The Official Hot Rod Thread - Part 4: Burnouts for Distance

[jeffsqartan]

What are you putting the 351 and 4r70w in? If you are close to the fishers area and want to checkout my setup sometime let me know.

I have considered doing a power glide or a th400 but love crusing at 75mph in over drive. My wife also drives the car and I don't want to have her deal with a mvb.

This is hilarious. You're literally doing half of the same stuff as me.
I live down in Greenwood. Off 37 and County Line. I go up toward Fishers for work a decent amount.

My setup is going into an 85 Notch lol. Just funny that we're doing very similar stuff. I'm quite a few steps behind you, though.

 

[jeffsqartan]

Need help from the brain trust. I removed the timing cover from that 302 that the freeze plugs fell out of. Then I used a few of those expandable freeze plugs to seal the two coolant passages for the water pump, the upper rad hose port, the heater hose port, and the second rad hose port. Then I popped the OG freeze plugs back in, but after drilling one of them and putting in a bolt-in style valve stem.

I pressurized the system up to 10psi and let it sit. It's been about 4 hours and it's down to about 2psi.

Blame it on something else leaking, or should I be concerned? I could very well not have something else totally sealed. Hell the head Gasket could be a little leaky.
I just know it wasn't making noise, like a leaky noise, when I had 10psi on it.
Should I put more than 10psi in there?

Yeah just, any suggestions at this point lol

 

[Jaybird1980]

Need help from the brain trust. I removed the timing cover from that 302 that the freeze plugs fell out of. Then I used a few of those expandable freeze plugs to seal the two coolant passages for the water pump, the upper rad hose port, the heater hose port, and the second rad hose port. Then I popped the OG freeze plugs back in, but after drilling one of them and putting in a bolt-in style valve stem.

I pressurized the system up to 10psi and let it sit. It's been about 4 hours and it's down to about 2psi.

Blame it on something else leaking, or should I be concerned? I could very well not have something else totally sealed. Hell the head Gasket could be a little leaky.
I just know it wasn't making noise, like a leaky noise, when I had 10psi on it.
Should I put more than 10psi in there?

Yeah just, any suggestions at this point lol

Spray some soapy water on your ports you have sealed.

 

[jeffsqartan]

Spray some soapy water on your ports you have sealed.

What about putting water in the system, then pressurizing it?

And can I go a little higher than 10psi? I couldn't hear anything at 10. Will try the soapy water.

 

[thunderchicken]

What about putting water in the system, then pressurizing it?

And can I go a little higher than 10psi? I couldn't hear anything at 10. Will try the soapy water.

The soapy water thing is a good idea.
If it has an OEM style or MLS type head gasket you should be good to pressurize the system up 16psi which is pretty standard.
If it has solid copper head gaskets it shouldn't be pressurized over 8 psi. But that's probably not an issue in this case

 

[femurphy77]

TC beat me to 16#'s. Yeah, it should hold, yeah if you're going to use it you need to fix it. Yeah, it sux.

It's too early, I got nuthin' else.

 

[Mounty09]

This is hilarious. You're literally doing half of the same stuff as me.
I live down in Greenwood. Off 37 and County Line. I go up toward Fishers for work a decent amount.

My setup is going into an 85 Notch lol. Just funny that we're doing very similar stuff. I'm quite a few steps behind you, though.

Very cool. I have probably put 2000-3000 miles on it since I built it last winter. It has been a great setup. Have any pictures of yours?

 

[jeffsqartan]

Very cool. I have probably put 2000-3000 miles on it since I built it last winter. It has been a great setup. Have any pictures of yours?

Yeah, but nothing too impressive lol. I bought it for dirt cheap nearly 3 years ago and it's mostly sat. I lost a lot of motivation after I found out we were expecting and then the great Sickness hit.
Back in December I got a wild hair to get the compound build done and started on it but still didn't finish it lol. My 92 vert needs gaskets done to be drivable, so I've been focusing on that.
And guns. Lots of gun stuff.

This link is from when I first picked it up. That vert is what I typically drive.


These are some pictures of the first compound turbo mockup. Decided I'm going to do a tubular core support to make life easier.


I'm doing some of this stuff to my convertible before doing it to the Notch. Single turbo setup, tubular core support. Both are going to happen on the vert first because it's basically ready for it. And if we screw it up.... well, it's already been in two accidents, we can't really hurt it anymore than it's already hurt lmao.

 

[ChristianPatriot]

This is an amazing level of dedication and craftsmanship. Only cost him around $22k in US dollars, but thousands of hours in time.

 

[gregkl]

This is an amazing level of dedication and craftsmanship. Only cost him around $22k in US dollars, but thousands of hours in time.

Man, I could watch this kind of stuff all day. The details and his excitement over doing it are priceless.

Makes me feel better about my OCD tendencies when I do stuff to my cars or house,lol.

 

[Bigtanker]

My parents neighbors have a 9 year old daughter. She spent today up at US 131 Dragway getting her Jr dragster license.

 

[Brad69]

Just got back from a no prep event at US 60 !

Ran the hard tire/daily driver class with my GT 500.

Track was greasy cut some great 60 ft times 1.6 1.4 range but blew off the tires mid track.

Got bumped in the 1st round!

Lessons learned no prep takes a different take on drag racing.

I may have better off putting it in wet traction mode than drag mode.

The worse day at the dragstrip is better than work.

