The 72 Demon Follies....

[Demonx2]

So we had a good time at the track last Saturday and on Sunday, I put the street tires and mufflers on it getting it ready to take to The Nats this weekend. Thought well let's take it to a local show since it's in its street trim. Drove it to the gas station and back home as I forgot my glasses (about a 3 mile trip). Got the glasses and headed out. Pulled out of my street and went about 50 yards and...silence...engine dies. I see no fuel pressure on the gage and don't hear the pump running. Great!! Fortunately the car coasted another 50 yards or so and I got it pulled partially into a little elec substation lot. Dead. Relay clicks but pump doesn't do anything.

So my wife stayed with the car and I hoofed it home to get the truck and trailer. Drug the car up onto the trailer with my manual(!) winch...lots of cranking that thing for sure!!

Came home, checked everything, voltage to pump, etc, etc. Pump is dead. MagnaFuel Quickstar 275. The pump died on me last August at the Woodward Dream Cruise but I somehow got it to restart and limped the car home. MagnaFuel was great about it - warranty if you pay for shipping and the parts. So for $70, they rebuilt it with everything new except for the housing. Guess it lasted about 11 months and stranded me good. Well, at least I was close to home. So no more playing with that pump for me.

Got on the Summit site and ordered up an overnight shipment of some braided line, fittings, etc and an Aeromotive pump. At least it is red like the car...haha. Of course, it doesn't mount the same and the lines to/from it are not in the right place and the trunk floor needed some trimming. So some fab (hack?) work later, the new pump was up and running last night. I don't like the mounting bracket they provide as it essentially just squeezes the motor housing to hang onto it but hopefully it will be fine for this weekend. I used some rubber straps under the mounting bracket where it attaches to the trunk floor. I will say it is quieter than the old pump but likely due to some isolation work I did on the metal fuel line leaving the pump.

Now we'll see how this pump does. I know they all seem to have some infant mortality failures so I'm hopeful I can escape that!!

I did wax the rear bumper tonight. Figure it will be easier to get handprints off it if I have to push it due to a dead pump again!! So if you see the avatar car at The Nats and it goes dead on me, I'd appreciate some muscle for a push!!

New pump on the left.

New pump peeking into trunk - just like old pump did. Lines/lower part of pump are under trunk floor.

Lord willing, hope to see some of you on Saturday in Columbus!

 

[B3422w5]

That sucks, glad you were able to deal with it.
You know , I have heard more tales of woe over the years with those Magnafuel pumps than maybe anything else. I am not sold the are a good choice for continuous duty( street driving.
I have always had superb luck with plain old Holley Blacks, never a failure, lots of street driving, 9 sec passes in the past, Yada, Yada

 

[RockinRobin]

Sorry to hear about your parts issues, man it's always something isn't it? Hang in there, you'll get back to enjoying your hobby soon!

 

[Demonx2]

Sorry to hear about your parts issues, man it's always something isn't it? Hang in there, you'll get back to enjoying your hobby soon!

Thx for that. But when you're playing with these old cars, this can be pretty much expected. Doesn't make it better when it happens but oh well, we all enjoy these old cars!!

 

[Demonx2]

So was at the Nats in Columbus today with the Avatar car. First time at a track with the MT ET Street SS drag radials. (P295/55-R15) and the 3" pipes/mufflers. Air was good early with a DA of 1890.

Set the tire pressure to 22 and went to the line. Well, that didn't work out so well! Stabbed the throttle and knocked the tires off immediately. Saw 7000-ish on the tach, lifted, stabbed again...7000 again, lifted again. Then grabbed second and off we went. (My car was in RH lane for both time runs.)

You can see the beleaguered 60' and 1/8th mile numbers. But even with all that, I liked what I saw for the 1/4 mile mph (115.4). Not so for the mid-12 et but the mph looked healthy for such a messy launch! That mph basically matches the best mph I previously saw with the 4.56 axle (car now has a 4.10).

So took a look at the tire (after driving back to pit spot) to see what they looked like as far as contact area goes. If you look closely, you can see the middle was being used and a bit if the inside but the whole outer area looks unused (note the are 8" wide rims).

