 I wanted, but as my friends pointed out yesterday when i got my 9.9 ticket, then screwed it up and threw it in the car. It wasnt that long ago that I as doing a victory dance in the pits when I finally got my first 10.99 ticket ?
They also brought me back to earth when they told me that running ANY 9 is a big deal for most cars. Especially one with a rover V8 engine..
So I will get back in the workshop next Sunday and do a top end rebuild and try again soon.. :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsCY...tfRrjw&index=2
Well.. that's disappointing! But, that's racin'! Hope it's nothing more than head gaskets.
I will know more on Sunday :)
I have all the gaskets etc on their way now so I will be ready for a one day rebuild.
Regards to all from a baking hot UK @ 78 degree's today :)
Perry
Sorry to hear about the failure Perry! What size wire and how deep is your groove cut for your o-rings?
I'm not sure Ryan ??
If I remember I'll take some measurements and pictures on Sunday. Prior to using these heads I was using Cometic multi layer steel gaskets and they were fantastic. I would go so far as to say "pretty darned bullet proof" !!
But with the O ringed heads these were not suitable. My Son fitted these to his Rover V8 last year and has re used them 3 times now with no issues. He isnt blown but he does run a 250 shot of gas. I am close to considering having the heads skimmed to remove whats proud on the O rings or just picking them out and filling the grooves with JB weld or similar so I can go back to MLS gaskets. The gasket failures are all between the gasket and block faces. No signs of any leakage between gasket and head faces. The deck faces are true as they were checked after skimming last year when I had top hat liners fitted. When I fit the new gaskets at the weekend I will glue them on with copper gasket adhesive. I guess this will be my next on going issue for this year until I find a solution?
Its a pain in the rear but its also another issue to resolve in my quest for that 8 second timing ticket eh ? :)
Perry
Perry, it almost sounds like the o-ring is too big or your groove is too thin causing the o-ring to hold the head up and not allow the gasket and o-ring to seat. I've seen this happen on some diesels and it does get old for sure. Hopefully you can figure it out and retain the o-rings. They do work great when everything is right on.
That has given me food for thought Ryan?Quote:
Originally Posted by 40FordDeluxe
When the head come off this Sunday I will drop a straight edge across the O rings to see if I can measure any problems. These have been ok for my many 9.6 passes. Its only since I added some timing that the head gaskets have leaked due to increased peak cylinder pressures?
So maybe the O rings are not completely flat?
Thanks for the info
Perry
I think you're onto it now.. more timing, more boost, more NOS... just finding more weak spots right?
Ha Ha!
That sort of sums up how I'm doing my R&D (race and destruction) testing :)
That's how most of us did it! I once saw in a video Connie Kalitta saying how they had broken an axle.. their first ever... He then explained they had installed new slicks and turned up the boost and nitro... His next reply was "I guess we need stronger axles, 'cause we ain't backing off the motor!!!"Quote:
Originally Posted by pel
So - nothing has changed in all these years! Just keep having fun with it!
That sums it up well I think :)
No point in going backwards eh ?
I'm so close to going into the 9.5's now that I can taste it. And once I've done that the 8 second pass will be the next goal. As this 8 second runs gets more possible I find that I'm backing off with trying to rush anything just to get back out and race again. My Wife wondered if I was loosing enthusiasm, but its quite the opposite now. I'll be happy to take the next year to gently fine tune as required to get the next 3/4 of a second that I want :)
8's??? HMMmmmm... not sure about that with the current "program"! LOL...
We all have our dreams eh?Quote:
Originally Posted by 34_40
9.6 down to 8.99 seems possible to me now. I guess it will mean a new converter and the gearbox rebuilt to race specs as this gearbox is a stock TH350. And probably some head work to fit MLS gaskets again, and maybe adding lightness with glass fibre doors and tailgate with polycarb windows which will shave 100lbs off the body. I think I may need to look at aero mods as well to make the car smoother as she is a bit drifty over 130mph.
It wasnt that long ago that I was going to retire the car when we broke the 10's as I thought this would be the limit of what I could do with the MGB.
But now an 8 second timing ticket seems possible ? So I'm going to have a go for it before the 40 year old body rusts away.
