Exactly!
shots from the garage...
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racerhog
RacerHog likes his Mopars
9 days until we head out on Race-cation 22. Put the wheels back on the trailer and loaded the golf cart. Will get the car in the trailer this weekend and hopefully get all the odds and ends I’ll need for a race weekend. This will probably be my last trek to Sacramento Raceway so despite the mid 90’s forecast we’re “all in”.
New fuel cell is in!! …. Loaded the car last Friday and while strapping it down we got fuel. The side of the fuel cell had cracked like gaping hole cracked!! Drove the car back into the garage and put the trailer away in the side yard… what a bunch of effort for little result. Got online and figured Summit was probably my best bet. It’s been a long time since I’d ordered anything and I’m not sure if I overlooked it or what but I swear they used to show if items were in stock in the Sparks warehouse, but couldn’t find that feature. Ordered my cell and paid airfreight. I was a bit nervous as I thought it’d ship Saturday, but it left Ohio Monday am. Living in the middle of nowhere south of Vegas I figured for sure it would show up tomorrow, but low and behold it made it! Reconstructed the straps and drilled a couple holes and we’re good!
Well I must say…. Towing 1100 miles in the new 2 us 17 3500 is sure a lot nicer than the tried and true old 2001 we finally replaced. We had an absolute blast in Sacramento. staged a bit deep and red lit 3rd round. Some highlights were us finally running in the 9ohs (9.092) and we went 120 in the 1/8th and also entered into the 148mph zone in the 1/4. This car is really fun to wheel!!
The NHRA national event is this weekend in Vegas. I really considered going a few weeks ago. It’s been ages. But once again with the high costs of everything I’ve reappropriated those funds towards my fun. We’ll be going racing november 19th. There are 3 events that weekend. Las Vegas has the Street Car Supernational. This event is plagued by wrecks and oil downs. It was so bad last year that after FOUR days they pulled the plug and the event didn‘t even finish. Basically that **** show isn’t even in the running although I’ll be watching it closely to see if they follow through on enforcing some rules like diapers and containment devices and eliminating heads up cars from entering multiple classes just to gather data. Hopefully they can get their poo in a group because it could be a fun race to attend. At this point I wouldn’t even go to watch!
Famoso has a really good bracket race. It’s all 1/8th mile because I guess that’s what you do at those things. I believe that one is a three day deal and would probably be the best one to attend.
Irwindale is having a Friday night test/grudge deal followed by a bracket race and some heads up challenge races Saturday. The west coast N/A class is also holding its final race that day. I think I’m going to go to Irwindale. I’ve never made a clean pass at that track. It’s home to my wheel stand and I‘d like to make some good hits there. I‘m pretty sure we have the car sorted out and it should run pretty quick there.
Famoso has a really good bracket race. It’s all 1/8th mile because I guess that’s what you do at those things. I believe that one is a three day deal and would probably be the best one to attend.
Irwindale is having a Friday night test/grudge deal followed by a bracket race and some heads up challenge races Saturday. The west coast N/A class is also holding its final race that day. I think I’m going to go to Irwindale. I’ve never made a clean pass at that track. It’s home to my wheel stand and I‘d like to make some good hits there. I‘m pretty sure we have the car sorted out and it should run pretty quick there.
Good luck buddy
360duster
Well-Known Member
if you can swing it, don´t think about it. Some people spend more money drinking or smoking....so if you have fun racing, just do it. Good Luck!
racerhog
RacerHog likes his Mopars
Dont be late for the Chip Draw !!!!!! Save a little fuel and draft behind the "Slick as a Brick" on the way out....
Safe travels and have a good time.... A to B and win this deal !!!!!
Safe travels and have a good time.... A to B and win this deal !!!!!
The curse of Irwindale….. warmed the car up, headed to the lanes. weather was phenomenal and I was a bit nervous as I’d only made 1 other ”ok” pass there once. staged the car, ambers started coming down, got on the brake and poof! The engine died along with a small carb backfire…… which caught my UNI filter element on fire. Of course pin on hood Quik latches it wasn’t coming off easy. They ended up dousing it with water….. towed back to the pits, pulled the carb (full of black melted goo) pulled the plugs, cleaned the engine of water and fogged the crap out of it with WD40. It was at that point I just loaded up and headed home…. Would have liked to have hung out and watched but the thought of any moisture sitting in my piston rings was a hard no! So at 9pm we hit that glorious LA traffic and headed east. Finally in the high desert I was able to set the cruise on felony and i had the trailer in the side yard at 1am. Still drunk from sleep/food deprivation I grabbed a beer and tore the carb down. With some decent chemicals and my small brush assortment I got the carb cleaned up and crashed at 3am. 8am I backed the trailer in the garage and unloaded the car and got to work. Checked the valve lash cold all similar, rotor cap (all new in September) was all good. No excessive play etc… phasing good. threw in a set of plugs and fired her up. Almost seems to idle better but that’s probably the placebo effect of having the carb apart ;). So now…. What caused it? i haven’t been using my Racepak as the card reader on my laptop died. Would have been interesting to see rpm signal. Valve hang? wasn’t that violent of backfire….. to me it was like the Ignition shut off. Hard to prove at this point. So now we’re going to reevaluate
our air cleaner and possibly consider having a spare carburetor to have on hand.
