Won the Pro class tonight, first race the car has entered this season after all the troubles.

I borrowed a buddies torque converter to try and pin point if my tranny was the problem, of if the stall I had in there was the problem. Took it out, was just going to make a few passes and come home, then the guys talked me into entering the race...WTF I said. 6 rounds later and I won the Modified/Pro class Pretty fricken stoked and nobody to be happy with since it's sooo late (we got rained out earlier and then they dried the track and got us back going.) LOL

Day started out bad though, was running the car to warm it up at the end of the track, made a few WOT runs quick and heard a loud bang...WTF??? All the guages showed internals were still all good, so got back to the pits and parked. Friend comes over and asks, WTF happened to your hood??? I look and there's a nice big dent and big chunk of paint missing. what the he@%??? pop the hood, damage was just in front of pass side wheel well so literally nothing there that could've done damage..we all looked for a minute and then I seen the alternator cooling fins (the impeller behind the pulley) was completely gone...the sum bitch gernaded and dented the heck outta my hood from the under side and popped the nice chunk of paint off the top

But, the night ended great with a win the first time out!!! so now I have a lil extra $$$ to resupply the money I lost fixing the engine builder screw ups ups!!! I had the car loaded going to come home so I could get some paperwork done tomorrow, but all the guys bent my arm until I agreed to come back tomorrow and try again...hopefully all will go well again.

FWIW, even this converter is too loose, it flashed to 5800. I ended up putting the 7K chip in my shift light and a 7500 chip in my high side rev limiter. Ran a best of 1.48 60' and 10.698 @ 126mph with the DA hovering around 3800' so it's getting there, once I get the right converter in it, I think some 10.40/50's will be in sight. Was running 10.73-.75 in 4600 DA the first few passes...hot as heck and very humid and sunny.

 

Congrats on winning your class. Sucks the cooling fin on the alt decided to leave and damage your hood.

Sounds like the new motor is doing just fine, just need to get the right converter now.

 

I threw a fan blade in my old 4x4 like that. High rpm first gear shift going down the street and there was a loud band and the engine developed a shake. It took me 2 days to see that a blade was missing off the fan. It went straight down and broke the bottom of the fan shroud. The shake was because of the imbalance from the missing fan blade.

Taking the win reminds me of my first race. I went to the track for my first bracket race back in 1997. I was running my truck in Sportsman. The driver I took out in the final round was the previous year's season champ. I was hooked ever since.

Well at least you got to race. Our entire weekend got rained out. First race of the year and we just lost 2 points races in one weekend.

 

Congrats on the win, sorry about the hood.

 

Congates and I have done the fan trick also I thought I was the only one with such strange luck to break an alt fan. mine went through my Harwood hood and made a nice vibration stoped at a gas station pulled the belt and limped it home.

 

Weellll, hero to zero in 1.5 time runs

Bad luck has not left me and has shut down my program for awhile now until I get back onto the money jobs here at home. First time shot today car ran the 10.700 it ran last night, light was a .024. 2nd shot had my .002 light, got to the 1/8th mile mark ready for the 2-3 shift and boom...shut'er down as fast as I could, no smoke out the back, no oil trail..that's a plus right??? Pull off on return road, had a feeling in my gut based off previous motor I lost and the sound that made.

popped the hood, looked straight at the crank, and sure a chit, damper laying at a nice angle and the only thing keep9ing it in the car was the lower timing chain gear still attached to the front stub of the Callas crank...

Hero to zero in 1.5 time runs LMFAO!!!! Sucks donkey nutz, and the darn thing was runnign soo good too, that's what makes me maddest. I'm just hoping since I tried to shut'er down quick damage is'nt nearly as bad as the last motor when that crank snapped off, that one took out the entire valvetrain-pushrods, lifters, rocker arms, valves, guides, seats along with the crank.

I'm gonna wait a few days again before I pull the engine, this is just too much bad stuff in too short amount of time, my budget is blown so it'll sit awhile depednig on extent of damage this time...man...when it is'nt meant to be, it just is'nt meant to be...shoulda just listened to my gut and stopped alot of money ago, but I did have a blast last night going rounds...for a little while it made all the hardship seem worth it...no we're back to square one LOL!! fricken cars

 

Are you trying to mirror my racing career?

