When Rustpuppy was in the shop last week I had Brett do a baseline check on the front wheel alignment.  I had been fooling with the camber on the left front wheel with my crude setup and needed a course correction..   Also I have completely lost confidence in the guy who did the last complete wheel alignment on Rustpuppy just before I bought her back in 1994..

It was good to get accurate data.  I had the toe set at zero and the camber on the right was perfect at 0 degrees.   I knew I still had too much positive camber on the left and it measured 0.6 degrees.

I have no way of measuring caster in the yard so I really needed those numbers.  Turns out that the idiot who set the wheel alignment (the one I lost confidence in on another matter) screwed up the caster on both wheels.  Rustpuppy never had the directional stability I would have liked and it made things dicey at speed..  Easy to see why.   The moron had the caster set negative instead of positive..  Duhhh..

Left front was -0.8 degrees and right front -1.0 degrees..

Armed with that data and after taking measurements of the suspension and working up a CAD drawing showing the relationship between the shims and the caster settings I slammed a bunch of positive caster in to the system.

Now it is this:  (according to my calculations..   will have Brett check it again to verify)

Left front +1.43 degrees   Right front +1.23 degrees...

I took Rustpuppy to town this morning (urgent Vista Cruiser business) after setting the alignment and am very happy with the steady way she tracks now..  A real serious improvement and a much more relaxing car to drive at speed now..

Attached are a couple pictures of the after state of the shims..

 

 

 

Rick Draganowski

(positive caster is good, very good...)

 

 

 

It is time to tear into the rear axle to verify backlash and tooth contact patch..  I am getting used to jacking ol’ Rustpuppy up every couple of days..    (t&t16-1,jpg)

The axle was still hot from the trip so the lube came out really thin and runny..   I was suprised..  It was a clear amber color but still had that really nasty smell.. (I think it is the extreme pressure additives for the hypoid gears)  I have always detested the smell of the hypoid lube..

I got my sensitive dial indicator set up and it showed the backlash at between 0.0085  and 0.009...   Hmmm...    That seems about right but I do not know what the spec from Richmond is..  (t&t16-2.jpg)

Then I painted about 8 drive side teeth with the GM marking grease I borrowed from Scott at NAPA last Friday..    After turning them through the mesh they came out looking pretty good to me..   (t&t16-3.jpg)

So with the backlash looking good and the tooth contact good the last thing is to use the heavy duty lube..   You can see the difference between the ordinary and the heavy duty stuff..   It even says for racing on the back of the bottle..  The Valvoline stuff..   (t&t16-4.jpg)

Whatever whining is left after switching to the heavy lube is just going to be something to get used to..

More to come..

Rick Draganowski

(wait till you see what I am doing to the axle cover..)

 

 

 

After seeing what Ray done to the Gray Ghost’s axle I felt compelled to go back to my original plan on Rustpuppy’s axle.

There was a little bit of tiny steel filings from the break in wear stuck on the magnet inside the cover.  I cleaned it all off..  (t&t17-1.jpg)

I took my 4” angle grinder with the flap disc and cleaned the paint and stuff off of the outside of the cover to get ready for a coat of the self etching primer.  (t&t17-2.jpg)

Then the primer went on smoothly..  (t&t17-3.jpg)

I decided to paint the cover the reddest red I could find.  “Tractor Red” a Federal safety color is what it is going to be..   (t&t17-4.jpg)

And after two coats of the really red paint it came out like this..

(t&t17-5.jpg)

More to come..   Tomorrow...

Rick Draganowski

(thought about a 4 inch yellow smiley face in the middle but decided against it..)

 

 

As you know the story was left with the axle open and the bright red cover paint drying..   Today I wanted to sleep in (weather is changing again and I am feeling poorly) but was up bright eyed and bushy tailed at 8am..  Damn, didn’t get to sleep till 3am..

But I threw my creaking old bod into the battle..  I ran the gear pattern stuff through the mesh again to see if it would make a clearer print.  It did and the print looks perfect, biased toward the toe and balanced just like Richmond sez..   And the backlash spec for the Richmond gears is 0.008 plus or minus 0.004..   (seems like a big tolerance to me)  Anyway the 0.0085 to 0.009 is just a scoshie on the loose side of perfect..  Just right in my opinion..

