Ever wonder what those 1/4-20 holes in a block girdle are for?

Something like this... we just quick whipped this up in the shop tonight, out of a Stef's windage tray kit.

JW

 

For the uneducated/inexperienced/unwashed, what are we looking at Jim?

 

Windage tray...

Strips the oil away from the spinning crankshaft, to reduce the power robbing "blanket" of oil that wraps around the crank at RPM. This is a teflon coated deal (the other side is coated) and fits to 3/8- 1/2 of an inch from the rods/crank counterweights.

Past testing on a similar one, on a 470 Hp motor, showed an 8 HP increase in power, along with 10 psi of oil pressure, from the reduction of oil airation. It was a much smaller piece, used on a non-girdled motor, with a custom full length deepened oil pan.

This motor will make a bunch more HP than that one, and spin at a higher rpm, so it is logical that that piece could be worth 10-20 HP.

I am a proponent of stripping the oil off the crank, and working the oil feed holes in the lifters to limit the oil to the top of the motor, vs filling the lifter galley. This motor has a TA lifter bore girdle in it, will run a vacuum pump setup, with a 267* roller cam.

Going to the dyno a week from Friday, and it is the motor for the car in my avatar, which is coming along nicely.. should be complete in about 3 weeks.

Here is a pic of it in progress.. still wrapped in it's protective white plastic.

 

Looks good Jim!:TU: Do you plan on marketing those?

 

Had not really considered marketing them... maybe, if there is a demand. Just like everything else we build, I keep careful notes as to dimensions and fits. But this could vary some, according to the type of rods/oil pan used. I would be more inclined to possibly build one into a pan, but then again, I'm not in the engine parts business either..

JW

 

sump

Cool Jim - ever tried a dry sump on the dyno? - Bill

 

No, never have... big $$$ and I have not as of yet had a customer who wanted to go that route.

JW

 

Perpetual Motion Machine

Jim:

Do I understand this correctly? The mesh comes in contact with the crank and removes excess oil?

I would figure the drag on the crank would be no less than the excess oil which it the mesh removes.

Weird.

 

No, the material of the screen is 3/8 - 1/2 inch from the rods and crank counterweights.

Making sure there is no contact is a very important aspect of the setup.

JW

 

Here is a pic of the clearance to better understand it..

 

???

Is this what is reffered to as a "crank scraper" or no?

Same but different?

 

It's not a crank scaper per se. But it works on the same principle, to get the excess oil off of the crank and not "sling" around with the crank, thereby stoping parasitic drag. That's where your horsepower incrase comes from.

Crank scrapers bolt down under the oil pan on the, I believe, passenger side of the motor. There is someone selling crank scrapers on ebay for $20. Don't know how good they are, but might be worth a look.

Here's the link:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2404890628&category=6778


Phil

 

hey jim is my motor getting that treatment .

 

Jim

The tinwork looks good is the car going to be done this year. It will be cool to see Mr. Sweesy back on the track. I was wondering did you rivet all of it in or do you have most of it removable with Dzuz fasteners. I tell you one thing we are damn glad we used dzuz fasteners on the whole car we have the entire interior out of it for cleaning and maintance this winter. It was a lot of work, but time well spent for sure. What is that car going to weigh when finished? I know the pictures on the web page are really nice of the chassis. I haven't been there for a long time do you have any updates up.

 

Todd,

Similar... But your motor is not getting a block girdle, so I have a very different setup that goes on those motors.. Looks like this.. and you can see where I cut a stock pan to deepen it.

That's what you will have..

 

Bobb,

Only the center panel above the 4 link and wishbone is removable.. and the trans tunnel. There was not the budget to do all of it, you know how much time it takes..

Yes, car will be in Norwalk this spring, barring any major hangups. It will be pitted in the TSP tent, along with our "Project Regal" big block street car.. (as long as I get that one done too..)

George is getting excited.. motor goes to the dyno a week from Friday, car should be complete in less than a month. It's about 50-60 hours away now. We are good to go, it's wearing it's new certification tag, and I expect it to come in at around 2700 lbs with George in it.. but I won't know for sure until I get it on the wheel scales for final setup. It's a mild steel car, as I had to go that route with it, since his front clip was mild steel, and we retained that, after fixing some shock mount heights. So for a tube car, it's a little heavy yet, so we will be running a T-400 in it. If it was 300 lbs lighter, we could have went with a 'glide.

And no, I don't even have the pics you saw on the new website yet.. with my schedule, something has to give, and that's the time to spend working on that site..

JW

 

out of curiosity where did you get your block girdle from and how much trouble was it to make it work. chaz

 

Check this out:

TA Block Girdle

Brien

 

OMG.......t-400 behind a 494 in a light car?..........

Should 60 foot in the 1-teens..........

Are you sure we can't talk you into the 2-speed?

 

Yup... now you understand all the bars and their rather particular placements, the anti-sway bar, the Motor and mid plates, the cam selection, the 4 link with a million holes, and 12 point 1/2 bolts, with the expensive 3/4-1/2" rod ends, to allow for a dizzying amount of bar placement combinations, the bullet proof rear end assembly... and the wheelie bars..

I want this car to leave like a shot..

George wants to go fast, and it has always been my opinion that the best way to do that with a Buick, a stock block that has rpm limitations, and a car with the frontal area of a minivan and the aero of a bus, is to cover the first part of the track as quick as possible. I am of the opinion that this will result in the lowest ET from a car of this type, providing we can hook the setup. It's won't put awe-inspiring numbers on the dyno sheets or the MPH clock on the strip, but ET wins the race, and is the point of this whole endevor.

But I will offer no preditions, as I am not one to count my cluckers before they hatch.. I am under no illusions that what we are trying to do will be easy. We are working very hard to get the car done, so we can get a month of testing before Norwalk.

I am confident in the suspension/cage setup, we build virtually an identical one under our old Regal, and in 01 at BG, when everyone was bitching about the track conditions, we made two 4 link changes, hooked hard, and went straight as an arrow. In the heat, on that slippery track, it went nearly as fast as it ever had, in much better conditions. It ran the number better than it did the year before (when we won the whole deal) but an errant red light by me put us in the trailer.

Later that year George saw that car up at BIR, when Tim was up running a quick event with it, and being impressed with how it was leaving was the one of the major factors leading up to the transformation of his car, in the shop here.

He was over yesterday afternoon, as I was doing some final fitting of hoses and lines on the motor, and had the headers hanging on the side of the motor on the stand.. I don't think I have ever seen him so excited.. he just kept staring at the motor and the headers.. "Those are AWESOME" he said..

Doing this job, and getting customer response like that, to a part we litterally created from scratch, really makes all the effort involved worth while! I will post a few pics, when I get it buttoned up later this weekend.

PS... AS I was carrying one of his slicks out to his truck yesterday, George looked at me and said "you better stay healthy".. I asked why, thinking he wants to be sure that I am around to chassis tune with him.. His reply was rather shocking.. "I have a few nagging ailments that have been bugging me for the last 8 months or so, and right now, I am not sure I should drive the car.. so you may have to do it"...

:eek2:


As much fun as that would be, I hope the docs can come up with a solution to some really irritating stuff that has been going on with George health-wise, as I would rather watch him enjoying driving it.

I guess we will see.

JW

PSS.. The car won't be all that light.. it's all steel, save for the front bumper, hood and deck lid. It's also a mild cage. I am figuring 27-2800 lbs, with driver, race ready.