Blown Skyhawk at Nations?

Discussion in 'Race 400/430/455' started by mltdwn12, May 24, 2004.

  1. mltdwn12

    mltdwn12 Founders Club Member

    Blown Skyhawk at Nationals?

    Saw some good pic's of that blown Skyhawk at the Nationals. How well does this run as far as ET and handling?
     
    Last edited: May 24, 2004
  2. blown455

    blown455 Pit crew

    Which one??

    There were two Blown Skyhawks there this year.

    Rod's silver Skyhawk ran it's best friday at 8.07 @ 172.3 mph. We had to change a head gasket on friday, because it blew in one hole. Got it back together ran an 8.08 and backed it up with the 8.07! Maybe with some better weather we will be able to get that 7 Rod is trying so hard for.

    The other blown Skyhawk was Jerry Chamber's SuperDog. I think his best run was 8.70. He was planned to race Tweaked but Jerry's drive shaft broke. So, they asked us to run them heads up. It was a great race, Rod won with an 8.17 to 8.23
     
  3. blown455

    blown455 Pit crew

    Thought I would mention that Rod's Blown Skyhawk has been to the nat's the last 3 years. Jerry made his first apperance this year. Jerry seems to be doing pretty good so far.
     
  4. Todd Borland

    Todd Borland Buicktodd

    Danie getting ready for action
     

    Attached Files:

  5. Todd Borland

    Todd Borland Buicktodd

    Another
     

    Attached Files:

  6. Todd Borland

    Todd Borland Buicktodd

    Ready to Rock
     

    Attached Files:

  7. blown455

    blown455 Pit crew

    Great photos! Do you think you could e-mail them to me. I'm never in the photo's , usually the one taking them.

    Plus, this year none of the photo tents got a picture of Rod's car. No photo or t-shirt this year :(

    Thanks
     
  8. Todd Borland

    Todd Borland Buicktodd

    No problem Danie I actually have a couple more.
     
  9. blown455

    blown455 Pit crew

  10. Todd Borland

    Todd Borland Buicktodd

    Another Crew Chief Shot
     

    Attached Files:

  11. blown455

    blown455 Pit crew

    Crew Chief !!

    I'll have to get a shirt (bikini) that says that.

    You know if Rod would of listen to me when we were in the semi finals and dialed the car at 8.16 instead of 8.20 we would of gone to the finals. He was kicking himself in the butt when I told him he broke out and what his time was.

    Then again I did get him talked into changing the head gasket. I'm glad all that hard work paid off. Can't win everything.
     
  12. mltdwn12

    mltdwn12 Founders Club Member

    The one I saw in the pic's was the dark color one. TWO of them there, man I wish I could have seen that. Ever since I did some work on the old Kenne-Bell, then T/A Skyhawk, I thought those were cool cars!
     
  13. blown455

    blown455 Pit crew

    That would be Jerry's car.

    Those two are something you have to see in person, pictures do them no justest. The sound is unreal. If you or anyone gets a chance to see them run, you need to go to the end of the track and listen. You'll see the car move, but no noise, then all you hear is the whine of the blower. It is just a wicked sound.
     
  14. Todd Borland

    Todd Borland Buicktodd

    Yea, I wondered about that I had heard it was broke then the next thing I knew it was running 8.0's. That job must have "SUCKED" in the heat. That is a sign of a keeper crew chief. :TU:
     
  15. blown455

    blown455 Pit crew

    Let me tell you it was not fun at all, but then again neither would sitting around watching everyone else race because his car was broke.

    I was actually surprized that he was so willing to throw in the towel. I understand why he was mad at the car. Two weeks before the Nats he had this problem and dumped a bunch of money to get it fixed. Just to have it happen again on the 2nd pass. But we have had other problems that were harder to fix or figure out. Two years ago we had a really bad wheel shake problem. Took us all week to figure it out. Just about everyone was telling him to give up and enjoy the rest of the week. He just kept telling them he didn't come 8 hours away to watch racing. Ended up being a torn tube in the slick. Just by luck we found that problem. That was only half the battle, we had to find a tire shop that would fix it.... did you know that there is only one guy in BG that will touch a slick!

    After telling him most of the morning "we are 8 hours away and we know what the problem is, lets try to fix it" He finally gave in. I think it took us about 3-3 1/2 hours to fix with Keith's help. I think it helped that Jeff Ketchem had the gasket he needed. It ended up being a good end to a rough week.:TU:
     
  16. Adam Whitman

    Adam Whitman Guest

    Danie',

    What are you using for parts in the engine? Ie: block reinforcements, crank,rods,pistons, heads, and compression ratio? Are you running fuel or alky?

    I'm considering a blower engine at some point so any advice is appreciated.
     
  17. Skyhawk

    Skyhawk Well-Known Member

    Glad you guys did real well:beer You will have to come to our event at Cecil County in October and I know you will run a 7 there! John Jr. was really disappointed he couldn't be there with his Skyhawk this year but that will never happen again he said. I made it home for my younger son Joe's graduation in plenty of time Sunday morning(12 hours non-stop, 925 miles) but sorry I missed the Quick 16, there was some really good racing this year. Hope to see everyone at the BPG meet.
     
  18. blown455

    blown455 Pit crew

    John- Glad to hear you made it back in time. You really did miss out on some good racing though. We will see you guys in Aug, and I'll try to get Rod to go to the Oct event. Tell Jr. we missed him there.

    Adam- I'll have to have Rod get back to you on that one. I know the parts, but I would hate to tell you the wrong thing by mistake. It might take me a bit to get him in front of the computer. If I can't I'll have him write it down and I'll send it to you. With out being wrong it is run on alky.
     
  19. Adam Whitman

    Adam Whitman Guest

    Alky tells me alot. Prolly flat-top pistons or maybe domes, and I bet totally filled block. I should have figured not a streetcar(loosely translated) when your subtitle says "injected" and there's a bird-catcher on top.
     
  20. blown455

    blown455 Pit crew

    Adam- you couldn't be farther from the truth. The block is filled 1/2 way because it is a street car! This car gets driven on the street just about every saturday night to the local cruz night, about 10-15 miles from the house. I don't remember if it was last year or the year before we drove it to the cruz night at buffalo wild wings down in BG durning the Nats. Won a t-shirt for the wildest street car.

    The motor is a TA stroker kit. Block reinforcements?!?! Same as any other block other than that there are none, the thing wants to rip apart and it will. Rod just replaced the block this winter,, he split all the main webs. If your looking for a motor that will stay together I don't suggest this one, unless you want to do 9's. The more boost you put to it the more it pulls itself apart. Nothing is cheep about the car either. lots of custom parts on this motor. I'm not telling you not to do it, just keep your wallet open. Just this winter Rod spent more than $16,000 on the motor. I never said he was all there in the head. He has to be missing something. Most of this is in just replacing wore out parts. He replaces the rods every 100 passes, for Rod that is about a summer and a half.

    Let me know what else you would like to know, and I'll ask Rod tonight.
     

Share This Page