I'm Gonna Build A Dragster!

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I've been working on it every day. Just put a new higher roof on the valve cover to clear the rocker arms. Repositioned the aluminum nose piece to clear the new radiator. Modfied the floor so the trans dip stick would fit. Each of these little jobs seems to take a lot longer than it should.
I have a Moon style spun aluminum gas tank ordered. Getting closer...
 


Mounted a Moon-style fuel tank be cutting into the aluminum nose. With the larger radiator I installed there no longer was room under the nose piece.

Valve cover should be done tomorrow.
 

Finished the valve cover by adding breathers. I welded a couple angled baffles in each tube to keep the oil from reaching the filters. Hope it works.
Was at a junkyard vull of old cars yesterday and got a Caddy valve cover. Maybe a few people will be fooled eh?
 


Got it tuned pretty good. A jet and power valve change are in order, then out to the drag strip this coming Saturday.
 

Loaded up this morning and went to the drag strip for test and tune. Made 5 runs starting out very easy. Best run was: Reaction Time .006, 60 foot time 1.908, 1/8 mile 8.22 @ 83.74 mph, 1/4 mile 13.111 @ 97.10.
Most of each run was made at part throttle because if I got into the secondaries on the Holley 650 double pumper it would get way too rich.
It feels like this engine really wants to perform. I'm thinking low 12's are possible.
 
What are your plans to solve the fuel problem Bob? Are you gonna be able to tune the 650 or will you drop to a 500?
 
That 300 sounds sweet, love the way stuff is flapping around at the side of the garage from the exhaust blast. [cl
Not that I'm a carb genius, but would a vacuum secondary carb ease in the secondaries better than the double pumper? Or just drop jet sizes...
 
One of the things I intended to do today but forgot because I was having so much fun was to remove the linkage to the secondaries and run on just the front two barrels. This is my first experience with a double pumper. I've used vacuun secondary carbs and always had good luck. Just happened to have this carb sitting on the shelf so thought I'd try it.

Over on that other site there's guys running double pumpers on these HA/GR and SDRA dragsters. Maybe I'll get some good tuning advice from someone over there. Otherwise I have 600cfm and 750cfm vacuum secondary carbs in the garage attic I can try.
 

The Minnesota Street Rod Assn. rents Brainerd International Raceway every year for a weekend of free drag racing for members only. I made two runs Saturday before I had to leave for a family event. First run was poor as it bogged a little off the line and then spun the tires. I cruised down the track hoping for a better run next time. Next run I lined up against the flathead powered Model A pictured above. I left first, .141 to a .502 reaction time. It felt a little lazy off the line. I kept waiting for the engine to rev. to my shift point as determined by ear, no tach. At half track I realized I was making a high gear only run. Even with that blunder I ran by best (out of a total of 7 runs over two outings) 13.08 & 106 mph. This car can be a second quicker with a little tuning and someone in the seat that knows how to drive. Hopefully I'll catch on and actually push the pedal to the metal, which I haven't done yet.

The Model A was a second and a half slower than my car.

I swapped out the Holley double pumper for a 750 cfm Holley 3310 with vacuum secondaries. That should keep the secondaries from coming in too soon. I can tailor that with different diaphram springs. Might need a bigger accelerator pump shot to get rid of the initial bog. That's the fun of building and racing a drag car; solving problems and reaching its potiental.
 

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