Well, alot has happened over the past few days....
On Friday morning I headed down to mom & dad's to work on the Hot Rod. Tiffany and Brittany (The Slicks) and I got down there around 9:00 and unloaded the car and started tearing into it.
We completely disassembled the fuel system from the tank to the barrel valve.
I took the pump up to the shop and did a bench test on it to see if it would pump. It would, but it wouldn't build any pressure. I (prematurely) concluded that the pump had something wrong with it. After talking with Dave K and Dan R it seemed that the pump "might" have something wrong with it. I left it in the shop while I went back the car to deal with other issues such as running a ground from the battery to the MSD Digital 7 and grounding both of the cylinder heads to the battery. I kept working on miscellaneous items until my cousin Chad showed up and I showed him the problem with the fuel pump. While comparing the Enderle 80A to an Enderle 110 I realized that in order to build pressure I need a restriction. I was in the forest but I couldn't see a tree...
We put a -6 fitting on my 80A pump and low and behold it was fine!!!
Since we had fought with the the system so much earlier in the week I didn't give up and we kept tracking the system working our way from the tank to the nozzles. (MFI is simple physics...) Only the stink, thunder and glory confuse things...
As we were working with the car I noticed we had plenty of pump pressure but the engine wouldn't run... I soon realized that the problem was the check valve down by the port distribution block. I had Chad and Tiffany pull the line that goes from the Barrel Valve to the port distribution block off and sure enough it was plugged with the white gunk that alcohol fuel systems develop.
After cleaning this poppet and reassembling we were ready to fire. All went fine and the engine was responding as I expected.
We went ahead and shut it down, cleaned the fuel system and loaded the car up. Although the car was running I had alot more work to do and Saturday was the Drag List Nationals.
On Saturday Dad, Tiffany and I headed down to ERP for the Drag List Nationals. My brother Josh was working in the tower and we met up with my cousin Chad at the track. When we got there we quickly setup the pit area and I had them pull the bad fuel line off and I started checking the nozzles for gunk. Several of them had crud in them and had to be cleaned out. Once we were done with that we went with Rapid Randy down to his pit area to put a new AN hose end on our fuel line that went from the BV to the distribution block. After I reinstalled the line Chad reinstalled the fuel tank and I reattached the pump loop line, the main bypass line, and the other MFI lines. We filled the tank with methanol and checked for leaks.
After I decided we were leak free and after visiting with Rock, Slick Vic, Lippy, Rapid and a host of other Drag List guys we were ready for a quickie warm-up. I wanted to check the timing, check for leaks, and then shut it down.
We fired it off and all was good, no leaks and the engine was fat and happy. I checked the timing and it was a tad low at 30* advance. We shut it down and I readjusted the timing to 36* and refueled. It was time for photos so we headed up to the track and had the Drag List pictures taken. If you haven't been to the Drag List you need to check it out at www.draglist.com the finest people in Drag Racing run/are on the board.
After the picts and Mike Casella's pass I headed down to Mike's pits to talk about MSD and nitrous stuff. His car is pretty darn cool www.1960belair.com !!
Since it was getting dark and I don't have lights in my pit space I headed back and we fired off the car. It had a pig-rich tune-up in it and the timing was a tad low, but the engine was responding exactly as I expected it to!! I left the BV as is, I need the Click-Fast from www.hadfordracing.com/click-fast.htm but Christmas is to far away...
Thanks a million to:
Dave Koehler and the Nitrous Masters http://www.koehlerinjection.com/Koehler ... nmlist.htm .
The Hooligans at www.hre.com the finest mechanical fuel injection board/manual on the market.
Bob Szabo and his book "Fuel Injection Racing Secets" http://www.racecarbook.com/firs.shtml
Mike Canter and the gang at www.americandragracing.com/xmb1/forumdisplay.php?fid=26
and my Mom & Dad who put their $ $$,$$$ where my mouth is and let me be the crew chief on this Hot Rod. Without them...
My crew: Josh, Chad, Tiffany & Brittany. Without them, I would have to do EVERYTHING!
I also am very grateful to Dan & Joanie Russell who not only are teaching me the ways of Top Fuel racing but are also there for me whenever I need anything.
After our warm-up we shut the car down, drained the fuel system, hot lashed the valves, changed the oil and put the car away. Next time we head to the track all I have to do is check the nozzles, install the System 1 Oil Filter, verify TDC and lean it out to start building some power.
I hope you liked my weekend report.
EDB
PS I cannot forget about our mascot "Flower" who lives in our trailer. If you stop by ask to see her.
PPS I also want to thank my uncles Dan Bru and Kevin Bru who got me started on drag racing and injected alcohol. Without them I might think that stock cars were race cars...
) apart to determine what the oil pressure problem was. We determined that our pump had suffered some damage at the Eddyville race and needed to be serviced. While Dan and Nitro John were working on this I completely disassembled and rebuilt the fuel system checking for any problems. By the time they were done I was ready to put the blower back on the engine.
People sure do love the front motored cars.
