Now, for the 3rd part of our racing program. Long over do, getting an enclosed trailer. I've made do with our old open flat bed trailer for 30 years & before that drove the car to the track. While I'm not one to keep up with the Jones's. Last year at the Spring Fling Million, I rode around the pits & counted the open trailers. I think I made it to 5, including myself.

Anyway, I finally decided to look into buying a enclosed trailer with a bathroom package. I've been researching a couple years now & have saved my $$$. I get ready to buy & the Virus hits. So, I've made the call to Phil's Trailer Sales to find out my options. The Haulmark trailer I want will be a semi-custom built trailer & of course Haulmark is not open now. When they do open it will be a 7 month wait. Not A big deal for me, I've waited this long.

I also need to upgrade our main tow truck (2005 GMC HD 2500). We are going to upgrade to a 3500 Dodge or GM product. Not looking to buy new & we found a few 1-2 years old with under 15K mileage. We will not be in hurry & hopefully can find more of them deals.

So, it's looking like late 2020-21 to get the 80 Camaro work done & purchase truck/trailer.

quote:

Originally posted by B KING:
Now, for the 3rd part of our racing program. Long over do, getting an enclosed trailer. I've made do with our old open flat bed trailer for 30 years & before that drove the car to the track. While I'm not one to keep up with the Jones's. Last year at the Spring Fling Million, I rode around the pits & counted the open trailers. I think I made it to 5, including myself.

Yeah, I'm thinking of finally getting an enclosed trailer as well this year. As it is, when I get home from the track I open the garage door and back the whole, open trailer and race truck in, unhook the dually and shut the door.
I need the garage space back!
With starting my pension from the Guard this year, I should be able to make the payments.

Lol, I've not raced very long, but it seems not too many decades ago most racers had to either drive their cars to the track or towed them with a tow bar, 'four-down'.

The rich guys had open trailers; many if not most of them being single-axle trailers hooked behind big station wagons or half-ton pickups.
Only the top, pro racers had enclosed trailers.

Lol, for one season I used a tow dolly, which was a pain but I could tow with a Ranger pickup.
The track owner teased me about using a Chevy to push my Ford......

quote:

Originally posted by Bad Nusz:

Yeah, I'm thinking of finally getting an enclosed trailer as well this year. As it is, when I get home from the track I open the garage door and back the whole, open trailer and race truck in, unhook the dually and shut the door.
I need the garage space back!
With starting my pension from the Guard this year, I should be able to make the payments.

Lol, for one season I used a tow dolly, which was a pain but I could tow with a Ranger pickup.
The track owner teased me about using a Chevy to push my Ford......

I hope you get what you want. As for getting home from the track, I'm fortunate. I back the trailer into the shop, disconnect & unload bed of truck. That's the way it stays during race season. I even have room for the other race car & still be a able to comfortably work in shop.

Thanks for serving our great country!

I did the tow dolly a few times, it was easier just to drive the car to the track.

quote:

Originally posted by B KING:
I also need to upgrade our main tow truck (2005 GMC HD 2500). We are going to upgrade to a 3500 Dodge or GM product. Not looking to buy new & we found a few 1-2 years old with under 15K mileage. We will not be in hurry & hopefully can find more of them deals.

Is the 05 2500HD a Duramax or just a gasser?

One thing I want to mention to you guys that are fixing to get a new enclosed trailer. Two things that I think are a necessity in this day and time and that is a GPS tracking device and either some type of alarm system or in trailer camera to alert you if something has gone wrong in the cargo area.

I have the alarm but the camera system is probably easier and cheaper. I've seen too many of these rigs get stolen and too many of them catch on fire going down the road.

Good luck and although at the time I bought a new trailer from Fast Farm Trailer Sales I would think that right now you could probably find a good used enclosed trailer. Good luck!

quote:

Originally posted by NC3x58:
Is the 05 2500HD a Duramax or just a gasser?

Gasser

There's a couple other things I want to get updated that I didn't mention in this thread. My spare motor & transmission.

My spare motor has been sitting collecting dust on the plastic engine bag/some slight surface rust on cylinder walls. It has been sitting dormant since late 2008. I guess that's a good thing.

Anyway, I think I built/machined this 383 sbc in the late 90s. It really is a budget piece of work. It has about 3,000 passes, run a best of 10.40 something & won us plenty of $$$.

Here's a basic run down of the motor:

Cast iron, stock 1 piece seal, hard-blok filled to bottom of water pump.

Cast iron, Sportsman 2 cylinder heads, ported by me.

Cast crank been thru 2 going on 3, they crack, but haven't failed.

Cast hypereutectic Kieth Black pistons, this is the 2nd set; they have't failed.

Rods, Scat H beam

Roller cam

I'm changing a few things while the engine torn down. It's getting a refresh with a new cast crank. plus, I'm finally somewhat converting it to internal balance. As far as I know, it has to be external on the rear with a one piece seal crank. If it can be internal balanced, I'll have it done.