The big chore was getting the heavy 145 gear oil into the axle while it is hanging under the car..    No way to just squirt it in from the bottle like last time cause the tailpipe is in the way.  So I had to get my oil suction gun out and slowly fill it and slowly empty it a pint at a time into the axle.  Like watching the minute hand of a clock while getting cramps in your arms while laying under a 26 year old car with your legs sticking out into the drizzling rain..    And the stink of the hypoid oil burning your eyes and making you sick to your stomach..

In other words..  It was great fun..

It all came together and finished up..

I then loosened the emergency brake cable because the rear shoes were dragging just a little ..  (every little trick helps when you are racing)

Testing the vibration problems while Rustpuppy was still jacked up was the next trick..    I was running her to over 100mph while standing still..  Very strange business..   The vibration from the driveshaft was bad at 2500-3000 rpm but unbelievably bad at 5000 rpm and up...  I really got to get that fixed in a hurry..  I am worried that I could be screwing up the tailshaft bushing..

Then I checked the wobbling rear wheels..  Turns out there is some kind of compatibility problem with the 76 stock rim lugnuts and the later rallye wheels provided by Rob Roberson..   Some bad Roberson mojo is creeping into Rustpuppy..     Is there  come kind of “Metric Curse” showing up in the Disco Novas??

No pictures for this letter but I do have a fun sound file I made last week when I was complaining about the slow 1-2 shift in Rustpuppy’s new transmission.  I sent this file to Wade and he said that it is just the way he wanted it set up..

 

Notice that there is considerable wheelspin at launch..   I am shifting at 6000rpm.  Funny when actually doing the racing stuff your attention runs so fast that everything seems to happen in slow motion.  I could swear that the 1-2 shift was a long lazy thing but listen to the reality..  It is really pretty brisk..

On a sad note I was full of bologna in my mistaken belief that Goody was still at 28 degrees total advance..    In the excitement of getting into the mid 14’s I must have done a little tweaking and forgot to report it..

When I looked at the timing today  I found that it was sitting at 34 degrees total advance with 12 degrees initial.   Bummer..

What do you all think the ideal total advance should be for Goody?   It has about 9 to one compression, ported and milled Goodwrench heads, XE268 cam, a pretty good Q-jet on a Performer manifold, and 2 ½” exhaust from DynoMax full length headers going through Super Turbo mufflers..

More to come..

Rick Draganowski

(worried about my lugnuts..)

 

 

 

As I said earlier I have the old distributor in Goody set for 12 initial 34 total..   Thinking about it that seems familiar..   I ran across this old post (now in the Flat Cam Project on the Rustpuppy webpage) about timing in Knocker..    It seems like my old brain runs in familiar grooves...

When I can start testing again I am going to increase it 2 degrees at a time to see where the best setting is..

Rick Draganowski

(might be 36 or even 38..)

 

 

Part two of my indoor Nova work was on the old HEI that originally came on my junked 77 pickup.. (170,000 miles on it and it is still happy)  The vacuum advance is a 15 degree truck job with a heavy spring and I cut up a bit of vacuum hose to limit it to only 10 degrees total.

(I am saving the fancy Polished Proform with the neato Accel adjustable vacuum advance and the see through cap for the 400)

Then I pulled the stock heavy springs off the centrifugal advance and replaced them with the middle springs out of a Moroso HEI Advance Curve Kit (the silver jobs).  I left the heavy stock weights on and did not limit the centrifugal advance (it is only about 22 crank degrees so I should be OK).

Testing will tell and with a good cam Rustpuppys motor will be happy and not need a lot of initial advance (more like a real small block).   I figure about 12 static (34 total) and 10 degrees of vacuum advance should do it right..

Time will tell..

More to come..

Rick Draganowski”

 

 

With the sunshine today I managed to get a reasonable picture of the new looks of Rustpuppy’s rear axle.   (t&t19-1.jpg)

The order of business today was the lugnut problem.  I had important and stressful business in town today so I got a chance to get some upgraded lugnuts that would be compatible with the rallye wheels.

I tested the big lugnuts by putting magic marker on the taper seat of one and installing it to the proper torque.   The mating area was cleaned off.  (t&t19-2.jpg, sorry for the focus problem , the autofocus computer in the videocam focused on the rulebook by mistake)

There was only 8 of them available in Gold Beach so Rustpuppy will have to live with two if the teeny lugnuts till the order comes in.  (t&t19-3.jpg)

The leftover teeny nuts were rounded up and photographed to show the strange seating pattern and galling around the tops..  (t&t19-4.jpg)

It looks like the big acorn lugnuts are the solution to the problem..   I probably will get a set for the front wheels too so all the lug nuts will be 13/16” instead of half 13/16” and half ¾”..

