Bracket Talk
Our Racing Program

This topic can be found at:
https://drr.infopop.cc/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/80760912/m/1377080396

May 20, 2022, 08:21 PM
B KING
Our Racing Program
Thanks Al!

We plan on testing out here in Pahrump, that's where I live. I have a good friend out here that's a street racer/no-prep guy. He runs on that road in your pic. Plus, he runs on Las Vegas Blvd. next to I-15 that the street outlaws use. He's been 4.80s at the track with the track timers & his Draggy backing up the times. Then after he went out to Las Vegas Blvd. & went 4.80x using his Draggy. This is with a small tire Nova running a nitrous SBC.


1980 Camaro
Taking the Best Working Small Tire Shyt Box & making it Greater Than Before!
3000 lbs.
Pump Gas 436
May 22, 2022, 08:13 PM
B KING
quote:
Originally posted by B KING:
Now that the car is coming together pretty quickly. Barring any unforeseen circumstances, we are hoping to do some street testing in July.


Still planning to fire motor in a couple weeks & keeping fingers crossed for street testing in July.

Things are still coming together quickly but:

I have to build a custom upper radiator hose, factory neck & hose to close for comfort with the ProCharger idler pulley.

Waiting on fluids, should be here by the end of the week.

Trying to find chromoly tubing for driveshaft.

Waiting on thicker wall pushrods, might go with another manufacturer.


1980 Camaro
Taking the Best Working Small Tire Shyt Box & making it Greater Than Before!
3000 lbs.
Pump Gas 436
May 25, 2022, 05:54 PM
B KING
I'm getting so close to firing the new motor, I'm actually dragging my feet a little. I could probably do it this weekend, but I told my boy I would wait till he gets here the 1st weekend of June.

Last couple of days:

Got the modified throttle cable bracket done & cable installed. That allowed me to install the driver's seat. I'm holding off on the passenger seat until a few uncompleted wiring checks are done. Then my son can tidy up the wiring.

I got all the fluids in the car except the radiator. That will be done tomorrow after building the upper radiator hose.

I've be working on a start-up tune for the Sniper EFI. I'm using the wizard tune set-up with a few tweaks, mainly timing. The motor will be run for about 15-20 minutes between 1800-2200 rpm for the lifters. Then I got a tuner to build a base tune so I can test the car & provide data logs for him to make changes to the base tune.

That's it for now.


1980 Camaro
Taking the Best Working Small Tire Shyt Box & making it Greater Than Before!
3000 lbs.
Pump Gas 436
May 29, 2022, 08:12 AM
B KING
quote:
Originally posted by B KING:
I'm getting so close to firing the new motor, I'm actually dragging my feet a little. I could probably do it this weekend, but I told my boy I would wait till he gets here the 1st weekend of June.

Last couple of days:

I got all the fluids in the car except the radiator. That will be done tomorrow after building the upper radiator hose.

I've be working on a start-up tune for the Sniper EFI. I'm using the wizard tune set-up with a few tweaks, mainly timing. The motor will be run for about 15-20 minutes between 1800-2200 rpm for the lifters. Then I got a tuner to build a base tune so I can test the car & provide data logs for him to make changes to the base tune.

That's it for now.


Still dragging my feet on start up, only one week to go!

I had the radiator fully installed & built the upper radiator. When I added water had a small pin hole in one tank where we welded a bracket for the radiator mount. Took it back out & had it fixed & re-installed.

Was going to use the wizard for the Sniper EFI start-up, decided against it. I needed to hire a tuner for the system anyway & went ahead & made that happen. He's building base/start-up tune & will have it for me before next weekend.

Yesterday, I actually got out the old dusty Camaro Chilton's manual. I needed the torque specs for the front suspension. Got that all done, pinned & installed the shocks.

I guess the only thing(s) I need to do before next weekend is drain the flush 87 UL fuel out of the system. Then add the 100 UL pump gas for firing motor & lifter break-in.


1980 Camaro
Taking the Best Working Small Tire Shyt Box & making it Greater Than Before!
3000 lbs.
Pump Gas 436
May 30, 2022, 09:28 PM
B KING
quote:
Originally posted by B KING:
I guess the only thing(s) I need to do before next weekend is drain the flush 87 UL fuel out of the system. Then add the 100 UL pump gas for firing motor & lifter break-in.


I bought 10 gal. of Sunoco 260 GT (100 UL pump) today for just under $10 a gal. Then drained 87 out of the system, added the 260 to the cell. I wanted to prime the system, but couldn't get the fuel pumps to turn on. After trouble shooting for about 10 min. & finding nothing. I had forgot the Digital Delay switching has the fuel safety that needs the ignition on. Red Face

I'm supposed to get a baseline tune from the tuner before this weekend to fire-up; will have to load that into the ECU.

