Well the norm has been reports of better times lately when I returned from the track- which this weekend at the track also started out with; but unfortunately it ended less with some carnage....

I tweaked the suspension a little more, hoping to beat my previous best 1.37 60' time, which would be needed to run into the 9s. And also added some 28" ultra-lightweight M/T Front runners.

Here is the report.

Got to the track to find some exceptional air - ~200 ft DA.

I went out for my first run, track completely bare, no prep at all. T&T day. Did my burnout, and did 2 dry-hops. On both of them to my surprise the front came well off the ground. I staged and launched the car. The car launched like a friggin missle, all I saw was sky and the track was blocked with my hood. I thought HOLY crap - that was some major air, but I could still feel the car spin some. The front came down just before the 60' mark, REAL close to the 60' timers towards the outside of the track near the line. I got it back in the middle of the track and completed out the run. It went 10.22@135MPH! On a poor, even despite the air, 1.48 60' time. The MPH was my new best - had the 60' time been there - the run might have been a 9sec pass.

I came back to the pits and dad went out. He ran a 10.0X@139mph lots of spin off the line, and some tire hop.

After he came back we adjusted his suspension in the rear to take out the wheel hop and I went back out. This run again the dry hops dad said pulled the wheels off the ground a good 8-12". I launched the car and it felt incredible, smooth as silk and again MAJOR airtime. Thought to myself this is it baby - easy 10.0s or 9s, but right at about the 1000 ft mark it felt like the car wasn't going as quick as it should or usually feels. Got the slip and it went a 1.37 60' time and 10.15@131MPH. The 131MPH was what caught my eye - last run was 135 and usually the car will run within .5mph ever run within a given day. That did not make any sense.

After dad went out again I decided to make another run after the car was cooled down. When I first broke the tires loose on the burnout, I felt a very slight hesitation, then it was fine. Did my dry-hops and all felt normal. Staged the car and launched. Again major airtime (wish I would have had the video camera - fogot it on the kitchen counter. Dad said my wheels were at LEAST 2-2.5ft off the ground. The run felt nearly perfect all the way out, until about the 1000ft mark when all of a sudden it felt like someone turned the "power-****" down on the motor. I immediately lifted and glanced at the oil pressure while reaching for the key to kill the power. My oil pressure was at 65psi (normal) and my new oil pressure warning light was off. I coasted the remainder of the track, and did not see anything behind me in the way of smoke or anything, and thought perhaps I was low on gas or a plug wire came loose.

I got off the track at the last turnoff and pulled off. Got out and got down to look under the car. No oil - good sign. Went out and looked everything over - and everything appeared to be ok. So after pondering a little bit - I went back in and started the car. It fired up with a 1/2 rotation, but the motor shook. The oil pressure again shot right up to 60psi, but i killed it right away. Leaning towards the thought that I lost a plug wire or one burned through or something I went out again to check them. Went around all the wires down at the plugs and they all looked/felt good. I then went up to the distributer and started pressing down on the wires there to see if one popped up off. After checking few I noticed the distributer turned a little while pressing down on the one wire. WTF??? It was loose as a goose! Awe-man - that must be it. Thought boy I thought something MAJOR went.

By then a track guy was there with a 4 wheeler and we pulled the car back down into the pits. There I popped off the distributer cap to phase the rotor to the cap, since I run a crank trigger, my ingition is trigger with the signal from the crank trigger and my distributer cap is merely for the delivery of the spark, so it turning really does nothing to my timing, just how strong or weak the spark it or worse, which had me worried is what post the spark goes to (pre-ignition 100 times worse than knock). When I pulled off the cap, to my utter amazement I found the rotor lost the S-Shaped metal piece and all I had was the piece of spring steel that the caps button sets against. I thought WTF - how did this thing even run? But again I thought, well that is why the power dropped off - lets run and get another rotor at the local autoparts store. Got a new one for 6 dollars. While installing it we discussed how stupid and rinky-dink the design of these things are. I never really took the time to look at them, but take a look here and I will describe what you see.



The piece of spring steel is what the button in your cap sets again and as you make your way out the steel you will see a black square piece of plastic. This is exactly what it is. That piece of black plastic is glued to two small 1/16" wide ribs and it holds the S-shaped piece and the springsteel together. Without it, the S-shaped piece that really comes closest to the postes and makes sure the spark does to the correct post will fall right out.

After we got the new rotor back on, and got it all phased - I went in to fire up the car. The motor fired right up, but again shook - so I killed the key. I went out and double checked the wires - which were all right. I went back into start it again and the starter would just click. When it rains it pours. I tried to turn the motor over with a power bar and it was solid. This is NOT good I said to dad.

