Topics

Amazing how streetable some of these race cars are.   

Anyone going to the GNRS this year?  My traveling buddy Odie and I are going to take a quick drive down for 3 days and then head home.  Might hit the Peterson while we are down there.  If anyone one is going possibly we can meet up somewhere over that time.

Doug

Does anyone know if the newer gm starters can be used on an older (1970s) 454.  It has 168 tooth flywheel and staggered bolts.  I was thinking one of the 8.2 starters might work.  Also, if it would work, what year should I tell the parts house guy?  I wasn't paying attention on the Olds when i fired it and the starter was stuck to the flywheel.  Looks like I toasted it while I was breaking in the cam.  Currently it is an old style gm starter.

Thanks
Doug

I ran into a problem on the Olds.  I have a fan controller that needs a speed sensor to tell it how fast the car is going so I can shut the pusher fan down a highway speeds.  I purchased a stand alone VSS, but don't know any way to wire it up without a computer.  Seems to need about 5 volts to trigger it.  Anyone out there have any ideas how to make this lash up work?  Painless said I am just probably out of luck and it is their equipment.

Thanks
Doug

I am headed down the wiring road for the Olds finally, pretty much have a good idea what I am planning on doing right there, but have battery questions.  I am thinking of running 2 batteries, one for most everything, and another for just the air ride.  I have 2 compressors for that, and my thought is if I get messing around at a show with the suspension, I don't want to kill the main battery, always want to be able to start.  I have been looking at the Odyssey batteries for the air, small with 200+ cranking amps with an isolator between it and the rest of the system.  Not sure on the other, Optima, or just a good AGM battery.  Any opinions on these out there?  Batteries will be mounted above the rear end behind the rear seat firewall inside the trunk.  
The air ride is RideTech Level Pro2, with the computer and height and pressure sensors.

Doug

I just got word that Bo Huff has passed away. Family was with him.

RIP Bo



Hooley just e-mailed this out a little while ago.

Just got this off of Salt Cat Racing's face book page. sure has been a WET year.

Speed Week at World Finals Update:

From your SCTA advance crew at 7:30 PM Sunday it's raining now. Speed Week at World Finals at the world famous Bonneville Salt Flats has been cancelled. The advance crew consisting of SCTA President Scott Andrews and Race Director Bill Lattin have reviewed the BSF race courses and determined that they are too wet to have any reasonable expectation of them being dry enough to provide a quality race course. We owe our competitors and fans the most accurate assessment and a real picture of the current and expected conditions. The SCTA wishes to thank all of our loyal racers, sponsors, volunteers, and wonderful fans for your undying support of the SCTA and the Bonneville Salt Flats. The entire SCTA and BNI Boards have worked tirelessly to give you the best Land Speed Racing experience and anything less than that is not acceptable to us. We look forward to being your racing choice next year, but for this year at Bonneville Mother Nature hold's the records. See you on the salt in 2015!

Anyone have experience with this.  My Olds is now ready to fill the brake system.  I have covered everything that is around any fittings with plastic to shield the paint, but still thinking about Dot 5. All the brake pieces are new and have never had brake fluid of any kind in them.  I know when it first was put out to the public, there were issues with soft pedals.  I plan to vacuum bleed it first, then I have one of those cheap pressure bleeders.  The kind made of a pressurized plastic canister with no bladder.  I know you don't want to keep brake fluid in them because of the water, but in either case it will be new fluid, and the remainder disposed of.  Mostly, just wondering what anyone's thoughts/experience with the Dot 5 is.

Thanks
Doug

Don't know if anyone has been keeping up with this, but Larson turned a 6.16 today in a truck that he drove almost 1200 miles this week.  He had problems on Thursday and only ran a 20 so did not win the week.  Lost an alternator belt and could not replace it.  Drove Thursday with a Honda generator in the back running a battery charger to get to the next stop.

Doug

Just got home a couple of minutes ago from Puyallup.  What a great show, over 2600 cars, and great weather starting Thursday afternoon.  We left Helena on Wednesday morning in the rain.  Stayed in Moses Lake that night, first time I have ever been cold in Moses Lake.  Headed the rest of the way on Thursday and was looking for the Ark when we went over Snoqualme pass.  Just a torrential downpour.  Great time the rest of the week.  

