Shelby stocker

[Rory428]

Car looks fantastic, Mike. Hope you have a successful shake down sesion this weekend, and no bugs to work out. Looking forward to a full report Sunday night or Monday!

[mike7570]

Shakedown update:
I was a little disappointed with the car last weekend. I had higher expectations of the car (and the driver) because of 15yr of previous race experience running a tunnel port in both super street and super gas. I knew going in my tires could be an issue because I purchased them when I was mocking up the rear axle. I looked it up and the slicks are 9yrs old! They haven't been on the car or even outdoors, but they probably need replacing. Before this trip the car has only moved under power in and out of my garage and from my trailer to the alignment shop.

The Good - I warmed it up driving around the pits and took it up for a cautious 1st pass. Footbrake from idle ran down the track at a little over 100mph. The car rides very nice and straight, the brakes worked great, The oil pressure turning off the track was 40lb at idle and the temp didn't get above 180. It never even pushed any water out of a 7lb radiator cap all weekend. The alternator kept the battery up and I never put it on the charger.

The Bad - The 1st pass didn't go much over 100mph because the driver couldn't figure out why it wouldn't shift into 3rd gear. It dawned on the dummy that you need to pull the lever on the Hurst 3sp shifter going from 2nd to 3rd (but not from 1st to 2nd) my previous race car was a powerglide and you just bumped it from 1st to 2nd. By the time I was in 3rd gear the finish line was only about 30 yards away so I lifted to check the gauges and try out the brakes. (11.70et)
Now I'm ready for a serious run on the 2nd pass. I brought some rpm up against the converter (still foot braking) and nailed the throttle. moved somewhat slow and hit the shift light and rev limiter almost immediately.  Blew the tires off in 1st gear so I shifted to 2nd rather than lift and I remembered to shift correctly into 3rd. I was amazed how smoothly the engine runs and sounds compared to my other FE's until at about 1000' where it hit the rev limiter again and I feathered the throttle to try not to sit on the limiter the rest of the way. (11.30et only 116mph on the 7200rpm limiter, 1.75 60ft. 18psi in the slicks)
The next pass was Sunday, in the morning I took the car down to the far end of the pits and onto the track shut down area to try the 2step. I lowered the tires down to 15psi and raised the rev limiter, I was hoping I could get it to hook and see what it could do. Running it up a little in 1st gear on the way I noticed a stumble in it and got concerned. I took it back to my pit and pulled a few plugs and went through the plug wires and didn't find anything. It was time for the 1st round so I figured I would go back to footbrake and hope the lower tire pressure would help hook it up. On the burnout it had the miss back when the rpms got higher. I staged it and hit the gas on the green, it stumbled in 1st gear so I shifted to 2nd and it cleaned up for a moment and then started shooting ducks. I clicked it off and took it back to load up and head home to trouble shoot the cause.

[Rory428]

Sorry that you had some issues Mike, but a brand new car, engine, the whole combination, teething pains are to be expected. Hopefully you get the bugs sorter out in short order. As an aside, certainly wasn`t a bad weekend for every Shelby drag racer on the West Coast. Tony Hewes won the Super Stock title yesterday at Vegas, with his 69 Shelby GT500 Super Stocker. Even cooler, it was a heads up, all SS/FA final, which Tony won in convincing manner, with a 1.19 under 9.44 ET, which handily beat the 396 Camaro in the other lane, despite the Camaro driver having a good reaction time advantage. Tony had been running 9.8s in the earlier rounds, but picked up the pace for the heads up final.

[mike7570]

Sorry that you had some issues Mike, but a brand new car, engine, the whole combination, teething pains are to be expected. Hopefully you get the bugs sorter out in short order. As an aside, certainly wasn`t a bad weekend for every Shelby drag racer on the West Coast. Tony Hewes won the Super Stock title yesterday at Vegas, with his 69 Shelby GT500 Super Stocker. Even cooler, it was a heads up, all SS/FA final, which Tony won in convincing manner, with a 1.19 under 9.44 ET, which handily beat the 396 Camaro in the other lane, despite the Camaro driver having a good reaction time advantage. Tony had been running 9.8s in the earlier rounds, but picked up the pace for the heads up final.