So the weather was getting worse and we got a few sprinkles. DA deteriorated to 2570 for the 2nd run. Dropped the tire pressure to 18.5 psi. This time, the car dead hooked and left! 1/8 mile numbers back on track (for the 4.10 axle anyway) and had it best et (11.47) to date with the 4.10. MPH stayed up around 115 even in this worse air.

So all in all, I was happy with how the car performed. We got 2 time runs as planned and that was that. The new fuel pump delivered the bacon without issue so all in all, a great day.

So why did I bring the car to Columbus with the street tires and mufflers on it? So I could drive the car on the street, of course!! Took my 89-1/2 year old father for his first ride in a car like this!! He loved it...I let him feel the 408 at full song for a very brief roll from about 20 mph. Just long enough to click 2nd gear and lift. He had a great big smile on his face as he'd never experienced something like that!! It was a priceless moment for me!!

 

[MOPARMAGA]

So was at the Nats in Columbus today with the Avatar car. First time at a track with the MT ET Street SS drag radials. (P295/55-R15) and the 3" pipes/mufflers. Air was good early with a DA of 1890.

Set the tire pressure to 22 and went to the line. Well, that didn't work out so well! Stabbed the throttle and knocked the tires off immediately. Saw 7000-ish on the tach, lifted, stabbed again...7000 again, lifted again. Then grabbed second and off we went. (My car was in RH lane for both time runs.)
View attachment 1715970048

You can see the beleaguered 60' and 1/8th mile numbers. But even with all that, I liked what I saw for the 1/4 mile mph (115.4). Not so for the mid-12 et but the mph looked healthy for such a messy launch! That mph basically matches the best mph I previously saw with the 4.56 axle (car now has a 4.10).

So took a look at the tire (after driving back to pit spot) to see what they looked like as far as contact area goes. If you look closely, you can see the middle was being used and a bit if the inside but the whole outer area looks unused (note the are 8" wide rims).
View attachment 1715970049

So the weather was getting worse and we got a few sprinkles. DA deteriorated to 2570 for the 2nd run. Dropped the tire pressure to 18.5 psi. This time, the car dead hooked and left! 1/8 mile numbers back on track (for the 4.10 axle anyway) and had it best et (11.47) to date with the 4.10. MPH stayed up around 115 even in this worse air.
View attachment 1715970055

So all in all, I was happy with how the car performed. We got 2 time runs as planned and that was that. The new fuel pump delivered the bacon without issue so all in all, a great day.

So why did I bring the car to Columbus with the street tires and mufflers on it? So I could drive the car on the street, of course!! Took my 89-1/2 year old father for his first ride in a car like this!! He loved it...I let him feel the 408 at full song for a very brief roll from about 20 mph. Just long enough to click 2nd gear and lift. He had a great big smile on his face as he'd never experienced something like that!! It was a priceless moment for me!!

That must've been a real treat for your father, that is awesome!

 

[Demonx2]

Had a weep at the tstat outlet so I drained the coolant below that and pulled it off. It's one of those cheap chrome pieces so I ran it on some coarse sandpaper on a flat surface to make sure it was flat and also put some texture on it for the gasket to have some "bite." Went ahead and put a thin layer of RTV on it too when I put it back together. Dumped the coolant back in and warmed it up to get the tstat to open. Opened and was flowing coolant pretty well so put the cap on to build some pressure with the fans off. So far, so good. Well see what it looks like after it cools.

Before I started it, I thought I'd have a look at the plugs as it seems too rich to me. I've had the mufflers on it driving at the Dream Cruise last weekend so this isn't the best time to look at the plugs. Nevertheless, I confirmed my suspicion that it's sure not lean! So I dropped the front jets down 2 sizes to some 81's. We'll see what it does for mph the next time at the track....hopefully this weekend with no mufflers on it.
Plug #3:

Plug#2 - quite a bit more soot!:

Plan is to take both Demons to a local small show on Friday then take this one to the track on Sunday. We'll see.....

 

[Demonx2]

Ended up with both Demons at the show Friday night.

Then took the 71 to another show on Saturday. Met some nice folks there but it was the only Mopar.

