Kelly's Falcon, broke once again

Does10s

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I haven't posted up in awhile because Kelly's car has been running pretty good! I had nothing to really report.

But unfortunately now I do.....
A little resent history.
She raced up at Speedworld back in Aug. Car was running fine, but we used up a Aeromotive elec. fuel pump on her last pass.
No big deal (other than it cost us the race!). The car was still running just fine. It did however go a little lean on that last past due to the pump, not pumping. But to be honest the A/F on our Innovate datalogger was "noisy". It was jumping all over the place. So it was hard to tell what actually happened.

We sent the pump back to Aeromotive for a checkout and a rebuild.

Raced again early Oct. at Firebird. Car ran really good! 1.57 60' times deep staging. (personal best for deep staging). Kelly lost in the third round running a 10.932 on a 10.93 dial. Her light was just a little bit worst than her competitor.
But the car was still running just fine. It did however have an idle problem. It had it all day. I could hear the vacuum leak "whistle".
That problem was the intake manifold gasket has seperated (delaminated) and caused the leak, Easy fix.

So she raced it again last Friday night in Tucson for our "Quartermile for a Cure" Gambler.
Had some minor jet changes due to the difference between Phoenix and Tucson. But was running OK.

So last Sunday I start the car to take it out of the trailer for an oil change. Had it idling in the garage to warm it up....and BANG! It was still running OK, but I quickly shut it down.
My first thought was that we just throw the alternator belt. (been done before!) But Nooo.....the bolt that retains the camshaft sprocket has worked it's way loose and was sticking out of the timing chain cover!
I then thought that my homemade cam thrust plate had broken and the cam had walked. But after a teardown that wasn't the case.

So no harm done with the cam. Just need a new timing cover and a better bolt retaining device. Loctite Red didn't hold!
We did pull the motor to make it easier and we haven't had to pull it in awhile so it was do for an inspection anyway.
During said inspection #6 cyl. wall is a little scored. Not to bad though. So I pull the #6 piston out. It has a huge crack from the oil ring all the way down the skirt! :shock: I'll see if I can get a pic of it.
Fortunately JE Pistons won't sell you one piston. So the last time we burnt a piston I had to purchase 4. So we've got 3 more on the shelf just waiting for their turn to make some power!

So this weekend we'll ball hone #6 cyl., replace the piston and rings on #6 and put it back together.

We race again Nov. 19-21 at the Street Car Super Nationals in Vegas.
http://www.streetcarsupernationls.com
See ya there!
Will
 
Shift RPM is between 4800 and 5200 depending upon whether or not we need to slow the car down. ;)

She goes thru the traps around 6200 rpm. Although after this next race we're switching out the 3.50 gears for a set of 3.25s.
That should pull down the big end RPMs by about 200rpm; maybe!
it might just increase our trap speed negating any RPM loss!
Later,
Will
 
So I guess that means you're not racing at SpeedWorld on Nov 14 for the 1320 Nostalgia race or at Pinks All Out at Firebird later this month either... :cry:
 
same thing happened to me with my cam sprocket bolt about two months back. i used the red loctite also i believe... i did a tear down as well but didnt find any damage like you did. just replaced the timing cover and bolt and that was then end of it. my bolt completely disappeared on the road somewhere though...
 
Gene Fiore":2xwosntd said:
So I guess that means you're not racing at SpeedWorld on Nov 14 for the 1320 Nostalgia race or at Pinks All Out at Firebird later this month either... :cry:
Gene,
We're not racing either one of those, but not because we're broke! The PSCA is racing in Vegas with the annual Street Car Super Nationals the same weekend as Pinks.

I do almost have her motor back together. Ball honed #6 and installed a new JE Forged piston and rings. So that's ready to run.
Reinstalled the cam, new timing chain and sprockets. Degreed the cam so that we have .5 degrees of adv. The same cam was at 2.5 degrees before. I'm trying to see if we get a bit more top end power. This may take a little away from the starting line, which isn't a bad thing becuase we're having some traction issues. So a little less torque at the hit of the throttle will be beneficial.
It also might help a bit with our top end "nose over". Becuase of our RPM and the cam, we're WAY passed our torque and HP peaks and the car just slowly stops pulling on the big end. A rear gear swap is also on order sometime soon.

We'll have her car back up and running by this Sat.
Later,
Will
 
Well Kelly's car is back up and running. Started it up Sat. morning. Runs just fine.

I think I found the issue with our cracked piston. The factory mechanical advance setup in the Duraspark distributor has a little tab that sticks up to control the amount of advance. Well that tab broke off at some point! So we were probably getting at least 25 degrees of spark advance when I only wanted 10!
We know that #6 is our lean cyl. so it was the first to go!

Sometimes even bad luck is good luck! Had I not found that we would've hurt it again on the first pass!

So off to Vegas we go for some more racing this weekend!
Later,
Will
 
Funky Cricket":1ywxfpe0 said:
How did vegas go?

Glad to not see more carnage pics like last year.

You will..... :cry:

We apparently have a problem with the carb that I didn't find.
We broke another piston in #6 in the burnout box....on the first run! The motor had about 20 min. of run time on it.
Unfortunately it broke a piece off and it went thru the turbine. So we need a turbine wheel too!
Pretty expensive weekend!

So we're switching to fuel injection! I'm just plain tired of messing with the carb trying to get all of the cyl. to burn the same.
Our next race is in March so I have about 3 months to inject Kelly's car!
Later,
Will
 
:( Lord have mercy.When it rains it monsoons.Sounds like a piece of the piston above the top ring groove broke off and exited through the exhaust valve.
Hope you get everything properly sorted in time.
Best of luck,and best wishes for a safe season.
Leo
 
woodbutcher":1567azaj said:
Sounds like a piece of the piston above the top ring groove broke off and exited through the exhaust valve.
Leo

Leo,
You're exactly right! And I mean exactly! About an inch worth of the "outer diameter" of the piston above the top ring is gone. Of course before it went out the exhaust valve, it banged the bottom of the head for awhile!
So some head work is in order. But to get the EFI in there we'll need to drill out the injector bungs in the head anyway.
So we'll magnaflux everything, deck it if neccessary, order a new, thicker copper head gasket.
And sleeve #6 cyl.

We hope to get it back up and running with EFI before March.
Well see!
 
:( Well,that pretty much sucks.Hope everything goes well,and no more problems.Sounds like Mr Murphy came to visit you and Kelly as well.
Leo
 
Good luck getting everything back together! If u can take pics and notes I'd love to run the build story at MyRideisMe.com
 
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