I also got a great picture showing a little bit of the attitude that the Rustpuppy has these days..   (t&t19-5.jpg...  check this out Ben..)

Rick Draganowski

(attitude is good)

 

 

 

As you recall from my last report I must get the driveline in Rustpuppy fixed before there are more serious racing efforts..   Out of the kindness of his heart Chad Dingfelder from Michigan sent the spare driveshaft from his 70.  I was disappointed at first from the amount of rust.  (t&t20-1,jpg and t&t20-2.jpg  UPS always ships long things standing on end..  poked out the box)

 

The slip yoke was gone but the tube despite it’s rust was sound.   Most excellent as I found out that the major problem with the existing drivetrain was bent ears on the tube..   I had another slip yoke on which I spent several hours polishing out the surface rust.  So it looks like I may have the bits needed to get a proper driveline into Rustpuppy.

I had the u-joints pressed out in a jiffy and spent quite a while cleaning up the bores on the tube..   Note the grove cleaning tool made from an old snap ring. (t&t20-3.jpg)

Then it was time for the slow job of grinding off the rust..  (nasty stuff from the road salt I bet)   After what seemed like hours it was finished..  All bare steel.. (t&t20-4.jpg and t&t20-5.jpg)

 

Then two coats of the self etching primer from NAPA followed..  (note I have the bearing bores masked)   (t&t20-6.jpg)   Note the fan to blow the overspray away from where I was breathing.   It is much better for you to not inhale that stuff..

I had painted the vibrating dog of a driveline a conservative black so I decided on the brilliant Tractor Red for this perfect one..  (I hope..) (t&t20-7.jpg)

So part one of the Driveline Madness draws to a close..  Part two soon, with test reports, seat time, and bad behavior..

Rick Draganowski

(it should be a felony to contaminate roads with salt..)

 

 

Still in the middle of Drivetrain Madness I really worked on the rusty slip yoke I obtained with the driveshaft tube which is bent and useless.  T&t21-1.jpg shows it still soaking in the ATF while I spent what seems like days cleaning up the tube.  It was a whole day..   

T&t21-2.jpg shows the slip yoke after much polishing of the bearing bores and the output shaft bushing journal.. 

  By comparision the Michigan slip yoke could only clean up this much..  (t&t21-3.jpg)

The slip yoke had to have the inner corners of the ears ground down to allow the HD Federal Mogul u-joint to be mounted but could not accomodate the super HD Spicer joint I used in the rear of the driveshaft.   Oh well, Goody is less than 400 lb ft of torque..   (t&t21-4.jpg)

Then working slowly and carefully I pressed the new u-joints in position making sure that they were free and well lubed..     (t&t21-5.jpg and t&t21-6.jpg)

  

First thing today I installed the newly rebuilt drivetrain..    For some reason the amount of slip yoke showing on Rustpuppy seems excessive to me.

(t&t21-7.jpg)

It is a little over 1 ½”..   There is 2” inside the seal but

it still seems wrong.   I wonder if the spring mounts can be pried forward

the extra ½”?   I will look into this issue later.

 

Then it was time for a road test!   Seat time!   Excellent!..    I could

sense that the drivetrain was smoother but could not really tell until I got out on the highway.

Sucess! ..   Most of the incredible vibration was  gone!

I quickly thought of an excuse for a trip to town to give Rustpuppy a proper workout and get some gas too..    I stopped by at Central and gave Brett some trouble about the drivetrain and made arrangements to get the B&M shift improver stage II kit installed.   I am taking my tall stool down so that I can sit and watch every move and be sure of a proper job.  I am getting paranoid about my Rustpuppy..

Then I went for a fillup of 92 octane..   The kid at the Texaco station was all worked up about seeing Rustpuppy and made some nice comments on the name graphics.    I asked him if he thought I would get busted if I left some Rustpuppy tracks on his asphalt..   He said he doubted it as he digs out in his truck all the time..   So when it came time to leave I had Rustpuppy leave two 20 foot puppy tracks on the station apron.   Then I motored off slowly like a law abiding citizen..