Went to the track today. The avatar seemed to like the jet reduction. At a DA of 1850 in Columbus, it went 115.4 mph with the ET Street radials and mufflers. Today, at a DA of 3100-3200 and the bias slicks and no mufflers, it went a pair of 115.9 mph runs. And the et's were good too. First time in the 11.30's since the axle ratio change from 4.56 to 4.10. Since switching, each run seems to get a bit better. Went 11.394 off the trailer, then 11.379, an 11.383 coasting, then an 11.374. So good consistency there. 1/8 et went 7.19, 7.18, 7.17, and 7.16. Keeps getting better - go figure!!

Car hooks hard and leaves well. Hope it stays that way. Guess by definition I have to say I'm a believer in these CalTracs, split mono springs, and the Calvert shocks. Great lift and body separation and plants the tires hard.

So this today was in the Sportsman class (track allows down to 10.50 et). No transbrakes or delay boxes allowed. Footbrake only. So in trials, I run a guy with a 6-cyl Altered that runs right around 12 flat. Says he won a couple events at Dragway 42 a month or so ago in the Pro and SuperPro classes. But today he's not using the transbrake. Seems like a decent fellow. Time run he has a .165 light. That's a slow footbrake number but figure he hasn't run it like this much. Well guess what: ran him in round 1. He cuts a .006 light!! Hmmm...that's a transbrake/delay box number you hear called out all day in Pro and Super Pro where he usually runs. Then a guy comes to me in the pits when i get back and says "You know he was on the tbrake at the line." I said I assume so as you don't go from a .165 to a .006 without one! But of course, there's no way to prove it. I cut an .030 light and ran the 11.383 coasting on an 11.37 dial as I was ahead of him. Did I win? Nope. I got the loser ticket!!?? Huh??? Now I have no problem with tbrakes...but I just want to run mano vs mano in a footbrake class. The fun of competition is what I'm after. Doesn't seem like asking too much but so it goes. Since the car was working well, I took the walk of shame and did the buyback and then red-bulbed it. Arghhhh...

Had a lot of fun and excited for what the car is doing. Gotta sharpen my skills as the car seems consistent now. Track photographer came by and gave me a pic of one of the launches. I even got a tiny bit of air with the 4.10!

Compare that to the launch with the 4.56 back in June:

 

[Demonx2]

So after being at the track a few weeks back, the car has not moved off the trailer as the track had other events and then a rain weekend. Planning to go back this Sunday and just today, they cancelled the Sportsman class and are calling it Trophy only!! They have some Nostalgia cars coming and they wacked the Pro and Super Pro payouts a bunch and took the funds away from Sportsman. And Sportsman goes down to 10.50!! So a 10.50 car would run for a trophy???? I'm not that fast but still...a trophy? I wouldn't go but need the time with the car - maybe they knew that!
Anyhow, pulled the same plugs to see how that jetting looks on them. Remember, I essentially picked up close to 1/2 mph by dropping front jets from 83 to 81. (Rear jets are 82...long story, don't ask why front jet with PV is larger than rear with no PV!!) Planning to drop front jet by 1 more number to 80 but wanted to see plugs first.

Here's #3:

To me, that plug looks about spot on. Compare that to pic above and it sure looks like the jetting leaned it out nicely.

Here's plug #2:

It went from really crusty to lookin' pretty good too. I was quite surprised to see how well they cleaned themselves up. I pulled some other plugs (simple on this SB with the Hooker SuperComps) and they look about the same.

What do you think? Take some more jet out to see if mph goes up or down? DA expected to be about the same as the last time out...in the 3000 range so should be a decent comparison assuming the track hooks.

 

[Demonx2]

So after pulling some more plugs and seeing they looked about the same as those above there's no way I could lean it out more. In fact, I decided to up the rear jets one number to 83's.

Took it to the track today and had a great day. The car set new lows for et, mph, and 60'. It ran an 11.251 at 117.13 with a 60' of 7.097 (actually almost repeated it with a 7.098 a couple runs later). The DA was around 2800 for those. Quite happy with those results!! !

Then came the time for eliminations. Well, ole dummy here had a brain cramp in round 1. My opponent must have been brand new at this racing thing and had a hard time staging. He actually drove past both beams not once, but twice! And the starter helped pull him back and restage all while I'm sitting with the prestage bulb on. I should have opened the door and told the starter that that is supposed to be an automatic DQ (not allowed to cross the start line and back up in Sportsman class). But I thought let's give the guy a chance. So we got staged, lights came down (he was dialed 13.03 to my 11.26), we leave, and I literally put 4-5 car lengths on him well before the 1/8 mile. AND THEN I FORGOT THAT I AM RACING 1/4 MILE AND LIFTED!! I'd been watching the other classes for a couple hours which are all 1/8 mile and had a brain cramp and lolligagged my way down the rest of the track. And near the end of the 1/4 mile, there he went by me for the win! Talk about a stupid way to lose...that one takes the cake!