I really wanted to be in Vegas last weekend rather than Bakersfield but it’s just not ready for some serious racing. (Neither am I, yet) I just couldn’t get everything I needed and then some seat time to go.
The next division 7 race is way off in the fall, I hope to have it sorted out better by then.

[Stangman]

Alright Mike like Rory said hey first time out. Was anyone with you to feel the tires after the burnout to see if they were sticky. Nine years is a long time but might still be good if indoors. As far as the misfire I would just go over the basics you know plug gaps and check porcelain for cracks ignition wires for proper crimps. I know we always try to do everything perfect but hey it’s hotrodding. It wouldn’t be any fun if everything went right.

[mbrunson427]

Mike, not sure what you have in it for ignition, but I'd check out the power to that to eliminate as an issue. Our drag car had all the symptoms of a fuel delivery issue, chased it for weeks and we were kind of stumped. Just turned out to be an MSD box that had bad power run to it and it was bugging out. Really frustrating

[Rory428]

Mike, when you did your burnout, did the slicks smoke right away? I have always found that fresh slicks wil smoke right away, but old hard tires, take much longer to get the smoke rolling off them. Hardly scientific, but could indicate how subtle the rubber compound is after sitting several years. Also, soft tires will usually have lots of rocks sticking to them, but older tires don`t cause the rocks to stick as well. And, are they bias or radial slicks? I have never used radial slicks, they tend not to work very well with stickshift cars, but from talking with Stocker and S/S racers with radials, that once they start spinning, they just don`t recover like a bias slick will. And the radials usually will work with higher pressures than a bias tire, but they also don`t grow as much at high speed.

[cjshaker]

Mike, when you did your burnout, did the slicks smoke right away? I have always found that fresh slicks wil smoke right away, but old hard tires, take much longer to get the smoke rolling off them. Hardly scientific, but could indicate how subtle the rubber compound is after sitting several years. Also, soft tires will usually have lots of rocks sticking to them, but older tires don`t cause the rocks to stick as well.

My Mickey Thompson ET/Streets never did smoke. I made sure when I got them that they had a recent date, and it was within a month or two from purchase as I recall. Even 2nd gear burnouts in the box produced no smoke. I always thought that was odd because everyone else at the track would always smoke pretty good on the burnouts. They have NO problem picking up rocks though. Even on the street, a rolling spin in first and a slight spin when hitting 2nd is enough to heat them up enough to grab every stone in my driveway and throw it up under the wheelwell. I've had some traction issues from the get-go, and despite making changes to the Cal Tracs, shocks and tire pressure, it seemed hit or miss. I always wondered if the tires were at least part of the issue. I guess only a different set would tell me.

If MSD is involved in the ignition, after checking power and grounds, first thing I'd try is a different pickup, then go from there. I've had more than a fair share of issues with those crappy pickups.

[mike7570]

Rory, no smoke and now that you mentioned it no little pebbles or rocks stuck to the tires at all. I remember my Firestones on my super gas car would pick them up like crazy. The noise driving back to the pits with all the little pebbles hitting the aluminum wheel tubes was loud!
I’m leaning toward a lean miss but it didn’t get noticeable until the second day. The air was only slightly better that day and hard to figure how a small change caused the problem. The rocker and new valve springs were all fine and all the plug wires were making good contact.
I think I will jet up 3 or 4 sizes, raise the rev limiter farther away from the shift light rpm and order some new tires. Oh, and some new plugs also.
Looking at the plugs that came out #2, #6 and #8 look like they are running a bit too lean.
What do you guys think?

[Stangman]

I can see that. I can see how 8 could be lean being farther away but 2 and 6 is odd. No way lash is to tight in those cylinders right like a valve staying open.

[hbstang]

good to see you got it to the track!i am sure you will work the bugs out.
the car is really to nice to be a drag car,could be a show car easy.

[mike7570]

Another little issue, some tire rub is evident on the inside wheel well lip. Didn't create enough heat to hurt the paint on the outside wheel lip but mph was down do to a few problems encountered. I need to replace the old tires but not sure on sizing for the new ones. Do I go down to 28" diameter bias tire or try a 29.5" radial? The current tires are listed at 29" bias tire. The bias tires gain some height at mph but the radials supposedly do not grow.
Current picture with settled springs.  (I know I put the stipe on a little crooked on this side, oops!)

[hbstang]

heres a picture from fb

[Stangman]

She looks great