Engine Swap Challenge

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Old Sep 11, 2017 | 08:14 AM
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From: Carlinville, IL
Default Engine Swap Challenge

The title is a little misleading. We decided to do our own challenge when the piston disappeared in our brand new Predator 420cc Harbor Freight engine with a couple of hours use on it.

My Dad always said "poor people have poor ways", and we are no different. We spend good money where it is needed, and we try to make up for it in other ways like putting together this pit cart from pieces. Now I'm not gonna lie to you, the engine is not totally at fault, we didn't do the motor any favors because these things have so much power you can't HELP but stab your dirty sock into the carburetor!

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Lucky for us, we were very fortunate to meet a great couple Dave and Crystal Kaveshan from Tennessee at the 2016 LS Fest who were there spectating and we new they were coming this year, so we called and ask them to stop at Harbor Freight and pick us up a replacement. We can't thank them enough for everything they did for us last year and this. We promised them team T-shirts for all the help they provided us last year. We surprised them a pair of our new starting line crew shirts we had just gotten in the nick of time to come down to LS Fest. By the way, Crystal makes THE BEST chocolate chip banana bread in the WORLD and she was kind enough to bring us not one but FOUR loaves. An extra special thank you Crystal!

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Dave and Crystal have a KILLER El Camino drag car as well, and are currently building an LS powered 1st gen Nova that they just missed finishing in time for 2017 Fest. Looking forward to seeing it next year.

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While I was prepping the Shop Rag for qualifying,

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Joe started swapping some custom parts that we made to make the engine work in the cart.

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Everything was going great, then Saturday night coming back from the showers, we found the limit of a brand new clutch Joe had installed right before we came. Evidently, it doesn't like towing 3200 lbs of race car and driver, LOL.
Luckily, it gave up right as we had arrived back at the bus for a good nights sleep. The End.... well, does it ever end?

Last edited by 65drag; Sep 11, 2017 at 02:25 PM.
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