Messages

1

Front Engine Dragsters / Re: Front Tires Popping out of the Beams.

« on: April 24, 2021, 04:53:48 PM »

Very offten I have suggested adding ANOTHER 20 lbs on the nose, to help balance the car.
I race NHRA Heritage JrFuel 225" wb with the motor out 48" and 45lbs on the nose , I know of JF cars with 75-90 lbs on the nose.
If you don't like adding weight , the best is to change the chassis so your motor is out more, and move everything out front. 
Neil and Parks has built cars with the motor out [ center of rear axle to the back of the block ] 50" and 55" .
Also you could run a looser converter, the current Comp Elim champion [ B/ND] is running 9000 stall with 10.5 x29" slicks and my 21" front wheels for more roll out. [ 5"]
Jon Hansen , Hayden Wheels , 800-624-3803

2

Altereds / Re: one bad altered 4.92 @296

« on: March 28, 2021, 12:11:59 PM »

too many mags and no doubt too big of a pump

3

Front Engine Dragsters / Re: Rear Tire selection

« on: March 22, 2021, 04:50:41 PM »

Scott I agree the GY 2585 is not the right choice , that is the that most of us new Gen JrFuel [ 6.80's to 7.0's ] running  400 ci alky burning 3.5 lb/ci all iron motors , and my team is going to try M&H 30.5x 10.5 [ 11.5] x15 and MT 31x 10.5 [ 11.25] x15 on 12" wide rims . The Mickeys and MH are at least 4-5 lbs heavier than the GoodYears. More rotating weight takes more power. The MT like wider rims like 12" but in your case 10" would work good on the GY or MH .
But I think your tire picks listed may be too big for your HP , our JF car is going to try 10.5 tires because we get tire shake , enough so we have broke a rear engine motor plate , cracked front steering mount, and a windshield. We think tire shake comes from not enough power or too much traction. With the tracks using more and more VHT the tires will dead hook , wind up the side walls and shake, The only JF team running a bigger tire is running and winning on MH 33x12x15 but he is making 1000+HP @ 10,500 rpm with a 5.38 rear gears. Twice what you are planning. The 2020 Comp Elim champ is a B/ND [ JrFuel type ] is also making 1000+ HP , but he is running the MT 29 x 10.5 [ true 10.5 "] x15 tire with a loose converter , my guess 9000 stall, so it doesn't hit the tires so hard . Which might be a good choice for you , or a GY 28x 9 or 10x15, unless you will be racing at no prep tracks with limited VHT. The reason FED want a little less traction is to keep the RPM  up to where the motor is happy , otherwise it will pull the motor down below its power range.
BTW call Don Enriquez at Hilborn, he can help you set-up your FI , Don is a muti year JrFuel Champion , he has been driving dragsters for over 50 years
My Company Hayden Wheels are Goodyear and MH dealer and I could give you a deal. 805-444-4489 cell # Jon Hansen 

4

Front Engine Dragsters / Re: wheel disc

« on: March 18, 2021, 04:11:20 PM »

I sell wheel disks with alum straps for ataching around the spokes with either pop rivits or small bolt and nylock. We have raced without a staging disk of 10 years , but then again I built some 18" wire spoke wheels with 2.00x18 MC road race tires with a Akront rim that has a bit of a lip on the rim, so we never redlighted UNTIL we raced Phoenix for the 1'st time . Turns out they set their staging beams a little higher, enough so the JF cars with litle disks didn't redlite, but all the cars without staging disks did redlite, so since then we run a black light disk.
Good luck
Jon   

5

Front Engine Dragsters / Re: Water... Or no water? How do y'all run your Engines?

« on: March 18, 2021, 03:58:00 PM »

