Just a quick update this week. Family stuff kept me pretty busy during the week, but on Saturday I got back to assembling the car. I received my new torque converter from Neal Chance on Friday, and also got some coarse filter screens to put on the dry sump outlets on the oil pan; I had decided that in case of an engine failure I wanted to try to prevent any shrapnel from getting into the dry sump pump. On Saturday I got the dry sump filter screens installed and the lines modified so everything fit again, and after a certain amount of trouble I got the transmission reinstalled. Took a lot longer to put it in than it did to take it out, of course...
Sunday I put the front suspension back in the car, which also took quite a bit of time, and then finally mid afternoon I filled the engine with oil, topped off the transmission fluid, and fired the engine. It ran for 20 minutes with the car still up in the air on the jack stands, and I didn't see one drop of oil or transmission fluid. What a relief. I've burned a total of three weeks on this problem; three weeks I didn't really have. Drag Week starts three weeks from today!
Sunday night I got the wheels back on and put the car down on the scales, after I'd leveled them on the floor, so I could find the CG and get the height set at all four corners. After I'd made all the adjustments the weight bias was 58/42, much more of a front bias than I'd been hoping for, but it is what it is. Weight on the rear wheels was pretty close to 50/50 left to right, and the left front wheel was about 120 pounds heavier than the right front wheel. I think this is about where it should be, given the propensity of a drag car to lift the left front wheel on launch, but I'm not 100% sure about that so I need to do a little research on that this week.
Next I checked the driveshaft angles and found that I had too much up angle on the pinion. I ran out of time on Sunday to map the four link hole locations, but I'll do that next, get the bars in the holes I want to try to get a neutral launch, and then adjust the bars to bring the pinion angle down somewhat if that is still required. I think this is going to be Monday night's project.
Last thing I did for the night was put my freshly painted hood in place to get a look at the overall appearance with the hood scoop. Unfortunately, the throttle linkage that I spent so much time fabricating hits the hood
I will have to either trim the underside of the hood or revamp the throttle linkage; I haven't decided which yet.
I'm out of time now for testing, so getting to the track on Saturday this week is not optional, it is mandatory. One way or the other, weather permitting of course, I will run the car next Saturday. I'll post another update next weekend.