I've said before that I'm very happy with what the car has done to date. 9.6's on a stock steel body car thats 40 years old with all stock suspension + slapper bars and a bolt in roll cage. Full glass and interior as well. Can you imagine the look on folks faces over here when I run my first 9.5 !!
Can you imagine the look on MY face when I run my first 9.5 :)
I know the day you report that you've run a 8.99 (or better!) I'll be walking around for a week with an ear to ear grin! Yep.. we're rootin' for you to pull it off!! 8-)Quote:
Originally Posted by pel
Thanks Dude!!
I've been talking with a transmission guy today. I met him on "Rod n Sods" forum and he lives just around the corner. He works for a tranny shop just 17 miles away. They do all sorts of auto stuff. They make the gearboxes for our UK Big Foot and other trucks. He was saying that they could take my converter and upgrade it to what I want. :) He says they normally do a 3-5 days turnaround, but if its for a desperate racer they will do it overnight if required.
And they are talking around $600.00 So that may be an option. ?
What a strange week this has been??
I took the car to a friends workshop last Sunday to replace the head gaskets. This should have been a routine top end rebuilt... or so I thought ?
My friend had opened the workshop for me and he was also doing work on his camper van for a road trip this year. It was his birthday and his family had not really done much to celebrate the event. So I arranged for several of our drag race buddies to turn up to "help me with my car" ;)
I let them get busy with the tear down and clean up on my engine while I snuck around arranging the cake and bunting in his engine shed while he worked on his camper van. By noon my engine was stripped and cleaned ready for new gaskets and a rebuild. I had by now got the BBQ fired up inside the main workshop and treated everyone to handmade burgers with all the trimmings. I managed to slip all the boys party hats and part poppers etc. One by one we all snuck into the engine shed and left our presents for him.
Then at 1pm I called him to say there was a fire in the engine shed. He came running and all the boys followed. He found the fire was 52 candles burning bright on top of his Spider Man cake :)
We all sang happy birthday and popped the poppers and blew our party razzers !! My mate laughed and then filled up and we all had man hugs and cut the cake. It was a great moment as he realised why I had brought so many race buddies to help me :)
Then when the dust had settled we all got back to our jobs. This is where it kinda went down hill for me :(
One of my chums mis read the torque wrench and pulled my heads down wrongly. I'm talking 90 ft/lbs instead of 70 ft/lbs eek!!! And he didnt use any assembly lube under the ARP nuts. So I had to back those off and re torque myself after fitting new gaskets and glue (2 hours).
Then we got back on track and I fitted the rocker gear only to find that one of the bolts pulled a thread in the head DOH!!!
That was it for me I'm afraid. I told the boys to wrap it up and load all the parts into the truck as I wasnt happy to do anymore. It was one of those moments when you just know the best thing to do is leave it alone and come back with a fresh head. So on Monday I dug out my Helicoil kit and got to stripping the rocker gear. But within 2 hours I was feeling rather unwell to the point where I had to go indoors and sit down. Man Flu had struck me !!!
I stayed in bed and off work for 3 days. But today I got out of bed at noon and made my way to the garage. I sat looking at the engine while I sipped a nice cup of tea and then rolled up my sleeves. I got the Helicoil installed the rocker gear back on in 1 hour :)
This was like a shot of adrenaline for me I must say. Yesterday I was in a mood that left me feeling like I could not be bothered with the car anymore. This evening I'm looking forward to a few nights next week where I will get the blower and inlet gear re fitted and ready to fire up for next weekend. I think the Man Flu is leaving me now. Although I do feel like I have been hit by a truck as all my bones ache. Even my eyeballs ache ??
I'm going to chill this weekend and do some family stuff and then on Sunday I'm crewing for a friends car at the track to make sure its tip top for a grudge race we will have on 22nd June at the track :) We both have the same engines with superchargers. Mine has the 4/71 his motor is pro charged and he is running 10psi more boost with EFI and lots of electronics and laptops and maps etc + a Ford 8.8 rear end with 5 link and caltracs.
I just have a dissy, MSD and a dominator sitting on top of the blower. So it should be a good heads up race I think?
PHEW!!
I'm glad I got all of that out...... I'm feeling even better now as the doorbell just rang to announce the arrival of my Friday night Chinese dinner which i can smell wafting through the house :)
Sorry this is more of a blog than real car stuff but I've had a few days off the computer and I'm in the mood to talk...
