We got back from Indy on Monday evening.
Keith and Tonya Lynch and Linda McIntosh and I all made it home safe.. So, that is good news..
We are taking a brief time off today doing laundry and catching up with mail and paying bills, while we consider our coil pack problem... I will travel down to the Dayton area tomorrow (about 3.5 hour drive) and we will go over the process that we think will show us exactly what is causing the problem... Then maybe we can get a couple of runs done at a local track.
I am convinced that the problem is something very simple. So tomorrow will tell.
David Wertman
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Friday, September 3, 2010
Friday Night Report
Nothing but bad news and people who should know something, scratching their heads and shrugging their shoulders....
We are still trying to figure out why we are burning up coil packs...
More grounds should fix it,we were told... We put in more grounds --- we even put grounds on grounds, and that didn't work...
Maybe it is the 16 volt battery causing the problem... We put in a 12 volt battery and although it took a few seconds more, we got the same result...
So although we qualified number 15 out of over a hundred cars, we are unlikely to get more than one run tomorrow before we toast coil packs again, and we are out of spare coil packs..and Indianapolis is out of the too... we took the last 3 out of O'Reilly's warehouse today.
So what is the problem? Nobody has a clue...(And the problem is ABSOLUTELY NOT the fault of DIY Autotune, or the Mega Squirt as we switched to another ECU last week. Jerry at DIY always gave us good advice that we didn't/couldn't follow as we always chasing a schedule that too tight to allow testing before hauling the car off to a National event. Had we had more testing time,the Mega Squirt would have worked out just fine. But I felt it was better now to try something that others were all having great success with... So much for that decision...)
We will run tomorrow, for at least one run.
And then the next question is what is the future for Mega Maniac???? Is this the time to throw in the towel on the project? How long can I keep borrowing money to keep the car running? Do I even have the heart to keep going??
It is late, and I am more than just tired, I am so tired mentally and physically that I just know that I am not thinking clearly. And my emotions are on razor's edge. I really, really wanted to make this thing finally work to vindicate Chris' and my efforts..... So I won;t even try to answer any of those questions tonight. I will just go to sleep for 5-6 hours and we will go to the track, and try to make that one run
Goodnight all..
David
We are still trying to figure out why we are burning up coil packs...
More grounds should fix it,we were told... We put in more grounds --- we even put grounds on grounds, and that didn't work...
Maybe it is the 16 volt battery causing the problem... We put in a 12 volt battery and although it took a few seconds more, we got the same result...
So although we qualified number 15 out of over a hundred cars, we are unlikely to get more than one run tomorrow before we toast coil packs again, and we are out of spare coil packs..and Indianapolis is out of the too... we took the last 3 out of O'Reilly's warehouse today.
So what is the problem? Nobody has a clue...(And the problem is ABSOLUTELY NOT the fault of DIY Autotune, or the Mega Squirt as we switched to another ECU last week. Jerry at DIY always gave us good advice that we didn't/couldn't follow as we always chasing a schedule that too tight to allow testing before hauling the car off to a National event. Had we had more testing time,the Mega Squirt would have worked out just fine. But I felt it was better now to try something that others were all having great success with... So much for that decision...)
We will run tomorrow, for at least one run.
And then the next question is what is the future for Mega Maniac???? Is this the time to throw in the towel on the project? How long can I keep borrowing money to keep the car running? Do I even have the heart to keep going??
It is late, and I am more than just tired, I am so tired mentally and physically that I just know that I am not thinking clearly. And my emotions are on razor's edge. I really, really wanted to make this thing finally work to vindicate Chris' and my efforts..... So I won;t even try to answer any of those questions tonight. I will just go to sleep for 5-6 hours and we will go to the track, and try to make that one run
Goodnight all..
David
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Qualified in Indy
Well, we have good news, and not so good news....
We made two runs today. On the first run, we were only about .650 under, which wasn't enough to qualify, and we toasted two coil packs, and blew up the computer, due to an undetermined "probably" electrical problem...
But being as how we are too dumb to quit, we got a loaner computer, bought all new coil packs at $30 each X 8, and did a few other things to isolate the possibility of something causing the coil packs to fry, like maybe our alternator was putting out too much juice.... and consequently blow up the computer... So, then we ran a second run (and we managed to turn "logging on" in the computer, so we could see what was happening, after we ran.)
We even minimized the amount of time we ran the car in the staging lanes, and we did a lot of pushing of the car. But we didn't want to take a chance on burning something out before the run. And we expected that if we started the car fewer times, we reduced the the electrical load on the coil packs.
Our time in the second run was a lot better than the first run, and we qualified 15th at over one second under the index.
