New engine frame loop

As I said in an earlier post. The new Hemi bell housing would not fit into my frame so I had to cut the old engine mounting frame loop out so I could fabricate a new one that made room for the SFI approved bell housing.

I just finished bending and fitting one side of it tonight. Once I get the other side done, I have to TIG weld it into place and fabricate a new firewall.

Here is the new frame rail with clearance for the safety bolts on the bell housing:

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Fire Suppression System

Fitting the new fire suppression system and Lithium battery. The ProMod classes require 20 pounds of extinguishing agent. Everything in this car is a tight fit! There will be a single handle on the roll cage to release the agent to three nozzles. Two directed at the front of the engine to extinguish oil and fuel fires and one directed at the driver to keep me cool if fire gets into the cockpit. I hope that never happens but it will be nice to know you have the fire system.

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New front tank mounts

Well this was an interesting couple of weeks! Nine days ago, I decided to start one of my dirts bikes up for the first time after winter and putt around on the track I built for the grandkids. I was going through the set of whoops  and my hand slipped off of the handlebar causing me to bust my behind. Lucky for me, I fell just right and landed on my shoulder, busting my collarbone, unbelievable!

My orthapedic surgeon could not get me in for surgery until last Wednesday so I lived with a floppy and painful shoulder for 6 days. He did the surgery on Wednesday and did such a good job that I felt like working on the “Black Hole” today.

One of the things I had to do to prepare the car for the new Hemi was to put a larger fuel tank on it and add a dry sump oil tank to the front of the car.

I cut the old framework off of the front of the car and built this new mount to hold both the fuel tank and the dry sump tank. The tanks are made the same shape and fit side by side. They will be covered with a carbon fiber cover that make the look like one tank.

Here is the result of the crash (yes that is a gigantic bruise) and what I got done so far on the tank mounts.

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Touch Screen Monitor for Data Review

Our business partner gave me a Microsoft Surface touch screen monitor that he didn't need anymore so that I could use it in my race trailer. My old eyes have a hard time seeing a small laptop screen so it will be nice to have a larger one.

The neat thing about this screen is that I do not have to use a mouse to look at or manipulate the data when I download it from the car between rounds. It works like a giant tablet, so cool! I got it mounted in the trailer last night and it works great! It will be a nice tool to have on race day!!

We are looking more like a serious race team every day. Now if I can learn to drive like a real driver, ha!

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Trailer Mods

Last year we realized that our trailer was not configured to hold all of our stuff, a tow vehicle, and the dragster. The trailer is very tall so we figured if we could lift the nose of the dragster up while hauling it, we could get our Big Red Honda UTV into the trailer. This gives Traci a way to bring all of the equipment to the staging lanes and have a good form of transportation to move around the pits.

In order to accomplish this, we built a cable winch lift in the back of the trailer and mounted A-Track on the walls so we can put cargo load bars across the trailer to hold the dragster up. Each bar is capable of holding 2000 pounds. We have two bars supporting an aluminum platform to hold the wheels up. We also put another set of A-Track and cargo bars in the middle of the trailer to support the middle of the dragster with an air filled rubber bladder. The bladder is made for supporting a dragster while towing and does a good job.

We are going to try and take it on its maiden voyage this weekend if the rain will hold off. There is a Friday night test day and two days of bracket racing at Royal Purple raceway that we want to attend. Here are some pictures of the dragster loaded and ready to go.

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Like a Glove....

I fabricated a rear motor plate tonight so I could test fit the Hemi. It fits in the car like a glove. I am going to have to build another front mount because the one I have is about an inch too narrow. It works for test fitting but I have a piece of aluminum ordered to mill a new one that fits correctly.

The engine bay is full of engine now. Boy does it look bitchin!!!!

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Back Home from New York

Traci and I are very tired and glad to be home but we had a great time picking up the new engine and parts! We drove nearly 4000 miles in 4 days.

The engine turned out to be an awesome piece of equipment and the owners (Marc and Joe Caruso) were awesome. They are such honest and nice people!

I also got the meet the engine builder (Mike Janis) who was an incredibly nice and smart guy. Mike tore the engine down so I could inspect it and so it would fit in my pickup under the bed cover.

I trusted Mike so much that I left my Kobelco blower with him (the one I bought last year) to modify and make it a world class blower capable of 3.70 eight mile horsepower. He will bring my blower back to me when he comes to the race at Royal Purple Raceway in April (He races professionally in the ProMod class). He is also modifying the injector hat to inject extra fuel in the hat to cool the incoming air charge. He said it would be worth 100-200 horsepower.

Here are a bunch of pictures of the new engine and parts. The engine is machined out of billet aluminum and is a work of art! I made a package deal and got the engine, 2 spare sets of pistons, a set of extra rods, 3 speed billet B&J transmission (indestructible), 2 torque converter (matched to the engine/tranny combo, a magneto, spare belts, pulleys, flywheel, spare rocker arms, etc, etc, etc.

I got a great package to go really fast. The engine tranny combo has run a 3.70 at 198 mph in the 1/8th mile!!!

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