We arrived at National Trailways on Thursday morning. The plan was to take advantage of the Thrsday Test N Tune, and find out what kind of times the car will really do. But, there was a program running early in the day, as a rain make up. Well, that program ran into teh night, and so there was no Test N Tune.
OK, so we missed the Test N Tune, on Friday, the Sports Nationals starts!
Except, it rained most of the day, and ultimately, the three day event was turned into a two day event. So, we ran a 9.85 time, and were qualified #1 for about half an hour. Then Charley Bob Downing in his Mustang went for a record run, took the number one qualifier position, and also will get some horsepower on Monday. But we went into Class Eliminations, and after running our 5.7 Hemi against some pretty fast A/SA cars, including a 6.4 Hemi Dodge Challenger, and a 6.1 Hemi Challenger DragPak, won the A/SA Class. The winning run came at around 11 PM. Our Class win came against the 6.4 Hemi, and it was late. The temperature was dropping fast and there was dew on the race track. Needless to say we, and the other car spun our tires on the wet track. But we recovered, and won. Yeah! Another Wally! A very good day.
After the scale check to make sure our weight was legal, and the fuel check to be sure our fuel was legal, we were told that the photographer had already left, so we drove back to the pits, and we could get the pics take Sunday Morning... But wait, a tech rep came and got us, and we drove the car back down to the photography backdrop for pictures. I will explain in the next paragraph why I even tell you this.
Keith started the car to drive back to the pit area, and the car made noises that we didn't like. He immediately shut it down. We started it again for moment, to try to identify the noise, and after a moment of only concluding it was bad, shut it down again. We drove the our pit cart back to the trailer and got our tow strap, hooked up the car, and towed it back, up a pretty big hill, and to our pit. Our little cart, like the car, may not look big, but it does a nice job.
We pulled the oil filter out of the car, and began to tear it apart. It was now about 11:30PM and after struggling with it got the filter apart. If it shows us bearing material, then we have a big problem. Almost anything else, is still a big problem, but other things aren't as destructive as spinning a bearing like we did in Indianapolis. The pit area is well lighted, and we are trying to figure out exactly what might be wrong.
We start pulling plugs to see if there are any symptoms there. Cylinder number spark plugs, are clean whereas all other plugs are black for running too rich. So what does that mean? Black, running rich is the norm for us. So why are the plugs from number 3 clean. Maybe a bent valve. Maybe a broken rocker arm. Lots of maybes. It now midnight, and suddenly the lights go out, and it is as dark as a cave at night. Apparently the track shuts the light off at midnight. Rats! What now.
A Super Street guy pitted next to us, came over with a flashlight, and I found my flashlight. We messed around for another half hour, and decided that we couldn't see things well enough. So with the help of our neighbor, we pushed the car into the trailer, fired up the generator and turned on the fluorescent lights in the trailer. But the lights flickered too much, and was driving us crazy, so we got our two trouble lights and had a little light. We did a compression check and decided that cylinder 3 had too much compression. That could be caused by several bad things. But our best guess was a bent or broken valve. It was about 2 in the morning by then, and we decided the problem was probably beyond us right then. So we went back to the hotel. At the time we left the track, we were sure that we had a really big problem, and that we would be leaving early Sunday morning
We got back to the track at about 7:30 AM. So there we were, with four hours of sleep, back trying to figure out what was wrong.
After taking about the symptoms, and possibilities, being short of sleep, and pretty testy from that lack of sleep, we kept asking each other: What could it be. Now it was getting late and soon Stock would be called. There is no way, we can get things fixed, and get reading for Stock Eliminator in a little more than an hour. But one way or another , at the track, or back in the shop, things need to be taken apart, so even if we cant get it all back together in time, we can find out what caused the problem.
One possible thing that could cause the problem might be a collapsed lifter. To find out, we need to pull coil packs, intake manifold, calve cover, rocker arm assemblies, push rods, exhaust headers, and the driver side head. That is a couple of hours work, so although we knew it was absolutely assured that we couldn't get it apart, fixed, and back together in time to run, we still needed to get it apart to find out if that is our problem. And if we find almost anything else, we couldn't get it done anyway.
So apart it all came. The car was still in the trailer, and that made it hard for more than one person to do a lot of things. But since it is now daylight, we pushed the car mostly out of the trailer, drained the water, and shortly had the manifold off. Then came the coil packs, the valve covers, the rocker arm assemblies, and we decided to try pulling the head without removing the exhaust headers. As I recall, Chris and I pulled that driver side head with header still attached. So to save time, and effort, decided to try it again. It worked, we moved the head just enough, with header still attached, to remove the lifter cradle, and the lifters. And guess what we found? A collapsed lifter. We have spare lifters, so we could replace it. They had just called the left side of the Stock Elimination Ladder to the Staging lane. No way we could get it all together in time before we are called, and cant make it.