I've also noticed the car seems to run it's best just before something bad happens.

As for the broken crank, I've never broken one like that but have seen a few break. Mostly engines with blower on them. Not sure why they break on the snout but having a crank magnafluxed and checked for cracks becomes mandatory on high HP engines.

My current crank is an Eagle 4340 internally balanced one. I wouldn't even consider using a cast crank.

 

Ouch LOL!!!! I guess given the fact I've had it pretty easy to date, maybe this is a life lesson from the racing gods so I appreciate things when they go smoothly...this entire ordeal has been a disaster/joke, cept it's been a very expensive joke so it's not been all that funny.

Supposedly all the parts were checked prior to assembly, the crank was actually sent out and looked at by a shop owned by a racer we run with and came back fine. Since hind sight is 20/20, looking back now to Saturday afternoon warming the car up when the alternator fan exploded and dented my hood...that right there was an indication of something not being right...hind sight. Now it makes perfect sense in theory, I'm still using the factory lower pulley with the 3 V belt set-up and then the serpentine belt groove after that, so the alt. belt is out there a ways and putting alot of vibration into the crank snout. The belt is tight, but not stupid tight. Even as tight as it is, the bottom of the belt still flops up and down a bit since it's mounted mid block and belt is 37" long. That is the ONLY common thread between the last motor and this new motor, the alternator set-up, and with the pully going bye-bye, that's all I can think of. Maybe since the other crank was cast steel, naturally it's alot more forgiving and will flex/give, where as this 4340 stuff just works or breaks-period.

When we do get it put back together, I'm going to order up an ultra mini and if I have to mount it backwards with the pully facing the engine and step down to a single groove pully on the damper instead of what I'm using now.

One thing is for sure, once you get into hp numbers like this, everything changes. All the stuff that did'nt matter back at 500 and less hp really starts to show and excentuate problems...life was sooo much easier and cheaper back then...but it was fun goin faster, sure made racing the stripe a piece of cake since I was mph'ing right there with the rest of the crowd for the most part. I didnt have a single flat out pass all night long unless the other guy red lit, and even then I never touched my dial all night long. I was running on average 125-126mph all night flat out and I think the fastest I ever crossed the line was 119mph, average trap speed was 115mph I was dumping that much...but the air was funny since we went from around 4000' to 2700', storms moving in and out of the area twice, wind from 0-20mph..just one of those weird nights where you dart board dial.

 

Hmmm. I never even considered that the alternator fan might have been an early indication of something failing. A too tight fan belt will eat an alternator bearing long before it puts too much stress on the crank.

I use a 5 rib serpentine belt on mine. The alternator is mounted to the front motor plate and the adjuster is mounted to the roll bar tube that runs down in front of the shock tower. Since everything is solid, it could be mounted anywhere. The belt just runs from the crank to the alternator. I'd love to low mount the alt but I have very little clearance. The idler arm is on one side and the pitman arm is on the other because I have the engine sitting so low.

Mounting an alternator backwards is an easy modification for restricted space and for using a short belt. Remove the alt fan since it will be running backwards. For street use, this isn't recommended but for a drag car, it's not running long enough to make a difference. The alternator itself doesn't care which way it spins.

I didn't think you were using a cast crank in this engine. Typically unless you're using a power adder or running very high compression, cast cranks can be a better choice.

Taking a win light can really set a racing bug. Even though I wasn't going many rounds, I was still pumping money into my car every time I toasted an engine. I probably could have paid off my mortgage if I didn't have a race car.

When you have to "dart board dial" because of the weather, you have to remember that everyone else is doing the same thing so your guess is just as god as anyone else's.

 

Congrats on the win Josh but sorry to hear about the carnage. Keep us posted. Hope its not too bad.

 

congrats on the win first time out, sorry to here about the breakage on the second trip. hopefully the damage will just be the crank. good luck

 

Ohhh boy IHI - I am sorry to hear about the motor -

reminds me of a meet recently in the US virgin islands - one of the better big block camaros spilled its guts right on the line stalling on the brake

You are right - when you step up to big motors, everything is wound so tight and strong that failure means breakage

hope you can salvage something from this - hang in there

 

Just Curious IHI, What kind/type of harmonic balancer are you using? Could a failed balancer contribute to a broken crank?