Some of you may be aware of the struggles I have had getting the drive system to work on my stroker/ProCharger F1R setup. Well, the drive system on the F1R has been sorted out, but in trying to get a full power run on the car last Wednesday at PBIR, the old girl blew her top. This is the first track vid I have made using the video glasses FlyByU turned me onto. I need to slow down the head swivel a bit to give a better "pan," but otherwise I thought it turned out OK as far as the video goes. Now, for the rather edgey environment of the HellBitch at the line: If anyone wants to clue me in on how to avoid the above manifestation of two different clips of the same vid, please do.
Large cumulus clouds smelling a lot like coolant began billowing from the exhaust and the motor lost power and began misfiring. My diagnosis is a blown head gasket (yuk, yuk). Felipe is going to pull the heads tomorrow and we'll see what is what. I've talked to some boost junkies and we have some tips for re-assembly with hopes of holding the 22 psi the F1R is now making above 6000 rpm. The static compression is 9.4. By the way, talk about forced induction surge, that piss-poor burnout was initiated in second gear with an immediate shift to 3rd and less than 1/2 throttle on the pedal. I still had trouble keeping the thing from revving to redline. Jeez. Sounded pretty mean, though, huh? I hope I can get it to hold the boost, cuz the drive system has clearance issues with the OEM serpentine when I go to the 40 tooth blower pulley vice the 36 tooth pulley that is currently installed. We'll probably be down for a few weeks, but may still make it to the Florida Mile on the third of January. If we do it's going to be "hello 200+ mph," because I know the car and this iteration is a level of magnatude meaner than the setup I ran in Texas a couple of months ago. YeeHaw.
Holy crap Lou, that sucks buddy. Like always, wishing you the best and I know you'll get it sorted out. Hopefully there is no real damage.
Didn't Chris have the same thing (lifted the heads) happen on his last outing? I'm assuming yall are both studded block...time for some o-ring grooves.
Lou, I'm sure 2010 will be a more consistant year for the Hellbitch and you! I'm hoping to see a post of some 9 second runs soon! Good Luck, Hang in there!
Kyle I think Lou's motor was o-ringed.Proline assembled his motor out of Ga.Ever hear of them?They are the Kats a$$ IMO.. http://www.prolineraceengines.com/
Well, ProLine Race Engines did build my motor and they are a world-record holding shop when it comes to 10.5 outlaw, but this was the first GEN III Hemi they built. They didn't (and I did not request it) o-ring the heads. Now, I'm going to get my mad Puerto Rican crew chief after those fresh head studs when we re-assemble and see if he can't intimidate them into doing a better job this time around. Running the Florida Mile on Jan 3rd should be a worthy test.
Sounds like you'll be coming back stronger than ever Lou. I'm really looking forward to meeting you and Hellbitch in Bradenton.......should be a blast!!!
Lou, Another interesting read.... I know you are looking forward to getting the Gremlins out of the HellBitch! Bill
Nice video.... thanks for sharing that!!! I sure hate that about your car and hope you getter' up and running SOON! And YES....it sounded "BADA$$"!!!!!
Thanks, fellas.... Believe it or not, Felipe and I have assumed an attitude of grim determination on this thing. We aren't in the mood to throw in the towel. We feel it's a worthy challenge. If we have to rebuild the whole dang motor with new tricks we will. We're going to give it a shot with new cometics, new arp studs, some copper spray on both sides of the gaskets, resurfaced heads & plenty of oomph on the torque wrench. If we ride her down the Florida Mile and she holds, well, we may be onto something. If she blows her top again, we'll move on to major surgery. Let's see what happens.
Does anyone here know of anyone who has o-ringed a GEN III Hemi block? I'm not convinced there is enough clearance between the bores to do it. I'd sure like to know who has done it and what their experience was.
