I know this has been talked about before but now I have seen it in person and it is really cool stuff. Driveing home from florida sunday on US 10 I stopped to see the USS Alabama. Awesome. As I walked in to the hanger I see a A-12. So I go around the back and there is the starter cart with the two nailheads I have been hearing about. Wasnt any info about them, lots of stuff on the jet. Injoy the pictures <a href="http://s166.photobucket.com/albums/u91/66gsconv/?action=view&current=100_2468.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i166.photobucket.com/albums/u91/66gsconv/100_2468.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a> <a href="http://s166.photobucket.com/albums/u91/66gsconv/?action=view&current=100_2473.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i166.photobucket.com/albums/u91/66gsconv/100_2473.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a> ---------- Post added at 07:41 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:22 PM ---------- <a href="http://s166.photobucket.com/albums/u91/66gsconv/?action=view&current=100_2472.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i166.photobucket.com/albums/u91/66gsconv/100_2472.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a> <a href="http://s166.photobucket.com/albums/u91/66gsconv/?action=view&current=100_2471.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i166.photobucket.com/albums/u91/66gsconv/100_2471.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a> <a href="http://s166.photobucket.com/albums/u91/66gsconv/?action=view&current=100_2470.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i166.photobucket.com/albums/u91/66gsconv/100_2470.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a> ---------- Post added at 07:44 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:41 PM ---------- I am not sure of the carb being used but it looked like they used a carb adaptor or spacer. Also I think they are useing some kind of a header.:TU:
cool photos, looks like a holley carb, i know doc likes holleys i bet it has docs intake mod on there too.
I need one of those cooling fans! With a fan like that maybe the nailhead could take flight itself!! ---------- Post added at 10:27 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:25 PM ---------- Nice Photos! Thanks for those. I haven't been to Battleship Park in about ten years.
Yep,,, I see that they used holley carbs... Hey , John and Rhett,,, get a load of those 2 holleys....:laugh::laugh:
BTW: A while back, a member commented that the Nailheads in some of the SR-71 starting carts were replaced by 454 Chevys. The poster commented that the twin-454s were much more delicate, and were kept inside and carefully warmed up by service personnel before each use. The Nailheads were pretty much bulletproof.
Hill AFB Museum near Salt Lake City UT still has Nailheads in the start-cart on display. Pima AFB Museum south of Tucson AZ has a start-cart with (according to the sign on the cart) twin LS-7 454s. I find this unlikely; and I couldn't get close enough to inspect any casting numbers. The LS-7 454 was a real monster, was NEVER installed in a vehicle by GM--sold over the parts-counter only--but VERY unsuitable for use in a start-cart since the LS-7 would have made power at high RPM and has an evil camshaft, 12:1 compression, and huge intake ports. If those are the 454s in the cart you're posting about, I can understand why they'd need to be warmed-up and "babied" before each use. Whoever specified the LS-7 engines made a big mistake. A more common--and much less expensive--oval-port 454 would have been more suitable. For that matter, a Buick 455, Olds 455, Pontiac 455 or similar engine would have been more suitable than the LS-7. See also http://www.wvi.com/~sr71webmaster/ag330_sr.htm and http://www.456fis.org/STARTER_CARTS.htm
