2015 SpeedMullet updates
09-15-2017, 05:57 AM
#785
Bummer that it broke but sounds like you still had a great time! Thank you for the video feed, cool to be up close and personal while not at the event. Curious what the mystery noise is!
09-18-2017, 09:04 PM
#790
Drag Week 2017 recap: It's Monday evening after the most grueling week of racecar stuff I've ever attempted, and I'm still exhausted. I got home about 1pm yesterday afternoon so I'm still suffering from a good bit of driver fatigue. It was 900 miles from our house to the start point and about 100 miles in the muffler on the truck came apart, lol. That sort of set the tone for the trip. Somewhere in eastern Ohio, a construction worker jammed on their brakes without signaling to go into a construction area, causing the 5 of us behind him to lock up and scatter to avoid collision. Everything was OK, but when I looked back in my mirror, the floor jack had fallen off the little trailer that Chucky was towing and was rolling into active traffic. We were able to get the jack back without causing an accident thankfully, but it was definitely nerve racking!
Somewhere around Indy, I took a wrong turn and we ended up going through Chicago. That wasn't an overall big deal, but with the way I was trying to take us, it added like 2 hours onto the trip since there was some pretty heavy road construction. At about 2am or so Sunday morning, we roll into the parking lot for the Hampton in Clinton, IA.
The next morning was tech and TNT. We figured it could be a restful/relaxing day since I knew it normally took a little while anyway. We ate breakfast and went outside to the trucks to find we were literally the last of 60 or so DW competitors to leave the hotel. We get to the track and it's pandemonium. Seriously. We quickly unload and get in line, that has now wrapped completely around the pits. It was like nothing I'd ever experienced before. We took the time to check valve lash, swap out the tires, and I gapped a fresh set of plugs. After about 8 hours, we were finally tech'd in for the Super Street Small Block N/A class. Some seriously tough competition in the class as I looked around and saw some cars with more carbon than anything else, but I knew what I was getting myself into, especially with an engine an easy 50 cubic inches shy of everyone else. We were able to make some test hits and was surprised by a 9.96 followed by a 9.91, both at 138 mph.
Day 1 was HECTIC. I spent the majority of the morning running around trying to get the IHRA license paper work so I could turn in a time slip faster than 10.00. By the time I was able to do that, first run session was over and we had to wait till after SME was done with their session, and hop into open session. First run was about 2pm. Well even though Sunday testing was excellent, the Monday session was not. The car bogged hard on our first attempt and it took forever to recover and was met with a disappointing 10.50. I had spent a lot of time with the clutch in with the engine running so my theory was the clutch was hot and sticky. We hopped back in the lines hoping we could get the clutch to cool down enough and while I did not get a 9 second time on Monday, we were able to turn in a 10.17 @ 137. That was good enough and I went back to the pits to start our 2 hour turn around to get the car street ready. Other than some tire rub, we had a pretty uneventful trip. It was late going of course, so we weren't to St. Louis till almost 1 am. Jim Gray of Venom Racing Engines let us crash at his place that night.
Day 2, we got up early. We did not want a repeat of day 1 in terms of the late night. I was headed down the road and noticed the engine was really having a hard time getting any heat in it, and I began cycling the water pump and fan to try to get some more heat in the engine. That was my mistake. The pressure on the cooling system soared and pushed the seal right out of the back of the pump motor and emptied the cooling system quickly. We were about 1 mile from the track when that happened. Of course we didn't realize the gravity of the situation yet and just limped it up to the track. We were there a little after 6 am. We decided to run across the street to the pilot to get some water and when we started filling it up, it was pouring out of the pump as fast as I could put it in the radiator. We tossed around a few ideas, but decided that there was no way we were going to let this stop our efforts and we limped it back across the street to the racetrack, turning the engine off every 100 ft to coast. Once in line, we pushed the car into the track. We shoved the weep hole full of RTV, wrapped the motor in duct tape, put a plastic bag over that, then wrapped in duct tape again. It held, and would be good enough for a pass. Luckily, the Meziere water pumps use a modular pump motor assembly, and I was able to get another motor from a good friend Roger from C&S Specialties so we could make it back on the road. Of course things wouldn't go quite that easily, as we were repairing the water pump and adjusting the clutch to make a pass, I see a puddle of E85 on the ground under the car. Apparently the wheelie bars had dented the gas tank to the point it actually cracked the tank. We scrambled, found some epoxy, drained the tank, repaired the tank, and was actually able to get everything together to go up to the lanes before second session was over. I made a one and done pass since the time was getting so late and I was able to click off a 10.08 @ 138. When I got back to the pits, we got the car back into street mode, put a pump motor on from Roger, and got back on the road. Other than a trip to the post office and parts store that took us deep into East St. Louis, and the tire rub issues, the trip on Tuesday was pretty uneventful. It was the longest trip of the week at just over 300 miles. We got to our hotel in Byron around 1am.
