FE Power Forums
FE Power Forums => Non-FE Discussion Forum => Topic started by: millerptl on September 17, 2017, 09:02:05 PM
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Just returned home from Dragweek 2017. The event can't be explained, it must be experienced. It is one of the best experiences one can have in the "hot rod" community. Though I had a little bigger expectation for my car this year being that I had more horsepower than last year, it was good enough to win my class and have a great time. The first day at Cordova went as I expected. I went out shifting a little low at 7000 rpm and made a 9.10s pass, with a 1.26 60'. Second day at Gateway I missed 2nd gear after making a great launch but managed a 9.22 which was good enough to hold on to first so we packed up and left. During the trip from Gateway to Byron I broke a rocker arm and drove the remaining 200 miles on 7 cylinders. Next day aired some rockers to the hotel and the next morning changed the rocker and drove to Byron. Third day at Byron I lined up out of the grove and pull hard right out of the gate and had to pedal back. Since I arrived late I only had time for one pass but it was a 9.29 and good enough. Fourth day at Great Lakes I took off and the car would only rev to 4500 rpm, pulled back to the pits and broke another rocker. Swapped the rocker, went back up to the line and broke traction bad, but it went a 9.40 so again safe enough to go back to Cordova. Final day, to make sure I made a decent pass I rolled into the throttle and made a 9.22 pass. At this point, having "finished Drag week 2017" I wanted to try for an 8.99 pass that I think the car can do. I set the 2 step to 3500 rpm, held the transbrake, and .......... I spun very badly. What I did learn though is that I have to rework my rear suspension. Thats what I love about Drag Week and the men and women competitors, I learned from them that I have set my rear suspension up wrong. I will be working on that for next year to get this car to hook up better.
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Congratulations Scott on a great Drag Week 2017 campaign! The FE banner is flying proudly :)
Best Regards,
Bill
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It was great just watching that on the live feed, wish i'd been there. Conserving the car to get through the whole week is a good strategy, lots of cars went out early.
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Do you know the cause for all the rocker arm failures ? What gears did you go with this time ? I remember you thought you had too much gear last year
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Congrats watched your car all week, keep up the good work
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Congratulations, Scott! And to your dad, Jack. It was fun following along all week and watching you guys. Once you get that trans-brake launch sorted out, I think you're definitely looking at 8's.
Blair said he thought it was fatigue on the rockers. He's probably right, but LOTS of guys were having rocker problems. Drag Week is brutal on valvetrain parts, and this year was no exception with 2 very long interstate drives the first 2 days.
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I don't think anyone has mentioned it yet, but I like what you did with simulating the Cougar headlight covers this year. Congrats again on your win.
(https://s5.postimg.org/qkw5ft8s7/IMG_8228.jpg) (https://postimg.org/image/i2mpbh29f/)
(https://s5.postimg.org/xcr5wen5j/IMG_8371.jpg) (https://postimg.org/image/gc89nqa43/)
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Congrats again, Scott, I would love to see that car in the 8s!
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Congrats !! ... 9.20's is darn impressive when your spinning !
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Well deserved win to the Miller family!
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Quick story. At the union grove track Scott and I were lined up to run each other again however there was a very nice young fellow with a very nice 68 or 69 Camaro with a big block and 4 speed in front of Scott that thought he was going have to rum Scott but he did not want to run Scott he wanted to run me because he thought he could beat my stock 68 R code cougar. So he ask if he and Scott could change positions and we said yes that would be ok. Eugene had told the kid that the old man was going to beat him but I don't think he believed it. So we finally got to the line lights flashed on a .4 tree Camaro beat me at the light a little because he had a clutch and I was just leaving off idle. Pulled up beside him in 1st gear hit 2nd gear and pulled a 1/2 car on him hit 3td gear and beat him a little over a car length. Other than Scotts win that was the most fun I had all week. And that rear suspension in Scotts car will be taken car of before next year. We did not realize it until we put the wheelie on that the the rear axle is rotating very badly so bad that the bar which is 8 inches off the ground hits the ground before the front lifts so when he uses the trans brake it just unloads the suspension. However that speaks volume about that Blair Patrick power to make it work as good as it bid with the axle wrapping up so badly.
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Great story, Jack. Although something tells me your Cougars engine isn't totally stock 8)
I didn't even think about it, but it would have been cool to race you once or twice. Two FE's sitting on the line. You averaged 12.59, I averaged 12.52. Sounds like a good race to me! :)
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Hey Doug that would be pretty neat to run to FE's together gets more attention anyway. My cougar does have a 4.25 stroke crank in a 428 block but it was built about 14 years ago and has only 9 to 1 compression and a small hydraulic cam 227 degrees at .050. I built it for a supercharger with about 10 lbs boost but never got around to get it installed so I just run it as is. It probably does run a little better than when it had the stock 428CJ engine in it.
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Congratulations Scott, well deserved 1st. place.......Al
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Great job.... All that work paid off. Have some killer BP power too. Congrats to both of you.
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Congrats, Scott. That is an awesome accomplishment that you should be proud of! :)
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Good job to all involved, thanks for representing the FE crowd! I am impressed that you got the cars weight down to 3250 w/driver. My 68 Cougar is 300 pounds heavier. I know you have an aluminum block but am curious where else you were able to remove weight. I see you have the headlight doors "gutted" and maybe a fiberglass bumper? What else?
