I haven't expired anything more than a couple of five year old valvesprings since I got serious! Chicken?
Jim, I'll keep you up to date when I get back. I keep trying to drive over the crank but it wont let me. :blast: I suppose when I get a forged crank it will be even harder. Again, nice work!
like the intake set up Jim... Rick Crawford....I love your Avatar... Takes a special kinda guy "wildman" to drive it off of the line like that and still run 120+mph in 660'.... Nice ET too... I would love to have you and your "Brick" at the local Tue Night quick-16 street car show...give em some Buick Muscle to chew on..<grin> :TU:
Yeh, it can be a bit "wild". I've been well past the sixty foot on the back tires and had it start to turn on me, luckly toward the center of the track. I also had it get away from me, Left a little too hard, coming down too hard and breaking the steer box. I went down the rest of the track with NO steering. It scraped the gaurd rail just enough to break the new paint but no dents and pulled back to the center of the track and went straight the rest of the way. I've had tire shake so bad through the 60ft that I could hardly see.-Travel limiters didn't work so good- Its been interesting. I think most of the wild stuff is on tape, so it made it all seem worth while. It generally goes very straight so its more of a rush than wild.
JW & stagetwo65: I guess it would be either VROOOM or BOOOM! HA! Good luck at the track guys, show the Brand X'ers what Buick muscle can do!
Hey Jim, Nice engine..... Does Sweezy still have the 4.10s in that car or did he ever change them to the 4.30s? Also what is the tire diameter he is running? (or rollout). See you in a few weeks!!! Later
Rod Hedrickson hasn't driven over his crank yet and thats the baddest v8 buick period.A little nitrous is alot easier on the block than a blower if the tune up is right.
Ok lets not turn this into a war What I want to know is how many of you guys have destroyed a girdled block other than lifter bores? If rod got three years out of his last block in a blown application making 1200hp plus I would think a nitrous motor would last longer assuming no burnt pistons or detonation problems.It also seems that a 800hp motor would be somewhat reliable. So whats up?
Just an "off the cuff remark" guys, don't get your undies in a bunch.. You can make 1200 HP with a stock 455 block, if you don't mind spending plenty of dough replacing that block every so often. Some folks don't want to do that, they want to build something and keep the major repair expenses down.. so 800-900 HP is pretty much the limit. Plenty of guys have hurt girdled blocks, Martinez, Hecker, Hopkins are just a few names that come to mind.. I thought I just read that Rod just spent 16K again on his motor.. but we would have to have him comment on that.. JW
I hear ya' Jim, I just can resist pokin' at you guys every once and a while. You gotta admit, going faster is addicting. :Brow: I heard Rod spent 10K not too long ago. Is this a different instance?
OK thats what I wanted to hear. I realize the block is junk but I wanted to know at what hp point does bad stuff begin to happen.With Bradshaw dragging his feet on the block I need to decide wether to put mine together and hope for the best or hold on.I spent a ton of money on the stock block so it seems like waist for it to sit around.Plain and simple speed costs. I think the buick comunity needs to step forward.We need to bring fresh faces into our circle or further development of parts will stop and that hurts all of us.If we just sit back and say we can't do that we'll break it then we will never progress past the point we are at.It seems to me that there are but a few people here that want to press forward. If you look at whats been popular in the last few years nitrous turbos and blowers are the future of the sport of drag racing.If that first honda drag racer said we can't do it they never would have come this far and like it or not the import guys are flat flying. Anyway this brings me to the fact I need to get off my dead a@@ and get mine done to help further our cause we need another guy willing to risk running over his crank do to to much nitrous or boost to hell with it it's only money.
About seven or eight years ago, I brought my motor (481" - 796 HP) back to Scotty Guadagno to be "freshened up". One of the few that made it back to the shop in one piece. Or so I thought! He called me when he took it apart to tell me that a broken off piece of the block webbing fell out when the girdle came off. The only thing holding it in place up til that point was the girdle! That time, plus the time I broke a lifter bore at Norwalk, were the two blocks that I broke "without help". By that, of course, I mean I'm not counting all the blocks that broke because exploding shrapnel blew a hole out through the side of the block! Or the block and one side of the oil pan. Or the block and both sides of the oil pan. :af: If any of you guys think you deserve a new aftermarket block more than me, you're wrong! I'VE EARNED IT! :laugh:
Ok, that being said. What would be the grief on running the "elites" on an 1/8 mi. format. I know I have no grief with it. The 10.5 class In N.C. is run at all the tracks on 1/8 mi, even the 1/4 mi tracks. Fastest guy still wins And your motor will generallly last twice as long or more. the last 1/8 mi is where we tend to eat our motors at anyways. So what if the NMRA, NMCA, and others run 1/4 at there big events. We can't compete with them anyways on a heads-up format 1/4 mi. Most people don't have the money to build new motors every year which is why we can support a heads-up forum. Even after the new block, it will be years before you build up enough durable fast car to start a new class.
I know I can't speak for anyone but myself, nor do I consider myself elite by any stretch, but if I found out tomorrow that drag racing was going to be only 1/8 mile from now on....I'd quit. I think an 8.90 run in the quarter mile is over too quick! I'm sure I'd hate racing eighth mile. As I said...just my opinion.
YOU NEED A SLOWER CAR AND A LONGER TRACK !!!!!!!!!!! (by the way.........do they have GO-KARTS in Salem)
Hey Doug, Better yet.... A side by side 8.90 run at 150 mph :grin: :grin: I think Jim and Rick will be having fun with us at Quaker:3gears: Jim, 9.00s at 150 mph with a 4.30 gear and a 102 circ tire equals 6800 rpms with no converter slip. Add your 5% converter slip and that puts you at 7140 trap rpms. Come on..... I think I remember you saying that George will not be there. What he doens' t know will not hurt him:eek2: Later:3gears:
Doug How many runs where on that motor before it failed? Is that the only one you had that failed in the main webs? What kind of rpm do you turn your motors?
Jim This thread has morphed significantly in the last several posting, so you may not even see this - -- --- but, are those carb spacers shown in your original photo made of wood?!? If so, why? is it just a quick expediency for testing? Craig