Day 3, We got to the track a little after 6 with no issues. Got the car turned around and in the lanes before 8. I turned up the shift point to 8500 and let it eat. BAM, 9.85 @ 139! We realized it wants more rpm than that too, but decided not to push it. Since day 3 was an NHRA track, and I don't have my NHRA license, I went back up and pushed the clutch in at 1000', netting a 10.24, and we handed that in. The drive on day 3 was by far the shortest. It was fantastic. gorgeous countryside scenery and cool weather. We made it to the hotel by 6:30 pm and got some solid rest.
Day 4, FOGGY!!! Holy moly, we woke up to fog thick enough you could cut it with a knife. It was crazy. I had spent a good bit of time figuring out how to deal with all sorts of different scenarios, but honestly, fog had never been on my mind. We Ace Ventura'd it for the first 10 miles or so from the hotel, but as the temperature differential settled in the car, the windows cleared. Once to the track, we got the car turned around into race-ready mode pretty quickly, about 1.25 hours thankfully. The fog was still so thick though, and delayed the start time for about 1.5 hours or so. We were able to clean the car up some while we waited. Once on track I was just too amped up and short shifted the first 3 gears. We were met with a 9.94, which wasn't awful at all, but not what I was hoping for. I hopped right into the lanes again. Thankfully the wait time was long enough for a decent cool-down. 2nd pass came and I let her fly, and got a 9.89 @ 139! We got the car turned around, loaded up and headed out to our final destination.
But...
We never made it to the last hotel
About 100 miles out the engine coughed, then popped out of the pipes, then had a dead miss. We pulled over thinking we got a rocker or something along those lines. But it didn't. And honestly, I couldn't see anything else wrong with the valve train. When spinning the engine over, we got a definitive "clank" on every 4th bump or so. We decided to call it. I had no way to repair what we thought it might be, which was combustion chamber related. A very good friend Mike Tritle came and picked us up from the side of HWY 64 just west of Kings, IL, and delivered us to our hotel in Clinton, IA. We swung by the last check point for the heck of it.
Friday, we spent pulling the engine at the racetrack, and got it ready to deliver to the engine guys, and Saturday we dropped it off at Venom Racing Engines on our way home. Today I got word that they found some broken valve springs (funny since I thought I gave it a solid look over, but you can only see so much in the twilight on the side of the road, lol) and the cause was an interference of the inner locator and the inner valve spring. A new set of springs, fresh head gaskets, 1 valve guide, and all will be repaired. They are going to put the engine on the dyno as well, which we were hoping to do before drag week but ran out of time/money.
Somewhere around Indy, I took a wrong turn and we ended up going through Chicago. That wasn't an overall big deal, but with the way I was trying to take us, it added like 2 hours onto the trip since there was some pretty heavy road construction. At about 2am or so Sunday morning, we roll into the parking lot for the Hampton in Clinton, IA.
The next morning was tech and TNT. We figured it could be a restful/relaxing day since I knew it normally took a little while anyway. We ate breakfast and went outside to the trucks to find we were literally the last of 60 or so DW competitors to leave the hotel. We get to the track and it's pandemonium. Seriously. We quickly unload and get in line, that has now wrapped completely around the pits. It was like nothing I'd ever experienced before. We took the time to check valve lash, swap out the tires, and I gapped a fresh set of plugs. After about 8 hours, we were finally tech'd in for the Super Street Small Block N/A class. Some seriously tough competition in the class as I looked around and saw some cars with more carbon than anything else, but I knew what I was getting myself into, especially with an engine an easy 50 cubic inches shy of everyone else. We were able to make some test hits and was surprised by a 9.96 followed by a 9.91, both at 138 mph.
Day 1 was HECTIC. I spent the majority of the morning running around trying to get the IHRA license paper work so I could turn in a time slip faster than 10.00. By the time I was able to do that, first run session was over and we had to wait till after SME was done with their session, and hop into open session. First run was about 2pm. Well even though Sunday testing was excellent, the Monday session was not. The car bogged hard on our first attempt and it took forever to recover and was met with a disappointing 10.50. I had spent a lot of time with the clutch in with the engine running so my theory was the clutch was hot and sticky. We hopped back in the lines hoping we could get the clutch to cool down enough and while I did not get a 9 second time on Monday, we were able to turn in a 10.17 @ 137. That was good enough and I went back to the pits to start our 2 hour turn around to get the car street ready. Other than some tire rub, we had a pretty uneventful trip. It was late going of course, so we weren't to St. Louis till almost 1 am. Jim Gray of Venom Racing Engines let us crash at his place that night.
