Author Topic: Australian Belly Tank  (Read 3171101 times)

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Offline grumm441

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #735 on: July 30, 2009, 08:47:20 AM »

Enough for now, its time to go to bed and work on the Triumph in the morning.  We are in the pre-speed trial panic stage.  Lots to do and little time.

Well you know what they say, "if it wasn't for the last minute, when would anything get done?"
G
Chief Motorcycle Steward Dry Lakes Racers Australia Inc
Spirit of Sunshine Bellytank Lakester
https://www.dlra.org.au/rulebook.htm

Offline Stan Back

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #736 on: August 01, 2009, 07:12:34 PM »
"As I understand, air turbulence around the naked spinning wheels limits belly tank speed.  Covering the wheels tanks may cure this problem and make belly tanks go faster."

Yeah, but  . . . in SCTA they really wouldn't be belly tanks (lakesters) any more.  With the wheels enclosed, they'd run as streamliners -- and the three shapes probably wouldn't be as clean as one shape (streamliner).

Stan
Past (Only) Member of the San Berdoo Roadsters -- "California's Most-Exclusive Roadster Club" -- 19 Years of Bonneville and/or El Mirage Street Roadster Records

Offline Dr Goggles

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #737 on: August 01, 2009, 09:36:39 PM »
.and therein lies one of the little sweeteners for people running tanks down here in the DLRA.......a pair of cycle guards and you're eligible to run in the streamliner class, and there haven't been many records set there....

Yes it has been very quiet here , I'm recuperating from more surgery to my ankle....it had begun to dish out random nerve twitches and the movement was becoming less rather than more as time went on so I went back in for surgery. They took out the screws that were in it , one of them was very close to a nerve and they suspect may have been responsible for some of the agro.They removed a bone spur which was limiting the dorsal movement ( up and down) and then they had a bit of a dig around and removed a bunch of scar tissue that was attached to the tendon running around the back of my inner ankle and dragging on the nerve.......Ow!...............The surgery went well by all accounts, I was asleep.

There'll be no work in the shed til I'm steady again so in the meantime I'm building myself another Telecaster , four of them are not enough. Am also working on "In the Bacharach of the Ute" which is a little show where we're doing Burt songs in the back of my 1967 pick-up( utility) at a local fringe arts festival....Dumb , but fun....

Most likely for next years Salt meet seems to be another motor, as mentioned earlier, tougher bottom end , more comp, better intake manifold.....we'll see. Meanwhile as the Rev mentioned there are a few ouch ups to the body work going on, there'll no doubt be a " midnight hour" paint job too...... :wink:
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 Dr Goggles

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #738 on: September 20, 2009, 12:42:23 AM »
Yesterday marked the start of the "new season"....we had Tank Day and we actually got something done.

Last weekend I was supposed to have gone and collected the short motor that we're going to use for next year but I had a case of the "fire drills" yeah, that means  EVERYBODY OUT ALL EXITS NO WAITING!!! I had a fever. the shakes ,aches and various systems were not functioning in their usual failsafe confidence inspiring way....there was no way I was going for a ten hour drive.

We hoisted the motor. We're keeping the heads, ditching the custom Goggles inlet manifold and looking to get a twin TB sidewinder version made by a local performance crowd who reckon it dynoed with up to 20% more torque and revved over 7000rpm.We ran with a stock cam this year, that goes in favour of one that will produce power up to 7k and we'll be getting another flywheel. The old motor looked just like it did when we put it in , save for a few exhaust leaks, nothing looked tortured and as we thought the heat shields that we made stopped anything getting cooked.

One disappointing find was that one of our fire bottles had crapped itself,I'm here to tell you that Aluminium fire bottles aren't worth shit, period. It had a hole where there wasn't supposed to be one, and all the stuff got out.......inside the car. This year we were on the lower limit of how much extinguishant that we needed. Next year we'll be using steel lines too, I don't trust the Al ones.....they are too easily damaged.We didn't think it would but after a bit of work yesterday it seems we can fit a 12lb bottle in the cab which will do us with the 2lb bottle we have for the driver.

We have lots to do , but we know what it is ......it's just what we can afford no more, no less.

Then we had some beer, gee it was a great day. :wink:
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 fredeuce

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #739 on: September 20, 2009, 08:53:48 PM »

Then we had some beer, gee it was a great day. :wink:

I hope it was some quality beer. No excuse for drinking rubbish these days.

Went to Brisneyland last week to attend the Ekka which is a yearly vintage speedway meet. Discovered James Squire's Golden Ale. A very good drop.  :cheers: :cheers:
Fredeuce

Offline Dr Goggles

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #740 on: September 20, 2009, 09:43:20 PM »
ya didn't come across Geoff Izzard and his dad at the Ekka did you? he's a DLRA member, his dad built Sprint/speedway cars and midgets and raced for years...he's a cracker.

We drank Coopers Pale, being a crow-eater, so should you Fred.