I went around starting with #1 adn pulled the plugs out, which all had a nice light tan look to them. Got over to #2 hole and I pulled off the boot to find the porcelin on the outside of the plug where the wire presses on, completely shattered. I looked at dad and said: Well - she definately pre-ignited- and this is NOT going to be good. I started to pull the plug out, which I figured was going to be mangled up on the cylinder side, but it came right out and at first glance looked ok. But upon a little closer inspection - the inside porcalin was also shatter and some missing. Told Dad that at a minimum I probably mashed the bearing in that connecting rod, but may have broken the crank or bent the rod.

I pulled the car up onto the trailer and crawled underneath. The pan looked ok at first, until I noted a very small BB lookin dent from the inside out up at the very front. I had a screwdriver with my and I turned it around and banged on the pan with the handle. A sound that is NOT good reported back to me. Sounds of metal jumping around in the pan confirmed what I suspected may have happened.

After talking about how unbeleivable it was for a 6 dollars stupid rotor falling apart could cause such a HUGE mess - Dad said he was going to make me feel better by taking his car out and smoking off a 9sec pass with his chevelle. He went out cranked off his first ever 9sec pass at 9.98@141MPH pass. I was super proud for him and we put a LOT of time in the past few weeks to achieve that goal for him. It made me realize how awesome this sport can me. While there are times like I just experieced that are not real pleasant - they can easily be forgotten when hard work pays off with a good run.

We loaded up the cars and headed for home. We spent the evening pulling the pan off the car. No small task with this milodon pan with a kickout. Never is that pan going back on. Upon pulling the pan off, the picture was not pretty. #2 definately pre-ignited and most likely took the rod bearing out and ultimately caused the rod cap to fail. The connecting rod was completely mangled and stuck between the cam and crank. It looked like a bomb went off with metal sticking out of the bottom of #1 & #2 pistons. The block *looks* like its ok. Just a little boogered up on the bottom of 1&2 cylinders, but not up in more than .25 inches. There are some small nicks out of those two cylinder walls, worse in #2. Worse case - "hopefully" it will need to be sleeved.

So there you have it. One second running like a perfectly fine tuned machine - the next; taken out by a 6 dollar rotor failure.

But at the end of the day if your going to do this stuff as much as we do weekend after weekend - you can almost expect something catastrofic to happen from time to time. That is something that you almost have to accept the fact of. You could build a motor with the utmost care, and best of everything and something simple like in my case like a rotor that you would not even look at twice when putting on could take out the entire motor in a blink of an eye. That is RACING and high performance equipment.

I am actually aside of having to spend more money - looking forward to having a winter project now. Just hope the block is ok. That could put a wet blanket on the mood - but crap happens and my little helper here told me that he will help me out and make it quicker than ever.

 

Jesse, sorry to hear about the carnage. Glad to hear dad finally hit the 9's. How low are the scratches?. If they are below the rings at the bottom of the piston travel, that would eliminate concern. That would be too easy or lucky though. We both know that winters here are long. I am sure you will sort it out

 

I have enjoyed following your posts regarding your racing season this one sucks. Good for your pops though.

 

Jess......after we spoke, the more i thought about it, the more i think the rotor and loose distributor were symptoms of the rod hitting the cam and that your prior oiling problems were more likely what started the whole mess. You should know more as you tear it apart. No matter the cause, you got a busted engine and i hope you can savage most of it.

 

Thats a well written tech report. Maybe a little extra glue on the black plastic rotor part would prevent that from happening again. Let us know what else you find in the motor.

 

Sorry to hear man, that was an awesome mill.

I'm not sure what other issues ralph was talking about, but a few months ago my rotor shattered inside the cap. I replaced it and it still ran like crap. I pulled the distributor and found that my gear was very worn and the vibration and snapping back and forth as I was on and off the throttle, must have caused it to come loose. At that point it's like being in a blender. If your distributor was loose (not sure what ralph means exactly though) that could very well vibrate the rotor to pieces.

It'll be interesting to see what you find....and build in its place.

PS. If you're thinking Aluminum block... I've been waiting since mid-July for a Motown Lite and they can't give me a date.

 

That sux....I hope the block, heads are salvagable..How is the crank look? Sorry to hear about that....I'm sure it will be bigger and badder next time around

 

that sucks man , i saw corkvette1 this weekend and he told me all about it ..

 

Ralph...not real sure, but the spark plug being just about stripped of the porcalin is a sure sign of pre-ignition - which I know will destroy a motor in no time. MUCH MUCH MUCH worse than any knock/detonation problems one might have. Most motors if built with good components can take pretty much knock, but pre-ignition will take one down instantly.

