Changing some things around

I began taking my drag race car apart in preparation for selling it off. While I have acquired the bits and pieces for it economically over time, I still have a decent amount of money tied up in it. Nonetheless, I began taking some stuff off to sell separately.This is the air intake of the mechanical fuel injector. This is not just a "scoop", or air-scoop; the red butterfly plates that swing open are actually precision parts that meter the air very exactly(this part is called the "hat"). Believe it or not they flow enough air like this, nearly completely closed, for my big block motor to run at idle. You can barely see a little opening at the bottom of the center butterfly plate.

Anyway, the injector system has some drawbacks, and I have never been completely satisfied with it. For one thing, it only works in two modes, idle, and wide open (and not really well at idle). Part throttle is difficult, so it's hard to drive the car around the pits and to the starting line, and so forth. While the system looks complicated, it's actually pretty simple, but maybe that's just to me since I understand how it works. The other thing is it uses methanol alcohol instead of gasoline. The alcohol makes huge power and keeps the motor temperatures very cool (the cooling effect is the main reason I run alcohol), but you have to drain the entire system at the end of every day or it will corrode the internals.

I took a couple of shots to show how the lines and components run, just for some sort of unknown reference, I guess.

Here from the other side.

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I took the whole injector system off the motor. That left the bare block in the car, so I put my old faithful gas carburetor and intake manifold back on there, just for kicks.

It's missing a couple of hoses, but you can see how much simpler the carburetor is. Again, just for kicks, I hooked the throttle cable up, it went right on after I made one simple bracket. The exhaust is removed in this photo, I have rags in the ports to keep moisture out. The carb set-up is not as trick looking as the injector for sure though.

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This got me thinking. I have made no progress on the Biscayne since I am in voluntary austerity mode right now (basically put: I don't want to spend any money on it since I'm not working). So that's not running yet. I want to sell the altered so I'd have some money to spend on the Biscayne, but I don't want to sell it into a recession and lose a lot of money on it. That would just be foolish for no reason. The time to sell race cars is when the economy is humming along. Finally, for the cost of a couple of small parts, I could always race this thing again with the carb set-up. I have let my competition license and the car's chassis certification lapse, but they are only needed to run sub-10 seconds. I could easily adjust the throttle stop, and slow it down to run low 10's in the slower class. So we'll see. Besides, little k says she wants to see the purple car go "vrooom".

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I am getting very antsy to get back to work. Not because I'm excited about working, but my life is on hold right now, I feel like I can't do anything, or spend any money until I have some coming in. Most car events are closing up for the season, so I'm having a hard time coming up with things to write about. This may be a long, cold winter.

EV-Steve's S-10 update; it's now rear wheel drive only

In our last episode, Super-Dave came over and helped me get the front axles out, remember? We weren't done.
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EV-Steve helpfully reminded me to reinstall the outer axle stubs to support the inner bearing races. I disassembled the outer CV joints of the axles and reinstalled the outer axle stubs. Pretty easy.
What was not easy was getting the front differential out. After a few hours disassembly and fighting sometimes nearly inaccessible rusty bolts (you were correct again, Steve) it became clear that the differential was put in the chassis from the top side, before the engine would have been put in above it. It was like one of those bent nail puzzles where you keep rotating the parts, but you can't get them apart because something is always in the way. Bottom line: it was not going to come out the bottom easily. A quick poof-poof of one little bracket with the torch and it fell out. Yes, I not only got a nice new torch tip, I got a spare one as well.
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I put the unneeded parts on the digital scale I bought for weighing packages right before I stopped ebaying stuff, and the grand total was 95+ lbs. With gear oil, fasteners, cut-off brackets, and rust flakes, call it 100 lbs even. Doesn't sound like much, but in EV's as in drag racing, every little bit of weight removed helps.

EV-Steve's S-10 gets saved by Dave

Sorry for so long between posts, hot rod fans. I had my father-in-law and his wife as guests from Florida last week, so we spent a lot of time with them, and I did little else. Also I have had a headache for four days now, so that can't be good. Yes, I'll call the doctor first thing tomorrow, if I make it.
I have been doing a little more work on EV-Steve's S-10, but frankly I have not been giving it the priority it deserves, so thanks for your patience, Steve. I am trying to get the front wheel drive parts off, since they are not used, to save weight. I have had one side partly apart for awhile now, but I just didn't know how to finish this job. I have never done independent front axles before. My brother Dave came over to help me this evening. And when I say help, I mean he did the whole thing himself, despite my protests. He jumped right in and got filthy, while I ran tools to him. I was trying to take photos and notes, so I'd know how to do the other side, but he worked like lightning. I literally could not take notes fast enough. Dave has been a professional mechanic all his life, probably 25+ years, and you can tell. He works for a major luxury car dealer. Yes, I had it mostly apart, but watching him finish this thing with speed and confidence, was like watching a magician. Tools are going zip zip, and things get disconnected, and parts are flying off, and before you know it, he's done. He has this amazing trick to getting ball joints off that literally happens so fast you can't see it. It would take me 10 minutes to get my ball joint press set up and working. He just whacks the spindle casting with a big hammer, tap, tap, WHACK! and the ball joint pops off that fast.

