Author Topic: Australian Belly Tank  (Read 3165417 times)

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Offline grumm441

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #4365 on: March 14, 2014, 03:37:28 AM »
Excuse my ignorance,but,what is it?

Looks a lot like a guitar
G
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Spirit of Sunshine Bellytank Lakester
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Offline Seldom Seen Slim

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #4366 on: March 14, 2014, 08:37:43 AM »
That's what I would have guessed, too. :cheers:
Jon E. Wennerberg
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Offline Milwaukee Midget

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #4367 on: March 14, 2014, 10:07:37 AM »
Excuse my ignorance,but,what is it?

Don't feel bad - they only produced 300 of them.

It's a Gibson Les Paul Music City Jr. with a factory Joe Glaser B-Bender.

Rocks like a Paul, twangs like a Tele.

I figured if it was Wayno's Birthday, I should get myself something nice . . .
"Problems are almost always a sign of progress."  Harold Bettes
Well, I guess we're making a LOT of progress . . .  :roll:

Offline Stainless1

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #4368 on: March 14, 2014, 11:07:18 AM »
Well in honor of Wayno's birthday I have a present for Dr. G...
Back story... was searching through my tshirts for something to wear to a Mardi Gras (a religious holiday) party and ran across this one... didn't wear it to the party, chose a purple Mardi Gras '95 shirt instead...

But it seems like a shirt the good Dr. should have.... and besides, I won't miss 1 shirt in thousands since I forgot it was even there.
  
And Chris, a good old boy would send him that old guitar... he is sort of a musician  :-D (note musical part of shirt)

So should I send it to you or do you want to pick it up at the salt?

edit: well shit... they were displayed correctly on the computer... OK guys turn your monitor on its side.... no Wayno, not that side, that makes them upside down, the other side  :-D
« Last Edit: March 14, 2014, 11:09:42 AM by Stainless1 »
Stainless
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Offline Elmo Rodge

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #4369 on: March 14, 2014, 12:18:36 PM »
What were the chances?  :? 1 in two I guess.  :lol:  :cheers: Wayno

Offline Freud

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #4370 on: March 14, 2014, 12:39:13 PM »
Just turning them on their side didn't make them any bigger.

Wayno, turn your monitor back now.

FREUD
Since '63

Offline Dr Goggles

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #4371 on: March 14, 2014, 08:09:40 PM »
Excuse my ignorance,but,what is it?

It's a Gibson Les Paul Music City Jr. with a factory Joe Glaser B-Bender.

Ah, three knobs, those pickups :cheers:

Well in honor of Wayno's birthday I have a present for Dr. G...
Back story... was searching through my tshirts for something to wear to a Mardi Gras (a religious holiday) party and ran across this one... didn't wear it to the party, chose a purple Mardi Gras '95 shirt instead...

But it seems like a shirt the good Dr. should have.... and besides, I won't miss 1 shirt in thousands since I forgot it was even there.

What are you implying Bob?......I sense a certain besmirchment of my character here :roll:
 

So should I send it to you or do you want to pick it up at the salt?

I'll wear it, and spend a whole day, mute, following you around and just tapping you on the shoulder everytime someone starts talking to you....
Few understand what I'm trying to do but they vastly outnumber those who understand why...................

http://thespiritofsunshine.blogspot.com/

Current Australian E/GL record holder at 215.041mph

THE LUCKIEST MAN IN SLOW BUSINESS.

Offline jl222

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #4372 on: March 14, 2014, 10:34:10 PM »
Thanx Grumm. It is however not 'til next Friday.  :cheers: Wayno

Hey Wayno
Happy birthday
G

I went out and bought myself something for your birthday . . .



Thanks for providing the excuse.

Bring harps in August.