Day 2, we got up early. We did not want a repeat of day 1 in terms of the late night. I was headed down the road and noticed the engine was really having a hard time getting any heat in it, and I began cycling the water pump and fan to try to get some more heat in the engine. That was my mistake. The pressure on the cooling system soared and pushed the seal right out of the back of the pump motor and emptied the cooling system quickly. We were about 1 mile from the track when that happened. Of course we didn't realize the gravity of the situation yet and just limped it up to the track. We were there a little after 6 am. We decided to run across the street to the pilot to get some water and when we started filling it up, it was pouring out of the pump as fast as I could put it in the radiator. We tossed around a few ideas, but decided that there was no way we were going to let this stop our efforts and we limped it back across the street to the racetrack, turning the engine off every 100 ft to coast. Once in line, we pushed the car into the track. We shoved the weep hole full of RTV, wrapped the motor in duct tape, put a plastic bag over that, then wrapped in duct tape again. It held, and would be good enough for a pass. Luckily, the Meziere water pumps use a modular pump motor assembly, and I was able to get another motor from a good friend Roger from C&S Specialties so we could make it back on the road. Of course things wouldn't go quite that easily, as we were repairing the water pump and adjusting the clutch to make a pass, I see a puddle of E85 on the ground under the car. Apparently the wheelie bars had dented the gas tank to the point it actually cracked the tank. We scrambled, found some epoxy, drained the tank, repaired the tank, and was actually able to get everything together to go up to the lanes before second session was over. I made a one and done pass since the time was getting so late and I was able to click off a 10.08 @ 138. When I got back to the pits, we got the car back into street mode, put a pump motor on from Roger, and got back on the road. Other than a trip to the post office and parts store that took us deep into East St. Louis, and the tire rub issues, the trip on Tuesday was pretty uneventful. It was the longest trip of the week at just over 300 miles. We got to our hotel in Byron around 1am.
Day 3, We got to the track a little after 6 with no issues. Got the car turned around and in the lanes before 8. I turned up the shift point to 8500 and let it eat. BAM, 9.85 @ 139! We realized it wants more rpm than that too, but decided not to push it. Since day 3 was an NHRA track, and I don't have my NHRA license, I went back up and pushed the clutch in at 1000', netting a 10.24, and we handed that in. The drive on day 3 was by far the shortest. It was fantastic. gorgeous countryside scenery and cool weather. We made it to the hotel by 6:30 pm and got some solid rest.
Day 4, FOGGY!!! Holy moly, we woke up to fog thick enough you could cut it with a knife. It was crazy. I had spent a good bit of time figuring out how to deal with all sorts of different scenarios, but honestly, fog had never been on my mind. We Ace Ventura'd it for the first 10 miles or so from the hotel, but as the temperature differential settled in the car, the windows cleared. Once to the track, we got the car turned around into race-ready mode pretty quickly, about 1.25 hours thankfully. The fog was still so thick though, and delayed the start time for about 1.5 hours or so. We were able to clean the car up some while we waited. Once on track I was just too amped up and short shifted the first 3 gears. We were met with a 9.94, which wasn't awful at all, but not what I was hoping for. I hopped right into the lanes again. Thankfully the wait time was long enough for a decent cool-down. 2nd pass came and I let her fly, and got a 9.89 @ 139! We got the car turned around, loaded up and headed out to our final destination.
But...
We never made it to the last hotel
About 100 miles out the engine coughed, then popped out of the pipes, then had a dead miss. We pulled over thinking we got a rocker or something along those lines. But it didn't. And honestly, I couldn't see anything else wrong with the valve train. When spinning the engine over, we got a definitive "clank" on every 4th bump or so. We decided to call it. I had no way to repair what we thought it might be, which was combustion chamber related. A very good friend Mike Tritle came and picked us up from the side of HWY 64 just west of Kings, IL, and delivered us to our hotel in Clinton, IA. We swung by the last check point for the heck of it. Friday, we spent pulling the engine at the racetrack, and got it ready to deliver to the engine guys, and Saturday we dropped it off at Venom Racing Engines on our way home. Today I got word that they found some broken valve springs (funny since I thought I gave it a solid look over, but you can only see so much in the twilight on the side of the road, lol) and the cause was an interference of the inner locator and the inner valve spring. A new set of springs, fresh head gaskets, 1 valve guide, and all will be repaired. They are going to put the engine on the dyno as well, which we were hoping to do before drag week but ran out of time/money.