But on the return road, the car started acting up, and we toasted the same two coil packs (new ones in the same position as ones that cooked before.) So we put all of our spare coil packs on the engine, and were checking things without even starting the car, and suddenly one coil pack started cooking and smoking...
So now we are waiting for someone to check the coil pack wiring and then we have to find another computer, and ..... who knows what... But because we are already qualified, we really don't have to do anything until Saturday... And who knows, (didn't I just say that...), we may get things moving back in a good direction....
In the meantime, I managed to get more sun today, without any sun screen, than I really should have, so I am pretty well toasted myself... But on the good side, a company here, Goodridge Fittings, had a great barbecue with chicken, ribs, and baked beans and it was free... Way to go Goodridge....Thanks!
And I probably should also make note that these days when I speak of "WE", I am making reference to Keith, and Tonya Lynch me, and my lady friend Linda McIntosh as the New Hemi Racing Team.
Others have contributed in the past, certainly above all, it was my son Chris, who did the most to make our car successful, and it is in his memory and a hope and desire that I can see the car achieve the kind of success that Chris and I dreamed and schemed of having that I continue. But also my deepest thanks to Jay and Mandie, for their past help with the Drag pak #24 project. Without them, the road would have been even harder and loaner.
We made two runs today. On the first run, we were only about .650 under, which wasn't enough to qualify, and we toasted two coil packs, and blew up the computer, due to an undetermined "probably" electrical problem...
But being as how we are too dumb to quit, we got a loaner computer, bought all new coil packs at $30 each X 8, and did a few other things to isolate the possibility of something causing the coil packs to fry, like maybe our alternator was putting out too much juice.... and consequently blow up the computer... So, then we ran a second run (and we managed to turn "logging on" in the computer, so we could see what was happening, after we ran.)
We even minimized the amount of time we ran the car in the staging lanes, and we did a lot of pushing of the car. But we didn't want to take a chance on burning something out before the run. And we expected that if we started the car fewer times, we reduced the the electrical load on the coil packs.
Our time in the second run was a lot better than the first run, and we qualified 15th at over one second under the index.
But on the return road, the car started acting up, and we toasted the same two coil packs (new ones in the same position as ones that cooked before.) So we put all of our spare coil packs on the engine, and were checking things without even starting the car, and suddenly one coil pack started cooking and smoking...
So now we are waiting for someone to check the coil pack wiring and then we have to find another computer, and ..... who knows what... But because we are already qualified, we really don't have to do anything until Saturday... And who knows, (didn't I just say that...), we may get things moving back in a good direction....
In the meantime, I managed to get more sun today, without any sun screen, than I really should have, so I am pretty well toasted myself... But on the good side, a company here, Goodridge Fittings, had a great barbecue with chicken, ribs, and baked beans and it was free... Way to go Goodridge....Thanks!
And I probably should also make note that these days when I speak of "WE", I am making reference to Keith, and Tonya Lynch me, and my lady friend Linda McIntosh as the New Hemi Racing Team.
Others have contributed in the past, certainly above all, it was my son Chris, who did the most to make our car successful, and it is in his memory and a hope and desire that I can see the car achieve the kind of success that Chris and I dreamed and schemed of having that I continue. But also my deepest thanks to Jay and Mandie, for their past help with the Drag pak #24 project. Without them, the road would have been even harder and loaner.
Sunday, August 29, 2010
In Indy, and waiting to get into the track...
Well here we are... In Indy ...
Yesterday we addressed a problem noticed in our run at the Denver Nationals, in that the car had a wobble/shake at high speeds.. So, since we fully expect to go very fast, we needed to get the front end aligned....And, the right wheel castor was significantly off... so after making a mod to the front end to allow the alignment, the car should be good now.
Today, after making some final wiring changes and tying in our new window circuit, (which unfortunately meant removing most of the carpet, finishing the wiring changes..... and then putting the carpet back took about 4 hours, several special tools, some common ones, and carpet tape.... today was in the 90's and felt like 100% humidity... ) and then sorting out the tools and supplies we needed for Indy, we brought the trailer around and first had to clean it out...But once we got the trash and miscellaneous stuff from Denver out, we got it loaded up... And I am one tired puppy...
Oh, I forgot to mention that we also picked up a golf cart. It cost almost $700 to rent one in Denver for a week. So rather than keep paying those kinds of rates, I decided we needed to buy one. It is Black, with blue trim. And it is now nicely adorned with Mopar stickers. We picked up a couple of ramps at Tractor Supply Company. We are using Keith Lynch's truck to tow the trailer and it is a big Diesel Dodge which sits pretty high so we were getting ready to push the cart up the ramps, and I thought Keith was pushing when I just drove it up the ramps and right onto the bed of the truck. No pushing required. Pretty nice power for the little cart, and we got a really good deal on it... So we will be styling around the pits in our new cart already named the Drooze Mobile, in white letters across the back of the cart.
