Weekend report.
First pass of the weekend with changes planned for the second qualifier being to remove some static from the clutch pass went pretty good got out about 60’ and started moving around a bit started a little tire shake so I shifted early to put the clutch into some slip. Got the car to the finish line it was a pretty good pass 6.67 at 209 not bad for an early 1-2 shift. Towed the car back to started our routine maintenance pulled the cowel, clutch can covers, valve covers, spark plugs, started the clutch cooling blower, started adjusting the valves no changes to the valves until we got to #6 intake hmmm that’s weird it went tight loosened the adjuster backed it off and the valve kept climbing well a couple turns of the adjuster and we knew we dropped a valve. Off comes the intake and head and we find what we figured hole in piston and the head of the valve sideways stuck in the intake seat kind of bummed out we sit around for a couple of hours than my dad looks at me and says hey we have those .350 long BBC 2.300 valves at the shop we can make those work and I laughed and told him I was thinking the same thing. Hour and half drive we tear the head apart and start trying to make this idea work. Well those BBC valves were way to short so I called up my buddy Todd Miller to see if he had some spare intake and exhaust valves for the BAE hemi and yes he said come on over. I get the titanium hemi valves back to the shop machined the OD down to my SBC size, cut new valve lock grooves into them, and then cut the OA length down to fit into my heads. My dad didn’t have an intake seat that would work on these heads so he cut the seat as best as he could, assembled the heads grabbed our spare pistons and rods and headed back to the track. We left Woodburn Dragstrip at 4:30pm and got back at 8:00pm so 2 ˝ hours of drive time and 1 hour of work! We worked on the car until 11:00 and decided we should have an adult beverage than hit the sack and wake up first thing to finish installing the dry sump oil system.
Sunday went into first round of eliminations not too sure how it would run we left the clutch alone as we didn’t want to change to much……lol I dialed in a 6.60 because I knew it would run if I didn’t shake and spin…. The car I was running dialed a 7.50 so he left almost a second before me. I caught him quick hit the 1/8th mile mark and all of a sudden I see a nozzle line fly off one of my port nozzles (yes I was sprayed with fuel) I lifted and coasted across the finish line at a 7.32 132 mph with the win. Went back after the pass and did our between rounds maintenance and all looked good and we talked about the line coming off and I remembered that I was checking the nozzles for any obstructions and was on that nozzle when we found the broken valve…… YES I know never leave something partially tightened always nothing or wrench tight my bad! Second round comes along and left my dial in alone and he dialed a 7.48 needless to say another almost second head start only this time I get out about 100’ shake spin and pedal then got the car down the track he was closing in on the finish line I needed another 20’ to catch him! Fun times on the losing side.
