Nostalgia Dragster Rebuild

[Preen59]

Just for kicks, here's the difference between a cast iron Chrysler 392 HEMI head and an aluminium VW 16v head. As you can see.. The hemi inlet valve is almost as big as the 16v combustion chamber! hahaha.





HEMI inlet port.




We're all set to assemble the HEMI over the break, so as we go, i'll post pics and some info. (If someone shows interest! haha).

Edit:

Always think this thread should have the attached as theme music. http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=KklGBOMRISc

Dave

[GoLfMan]

in well and truely interested matey
thats just plain awesome!

[Jarred]

hahaha

dwarf's all our 4 banger stuff doesn't it?? hahs

[Preen59]

hahaha

dwarf's all our 4 banger stuff doesn't it?? hahs

Twice the size and about 15 times the horsepower! Hahaha.

[DubSteve]

Hahaha to insanity I love it!

[Mrk_Mickey]

MESSIVE BRO! heheh

[dubbed]

Hmmm I wonder which one uses more fuel!

Great comparo mate.

[Preen59]

Here's a couple of shots when we mocked it up to work out the chassis sag so we could modify the sump...





And here's the sump on the block..







I'll take some more pics later in the week and post them.

[Jarred]

it's getting there aye!

"I love it when a plan comes together!"

[Preen59]

Started doing the short block today. We assembled the crank with all mains to check there was no bind, etc. All went sweet.

I also machined 160 thou off the oil pump spacer to lift the pump up and give clearance to the sump. I ended up bolting it to a face plate and facing it off in the lathe, if anyone is interested.

Anyways.. PICS! haha.
















Tomorrow we should have the piston/rod assemblies all in and everything torqued down. There's a few small things to do like shorten the oil pump drive etc but we should have the short engine in the car over the break.

[Preen59]

More progress today... And one issue to be resolved tomorrow.

We started cleaning up the magnesium Halibrandts. They've terribly oxidized and are going to take some work to get back to new looking and polished.



Here's a shot of the piston gudgeon buttons i turned up the other day..



A shot of 3 piston/rod assemblies



A couple of shots of the aluminium flange i had to machine up for the back of the bell housing. It has a 4340 insert in it where the circlip will run to stop the jack shaft falling out when the greek coupler is disconnected from the diff.







And now for the big issue..

The ONLY thing we didn't check was to make sure the pin end of the rod would fit the pistons (we assumed that they would without modification). They bloody things are 100 thou too wide! ARG! I took the rods to work this arvo and milled 25 thou a side off the pin end (We assumed that would be enough). When i got back we fitted 2 rod and piston assemblies in the block on the same journal.. There isn't enough clearance still.. So off to work tomorrow to machine another 50 thou off the rods.. After that.. Everything should be shhhhhhweet!

[whiteVR6]

Is the Piston and rod the same material ?

If not wouldnt it be better to take a fracton more just in case there is a different rate of expansion with heat ?

[Preen59]

Is the Piston and rod the same material ?

If not wouldnt it be better to take a fracton more just in case there is a different rate of expansion with heat ?

Correct-a-mundo mate. They currently "fit" but are too tight. So another 50 thou should fix that.

And yes, these engines have crazy thermal expansion rates. For instance, it has 14 thou (0.355mm) piston to bore clearance. I'll post some more of the specs at a later date..

Oh and it will be running STRAIGHT 60w oil.. At 90PSI oil pressure.

EDIT: Sorry i should have pointed out for people that don't know.. The rods are BROOKS forged aluminium.

[Preen59]

Progress.

I took the rods into work and machined the additional 0.050" off the sides of the pin ends. I also milled 0.160" off the top of the external oil filter adapter to give clearance to the chassis.

The cam has been fitted and the Milodon timing gears have been assembled and fitted also.



The bottom end is now done and all torqued down. Everything went together well and we had no issues (Phew!).









We then prep washed the block and etch primed it ready for paint tomorrow.



The wheels are pretty much finished off. There are a few deep scratches that i am going to have to take some coarse emery to and hook in on them. Luckily this is meant to look like a race car as it would have been run and not a show car, so they don't have to have all the small pits removed.

[rayray086]

This looks awesome! Unfortunately I don't know much about engines and all that so can't fully appreciate your work, but I love how the dragsters look!

I've been buying The Rodder's Journal magazine over the past half year and love looking at the cars they feature. I remember going over a feature detailing someone's recreation of Tommy Ivo's Barnstormer in its bare-metal stage and it just looked insane!