In our JrFuel car we run either an all iron Hemi [ it's the rule about all iron] or SBC . The 409 ci Hemi we have filled the block with plastic [ same stuff Gene Adams uses] and some holes drilled in the heads for air cooling. The 400 ci SBC we run water, no pump.  Don Enriquez engine builder/tuner has run some dyno tests with water/ no water he found same engine with water it gained 20hp , no water it lost 20 hp. We think because the water gives the cylinder more support besides more even temps in the middle cyclinders. Ya I know , how much support can water give , but it might be the ring the bell idea, if you hit an iron bell it rings / vibrates . The idea is it can upset your ring seal , and that is where you can get the extra HP with better ring seal. Famous JF racers Scott and Frank Parks don't run water mostly because they lost a race because of a water leak, BUT they made their heads bigger, so big they put plastic on the outside of the intake port, but then they ground tru into the water, so since then they run dry.
Back to the Hemi story, we filled the block up to the heads , then we let it set for a few weeks , then had it machined , then we sent it to Gene Adams to put together, Gene called to tell us the cycinders were not round ?? How do you machine oval shape bores ?, Well Gene had his shop make them round , new pistons. then when raced again it ran about 2 tenths slower with the same combo [ piston heads, cam valves, only change was another 354 Hemi block [ because we broke it]. when we took it apart we found some of the pistons were skuffed in the wrist pin area not the skirts, so back to the machine shop to bore them round and the nest size, they were oval again. The machine shop said they have run inro that with another customer that changed his mind to run bigger bore pistons . Now because he had sleeves, they put in an oven to press out the sleeves, but because it was a filled block they could not pres them out , so the shop said they could bore them out to go bigger, not as big as the customer wanted, but bigger than what he had. BUT when they put a  bore gauge in it they found the bores were OVAL. The only we came up with is the block filled expands with heat. Crazy Hey ?
So we put in the oven until it stopped growing , the new pistons and put it back together and when we raced again it only slowed up a tenth, not back to 7.02 like we had before. so now we are going to check the Hemi again to see if our piston guys lowered the compression. So back to racing the SBC With water. Too bad we only raced the March Meet in 2020, but we will race all four of the Heritage races this year.       

6

Roo Man's Room / Re: gaining ground clearance.

« on: January 24, 2021, 10:57:01 PM »

The easy way is taller front and rear tires , One of our JF teams has a John Worm chassis that also had a clearance issue , motor sits low in the chassis, like the pan is 5-6" below the lower frame rail. He now runs 33x10.5x15 MT , but I think the MH 33x12x15 would work better [ 101" roll-out] and he runs Hayden 18" front wheels , 250x18[ 23.75" ]tall rib tires, I also have 275x18 [ 24.25" tall] and 300x18 [25"] tall] . I don't like the look of the 300x18, it's a tire I sell to "T" bucket wheels. Or you can change the angle of the rear end, like one of John Worm's guys did, and change the front axle.
Your combo might like the 33x12 MH, we have a few JF teams running them and some blown BBC and SBC guys . Or you could step-up more and run what the fast A/F guys do run the M/T bubba 16x16 tires , the fast guys are runnning in the 5's, on injected nitro and the fast blown alky are running 6.00's on the bubba's
Let me know if you want more help.
Jon 805-444-4489, cell   

7

Roo Man's Room / Re: chassis top rail has bowed outwards

« on: November 30, 2020, 03:00:43 PM »

Our Heritage JF chassis had the top rail bow out in front of the engine so we just added a couple of cross bars , helped make the chassis stiffer and helped with the tire shake.
We also added another 20 lbs to the front to control the wheelies better and we run our wheelie bar about 1 1/2" off the track. 

8

Front Engine Dragsters / Re: New to the page

« on: November 30, 2020, 02:29:54 PM »

a couple of things [1] a freind of mine bought a used Parks FED JR 225" put a LS motor on race gas, single card, hyd lifters and won 3 Heritage NE-1 [ 760 bracket] Championships . At least one time that I know of he raced with out his Dad crew member, because his Dad was off helping his other son rac a Honda powered altered in Comp at Sonoma . so Dustin just drove his dragster to the staging lanes after driving the rail out of his trailer , raced then drove to the ET booth to get his ET slip , drove back to his pit, drove it back into the trailer all by himself AND won the event . All with a flywheel started and on board batt. Again winning with no crew member.
[2] we have had a Heritage JrFuel racer run with a John Worm , CenPen 180" chassis and a all iron SBC injected alky running in JF "C" [ 7.14[ handi-cap] but his engine sit low in the chassis [ stock SBC oil pan] so he runs 18" front wheels and 33" tall slicks to get more ground clearance.  Another NE-2 racer that raced with a CenPen car , but he had John Worm angle the rear-end so the engine was higher.
Jon, Hayden Wheels 800-624-3803

9

Dan Dishon's Transmission Den / Re: ATi vs Reid PG case

« on: October 12, 2020, 11:06:12 PM »

In our jrfuel car we use a Reed case because we race heads up .05 pro tree NHRA Heritage and NHRA Comp Elim .06 full tree , so we can adjust [ slow down] the release of the brake.
We just have to get it creditied, every 3 or 5 years.