But back to Indy.. We got in line behind about 100 other rigs, and have to wait until tomorrow to allowed to enter the track and get into the pits. We just got word that they will start letting people in to the pits at around 8:00 am, so we think it will be arounf 10:00 when we get in... And we are still pretty close to the front of the line, considering how many cars will coming. So, it is all good.
Then we went to our Hotel, and and after freshening up a bit made a short jaunt to a Steak and Shake, (we actually tried a couple other places, but they closed at 9:00 pm on Sundays) but after eating, I am now chilling out watching a bit of TV, and about to hit the sack.
We will get in tomorrow which is Monday and that is all that happens tomorrow. We do need to hook up with a couple of other folks, and we need some C11 fuel. We Tech in on Tuesday, run qualifying runs on Wednesday so that is when the fun begins... I will report our performance here on Wednesday.. But I will also try to keep you posted throughout the week..
David
Yesterday we addressed a problem noticed in our run at the Denver Nationals, in that the car had a wobble/shake at high speeds.. So, since we fully expect to go very fast, we needed to get the front end aligned....And, the right wheel castor was significantly off... so after making a mod to the front end to allow the alignment, the car should be good now.
Today, after making some final wiring changes and tying in our new window circuit, (which unfortunately meant removing most of the carpet, finishing the wiring changes..... and then putting the carpet back took about 4 hours, several special tools, some common ones, and carpet tape.... today was in the 90's and felt like 100% humidity... ) and then sorting out the tools and supplies we needed for Indy, we brought the trailer around and first had to clean it out...But once we got the trash and miscellaneous stuff from Denver out, we got it loaded up... And I am one tired puppy...
Oh, I forgot to mention that we also picked up a golf cart. It cost almost $700 to rent one in Denver for a week. So rather than keep paying those kinds of rates, I decided we needed to buy one. It is Black, with blue trim. And it is now nicely adorned with Mopar stickers. We picked up a couple of ramps at Tractor Supply Company. We are using Keith Lynch's truck to tow the trailer and it is a big Diesel Dodge which sits pretty high so we were getting ready to push the cart up the ramps, and I thought Keith was pushing when I just drove it up the ramps and right onto the bed of the truck. No pushing required. Pretty nice power for the little cart, and we got a really good deal on it... So we will be styling around the pits in our new cart already named the Drooze Mobile, in white letters across the back of the cart.
But back to Indy.. We got in line behind about 100 other rigs, and have to wait until tomorrow to allowed to enter the track and get into the pits. We just got word that they will start letting people in to the pits at around 8:00 am, so we think it will be arounf 10:00 when we get in... And we are still pretty close to the front of the line, considering how many cars will coming. So, it is all good.
Then we went to our Hotel, and and after freshening up a bit made a short jaunt to a Steak and Shake, (we actually tried a couple other places, but they closed at 9:00 pm on Sundays) but after eating, I am now chilling out watching a bit of TV, and about to hit the sack.
We will get in tomorrow which is Monday and that is all that happens tomorrow. We do need to hook up with a couple of other folks, and we need some C11 fuel. We Tech in on Tuesday, run qualifying runs on Wednesday so that is when the fun begins... I will report our performance here on Wednesday.. But I will also try to keep you posted throughout the week..
David
Monday, August 23, 2010
New engine for Indy
As Chris often said, "so much to do, so little time to do it all..."
The new engine is ready to go into the car today. This engine is an upgrade to the car for several reasons which I won't go into at this time. But it does have a different cam, and a few other secret squirrel tricks that will remain a secret until we find out how it runs.
Having a complete second engine offers us a lot more flexibility in the case of catastophic failure, or some other unforseen happenstance.. If something bad happens, we can pop the whole engine out and drop a complete replacement in place within a few hours.
Making some changes at the front of the engine necessitated the replacement of our custom water pump and alternator bracket. So we installed a Meziere electric water pump. I went online to Summit Racing who said they would ship in September, so I went to Jegs who seems to stock more than Summit Racing these days, and I ordered it for next day delivery. It arrived and sure was pretty. But nobody told me when I ordered it, that the back plate didnt come with it. You need to order that separately. So after spending another $300, the backing plate was on the way.