On your rear suspension... I think you are doing very well to hook a small tire with leaf springs and that kind of power. A 1.26 is nothing to sneeze at for this kind of suspension. I am assuming you have the Caltrac bars and mono leafs, if you do not have double adjustable rear shocks I would get a good pair with lots of travel so they don't ever top out.
I know on the Shelby stocker I run, that if I try and launch (foot brake w/ 2 step), at anything over 3100 RPM it is going to do one of two things... go on the bumper or blow the tires off. When the track is good I usually launch at 2700 or it will go high and stay high until it comes down and smashes the oil pan and headers. I always have to shift into second gear in the air (on a normal run) or it will run past the gear and come down and bounce hard. It has a C4 with low first gear set, not sure what the converter stall is.
On my Cougar it is a 4 speed so with a clutch a different animal as far as RPM and launching, etc.
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Yep headlight doors are gutted, strange disc brakes on all 4 wheels and fiberglass bumpers. We installed lighter front tires in front and saved 10 lbs and replaced the 36 lb battery with an EarthX battery that weights only 3.9 lbs went with a lighter trans cooler did a little more scraping on the undercoating and all that added up to almost 50 lbs lighter than last year. Scott may have lost a couple lbs also. Also we are running QA1 double adjustable shocks in the rear and strange double adjustable in the front. But it is just unbelievable how much the rear is twisting. We have some ideas how to stop that so hope they work.
Jack
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Congrats to the Miller's for the win. I was following both your cars on the LiveFeed all week. It's simply amazing that the FE can still win in a sea of LS's, Hemi's, SBC's, BBC's..etc. Honestly I think it's a testament to the people in the FE community more than the FE itself.
I am looking forward to hearing how the rearend/suspension changes help. Does anyone have a picture of Jack or Scott's engine?
-John
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Is Scott's car using the Calvert mono-leaf springs and CalTracs?
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Congrats to the Miller's for the win. I was following both your cars on the LiveFeed all week. It's simply amazing that the FE can still win in a sea of LS's, Hemi's, SBC's, BBC's..etc. Honestly I think it's a testament to the people in the FE community more than the FE itself.
I am looking forward to hearing how the rearend/suspension changes help. Does anyone have a picture of Jack or Scott's engine?
-John
I got a picture of the engine in Scott's Cougar. Droool... :o
(https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4434/37163705586_c963e341f9_o.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/YC2GUA) (https://flic.kr/p/YC2GUA) (https://www.flickr.com/photos/51070627@N06/)
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Sorry, everybody. I got back to Virginia and dove right back into work. I'm trying to remember everybody's questions. The rear gear is a 4:30, I was still going through the traps at about 8000 rpm. I need to do some calculating to see if my torque converter is slipping too much. I do run mono leaf caltrak setup. Like my dad said though my rearend is rotation severely, the wheelie bar almost touches the ground before the front tires come off the ground, this is making the pinion angle too steep. The rockers are getting fatigued, this is the 3rd year on them, only the 1.80 intakes broke. We are going to try to have T&D make a small design change on the rockers. I really need to find an overdrive solution for the highway, does anyone make a lockup racing torque converter? I would love to know. Anyways, we will take what we learned and try to refine the car a little more, I have too, Frank Beck with Beck racing engines is building a chevelle to compete in this class next year. He might be able to build a BBC with more horsepower but if I can get this car to 60' in the low 1.20's I can still be competitive, I have been 1.25 before so a better suspension setup should help. Thank you all for your kind words.
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Pictures from various sites.
(https://s5.postimg.org/8lez595tj/IMG_8513.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)
(https://s5.postimg.org/65d5renqv/IMG_8514.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)
(https://s5.postimg.org/4rliw3ohj/IMG_8515.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)
(https://s5.postimg.org/ubnt2j9vb/IMG_8521.jpg) (https://postimg.org/image/s73g1g88j/)
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I really need to find an overdrive solution for the highway, does anyone make a lockup racing torque converter? I would love to know.
Hi Scott, I use a 4R70W behind my stroker 427. It was built by Broader Performance in TX and uses an FE bell without an adapter. It has a Circle D triple disk lockup that seems to work well. My converter was built to lockup 3rd gear going through the traps or when I'm cruising on the freeway. I haven't put a lot of miles on the setup yet, but initial testing has been positive. My transmission was built for the 600HP range so far less then you need. Maybe a 4R70W could be built to hold 1000hp. I really don't know. I would guess the turbo/nitrous mod-motor crowd would know how to make them very strong. A Gear Vendors OD would almost certainly hold the power but that's a very different approach. I hope that helps. Feel free to IM me if you want all the gory details.
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I really need to find an overdrive solution for the highway, does anyone make a lockup racing torque converter? I would love to know.
Scott, what you're after is a mechanical diode style torque converter. They can do all sorts of stuff with them. I believe the turbo guys use them to lock up at the top of the track. The 64 fairlane we run has a torque converter from TCT. It's setup to lock out for street driving. So when we drive it on the street it'll lock up if you're just cruising along.
http://www.torqueconvertertechnology.com/