The plan for 260 GT fuel, is to supplement the octane with water/meth injection into the Procharger intake. That should give us a big safety margin for tuning. The main reason going this route is not to kill the O2 sensor. The water/meth system is a very basic, but a tried & true system. Pretty simple: mount the tank, one hose goes to boost/vac port & one hose to inlet side of blower or turbo.




https://www.andersonfordmotors...ection-system-gen-2/


1980 Camaro
Taking the Best Working Small Tire Shyt Box & making it Greater Than Before!
3000 lbs.
Pump Gas 436
June 01, 2022, 11:58 AM
B KING
I really want to fire this motor, but the smart thing is to wait until one of the boys are here. I'm getting small things done for testing hopefully in July. I got the water/meth tank mounted yesterday.

I'm having to order/update other things I kind of forgot about:
My license/classes
New belts/helmet
Fire extinguisher mount
I'm sure there are other items




1980 Camaro
Taking the Best Working Small Tire Shyt Box & making it Greater Than Before!
3000 lbs.
Pump Gas 436
June 05, 2022, 07:20 PM
B KING
We got a lot of work done on the Camaro this weekend. As you have probably read, we fired the motor with minor issues to work out. I ran the valves & only found two that might have loosened .001, within specs of break-in of lifters. We have a small drip of oil from the balancer seal. I think we have it figured out why. The builder put 8 quarts of break-in oil in motor before they primed it. Plus, we had the rear of car on jack stands. When we took car off the stands the drip was less. I haven't decided to take a quart out or change the oil & put my usual 7 quarts back in. The next engine run when I have the driveshaft. I would like to load the motor on the transbrake a couple times, then change out the break-in oil.

The other major thing we got done was totally flush the brake fluid out of the system while bleeding the brakes.

We got a bunch other piddly crap done also. Big Grin


1980 Camaro
Taking the Best Working Small Tire Shyt Box & making it Greater Than Before!
3000 lbs.
Pump Gas 436
June 06, 2022, 01:31 PM
B KING
We made some simple hinge brackets for the front-end to be able to tilt. I still have to get some small diameter pins for the top of strap. Plus, we need to make a small aluminum plate to go on the bottom side of the pointed nose when it's tilted.

As you can see, we are going to have to cut the hood. We will probably make a small blister for the charge tube. The head unit we'll probably make a small intake to feed the inlet of the ProCharger.










1980 Camaro
Taking the Best Working Small Tire Shyt Box & making it Greater Than Before!
3000 lbs.
Pump Gas 436
June 06, 2022, 02:41 PM
seabass
Good idea


J.R. Baxter

""Fathom the hypocrisy of a Government that requires every citizen to prove they are insured ..but not everyone must prove they are a citizen."

2024 Miller
Rolla Competition Engines
ProCharger
Hoosier Tires
Abruzzi
June 06, 2022, 10:47 PM
B KING
quote:
Originally posted by seabass:
Good idea


Before the straps, you could tilt it; but it wanted to rollout of the C-bracket.

We still have a lot of work to do with the front-end. I'm planning to put in the upper factory grill, it's partially blocked. I would like to do something with the lower grill, but the factory one sucks.


1980 Camaro
Taking the Best Working Small Tire Shyt Box & making it Greater Than Before!
3000 lbs.
Pump Gas 436
June 08, 2022, 09:51 PM
B KING
Last couple days been working on getting interior finished up, it's about 98% complete:

Fiberglass dash is in.

Both seats in, the passenger seat upholstery is interfering with the lang travel transbrake switch. I haven't figured that out yet, I like the position of the switch.

Installed the belts, they expire the end of the month. I'll use them for street testing, then they will get moved to the passenger side seat. I'll get new ones closer to when I hit the track in the fall.

I took a pic of the interior, but not going to post. I hate not having door panels on & I'm still undecided on doing them in aluminum or the factory panels.

I need to find a floor mat for the driver's side, but it seems you have to order the whole 4-piece set. I still need to do some more searching.


1980 Camaro
Taking the Best Working Small Tire Shyt Box & making it Greater Than Before!
3000 lbs.
Pump Gas 436
June 14, 2022, 09:40 PM
B KING
Not much going on with the build, waiting on a driveshaft. I need it to go on with the next steps of data logging/tuning changes. Still hoping to street test the 2nd or 3rd weekend of July.

Until then I've been checking & rechecking everything:

The trunk is closed out at 100% done, no more checking.

The interior is about 98% complete, no more checking needed for testing or racing.