09-18-2017, 09:04 PM
#791
So that's our trip in a nutshell. Sorry this is long, but there was just so much amazing about it. I can't wait to do it again, and we are already strategizing how we'd do it next year. A huge thanks to the sponsors for helping get us there and covering the cost of the feed.
10-24-2017, 08:28 PM
#799
Thanks all for the kind words and encouragement! here's my first real update since we got home from drag week.
The engine was repaired and reassembled 3 weeks ago. we scheduled the dyno session for this coming Saturday. I'm excited to see what it puts down. Once things are good to go, i'll schedule a time to go get the engine from IL. in the mean time, i know i have a few things to address with the car so i ordered and installed a set of 5.14 gears, hoping this really wakes things up as the in-car video from Byron shows i'm going into high gear about 1000', and the engine labors from there to the end of the track, struggling to accelerate much further. I believe this is going to help not only ET, but we'll see a MPH increase because it'll get to spend the last 1/8 mile in high gear, really getting into the meaty part of the power band.
in other news, the geometry on the clutch slave cylinder was pulling the fork at a funky angle, and ultimately had the throwout bearing slightly cocked, which wore the input shaft bearing support pretty badly. i ordered a fresh one of those and am contemplating how to deal with the fork angle. i'll likely end up moving the fork from the 9 o'clock position to the 7:30 position, which will require some pretty heavy bell modifications. this will, of course, void my SFI rating, which sort of bums me out, but not enough to not do it. I am more than confident I can patch this back together so that it's better than what it was before. I may send the bell to quicktime to have them consider making one with the new clocking for other thirdgen guys that may not have the ability to do this same thing as I do.
i also sent the clutch back to Black Magic for inspection. Cale is very happy with how it fared the trip, and is going to resurface it, cut the clutch disc, and send me a new disc too so i have a spare. Working with him and Tinzy is so easy it's scary.
i started a 3rd new job this year, lol. things at ATI just weren't working out like we thought it may. I learned a lot and hope i may have taught them some things too. We left on great terms and I highly recommend their products for those that may require anything they sell. JC is good people. I have taken a position at a chassis shop just west of Philly and will move my family up here soon. It's a small shop, the 2 owning partners, Jeff Moyer, and myself for a grand total of 4 employees. It's an amazing work environment and i'm working on racecar stuff all day now. this is literally my dream job.
That's all for now. I am hoping I get to go out one more time with the new gears and working racepak to grab some good end-of-the-year data before I put the car away for some time. I'll keep ya posted!
The engine was repaired and reassembled 3 weeks ago. we scheduled the dyno session for this coming Saturday. I'm excited to see what it puts down. Once things are good to go, i'll schedule a time to go get the engine from IL. in the mean time, i know i have a few things to address with the car so i ordered and installed a set of 5.14 gears, hoping this really wakes things up as the in-car video from Byron shows i'm going into high gear about 1000', and the engine labors from there to the end of the track, struggling to accelerate much further. I believe this is going to help not only ET, but we'll see a MPH increase because it'll get to spend the last 1/8 mile in high gear, really getting into the meaty part of the power band.
in other news, the geometry on the clutch slave cylinder was pulling the fork at a funky angle, and ultimately had the throwout bearing slightly cocked, which wore the input shaft bearing support pretty badly. i ordered a fresh one of those and am contemplating how to deal with the fork angle. i'll likely end up moving the fork from the 9 o'clock position to the 7:30 position, which will require some pretty heavy bell modifications. this will, of course, void my SFI rating, which sort of bums me out, but not enough to not do it. I am more than confident I can patch this back together so that it's better than what it was before. I may send the bell to quicktime to have them consider making one with the new clocking for other thirdgen guys that may not have the ability to do this same thing as I do.
i also sent the clutch back to Black Magic for inspection. Cale is very happy with how it fared the trip, and is going to resurface it, cut the clutch disc, and send me a new disc too so i have a spare. Working with him and Tinzy is so easy it's scary.
i started a 3rd new job this year, lol. things at ATI just weren't working out like we thought it may. I learned a lot and hope i may have taught them some things too. We left on great terms and I highly recommend their products for those that may require anything they sell. JC is good people. I have taken a position at a chassis shop just west of Philly and will move my family up here soon. It's a small shop, the 2 owning partners, Jeff Moyer, and myself for a grand total of 4 employees. It's an amazing work environment and i'm working on racecar stuff all day now. this is literally my dream job.
That's all for now. I am hoping I get to go out one more time with the new gears and working racepak to grab some good end-of-the-year data before I put the car away for some time. I'll keep ya posted!