50. At last a plan for the rest of the year.

The start of the new season is fast approaching ..too fast at times and what with some serious family shit to take care of I haven't really had the time or even the motivation to put anything new on here for some time, but that does not mean nothing has happened or that plans are not afoot for the new season.

So first things first, plans have been made to get the truck MOT'd I have to take it down to Swindon where it will be sorted, this happens to be where number one son and crew chief lives so there will be some work done on the race car while it is down there, the new brake callipers will be fitted along with the new gearbox and trans brake will be wired up and a cooler for the power glide will be fitted, the tank is being repaired as we speak so that will update most of the parts on the car ready for tagging as I would like to announce that Slimline Racing will be competing in some Super Pro Et rounds this year we will be renewing our membership of the brilliant Wild Bunch as well, I have managed to shift nearly a stone already so getting sorted for my licence.

So that just leaves one more thing.......motive power! after a lot of discussion and help and advice we have gone for a new engine it is an a Dart Sportsman block that was going to be 454ci but because of the compression ratios we have now dropped that a little to 441ci

So here is our new engine under construction in the States, she will come with a custom grind roller cam forged crank and con rods special made just for us custom pistons sealed for life rings ally heads high tech valves and springs.....

We will be using our own manual  Hillborn injection set up with new nozzles and pils of course we have a delivery date of 3 weeks from today for the engine and two weeks for the pats from Hillborn which ties in nicely to where the truck and car will be at the end of Feb beginning of march, when fitted the car will be taken round to Mr. John O'Sullivan's workshop for first fire up and tuning ready for a RWYB test session in March so we are ready for April.

Of course this is now getting way out  of my hands as ar as technical and financial matters are  concerned so today I made an agreement with my son and signed over my share of the car to him for a nominal sum, I may of course keep referring to the car as mine but in reality I am nothing more than a driver now so when I say me. mine or I, I do mean theirs.

This ia going to be very interesting as this engine will be producing around double the horsepower of the previous unit somewhere around 900 -1000 bhp at a max rpm of 7200 torque comes in at around 2800 rpm and yes we will be ultimately looking for a 7 second run..woop woop roll on April.

49. "It's beginning to cost a lot like Christmas"

Wow where did that year go??? I started this year with absolutely no idea what I was letting myself in for..and now I'm a drag racer!  We have met some of the nicest people in racing full stop. The Wild Bunch, what a great bunch of people I couldn't have asked for a better introduction to my racing career.

So where are we then after all our engine woes..well that's a surprise and if you read through this blog you will find out at the end...LOL

This brilliant photo was taken by John  Kennedy of johnkennedypotography.com  at Shakespeare County Raceway, because of the lane I am in I know this was when the gearbox let go this was just the start of our woes as we decided to strip he engine at the same time as repairing/replacing the gearbox and...well if you read all this blog you all know what we found.

This was the lowest point of the year, I really couldn't see how we were going to continue I had spent so much money on the car and truck to start with, then had to replace the truck and repair then replace the gearbox it was all too much, this all happened in the same month that I had already paid for the road tax and insurance on the truck and the storage fees. I really thought about calling it a day and I thought of myself as a silly old git for even trying to do what we were doing,,yeah depression...big time! I didn't even want to t think about drag racing ever again.

Luckily I have a wonderful Wife and Son, Lorni reminded me how much we had tied up in this venture and that it was too much to let go and number one Son and Tight Fit Crew Chief Steve, went to work to find a replacement engine, what we found was, there isn't a lot out there at the moment well not Small Blocks anyway, we even though about fitting a big block in the rail but! too much work to adapt the car, because of what had happened we were put off looking at anything second hand..unless it could be proved that it had recently been refreshed, we found nothing that we thought would be useful to us.

So Steve went looking for new bits and he scoured the States and eventually realised that whatever we do it is going to cost a fair bit of money and even though the prices for new gear in the Sates isn't too bad but!, by the time you added shipping, duty and Vat it was too much.

So another month went past and we kept looking and it soon became clear that if we didn't go for a new power plant then we weren't going to race in 2015, Steve found a company in America that would put together an engine for us for a reasonable price, Steve has been haggling with them and checking on them of course so it looks like we are going to order a new engine from them this week 3rd week of December 2014.

So as we speak Steve is working on the car he is taking the tank out to repair the union on the fuel line he is taking the master cylinder and callipers out to update them with better items and he is also taking the screen with him as we need to make a new one.

