How do rods go from being capable of a 1000HP methanol build to just barely better than stock? The rust on the cylinder walls wouldn't have bugged me at all since with some PB Blaster and a little elbow grease it would have wiped off by hand. Do you still have that block and whole rotating assembly you are now not using and if so how much would you sell it for?

 

Yep, going to check the injectors. NO black E85 goo, already looked for that.

As for the rods, I guess for road racing they rate the capacity lower than for street or drags. I also think Crower was playing the CYA game and also maybe trying to sell a new set of $$$ rods. I do have the whole shortblock. PM me for details.

 

PM sent.

 

Manley 300m rods might be something else to look at. It is what I have in my motor currently. I don't remember offhand what the weight was but I am pretty sure its 5xx grams. Not quite as light as the titanium but will handle 1300hp in a 4 cylinder application and you can pick a set up for around $800-1000 depending on who you talk to vs $3k for the titanium.

Matt H.

 

While I'm waiting on the new engine I figured I'd take a bit more weight out of the car in preparation for getting roll cage installed this winter. This is stuff that I would not remove if I were not having a cage installed.

First I went back to the doors and redid all of them to take out more weight and make them a little more "finished" looking



Next was to get some weight out of the bracing for the rear deck/strut towers and put my new spotweld drill bit to work!







v












My goal is to have the cage add NO weight to the car compared to what I was at in 2012. I figure although I will be adding the cage - I can get rid of the 60# Autopower roll bar, some rear sheetmetal (see above), the OEM dash bar and all the brackets attached to it, the OEM steering column (replaced with a race unit), and a lot of wiring . . .

 

If you haven't done it already.. there is an exhaust hanger in the passenger side rear fender well. it can go.

Can you share where you got your spot weld drill bit from? That thing is pro!

 

Holy crap, that piston would make even a top fuel team proud.

 

Thanks for the tip, just took care of the hanger in the wheelwell and the rear one by the bumper.

Here is the kit I got. The first bit is starting to get a little dull, but I know I overheated it a few times (too many RPM's)





Can anyone out there tell me what these two capped plugs are? They were centralized on the main dash bar. From looking at the wiring diagrams I think they call them Junction Connections, probably J/C1 and J/C3 if I am correct. What is the purpose of these?

 

Jumpers.

Look in there and you can see the metal that ties which pins together. It should be pretty obvious just looking at the wires though as the same color wires all end up tied to each other. On those two plugs, I believe the Green is interior illumination/parking lights, black is ground, Red/Green I THINK is dimmed interior lights. Just going off memory.

I cut them all out and just spliced the wires directly together after I removed the unneeded wires.

If you don't care about proper wiring technique, you can also just daisy chain the stuff together on the power side for low power items. You can daisy chain the grounds together as well for non-ground potential sensitive stuff. It's not the right way to do it, but as long as you aren't mixing and matching fuse lines and it's not sensor grounds, you should be fine.

 

Sorry about your engine, but I'm sure your next chapter in the build and racing will be impressive as always!

 

Latest "deconstruction" pics





Got the engine fuse box and harness out!


And the inside fusebox and harness out . . .


Looking pretty bare in there!








Dash bar is now out. It weighs 20#.

 

Do you feel a benefit to keep the Acd? Going to a non-acd tcase and getting rid of the acd pump and plumbing would have to save some weight.

 

I've been thinking of going the other way on my car, finding an ACD pump and transfer case. I think the stock viscous coupler setup might leave something to be desired.

Although, an aftermarket center diff might make up for it and keep weight down at the same time?

I don't know if it's anything you might be interested in, but I have been tossing around the idea of going E-Mod with my car to get weight down without spending an arm and leg on parts. If I do, I plan on doing a light weight dash bar with collapsible steering column and a firewall mount pedal box. If it’s something you are interested in, hit me with a PM.

 

Yeowzers!!! Missed the engine failure post.

That definitely looks like that hole went lean. I'd get your injectors tested (looks like you run Ethanol by the Ethanol content analyzer) Have you had your car sitting with E in it for a long time? Is the face of the injector Black? I would send them out to get cleaned...

I would honestly buy a new set of injectors for your engine from Tony (Injector Dynamics) and pickle your fuel system in PUMP gas, not Ethanol.

And for the rods... R&R H beams. Mine have been doing great and they're a great lightweight rod. Custom length no problem.... then you don't have to get new pistons this time around. Next time you can run an OTS Wiseco HD 1.13 comp height with the 159mm R&R H beam.

 

Thought about it, but I really like the control and possible tuneability of the ACD system. Plus, I'm not currentlyy weight limited. . .

Injectors and fuel system are clean of the black goo. My car is an example of pump E-85 perfection with no black goo. Tank is always spotless. Injectors have always been perfect. Stock OEM plugs have been perfect. Intake mani has been clean. Have run pump E85 only for long periods, and have also swapped between pump gas and E85 often for many miles (relatively speaking). Never any black goo.

I will send my injectors out to see if one failed and caused a lean condition. I have a new set of ID2200's or whatever they are called. Just did not have time to install and tune them prior to Nats this year Unfortunate.

As for rods - I am going to have a new set of custom Titanium rods built to my spec (160.x mm, good for 600whp road race application, 450-460gm). I figure this is the only time in my life where I may have a chance to try this (no kids, no wife), so I may as well work a couple extra days of OT to make some $$ to pay for 'em vs. custom steel rods