Doug

John,

I see over on the HAMB that FlatCad's 38 Chevy is for sale at or after Speedweeks, Do you know what is going on, like a new body or something, and if so, can you say anything about it?  Just curious

Doug

I have a chart that shows rear end widths, but does anyone know on the Ford 8.8 like in th Fox Body and later Mustangs?  Looking for the width wheel mounting to wheel mounting.  Just kind of curious right now.

Thanks
Doug

Has anyone seen the web page for the Grand National Show this year?  I was checking out when this years show is and there is an exhibit in building 9 for Bonneville.  The picture that talks about it is the 974.  Thought that was pretty neat.  Anybody going this year to check things out?

Doug



http://www.rodshows.com/gnrs/index.html

Townsend is a little town about 30 miles east of us here and for the last 15 years or so they have held a small rod run in conjunction with their fall festival.  Started out with about 10 cars, and has run just over a 100 cars the last few years.  This year for some reason it was really good.  The weather was nice and there were 230 car, not counting the block worth of Corvettes that were too cheap to pay the 15 bucks to enter.  60+ degree days with lots of sun.  Here is a link to the write up in our paper.

Doug


http://helenair.com/news/local/state-and-regional/classic-car-show-wraps-up-the-annual-townsend-rotary-fall/article_dc737382-2f19-11e3-8bd5-0019bb2963f4.html

I think both Heidts and Fat Man have narrow control arms for Camaro subs.  Anyone had any experience with using them, like how much narrower, and anyone else build them.  Might have a chance to pick up a rig that had the Camaro treatment and it is too wide, don't really want to cut the front end off and start over.  This would be a budget deal if it happens.

Doug

Phil,

I rode with my buddy this weekend up to a run in Great Falls in this Galaxie.  Thought you would like it, but not for sale, it is the only 63 he has.  His collection has at least one high horsepower Ford for every year from 59 though 73 or so.  Some of his friends are trying to talk him into putting his new 427 Cammer into this car, but I think he is going to use a wrecked notchback that he has.  When he was in high school he put a cammer in a notchback. This one was an original 4 speed 390 interceptor car that had the tri power added.  Just drives great with 118000 on the odometer.  Boy were these pictures hard to get down to 120k.  The story on the air cleaner is his dad borrowed the one off this car when his Tbird cleaner was getting polished.  His dad went through one of many divorces at that time and lost Buzz's air cleaner along with the Tbird to his ex.  Buzz kept the Tbird air cleaner when it came back from the polisher.

 Doug

One of my buddies in Canada sent this out to all of us in the hobby that he knows.  Pretty scarry article and a good read for all.

Doug

http://www.brewracingframes.com/id75.htm

I will be heading out to CA for some training and will be getting there noon time on Saturday.  Planning on going to the Grand National Roadster Show on Sunday, but was wondering if any one knows of anything fun going on in that area for the rest of the week?

Doug

My buddies from Livingston MT with the Straight 8 Buick set another record this morning.  Here is their post from Facebook.

Holy COW! Backed up the record - Yee Haw! Mile 2, 200.532 mph; 2 1/4, 223.158 mph; Mile 3, 229.512 mph; Mile 4, 239.840 mph; Mike 5, 242.179 mph; Exit Speed, 237.623 mph. New record will be 241+ mph. Really chunky out on the 6 mile where we picked Doug up! Headed to Impound for certification and to look things over! Maybe a class change if the winf dies down. It was 16+ mph when we ran.

I was told to drill the oil gallery plugs under the timing cover for my Big Block Chevy to .040 on each to help oil the timing chain.  Has anyone else ever done this?  I am taking off the gear drive that I put on that motor for a good timing chain.  I don't feel like listing to the whine on that car.  Now would be the time to replace the drilled out gallery plugs that I have now.  Just kind of wondering.

This is the 454 in my Olds, not the 502.

Doug

The Salt Cat guys from Livingston are in the books with the lakester at 216.9.  I think they are running in XXO\BFL with the 322 Buick 16 port straight 8.  Just saw the posting, but Frank did not say what class he was running.  The also are running tomorrow morning on the XXO/BGL, @ 204.481 record that they already have.

There is a nice picture of Norris' Studebaker pickup on the landracing forum, in the Bonneville 2012 section.

