1962 F100 unibody drag truck

[Stangman]

Took a look at your videos. pretty cool mud drags look fun. also beating up on that subaru looks fun also.

[KMcCullah]

Happy 4/27 guys! We celebrated by taking our F100 out to our local drag strip. We made it through tech inspection ok. He did note we have to get a trans blanket before we come back next time. I didn't get any video but I did get a few time slips. I made some notes on each time slip about the pass. It really seems like I'm having to learn to drive all over again in this truck. I think I made just about every dumb mistake that a drag racer can make. We didn't have time to ride around the neighborhood so I made 2 shakedown passes to make sure the thing drives right. It goes straight as an arrow. No vibrations. Doesn't pull when I slam on the brakes. The king pin caster angle must be good too. I noticed when driving through the pits that the steering wheel quickly re-centers itself after a turn. The C6 worked great also. The oil heats up to about 180 after a pass.









The only negative I can think of was all the left over blasting sand in the cowl. It was hot sitting in the staging lanes so I opened the vents thinking it would cool down during my first shake down pass. At about 90 MPH the interior of the truck became a blasting cabinet. Which filled every orifice of my sweaty body with sand. Not cool.

Going forward we see several things that need addressed:

4:57 rear gears are too much. Something in the mid to low 5's would be better. Edit: We have a 5:13 set but they're not pro gears. Currently exploring options here.

We learned what a 2 step box does. So now I'm looking for one that will work with an old analog 6AL box. This will make launching more consistent. And improve 60' times hopefully.

[turbohunter]

Congrats Kevin. Must be nice to have some time slips after all the work.
Great truck.

[KMcCullah]

Thanks Marc. It's been a really rewarding project. The sum of all of our efforts and knowledge finally realized. Now I just have to get my poop in a group and drive. I also enjoyed seeing dad reconnect with several of the old local racers. One he even went to school with back in the 60's.

I will add, this is by far the fastest vehicle I've ever driven. Way way WAY faster than mud drags. 

[KMcCullah]

We’re all set for another trip to the track. We’ve made several changes since our last outing. 





We think we figured out our high speed vibration. Both of the rear tires had to be rebalanced. The drivers side was off by 5oz. And the pass side wasn't much better. These tires and wheels were purchased mounted and balanced through Summit Racing but who knows who did the actual mounting and balancing. Piss poor workmanship!

We got the wideband o2 meter working again. It needed a new o2 sensor. The old one had been fouled with leaded racing gas.

Once the wideband was working again we figured out we were running super lean. Like 13.7-14 on the big end. Maybe the reason why it was heating up to 210 after a pass. We took a guess and jetted up from 75 to 78 on both sides of the carb. We haven’t made a pass since re-jetting but I bet it still wants a little more. Holy crap what a difference the headers made! It was the only thing we changed from when the motor was in my Highboy.

The pan evacs are hooked up now. We think all of the vacuum leaks are fixed. The dipstick was the culprit we think. Will see what the vacuum gauge says.

Almost forgot....We hauled it down to the nearest truck stop and rolled it across the scale. It came in at a robust 3880lbs with me in it. And it weighs 400lbs more on the front axle than the rear. Lots of work to do here.

And last but not least, we buffed out the 57 year old paint. Heck.... just knocking off all the oxidation should be worth a tenth.     We also mounted a couple of old "Cobrajet" emblems on the valve covers. They came from a '69 CJ Torino that dad raced back in '75.

[turbohunter]

That thing looks great.
Love the 428 badge.

[KMcCullah]

Thanks Marc. Those badges have been in my tool box for 30+ years.

[Leny Mason]

How cool, a great Father son project I did a 1056 Ford Parklane wagon with my Son vary good memories. and your truck looks great Leny Mason. 

[KMcCullah]

Thanks Leny. I feel pretty lucky to have had the opportunity to build this hotrod with my dad. Got to check something off my bucket list to boot. 

We had a good outing last night. We got rid of our vibration issue finally. Went 11.70's 3 times in a row. My first pass I noticed the A/F ratio was still on the lean side. We went up 2 more jet sizes and finally got to a reasonable 12.8-13. With 8600DA. Spark plugs looked good.



With the added jetting to the carb, we must be making a a little more HP. Because now we have a traction issue. Our 60' times went from 1.500's to 1.700's. We need to try lowering the 2-step rpm a bit. But gotta get some smaller rev pills. 3000rpm is the smallest pill we have right now. We're about ready to ditch the drag radials for some slicks also.  In the video I short shifted to 2nd gear to get the tires to hook. Plenty to work on still. But we're having a good time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuLvmSmQA5Y

[Bolted to Floor]

Thanks for the ride Kevin. 

[Leny Mason]

When I used to race Mine with 4 something gears and the truck four speed and 428 PI I would start out in third, I don't remember what RPM worked the best but with the truck tranny you could not shift from second to third, with vary little spinning but it was tough . Leny Mason 

[KMcCullah]

Was that a T18, Leny? I ran one for years in my Highboy. They shift so much smoother than a NP435. I ended up twisting the output shaft off. Too many 3rd gear launches.  I couldn’t find another output shaft for it. So I swapped to a NP435 and a 12” Centerforce DF clutch. That was a decent combo for 3rd gear launches in the mud. Can’t imagine doing that on pavement. 
Here’s a 3rd gear launch with a quick shift to 4th.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1pivhY9OfDE

[Leny Mason]

I do not know it was the one that came in it and I bought it in 1970, it was tough though,

[KMcCullah]

We had a good outing the other night. Ran a new best of 11.53@111. Knocked .200 off our old best. Edit: And .102 off our 60'. Despite what everybody says about drag radials, I started warming the shit out of the tires. But mainly due to paying closer attention to the shift light. Lol Who knew? Edit: Forgot a detail. We were out riding around a few weeks back and I did a big ass John Force burnout. Maybe 100 yards long. Later on when we came by that burnout mark we noticed the driverside tire was leaving a light dark light dark pattern on the pavement for about 75 feet and then it changed to solid black. This caused us to go back to the garage and pull that tire off for a close inspection. With our thumbnails we found a spot that was a lot harder than the rest of the tire. About the size of a piece of office paper. This gave us an excuse to go out and get a nice durometer. What we found with the durometer was a difference of about 18 shore from high to low on that tire. We don't know much about tire manufacturing but this seems like a QC issue. Especially on a performance type of tire. And these friggin M/T drag radials were expensive btw!
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrYdroG3_zw

[CaptCobrajet]

 Hey Kevin, looks like you guys are having fun and making progress!  I watched your video.  When you do your burnout, pump the brakes up real tight and then hit the line lock.  Shift up to high gear just like you did, but stay in the water another 2-3 seconds and then let go of the line lock and let it burn the tires on out past the water.....maybe half way to the starting line and then feather out of it in time to get stopped.  Radial or not, you have to heat the tires, and stay on it far enough to get away from the water trail after the water box. 

Engine sure sounds good going down the track.  You did a nice job!!