Hemi Joel gets '31 Plymouth Coupe to the track to test for Drag Week 2018

[427LX]

That is a cool hot rod! Is that a 392 Hemi?  What times and MPH did it run?

[thatdarncat]

That is a cool hot rod! Is that a 392 Hemi?  What times and MPH did it run?

It is a 392 Mopar Hemi. For now Joel is keeping the testing ET & MPH confidential, mostly for the drama, but also so as not to tip off his fellow Drag Week competitors of the Coupe's potential. 

Atlanta Dragway announced last week they will have a test session for Drag Week participants on this coming Friday night, and right now Joel & Jeff plan on being there. Atlanta Dragway also has a bracket race on Saturday, and it sounds like they will try to accommodate some Drag Week testing between rounds there too.   

[thatdarncat]

Hemi Joel and his Trunk Monkey Jeff were able to get some test passes in again yesterday at Grove Creek Raceway. Grove Creek is an 1/8 mile track about 1 1/2 hours northwest of the Twin Cities. I wasn't able to go with yesterday, so I don't have a first hand report, but it sounds like the Coupe survived in one piece. Here's a picture Jeff took.

[thatdarncat]

Here's a link to the first go round of this 392 on Jay's dyno. Not a glorious start. Unfortunately Joel never did a follow up report on what was wrong and what got fixed. This post has some of the specs of the engine, but after this dyno session, if I remember, the block got fixed and a different cam was selected, and maybe some cylinder head repair was needed. And as seen in the current pictures, Joel went with the 8 - 2V induction. I don't think the rebuilt engine ever got dyno'd.

http://fepower.net/simplemachinesforum/index.php?topic=3500.0;all

[jayb]

The main water leak issue was with the cylinder heads, the CNC porting went through in a very small spot in the water jacket at one point, and that caused all the water troubles we had on the dyno.  Interestingly, Joel took it to one place who pressure checked it and said it was fine, so he didn't bother to look any further for a while.  When it kept leaking, he finally took it to another place, and they found the leak.  The engine has not been dynoed since it has been back together, but I was talking to Joel earlier today and the times he ran at Grove Creek were quite promising...

[TomP]

So wagging finger for no parachute promising?

Cool car, hope he gets through the whole week.

[thatdarncat]

So after last weekends test session Joel figured out the Coupe didn't have rear end gears he thought he had. Joel called Moser this week and ordered a new complete pumpkin and Joel & Jeff stopped at Moser on Thursday afternoon on the way. They arrived at the track in Atlanta this afternoon and got the gears changed, unfortunately it started to rain after that, so I don't think they got a chance to test.

[thatdarncat]

I got a text from Jeff this morning, Joel ran 10.263 @ 133.53 on a test & tune pass. He said it's hot & muggy in Atlanta today.

**I had to edit to correct the ET.

[thatdarncat]

Next pass 10.155 @ 135.

[machoneman]

That's great! 

With a 135 mph, he should dip into the high 9's. What was his 60' on that run btw?

Next pass 10.155 @ 135.

[thatdarncat]

That's great! 

With a 135 mph, he should dip into the high 9's. What was his 60' on that run btw?

Next pass 10.155 @ 135.

1.468 60', he should easily be able to improve that.