Here's my cousin Pete, fellow drag racer and all around good guy, holding the passenger side axle. Yes, it's heavy, so this is all going to be worth the trouble.

Here's Dave, head down and working. No gabbing, just work. I must also say that this afternoon was probably one of the most humid days I have ever felt. I mean it was brutal! I felt so bad for Dave. I positioned a big box fan to blow right on him, and got him cold drinks, but it was just so humid out, he must have felt like he was in a jungle. Fixing a truck.

My nephew Tyler, Dave's youngest son, was able to keep cool though.

If you look close, you can see one of the many sweat beads ready to drip off the end of Dave's nose. He never complains either. He is one tough dude. My head is still pounding, so I try not to complain either. Hope it doesn't asplode.

With one side done, he decides to do the driver's side too. Probably didn't want to see me taking another five weeks on that side. Only problem was, I had already returned the 36mm socket I had borrowed from him previously. There was no way we could get it, or a new one, this late on a Sunday. We decide to torch the axle nut off. Unfortunately, my torch tip is fubar, and I had meant to replace it, because it doesn't work right. Poor Dave spent so much time trying to get the POS torch to work. Patience of a saint.

We further decide to cut this side axle shaft in two, so we can just pull the parts out without so much disassembly. A little grindy-grinding, and the shaft is in two. Both parts come out with little effort. See, I would never think to do it that way. Very crafty.

Here is the pass side with the axle shaft out, before complete reassembly. It used to connect from the circular flange in the upper right (see the threaded holes), to the hub on the left, where the wheel studs are. Kind of hard to describe something that's not there, but it is cool and weird to see the big 'ol axle BOOYAH! out of there.

Here's the driver's side axle cut in two and out. Don't worry Steve, we won't be needing that anymore. I'm pretty sure.

Next I'll go for the front differential and front driveshaft. I have preliminarily looked them over and that part looks pretty straightforward. Hopefully.

Well, I hope that I have adequately conveyed my admiration and appreciation, my love really, for my brother Dave. And I am not just saying that because he always helps me out with my car problems. But he always does. I often think of him and hope he does not remember the times when we were kids, that I may have taken advantage of the fact that I am three years older than him, as kids are apt to do. Anyway, I love him dearly, but he's not the kind of guy you just say that to, so I said it here.

Thanks, Dave.

Some poking around on the '58, pt. 2

While I was in an adventurous mood, I decided to check the oil. I pulled the dipstick, and the oil was low, suspiciously thin, and it had an odd smell. Time to drain the oil and see what's going on in there. The drain plug must be under that goop somewhere. As I have said before, I would rather see a nice wet oily underside than a crusty rusty underbody (do not think of that sentence in any way other than how it relates to old cars).

There we go, the plug is out and "it" is draining nicely. You can see the oil filter is the older canister style with the replaceable element instead of the one piece spin-on style. The PO said this was a 1964 motor, the oil filter style supports this claim (perhaps the motor and front seat came from the same car). I said "it" instead of oil, because the fluid was not all oil. There was a very strong gasoline smell to it. It was very thin in viscosity, as if it was half gas, half oil. Something is up.

Now the previous owner was all paranoid about what does indeed sound like a sticky lifter tapping in the motor. Not a big deal to me. First of all, it's not a fatal problem, and I could have the motor apart and swap the lifter in a couple of hours if I wanted to.

Anyway, it is possible that he added kerosene, or some other solvent to the oil in an effort to free up the lifter. Which of course did not work anyway.

A second possibility is that the fuel pump is leaking internally into the engine. A pushrod from inside the motor activates the fuel pump, so there is a passage where it could leak. An uncommon malady, but possible. That would explain why there seems to be so much gas in the oil, and it would also explain why the car came with almost a whole new fuel system; the PO was chasing a fuel delivery problem caused by the pump itself, which he had not yet replaced.

Fuel pumps are easy to change, so I'll get a new one just in case that's it.

