New project

[hotrod 80]

Wow , ran a double header this weekend at Evadale raceway and had a horrible weekend. Started out Friday night and was gonna just tighten the alt belt . Couldn't get it tight . Had to pull it apart and make a few mods . Finally got it fixed . Went to check the oil and the dipstick broke off in the block . Found a sheetmetal screw and RTV'd it into the remainer of the dipstick . Then noticed the wire from the solenoid to starter motor had insulation falling off . Fixed it . Worked on it til midnight . Got up at 6 am and headed out . About half way there rain . Then facebook said delay of gates opening . Finally got there and the truck is creeping forward when the brake is applied . I went red both time trials . I literally threw the kitchen sink at it and was .-017 red last time trial and .-.017 first round . Couldn't fix it . Get up sunday and decide to just footbrake the truck . GO to warn it up and break the nose off the starter . Borrow a starter from a buddy and I'm back in . Have not footbraked this truck I 4 or 5 years . ROll up under the back and thank god I wrote note on the underside of the bed in sharpie marker . Made a few adjustment and actually went to 5 cars and lost a race I should have won . had him covered on the tree and gave it back at the finish by .007 . Truck shoot out coming up Saturday . I'm running 10.0 index , then tear down trans fix dipstick and rear main seal . No racing til mid may .

[regan wilson]

Lol it sounds like you were probably just ready to set it on fire. You should be able to do pretty good on the 10.0 index.

[hotrod 80]

I am honestly ready for a break . I am putting fresh tires on it today and the caltracs were out of adjustment . Just one thing after another . I definatly would have taken a reasonable offer on it sunday .

[hotrod 80]

Had a decent weekend @ HPT Texas truck invasion . Headed out Friday night and loaded up the Yellow truck . Had a buddy of mine Jay came by and grabbed my blue street truck . We went out to test Friday night then stay the night at the track and race Saturday and come home . Friday night we unload and the Blue truck goes 11.19 off the trailer! Mind you this is leaving at 2000 on a footbrake and shifting @6000 . This converter will go 2800 and it can be shifted at 65-6600 . I ask the tech guy if they will let us run 11.0 index tomorrow and get the big NO. No bars etc. I crank 16 turn in the restrictor plate and 11.93 ....we are in . Yellow truck I moved the 2 step to 4400 and the shift point to 7400 and it goes 10.05 . This race is .400 pro tree , so I swap to the reactor button. Thinking with a bit of spray if needed we should be good down there . We ended up doing real well . Won both 12.0 index and 10.0 index.

My buddy Jay

Me




The time slip from the final . This was against a super gas 9.90 truck with all the electronics. I scrubbed 3 or 4 mph on this pass just to make sure I didn't break out . I was on a 10.03 by split time . I pulled bottled water tire pressure gauges , anything I could find to try and get there . Pay out was good .

[regan wilson]

Thats cool Hot Rod. Guess you didnt know the little Blue one was that fast.
I'm jealous you have two that run and I have one in a thousand pieces.

[hotrod 80]

I pulled the motor out this winter and added the AFR headed 388 and my rebuilt tci super street fighter in it with the long tubes from the yellow truck . I have not put exhaust on it yet and just got it running to move it around . I threw a set of 3" dumps on it . I was surprised it was that fast . I honestly think it had a 10.90 in it . My buddy is a bracket racer and knows how to drive one without tearing it up . I'm sure it will slow down with the added weight of exhaust and the back pressure from mufflers . Still fast for a pump gas street truck .

[hotrod 80]

got a couple of weeks off from racing and decided I better fix the dipstick and a very small oil leak . Decided to buy a small cell phone bore scope for $16 with free shipping off ebay . SO I snapped some picks and did a leak down on the motor . All the holes were 100% by 28 to 30 psi , so leak down looks good . It looks like my big kit was a bit hot by the looks of a couple pistons and #8 has a pretty good scratch in the wall , but not bad enough to tear down for sure . I have a touch of oil smoke out of both side with the passengerside being a bit worse . About to close it up with new pan gasket , oil dipstick and fresh oil . We race a double header on the 16th of april and the next weekend I think I'm going to put the restrictor plate on it and run 7.0 index in the future . Pics of the inspection if anybody cares to check it out .

