'68 Mustang Coupe Drag Car

[mike7570]

I think I misspoke now that Jay mentioned it, I think it was the shorter fitting not narrower. I used rubber hose and clamps and it's a little more challenging getting the clamps on and a good seal.

[mbrunson427]

I've been putting fairly solid effort towards the race car recently. I had the rear end out of it to change gear ratios, inspected everything, and had a driveshaft made. This weekend filled it with fuel, ran the fuel pump and checked for leaks. Put water in it, ran the water pump and checked for leaks. Wired up the starter and cranked it over, everything sounds good. Put fresh oil in it and cranked it over quite a bit while lashing the valves. We're real close! I need to get a couple wires run from the coil to the MSD box and then build a set of spark plug wires and we should be ready to fire it. It's down to a checklist of items before we can try it out on a track. I'll likely take it to a chassis dyno first to run it on that and prove everything out before jumping onto the race track.

[mike7570]

What gear did you change to?  My 4.86 gears are a little steep. I’m changing the tire to the smaller roll out 30” Hoosier radial as soon as I get a chance.  The 9x28’s on there now put me through the lights about 7,600rpm, it should drop to around 7,300 or so with the change.
My best run so far has been 10.23 at Pomona Winternationals. My goal after I get settled at the new house in Arizona is to order some REF headers and put the radials on and hope with some tuning pick up a couple of tenths to get to 1.00 sec. under in A/SA.

[mbrunson427]

What gear did you change to?

Hi Mike! For this engine that we're starting with I had to go with a 4.11. The engine makes peak power at 5800-5900 and don't want to spin it much past 6300. The car had 4.86's in it when we got it and that was going to be way too much for this engine.

The 30" Hoosier tires you're explaining is what I believe we have on this right now. Funny I was actually thinking of going the other way and running a 275/60/15 because they are more common. I had talked to Matt Keiser at the FERR in Indiana and there was a specific Mickey Thompson compound that he had luck with and I was going to match his setup. We'll run these ones to start though, I plan on making changes progressively as we go.

[mbrunson427]

We had a solid weekend here with only one snag. I was able to get everything buttoned up and get the car ready to fire. When checking timing the distributor was not moving freely, it's an MSD distributor. Scratched my head and inspected everything. I could see a spot on the distributor where it was hanging up on the intake manifold. We had a stock Ford distributor on the bench and I dropped that one in there, moved just fine, no issue. SO I spend a while whittling on the MSD distributor to skinny it back to the Ford distributors spec.

I was able to get it all timed in yesterday by myself, but had nobody there to help me start it up, so that'll have to wait until my dad and I both have a free night this week. Spent the rest of my day yesterday cleaning up the barn and dusting off cars.

[cjshaker]

Looking good, Mike. You've gotta be getting excited...and a bit nervous, being at the stage you are.
Where did you find the Hooker race headers? Just a lucky score?
Be cautious on the chassis dyno. I could be mistaken, but I thought slicks and chassis dyno rollers didn't get along very well.

[Stangman]

Hey Mike were was the distributor hitting. Was it a depth problem. Had one that was scratching the pad in the block where the skinny part goes through.

[mbrunson427]

Doug, I spent a little time yesterday looking up the chassis dyno w/ slicks dilemma. From what I can read, we will need to make sure the tires are pumped up. Seems that issues happen when the tires are deflated to typical track pressures and then you squeeze them down on to the rollers with ratchet straps. The sidewalls hate it. I watched a few videos of it going very bad. We have radials on the back, I read a bunch of commentary that people have no issues with radials....as long as they have enough air in them.

Joe, the interference with the distributor was right at the intake manifold. Where the rubber seal is. The landing right below the rubber seal was rubbing on the intake. At first I thought I didn't set the intake correctly, but I took the seal off and looked around it, it was tight everywhere. I really should have disassembled the distributor and put it in the lathe, but I was too impatient for that, belt sander to the rescue.

[mbrunson427]

Where did you find the Hooker race headers? Just a lucky score?

Headers are from REF in Arizona. They aren't the cheapest, but they fit the best!

[mbrunson427]

We were able to get it running last night. No mishaps, I was relieved!

https://youtube.com/shorts/fu0Kwx_YxcQ?si=K681c-bybmrbtNkO

[WConley]

Nice Mike!  Looks and sounds great 

[Stangman]

What a relief.

[427Fastback]

Very nice...Thinking I see a Cougar GTE sitting in the shop...