But wait, we have come this far, and I hate giving up. I will not quit!!!!!!!!!!!
And there was no resistance. Both Keith, and Ed, who joined us for this trip and was extremely helpful, were in synch with me. Lets just try! And we did. The new lifter went in, the head went back on. The rocker arm assembly went in, the rocker cover went back on, intake manifold went back on, spark plugs in, coil packs on, everything was connected, we put water in, and hoped for the best. The car was started, and it sounded great. We backed it out, drove to staging lanes, and got there right in time.
We actually won our first two rounds of eliminations, and in our third round, we ran a 9.91 on a 9.3 dial. That is bad. You cant run faster than your dial in, so we lost that one, and were done. But in my mind, we won just by getting the engine diagnosed and fixed in time to compete.
God Bless, and Race Safely!
David
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Found the problem....
Some things are every bit as obvious as they appear to be..
My good friend Mack Reeves in Florida (another Drag Pak owner, and member of the New Hemi Secret Squirrel Club) suggested it from the symptoms, and he was spot on...
The cam pin had sheared, and allowed the cam to shift about a quarter of a turn.
Simple enough, with the cam out of position, the valves hit the pistons, we lost compression, the car wouldn't run. We were very, very lucky that there was no real damage other than losing the cam pin, and putting us out of the Nationals
But that is racing....................
We also had a problem as our alternator burned up, refusing to charge, and actually providing a load on the engine. In addition, our low voltage wouldn't give us enough cranking power to really begin diagnosing the problem.
The new alternator arrived today, and the new cam went into the engine yesterday. So, one way or another, we are getting the car ready to run again. When, where, and even if, we will run next, is an open question, to be answered here at some point in the future..
We also changed some of the graphics on the car..... It was about time to give credit where credit is due, and the front fenders of the car now, now say; Engine by Keith Lynch!
I made a couple of more changes to the graphics, and will post a picture here soon. The overall look of the car is unchanged, and the car is still emblazened with the name of MEGA MANIAC.
One more thing relative to the car's appearance, the teeth in the front air dam of the car, have become quite an imposing picture. So I am adding even more teeth when I get a chance...but it will probably happen before we run again.
God Bless, and Race Safely!
David
My good friend Mack Reeves in Florida (another Drag Pak owner, and member of the New Hemi Secret Squirrel Club) suggested it from the symptoms, and he was spot on...
The cam pin had sheared, and allowed the cam to shift about a quarter of a turn.
Simple enough, with the cam out of position, the valves hit the pistons, we lost compression, the car wouldn't run. We were very, very lucky that there was no real damage other than losing the cam pin, and putting us out of the Nationals
But that is racing....................
We also had a problem as our alternator burned up, refusing to charge, and actually providing a load on the engine. In addition, our low voltage wouldn't give us enough cranking power to really begin diagnosing the problem.
The new alternator arrived today, and the new cam went into the engine yesterday. So, one way or another, we are getting the car ready to run again. When, where, and even if, we will run next, is an open question, to be answered here at some point in the future..
We also changed some of the graphics on the car..... It was about time to give credit where credit is due, and the front fenders of the car now, now say; Engine by Keith Lynch!
I made a couple of more changes to the graphics, and will post a picture here soon. The overall look of the car is unchanged, and the car is still emblazened with the name of MEGA MANIAC.
One more thing relative to the car's appearance, the teeth in the front air dam of the car, have become quite an imposing picture. So I am adding even more teeth when I get a chance...but it will probably happen before we run again.
God Bless, and Race Safely!
David
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Indianapolis Nationals
It was a crazy week and week end for the New Hemi Racing Team.
We had just put a new engine in the car before Bowling Green, and it just didnt seem right. We were number two qualifier, but each run was slower than the last.
We got ready for Indianpolis, did a few things, changed to racing oil put in new spark plugs, different air pressure in tires, etc. Drove to the track, and there we were, early and ready for the Big Show.
We ran a 9.86 to initially give us the number three qualifying spot, and were later dropped to number four. The car ran very well that first run. We ran two more qualifying runs, and again the car got slower and slower. Some loss in performance could be attributed to the rotten weather of temps in the mid to high 90's, and high humidity. But it just didnt seem like it should be that bad.
Our first run of class was on Thursday. We got a win over Dennis Breeden's Challenger. But at the end of the run, Keith heard a noise in the engine he didnt like, and shut it down. We got it pushed back to the pits, and confirmed we probably had spun a bearing. We couldnt run anymore in Class, so our dreams of a class win at this race were gone. Our next action at the track wouldnt be until Saturday, and Keith's shop in Ohio was only a couple of hours away. Maybe we could it repaired, and be back in time for the Stock Eliminations. So we packed up and hit the road back to the shop.