[hotrod 80]

Written update . I have had a bunch of motor issues . I thought I got a head gasket on the odd side during the truck race as I had compression in the radiator . I pulled it down and found no issues so I put it back together with new head gaskets . Still leaking down . I pulled the motor and took it to the machine shop for a freshen up as it was smoking . Turns out 3 guide seals on the even side and one on the odd side had ridden the stem up and it was pulling oil down the stems . Machinist suggested pressure checking heads . I had a set of out of the box 210 AFR and a new Victor junior that I threw back on top of my "fresh" short block . Same results . Turned out to be a hole in #5 cylinder . I pulled it back down and found the hole . I got another block and had the machine work done . Im guessing the bore was to tight for the piton or the ring end gap was to tight as it locked up after 2 time trials .






You can see the water trail in this one.

[hotrod 80]

New block was not clearenced enough at the bottom of the cylinders . And rod bolts were hitting . Bore and pistons are ok , but every bearing was bad . Mains I think will be ok but rods not so good . the 3/4 group was really bad and had a lot of heat . Not enough to turn the color on the big end of the rod but enough to show on the inside of the bearing face. They ordered the guide pins to resize the rods and the crank is at the grinders now . Block is being clearenced properly . Hoping for the best for sure.

[hotrod 80]

Just got off the phone with the machine shop . Apparently the oil passage to one of the mains was plugged and that burned up the main bearing . The metal from that is what killed all the other bearings . Once the bearing gained clearance the rods had room to move and hit . 3 rods need to be resized and the crank should clean up at .010 , .020 on the rod surface worst case. Looks like they are going to cover most if not all of the cost.

[a1953mdl]

Looks like you're making the best of a bad situation. Hope it all works right this time.
What's the resolution on the bore scope. I've thought about buying one and never thought the pics would come out that good.

[hotrod 80]

Crank is broken in 2 places. Last race was a double points race . I started the weekend 6 points in second and I am now 90 in second . I don't think there are but 4 races left and I wont be back in this truck until the last race . I will be running the blue truck this coming weekend foot braking again .

[hotrod 80]

More bad news . I pulled my old backup out of the corner of the garage . It is a dish top , hydraulic roller 383 , 6 inch rod deal . I figured take it down and have the flattops put on the crower rods and eagle light weight crank and send it to be rebalanced and im back in business .......WRONG. I pulled the flywheel and the rear main seal housing. The thrust was .058 . Cracked the rear main cap off and the thrust of the crank was burnt up .


Ended up buying a Lunati Voodoo series crank . Should be here Tuesday.

[hotrod 80]

Been learning how to edit these videos little by little
https://youtu.be/kAQnPdaifTY

[hotrod 80]

Got the old block honed and the flattops swapped to the Crower rads and a brand new Lunati crank . Sent all that to the balancer and got it all back together . It ran 11 minutes and punched the wall out if #4 cylinder . I forgot a spiral lock . Block will get a sleeve and a 2 week wait on the piston. I also ordered the pistons for my dart block 415 .

[Marv D]

This has not been a good year for you buddy.
I can relate,, one pure coincidence nightmare from the racing gods after another was the straw that broke this old camels back. (and prompted me to sell everything)

Hang in there.

[hotrod 80]

Well Marv , im trying . I just keep getting problem after problem. Got my Dart blocked short block back today . Went to reassemble it and the cam was questionable . This was a custom grind . I found one similar , but it says sprint car cam . Any opinions about if it will hurt or help power wise on this 383 ?
http://www.compcams.com/Company/CC/c...?csid=363&sb=2

[hotrod 80]

With the dart block and the sprint car cam this is a bad mofo . . I had planned on running a jackpot race at sealy today , but it was cancelled . Going to HMP to test and tune . Then bracket finals for IHRA the following weekend .

[hotrod 80]

I did ok at the bracket finals . Just got in the money in NHRA in the blue truck and too the yellow truck to IHRA . Also just got in the money there . I let a buddy of mine run the blue truck at IHRA bracket finals and he lost in the semis.

[hotrod 80]

IHRA bracket season is about to kick off . Feb 27th in the first race of the season. March 3rd is the first NHRA race . I will also be running a lot of index stuff this year 7.0 , 6.50 and 6.0 . Plus 5 no prep races if possible .

[hotrod 80]

[hotrod 80]

Test and tune session At Royal purple raceway after resurface and all the flood cars are gone.

[regan wilson]

Dang were you sprayin it out of the hole?

[hotrod 80]

Yea , direct off the hit .

[hotrod 80]

Back tires at 11.5 on that pass . Any opinions ?