The onshore crosswind was gusting to 45mph so there was no fooling around on the way home..   It is good to make progress..

More to come..

Rick Draganowski

 

 

Beautiful sunny 65 degree day..   But..   The offshore wind gusts are still hitting almost 50mph..   No serious fooling around on today’s seat time..  But..

I did mess with some 0-60 times on the sheltered old road..   Not the best traction but still fun.

I digress..   I double checked Brett’s filling of the new transmission and found it about a quart low...   Hmmm..  My confidence in this guy is really taking a beating.  Especially since I had a discussion with my postman Tom about Brett’s reputation yesterday..   Not good..   He seems to be an animal on drivetrain and suspension work..   Oh, well...   I can always go crawling back to Tim Harding and get put on his interminable waiting list..   (Tim came in second in the World Cup Whitewater Jetboat competition last spring in the unlimited class..)

Back to the 0-60 stories..   On the first attempt southbound I was taken totally by surprise by the lack of any wheelspin..  I must have started on an extra sweet spot on the weathered asphalt..   The G-Tech reading was 5.18 seconds..  Hmmm..   Not bad..  But the wheelspin hit bad on the northbound run and even though I stayed on it only came up with a 5.55 second run..

That makes me think.   The wheelspin I got on the 13.73 run was about the same as the 5.55 0-60...   Which means I may have lost over 0.5 seconds..  Which would put Rustpuppy in the neighborhood of 13.2, which is a good neighborhood..

The next challenge was an unexpected one.  I went to replace the parts that had fallen out of the B&M shift kit laying on the passengers floor in Rustpuppy.  When I tried to open the door the little pushbutton thingie was frozen solid..   Creeping rust.  I soon put it right with WD40 and ATF and the careful application of a ball peen hammer..

Then since the day was so splendid and I wanted to stay out of the lab I decided to mess with Rustpuppy’s timing and mebbe do another 0-60 run or two..  That is what testing and tuning is all about..  And it beats the grind at work..

I quickly got my plain vanilla timing light hooked up..  A simple control-free tool.  Since I had the 30 degrees BTDC mark on the vibration damper I don’t need no high zoot electronic thingamajig..   This plain ol’ Craftsman timing light has been serving me since about 1983 or so..

When I went to pull the vacuum advance hose off I was horrified to find it already off.  It seems ol’ Dufus Draganowski (who perhaps needs a keeper in his declining years) forgot to put it back on the last time he checked the timing..   Duhh..  (in a very expressive tone of voice)   So all the latest racing (not much really) has been done with the stupid vacuum leak..   And going to town and showing off and all that crap..   What an idiot I am sometimes..

The timing was still at 34 degrees total so I messed around with it and wound up at 42 degrees for the first test..

It was a dud..  I could tell that Goody was fighting herself because of too much timing and the low end torque was way down..  It was not worth even trying a 0-60 time..   Goody felt like she was in pain..   The 2000 Goodwrench heads are pretty high tech compared to the 30 and 40 year old designs and with the porting and milling seem pretty efficient to me..

Then it was back in front of the shop fiddling with the timing again.

Setting it back from 42 to 36 degrees total..

I could tell before I got off the lawn that Goody was happy again and the old pepper was back..    Perky motors is good..

I motored slowly down to the sweet spot on the old road asphalt and took off with just a hint of wheelspin..  About ¾ turn on the BFGoodrichs..  Rustpuppy felt strong and steady and even with the bit of crosswind was tracking nice with the 1 ½ degrees of positive caster..

I saw the 0-60 flash on the G-Tech and jammed on the brakes just short of locking the rear wheels and got a 190 ft stop..  Not great, but not bad for a 25 year old car..

The flashing time came up..

0-60 4.71 seconds..

Too cool...   A Viper does it in 4.8...

 

More to come..

Rick Draganowski

 

 

Another top notch beautiful day on the Pacific coast..   About 68 and sunny.  I had been negotiating with Brett at Central to make a definite appointment to slam the B&M shift improver into Rustpuppy’s new transmission.   Today at 3:00 was that time..   I left early to be sure to be the annoying early guest..  I arrived while Brett was still at lunch so I took care of some business and annoyed Jeff for a while..