So I took the walk of shame and did a buyback. Good thing...I raced my way through a bunch more rounds and ended up in the finals! I lost in the finals due to having a sandwich and nap instead of a reaction time but all in all, it was a great day. Runner-up isn't winning but it ain't all bad either!!

This little rowdy foot-brake car continues to put smiles on my face and is just a riot to drive. I think I just might get something in the teens out of it yet as the weather cools off!

I know...pics or it didn't happen....that's me in the left lane (car #6020).

 

[Demonx2]

Adding a pic of one of the launches. I think the pic shows it plants the left slick pretty hard and I like the body/axle separation.

 

[Demonx2]

So hoping to go racing this weekend if things work out. Weather says will be a high around 61 - brrrr. That's about 23 degrees cooler than the last time out.

Since I had richened up the rear jets and picked up some mph the last time, I pulled some plugs to see what they looked like.

They basically all looked like this one. Seems to still be on the lean side. So given the temps will be so much cooler and what these plugs look like, I fattened the rear jets up some more. Went from 83's to 85's. (After all, we all know that if a little is good, more is better!)

Time will tell (pun intended) if this was the right move. We'll see....

 

[Demonx2]

Well I took the car to the track today. Unfortunately, no Sportsman (footbrake) class so had to run the No Box class. In there with all the transbrake cars and the worst (to me) is they run 1/8 mile only. Not good for this 1/4 mile junkie!! And about 150 cars in the class!!

The air today was fantastic. DA was 600-1050. I probably could have used some more rear jet as I was expecting more like 1500. But with only 2 time runs, there's no time to jet it to see. So run it as-is we did!

The bottom line is the car set a couple of personal bests today. Had a 1.496 60' time. Then a breakout in eliminations when it ran a 7.025 at 96.2 mph. On a 7.07 dial! I had previously run a 7.066 on a 7.05 dial and the headwind picked up a few mph and the DA got worse by 200 ft. So I dialed it back to 7.07...and ran the 7.025 which sent me home. (Earlier time run was 7.042.)

I'm not an 1/8 mile racer as it's over too soon. But I diverge...

So today were the 3 new personal bests as noted. Car hooks hard and is working well. And im enjoying the heck out of it!!


Losing timeslip...me in the RH lane. Funny, identical reaction times. I was well ahead and should have been on the brakes!

 

[B3422w5]

cool deal.glad you had fun.
I most always footbrake against transbrake guys at 131. That is very common at most tracks. Top and mod( box/ no box ) are 1/8 mile. Same exact rules at Stanton

sportsman( footbrake) is 12 flat and slower..1/4 mile.
I have one other liability when I race. I am blind in my left eye. Have been for about 35 years. So.. that makes it more challenging
so when I do damage, win or get a check, it is honestly extra special..lol…
I have gotten now to where, knowing how hard a brake is on parts compared to footbraking, 95% of my racing, even moving forward , will stay off the foot, even though I have a brake in the car.

 

[Demonx2]

Wow - that being blind in one eye would make it all the more challenging for sure!

Milan takes their Sportsman class down to 10.50...when they have it!!

 

[B3422w5]

Wow - that being blind in one eye would make it all the more challenging for sure!

Milan takes their Sportsman class down to 10.50...when they have it!!

wow,never heard of that. Years ago, they used to be 12 flat over there too. 10.50 is cool!
monster Mopar was 11 flat for sportsman.

 

[B3422w5]

Just looked it up..
IHRA is 7.50 in 1/8 or 12 flat
NHRA is 11.60 and slower, couldn’t find anything NHRA regards 1/8.
bad thing is, sportsman class payouts in weekly bracket programs are peanuts

 

[Demonx2]

If I raced to make money, I'd starve to death in short order!! For me, it's the fun of competition with a few bucks on the table. Just like playing golf with my buddies...nobody's getting rich or going broke but a few bucks at stake keeps your head in the game!