 

[thunderchicken]

Just got back from a no prep event at US 60 !

Ran the hard tire/daily driver class with my GT 500.

Track was greasy cut some great 60 ft times 1.6 1.4 range but blew off the tires mid track.

Got bumped in the 1st round!

Lessons learned no prep takes a different take on drag racing.

I may have better off putting it in wet traction mode than drag mode.

The worse day at the dragstrip is better than work.

Was that the big no prep event they held last weekend? That place was absolutely packed and had a huge variety of cars.

No prep is a different deal for sure

 

[Brad69]

No this was a small event held by the bridge runners.

Did you see the crash last weekend?

 

[churchmouse]

No this was a small event held by the bridge runners.

Did you see the crash last weekend?

Wow. The throttle deal at the end suck. I wonder if he was dazed and did that.

 

[thunderchicken]

No this was a small event held by the bridge runners.

Did you see the crash last weekend?

Yeah I saw it. It's my understanding the driver was knocked out while rolling and is believed that is why the pedal was matted and it climbed the guard rail and went through the fence.
Last time we were there those walls/guard rails weren't very tall. And, the fence didn't run all the way down to the finish line. That still may be. But what I was getting at is that people used to back thier pick ups up to about a foot or two from the guard rails and sit in back to watch

I saw aerial pictures of how packed it was. It looked incredible. Talking to some friends who race there pretty regularly, it's my understanding they have lengthened the shut down area. Used to just be a field past the end of the track and watched a few cars run off down into the field years ago

 

[churchmouse]

Yeah I saw it. It's my understanding the driver was knocked out while rolling and is believed that is why the pedal was matted and it climbed the guard rail and went through the fence.
Last time we were there those walls/guard rails weren't very tall. And, the fence didn't run all the way down to the finish line. That still may be. But what I was getting at is that people used to back thier pick ups up to about a foot or two from the guard rails and sit in back to watch

I saw aerial pictures of how packed it was. It looked incredible. Talking to some friends who race there pretty regularly, it's my understanding they have lengthened the shut down area. Used to just be a field past the end of the track and watched a few cars run off down into the field years ago

Everyone is getting faster. When I was running is A/S (Hemi 4 speed) before brackets were even a thing most guys were in the 11's somewhere with the ultra fast street strip cars and the crazy fast was in the 10's.
Now it was just went nuts. Tire tech and boost with some solid ways to control it. Chassis geometry and the converters. I could go on and on.
The old tracks like terrible Haute are being upgraded to fill this need.

 

[thunderchicken]

Everyone is getting faster. When I was running is A/S (Hemi 4 speed) before brackets were even a thing most guys were in the 11's somewhere with the ultra fast street strip cars and the crazy fast was in the 10's.
Now it was just went nuts. Tire tech and boost with some solid ways to control it. Chassis geometry and the converters. I could go on and on.
The old tracks like terrible Haute are being upgraded to fill this need.

When we started drag racing in 2004, the thought was that smaller tires would be the great equalizer. Obviously that hasn't held true.
Technology in power management/ converters/traction control/chassis and suspension/ignition systems that can vary individual cylinder timing etc etc has just absolutely changed the sport.
It's really to the point that I can't even begin to really think where the weak link is anymore.

I'm concerned that eventually...if not already chassis spec's used by NHRA and the cost to follow their rules may drive more people to run stupid fast cars on smaller tracks that may not be up to handling them or that may have limited safety crews.
That's like our car, because it has at least 1 mild steel bar in a structural place it can never be certified to go faster than 7.50 in 1/4 or 4.50 at the 1/8 and we went faster than that back in 2011 (7.42 @1/4).

Edit- constantly selling and building new cars is an expensive endeavor most of us can't afford in the quest to go faster

 

[Brad69]

You can still back up to the guard rail. They however have stopped the crowds in and around the starting line. They have extended the runout by about 1000 ft.

It’s s 20 min from the house so I have ran it since I was 16.

Windy Hollow was bad about people standing behind the burnout box. Witnessed a drunk dude get run over there in about 1985.

Yeah some stupid fast cars that are sketchy at best that IMO would never past NHRA or IHRA tech.

 

[churchmouse]

When we started drag racing in 2004, the thought was that smaller tires would be the great equalizer. Obviously that hasn't held true.
Technology in power management/ converters/traction control/chassis and suspension/ignition systems that can vary individual cylinder timing etc etc has just absolutely changed the sport.
It's really to the point that I can't even begin to really think where the weak link is anymore.

I'm concerned that eventually...if not already chassis spec's used by NHRA and the cost to follow their rules may drive more people to run stupid fast cars on smaller tracks that may not be up to handling them or that may have limited safety crews.
That's like our car, because it has at least 1 mild steel bar in a structural place it can never be certified to go faster than 7.50 in 1/4 or 4.50 at the 1/8 and we went faster than that back in 2011 (7.42 @1/4).

Edit- constantly selling and building new cars is an expensive endeavor most of us can't afford in the quest to go faster

That is what’s killing NASCAR and open wheel. To G. D. Many rules that feed the satellite shops builds the chassis/Etc.
USAC has went this way when Beast started building chassis.
The guy building his own at home (as many did) could no longer keep up with the curve and rules. Engine changes as well. We had to scramble just to run another season and gave up early into the one after that. The new combinations were just impostor be competitive with.
The really big money guys just widened the gap. Many of us had to step away or run outlaw tracks. Just like you say.