So I presented Rustpuppy, myself, the prepped shift kit (holes drilled and plates trued) and a case of transmission fluid at 2:30..   Brett was taking care of some emergencies and finally got started on Rustpuppy at almost exactly 3..  I took my tall stool so I could sit and watch and kibitz..   I was concerned about the possible lack of workmanship (as in the driveline) on Brett’s part showing up..   My presence probably precluded that but I found myself watching too much.  Looking up is very bad for the degenerated disc in my neck so I was messing myself up..  I eventually moved the stool away from the battle scene and over to the workbench.. (but not soon enough)

I should not have worried as Brett was in his area of expertise and did a quick, competent and careful job..    His efforts took just a bit over one hour..   Then he had to leave early to go fishing..  This is Curry County you know..   So one of the kids finished the job. (just putting the fluid in and checking for leaks)

Speaking of leaks, the missing quart of fluid was accounted for.  The o-ring on the detent cable was pushed to one side by the transmission cooling lines and was dripping a lot..   Brett fixed that issue..  Those tubes were recycled from my old white truck and never have fit exactly right..

Brett didn’t even want to fool around with getting paid because he was in a hurry to get home and clean the ATF off and gather up his fishing gear..  He said that he would catch me later on that..   Small towns have some advantages..

As I motored off back to town to get some groceries I could tell that the instant 1-2 and 2-3 shifts were back..   Too cool!

No racing or anything foolish yet but on the old road to home I started out in drive from a standing start and burned some rubber at launch and then again at the 1-2 shift and again at the 2-3 shift..   All in drive..   The full rpm shifts will be even quicker..

Happy day..

More to come..

This is where I left the report for today.  But..

You all know what a nut I am when the wind stops and the traffic disappears..  And I have stuff to “test”..   And cooking dinner is boring..

So I made the excuse that I needed to check the mail..  Got in Rustpuppy and motored up the hill to turn around..   While I was up there I decided to try a 0-60 run to test the new shifting..   I looked for the sweet spot on the weathered asphalt but must have missed it because when I launched the wheelspin was excessive..   The shifting was a dream though.   Nice long CHURRRRPPP going into second and a smaller churp going into third.   But due to the nutty wheelspin the time was 5.5 seconds..    Dead slow..

Now I find myself at the end of the 0-60 run area on the old road so I decide to motor down to the end of Rustpuppy run to turn around and come back on 101..  It was amazing..  The sun was setting, it was cool and the wind had died to almost nothing..   There was not a car to be seen for miles on 101..    Hmmmm...

Dashing down to the starting area on Rustpuppy run and found a nice spot..

Plenty of time as there was zero traffic..

I launched by just rolling on the throttle to prevent wheelspin and expect I lost a couple tenths there but the launch was a good one..

The 1-2 shift came up quickly and I hit the shifter as fast as I could (because of the looking up problem my right arm was partly numb and very painful so I was slow) and the shift hit with a solid instant loud bark of the tires..    Most excellent!

In no time it was grab for 3^rd and another bark..   Rustpuppy was tracking perfectly with great stability..     I could see the quarter indicators flashing so I coasted to the turn off and motored slowly home like a good citizen..

The G-Tech had 13.62 @ 106.4 showing and I left Rustpuppy running till I could fetch the videocam..    (t&t23-1.jpg and t&t23-2.jpg)

 

Very satisfying day..   I am very happy with the time considering it was with a slow throttle roll on start..

More to come..   (again)

Rick Draganowski

(stupid ol’ Draganowski looked up too much today and messed himself up..

Damn!  when will I learn..)

 

 

I awoke with plans for the day circling in my mind like our local vultures..

(poetic.. yeah, right..)

I wanted to do something about the rear axle location on Rustpuppy because of the excessive amount of slip yoke showing..   First I checked out Yakima Sue.  Nothing in that area on her had been touched since the factory put her together in 1975..   There was a thick coat of tarry undercoating over everything but I was able to get a bracket to rear subframe dimension that I could compare with Rustpuppy to see if my theory about the brackets being in the wrong place had any validity.

Rustpuppy’s brackets were in the exact same locations as Yakima Sue’s..  Damn..  The only variables left are the u-joint yoke on the axle I got from Wade and the dimensions of the ESPO springs..

The only actual work I accomplished was to replace the last two incorrect lugnuts on Rustpuppy’s rear wheels..

