The Comeback.

Phew, what a crazy few weeks. After our initial teardown from the last post, the full teardown revealed where things started to go wrong.


#6 broke a rod bolt, which was the splayed rod cap that was in the bottom of the pan. 5 and 1 followed suit as things wound down, so we have 3 mangled souvenirs for garage art. Our suspicion that the heads were spared proved to be correct, but they did need some work to get back into shape.


Lots of bent valves, and about .004" warpage around #6 from the piston hitting it (!). Everything cleaned up well, saving us a LOT of time and headache.


All ready to go back together.

A bit of cleanup..

While the pieces for the motor were being staged, I took the Saturday morning before the 4th to clean up the mess that evacuating the crankcase at 6000+ rpm left. Literally everything under the hood was bathed in a fine coating of Driven XP3 oil.


Misery is..crawling around under a car while oil and SuperClean drip in your face. At least it was early so it wasn't too hot yet.


Better. Faster. Cooler.

While everything was out, it was the perfect time to finish up our cooling system upgrades. Step one: streamlining the airflow through the nose. Without the crash bumper, the nose has two big caverns for air to flow into and go nowhere.


The second half of this equation is a bigger radiator. The old one had a few extra inches on each side. A new 31" fit the bill, maximizing the space and just fitting between the framerails, core support, and steering box. We transferred the Black Magic fan over to a new shroud, with a relief for the steering box, and got it mounted to a set of extended tabs.


421

Back to the motivation. Dad got everything assembled on the 4th, and we got it set up on the run stand for break-in time last week.


Had a couple little quirks to take care of on the valve seals (which have given us problems on these heads a couple times in the past), but this week we were able to get it dropped in.


Fortunately, our system works pretty well and has been made even easier in the new shop. The plan is to button up the rest of the details Sunday and take it down the road. I can't wait to see how 40+ cubic inches helps motivate things :D

Time is short for Austin, but we will hopefully get it to two autocrosses before then to help me get a handle on things. A lot of memories of thrashing to make it to Drag Week in 09 the last few weeks. That ended up working out pretty well, let's hope we're good for another.

The motor sounds sweet, Nice crisp throttle response.

Thanks, Wayne. The crazy thing is that's with a weak little HEI and headers that are way too small. It sounds a little, uh, different with the MSD and some pipe behind it.

Speaking of..

27 Days

It lives. Today we got everything buttoned up and took it down the road. Seems happy, other than a few odds and ends to work out. Dad has done a killer job with the motor, I'm super happy for him that it's doing what it should be.


It's crazy, it sounds like a completely different car. We fired it open headers for a minute to make sure things were good before going back up and finishing the exhaust. It was immediately apparent that it's a whole new animal - it's got THUMP with the extra cubes.

With the mufflers on, it's super deep compared to the raspy scream that the 377 had. Still turns 6500 before you know it, though. Did a quick pull from 3000 in second during my short drive back and it's zero drama, it just gets down.

We have two events on the schedule the next two Sundays - just enough time to relearn the car and figure out what this whole low-end torque thing is all about.

Sweet update! Nice turnaround getting it back on the road again. Good luck with the relearning of the car, torque is good... :D

Glad to hear everything is going well Dusty! I don't know that you needed more power tho! Your mighty mouse power was more than the tires could handle, and most the rest of us around the area!

Can't wait to see/hear the new power. Good luck at COTA and please come back without things broken.

Greg

very nice indeed!! Good luck at COTA as well.....

Thanks, guys, looking forward to COTA even more after this weekend. Speaking of..

LET'S GET BACK TO IT!

Two events to get things sorted. First up was Equipe Rapide this past weekend, and the new combo didn't disappoint.


Before that, though, a full day in the shop was needed on Saturday. There is still much to be done, including front aero, CoolShirt mounting and wiring, and a whole list of other things I can't even think about right now.


Picked up where I left off before we went into crisis mode on the air dam/splitter. Finished up the driver's side half of the template and started shredding aluminum. Still finalizing the support structure for this, but it uses .040 aluminum and will have at least 3 steel struts tied to the bumper support frame.


Got the second piece started, but it was quickly time to get loaded up so this is where it sits currently.


Dad also got a shiny new red tow hook mounted up front (one of those things you remember you don't have when you're sitting stranded on the back side of the track..).


Continued next post..

Let's Do This Thing


Sunday's event saw us getting the lucky draw of running first before the temps climbed to the top of the gauge. The car was perfect through the whole session, with a slight 'run-on' event after killing it one run that was solved by pulling a touch of timing out with the MSD timing retard.

The 421 is a lot like the 377 amplified. It's still got runaway power at 5000+ (it would spin the tires at 60+ over crests on the course), but the fat buttery smooth torque curve getting to that point is downright addictive.

Pulling out of lower speed corners has never been as good as it is now. The newly neutral handling that the stiffer front springs gave it combined with down-low grunt is just awesome. Through 6 runs I was still finding time and pushing harder, and a little more tuning on the brakes will improve things even more.

The sound is pretty sweet, too (at least I think it is).


This was my last run of the day (thanks to not checking the fuel level - more on that shortly). A 58 was in the bag (GPS markers were off, this run was a 59.1), but I botched the last offset into the finish costing just shy of .4. Super fun course that rewarded some bravery through the middle..


FuelSafe Mysteries

Back to that fuel thing. As frequent readers will remember, we installed a rather pricey FuelSafe cell in the car in anticipation of running big boy tracks. It included a tube-type sending unit, which apparently only reads every inch. This means that the fuel level is either 0, 12, 26, or 54.

After run 6, I technically had two runs left due to a rerun and a timing error, but we were showing 0 on the gauge. Could have been 11, could have been 0. We don't know. Not overly happy with that aspect of that purchase, but we'll learn to work around it.

What's Left to Do

Feeling pretty good about things heading into Austin. We have an SCCA event next weekend to get a last bit of seat time in, but before then we'll do our best to finish up the air dam, get the CoolShirt cooling, and do our best to nut and bolt the whole car in short order. The fun's just getting started :headspin:

Quickie update. Drove up and spent a few hours on the air dam Tuesday night. Hoping to get the finish work done on the aluminum and the steel reinforcement frame and road test it Saturday.


Tick tock! Closing in on a week..

Glad you were able to get back in the game so quickly, Duston. Good luck at COTA next week!