If you look carefully you will see a well placed piece of duct tape as I split the screen with my knee getting out of the car at Dragstalgia,,yea a diet is also on the cards LOL

OK so back to the engine then, what we are getting is a 454 stroked Small block putting out around 800 horses we want to run low 8's or even drop into the 7's We are hoping to get the car re-tagged in the new year and I am going to  try and get a licence so we can have a go n Super Pro, we will be staying with the Wild Bunch.

 This is the spec of our new engine with maybe one or two changes that we are talking to them about at the moment yes it is going to cost me a lot of money and it will mean my motorbikes will have to go but it will be worth it,and yes we are going to use our old injection system because I love the look..

So with a bit of luck and a following wind we will have everything in place to go testing around March and try and get my licence signed off, it looks like it is going to be an exciting year it also looks like there are going to be a lot more cars in Super Pro if what I read is right and I am really hoping that we can have everything sorted and have the car running good for Dragstalgia 2015.

48. Perhaps we should have left it alone!!!!!!

Looks like I might have to go and find a second job at this rate, Steve my crew chief and number one son has been very busy recently on top of his day job he has had a few after hours jobs to do and...he now has my Chevy to take apart and sort out, then engine went down to Swindon last week in the back of Steve's car which promptly wrecked the rear floor of his car and the side panels he then upset his better half by plonking the engine in the utilities room of their house till he could get someone to help him shift it to his workshop...shed.

After a couple of days the engine did get moved into the workshop..shed, where Steve has set about stripping it ready to refresh it...refresh now there is a laugh and a half......Ok so first the engine plate cam off and then the flex plate where he found the crankshaft oil seal was leaking rather badly..

Next the heads came off and that is where the real fun began...first off both head gaskets had blown between the back two cylinders so that explains the lack of power we thought that was bad until we found this............

The liner is cracked so again no wonder we  were having trouble tuning the bloody car and getting the fuelling right so 4 cylinders were leaking badly and then this one with a crack in it and on the same cylinder that we found the rocker damage on when we first got the car hmmm no wonder we were having a problem with a smoking breather and a sump full of methanol after every run and on top of this the electronic ignition box was set to 6 cylinders and not 8, its a wonder the car ran at all.

The valve stem seals are all rotten as well and that was only the top end Steve hasn't taken the bottom end apart yet so god know what we will find down there...Oh lottery win where art thou???

And just to cheer me up at the end of the day Steve sends me more photo's of the heads...cracked...is there anything on this bloody engine that is not cracked or knackered???

Ok so there must be a time when enough is enough and lets just give in as it looks like I am just banging my head against a brick wall here....who said drag racing was fun??????

47. First it comes apart.....

What a day it has been, I have been stuck at home still feeling like crap after suffering some sort of virus for nearly two weeks now, while I have been stuck at home Steve...crew chief and number one son has been very busy, he loaded up his car in Swindon and headed for the bad lands..well Bedford and in what looks like pouring rain started the arduous task of removing things...lots of things.

Ok so before that he managed a test fit of the new gearbox. bearing in mind that this on is a standard length box as opposed to a short tailed box that was in the car before it hit the self destruct button....

And low and behold...miracle of miracles it dam well fits, no machining or fettling required..there is a God after all.

So just as the rain came down the hard work started...remove axle take gearbox out again loosed all bolts and get engine ready for removal....

Making very careful not of where everything goes..pipes..wires etc then lift engine out and on to floor...

So at this moment the car is looking very sorry for itself with no drive train in it but not for too long I hope and no bodywork either......

So the engine is now winging its way down to Swindon where it will be stripped and all components checked and as I have already said if t he budget is there we will fit a stroker kit to her the block is going for crack checking and repair if needed. We still have the tank and wind shield to fix up and then get the car tagged I will sot some of the wiring out and then put her all back together again in time for February...fingers crossed.

46. The hard work starts..

I used to read reports from other racers that said the "off season" went too fast I now know what they mean it only seems like yesterday when we blew the gearbox up at the Hot Rod Drags and here we are in November and I am looking at the first RWYB's on the new race calender from the Pod for January????

So what are we up to then??well first off last Sunday I met up with Mark Coulsell who was letting me have his old Rocker boxes as we managed to crack one of ours...right next to where the bolt goes so don't think it can be welded.

The trip back wasn't so nice as we had the biggest downpour I have seen in ages..I hate this time of year.....

This was the view over the Thames on the Dartford crossing..miserable.........

In a few days time my crew chief and number 1 son Steve, is going to be taking the engine out of the race car after trial fitting the new gearbox, the engine will then be taken to Swindon where it will be stripped and inspected and repaired /  new parts fitted where needed and if the budget allows a stroker kit, I was going to have the hand brake removed and foot-brake fitted but I have been advised that maybe a left foot brake is not the wisest thing to fit to a dragster so maybe we will just upgrade what we have instead.