I am still getting some vibration from the red driveshaft above 5000rpm..  (but not anything like the messed up one) It really needs to get down to Chuck’s in Brookings (50 miles away) and get balanced..  It probably would be worth the 50 bucks or so..

The damn spiders moved into Rustpuppy’s speedometer bigtime and the needle is stuck at 55 mph all the time..   I have a cheap mechanical aftermarket speedometer to install but the cable I picked up for it was a clip-on instead of the old screw on design and that project is hanging fire.   I have a temporary rpm to mph chart on the dash so I am not driving completely unaware of speed.

The next big project on Rustpuppy is to get the prototype Pyrometer system I made back in 1996 installed and continue with the product testing and production unit design.

More to come..

Rick Draganowski

(love to hear Goody wind up to 6000rpm.. and love them shifts..)

 

 

A low impact day as I started feeling bad yesterday evening and it is persisting.  (went to bed at 9 hoping to get plenty of sleep, ha..  up again at 5:30..)   About 10 I started feeling a little better so I took care of some Rustpuppy chores..

I wanted to verify the mounting of the rear wheels since the potentially disasterous situation with the wobbly wheels and the wrong lugnuts.    I got Rustpuppy jacked up just a couple inches on each rear wheel and then ran her in gear to check for runout and eccentricity of the wheels and tires..

They checked out great.   Looks like one stupid problem solved..

There are these disgusting marks on Rustpuppy’s Moons..   They are slug trails which leave a sticky residue and then dust from the dry roads stick to them..   (t&t25-1.jpg)

No racing or other high stress stuff this weekend till I recover from the episode..   But I did take Rustpuppy out for some low impact seat time and took a picture of the starting point of the excessively wheelspinning 5.5 sec 0-60 run..    It looks like the tires and suspension are doing the best they can under the circumstances..   The marks are about 8” wide and even all the way across..    The actual sweet spot for launches is about 10 feet beyond the end of the puppy tracks..   (t&t25-2.jpg)

More to come..

Rick Draganowski

 

 

We have had unusually warm and dry weather for the last week or so.  It was good for Craig Hauber’s visit but too windy for racing..

Today it started out with a slight drizzle and heavy clouds..   Cool! Back to normal Oregon weather..

I was good and spent several hours in the lab working but started getting the “need for speed” itch about 4 this afternoon..   I took Rustpuppy out to the end of Rustpuppy Run doing little practice launches to warm Goody up..

Rats!   Just too much traffic...  Mostly motor homes from California coming about every five minutes..

Went back home and worked for a couple more hours..

6:00 pm came and the wind was still and I could hear no traffic on the highway below...

I got back into Rustpuppy and headed to the north end of Rustpuppy Run..   I staged and noticed  an innocent driver coming around the bend behind me..  I got on Rustpuppy hard and wound up with too much wheelspin..   The time was just ok at 13.91@105.9 indicated on the G-Tech...   I wonder what the innocent driver thought..

When I got to the south end of Rustpuppy Run there was no traffic at all so I made a u-turn and got set up on the good staging pavement..

Got an excellent start and would have had a perfect run except for one thing..   Ol’ dufus Draganowski lifted just a hair before the traps..  Duhhh..   Got the strange combination of 13.65@102     coasting through the last hundred feet or so..   Duhh again..

Did a double set of u-turns and scampered back to the good launching area on the south end..    Got a good (but not great) launch and stayed on it for the duration for the time of 13.72@106.9..

I am almost 100% sure that Goody responded to the timing change from 34 to 36 degrees overall with a reduction of low end torque and a bit more power above 4000rpm..    That is what I feel and the converter flash is about 100rpm lower than before..

Will put the timing back at 34 degrees before doing any more racing..

It was a lot of fun today..

More to come..

Rick Draganowski

 

 

Taking it easier today I was busy in the lab when the old familiar itch struck again.  I planned to fiddle with the timing on Goody to put it back to 34 degrees so that was the first step..

When I got Rustpuppy on the road I could tell that she had more to offer..  I did a 0-60 to get the feel of things and Rustpuppy responded with a nice 4.8 seconds..  Yesterday the best she could do was 5 seconds flat..

It looks like the ports on the new (2000) Goodwrench not only look much better than older design but are more efficient as well..    And I am pretty proud of the porting job I did last winter..   It took weeks cause it was too cold in the shop to stay out long..