Happy Birthday, Wayno! :cheers:

  Well...lets here something :-D

                JL222

Offline Stainless1

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #4373 on: March 14, 2014, 11:23:08 PM »

What are you implying Bob?......I sense a certain besmirchment of my character here :roll:
 

Dr. G, besmirchment.... never.... I would consider it an honor for a man of your character to wear on of my old FBI party shirts....  :roll: there was nary a sober moment on the Magic Bus, the music blasting, the liquor flowing... ah to be young like you again....  :roll:
While I can't remember what the Krewe of SOS was.... hey, I was drinking... I am sure a Krewe is part of a religious organization since it is a group that is organized for Marti Gras celebration.  :-D

   
Stainless
Red Hat 228.039, 2001, 65ci, Bockscar Lakester #1000 with a little N2O

Offline Riot patrol 1

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #4374 on: March 14, 2014, 11:27:27 PM »
F1 practice today for the Melbourne GP, major aero changes for this season, including SOS style rear engine/ gearbox cover and single exhaust outlet, probably just a coincidence give F1 teams have $10 million aero budgets and Sunshine Racing invested 4 hours and a broken hacksaw blade on a design that just looked right. Oh and F1 has switched to fuel injected V6, another coincidence ?

Offline Speed Limit 1000

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #4375 on: March 15, 2014, 12:44:40 AM »
www.swlamardigras.com

SOS= Save our Strays :cheers:
« Last Edit: March 15, 2014, 12:48:16 AM by Speed Limit 1000 »
John Gowetski, red hat @ 221.183 MPH MSA Lakester, Bockscar #1000 60 ci normally aspirated w/N20

Offline Reverend Hedgash

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #4376 on: March 15, 2014, 04:05:08 AM »
F1 practice today for the Melbourne GP, major aero changes for this season, including SOS style rear engine/ gearbox cover and single exhaust outlet, probably just a coincidence give F1 teams have $10 million aero budgets and Sunshine Racing invested 4 hours and a broken hacksaw blade on a design that just looked right. Oh and F1 has switched to fuel injected V6, another coincidence ?

Ha! There are some correlations... could be another spygate! I must admit I am a F1 tragic and have been guilty myself of endlessly pouring over their designs in efforts to achieve performance success. The trick though is they are not designed to go fast outright, but have compromising rules they need to overcome so it is tricky. Their single exhaust this year is to slow them down not speed them up!

I am waiting now for the qualifying, very excited for this new season. Go Daniel Ricciardo.

Goggles, where is that race report? It's passing its window of interest...

rH+
« Last Edit: March 15, 2014, 04:42:45 AM by Reverend Hedgash »

Offline tauruck

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #4377 on: March 15, 2014, 03:35:06 PM »
With all the new noses the only one that worked is attached to Ricciardo's face. :-D

Offline Reverend Hedgash

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #4378 on: March 15, 2014, 04:18:17 PM »
With all the new noses the only one that worked is attached to Ricciardo's face. :-D

Yeah I wondered if he needed a special helmet for that, it's fantastic.

D

Offline Dr Goggles

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #4379 on: March 15, 2014, 05:33:52 PM »
We had Highway to Hell blasting, we were on the western side of Renmark and had been making good time. There'd been a momentary hitch and a moment of levity when we stopped at the quarantine roadblock for fruit at the beginning of the Riverland. I still had some of my home grown peaches in a bucket...."can I eat one now?"...."No you can't , too late, do you have any other fruit and vegetables?"...."No , we don't " I said. " I need to look in the back"....There are a couple of issues with the top tailgate on the F100, firstly, it doesn't lock, secondly, the struts don't hold it up, but third, and most importantly, if you lift it too high it falls out. The fruit inspector was very keen to look in the back, which was jam packed with tools and camping gear, but first he'd have to deal with the tailgate.. By my estimation he grabbed it with both hands and lifted it quickly. We hadn't yet got our feet on the ground when we heard a loud "CONK" which was the sound of the tailgate pivoting in his hands and striking him squarely on the forehead. My nephew Tom and i arrived at the back of the truck from opposite sides to see the inspector resting the tailgate on the ground and rubbing his head, he looked a little ticked off.

