Topic: Went to Indy! Blew it up!

[Don R]

We are racing in the Super 16 class at Cordova this weekend with our dragster, then next Wed. I am heading to the US Nationals at Indianapolis to crew on a Blown Top Alcohol Dragster. We are starting off wed. with an engine swap, (to the good one) and will be there through the weekend. I'm trying to find a way to ride the 750F over there. If I can get it in the pits.

[Don R]

Well, I didn't take the bike. I rode with Tony who is the driver of the car. We arrived after our 4 hour trip to find the race trailer that had been on the road from fla. beat us there by a few minutes. Good timing.
  We set up the canopy and the pit spot and wed. nite. I slept on my air matress with the front end of a hanging Top Alcohol Dragster for a canopy and a goodyear slick for a headboard.
  Thursday am we pulled out the car and began to install the good engine, We attached handles to the engine and lifted the short block out, switched to the new short block and installed the heads, intake and supercharger. Then it rained for a couple hours which killed our momentum. We set the clutch gap, poured in the oil and proceeded to trim out the top end. The new lifters were apparently taller than the old ones which made the pushrods too long. We sorted through the spares and found a set that looked better. Things went slow due to me being new to these engines and we were short handed. Thursday night we went out for our one good meal of the weekend.
 Friday AM we test fired the engine and broke a pushrod, One more time through the spares and made up a set. Checked it all again and about 11 AM we were called to qualifying run no. 1. We had to run first being new and didn't get lane choice.
 The car didn't sound crisp but did a good burrnout, Tony staged, went up to RPM and launched. It left hard but about 75' out it blew the supercharger off and made a pretty good size fireball. We returned to the pit and started the teardown. There were four broken pushrods, the guys from Manton pushrods found us and ordered a new set the proper length from California. They were delivered the next morning at 8:45. The blower burst panels were gone and the Ti studs were sheared off like they were designed to do. We replaced the gaskets, studs, burst panels, checked the bearings and replaced the wide ones. Then we noticed the copper head gasket hanging out a little. We tore it back down and found the head gaskets pushed out and a damaged head where the stainless O ring was pushed out of it's groove.

[Stev-o]

Would like to see some photos...

[Don R]

Pics coming, Anyway we found enough parts to put it back together using the good short block and the older heads. Being at Indy anything you need was available if you had the cash. Saturday AM we were called to the lanes we had warmed it, checked the clutch and bearings the pushrods looked good so we went to qualify in the third round, (we had missed the second due to the engine damage)
 Again we were in the first pair, The burnout sounded much better, Tony staged well, waiting for the other car which was an injected nitro car (A fuel) the other type allowed in our class. They tend to take longer to stage so we waited for him to roll in first. The tree came down, it launched and we looked really good until about a thousand feet downtrack it blew the supercharger off again. This time the shifter air line was cut so at first it looked like there was no 2-3 shift. We later saw it was cut by the metal from the burst panel. Once again we pushed out the head gaskets but this time the ensuing jet of combustion gas burned the head and block. The data recorder showed both shifts, the driver had done his job. This time the push rods were fine, one adjuster was a little galled but the valvetrain was good. It is amazing how much these hemi's look like a 750 honda head only a lot bigger, two shafts and no cam.
 After assessing the damage we found we didn't have enough parts left to fix it for this weekend.  Our friends next door sent their tuner over to look at the data. He said the fuel curve was wrong and went right to a check valve on the injector, it was good so he looked in the barrel valve that controls the fuel/air ratio and Idle. The jet hole was tapped all the way into the valve and the jet had vibrated through and blocked the excess fuel by-pass causing the pump to send all the fuel (excessive) to the engine. The fuel tank when checked was empty so it had burned all 12.5 gallons on the burnout and run until it ran out causing the lean damage.
 We went around the  pits and paid our bills for the weekend and returned what parts we could. Our friend and pit neighbor qualified his alky funny car and made it to the semi's. Qualifying paid $1700 so we really tried to make it but the owner needed to go home and save something to repair for another try before he is forced by expenses and lack of sponsors to sell the team.

[Don R]

Note the rockers are off the valves, not adjusted yet, they slide on the shaft.

[Jerry Rxman Griffin aka MuthaF'er]

Man, that looks like fun! Especially on someone else's buck 

[Don R]

Yep, I had the wallet on stand-by in case they decided to give it one more go. It's easy to get sucked in during the heat of racing. With mismatched heads, a little JB weld, copper gaskets and ti studs we could have put it together. With the field that was there we would have had to equal the cars best ever E.T. with less than the best parts. The owners decided to go home and heal the bank account, get the good bullet repaired and go another time. The bump ended up 5.42 seconds, we went 5.75 blown up and pulling the chutes the last 300 feet.
 Just to stay within the new rules thay had to get carbon/carbon brakes and a device that kills the ignition, and pulls the chutes if the burst panels blow out or when you pass the finish line. That would have been a budget buster for me without all the other costs.

[Sam Green Racing]

Sounds like an expensive weekend Don, at least, everybody is safe to run another day.

Sam.

[MidTNJasonF]

That sounds like a tough weekend of racing. I did some amateur drag racing back in my early years in college. It was easily the fastest and most effective way to burn through tons of dollar bills I have found to date. Even more efficient at burning money than marriage and that is saying something. I went amateur sports car racing after that and was able to get by with less than half the budget. If you road race a big heavy high horsepower car the tire bill can get steep but the lighter cars are easier on both parts and tires.

[tramp]

thats what racing is all about
sometimes your in the groove
sometimes your not
good luck next time

[Don R]

The way to make a small fortune racing- start with a large one.

[Stev-o]

Looks awesome!

Are you still racing the quarter mile or shortened like the NHRA?

[Don R]

We are still on the quarter mile but I expect sometime in the future everyone will be racing 1,000' even our single four barrel gas car goes 180mph in the 1320'. When I started  going to the drags in the early 60's blown AA fuel cars were turning times slower than my daughters car is now.

[Sam Green Racing]

When I started, bikes in the UK were still in the 10s and State side AA cars were clocking 200mph, how things have changed

Sam.