One more thing that was brought to my attention today. My lovely Grand Daughter Faith has just showed me what she will be wearing to her first ever day at the track on 22nd June this year. She will be 9 months old on 22nd June. And I'm looking forward to showing her off.....
http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/b...ps6ca7cfe6.jpg
Sorry to hear about the issues, but good on you for giving your buddy a party! What a cute klittle grand daughter, and nice shirt. :LOL: These flus lately have really been a pain in the u know what. I'm tired of them for sure. Haha
WOW, Talk about a rollercoaster.. Good to hear you're feeling better and that's an awesome pic of the youngest crew member!
Give her a hug from all her "Uncles" on this side of the puddle 8-)
What he said.Quote:
Originally Posted by 34_40
Some days you're the windscreen . . . and some days you're the bug.
Good that you're feeling better now though.
Those last few comments mean a lot to me guys!! Especially the Uncles across the puddle :)
I've been working out the race budget for this year and I have come to the conclusion that I can afford to buy the new torque converter and have transbrake gearbox refreshed and also get the fibre glass doors and trunk lid + lexan windows. OR I can get the fibre glass parts and lexan windows, and take my Daughter and Grand Daughter to France and Euro Disney in August for a week......... After much thought I have decided that the 8 second attempt can wait, but I will enjoy doing space mountain, pirates of the carribean etc for a few days. I'm looking forward to having my Grand Daughter on my lap as we ride the boat while I sing along to "its a small world after all" on that ride. :) I have already booked and paid for the trip now, and we will be staying in a log cabin on a camp site in France where we can enjoy the sun and the lakes (as well as fishing for Grandpa) and the horse riding and swimming and even more fishing in the sun.... :) The little girl is more important to me than the 8 seconds right now! So I'll have to be happy with 9's for this year while I enjoy time with the princess before I'm too old to do it :)
Good for you! Got the priorities right, for sure!
Times two! What Mr. Spears said! She'll only be a little girl for a short time, enjoy each moment you can.
Yep she won't be young for long, enjoy the time you have with her!
I intend to enjoy every moment with the little lady guys!!
The Retro Cars Show is now on us. Its next weekend.... And despite my power plant issues I'm still gunning for a 9.5 second pass ??
I have some ideas of how to do it if we dont have a bad headwind.... So I'm going for it in a big way :)
On another note I'm happy to announce that the Slingshot / Digger that I also am involved with will now be ready for a good haul next weekend. After many many months of electrical problems I have finally convinced my friend to ditch the Megasquirt and coil pack system. And today we finished the installation of a front driven MSD dissy and coil + an MSD digital7 box. The old girl fired up first time and ran the best it ever has. The last day out she ran coughing and spluttering at half pedal to reel in a 9.9 @ 143mph. This was the last straw for me with this old system as I have had a year of problems with it. We tried all sorts of things to make it work. But 3 weeks ago another friend came over with his scope and we saw that the square wave signal we needed was lost somewhere in the pcb and all we were seeing was batches of spikey signals for the spark trigger instead of square waves.
Long story short...... We powered it up today, I sprayed meth into the scoop for 3 seconds and then it cranked but would not fire. The MSD box showed no signal from the crank trigger wheel as the LED was not flashing? I took me 5 seconds to check and find that we had plugged the crank trigger input to the cam trigger plug. So unplug one and re plug to the right socket and she fired up first time and ran with a nice idle. We have to observe MSA rules at Santa Pod so we also got the chute fitted and working. The car made 143mph on a fast rough idle. Now it seems to be running sweet I can see it hitting 150mph with no effort on our first shakedown pass next Saturday. We dont actually have to use the chute. But we do have to prove thats its fitted and working if we hit 150+ mph. We can tidy the plug leads at the weekend if we have time. But as its working I just want to go racing :)
http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/b...ps9944b110.jpg
I thought you were hanging out with the little lady.. or ladies!?!?!?:confused:
Nope, you've been out working on another race car!:LOL:
And a sweet ride it seems as well!:D
Sounds like the mph barrier is going down! and with ease too!!:D
I hang with the princess every day and most evenings. I popped out for a few hours yesterday to finish the slingshot. Then back home for Fathers day treats from the kids and snuggles with Faith :)
Good luck sir!
Thanks Dude!!