 

[Demonx2]

Today we arose to a clear and cold day. But sunshine and 60's was projected so off we went to the track.
First run was at a DA of 73!! 49 deg and 73 DA. Not sure my +1 on the rear jet I put in last night was ready for that but I sent it anyway (jets in the 850DP are 81 frt/86 rear.) ET was not bad fir the 1st run but given the cold, I thought the mph would have been higher. It was about .8 mph lower (95.3) than last time out (96.2). So to see where I was at, I pulled the number 3 plug.

Hmmm....where is the center electrode???? Did it run off with my 7/16 wrench or ????

Let's look at #1. Whew, my hands were nervous pulling that one out and I was relieved to see that it was OK. Let's pull #5 and make sure we're OK.

Uh-oh...Houston we have a problem. #5 electrode is also MIA. No clue where it went or why. (Poked a paper clip in it and the center electrode is recessed about 1/8".)

Pulled the rest of the plugs and they were all OK. Looked like more fuel wouldn't hurt so decided to put some 88 jets in the back (+2 more). Pulled out my ancient Direct Connection Holley jet kit and all the little jets were rolling around in their little cubbies EXCEPT, you got it...the 88's. Where did they run off to??

Fortunately, by now several other racing friends had come by and one offered to give me some 88's from his stash. So I gladly took him up on the offer. (I had to forcibly pay him for them...typical racer helping another).

So now I'm jetted at 81 front (with a PV) and 88 in the rear. I only had 3 new spark plugs with me and used 2 of them. Here again, other racers offered plugs if I needed them.

Took it up to the line and made the 2nd time run and went it's 2nd best ET ever at 7.038. And mph looked better at 96.14. DA was at 995 for this run. Pulled the #3 & #5 plugs again and they were fine. Whew...feeling better.

Went into eliminations and dialed a 7.03 and wouldn't you know, out of the 100+ cars in the No Box class, I end up running against my pal that had given me the 88 jets!! You couldn't make this up!! He's got a gorgeous black Duster - reminds me of PBR's car as it leaves wheels way up. He's dialed a 6.15. I ended up winning that round but still....not who I wanted to run!! My car set a new personal best 1/8 ET of 7.014, and that was hitting the brakes and taking some mph off it!

Went to the next round and dialed the 7.01 but an 092 light sunk my boat. Oh well, that's racing. Had a great time on a beautiful fall day. And racers showed again their willingness to help a fella when he needed it. What's not to like about that!!

 

[Demonx2]

Been awhile - time for a little update. Seems life got in the way of updating.

The track (Milan Dragway) decided to add some racing on Friday nights in October - called Footbrake Friday for footbrake only cars. Since I had been somewhat vocal about having a footbrake class, I surely wanted to support them so we took the car on Oct 14. It was some good fall air - with the temps ranging from upper to lower 50's all day. On the 2nd pass off the trailer, at 59 deg/DA of 1100, the car set some new personal bests of [email protected] mph. 60' was nothing great - 7.073 - but the cool air helped it make up for it down the track. I should add that with the 4.10 rear gear, the car is now going through the traps right around 6300-6350 depending on which run/what mph.

But the next runs were not so great. I had to lift when the car wanted to go left then continued to horizontally "porpoise" a bit. I'm no hero driver so I lifted. Not sure what/why but let's make sure all the suspension bolts are tight. Did that - they were all tight. Made another pass and car slowed a bit to an [email protected]. What/why?? Next pass had to lift again due to porpoising (car over-corrects itself when you try to steer it back from going left and starts to get quite violent like the rearend wants to come around). Starting to get concerned but got called up to the staging lanes. Dialed an 11.20 since it had gone an 11.199. Ran an 11.25 on the brakes so it seemed fine and on to round 2 we go. Left the 11.20 on it but took a nap at the light, ran it full out, and it slowed to an 11.35????? Time to go home and see what is going on.

Over the next few days, and with the car steering itself to the left, I watched lots of videos a friend shot of it. You can see on the hit, when it lifts the LF tire in the air and has the right one just tapping along, the right one toes in quite a bit while the left one stays straight. So from some recommendations from RRR and others here on FABO, I got the Mopar Chassis "bible" (9th edition) and read through it. Lots of talk about measuring toe-in at ride height and at various amounts of front end lift and what to do to make corrections. So I did that and you could surely see the toe-in increasing with lift but more importantly, it was really more the RF tire toeing in and the LF tire staying fairly straight. When I had the car aligned about 18 months ago, the printout showed they could not get any caster on the RF tire and only minimal on the LF. So I decided to get me one of those bubble alignment tools to see if I could correct it myself. Got the Joe's Racing Products one - seems pretty nice.

