Finishing the racecar blog. Yes?

[Horsewidower]

If only you were closer!! I really enjoy the build. It would be even better if it was on someone elses money!!

Today we cut out the front bumper cover for the brake ducts, fabbed and mounted the front tow hooks, riveted the radiator duct together, mounted the screening for the radiator duct, installed all the brake flex lines, finished the SS brake line plumbing and started bleeding the brakes. Damn things won't gravity bleed so we will have to rethink the routing once we have some time on the car. Redesigned and rehung the bumper cover for the 37th time!!

We really get a lot done when Rog comes over, but there is a price to pay. I helped him pour and finish 3 yards of concrete at his place on Saturday!! My knees are about shot.

Bob

[7t9cobra]

ha! i dont have much money, or you could bet it would look a little better than it does now. your project is amazing! i bet that would be fun to take out on some backroads lol how much power do you think it will be making?
jeff

[Horsewidower]

For HP we have three flavors, so to speak. We have the stock longblock mule motor that we don't want to make more than 250, 300 HP. Don't really want more than that while we shake out the chassis and figure out what falls off. The next flavor is the Morgan shortblock-full boport ironhead with an essy 2277 cam that ought to comfortably put out in the 400 horse range. It can be pushed harder than that, but its a roadracing car and it needs to be reliable. The last one is the monster motor, we haven't decided exactly how we want to build the short block, but the head is a fully bo-ported ARCA aluminum big-valve head with an essy 2235.5 cam. If we build that motor for the Thunderhill 25 hour, it'll probably be a stroker to get to 2.7 liters and limit the rpm. If we do it as a sprint race engine, we'll probably leave it at 2.3 and rev the wee out of it.

Bob

[7t9cobra]

thats just awesome. man, the things i would do, to be able to road race.

[Horsewidower]

Should I start a new thread in "Engine and Drivetrain" for the 25 hour engine design and build or leave it in this one? Given the input given by the moderator on this thread, it may be better received here. ??

We don't intend to do that race until '08, and if the real estate market doesn't pick up, it could be '09. But, I want to start figuring out exactly what I want to do and start picking up the parts. Pat had some very interesting comments on a post at another forum, I hope he will chime in on this discussion.

Bob

[Horsewidower]

Weekend List

Getting down to the short strokes. Here is the list for this weekend.

Finish bleeding the brakes and clutch.

If the stuff comes in from Pitstopusa, finish the front brake ducts, hang the hosing and spindle brake ducts.

Cut the hood down.

Fill the rear pumpkin with gear lube.

Begin mounting the windows.

Probably too ambitious as the windows and hood are time consuming to do correctly.

Called the dyno operator, we are scheduled for either July 5th or 6th. I'll meet with him on June 25th to go over the program. I want us both to clearly understand the expectations.

Pics on Monday.

[8T6 SVO]

The next flavor is the Morgan shortblock-full boport ironhead with an essy 2277 cam that ought to comfortably put out in the 400 horse range.

Bob

Bob,

Great read as I've just caught on to this thread.

I've done nothing to my car (street car) but do have your next engine flavor down to a tee.

It takes a lot of work to acheive what your doing, and probably the most fun you'll ever have (besides winning some championship with that car).

Thanks for posting all your progress - I'm close by and would love to come by and see your work some time.

Greg

[Horsewidower]

Greg: Love to have you come down and give it a look. PM a number and I'll give you a call.

I actually have that long block in the red turd svo, getting all the parts happy with each other. I run it on the regular switch and am very careful about not going for a full throttle run because I haven't upgraded the fuel system or computer for the significantly greater air flow that is possible. It is a freakin riot though. I pulled into a parking lot with it and a guy came over and asked me if I had a 460 in it!! He about fell over when I showed him that it was just a little old 4 cylinder under the hood.

[Pat_in_L.A.]

So have you been watching Le Mans? There have been some valuable lessons to be learned. Good thing is, it's a free lesson for the spectators because all the pro teams are paying your cost of tuition. That was a fairly good sized chunk of concrete that got inside the fender of the Audi and was laying on the upper control arm. People started slipping and sliding off the road as the dew settled just before dawn.

[Horsewidower]

The leading Audi just crashed out, Peugot may win this thing yet. Looks like bad pit work caused damage to the rear of the Audi.

[Pat_in_L.A.]

In almost every class, this appeared like the race that everyone was trying not to win. The gremlins were out in force this year.

[Horsewidower]

Well after another 11 hour thrash we are done with all the major items except the window mounting. Pitstopusa also did not perform on the 3 day delivery of the brake duct materials, so that will have to come this next week. But:

Brakes and clutch bleed and functioning.
Diff full of Mobil 1 gear lube. Man I hate that job.
Nutted and bolted the rear half of the car.
Hood cut down and mounted.
Rear wheel spacers mounted and loctited.
Put the tires and wheels on.
Dropped it on the ground.

Man it looks good.

1. Roger laying out dzus

2. Duzused

3. The hood in question. Came off one of Roger's old cars, actually originally for a Firebird.

4. A little cutting

5. A little measuring.

[Horsewidower]

The car on the ground. You can see the finished front radiator screen, tow hooks, and brake ducts. We will need to raise the front just a little to begin with, its only 2 7/8ths from the ground. We'll finishing painting after going to the dyno.

HW

[Horsewidower]

Well, tomorrow could be a good day or a really bad one. I've got the local Haltech dealer, Cliff Duvall of Turbo-Power in Cameron Park, coming over to get this damn thing started. After gettting left in the lurch by the wiring and computer guy, Cliff said he'd give us a hand. We want to get it started and running before the dyno session. Here is hoping for an easy start.

HW

[Horsewidower]

Well... sorry to say it was a bad day. The aussies use old serial ports instead of USBs so we couldn't find a computer that would hook up. Tried an adaptor and it didn't take. Cliff ran back up to his house and found a old computer that would work and came back. We then spent hours trying to download the necessary software, only to find out that the software we had was a different version than the firmware in the computer. Word to the wise, don't buy the standalone ECU at the start of your build, it'll be outdated by the time you plug it in!!

Cliff is calling haltech tomorrow, maybe we can get some answers.