We now have a race plan for the weekend. On Saturday my Son will run my MG on Saturday on boost only to test out some aero mods I did on the front spoiler. I will be crewing for 4 cars and will possibly have a run or two in the digger. The Ford Capri now has the suspension and weight distribution sorted out so it should run straight if all goes well ?
http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/b...ps15c28b9a.jpg
Then on Sunday morning I have to do a grudge race with an old friend and his pro charged 289ci Capri to keep him satisfied. I have to run on boost only to be a fair race. He's been on this thing since 2009 which was our first heads up. And he wants a re match. So I'll do that and then leave yhe track to go and pick up the princess so she can be with her mum and me for the rest of the day. On Sunday afternoon I will take the MG for a hard pass on old settings and hopefully run 9.6 in front of my MG Owners Club friends. Then I will talk to the Race Director and ask for a side by side with the Digger so I can record the runs from a GoPro on my roof.
My third pass on Sunday will possibly be the final pass for the day. I will keep the engine settings for last years 9.6 passes but I will be using race fuel instead of pump gas. I'm not sure how much more energy 120 octane fuel would give with no timing added, but I will find out for sure. ? :)
The general idea is to come home with some 9's on the sheet and nothing broken... Its all down to the weather and wind conditions + my state of mind when I'm ready to race?? Whatever happens over next weekend I'm sure it will be fun and I'm sure we will come back with lots of pictures and videos :)
Respect guys
Pel
Good Luck on "raceday" Pel.. Awesome Capri, we don't see many of those anymore!
Pel,
I expect that the 120 octane race fuel at the same settings will actually cost you some power and ET over the pump gas. To realize any benefit you'll have to boost the timing to account for the added octane/slower burn. Every point of octane slows the burn time just a bit, to prevent pre-ignition and detonation in higher performance engines. You get the most power and best efficiency running the lowest octane (fastest burn) fuel that you can burn without the "ping" of initial pre-ignition.
Good luck come race day we'll be rooting for some low 9s!
Quote:
Originally Posted by stovens
Darn it!! we only got into the high 9.7's this weekend with the MGB :(
I did actually run a 9.4 pass. But that was not the MG. I was running the Slingshot / Digger for a test run and the new ign system works just fine. But boy do we ever need to sort out the front end... We have already stiffened the chassis but the front wheels dont track right and they start to walk at high speed. Its quite a scary ride and it makes you back off little when the front tyres just become a blur as they wobble very fast !! the slo mo vid shows what happens with the front wheels.
https://www.youtube.com/edit?video_i...referrer=watch
On the flip side!! the weekends meeting was fantastic as I had a host of forum friends showing up to meet each other. And my Grand Daughter Faith came to the track on Sunday morning with my Son (who was on fire crew for the day) and my Daughter Vicki who is Faiths mother. Faith kept trying to pull her sun hat off in the pits. But when we put her ear defenders on she absolutely loved them and stopped trying to pull off her bonnet. My Daughter took Faith to the grandstand with a friends wife to watch Grand father race the rail. She was watching intensely as I did a burnout and then clapped her hands as I left the start line. My Daughter told me that she did this with every other car as well :)
So I think at 9 months old we have another Drag Race fan in the family. Faith is just too cute for words and Grandpa loves her :)
http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/b...ps94a9ba22.jpg
http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/b...ps1fb27cd8.jpg
Very cool/kewl!!
Sorry to hear about the bad day of performance.. but the picture of her clapping pushes away all those grey clouds!
You know, if she keeps coming to the track.."we" won't ever see an 8 second run...
Excellent shots of the grand daughter!
All we need is a bit of cooperation from Faith, and some focused coaching from Mum and we'll have you into the 8's quick as a flash! ;) If Mum will simply tell Faith, "Now no clapping unless we see the "snowman number" (8) on the board!", you'll be bumping the timing and bettering your light times every run!! ;):LOL::LOL::LOL:Quote:
Originally Posted by 34_40
Maybe if "we" get Faith to say.. "You know, I don't think grampys ol' car can run an 8 sec. ET"! "Will it grampy!?!?!?!"
Then we'd see it happen! :eek::LOL::LOL::LOL:
Quote:
Originally Posted by 34_40
You hit the nail on the head there Sir!!
But the 8 will come in the future. And hopefully with baby girl watching Gramps do it :)