Doug

I lost a wheel bearing on the Impala this week and it scarred the spindle.  I am running the disk break setup off of a full sized 1969 Chevrolet wagon.  I know the 69-70 full sized chevrolet stuff is the same, but wondering what on the other GM lines will fit so I can check the yards to see what I can find.  Of course, when it let loose, I was 500 miles from home with no internet access, so that was quite the repair job.  

Doug

I now have the radiator in the Olds, and looks like I got things too close sometime during the changes.  Anyway, I have 15" diagonal from the left top corner to the top of the compressor pulley.  That pulley is 1 inch out from the radiator.  The alternator and the water pump pulleys have 2 inches from the radiator.  I can fit a 14" fan in the top left corner.  A 16" would be under the compressor pulley by about an inch, but I cannot find one thin enough on the end to fit.  The radiator core is 22" tall by 21" wide.

The radiator is one of US Radiator's super cooler with triple flow, and the say it will cool 800 hp, of which, I MIGHT be close to half of.  8.2 compression, mild cam 454, so should not build too much heat.  I am only worried about slow cruising.

Anyway, I am think about adding a pusher in the lower passenger side of the radiator, probably a 14" also, so that the entire front of the radiator is not blocked off with the fan.  I have had issues with pusher fans blocking enough air flow that the car overheats going down the freeway.  My Studebaker used to run 160 down the road, but hot in parades, and after I installed a big pusher, overheated on the highway, but was fine in town.  I finally built a shroud for it, and that cured the issue.  No room for a shoud on the olds.

Questions:

1. Do you think I need a pusher in addition to a 14" puller
2. Anyone know of a 16" high flow fan with the outside edge less than 1"
3. If I use a pusher, should I sandwitch it between the radiator and the condensor, or should I set the condensor 1/2" out from the radiator and then put the fan outside of that


Turbo 400 switch pitch trans, so I have a B&M super cooler trans cooler, that I plan to mount horizontally under the outside of the body.  Anyone see any issues with that, since turbo 400 don't build much heat.

The last picture is from Sunday, I got the compressors mounted under the rear of the fenders and then got the fenders mounted.

Thanks
Doug

I know pretty much zip obout Ford tranny's.  I am going to put a 302 in my Vicky, and was wondering if there is an overdrive automatic that fits that motor without any electronics.  Just want to bolt it on and go.  I am not in any hurry, just gathering parts right now.

Thanks
Doug

I finished up jambing the Olds on Saturday.  Here are some pics for you all.  I can't wait to get the parts down from the ceiling and bolted on the car.  I pulled the new radiator out of storage tonight to start installing it.

Doug

I saw out on Frank's face book page that they took the Salt Cat Lakester to a 204 record on an old 176 record.  These are the guys that run a straight 8 Buick in a Jag.  Frank has bored 8 new intake ports between the exhaust manifold and the valve covers.  He has had a few issues with the tech guys, but they finally set him in xxo.  I am sure they are dancing all over the salt right now.

Doug

A buddy of mine, has a 75 pinto with a 302 and we were wondering if anyone knows of an axle swap or rear end swap that will give him a 5 lug Ford bolt pattern?  This is an old build that has been around town for years that he ended up with.

Doug

Frank was over this weekend for our rod run and brought his Buick.   In case no one has seen this ride it is quite a unit.   It is the forunner of the motor in his Salt Cat Jag that has gone 196 on the salt.  He had the frame and motor on display at a run before he finished and one 5 awards on the frame only.  When he did the body, he cut the floor pan out of a Jag sedan and welded it in. Then, all the Jag upholster and seats, etc bolted right in.  He was talking about his new Lakester that he will have the 16 port Buick in, probably for the world finals.  If you Goggle 'Salt Cat Racing" it will bring up his facebook page with picture of the Lakester.  Sure is an interesting guy,  I have talked to him before, but we were parked next to each other and I just listened a lot.  He is bringing the Jag down for Speedweeks.  If anyone is going down this year, be sure and talk to him.  Just don't get him going on the X/O  XX/O issues, he won't stop for a LONG time, and I don't blame him.

Doug


ps, I have some higher resolution versions of those pictures if anyone wants them.