When the rotor left loose, that allowed the spark to jum[ to whatever post it wanted to, and apparently the timing was just right on #2 that the piston was trying to come up to TDC, and had to try to overcome the pre-ignition that created an explosion in its path - and ultimately the destruction.

My oil pressure was fine through the entire run, even after when it was started 3 times. I suspect that perhaps some damage was done to the rod, and it was still on there, and when I started it the last time it left loose and that is when it got caught.

Going to take it completely down ASAP. Probably this coming weekend. Time will tell.

 

Ski,
Sorry to hear about your carnage, dude... Your report was well written, and how you handled the whole situation trackside was commendable (likely saving a bunch more parts).

If it makes you feel any better, I can tell you the story of my experience with my Chevelle at Super Chevy back in '91. I was killing the 'tree and knocking guys off one by one until the quarterfinals when my engine shut off for no apparent reason, ending my night. After I coasted off the track, I attempted to restart the engine (which it did), but my oil pressure warning light was on so I shut it off and got towed back to my trailer. I loaded up, collected my winnings (a whole $100!) and started home. I was about 125 miles from home when going up a flyover, the engine in my Suburban started making noise. In a space of about 10 seconds, the noise went from a light ticking to fullblown hammering and then a loud "WHAM!" and shut off... (uh oh!)

I ended up having to be towed the rest of the way home ($350..ouch!). Turns out that the oil pump pickup fell off the Chevelle's engine, smoking the crank and 5 rods in the process. The Suburban's crank broke right behind the #2 main cap, but didn't hurt anything else (go figure). That weekend ended up costing me about $3500 or so (in '91 dollars), but hey... I DID win $100! The moral here is you will bounce back, even if you find more wrong than originally thought.

 

Jesse,

I heard about your woes from Todd(Beaver Springs photog) yesterday at 75-80. He was down there for the last drag race and somehow we got to talking about racers at BS and I mentioned you. Sorry to hear about it, glad we didn't put your engine in my car .

Congrats to your Dad quite an accomplishment!

At 75-80 so many people showed up for the last race(track is closing down forever ) they had to start turning cars away from the pits at 10AM! Lots of the old racers from the last 45 years returned, hundreds great street cars and more race cars than I've ever seen there. Over 120 cars in footbrake, I got down to the final 3 cars, then had the engine stumble off the hit(too cold) and lost even tho running 9.98 on a 9.98. Phototogs got some great shots riding the new wheelie bars out 80-100', hit 1.304 60' on the back tires !

I'll give you a call this week,
Dave

 

that's a bummer.


This could be the time to make it a 13-1 motor. I remember you thinking about that one time ? 9.70 would be easy then. It will still be streetable, just on race gas.

 

Were do you run at?

I'm wondering if you make it to the Maple Grove drags at all?

 

Sorry to hear about the bit of trouble there Jesse. Hopefully there's not too much damage done; especially that new after-market block. Hope luck is with you.

 

Hey Jesse,

I still feel your pain man, on the LAST run of the season many, many years ago, I had a rod let go in my BB427 '66 Chevelle. I was in the dumps for weeks until my wife gave me a box full of bucks at Christmas she had saved up, greatest X-wife anyone could have.

When you get it all apart and the tears are dried up give us an update & some pics

Hang in there,
Dave

 

"green car in the left lane, green car in the left lane, you're not riding on your wheelie bars YET, please push down the pedal harder"

Holy schit what a new sig pic!!! "GOT HOOK?"

 

Man I was waiting for that post of you finnally hitting the nine's. It's been great reading all of your post this year. I also had my rotor fail this year while racing, motor just died half way down the track. When to local parts store bought a new cap and rotor put it on, then raced the rest of the day. Keep us all informed of how your going to improve this beast because if your like me you CANNOT just fix whats broken after all the work its going to take to pull the motor and put it back in.

P.S unless thats all your wife lets you do.

 

Thanks guys for the thoughts.

Dave, not really even upset about the problems....don't get me wrong, wish it wouldn't have happen, but its part of the game we all play. To play, and play as hard as we do, weekend after weekend and think that something eventually is not going to happen - one would be dillusional.

I had a great season and the car did exactly what I expected and set out to do. All goals achieved.

Already looking forward to next year....now I have something new to be excited about. The car is working very well with the way I have everything setup and I am seriously leaning towards just putting it back exactly as it was. If I go any quicker I need to do a cage, then the rear will be further than it already is being pushed....and if I go wilder - then it will be FULL Blown...but I doubt that will be the case.

Stay tuned....I will be pulling it apart this weekend.