"So, are you fellas going to fix that?" I asked. He shoved it at me, so i repeated the question. He handed it to me and walked off. It appeared the inspection was over. We put the tailgate back on with funereal expressions. We laughed for a good three minutes solid as we drove away.

AC/DC at dangerous volume, but through it, at the top of a long third gear hill I heard a noise, a sharp clattering , we turned onto the Goyder Highway and I began looking for somewhere to pull over, power was down, the beast was wounded. As I stood with my head under the bonnet a car pulled up, "are you OK?" "Yeah, we should be right "I said hopefully, "you've got a long way to go"....he'd recognized the bellytank, he was going where we were going.

We weren't right. We'd blown a head gasket, punched out the fire rings between 2 and 3 on the right bank, We sat at a roadside stop and I thought to myself that this year I'd really blown it, that I wasn't going to make it, that the manic period of preparation, which was barely enough , was wasted and now I had an expensive problem in the middle of nowhere.

I didn't know exactly what was wrong but I knew I could do about 50k's an hour and that giving up was not the answer, whatever the question was. We set off at about 7pm heading west without a real plan. After an hour I rang Dirty Dave who was coming to the salt and lives in the Barossa, we changed course and went south, 170km's to our oasis. We saw 100km/h down a hill at one point but mostly it was 40-50k's, it took three and a half hours. We got to Dave's just before midnight.

Dave had planned to leave at sun-up the next day with his friend Miles in Dave's beat up old Hi-Ace. With a bunch of phone calls, some expert opinion and some hard yakka we had it back together by about 7pm Saturday. Then, after starting it and doing a pretension of the head bolts I broke a rocker stud. We sourced another one ten minutes away , but while fitting it I bent a push rod, we got another, and a spare from Johnno again, this time we had it together and we could leave. We'd originally taken the route up the Calder after getting a text from Graham "the Colonel", it read "roadworks, roadworks, roadworks" and referred to the western highway, it's a shorter way but also includes the Pentland Hills, a few of my cars had died there, so the Calder via Mildura had been confirmed by Damian Moylan, a truck driver as the better way to go to Port Augusta, especially when towing. So much for that plan, we were now in the Barossa and the road to "the Gutta" was up hill and down dale for the first hundred and fifty k's.

When we pulled over for the first look at the motor I had jammed something up under my right thumb nail, the next day it was sore but today it was swollen and angry, anytime it touched something I jumped, so, a suspect motor and a septic thumb, just the right combo to be heading out to the desert for a week.

We got to Port Augusta by midday and spent an hour shopping and refueling. Dave had stopped at the first place that had gas.." yeah, we're the only place that has gas on a Sunday here"....it smelt like rotten chicken and she looked like she hated everyone. Dave paid 65 bucks for a small cylinder, the next place, and the two after that had gas, Dave, needless to say made light of it. We split up for shopping and agreed to meet "at the dirt", the point where you turn off the bitumen at Iron Knob and head west 165km's to Lake Gairdner.

It's always a great feeling leaving Port Augusta, it's where the desert really begins and you can't help but be awed by the size and age of this tired old landscape.

We arrived at the dirt and start the last checks securing everything and tying a tarp over the car to protect it from stone damage. Mike Davidson, club Dry Lake Racers of Australia club member number one arrived with his brand new streamliner "Flatattack", he's a seasoned campaigner but he didn't look well. He was talking to me as I checked the tie-downs, one of them snapped back and hit me squarely on the end of my rotten thumb, a ball of pus oozed out. I broke off the conversation as my body pushed out an allover sweat, I felt ill, it hurt like it had been smashed with a hammer. I'd been soaking it in peroxide on the drive from the Gutta, so now at least some of the pressure was relieved.