After the 0-60 run I motored down to the south end of Rustpuppy Run..   It was sunny and a lot drier and warmer than yesterday so I didn’t know what to expect.  Even though it was only a little past 4 there was no traffic so I could relax and take my time..

The launch went well but with a little more wheelspin than optimum..   Some time was lost so I didn’t expect much for this run..   After going well past the quarter (sun was on the G-Tech so I could not see the led’s) I coasted to the turn off..   I was pleasantly surprised at the numbers showing..

Most excellent!   The G-Tech indicated 13.57@107.8 .   My target of 13.4 is

starting to look like a real possibility..    And even with  possibly 3 or 4

mph of optimism the speed indicates reasonable horsepower..

I decided to head home and take some pictures of the pretty numbers instead of making another run..  Tomorrow is another day..

 

A pretty big difference going from 36 to 34 degrees on the timing..  Now I am thinking of dropping back to 32 degrees..    Very interesting..

 

More to come..

Rick Draganowski

(less is more, timing wise that is...)

 

 

 

Even though I did a small road trip to town with Rustpuppy yesterday there was no racing to speak of..   With the clearing of the miserable 3 day 5 inches of rain storm the winds in from the Pacific were strong (up over 40mph) and gusty and any high speed work would have been suicide..

Today was better but still windy from the northwest..     I couldn’t hold myself back and went out on Rustpuppy run about 4 this afternoon..   I just made one southbound run and the traction was lacking.   Way too much wheelspin..   And the directional stability was poor with the gusty sidewinds so I was not interested in trying another run..    Wind gusts were still considerably above 20mph.  A lackluster 14.11@103.9 was the time.

Several hours later I got the idea of making some more runs as the wind is usually calmer in the evening..

Got worked into another racing frenzy and made my way to the south end of Rustpuppy Run..    Got a good launch with just the right wheelspin but I could tell by the buffeting that Rustpuppy was going into a still considerable wind  from the North by Northwest..    At the top of the run Rustpuppy’s airspeed probably was peaking at about 120-125 and that is not a comfortable feeling.  It took a lot of concentration to stay on top of the instability and on the road..     Time was much improved but because of the headwind considerably down from Rustpuppy’s best still air time..  13.69@105.7 was the indication on the G-Tech.

Still up on adrenaline I motored back to the south end of the Run for another run with an experiment.   I have been shifting at about 6000rpm (shiftlight on at 5800 plus an old man’s slow reflex delay) so I decided to watch the tach and go for the shift early at about 5600 so the shift would hit right at 5800..     I wanted to see if there would be a big difference..  The wind was still too strong for this lunacy so the mph was the same but the time suffered due to the early shift for a result of 13.89@105.6 indicated.

I still had the Moxie for one more run so I went around to the south end of the Run for the last run of the day.   Back to my normal shift pattern with the shifts hitting at 6000 or a bit more..    Third good start in a row on the really good asphalt of the south end and Goody sounding strong and healthy.   The second gear shift was hitting pretty hard today with the rear lurching sideways and causing a bit of a wobble in the direction each time and the high speed work was very touchy but the last run went well for a final time of 13.65@105.6 indicated.

The gusty quartering headwind was taking 2mph off of the speed and about a tenth off the the time.   But what was really amazing was the loss of two tenths by just changing the shift points by 200rpm lower..   Makes me wonder if mebbe I  should use the 6000rm pill and let the shifts hit at about 6200 as a test..

Another 200rpm on the shift points and 2 degrees off the timing are the next Test&Tune experiments..

More to come..

Rick Draganowski

 

 

Still too windy for running so I took some pictures of the Rustpuppy launching process.  The first picture (t&t29-1a.jpg) shows Rustpuppy sitting still just before takeoff.  

In the second picture (t&t29-2a.jpg) Rustpuppy has taken off and has moved about a foot forward.  You can see the front end is rising and if you look close the rear is going up too.

I took the center out of the second picture and inserted it into the first to show the amount of lift..  (t&t29-3b.jpg)

I printed out a large copy of the composite picture and did some careful measurements and came up with these numbers.     Front end rise to the center of front wheels is 1.9” and the tires expanded 0.8” for a total front end rise of 2.7”..       And instead of squatting the splendid Lakewood Competition traction bars made the rear end go up almost an inch.  0.8” to be exact.

More to come..

Rick Draganowski

 

 

END OF CHAPTER 2