I'll have about $700 into when it's done & will probably be bagged/storage hopefully for the rest of my life. It has been a great/cheap motor, it was shifted @ 6K, but went thru the traps @ 7K +. It still amazes me.

quote:

Originally posted by B KING:

quote:

Originally posted by NC3x58:
Is the 05 2500HD a Duramax or just a gasser?

Gasser

Ah, ok. I could see the want to upgrade then..

I hate being on hold during this pandemic! It's mainly because they put my surgery on hold. I see the Doc June 5th, hopefully they can get me in for surgery soon.

After, I plan on getting the fiberglass parts ordered for the 80 Camaro & the trailer ordered.

The only thing I've worked on is the spare motor. Plan on taking crank to get balanced next week. Hopefully get the short block done soon.

quote:

Originally posted by B KING:
[QUOTE]Originally posted by Tim Mitchell:
What did you do to address the valve spring issues? If you don't mind disclosing that information. Nice car

My Sponsor gave me everything he had on the motor from Shafiroff. It was a break down of parts used, but no info on the valve springs. I pulled the springs & found a suitable sub. I ended up putting in K-Motion #900, they were set up according to their specs. The spring were broken in with low rpm until engine reach 180* & let cool. The car was raced after that, 6,600 on shift, 7,100 at stripe & 5,000 burnout.

Anyway, when I took motor to machine shop to be freshened. They checked the specs, my set-up to K-Motion specs. Everything was in order & ask me about the RPM of the motor. They couldn't figure out why & thought it was odd all the inner ones were broken. Has anybody ran into this before?

We ended up going with PAC valve springs. The valve springs were broken in as mentioned above. The only difference I used the Comp Cams break-in lube. The car has not been to the track this year. Probably take it out later this season, been running the 80 Camaro.[/QUOT

Prior years of K-Motion springs were not so stellar.
Most cases of inners breaking are no heat and too much rpm before they see any heat. And that is usually 5,6 inners broken. Never have seen all of them broken. Even testing on the dyno with a 1 minute quick warm with warm oil from a heater but no heat soak, resulted in 4 broken inners and 1 outer. Says a lot for warming the parts.
Everybody has had a broken spring at one time or another, some will admit it some wont. There are only a few actual spring manufacturers, so the springs you buy may or may not be produced in house, PSI,PAC,Associated.
Personal engine use,
PSI, never broke a spring. Never.
PAC, 1 outer 65 runs
Manley, associated i think, 3.

Most people will not do any spring prep either, deburr the ends, deburr the sharps, if they have damper coils, deburr them as well. A set of springs should get at least an hour of work before they go on a head.
No how, no way would I ever use hypers in anything designated for a drag engine, spare or not.

quote:

Originally posted by Bad News:
Prior years of K-Motion springs were not so stellar.
Most cases of inners breaking are no heat and too much rpm before they see any heat. And that is usually 5,6 inners broken. Never have seen all of them broken. Even testing on the dyno with a 1 minute quick warm with warm oil from a heater but no heat soak, resulted in 4 broken inners and 1 outer. Says a lot for warming the parts.
Everybody has had a broken spring at one time or another, some will admit it some wont. There are only a few actual spring manufacturers, so the springs you buy may or may not be produced in house, PSI,PAC,Associated.
Personal engine use,
PSI, never broke a spring. Never.
PAC, 1 outer 65 runs
Manley, associated i think, 3.

Most people will not do any spring prep either, deburr the ends, deburr the sharps, if they have damper coils, deburr them as well. A set of springs should get at least an hour of work before they go on a head.
No how, no way would I ever use hypers in anything designated for a drag engine, spare or not.

Our motors get warmed up to 180* & heat soaked for about an hour prior to hitting the track.

As for the K-Motion springs. I ran them on our old motor, now a spare. They would start breaking the inner springs around 250 passes. So we started replacing them at 200 runs.

As for the new car breaking the inner's. Something was wrong, either self inflicted or other wise.

I've never had any problems breaking other springs in 30+ years, only the K-Motion ones. We have run both the K-900 & K-950, will not be using their product anymore. Our cars are nothing special: low to medium rpm bracket cars with non aggressive roller cam profiles.

Well, I'm hoping to get my updates started back-up. I've been on hold for surgery for 4+ months & it's finally scheduled!

My plan is to get back to work asap, get my fiberglass parts & new trailer ordered.

red and black 68 camaros to the front.

I want to put the stock grill back in mine at some point.

ep

quote:

Originally posted by B KING:
Well, I'm hoping to get my updates started back-up. I've been on hold for surgery for 4+ months & it's finally scheduled!

My plan is to get back to work asap, get my fiberglass parts & new trailer ordered.

I'm about 3 weeks post surgery & see the Dr. on 8/05/2010. I hoping to be back at work on 10/01/2020. Once back to work get the fiberglass parts/new trailer ordered.

In the meantime planning to take the rebuilt motor in the 68 Camaro out for testing this coming weekend. I hate running new untested parts, but I guess it has to happen.