Meziere apparently doesn't include the backing plate that is quite specific to the engine, in the kit that is that is identified as fitting a 5.7/6.1 hemi, in spite of that "kit" not having any specific part that fits a 5.7/6.1 hemi engine. So you have to order it separately. I am not sure, but it may just be that way to look lower priced.... but that is only until you determine that you do need both parts totaling nearly a thousand dollars.
And we still need to finish a few wiring changes we are making after our window rewire and a few other little tricks, including a new much larger tach
I will start posting some additional pictures soon, reflecting the window switch locations, and more details about that change.
In the meantime, just keep moving forward. You have already seen everything behind you, and if it was all that great, you wouldn't have left it back there. So keep moving forward.
David
The New Hemi Guy
The new engine is ready to go into the car today. This engine is an upgrade to the car for several reasons which I won't go into at this time. But it does have a different cam, and a few other secret squirrel tricks that will remain a secret until we find out how it runs.
Having a complete second engine offers us a lot more flexibility in the case of catastophic failure, or some other unforseen happenstance.. If something bad happens, we can pop the whole engine out and drop a complete replacement in place within a few hours.
Making some changes at the front of the engine necessitated the replacement of our custom water pump and alternator bracket. So we installed a Meziere electric water pump. I went online to Summit Racing who said they would ship in September, so I went to Jegs who seems to stock more than Summit Racing these days, and I ordered it for next day delivery. It arrived and sure was pretty. But nobody told me when I ordered it, that the back plate didnt come with it. You need to order that separately. So after spending another $300, the backing plate was on the way.
Meziere apparently doesn't include the backing plate that is quite specific to the engine, in the kit that is that is identified as fitting a 5.7/6.1 hemi, in spite of that "kit" not having any specific part that fits a 5.7/6.1 hemi engine. So you have to order it separately. I am not sure, but it may just be that way to look lower priced.... but that is only until you determine that you do need both parts totaling nearly a thousand dollars.
And we still need to finish a few wiring changes we are making after our window rewire and a few other little tricks, including a new much larger tach
I will start posting some additional pictures soon, reflecting the window switch locations, and more details about that change.
In the meantime, just keep moving forward. You have already seen everything behind you, and if it was all that great, you wouldn't have left it back there. So keep moving forward.
David
The New Hemi Guy
Sunday, August 22, 2010
As most of probably already know, Chris "Drooze" Wertman, my son, only child, and best friend recently passed away as the result of smoke inhalation during a house fire. He is missed by his friends and family which included his Mother Linda Snowball, Step Father Francis, sons David, and Max, daughter Isabella, and me, his father.
The blog will go on... only because Chris would have wanted it to go on and to help other Dodge challenger Drag Pak owners.....
The car is currently under major rework. We are now more than ever dedicated to the Dream the Chris and I shared that this car, Drag Pak #24 would be a record holder, and we think we are now very close.
For those of you who are tired of stuggling with windows, the polycarbonate door windows, know this, there are options...
Here are the issues as I see them after at least 5 track outings;
1. First the intelligent door modules have to "relearn" how to put the window down on door open, up on door close, etc, etc., after every time you totally turn of power to them. This is especially awkward, and can get a bit anxious in the staging lanes....
2. The polycarbonate windows are not curved like the glass. So when a window is being put "up", somebody needs to push the poly window in at the top to get it into the rubber molding. This means you need someone along in the staging lanes, and right up to burnout, simply to push the window in at the top...
These two issues, are quite simply inconvenient. There are many better things to be thinking about in the staging lanes.
So here is one path that you can consider to address both issues.
1. Remove connections to the smart door modules. Or don't wire them in, in the first place. We had them working, saw the problems, and removed them. We added two switches into the stock switch positions on the drivers door. These are "reversing toggle switches", DPDT On - Off - On . The switch has three pairs of connecting lugs. The power and ground go to two center lugs, this leaves the two out lugs on each end open. You connect one side of teh switch to the two pins in the motor connector that are heaviest - at the back of the plug. You connect the two wires other side of the switch to opposite wire on the motor pins. One way, the switch will put hte window up, and one way it will go down. The switch, quite simply, having +12v, and ground to teh center lugs, reverses the +12v, and ground so that one way you send the +12v to "pin 1", and ground to pin 2, and pushed the other way, sends +12v to pin 2, and ground to pin 1.
It is really simpler than it looks, and you can even wire in the passenger door switch with a third DPDT reversing switch.