our air cleaner and possibly consider having a spare carburetor to have on hand.
^^^^
So sorry you had that bad luck. It happens to everyone/anyone. Just ask John Force!!! You still have a gorgeous and mighty fast car all ready to go again. Glad you made it back home safely.
So sorry you had that bad luck. It happens to everyone/anyone. Just ask John Force!!! You still have a gorgeous and mighty fast car all ready to go again. Glad you made it back home safely.
Jay I’m sure you had it up to temp but is there anyway the air was so good that you were lean on the shooters???
racerhog
RacerHog likes his Mopars
Sorry about the Mis-Q...
I really think you and the car would have done great at this event, if it was not for that one gremlin!!!!
Friday did have its issues for some folks to get sorted out, That left lane did kind of seem to be jinxed!!!! And you just had to be in it !!!!! Luck of the draw I guess..
Good to hear that nothing major happened and all is running well a the moment. Like John said, Maybe just not enough iron heat in it at that moment?
Love that good looking and running Hot Rod! Mopar on !!
Cheers
I really think you and the car would have done great at this event, if it was not for that one gremlin!!!!
Friday did have its issues for some folks to get sorted out, That left lane did kind of seem to be jinxed!!!! And you just had to be in it !!!!! Luck of the draw I guess..
Good to hear that nothing major happened and all is running well a the moment. Like John said, Maybe just not enough iron heat in it at that moment?
Love that good looking and running Hot Rod! Mopar on !!
Cheers
The things you don‘t give thought too….. I think we all knew someone in our street days that burned one of those Edelbrock foam air cleaners. Well this UNI basically falls under that same category. Other mitigating factor is that the foam was vintage mid 90’s and was just ripe for this to occur. My dad ran this on his W5 combos and I believe his hood was cut out for it. My hood is open underneath and 16”+ wide so I’m thinking we may go with a more “traditional“ air cleaner assembly. I’m contemplating pulling the trans and going through it as we’re at mid 80ish on passes. I’m more curious than anything as to the condition of the thrust bearings and seeing if the shafts look ok.…. but we’re going to be gone for the holidays and there’s 60 days until a race I wouldn’t mind hitting 
Call me an idiot but I haven’t had an air cleaner on for well over 40 years.
racerhog
RacerHog likes his Mopars
Like they say, out with the old and in with the new!
Happy to hear not any severe damage happened... Feww, That video with the flamage under the hood had me going on the edge of my seat !!!!!!
Hope you find the trans is in good order and ready to hunt !!
Good to hear you will be back out "Snapping Necks and Cashing Checks"
Happy to hear not any severe damage happened... Feww, That video with the flamage under the hood had me going on the edge of my seat !!!!!!
Hope you find the trans is in good order and ready to hunt !!
Good to hear you will be back out "Snapping Necks and Cashing Checks"
We never did with the Mirada. I guess our bigger fear was ingesting debris as our program $$ advanced. Felt better with something that’d at least stop rocks, birds and small children from going where they shouldn’t. We also race in some pretty dirty air out here in the desert. I’m sure long term any filtration couldn’t hurt.
Some of my friends have a rock screen in their scoop. I should at least do this upgrade.
BVoelzke
Well-Known Member
I never ran an air cleaner until years ago the NED Bracket Finals we’re being held at a sandy and dusty track , I put an air cleaner on and it’s been there ever since
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turbodart68
Well-Known Member
Man that sucks. I am glad you didn't anything too expensive. For a year I chased a gremlin. Irwindale is my home track and I got real gun shy about that place.
Well we’ve dated twice and it hasn’t worked out. Not sure we’ll see each other again!
…..I’ll actually be looking at their schedule once it comes out. I’ve made it a quest to make some clean passes there.
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