This occured last summer at the airport drags.  This guy is pretty "out to lunch" when he does not get his way.  The lights were not working correctly, so they went to an arm drop start and he just could not figure it out.  After the video cuts out, he spun a half a cookie, narrowly missing a golf cart with a friend and her granddaughter.  He then blew down between the cars in line to the middle of the pits.  A mob headed after him and that is what one of the comments is about.    That black 55 is for sale on Hot Rod Hotline.  The races are coming up in a week and he is not invited.

If the link does not work, look up drag race fail on youtube

Doug

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Zrk1iXeSnc&feature=youtube_gdata_player

I was watching a program from a couple of years ago on History called "The States".  The state I was watching was Utah, and the end of the segment was on the Salt Flats.  The last car they showed going down the course was about a 1 second shot of a certain Orange Studebaker.  Hooley, you wer on TV.

Doug

A friend of mine sent me this link to the Drag Week final runs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwF-kr91uxU

I have been looking for a vintage Sun machine for the last 10 or 15 years.  I had a SUN TUT 1015 when I had my shop in the 70's and that is what I was looking for.  A few months ago, I was on my way home and drove by the equipment auction that happens every quarter, and noticed a flash of Blue.  I stopped by and there was a SUN TUT 1115, which was the next up machine from what I wanted.  I talked to a buddy that goes to that auction and asked him to try to pick it up for me.  I gave him a max of $50 since it had some cables cut and was not sure it it worked at all.  He picked it up, but won't tell me what he paid (guessing about $10). Anyway, he delivered it Thursday night.  I managed to pick up a set of cables on e-bay, so today replaced them.  Everything lights up and looks good, but I was working on the Olds, so did not want to spend much time on it.

A while back (2 years or so) I was talking about my buddies Deuce with the 6x2 EFI setup and someone said that they were running that setup and could help with getting it going.  Had a name or how to do it or some such.  As usual, I cannot remember who, and could not find it with the search.  Does this ring a bell, Steve finally has the car running, but it is sure not correct.  You can gas it when it sits there, but as soon as he tries to drive it it dies when he hits the gas.  Any help would be appreciated.  I contacted Retrotec, but their system is different than the Moon system, so were no help.

Doug

I posted some pictures of Steve's Deuce before.  Has an original LT1 with a set of retrotek 6 two stromberg efi on it.  He has been working on this for quite a while and our friends from Canada were coming down yesterday to help fire it up.  He call them on Friday night and said he was trying the ignition to make sure it was correct and would turn over and it just fired.  Needs to spend a bunch more time getting the efi correct, but it moved under it's own power.  Planning on sending it over to Hayden Lake ID to get exhaust built.  They are the nearest place that does mandrel bends to us.  I was there yesterday and it sure does sound good,  the headers are just open.

Doug

My friend has a set of curved glass "Wings" electric Stewart Warner gauges in his Deuce.  He managed to lose the sender for the water temp.  Does anyone know what senders will interchange, or where to get an original one?

Thanks
Doug

Tomorrow is our annual garage tour.  We are starting with my friends Fords collection, that Jack saw when he was here.  Buzz has 39 Fords from 1960 on, all muscle motors for the time.  My Olds is going to be on, and here are a couple of pictures from today.  This is the first time I have had the wheels on and I do like them.  The color will be Emerald Green.  Still working on the the Air Ride level pro system.  I need to get it back on the hoist so I can work on the sensors under the car.  This will be the ride height that I am working with.  Remeber this Olds makes the "Big Olds" look the size of a VW.

Doug

Interesting ride in my buddy's shop last week.  Possible Bonneville run some day, that is why the reenforcing and retaining loops.

Doug

For those of you who keep up with Sum now and then, he has posted a bunch of pictures on his web site of the body he is building for his lakester.

Doug
http://purplesagetradingpost.com/sumner/bvillecar/bvillecarindexpage.html

Just got my Journey with Old magazine and Denise is on the cover with the "big Olds".  However she is playing second fiddle to her dad's beautiful Olds.

Nice Job Denise.

Doug

I have a friend that is looking for a long shaft ball mount for a Lokar throttle cable.  I looked in McMaster-Carr and don't find anything.  I think he is looking for a 10x32 thread ball end that has about an inch of thread.  He has one of those retro tech 6 deuce EFI units and wants to connect to the front left carb.  We can build a bracket, but a longer ball mount would be cleaner.  Any ideas would be appreciated.

