E-85 555 buildup- drag race

The suspense is killing me............

 

Yeah me to dying to hear this thing on the dyno !!!

 

Is that at 1250 Dominator ?

 

I am sorry guys, I thought I finished this..

I was looking thru the BPG nats results, and saw Mike Erickson.. that is the guy who owns this first one. That got me to come back to the thread, where I noticed I needed to finish it up.

I see he is running 9.20's in the heat... And I am sure it has well over a hundred passes on it by now. He races it a lot, and is not bashful with the fuel.. he will run 10-15 passes a weekend. It's been in two different cars now. (edit.. accordng to Mike, it has just shy of 400 passes on it :eek2: )

It was built specifically with this type of usage in mind, we selected the TA block for durability, mainly, not because we were out to set the world on fire.. that is also evident in the moderate cam specs, and E-85 fuel usage. I was very happy with the power this combo put out, it was more than I expected. Our target was a reliable 700 HP motor that would go 3-5 seasons between freshening. 300+ runs.

Anyway, here is the dyno stuff.

First, we tested with a 1250 and Race fuel. If you recall, this combo is actually going to be run on E-85, but we wanted a race gasoline baseline.




Nice easy pwr..

And then on E-85, after several pulls fooling around with the carb.




<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/WnRz5Sj8JLs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>


Note the good idle quality at 800 rpm. The stumble going into the pull is common on these carbs, and is a phenomena that you only see on the dyno, with a slow throttle opening. They never get the transition circuits right on these aftermarket carbs.

I might venture to say the first "low maintenance" 750+ HP Buick bracket motor. There is nothing wild about this thing, just big cubes a mild solid race roller with decent heads, on a good foundation.

A wise investment in your drag racing program.

 

Hi Jim,
Did you take the chambers on the heads out to meet the larger bore, if so, any pics of that?
Cheers

 

I would like to see car that this Engine is in would like here more about Car weight. Ware does Mike Erickson live.

 

Here is the car..



Mike is on the board here, he said he may wander by later on and post about it. It is a light tube chassis car. About 2200 lbs.

And I was wrong about the runs.. try more like just shy of 400.. He races just about every weekend. There is your durablity test for the block, at this level anyway..

Mike lives in western MN but he builds Ethonol plants for a living, and therefore travels all over the midwest and western US.. and he takes the car with him, everywhere he goes, and finds a drag strip.

Thanks for asking, I had to call him up to find out the answers to your question, and it was great to talk to him again. I needed the conversation, it helped my mood, as I spent the better part of today at Gil's funeral.

And yes, we did open the heads up for the larger bore, look back at the thread there is a picture of the chamber.

JW

 

Hey Jim,

I chatted with Mike in the staging lanes at the BPG event. He is really happy with the car and engine. Keep up the good work!!!

 

Car came out of our neck of the woods. Looked real nice.

 

We finally have closure on this. Nice engine. I want one. Thanks Jim

 

No wonder, that's some seat time!

 

We watched this car run all weekend and we were very impressed. Very consistent even in the brutal heat. Nice looking car too.

 

That is a beautiful engine man. I need to hit the lottery! Are you thinking of getting that car in the US Nationals? I would be there to help! Buicks Rock!

 

Did anyone manage to get a vid of Mike racing?

 

Thanks for sharing this build Jim. Lots of useful info that will save us some time and money on my Tomahawk Stock Appearing build.

 

Update on this thread.

This motor came back for a freshen, after 450 1/4 mile passes.. new rods for maintenance, and he wanted to go faster, so we went with a set of fully ported STG 3 heads, larger camshaft and a converted Indy 440-3X intake.

At high rpm, the old combo was laying down about 80 HP from peak, which was hurting his MPH.

The new combo "went big" on the intake tract and we were rewarded with improved dyno and track performance.

Here is the comparison

Before freshen/upgrade:

On C-12 race fuel

:



On E-85 (30% more fuel which displaces air, hence the power loss)




After rebuild, on E-85




On track performance:

Summer weather, typically about 2500 DA... from 9.0's and teens at 147-148 to 8.60-8.70 at 156-157 MPH..

He has run a whole season now since the rebuild.

Here it is in it's latest configuration:

 

What a work of art. I'm late for work after reading this thread. shes a beauty Jim.

 

Is this a max effort build or a max effort build to a certain amount of money? What was the numbers on Stage 3 heads ( Flow wise)? Either way good article.

 

Where's that line from the fuel pump block off plate going?