HERE'S what you use to clean out a motor of unknown previous use, misuse, and abuse. I filled the motor with 4 quarts of new oil, and 1 quart of automatic transmission fluid. Yes, really. I took the photo in mid-pour just to prove it. ATF has a very high detergent component, it will literally scour the inside of an engine clean. Well, cleaner. I have done this on other used cars and it works great. Do this a couple of times, changing the oil early, like at 1000 mile intervals, and you will not believe the gunk and junk that comes out of the pan each time.

DO NOT pour ATF into the intake of the motor as I heard one person insist he does, unless you wish to cause a huge smokescreen in the neighborhood, and actually add to the deposits in the cylinder head. This goes in with the oil, not the gas.

I'm going to get an adapter to change the oil filter over to the later, easier, and more common spin-on style as well. I'll report back on these fixes after I actually get some parts and get fixing.

Some poking around on the '58, pt. 1

I did some poking around on the '58 last weekend. First thing I did was to pull this awful front bench seat out. It is not a '58 seat, it doesn't fit right, it's too low, and it's in just awful condition. Wasn't even bolted down. I now believe it is a 1964 Chevy front seat (there was an ID tag underneath), so that makes it perhaps valuable to someone. If you want it, or know someone that does, come get it by this Saturday. It's loaded in my truck to go to the dump. Do I feel bad about trashing a 34 year old seat? Yeah, I guess, kind of, but I'm not in the mood to bother to sell it, as we know from before, so Hoo-yah, out it goes. Not, as they say, my problem.
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Oh, yeah, if you want it, it's in excellent condition (forget what I was saying before) and it's fifty bucks.

I have loosely installed the seats from my mom's old Geo that we scrapped. At the last moment I took these seats out merely because they were in such good condition, I had no use for them at the time. I wanted to use the plastic racing bucket seats for drag cars, but they are kind of floppy if the backs are not up against a roll bar, and I'm not planning a roll bar, at least yet. These look kind of modern for what I am planning, but with the headrests off, they don't look too out of place. Plus, they are really light, they have the adjustable seat tracks, they kind of match the red outside paint, they are in great shape, and they are my favorite price: free. So be it.

While sitting in the loosely installed new bucket seat, I noticed a big wet spot on the floor where the driver's feet go. This was not alarming, since the car is outside, and most of the weatherstripping is shot. While wiping it out, I noticed that most of the fresh floor paint was coming loose. The liquid had a faint, familiar smell too. Brake fluid. It's not water, it's brake fluid. Brake fluid is notorious for loosening paint, in fact I have used it as a quickie paint stripper. But how was it getting in the car?

Here is the ancient brake master cylinder in the engine compartment. Probably original. All four brakes are fed from the single line exiting in the lower right. This is a single chamber type cylinder. The problem is, if any part of the brake system leaks, all the brakes fail at once, since all the fluid passages are connected, the fluid will all leak out the one hole. Actually, it's more like you will be unable to build any pressure at any other brake, and you need a lot of pressure for any brake to work. Newer (from the mid-'60's on) systems separate the front and rear brake systems, these use dual-chamber master cylinders. So a leak in the front leaves you rear brakes, and vice-versa.
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The spark-plug wire retention method is a nice touch. Hope you didn't put too much time into that mod, bro.
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The previous owner said in his ad, that in his opinion, the entire brake system needs to be rebuilt. So he was basically covering his A. I believe the master cylinder is leaking out the actuating (push) rod in the back, and dripping down the brake pedal, and puddling on the floor. A new master cylinder would cure this, I'll upgrade to a dual-chamber cylinder while I'm at it.

No sense waiting for the rest of the fluid to leak out, so I'm using this hypodermic thingy to suck the remainder of the fluid out. This thing works great. I also have a turkey baster for bigger pools of unwanted fluid. Seriously.

The battery has gone dead, I noticed the PO was leaving it disconnected. Perhaps it has a slow drain. Perhaps it isn't charging. This car has a generator (DC). Oh look, you can just see a little black wire and a little red wire that aren't hooked up to anything. That doesn't seem right. I'll bet they're supposed to go to something. Just a guess. I'll bet if I hooked them up, it might actually charge.
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I'll pull this thing out, and put in a one-wire alternator and be done with it. One-wire alternators work great.
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I'll follow up when I get the parts to fix up this stuff. I also broke "poking around" into a second part, since the simple "check the oil" got so unbelievable I have to give it it's own post.
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I know I do a lot of complaining, and bashing, and sarcastic-talking, when I do these first fix-up things on a vehicle I just got. Maybe that's the "I can't believe what the PO did" factor, but the truth is I really do like doing these fixes, because in just a few weeks, I can get a barely driveable heap into decent shape. Most of it is small stuff; the PO just cheaped out, or didn't want to do the tough work, or just maybe didn't know better. It's almost a fun, detective, archaeologist, Mr. fix-it type of work. And it looks like I have plenty of fun ahead of me with this car.