The drive in was much as always, nearly three hours of corrugated, dusty unmade road, we hit a washout about half an hour in that bounced the trailer off. It stayed on the chains and didn't damage anything. We arrived lakeside at 6pm to be told we couldn't drive on til the next day, we set up camp and shuffled down a few beers, hot and tired. We started early and got the rig out onto the lake by 7, pitting next to Tiny and Wilso who'd saved a spot for us and Chris Bryson, or as we call him, "Maxwell Smart". We spent the rest of the day preparing the pit and the car, much of it cleaning the dust from the drive in, removing the transport tires and fitting the safety gear. We had a new trailer this year and it vastly improved the loading/unloading procedure. We got through tech with just a few issues, no brakes.....We had to bleed the brake system which consists of drum brakes on the rear, apart from that we were ready to roll.

We had changed the final gearing of the car from 2013's 2.41:1 to 2.14:1 skipping the 2.28 gear set we had. Last year we ran 215.041mph(348km/h). We figured that 2.14 would be too tall, but if the car wouldn't pull it that it would give us an accurate idea of the cars total drag which we as yet hadn't been able to calculate..

This is the fourth year we had had the car there, and I now know that I need at least one run to get over the willies, it's always the second run when I seem to be able to commit to just mashing it. This year was the first year we have used first gear off the start line, the car stepped out to the right as I booted it, then again when I shifted into second, I wasn't thinking straight and changed too early, at 155mph instead of the planned 175, it bogged and accelerated slowly, tick tick tick on the mph, it got into the 180's and started to take off but at 190 it died. I still had a little power but nothing useable, I turned off at the five mile. When I pulled up I was too close to the second track and had smoke billowing from the cowl. The fire crew wanted to hit it with extinguishers, I said no and they waited. For my trouble I got a yellow sticker" CONCERN: BURNING OIL". We had to tear the car down in order to satisfy the scrutineers,the smoke was from oil that had soaked into the fiberglass exhaust wrapping during last year's diff change, while we had it apart we found that I'd also broken the 1st/2nd gear selector, the manager of the Mt I've station offered to lend is the part we needed from his eleven year old daughters Holden Ute, in the end we drilled a hole in the selector, tapped a thread and screwed the selector back together. The offer of the part was above and beyond but we were pretty sure we didn't want to be back under a Ute putting it's gearbox back together on Friday afternoon when we wanted to be driving home. In all it took about three hours and we had the car reassembled. Chief scrutineer Bob Ellis signed off on the sticker and we were free to line up again. We'd kept the same 2.14 gearing in the diff after realizing I had simply run out of fuel on the first run, yes, at 190mph I simply ran out of fuel.

We were nearly out of the pits when we turned back, and filled the tank with premium unleaded.

It was Wednesday, we had to get some track time. Like last year when it came to the second run I was more than ready to go, the trepidation of the first run was gone. Tom had been elected as the man to close the canopy as he seemed to be the only one other than me who had the knack of making it latch. With Dave and Miles pushing I left the line, last year we'd pushed the car with the truck as I was driving off in 3rd, I was using first gear this year. I was kind of shocked how hard the car accelerated off the line, I looked down and despite our best efforts we had managed to swipe the GPS to the menu screen and I already knew it wouldn't respond to my gloved hand. I ran up to the pitch I know is close to the red line, the car was pulling hard, in second it went sideways briefly as I dropped the clutch but I stayed in it. Once again I ran it into what I hope was the 6000rpm range and shifted into third, same again, it pulled hard but held traction with my foot on the floor. I could feel the acceleration in top which was encouraging rather than the sensation of bogging I'd had the day before. I held my foot on the floor and listened to the pitch climb until the last mile where it remained constant. I pulled off the track at the seven and a half mile and this time I could see the "Bali flags" and knew where to stop. Northern rescue arrived and gave me the thumbs up, one of them jumped out..."are you OK? yeah?....you did two hundred and four, congratulations!", he jumped back in and they drove away.