I got the VFN fiberglass front-end, dash & mounting kit ordered today. I should have it about 10 weeks from now.

Mike, I forgot about the contact info until I went back through this thread. Thanks for trying to help a guy out!

We made some decisions to not race the Bracket Finals. Although we both finished well in the points. My Son is 4th in points & I'm 1st in points. It doesn't look like we are having anymore points races.
.
Anyway, a couple of days ago I decided to start the updates to the 80 Camaro. I got the front end completely disassembled for one piece fiberglass front end, including the radiator core support.

I have also cut out the 8 point 1 3/4", .134 wall roll bar out of the car. The fuel cell, battery & cable have been removed out of trunk. I still need to remove the carpet, dash, ignition, buttons, wiring & etc. out of the interior.

I'm debating on taking photos of the process & posting. I have never been one for photos & most come from other's taking them & posting.

As for racing the rest of the year. We/I might run the Fall Fling Vegas & our annual Thanksgiving race.

quote:

Originally posted by B KING:
We made some decisions to not race the Bracket Finals. Although we both finished well in the points. My Son is 4th in points & I'm 1st in points. It doesn't look like we are having anymore points races.
.
Anyway, a couple of days ago I decided to start the updates to the 80 Camaro. I got the front end completely disassembled for one piece fiberglass front end, including the radiator core support.

I have also cut out the 8 point 1 3/4", .134 wall roll bar out of the car. The fuel cell, battery & cable have been removed out of trunk. I still need to remove the carpet, dash, ignition, buttons, wiring & etc. out of the interior.

Change to paragraph 1: Looks like the track is trying to reschedule 2 make-up points/wally races. This probably will not happen until Dec. after the Bracket Finals.

The front-end major pieces weighed 115 lbs. & will be replaced with about 40 lbs. of parts. That will be a nice improvement for the weight bias!

The dash & everything underneath weighed about 25 lbs. & will be replaced with about 10 lbs. The replacement carpet is yet to be determined. The stock steering column will be replaced with a chromoly piece with a Strange quick release hub.

quote:

Taking the Best Working Small Tire Shyt Box & making it Greater Than Before!

quote:

Originally posted by B KING

The front-end major pieces weighed 115 lbs. & will be replaced with about 40 lbs. of parts. That will be a nice improvement for the weight bias!

The dash & everything underneath weighed about 25 lbs. & will be replaced with about 10 lbs. The replacement carpet is yet to be determined. The stock steering column will be replaced with a chromoly piece with a Strange quick release hub .

DANG ! your going to be busy, I did a lot of the same on my 73 Camaro a few years back. Mine is down to 2805 with 1/2 tank of fuel and my 198 pounds. Just a mild 383 on alkyl, glide, 4.88, 5300 stall running 10.30s , 129 mph at 4500 adjusted. Hoping to make Vegas for thanksgiving ....

quote:

Originally posted by J178RED:
DANG ! your going to be busy, I did a lot of the same on my 73 Camaro a few years back. Mine is down to 2805 with 1/2 tank of fuel and my 198 pounds. Just a mild 383 on alkyl, glide, 4.88, 5300 stall running 10.30s , 129 mph at 4500 adjusted. Hoping to make Vegas for thanksgiving ....

LOL! I've been busy & running out of time. I'm hoping to be released from Dr. on Oct 07 to returned to work. After that my time is limited to working on the car during the weekends.

Looks like I'll end up removing about 100 lbs. total & should put me around 2950 with my 220 lbs. in the seat. I received the TRZ chromoly steering stem & Strange quick release hub today. Very nice kit & is adjustable for height.

I've been working on getting my trailer ordered also. Should be putting down the deposit to start the build in next couple of days.

I'm planning on racing the Thanksgiving race also. I'll be running the 68 Camaro for that one & any other race the rest of the year. I will have to stop by & introduce myself if you make it.

quote:

Originally posted by B KING:

quote:

Originally posted by J178RED:
DANG ! your going to be busy, I did a lot of the same on my 73 Camaro a few years back. Mine is down to 2805 with 1/2 tank of fuel and my 198 pounds. Just a mild 383 on alkyl, glide, 4.88, 5300 stall running 10.30s , 129 mph at 4500 adjusted. Hoping to make Vegas for thanksgiving ....

LOL! I've been busy & running out of time. I'm hoping to be released from Dr. on Oct 07 to returned to work. After that my time is limited to working on the car during the weekends.

Looks like I'll end up removing about 100 lbs. total & should put me around 2950 with my 220 lbs. in the seat. I received the TRZ chromoly steering stem & Strange quick release hub today. Very nice kit & is adjustable for height.

I've been working on getting my trailer ordered also. Should be putting down the deposit to start the build in next couple of days.

I'm planning on racing the Thanksgiving race also. I'll be running the 68 Camaro for that one & any other race the rest of the year. I will have to stop by & introduce myself if you make it.

Sounds like a plan B! I’ll be a little tardy but I’ll get it done.
O