Car Club: NETO; North East Timing Organization, pt.2

Folks, I'm sorry I missed the mid-week post I usually make. I had a nice handyman job this past week that ran about twice as long as I expected, so I was tied up with that. If you missed the last post (and why would you?) you should probably go back and review it for background info. Amber has had a refreshing drink, and is ready to see more NETO cars in the pits, after their first time-trial run, so let's get to it.

This wild Fiat-based altered runs a big injector in the Comp class. I'm not certain, but I expect this car would run in the 7's.

Here's the immaculate early Corvette of the club President. He is a professional engine builder, and this car runs deadly-consistent 8.50's

This Corvette is more of a street/strip car; I believe it was road-raced extensively in the past by it's current owner. Early Corvettes are well represented in NETO, there are quite a few.

How about a blown and injected big block 1967 Chevelle, alcohol fueled, no doubt? A serious hitter in the Comp class.

Good advice is not too far away from the driver of this roadster.

Drag cars have to start their engines many times over a day, and usually don't run long enough to recharge the battery fully. These battery chargers ensure that the trunk-mounted battery gets topped-off. Mounting the battery in the trunk takes a big chunk of weight from where it hurts the car's performance, and puts it where it helps the car's performance.

Ford Mavericks, originally considered a compact economy car, are unusually plentiful, this is the first of three on hand this day.

I believe the owner of this fantastic Chevelle joined NETO on this very day. He lost a head gasket in the first time-trial and was done. He'll be back.

Another immaculate Nova. The '68-'72 Nova is by far the most popular car type in NETO. Then again, even I like them, and it's easy to see why: Great styling, available, affordable, nice size, good visibility, etc. If it's not the best bracket car platform out there, it's at the top.

There are so many great classic cars in NETO, I feel like I'm repeating myself. Here's yet another; show car good looks, blown small block, and 9 second performance. What's not to like about this 1968 Camaro?

This 6-cylinder Maverick is a long time class-legal NHRA car. I've seen the owner display 4 NHRA "Wallys" it has earned over the years.

The Chevrolet cowl-induction hoodscoop (so named because it was open at the rear, near the cowl) was originally about 2 inches tall over the hood surface. As induction systems became more exotic, this scoop style has morphed into 5-6 inch tall monsters like these. Works good though.

Oh my goodness, my dad had one of these Dodge Swingers. I loved driving it. I thought it was quite peppy with a stock 318, imagine how fast this one is.

A little racer trick is shown on this early Camaro: draping a cloth over the rear tire that is in the sun to prevent the heat of the sunlight from expanding the air inside, which can increase the pressure and change the diameter of that tire slightly. Does it matter? In drag racing, everything matters.

This '70's-model Corvette is a great drag racing platform. The engine sits back pretty far in Corvettes, this is good for weight distribution and traction.

When you run an alcohol-injected 528 Keith Black Hemi in an altered, you need a small crew to help out. Times in the 7.50's is the result.

Oh, I love this early, early Thunderbird. Classic styling, it's different, and it's a good size package with a relatively long wheelbase. If I was more of a Ford guy, richer, and shorter, I'd get one of these (I don't fit in these smaller cars well). I like this car because it has the cool 8-stack injectors, vintage paint, it bangs a 4-speed manual trans, and it runs 10's, the advantageous fast end of it's class.

And now for something, as John Cleese would say, completely different. Forgive me if I am wrong, but I believe this is a Mazda RX-7, with a Chevrolet V-8 small block, with dual 4-barrel carbs on a tunnel-ram intake. It's wheelbase is SHORT, looks to me like about 90 inches, so this must be a real handful to drive. It certainly is creative and different, and probably inexpensive, relatively speaking. I'll have to talk to the owner some time and get more info.

If you look closely, you can see the wear of thousands of passes on this class-legal NHRA 1968 Camaro. There is something about these veterans that just captivates me. It is just so interesting to see the nicks and scratches, and the faded chrome and aluminum, from sitting in the hot sun during hundreds of days at the drags. I know, nice paint is nice, but there's just something about these warhorses that I totally dig.

Here's the third Maverick as promised. Period color, Cragar S/S mags, vinyl top; it's perfect, and a great bracket racer as well.

If you're ever at a show or race and you see this booth, please go over and talk to the nice people of NETO. You don't need to own a car to join, and it is a family-friendly, fun organization. I'll be back with them next year with my big '58 Chevy, if all goes well.

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Thanks, and I hope to be back with more mainstream street-car coverage next. Also, some early exploring on the '58, so I'll have lots of tech articles coming as well. Bye for now.