Doug

I had a call from the guy that owns this truck and he is talking a trade on my Vicky project.  He lives north of St Louis and I was wondering if anyone has seen his truck.  Looks good in the pictures, but I would like to know how it really looks before I go too far into this.

Doug

ps.  I hope this does not post twice, I got an error when I did it the first time.

One of the young guns here won a full ride to WyoTech a year ago.  He graduated from there last Friday.  He called me about a week before that and the shop foreman from SAR stopped by WyoTech and checked him out.  They are impressed with what they saw and invited him out to the shop to see if things would work out for him there.  I am taking him over next week.  Get there Sunday, and head home on Tuesday.  If anyone out there is going to be around let me know and possibly we can get together.  We will be staying in Gresham.

Doug

I searched and found some old discount links, but nothing current.  Anyone have a link to discounts for Harbor Freight?  I am headed to Billings this weekend (the nearest store to me) and need to pick up a few things, including a new blast cabinet.

Doug

Monday afternoon I noticed several hot rods that I had never seen running through Helena, and wondered where they were on the way to.  Later that evening I was helping a friend on his rig, and got a call to come up to one of the local hotels.  I got there and there were 78 cars from Idaho.  Seems this bunch of really nice people go every summer for a 7 day 6 night cruise somewhere.  This years runs left Nampa Idaho on Fathers day and was headed up to Glacier park.  Several of our people were there and then we set up a drive through the Mansion district of Helena and then over to the Capital.  We figured that probably 15 or 20 would go.  We ended up with over 60 cars traveling through Helena.  I know I sure enjoyed the time and the residents sure seemed to enjoy the impromptu parade through their neighborhoods.  The Idaho people also had much fun.  I am jealous of what they do every year.  That is what rodding should be about.  They don't travel in one large group, but leave in small bunches and they have made plans for stops at scenic points, resterants, side tours and the like.  They meet at specified hotels at the end of the day.  There were 5 guys that started this a few years ago, and one of them died 2 years ago.  The remaining 4 guys do all the planning, including making the hotel reservations starting in early fall.  They apparently even drive the route 2 or 3 times in the year before they leave to make sure it will work for everyone.  Mostly drive on secondary roads.

Here is a link to pictures of some of the cars that were here

Doug



http://picasaweb.google.com/orogard/CruiseIdaho2008HelenaMontana618708

I came home from work today and found my garage door up about 2 feet and the handle on the entry door bent out of shape.  Luckly it does not seem like any thing is missing.  It looks like they took a couple of runs at the entry door, there are at least 2 set of pry marks.  I think I am going back out there and put an L shaped piece on the door that wraps around the door jam so they cannot bend the door out of the jam.  I had a bunch of stuff against the garage door and when they opened it, it jammed.  When it jams the lights start flashing and I think that scarred them away.  I changed the locks tonight and will be putting in a dead bolt this weekend.  I got a set of motion dection light for the outside (like they would have done any good in the middle of the day when it appears this happened).  Probably going to look into some kind of alarm.  Does anyone have the link to the discussion of better hardware for the doors we had a while back, when the last robbery occured?

Doug

Here is a link to our rod run this year.  The first pictures that are dry are from the Friday night get together. The rest are Saturday.  We do a parade through downtown Helena and those are the last pictures.

Doug


http://picasaweb.google.com/51fordguy/08IceBreakerCarShow

I am not there yet, but when I get the radiator for the Olds, it will probably be aluminum, but I don't like the color, radiators should be black.  Has anyone painted one, and if so, what are the issues.  We might have discussed this before, I was always going to ask, but I do suffer from terminal CRS.

Doug

Here is a link to our club's page, just click on Icebreaker Pictures.  The twin turbocharged 55 Chevy in the last picture or so, drove over and back from Butte in the pouring rain.  He drives it!

Doug


http://theicebreaker.us/

Just came home and there was the new Rod and Custom sitting on the table.  Did a quick read through in the reading room and congradulations to Denise and Charlie.  Might have missed some others, since it was just a quick glance.  Sure nice article on Charlie's RPU.

Doug

Here are the pictures I took of Dennis' C-Cab.  It's been around for 35-40 years and he runs the wheels off of it.  I got 3 of them to post, one just will not post.  It is a 3/4 front view.  Just some ideas for Vance.

Doug