Author Topic: July 1, 2012 - The Road to Drag Week 2012  (Read 6189 times)

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jayb

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July 1, 2012 - The Road to Drag Week 2012
« on: July 01, 2012, 10:38:48 PM »
Yikes!  Not much time left, nine weeks give or take before the start of this year's Drag Week.  As a result of my CNC adventures, I'm now far behind schedule, and need to really move from this point forward in order to make the event.

Today my friends Joel and BradFORD came over to give me a hand with a couple projects, getting the 489" supercharged FE out of the Mach 1, and getting the flywheel changed in the Galaxie.  The temperatures and humidity today were oppressive, and seemed to make things go slower.  Nevertheless by 3:00 we had the engine and trans out of the Mach 1; here's a couple of photos showing the engine on the way out:





After the engine was out of the Mach 1 we pushed it out of the hoist bay and moved the Galaxie in.  We disassembled the trans and put some long bolts in the bottom holes in the block for the bellhousing, and then slid the trans back on the bolts to gain access to the flywheel bolts without taking the transmission completely out of the car.  After unbolting the flywheel though we couldn't get it out of the car because of interference from the headers.  We ended up unbolting the left side headers and finally got the flywheel free, but then the next problem cropped up with the new flywheel.  This is an ATI unit, and it uses a spacer that goes between the crank and the flywheel to put the ring gear in the stock position.  First, the spacer was just a little too tight to fit over the round nub on the end of the crank, and it didn't feel like tightening the crank bolts would easily pull it into place.  So, I chucked it in the lathe and after a couple of iterations of taking a thousandth off the ID of the spacer, if finally fit on reasonably well.  Then we added the flywheel but were not able to get all six bolts in; we double checked to make sure we had the alignment right, but that wasn't the problem.  It turned out that the flywheel had one bolt hole that was just a little bit off, and this led to misalignment with the spacer.  The bolt would go in crooked and not thread into the crank.   So, out came the flywheel and I opened up the one hole just slightly with an abrasive roll in my die grinder.  Back in the car, the last bolt finally threaded in, but when we got to the shoulder on the bolt it started to turn tight.  Clearly it needed to come off and be clearanced further.

Joel had left a little earlier, and at this point Brad and I decided to throw in the towel; it was after 7:00 and had been a long day.  I can get the flywheel installed and the car back together this week, hopefully on Monday and Tuesday nights.  On the Fourth I hope to get going on the short block of the high riser that is going in the Mach 1.  I'll post another update next weekend.
Jay Brown
- 1969 Mach 1, Drag Week 2005 Winner NA/BB, 511" FE (10.60s @ 129); Drag Week 2007 Runner-Up PA/BB, 490" Supercharged FE (9.35 @ 151)
- 1964 Ford Galaxie, Drag Week 2009 Winner Modified NA (9.50s @ 143), 585" SOHC
- 1969 Shelby Clone, Drag Week 2015 Winner Modified NA (Average 8.98 @ 149), 585" SOHC

   

thatdarncat

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Re: July 1, 2012 - The Road to Drag Week 2012
« Reply #1 on: July 01, 2012, 11:02:06 PM »
Glad to see you had some quality help. And I know we've discussed it before, how come nothing ever just bolt's on?
Kevin Rolph

1967 Cougar Drag Car ( under constuction )
1966 7 litre Galaxie
1966 Country Squire 390
1966 Cyclone GT 390
1968 Torino GT 390
1972 Gran Torino wagon
1978 Lincoln Mk V

66FAIRLANE

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Re: July 1, 2012 - The Road to Drag Week 2012
« Reply #2 on: July 19, 2012, 12:10:07 AM »
Why is there an oxy torch flint on your fender? Tell us it aint so?  :o

427Fastback

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Re: July 1, 2012 - The Road to Drag Week 2012
« Reply #3 on: July 19, 2012, 07:34:26 PM »
That was used to light the fire under their "arse".........
1968 Mustang Fastback...427 MR 5spd (owned since 1977)
1967 Mustang coupe...Trans Am replica
1936 Diamond T 212BD
1990 Grizzly pick-up

jayb

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Re: July 1, 2012 - The Road to Drag Week 2012
« Reply #4 on: July 19, 2012, 10:41:55 PM »
That was used to light the fire under their "arse".........

LMAO!!  ;D ;D

I had dug the torch out because a couple of the header bolts were so tight they didn't want to come out, so we were going to heat up the ears of the exhaust ports to free them up.  We tried WD-40 first though, and that worked, so no heat was required.
Jay Brown
- 1969 Mach 1, Drag Week 2005 Winner NA/BB, 511" FE (10.60s @ 129); Drag Week 2007 Runner-Up PA/BB, 490" Supercharged FE (9.35 @ 151)
- 1964 Ford Galaxie, Drag Week 2009 Winner Modified NA (9.50s @ 143), 585" SOHC
- 1969 Shelby Clone, Drag Week 2015 Winner Modified NA (Average 8.98 @ 149), 585" SOHC