Rick's 1960 HT

[Restifier52]

Drivetrain HP Losses

Got my car back from the dyno today. I am not going to report the numbers in keeping with the rules of etiquette between soon to be dueling racers (DAKOTA BOY!) but I will disclose that my peak HP on the bottle was 71 HP more than the motor only number (measured at the rear wheels of course). That is with the 100HP jets. I haven't researched it but it seems to me a drivetrain loss of 29HP is pretty good. So it's on with the drag radials and off to Lapeer to learn how to drive this thing.

Rick

[Dakota Boy]

Umm me too.

Havent been to the track yet either.

[Restifier52]

Sorry about your starter woes. I had a setback too. My extension housing cracked and I had a puddle of tranny fluid on the garage floor. With the guidance and reassurance of my mechanic Roger the fix has been much easier than I feared. Still, I'm out of commission till he can modify the crossmember to accommodate a real trans mount. The guys who engineered the swap made a crossmember with a rubber shim about 3/16 thick. So the motor was able to twist on its mounts more than the trans on its. I should mount a sign in the car like they have at factories-THIS CAR HAS BEEN DRIVEN....DAYS WITHOUT THE OWNER HAVING TO FIX SOME **** THING

[Dakota Boy]

I have my starter thing fixed now.
I was going to go to the Meltdown Drags at Byron, IL tomorrow but the temp. plus heat index is going to be 105 F.
I was there a few years ago when it was that hot, and it was absolute torture.
I'll stay home in the A/C instead.

[Restifier52]

Front End Done

New bushings and ball joints, freshly painted control arms and 1/2" spacers under the coils. I told Roger to cut a coil back when we were first getting the car running and driving. I thought it needed it to get the stance right. I put the street rims back on (225/60R16) and it looks good with the 1" lowering block in back. Got it aligned and it feels pretty good. I can't do anything about the slop in the steering box. I will upgrade to rack and pinion I just don't know when. There is still something sounding like it's loading and unloading under the car though. Now it sounds like the right rear. There's not a whole lot under there. Leaf, axle, shock. And in my case, CalTrac. Something's loose. I don't feel like squirming around on the garage floor again so soon, but I'll check it out. Man it's always something. These mild days have been a real blessing. I even got some yard work done!

[Dakota Boy]

Some of my "race car" buddies (one even has a car that runs 4.5's in the 1/8th on 275 drag radials) have told me to get rid of those rubber pads that sandwich the leaf springs (where the springs are bolted to the axle). I know the feeling you are perhaps talking about, but it could also be the Detroit Locker in the rear end that is causing this.

[Restifier52]

Easy Fix

I tightened the u bolt nuts and the noise went away. It was very nice of them not to come completely off at 100+mph. Of course I (imagined that I) felt the improvement in handling as well. I realized I hadn't checked those nuts since I put the axle back together after getting the new innards. So once again everything is as hunky dory as it can get. I wonder what the next issue will be.

[Restifier52]

Woo Hoo

Ladies and Gentlemen I am pleased to announce that Big Red (a nickname for my car that I literally just now thought of) has broken the 12 second mark. Last year my best was 12.157. Between then and now I put 90/10 drag shocks on the front and removed the swaybar. I went to Milan last Wednesday looking for an 11.99 and ran 11.929 at 116.18mph on my second pass. That was before I remembered that I wanted to let some air out of the drag radials. I had 20 lbs. in them for driving to the track. I let out 5 pounds and even with a bit of wheel hop got a better 60ft. time (1.793) but not a better et or speed. A problem with the nitrous not coming on when it was supposed to prevented me from making any better runs but I was happy I got that 11. I hope to get one more shot at Lapeer. Still haven't gotten anyone to accompany me so no video. Maybe I'll get some video at Lapeer. I'll tighten the Cal Tracs and see about maybe getting some 11.8s.

[YellowRose]

Rick's 1960 HT

Congratulations, Rick! That is quite the accomplishment! Hopefully, the next time there will be someone who can shoot some video!

[Dakota Boy]

Dude that is an awesome time you have there-

I just added a 1/2 inch fuel line a few weeks ago, and finally the carb isn't running empty on me anymore. Should've done this a long time ago!

[Restifier52]

Good good. You take it out? I went back to the same track and got down to 11.88. I lost the race though cause I jumped the gun. I think the body is twisting around despite the connectors. I see a wave in the passenger door I didn't notice before. On the other hand, maybe it's due to the weatherstrip. I had to move the striker all the way out to get the door closed and it needed significant force at that. I let it stay that way for a few weeks then moved the striker in a bit. Passenger door was never right anyway, even with no weatherstrip.

It does seem like the gaps are moving around over time. Not a huge deal. Car is pretty much finished. Plenty of flaws but it's a driver not a show car. I hope I can come up with a way to get more cooling. It hasn't been a problem with these mild temperatures but on hot days it runs a bit higher than I'd like.

My son took a video on his phone: https://youtu.be/SCs5TOwPGrM

[Dakota Boy]

nice video!

[Restifier52]

"car is basically finished." Did I say that?

I did go to Lapeer and stunk up the place pretty good. I couldn't do anything right. If I wasn't screwing up the car was. You know what they say, though - a bad day at the track is better than whatever else I would have been doing instead, um, or something like that.

I bought a nice hood from Carl and my mechanic is going to raise the scoop so I can ditch my 2" air cleaner for a 3.5". While we're at it we will put a vent or vents to hopefully release some of that hot underhood air and I will fab up an aluminum plate with some foam to seal the carb intake. It'll be Ram Air only with no engineering The guy who built my Windsor said he wouldn't spray more than 250HP on it He's got nothing to worry about there. I'm at 150 now and I got a simple progressive controller that gives you three choices of ramp up: slow medium or fast.The biggest jets that came with my N2O system are for 200 so I'm going to put them in and play with the controller until I get the best I can do with it.

Oh and I took out the power steering system. I don't think it was doing anything for me anyway. At idle there was no assist that I could tell. So I plugged the ports in the (not original) steering box, took out a few components from the pump to let it spin free and plugged those ports and now I have an idler that looks like a disconnected pump. We'll see how that works out.

Cheers!
Rick

[Restifier52]

Well the pump shell is gone, replaced by an idler pulley. I never did drive it with the pump shell so we'll never know if it would have exploded. I also have my replacement rear tires: M & H ROD-36. Same size as the BFGs. John at M & H says I'm gonna love 'em. Work on the hood (my hood, I decided not to buy Carl's) should be starting soon. I had the car out the other day and hit the 200HP button on the freeway. I have not yet installed the progressive controller so it came on all at once. It was good but felt like less than I was hoping for. My bottle pressure may have been low and I know I was on the tail end of the bottle. And I was already doing 70mph. I'm looking forward to many passes this year. If I can get consistent I might even compete!
Oh and it IS absolute **** to steer. The rack and pinion conversion must happen soon.

[Restifier52]

I'm giving myself a hood scoop that can hold its own with Greg's wheelwells. The most I can get in there is a 2" element on a drop base. With the new scoop I will be able to fit a 3 1/2" on a flat base. We're going to figure out how to partition it off at some point in the future.