A little carnage while tuning the drag car.

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Cope

Cope

Fusing with fire
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I was not happy with the way the little motor in the 23 T has been running so I figure Ill tune her up a bit. The motor has some bog on launch. We changed the plugs, pulled some timimg out and turned down the fuel regulator.

Boy she was really starting to get it. Motor was warm tires were sticy and the water box was wet....

Wellll......I had a few good launches, the front was starting to come off and we figure lets have some fun...

After a few more launches all hell broke loose. (literally)


picks..






Oops. That poor little 8.8 ford jist could not handle this much meet.
Traction bars work tho..

rear end toast, pumpkin toast, pinion toast and the coil overs...

Time for a real rear end...
 
Its a TH350 trans and that is still the little 350 Ci motor.

Just imagine what the injected 454 would have done...

On the bright side pops was not mad. We both laughed it off and chalked it up to a week link. Im glad it happened at the shop and not out on the street or at speed.

Have a great night!
 
yeah when she hooks up she gets the power to the pavement...


its hard to see but the rear end is shifted to the left 3"..

You think I should go with the coarse buffing compound?
 
My guess, the welded area on your axle broke loose, pinion rolled up , locked and snapped.

Sucks regardless.
 
The welds did not break, it tore the housing.
but yeah thats how it went down.

and i posted this in off topic as its non mopar, dont know why it got moved here?

We been putting off tearing the car apart, looks like ots time to remove the body, change the rear, install new fuel cell, fire wall, pannel the trunk, finish the cage and install the ratchet shifter.

It was all smiles and good fun.
I was afraid of what pops was gonna say but hes one cool guy.

All I was supposed to be doing today was installing the ratchet shifter, some how the day morphed in to test and tune.
infact i just noticed you can see the Hurst ratchet on the bench in the background..

oh well...
:)
 
I know guys running 1500 whp cars with stock 8.8 housings, the difference is they use the correct mounting plates on the axle. That really should of had adjustable plates that wrap around the axle for the top and bottom bar to tie into. I wouldn't blame that breakage on the axle.
 
Sorry to hear about the carnage but that car is just mean. Let's see some more pictures!
 
Good call on the plates, That would have saved us some greef. Nextime I'll do that.

Heres the motor that did the dammage.


and the new motor goin in soon now.



I think I will just be looking for a Dana 60 for it after this.

Thanks for all the time and advice.
 
Were there any other bars than the bottoms and track locator or wishbone?

Edit: I see a top bar on the passengers side. So it was a four link? I've never seen attaching points on the rear end like that. They may be fine for a street rod but as you found out not so good for anything that will be beat on. The Ford 8.8 is a good rear and is in some really fast relatively heavy cars with out any issues. My advise would be to uses good brackets that allow 360° welds on your new rear.
 
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