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Thanks man! It's a little intimidating to have all the parts laying there but I think it's best to do it all at once.
Side note for any oval track fans... This is the hot rod I will be wheeling this weekend at Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park in CT. If anyone is around and want's to see some great action come on down! I'll be racing the car in the Limited Sportsman Division in place of the regular driver. It will be a bit like putting on an old pair of shoes for me as I built this car and won a couple races in it.
Basically... 81 car in front of me lost his coolant overflow tank. Somehow it came loose and fell out. The yellow 02 car hit it, it exploded all over the track and my car. I put my hand up to signal the 47 behind me that there was an issue only to immediately realize he was to my left hence the lazy wave. I backed off early going in in an attempt to be a little cautious in case there was more fluid being dropped. The 47 either could not stop or got in too hot and just punted me (completely unintentionally) when that happened the car went into a slide. I almost had it saved but the rubber laid down by the division that raced before us was very slick and as soon as my front tires left that groove of rubber, the car hooked and went in head on. Hindsight is always 20/20 in one of these situations. Had I not tried to correct it, and just spun it, I may have gotten melee'd in the drivers door or driven over the top of by another car as we had just had a restart. I probably did over correct a tad, but I have had this car far more sideways than this and saved it. Sometimes you're the windshield, sometimes you're the bug. This time, I was the bug unfortunately.
AND NOW BACK TO YOUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED SLOWPOKEC5 BUILD
Last edited by slow_pokeC5; 04-10-2018 at 09:04 AM.
I call it coolant overflow out of habit. We all pretty much usually use distilled water and water wetter. This weekend it was in the 20s at night though, so many of us did have a little antifreeze in the cars as they mostly sat out or in trailers overnight Sat into Sun.
Well, Jared at Murica Performance got the trans apart and sent me over some pictures. For 143k miles, he said this thing looks extremely good and there was no evidence of abuse and constant power-shifting. That's definitely a piece of news I loved hearing. The Diff is ready to go, just needs to assemble the transmission, bolt it all together, and paint it up "MURICA" Style!
Awesome work so far! Sorry about the race car though.. my wife loves the color of it btw.
Thanks man!
That's racing unfortunately. Sometimes that happens, especially in circle track. We race so tight together the slightest mistake can have big consequences. I've been lucky to avoid it over the past 3 seasons, it was just my time I guess. It really isn't too bad. The front clip is junk so I need to cut it off and re build the whole front frame but other than that it's just a Radiator, Fan, Upper Control Arm, Both Balljoints, Tie Rod, Wheel, Tire, Bumper Cover and Fender. Really only about $1500 in repairs. Could easily be much worse. When you hit at that track, you hit hard. I went in head on at almost 90.
Last edited by slow_pokeC5; 04-16-2018 at 05:32 PM.
Better the car take the damage than you and $1500 isn't too bad. I was thinking it would be a bit worse than that.
Yeah, it's just a LOT of work. Entire driveline has to come out and the entire front frame section cut off and replaced. These cars are generally pretty resilient. That's why I love racing them. Been racing them for 3 years and this is the first bad one. I'll take it lol
Managed to get some time tonight and work on the Z. I took the torque tube apart and to my surprise things looked almost brand new in there. I am unsure if it has ever been rebuilt so despite the great condition of the couplers and bearings, I will be rebuilding it anyway just for piece of mind. I did manage to press all the bearings off and install the new ones along with new couplers but did not reassemble fully tonight as I am painting the torque tube black to clean it up along with the rest of the work I have done under the car.
I also installed the new Racetronix Fuel Pump setup. Super straight forward install. Should be plenty for me for the time being. If I do eventually go Procharger I will go a much different route as I would like to convert the car to e85 at that point
here are a couple pictures from the night. Nothing spectacular. More soon!
Got a little more done last night. Cleaned up and painted the torque tube and suspension pieces as well as the rear crossmember. Also test fit the headers but not going to install them fully until the driveline is in and the new motor mounts are installed.
Going to finish wiring up the new fuel pump this weekend and install the new suspension bushings into the control arms and begin to assemble the front suspension again. From there it's a waiting game for the transmission to return.
Already prepping it to go in. Have a couple custom pieces I am making for bracing. I went with the HINSON diff mount because I believe the Hoosier and PFADT mounts are way overpriced for what they really are and I can see potential for them to actually hurt the differential under the right circumstances.
I will be building and installing those pieces this coming weekend so if you want to see what I am talking about, check back.
Did a little tooling around forming some ideas today in my shop. The plan was to brace the diff however my concern with my current path is making it too rigid. I made a test piece using some stuff I had laying around with the intention of using a different rod end for the finished piece however I was unable to find a company who makes a 3/8 urethane rod end, so I have changed my course a little.
The goal is not to make everything completely rigid but to dampen driveline shock and work in conjunction with the Hinson Poly Diff Mount I am using.
My readjusted course plan will take a new piece of this 1/2" tubing bent at a 70° angle with the solid rod ends on either end bolted to the right (passenger) side of the differential only. This should allow some movement still but with the bend in the steel act as a spring of sorts and limit and dampen the movement.
I will post some additional photos later possibly Sunday. Saturday will be a big day as the entire driveline is going back together. From there it's going to be pretty simple and quick. Depending on how easily I can get the driveline in the car, she may finally breathe fire again this weekend.
04-05-2018, 05:41 PM