"So" I thought, that is the first time we'd hit an aero wall. With the gearing (2.14:1) we had that speed translated to 5280rpm, at those revs we have about 270 horsepower, it seems now that at 204mph our car has the equivalent of about 270 horsepower of drag, until now we'd gone faster and faster, now we knew what the limits were.

We took the car back to the pits and began to dismantle it to change the final gearing to the as yet untried 2.28:1. Everyone got dirty, Dave, Miles, Tom, Graham and I. We hoisted the car onto the metre high stands, off with the body, drained the water tank of its 60 litres, hoisted it off, hoisted the motor off it's mounts, removed the exhaust, the gear shift gantry, the furl tank and fuel system, just to get to the diff. It sounds ridiculous but the car is fast because it is small and has a good aero shape, to make that possible things need to be packaged very tightly. What does make things difficult is that the car has been hammered by it's time being transported on it's four trips to the lake, things don't fit as well as they used to.

We started at 4.30, working with the headlights of two cars we finished, exhausted at 10pm. We went back to our camp, had a few beers and crashed by 11.30. We were back on the lake by 6.45, Dave cooked breakfast while we fitted up the last of the body, refuelled and made some last checks, we were three groups from the start. There were delays as the track had been move across due to it's soft condition between the two and three mile where lots of cars had spun. We wouldn't run until 1pm.

I fumbled with the shift as despite our prep the car wasn't in first, once, twice, three times, I cursed, I shifted it into second, the clutch slipped and the stench filled the cab, I bounced it a few times before I let it out, now the car pulled hard. I ran to 95 mph just short of 6 grand. In the third the car pulled like a train, the numbers on the screen reeling, 120, 130 150 160, I shifted into top at 176mph, it took briefly, and then died, I pulled the clutch, revved the motor and dropped it again, nothing. I freewheeled for a bit, I was halfway through the three mile. I shifted back to slow it down. I was off the track by the four and a half. The crew arrived and it was all in the glance between Graham and I, it was Thursday, something was broken, the week was over.

Although the best run of 204mph wasn't as fast as we had run in 2013 we had still made some progress. 2013's 215.041mph was run with a 2.41:1 diff gear and we believed it was a rev limit in the motor ( valve bounce, lifters we don't really know)that had stopped us going any faster. Up until this point we had no reliable figure for the drag coefficient of the car which meant we could not calculate how much power we need to achieve the speed(240mph) that ultimately we hope the car will run. When the car ran 204mph with the 2.14 gearing and could not accelerate any further it told us the power it made at 5280rpm which is about 270hp equaled the drag at that speed, we will be back, we know more than we did before.


The best run, 2.14:1 gear set 5285 rpm


The rig. We went through about $1000USD in fuel....


The Malley country....


Your correspondent, red hat and all......


The road to Gairdner, wasn't the worst I'd seen it by a long shot, but that doesn't mean it was good.


What a place.....


Bali Girl danced all week


it's big


Me, a BNI/SCTA Inspctor who followed me out there  and Dirty Dave our resident plumber, gourmet chef and wine buff



I got a sticker!



Lining up at marshalling



Motor hoisted, water tank, fuel tank, exhaust and diff contents removed....



Graham pulls the pinion bearing during the diff swap



My nephew Tom, Dirty Dave and Miles pose in front of Simon's luxury mobile digs...


Blown head gasket



Getting home is always a dose of reality, it's a week later. the car is still on the trailer but at least I've washed this stuff off......


Graham and Tiny(GeneratorShovel) in the pits...


The Spirit of Sunshine in her "flipped" 2014 livery...


FDSB t shirt


Few understand what I'm trying to do but they vastly outnumber those who understand why...................

http://thespiritofsunshine.blogspot.com/

Current Australian E/GL record holder at 215.041mph

THE LUCKIEST MAN IN SLOW BUSINESS.