It's ALIVE!!!!

[RayTheRat]

I performed a BFT...uhh...that's Blinding Flash Test.  A phrase that dates back to my army daze of working on high-voltages with radar.  It REALLY had meaning with 50,000 volts.   

Oh...yeah...the BFT.  My race car motor fired up last nite (07/30/2012) for the first time since its little runamok driveshaft issue on the salt in 2011.   

Lessee here.  ATF, check.  Oil, check.  Coolant, check (and almost none of any of it spilled on the floor....amazing.)  Coil wire repaired, check.  Alternator connected, check.  Battery connected, check.  Banzai!!!     (Driver hits his head on the top of the car getting into the new seats he isn't used to.  No blood.  Good.)     
Banzai take 2!!!!!

Ya know what the cops said?

Well...nothing, really.     I realized I'd fired the thing up without opening up the garage door.  When I opened it, there were 2 cop cars outside.  They were checking out the house across the street.  I ran in and grabbed the camera.  I was gonna ask 'em if they got a noise complaint, but they left just as I got back to snap a coupla shots.

So.  It fired up.  I cranked it over a bit and then had to give it one spray with starting fluid.  After sitting for so long, I'm not a bit surprised.  But then it started on the next tap of the key.  Oil pressure was good; I didn't run it long enough to see any coolant temp, but the electric fan was working fine.  The volts gauge is pegged negative and I bet that has a little bit to do with the broken brown wire at the alternator.  I'll get to that "almost" next.

After I ran it, I made sure I had 35 pounds of air in each of the tires (ancient BFG T/As) and remembered I had chicken cooking in the oven.  So that was it for the evening.  But tomorrow will prolly be the go/no go test.  If the transmission and drive train are working (that is, if it moved under its own power) then it's a go.  If not...for whatever reason, I'm gonna bag it and get ready to go to Speed Week on the 8th.

[Ultra]

Good luck!

[RayTheRat]

Good luck!

Thank you, good sir.  I'm gonna need it!  But this is one BIG milestone.  You'd think that using a motor that ran fine last year would be a piece of cake, but there were enough changes (about the only thing that didn't get changed was the long block, intake and carb.  Ohh...and the ignition system.  Just about everything else is new, upgraded or replaced.

More news as it happens.   

RtR

[faksta]

Sooooo..... go or no go? 

[RayTheRat]

It's definitely a GO!  Since I have drive to the wheels in both directions, I'm gonna trust that the remainder of the transmission is ok and move forward to have the exhaust system done.  Late last nite I finally got the belts and pulleys in, aligned and tightened.  I'll also have to deal with that rust issue on the left upper control arm (the salt is a harsh mistress) but I'll do that when I put the new spindles in.

[RayTheRat]

One small step for a man, one giant...oh, never mind.  It was more like a comedy of errors. 

Two goofy (and somewhat disabled...I am disabled with severe cardiovascular problems; I'll be 65 next month - my racing partner is almost 80 and is legally blind in one eye) old farts getting a BIG race car on a trailer that barely holds it by driving it on and off with a 500+ hp motor that basically won't run in gear under about 1800 rpm was probably something for one of those tv things like, "stupid people tricks."  Except that we did it without hurting ourselves or breaking anything on the car or trailer. 

In the end we got it to the muffler shop and back home and in the garage without anything worse than a couple of cases of exhaustion.  And a new exhaust system.  And a decision to buy an electric winch for the trailer so we don't have to drive it on and off.

When I consider that we did exactly the same thing last year and REALLY screwed things up (we dropped the car off the ramps twice), yesterday was almost perfect.     All I can do is laugh at myself and my friend.  There's a reason why our "racing scuderia" is called "Fox Paws Racing."   

Now.  I gotta find out why one of the new underdrive pulleys (the one on the crankshaft) didn't seat properly and wobbles like a drunken sailor.  The fun of running a home-built race car on a shoestring budget.

Ohhh...there's a reason why the exhaust is routed the way it is.  In addition to other little physical issues, I have a bit of a hearing loss from WAY back in my military service days.  Having both cylinder banks routed out behind the driver's door allows me to hear the sweet sound of a brutally powerful Chevy 406 cubic inch smallblock motor (ok, I'm bragging...I built it) AND if it should drop a cylinder, I can hear it.  It happened last year when a rocker arm backed off and a valve wasn't opening.  A design that actually works.   

RtR

[sixtee5cuda]

"Fox Paws Racing".  Is that a pun in French?

[RayTheRat]

"Fox Paws Racing".  Is that a pun in French?

Yep.  Faux Pas.  It fits.