Back to Work Again

Well, we are finally getting caught up a little from Hurricane Harvey. We had lots of damage (Again) but are  making progress pulling the pieces back together. I was very fortunate that neither car was damaged too bad. Having them up on jacks probably saved them. Water got up to the frames on both cars but did not get into the engines, transmissions, or rear ends.

The dragster got some water on the wiring and corroded some of the wiring  terminals. Other than that, the cars  are it fine.

My tools on the other hand did not fare so well. The flood got my MIG welder, TIG Welder,  all of my old Starrett and Mitutoyo micrometers, most of my Makita power tools, and a bunch of other stuff. I lost a couple of our motorcycles and ATVs as well. A lot of stuff will need to be overhauled. Flood water is the most corrosive things I have ever seen.

We are still waiting to see if and what our flood insurance is going to pay.  We are very fortunate compared to some people in Houston. We have our house and the house we own next door stripped and ready to start rebuilding when we have the time and money. We are just doing what we can for now.

I worked on the dragster for the first time since the flood a couple of weeks ago. When I downloded the data from the first two races, I noticed that the A/F Ratio monitors were recording crazy readings (extremely lean). I knew the car wasn't lean because I had intentionally jetted it rich for a safe tuneup. I figured out that they were being exposed to air that was leaking into the slip joints where the collector slips onto the primary tubes. The A/F Ratio monitors were mounted in the collector downstream to the slip connection and the collectors create a vacuum inside the collector after every exhaust pulse. That vacuum was pulling in raw air which skewed my readings.

I welded new fittings upstream of the collector in one primary tube and now the readings are correct. The car is a little rich as I expected . The negative side of this is I am only getting a reading from one cylinder on each side of the engine. I will have to jet the engine cautiously when I start leaning it out in case the two cylinders I am monitoring are more rich than the other cylinders. Big Block Chevies are known to have uneven fuel distribution so I will be cautious.

The plan is to start racing again in February or March. I can't wait to climb into it again!

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