We got to Keith's shop at about 3:00 in afternoon and tore right in the car. A couple of hours later we confirmed the spun bearing, on pistons 5 and 6 and a crank that was toasted. So, we needed two rods, and a new crank. We tried a couple of sources for the crank, and finally located one at Gary Stanton's in Kentucky. We also determined that the spare rods were in the main New Hemi Shop in Akron, and I was the only one with the key to the shop. So I took off for the 4 hour drive to Akron, and Keith was going to get up at 4:00 AM and head off to pick up the crank in KY, four hours in the other direction. I would back in Keith's shop the next day around 11:00 AM with the rods, Keith should be back at around noon. Sounds like a good plan, doesnt it? We should be putting it all back together at noon Friday.
I got to the shop at 11:00 as planned, and Keith had already taken our rods to Ohio Crank Shaft to be checked for round on the big end. They were way, way out of round, and we sent the spare new rods to also be checked. In the meantime, a good friend, Paul Dilcher, was passing through the area and conveniently could pick up the crank for us. He should be back at Keith's shop around 1 PM. We had also ordered bearings, and a single head bolt that had been lost somehow. We had two sets, but couldn't complete two engines, being one bolt short. Thank you, Gary Stanton!
I picked up the rods at Ohio Crankshaft, they checked and rounded all ten of them for us. (We only needed 8 done, but we had ten, so we may as well get them all checked and have a couple of good spares.) Thnak you, Ohio Crankshaft!
There were some problems on the road back from Stanton's in KY, but the crank finally arrived around 3:00 in the afternoon, and we snapped right into action. Crank, cam, rods and pistons go in first. Degree Cam, and get timing right. Then heads, rocker arms, and valve covers back on. Another friend, Ed showed up at the shop, as he had done the night before, and we had another set of hands. Next, the engine went in. The clock had been ticking and it was about 8:00 PM when the engine started to go back into car. At 10:30 PM, the engine was in, and we were ready to start it.
It started!!! We drove it straight back into the trailer, all jumped into the truck, we were on our way back to the Race Track in Indy. We got in late, about midnight. And our previous pit space, was jammed with RV of a guy who wsant even racing. The fellow next to us had moved his car over to hold it for us, but that was ignored. Oh well!!! We found an open space, and pulled the car out. We saw the McCormack's on their cart, and some other folks, including Jimmi Bowling came by. Around 3:00 AM the Lynch's slept in the truck, and I slept on the floor of the trailer. Morning sure came early.
We also had a problem with our alternator, and I had stopped on the way over to get one at Jegs, but they didnt have one.. So we ran with our bad alternator not charging anything.
We had no idea what to dial. So we just put 10.0 on the window. We ran against a car who dialed 10.48. So he got a head start, and we caught him at around 1000 feet, and our car shut down for a moment, and the other car passed us. After the car engine shut down, it came back alive, but too late. Keith drove to the return road, and the car died completely. Once again we were pushed back to our pit space.
We dont know what caused the engine to cut off on the track, or the subsequent failure to start. We suspect the battery didnt have enough juice to keep the engine running, but it could have beeen any one of hundred other things too.
We packed up, took the car back to Keith's shop. And I drove back to Akron. In the mail that wsa piling up in my mailbox, I got a notice from the city that I need to cut my grass, or they will do it, charge for cuttingit, and still fine me. Four feet high, it was kind of pretty. The thing that probably got me busted was that I have a 3 1/2 foot fence, and the grass was higher than that. Oh well, I cant afford to have someone else cut it, and I didnt feel like it. I did finnally cut it this morning...Tomorrow I need to get over to the house Chris was refurbing, and cut eh grass there too, before that city gets upset with me too.
I did order a new alternator, and the overall costs, new crank and parts,rooms food, fuel,entry fees, alternator, etc, this weekend was about $3500. Man, we really do need to find a sponsor!
We did manage to pick up some extra copies of the National Dragster magaine with the feature article on New Hemi Racing and our trials, and challenges. It was a very nice tribute to Christopher, Drooze, Wertman. It was one year ago, on July 31, that we lost him. But he will never be forgotten, and I never stop missing him.
God Bless, and race safely!
David
We had just put a new engine in the car before Bowling Green, and it just didnt seem right. We were number two qualifier, but each run was slower than the last.
We got ready for Indianpolis, did a few things, changed to racing oil put in new spark plugs, different air pressure in tires, etc. Drove to the track, and there we were, early and ready for the Big Show.
We ran a 9.86 to initially give us the number three qualifying spot, and were later dropped to number four. The car ran very well that first run. We ran two more qualifying runs, and again the car got slower and slower. Some loss in performance could be attributed to the rotten weather of temps in the mid to high 90's, and high humidity. But it just didnt seem like it should be that bad.
