THe road to Drag Week 2016 - Hemi Style

[jayb]

Wiring like this gives me nightmares, but me thinks there's a little Tom-(or Joel)foolery going on in this photo 

Yes indeed, Joel is a sly and mischevious trunk monkey   I remember back in 2008, when Joel and I were at Bowling Green for the start of Drag Week.  I pulled my Galaxie over to the scale where there were probably 50 participants waiting around.  It weighed 3935 with me in it, and everybody went, "Whoa!!".  Back in the pits, Joel said we should have stuffed the trunk with the tool box, the gas cans, and whatever else to make it as heavy as we could, just to really wow the crowd LOL!  Something tells me that rats nest of wiring under the dash is along the same lines as a toolbox in the trunk...

[Hemi Joel]

It's all about the presentation...

[JERICOGTX]

Last night, I installed subframe connectors in Joel's GTX. The dual fuel system is now 90% complete, and we are gaining on the CAR being complete. Joel still has to finish the engine, but is taking the next couple days off of work, and we should be OK. Hopefully we can get a few street miles on, before we load up and head out next Friday night. Going to be tight, but we WILL be going...

[Hemi Joel]

YUp, Jeff is hard at work while I goof off almost full time.

Here he is welding in the frame ties.


Since I'm a rookie at cutting pistons, it is taking me a while. I am kind of sneaking up on it, cut some, then assemble and test.  So I don't take of any more than needed. I can't go backwards with the mill!


We should be ready for Drag Week in time, if nothing major goes wrong.

[jayb]

Nice machining setup on that piston!

[turbohunter]

Nice Mr. Joel.
I believe this may call for a "we are not worthy" bow from the peanut gallery.

[cjshaker]

Those must be some pretty valuable U-joints to need locking up

Did it pain you to weld the subframe connectors on such a pristine (nearly)original car?

[JERICOGTX]

Just a HEMI car... They made plenty of them in '67. Besides, they were built to race, not sit in the grass at a show, while the owner sits next to it under a umbrella.

[Hemi Joel]

Those must be some pretty valuable U-joints to need locking up

Did it pain you to weld the subframe connectors on such a pristine (nearly)original car?

Those are date coded, ink stamped, NOS 1970 HemiCuda convertible 4 speed  U-joints. 

I figure the frame connectors will help preserve the car, so no guilt there. 

[Hemi Joel]

 So here we are, 1 week before the start of Drag Week, and I am in a last minute thrash to get the GTX ready. Over the the last week or two, I have put the Hemi together. Since the last time this short block was together was 2005, it seems that I have spent more time looking for stuff and cleaning parts than I have actually wrenching.




I used the Summit windage tray with an integral gasket. I didn't think it  had enuff holes in it to scrape the crank, so I make a few myself using a knife heated with a torch:



Hopefully, this FlowKooler water pump will help keep it cool on the street.



By the time I got it all screwed together today, and started cleaning it up to paint it was almost dark. I was so tired from the long hard days all week, I could barely stand up anymore. Then Jeff came over, and offered to do the honors with the $10 harbor freight HVLP gun. He was out there spraying by porch light, with bugs flying all around. THen it started raining, so we pushed it inside and blew the water off of it. When the rain quit, we pushed it back out and finished.



Seeing the Hemi in fresh paint lit a new fire of motivation in my heart, and I immediately got busy on it again.



I pulled the K frame out by dropping it onto a freight cart that I converted to a K frame cart. THe motor and trans will get assembled on and set on the cart, then the body lowered over it.

I still have a ton of work to do. The first passes on the new combo will be at Drag Week.

[cjshaker]

Jeez, you're up as late as I am working on stuff.
And it's LESS than a week that you need to be on the road, but who's counting
Good luck on the rest of the week. Hopefully everything will go smoothly and there are no break-in issues with the engine. What compression did you build into it?

[jayb]

The motor looks great, Joel.  Jeff has been a real help; I think he's been indispensable for both of us...

[Qikbbstang]

Joel FWIW: for decades I made a living separating the wanted from the unwanted in filtration.  One of my favorite side-lines was studying windage trays at every opportunity. A favorite is the modern production Chevy Vette windage tray almost a refined version of the vintage FoMoCo FE trays and your Summit tray. They all use the cheese grater louvers that try to capture the centrifugally thrown oil'liquid boundary layer from the top surface of the tray and direct it down to the basement under the tray. Deep or tall grates tend to grab both air/wind and the oil. Absurdly tall grates direct everything (a lot of wind) down below.  Low or shallow grates are more selective just going for the thin oil boundary and selectively limiting the air/wind sent below to the sump.
   JMHO the last thing you want is to send excessive air/wind down under the tray, first because not only must the gases/wind someway come back up but secondly it vastly complicates what you want to be calm area under the tray/in the sump where you are hoping the oil can shed itself of aeration/bubbles prior to being picked up and pumped back through all your bearing surfaces that depend on an oil film to hold things apart. Premium lube's have anti-foaming agents that encourage the oil to shed itself of air -- junk oil or worn out additive package oil will make great milk shakes the way air is retained in it. Last I heard shaving cream or aerated oil sucks at providing film strength or providing hydraulic support.
   LSS- Probably was not the beat idea to work over that production tray.
   Personally I will say the concept of using a woven wire mesh trays or mesh windows in a stamped tray is perfect for aerating any lubricating fluid.. The hundreds of openings of the mesh act like the bubble wands kids use to blow bubbles - couple them with the massive back & forth displacement pulsations of the pistons and wind storm going around the crank and I can think of no better way to aerate oil.

[Hemi Joel]

Got the engine and trans in today. Not ready to start it yet.

[cjshaker]

Good luck on the small stuff. Hope it goes well.
That's a cool tunnel ram in the background, by the way.