10

Jon's Wheel House / Re: tire sudder

« on: October 03, 2020, 12:18:29 AM »

one problem may be with the 32x12x15 Hoosier , when Goodyear stopped making for inventory a number of part numbers , one was the designed for JrFuel racers 31x12x15 light weight [ 26lbs] tire and since the JF rules and A/ND & B/ND Comp rules are 12" max wide tires , I called all the slick makers to see what they have. Hoosier said they had 31, 32and 33 tall 12" tires, BUT the 32 tall may not work for 2 speed dragsters , because Hoosier mad that tire with a softer compound for heavy door cars where they deadhook, shift, deadhook, shift, deadhook, not getting some tire speed like FED to keep the egine RPM in the power range. Also tire shake seams to come with not enough power or too much bite. Which a couple of slick makes agree that the trend of tracks spraying too much VHT, so that makes the tires dead hook and shake. Don Enriquez engine builder/tuner asked one ot our Heritage tracks to not spray any more VHT before JF races, it worked and A/F liked it better too.
One of the quickest running A/ND & B/ND Comp cars runs a 29x10.5x15 MT and just ran a 6.79 in St Luis. On our JrFuel car I'm about to try M&H 30.5x10.5[ 11.25] x15 on 12" rims next season. M/T, Hoosier, M&H all have stiffer sidewalls and are at least 32 lbs . Rotating weight takes more power to turn.
You could try lower tire pressure , it help getting more tire speed. With our Goodyears we have run as low as 4 3/4 lb on 12" rims. We started out on 10" rims then when we added power we needed more bite , so 11" then 12".
I hope this helps.     

11

Jon's Wheel House / Re: How to determine what spindles I have

« on: September 17, 2020, 04:10:46 PM »

On the nut end dia .625" [5/8"] is Anglia, and .750" [3/4"] is Early Ford, the lenght are different too.
BTW as per NHRA wire spoke wheels are not allowed on alters or dragsters that over 1800 lbs [ no driver]
Jon Hansen, Hayden ent, 800-624-3803

12

Jon's Wheel House / Re: durometer reading on tires

« on: July 08, 2020, 12:31:13 AM »

My GY guy has suggested replacing the tires when the 60' times change with no combination change , when I asked how many runs or what age I should change to new.

13

Front Engine Dragsters / Re: tire speed vs low gear ratio

« on: June 20, 2020, 10:47:43 PM »

WideOpen; the reason I suggested a 1.80 gear was he had trouble with tire shake so I thought the 1.80 gear would help getting the tire up to speed at the hit. More gear is a torque multiplier , so it multipies the HP, again more power helps with tire shake. Another option is to go with a lower [ bigger number] rear gear.
when I 1'st started JF racing I too met that "old guy from Kansas, he turned me onto a 1.68 1'st gear to slow up the tire speed some , now most of the jF guys are running 1.68 or 1.69 gear with one team running a 1.54.
Jon

14

Jon's Wheel House / Re: durometer reading on tires

« on: June 20, 2020, 12:34:32 AM »

I have used a durometer when I 1'st started racing JF but that was because we were using a tire softener treatment , which we have not used in about 16 years since the tracks are doing a better job of track prep, more VHT and track dragging . Also slick suppiers don't offer much options of compounds, unless you go to another size tire. I think my durometer reading were hig 40's -low 50's.
I can check my current tires if that will help you.
Jon 

15

Front Engine Dragsters / Re: Tire ShAkE

« on: June 20, 2020, 12:09:40 AM »

My experience is tire shake is caused by not enough power or too much traction . With our Heritage jrfuler, when we have tire shake we lower the tire pressure, will usually run around 6 # but as low as 5 1/2 # . By lowering the pressure it cups in the center so the edges are doing more of the traction . You can check that by using your temp gun after a run at the turn-off and measure the temps all across the tire, and you'll see higher temps on the outer edges.
Or you could just up the power by adding more nitro % , or go to a smaller tire JrFuel A cars run about 1100-1200 hp and 6.80's to 6.70's and run either 31x12x15 [ GY]or 33x12x15 [ M&H], and run as low as 4 3/4 #  Another example is the Heritage A/F guys have found going to the N/TF M/T Bubba tire[ 33x12x16, stiff sidewall]  has solved their tire shake going away from 33x14x15 GY.
I think since the tracks are preping with more VHT = more traction=more tire shake , it's harder to keep the tire speed up so it does not pull the motor down out of it's power range.
You could try more rear gear and or 1.80 1'st gear. I think only super comp want too much traction with their delay boxes.
I'm running the latest batch of GY 31x12x15 thru Hayden wheels, and 33x12x15 MH on bad tracks and will try 30.5x10.5 [ 11 1/2] x15 MH next.
Good Luck , let us know what works for you.
Jon