Our first run of class was on Thursday. We got a win over Dennis Breeden's Challenger. But at the end of the run, Keith heard a noise in the engine he didnt like, and shut it down. We got it pushed back to the pits, and confirmed we probably had spun a bearing. We couldnt run anymore in Class, so our dreams of a class win at this race were gone. Our next action at the track wouldnt be until Saturday, and Keith's shop in Ohio was only a couple of hours away. Maybe we could it repaired, and be back in time for the Stock Eliminations. So we packed up and hit the road back to the shop.
We got to Keith's shop at about 3:00 in afternoon and tore right in the car. A couple of hours later we confirmed the spun bearing, on pistons 5 and 6 and a crank that was toasted. So, we needed two rods, and a new crank. We tried a couple of sources for the crank, and finally located one at Gary Stanton's in Kentucky. We also determined that the spare rods were in the main New Hemi Shop in Akron, and I was the only one with the key to the shop. So I took off for the 4 hour drive to Akron, and Keith was going to get up at 4:00 AM and head off to pick up the crank in KY, four hours in the other direction. I would back in Keith's shop the next day around 11:00 AM with the rods, Keith should be back at around noon. Sounds like a good plan, doesnt it? We should be putting it all back together at noon Friday.
I got to the shop at 11:00 as planned, and Keith had already taken our rods to Ohio Crank Shaft to be checked for round on the big end. They were way, way out of round, and we sent the spare new rods to also be checked. In the meantime, a good friend, Paul Dilcher, was passing through the area and conveniently could pick up the crank for us. He should be back at Keith's shop around 1 PM. We had also ordered bearings, and a single head bolt that had been lost somehow. We had two sets, but couldn't complete two engines, being one bolt short. Thank you, Gary Stanton!
I picked up the rods at Ohio Crankshaft, they checked and rounded all ten of them for us. (We only needed 8 done, but we had ten, so we may as well get them all checked and have a couple of good spares.) Thnak you, Ohio Crankshaft!
There were some problems on the road back from Stanton's in KY, but the crank finally arrived around 3:00 in the afternoon, and we snapped right into action. Crank, cam, rods and pistons go in first. Degree Cam, and get timing right. Then heads, rocker arms, and valve covers back on. Another friend, Ed showed up at the shop, as he had done the night before, and we had another set of hands. Next, the engine went in. The clock had been ticking and it was about 8:00 PM when the engine started to go back into car. At 10:30 PM, the engine was in, and we were ready to start it.
It started!!! We drove it straight back into the trailer, all jumped into the truck, we were on our way back to the Race Track in Indy. We got in late, about midnight. And our previous pit space, was jammed with RV of a guy who wsant even racing. The fellow next to us had moved his car over to hold it for us, but that was ignored. Oh well!!! We found an open space, and pulled the car out. We saw the McCormack's on their cart, and some other folks, including Jimmi Bowling came by. Around 3:00 AM the Lynch's slept in the truck, and I slept on the floor of the trailer. Morning sure came early.
We also had a problem with our alternator, and I had stopped on the way over to get one at Jegs, but they didnt have one.. So we ran with our bad alternator not charging anything.
We had no idea what to dial. So we just put 10.0 on the window. We ran against a car who dialed 10.48. So he got a head start, and we caught him at around 1000 feet, and our car shut down for a moment, and the other car passed us. After the car engine shut down, it came back alive, but too late. Keith drove to the return road, and the car died completely. Once again we were pushed back to our pit space.
We dont know what caused the engine to cut off on the track, or the subsequent failure to start. We suspect the battery didnt have enough juice to keep the engine running, but it could have beeen any one of hundred other things too.
We packed up, took the car back to Keith's shop. And I drove back to Akron. In the mail that wsa piling up in my mailbox, I got a notice from the city that I need to cut my grass, or they will do it, charge for cuttingit, and still fine me. Four feet high, it was kind of pretty. The thing that probably got me busted was that I have a 3 1/2 foot fence, and the grass was higher than that. Oh well, I cant afford to have someone else cut it, and I didnt feel like it. I did finnally cut it this morning...Tomorrow I need to get over to the house Chris was refurbing, and cut eh grass there too, before that city gets upset with me too.
I did order a new alternator, and the overall costs, new crank and parts,rooms food, fuel,entry fees, alternator, etc, this weekend was about $3500. Man, we really do need to find a sponsor!
We did manage to pick up some extra copies of the National Dragster magaine with the feature article on New Hemi Racing and our trials, and challenges. It was a very nice tribute to Christopher, Drooze, Wertman. It was one year ago, on July 31, that we lost him. But he will never be forgotten, and I never stop missing him.
God Bless, and race safely!
David
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