The master cylinder has been leaking for some time now and it looks like the lid does not seal but the brake fluid has taken a lot of paint off the chassis so that will be sorted as well, I am going to have a look at uprating the wheelie bar brackets...hmmm just in case.....

Talking of bodywork I found this piccie of the car in it's previous guise I would love to know where the front bodywork went???

The new gearbox comes with a trans brake so we are looking at how to set up the "two step" on the system so we can really improve our 60ft times..we are hoping to get it all back together and running for mid to end of February so we can go testing in March and get the car tagged ready for competition.......which means I have to get a licence so get fit time..well nothing much else to do in Winter is there..got to lose a few stone I reckon and that will make getting in and out of the car a bit easier might even make it go faster...?? talking of which if we just upgrade the engine we have without making any further modifications we want to run in the 8.7 sec range at least, if we go this route then I will be looking at putting together another block over the coming year with all the mods on i.e. ally heads, Scat crank etc ready for the 2016 season...and if I happen to find a supercharger sitting around doing nothing then you never know...??? now will my engine as it stands run with a drop of  Nitro in the tank???? Super_pro anyone??

45. Next year 2015??

We are in October and it is really time to start thinking about next season,what do we want to do? what class? etc and of course what to do to the car, so after much discussion with my Crew Cheif and my Wife this is what is going to happen over the next few months ready for next season...of course best laid plans and all that but! I am  keeping my fingers crossed.

Part 1 of the plan is already completed this weekend I am going to pick up the gearbox that was in Al's Gasser and modify our car so it fits, this gearbox has only 7 or 8 runs on it since it's last rebuild and it manages to handle the power of the Gasser without any problems so our small block should be a breeze.

After making the gearbox fit, the engine is coming out and going down to Swindon where my son and crew chief is going to strip it then send it off for crack testing and repair as necessary we are then going to fit a stroker kit to it which should up the cubic inches to around 400 and a bit..

Going to make sure the Scat crank has a double key-way so that we can stick a blower on this engine in the future if should wish to go down that road, I would love a set of Ally heads for her but I am not sure if the budget will stretch that far but we will see...but if anyone has a good second hand set then please get in touch via our Facebook page.....

It may be the case that we will have to get the original heads flowed and ported for now, a new cam and lifters and springs will go in as well and probably a new timing cover so along with  the new gearbox that comes with a trans brake and some new injector parts to help tune the fuelling we are hoping that we can get the old girl into the mid to low 8 second bracket which should see us run competitively in the Super Pro class.

Of course we also have to get her re-tagged, again if anyone knows how to go about this please get in touch I would love to know, the chassis is also going to Swindon where a left foot brake will replace the old hand brake system which is not man enough for the job really.

Whatever happens we are looking forward to next year where we hope to run faster and quicker and be a stronger team and you never know we might even bloody a few noses along the way...we can hope.

Until the new season starts I will keep looking at this video t keeps me motivated and stops me thinking about how better I could spend this money

Welcome to the Thunderdrome from NGK Torque on Vimeo.

44. Might be able to go racing next year after all!!!!

The last few weeks have been a wee bit torrid, I had even thought about selling up and quitting as money as always is an issue but!!  the events of the last few days might have solved a few problems for us..by us I mean of course Slimline Racing.

After the Hot Rod Drags at Shaky our car looked like this...again.....

Steve and Dave have gotten very good at removing the gearbox and on Tight Fit that is no mean feat, but we don't really want to keep on doing this, the damage to the box was severe and the legend that is Al O'Conner showed us what was happening and what had happened in our gearbox, the problem is our box still has a lot of standard parts in and they are simply not up to the job and as Steve manages to squeeze more and more power from our engine we have overpowered the box.

Next job meant some serious measuring we needed to know the difference between our gearbox which is a short tailed power glide and a standard length power glide gearbox.

The difference in length is due to the tail pieces as you can see in the photo's above there is about 2 inches difference...the bottom one being the short tailed.

After some careful scrutiny it looks like there was some modification done on my prop shaft which has resulted in the shaft being just about 2 inches longer than it should be....result net difference equals ...zero soooo it does appear that a standard gear box will fit in my car with none or very little modification required.

Having had a word with Al he is willing to sell me the gearbox that is sitting in the ..just a bit famous...Al's Gasser which has only done 8 runs since a total rebuild with all the right parts including the  Trans Brake for a very reasonable price..so that's that sorted...next I have to find out how to get the car re-tagged for next year. but that's another story for another time....for now!!