2010 Front Engine Dragster Week 2013 01 20

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I have  reworked this page. This page now shows two weekend Car Nut Meetings. I have broken the progress up into tasks that were worked on.

There were two official meetings and one unofficial meeting in this time span and there were three members that showed up Bob Way, Tom Deyle, and Bill Cleary.

First Task up for discussion is the fuel system.

Ray finished the machine work on the remote mount bracket for the pump and we were able to clamp it in place, fit the belt and get the correct length on the rest of the lines.  

Fuel supply and returns are complete and have been sent out to Spud  http://fuelinjectionent.com/  to be flowed and a base line tune up supplied.

Fuel_1193_small  Here you see the big empty spot where the pump needs to go
Here is the remote mount for the pump bolted to the bracket Ray finished up that will allow us to bolt the pump to the left front engine plate (here it is clamped in place for mock up).
Fuel_1195_small   Fuel_1196_small

Last Saturday we finished the plumbing on the “K” valve, but had no lines to run to the pump and the pump had no mount so the length of the lines could not be determined.

The feed and return lines to and from the “K” valve have been fabricated and put in place.

This dragster still amazes me. You can see everything but can not get your hands on anything. What you see here is the feed and return lines from the pump, and the fuel shut off valve all visible but crammed in-between the front engine plate and the front of the engine. It does fit.
Fuel_1199_small   Fuel_1203_small
 Fuel_1204_small Bob beside the complete fuel system removed from the dragster and now ready to be shipped out to be flowed and a base line tune up provided

If you are a follower of this build you will notice that the restraint system and blower bag are now in place, The bag needs to go back as it does not fit well around the throttle cable bracket on the right front of the blower.

So let’s talk about the bag next.
Bag_1185_small  Here is the bag installed as it came out of the box
As you can see from these shots the bag does not fit well around the throttle cable bracket which is mounted to the right front of the blower.
Bag_1189_small   Bag_1221_small
Bag_1220_small  This problem cause the bag to be pulled around the blower so that the straps do not fit well and in fact are pulled out of alignment (not straight up and down). I am referring to the black strap which holds the bag to the top plate, the silver straps hold the restraint plate and they are not fastened in this picture (see below for that install).
 Bag_1226_small We marked up the front flap for the modifications needed to make the bag fit better, It has been sent back to DJ Safety and through discussions with  Joe Hansen (the owner) the modifications will be free and will get done. These modifications will allow the bag to come around the frond and sit down a little bit. This is good as NHRA wants 70% of the front of the blower covered.
Bag_1227_small   Bag_1228_small

Ok the bag has been taken care of now the plate restraint straps need to have a place to be fastened to. The logical place is the header bolts, but the straps did not line up with any of them. The Weed Burner exhaust was welded to gather by Roo Man and the header flange is made out of 3/8 inch stainless steel. So.. Bob removed the headers and drilled the header flange to through bolt the restraint brackets.
Blower_Restraint_1231_small   Blower_Restraint_1277_small
Blower_Restraint_1255_small  The brackets were not drilled so we did that also and put a slight bend in them so that they were not sticking way out from the dragster.
Blower_Restraint_1284_small   Blower_Restraint_1285_small
Blower_Restraint_1288_small  The end result make access to the plugs easy and should hold the blower in place should we have a problem. This is actually a five strap system, the back strap will be addressed once the bag is back from DJ Safety.

Next task up was fairly straight forward for once. Bob marked and cut the gaskets that go between the intake and the spacer and the spacer and the blower. The gasket between the blower and the Fuel Injection Hat will be cut when the hat comes back from Spud Miller
Gasket_1239_small   Gasket_1264_small
Gasket_1265_small   Gasket_1267_small
Gasket_1269_small   

This next task has been hanging around for a while. Aftermarket parts just do not fit and they always have to be played with. Here we have two aftermarket parts that do not fit well together, on top of the fact that the deck was milled to get higher compression. The end result is the blower intake does not sit on the heads because it is hitting/sitting up on the valley pan.
Intake_Manifold_1259_small   Intake_Manifold_1261_small

The first job was accomplished by Tom and Bob and was to remove everything , scrape the remains of the old gaskets from the heads and remove that valley pan. Then the head runners were stuffed with paper towel and the valley was filled with paper towel to keep the junk out of the engine and heads.
Gasket_1244_small   Intake_Manifold_1963_small

Last time around there was enough meat on the bottom of the intake to just grind the bottom of the intake to get the manifold to sit down flat on the heads, this time we were afraid to do that so we ended up taking a little bit off the intake and grinding the valley pan lip at an angle to get it to fit. Bill was on hand with the many test fits to get this to work.
 Intake_Manifold_1968_small  Intake_Manifold_1969_small
Intake_Manifold_1970_small  At Bill’s suggestion, and because the supply sargent had not thought to have indicator on hand, grease was used to determine what areas needed to be ground to get the intake to fit.
Intake_Manifold_1975_small  Once everything was fitting nicely a bead of RTV was laid down and the valley pan was dropped in place. The valley pan was twicked to get it to fit correctly in the valley of the engine.The fat guy made a appearance.

Tom and Bill cleaned up all the excess RTV that the fat guy put down and now the heads, valley pan, and intake are all happy and fit together nicely.
 Intake_Manifold_1979_small  Intake_Manifold_1991_small

Another ask that has been hanging out is how the coolant will get out of the intake and back to the radiator. One of the problems solved by the spacer was being able to leave the water jacket on the front of the intake. I had originally thought that we would have to make a special block to go on the front of the intake, but again at Bill’s suggestion we tried the outlet supplied by BDS and low and behold it looks like it will work! Well it will work with a little modification to the timing chain cover so thet the lower bolt on the water outlet will clear the cover.
Water_Outlet_0986_small   Water_Outlet_0988_small
Water_Outlet_0990_small  So now we have a water outlet on the intake. The outlet will have to be bolted to the intake before the intake is put in place because we will never be able to put the lower bolt in once the intake is in place. Bill suggested that we do some additional grinding so that a round ended Allen wrench can reach the lower bolt in case it needs to be tightened. I inically said no need but after thinking about it we when ahead an did it.
Water_Outlet_0995_small   Water_Outlet_0996_small
Water_Outlet_0997_small   Water_Outlet_0999_small

So the thinking now is we will tap the inside of the outlet, thread in an AN male fitting and then run a 16 AN hose from that fitting to the radiator inlet.

That leaves a couple of small tasks left to talk about. Tom took up the first one of those and remover the Burn Down tube fittings from the old valve covers and got ready to install them on the new covers.
New_Valve_Cover_Burn_Down_1233_small   New_Valve_Cover_Burn_Down_1251_small

The fittings were moved as far forward on the valve covers so that the blower restraint straps would lay flat across the valve covers.
New_Valve_Cover_Burn_Down_1274_small   New_Valve_Cover_Burn_Down_1280_small
New_Valve_Cover_Burn_Down_1283_small  Cross another task to do off the list.
 Old_Fuel_Line_1273_small Bob removed the old fuel line to make room for the new ones. It had to be cut out of the frame in two pieces to get it out.

Finally the old seat belts had to be removed as they have to be recertified every two years. It has been decided to purchase new ones and keep the old ones for the mock up in the 49 gasser.
 Seat_Belts_1237_small  Seat_Belts_1241_small