53. Nearly there

It was a bit of a gamble going for a brand new motor not forgetting the investment cost but! I have to say that I have been extremely impressed by the customer service and technical expertise from the company that we eventually found to build our new motor.....

Click on image to open web page

Jerry, who we have been dealing with has been brilliant, nothing gets done without communication with us first, and there has been some changes to the build spec as we have gone along to improve reliability and performance,at every stage we have been sent photo's of the build and updates I can't recommend this company enough, The build spec and quality of our engine is very high and even with the  dreaded import duties etc the total cost is still extremely competitive.

I have let number 1 son and crew chief Steve deal with most of the engine spec and build and I dare say he snuck in a few upgrades when I wasn't looking but the bottom line is this, the engine has been competed and is ready for shipping.

We are hoping for an impressive increase in performance form this motor, yesterday the new injector nozzles and pils arrived from Hilborn so owe now have everything to put the drive train back together we might make the start of the season after all.

Next on the list is getting the truck MOT'd in a couple of weeks time so that we something to get the car back and forth to the track with....fingers crossed.

Then its a case of getting the trans brake wired up and beefing up the wheelie bar brackets as I have a feeling they are going to be tested ...A LOT now that we have doubled out horse power, just need to find a trans brake cooler now, the brakes have been upgraded and a new screen made the tank has been welded up and more permanent fittings put in. only got to rejoin the Wild Bunch, renew my SPRC membership , pay for a medical and get the car tagged..not a lot to do really....NOT! ..Oh and I have been told by many racers that with this massive increase in power I had best invest in a some new underwear...thanks boys just what I needed a confidence boost...LOL!!!

52. More parts every day

Ok so time to get the lead out I suppose as every day brings the engine nearer to completion the latest news from over the pond is that the engine is now going together....

So that's the pistons and crank in place now it's beginning to look like an engine, more arrivals on the scene are the upgraded valves....

I believe the heads are also there just waiting on the roller cam now, nice new shiny engine I am getting all excited now

51. More bits...!

Hot of the press... we have been in touch with our friends at Hillborn, we are going to need some new parts for our injection system so we can get the fuelling right for the new motor so new nozzles and jets and a couple of gaskets are now on their way from the States.

We also have some piccies of new parts that have arrived ready for assembly.....

here you can see our nice new block freshly honed and "filled" ready to go...

And out custom made pistons and forged rods all ready to fit once the crank arrives, then the whole rotating assembly will be balanced...waiting for the heads and valves now...not long I hope!

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.