If you have questions about this, just email me, david@newhemiracing.com
Now, for the issue of having to push in the polycarbonate windows at the top..... replace them with glass. Simple enough, isn't it? Why wouldn't you just replace them with glass? You might think they look cool. If so, and you don't hate pushing them in at teh top eaqch the window goes up, so be it... You might think the glass is too expensive. I got both windows at slighly less than $100 per window. You might think that the polcarbonate is so much lighter than the glass, that you can't afford the extra weight. I didn't get a chance to weigh them, but my sense of the relative weight, is that the glass weighs 3-5 pounds more each. It might be less, or even more, but frankly, the weight is an acceptable loss due to the gained benefit of having the glass window close without a push from the outside.
Credits: I would never have thought of replacing the cool polycarbonate windows, if not for Doug Duel, whose Drag Pak clone has glass windows (even though Doug has the poly carbonates ones too...) and said when he weighed the poly windows and glass windows, there wasnt that much differences, and the glass windows work better. Thanks Doug.
Well, that is all for today, but keep tuned in, there is more to come.
David
The New Hemi Guy
The blog will go on... only because Chris would have wanted it to go on and to help other Dodge challenger Drag Pak owners.....
The car is currently under major rework. We are now more than ever dedicated to the Dream the Chris and I shared that this car, Drag Pak #24 would be a record holder, and we think we are now very close.
For those of you who are tired of stuggling with windows, the polycarbonate door windows, know this, there are options...
Here are the issues as I see them after at least 5 track outings;
1. First the intelligent door modules have to "relearn" how to put the window down on door open, up on door close, etc, etc., after every time you totally turn of power to them. This is especially awkward, and can get a bit anxious in the staging lanes....
2. The polycarbonate windows are not curved like the glass. So when a window is being put "up", somebody needs to push the poly window in at the top to get it into the rubber molding. This means you need someone along in the staging lanes, and right up to burnout, simply to push the window in at the top...
These two issues, are quite simply inconvenient. There are many better things to be thinking about in the staging lanes.
So here is one path that you can consider to address both issues.
1. Remove connections to the smart door modules. Or don't wire them in, in the first place. We had them working, saw the problems, and removed them. We added two switches into the stock switch positions on the drivers door. These are "reversing toggle switches", DPDT On - Off - On . The switch has three pairs of connecting lugs. The power and ground go to two center lugs, this leaves the two out lugs on each end open. You connect one side of teh switch to the two pins in the motor connector that are heaviest - at the back of the plug. You connect the two wires other side of the switch to opposite wire on the motor pins. One way, the switch will put hte window up, and one way it will go down. The switch, quite simply, having +12v, and ground to teh center lugs, reverses the +12v, and ground so that one way you send the +12v to "pin 1", and ground to pin 2, and pushed the other way, sends +12v to pin 2, and ground to pin 1.
It is really simpler than it looks, and you can even wire in the passenger door switch with a third DPDT reversing switch.
If you have questions about this, just email me, david@newhemiracing.com
Now, for the issue of having to push in the polycarbonate windows at the top..... replace them with glass. Simple enough, isn't it? Why wouldn't you just replace them with glass? You might think they look cool. If so, and you don't hate pushing them in at teh top eaqch the window goes up, so be it... You might think the glass is too expensive. I got both windows at slighly less than $100 per window. You might think that the polcarbonate is so much lighter than the glass, that you can't afford the extra weight. I didn't get a chance to weigh them, but my sense of the relative weight, is that the glass weighs 3-5 pounds more each. It might be less, or even more, but frankly, the weight is an acceptable loss due to the gained benefit of having the glass window close without a push from the outside.
Credits: I would never have thought of replacing the cool polycarbonate windows, if not for Doug Duel, whose Drag Pak clone has glass windows (even though Doug has the poly carbonates ones too...) and said when he weighed the poly windows and glass windows, there wasnt that much differences, and the glass windows work better. Thanks Doug.
Well, that is all for today, but keep tuned in, there is more to come.
David
The New Hemi Guy
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Jul 7, 2010 Happy Birthday POP !
Well tommorow is my fathers birthday.
Happy Birthday Pop !
Were getting things inline for the next engine as well as Keith is repairing the engine that was hurt at Norwalk, (it only MINORLY Bent 1 Valve !) A broken timing chain at 4500 .... unreal, but GOOD news.
So shop cleaning and getting parts ordered and info tracked down.
BUT 1945 July 8th My Father was born, there arent many events in history that are as important to me.
Happy Birthday Pop...
Happy Birthday Pop !
Were getting things inline for the next engine as well as Keith is repairing the engine that was hurt at Norwalk, (it only MINORLY Bent 1 Valve !) A broken timing chain at 4500 .... unreal, but GOOD news.
So shop cleaning and getting parts ordered and info tracked down.
BUT 1945 July 8th My Father was born, there arent many events in history that are as important to me.
Happy Birthday Pop...
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