The engine is still in the works with things needing to be done. Tomorow plan on changing out the exhaust pushrods, only a few more re-checks.

Suspension has been checked but needs more re-checking. I'll break-in the rear gears when the driveshaft is in.

I'm in MI. for a little over a month in Aug. I might be able to hit the track for testing in Sept., but the plan is for track testing/racing in Oct.


1980 Camaro
Taking the Best Working Small Tire Shyt Box & making it Greater Than Before!
3000 lbs.
Pump Gas 436
June 24, 2022, 12:34 PM
B KING
I've been busy this morning, thanks to Dan's Driveline! I installed the new 3.5" chromoly driveshaft with only one issue. I have a crossmember with a removeable center piece with a slight U bend for driveshaft clearance. The old driveshaft was 3" diameter & didn't hit when rearend was fully extended, the new one does. I guess we need to make a new center piece.

With the driveshaft installed I was able to get 5 data logs for the tuner to look at & make changes to the tune up. I have to send a log for: cold start, hot start, steady state rpm both on low & high gear & finally a varied throttle with shifts/stops. Now the hard part for me is trying to send that information to him in email. Somehow, I fumbled my way through last time, guess I'll figure it out again. I'll be glad when we start live tuning!


1980 Camaro
Taking the Best Working Small Tire Shyt Box & making it Greater Than Before!
3000 lbs.
Pump Gas 436
June 26, 2022, 06:18 PM
B KING
I checked the stall of the convertor on the transbrake today. It stalled @ 5,100 rpm & was supposed to be around 5,900 rpm at this lower boost combination. I'm sure the stall is low because the tune-up is still being tuned on. It's still fat & low on timing.

Also, I was trying to finish breaking in the rear gears. When I noticed I didn't have reverse; I don't get that. The transbrake worked for the stall test! I started checking the shift shaft/lever, something seems wrong. It's almost like the shaft is slipping internally. The shaft lever goes way forward & up in relation to the case; it's literally horizontal with the car & ground. I compared it to my spare powerglide & that's the normal slightly forward position. Anyway, I'm working on that in the morning & will probably end up pulling the pan.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: B KING,


1980 Camaro
Taking the Best Working Small Tire Shyt Box & making it Greater Than Before!
3000 lbs.
Pump Gas 436
June 26, 2022, 08:00 PM
Mike Rietow
Could be the rooster comb is broke/cracked. The shift lever you can see on the outside of the trans slides through the the hole in the rooster seen here, and is keyed on the teeth you see on the rooster. The rooster is internal.

This is the same shift lever you've always used correct? (The part the shifter cable attaches).


June 26, 2022, 08:34 PM
B KING
quote:
Originally posted by Mike Rietow:
Could be the rooster comb is broke/cracked. The shift lever you can see on the outside of the trans slides through the the hole in the rooster seen here, and is keyed on the teeth you see on the rooster. The rooster is internal.

This is the same shift lever you've always used correct? (The part the shifter cable attaches).



I don't know but going to find out tomorrow! Hughes built this trans & I just got it back from recert & checkout. My ATI powerglides when I had the pan off, I never paid attention to the rooster.

Thanks for the tip.


1980 Camaro
Taking the Best Working Small Tire Shyt Box & making it Greater Than Before!
3000 lbs.
Pump Gas 436
June 26, 2022, 08:48 PM
Mike Rietow
Yeah, no sweat.

The lever is keyed. It'll only go through the rooster one way.

This is a GM rooster out of a powerglide. GM roosters are near impossible to find through a vender.

Some of the china copies I've seen have lots of slop. Very dangerous to use as a builder, because it could end up half in gear at some point down the line, and transmission end up a sizzler.



June 26, 2022, 09:04 PM
Mike Rietow
I'll buy a stock powerglide off Craigslist, FB marketplace ect, ect, just to get the rooster.

So if there is a problem, it's good you caught it. I kinda doubt there's a problem other than possibly the rooster is cracked, because it's a Hughes.

And the rooster could get hurt in shipping, which would be my guess, if it is cracked.

So definitely check it thoroughly.
June 26, 2022, 09:58 PM
BG7X77
Replaced one recently.

TSR Transmission
Worked perfectly.

Powerglide Rooster Comb‚ Heavy Duty APG-28862HD


BG
June 26, 2022, 10:01 PM
B KING
Well, thanks guys! I hope that's all it's, I sure don't want to pull the tranny. Hopefully I can figure it out in the morning. I was hoping to take this thing around the block today. Everything happens for a reason.


1980 Camaro
Taking the Best Working Small Tire Shyt Box & making it Greater Than Before!
3000 lbs.
Pump Gas 436