It came to me but not in time to where I could get back to the track the next weekend. I began to work both side's cambolts trying to improve the caster but basically could never get any success. So I set them so they had equally poor caster of about -0.4 degrees. Then I measured toe throughout the lift range and found that I could improve it but only if I re-centered the steering wheel like the Mopar Chassis book instructs (equal distance to wheel from lower tie-rod end grease fitting). When I had put my steering wheel on, this column does not have a master spline so clearly I messed it up. So I set the front wheels straight, pulled the steering wheel, and found it to be exactly 2 splines off. Re-centered it then began playing with the tie-rod ends to improve the toe-in on front end lift. Well...you couldn't make it perfect but I could get it where it was equal toe-out and then toe-in as the front end lifts. So I set to what I thought was a good compromise. The RH tire was pointing a tad to the right at ride height but let's just send it. Took the car out on some local freeways and hammered it a few times to see if it was stable at speed. It was and seemed to track straight so it should be ready to go...right? So it seemed....

 

[Demonx2]

So with the new front end alignment settings, I took the car back for another Footbrake Friday event on 10/28. Weather was perfect - in the low-mid 50's and sunny. DA's from 350 to -150! This oughta be good - no more pulling to the left!! I had rotated the slicks so figured I should heat them a tad more than usual before the first run. Track photographer is outstanding and got me this pic.

Well, that was about all that was good on the first run as in the RH lane, somewhere before the 1/8 mile point, the car decided it wanted to rub some paint off on the RH wall. It steered itself to the right and refused to come back! So I had to lift to keep it off the wall. Off to the pits we go. I re-centered the preload side to side on the CalTracs since I had them biased to keep the car from going left. I thought let's try that first before any other changes. The next 2 passes set my personal bests - both 11.14's at about 118. While not perfectly stable going down the track, I didn't want to make any more changes. Here are the 2 slips:

Yippee - some new bests! Always happy to see those and the car seemed "ok" going down the track. So rather than keep running time runs, I just waited for eliminations. They didn't start those until about 7:30pm and the temp was falling fast - down to about 49 when I went up for round 1. Took the LH lane, had an .049 light to his .311 (his was a 12 sec car) and basically had him covered at the top of 1st gear. But soon thereafter, the car wanted to drift toward the center stripe and would not come back so I had to lift. Saw that I still had him covered and went back on the throttle and car got squirrely and lifted again, this time for good and just let him go. By the time I got back to the trailer, it was covered in dew as were my lawn chairs - very damp.

My conclusion is my car may not have liked the dew on the track but it clearly doesn't take much to upset it going down the track. Things MUST change for next year!! I cannot race a car that I can't reliably get down the track in my lane. This front suspension WILL get revised and reworked to get some proper caster and then address this toe-in/toe-out issue. Not sure which upper control arms I'll get but you can bet they'll be adjustable.

So I'm done racing for this year. Had a lot of fun with the car at the track as well as on the street. Got it down to 11.14 @ 118 in the cool fall air and with some (hopefully) new shoes for it too next year (I won't tell you how old those slicks are!), perhaps we can get some 11.0's at some point. I have to say to anyone that will listen is if you're building an engine, a 408 (or I'm sure a stroked 340 too) is a great way to go. These things will make you grin from ear-to-ear every time you drive the car!!

Over the winter, I'll work to get the suspension right and hopefully be back next year for some more racing and good times.

 

[sireland67]

Keep at it, its frustrating sometimes.

 

[RedB.]

It was a lot of fun tagging along here, hope to read more in near future, Best wishes , Red B.

 

[Demonx2]

Look what showed up today....a pair of these!!
Thank you Peter at Bergman Auto Craft!!

This is the planned solution for getting some caster dialed into the front suspension. It'll be sometime in March before they get installed but our winters last a lot longer than that!!

 

[-Boosted-]

Great read and badass cars! Look forward to seeing what you do with it this season.

Bill