Now , are you going to have a car at the Lake?
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 4-barrel Mike

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #741 on: September 20, 2009, 09:47:55 PM »
Mike Kelly - PROUD owner of the V4F that powered the #1931 VGC to a 82.803 mph record in 2008!

Offline theazoldcrow

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #742 on: September 20, 2009, 10:34:10 PM »
 :? Hey Dr. Goggles!  Whats a "crow eater?"  I'm always interested in things of that ilk!      Crow.
The Earth, is an intergalactic insane asylum.!

Offline fredeuce

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #743 on: September 20, 2009, 11:21:07 PM »
ya didn't come across Geoff Izzard and his dad at the Ekka did you? he's a DLRA member, his dad built Sprint/speedway cars and midgets and raced for years...he's a cracker.

We drank Coopers Pale, being a crow-eater, so should you Fred.

Now , are you going to have a car at the Lake?
Unfortunately, didn't come across Mr Izzard. Not a big crowd there but enough to loose yourself in.

As for the Coopers Pale, I did find that on tap at the Brissy Jazz Club. Now you would have to say they are astute operators. :cheers: Quite a treat to find our local brew on tap in the home of XXXX.
Found another good drop up there which was "Fat Yak Pale Ale" . Again not made in Qld. Can't figure why it is that with the Qld climate Castlemaine Perkins produce such a mediocre drop.Must be the consumption of all of that Bundy that distorts the taste buds.

As for the car I expect it to be running but as to being at the lake that is another matter. That will mean dispensing with the 8 Mikunis sitting atop the engine at present and replacing with a Hilborn style mechanical injection system and a rules change. MVOT is in need of revision. So I don't wish to get too optimistic for next year.  Whilst all of that is going on I will be soon commissioning the home brew I kit won at the DLRA mid year bash at Smurfs in July. First batch will be  a Coopers Sparkly. :-) :-)


« Last Edit: September 20, 2009, 11:45:53 PM by fredeuce »
Fredeuce

Offline wobblywalrus

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #744 on: September 20, 2009, 11:37:26 PM »
Send some pictures when you develop this thing.  It cheers us up in the colder season to see shots of summer work.  Especially belly tanks.   

Offline Dr Goggles

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #745 on: September 21, 2009, 01:14:38 AM »
Thanks to Portland Mike for the Urbandix def. A Croweater is somebody from Sth Australia,god bless 'em....they were the only state settled without a penal colony...they make good wine, and beer and punch above their weight when it comes to Aussie rules football.

Having said all that nice stuff about them I have to tell you there is something wrong with them, I dunno what it is but it might have something to do with living at the end of the drain for the south East corner of Australia known as the Murray River.Adelaide their main fort is known as the city of churches because you can't call anything the "City of serial killers".....

Maybe I'm just too sensitive and it has something to do with the "Croweater" thing, I don't know why this is either but I really like crows... We have heaps around my place.... I once saw one sitting on a street light staunchion at the end of my street holding one of those little MacDonalds wax paper fries bags with his claw and eating the fries one by one , he is the same big-az fella who lands in my backyard..ever so cagey he scouts it from a few angles before he gets down on the grass because being big and old it takes him a while to get off the ground making him an easy get for a cat.....

Fred,my old man used to brew his own from scratch....blanched the hops and brewed in a big vat.You can imagine he had varying results, he too was a solicitor, but not a hot-rodder.

Those Coopers brew kits are practically infallible, be careful with using anything to "sterilize" the bottles, I alway figured "clean" is better than any residual metabisulphate......the odd bad one due to a wild yeast beats a whole batch that the smbs has killed. I can't guarantee to you that not going to the bottle shop will reduce the amount of alcohol you consume. I brewed with those Coopers kits for a fair while and as you do ( when you're a young buck and too much ain't nearly enough)nearly always over-brewed making 6-7% alc/vol.......my tip is to go under, aim for 4.2-4.6% , then no-one gets hurt, and you can drive after two still.

Herendethelesson.
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 fredeuce

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #746 on: September 21, 2009, 03:00:43 AM »
.

Having said all that nice stuff about them I have to tell you there is something wrong with them, I dunno what it is but it might have something to do with living at the end of the drain for the south East corner of Australia known as the Murray River.Adelaide their main fort is known as the city of churches because you can't call anything the "City of serial killers".....



Excuse me whilst I choke on my beloved Coopers.  :?

Now let me see .................  I recall in the recent past a certain TV series called "Underbelly". It would appear events in the erstwhile convict state of Victoria are now unfolding that will no doubt provide ample material for yet a few more installments of this gripping saga. :-) :-) 

He who lives in grass houses shouldn't get stoned. Or something like that.  :-D
Fredeuce

Offline grumm441

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #747 on: September 22, 2009, 09:54:12 AM »
Mmmmmm
Coopers home brew
I've got about 100 bottled at the moment
And a brew fermenting as we speak
I don't know if this means i'm drinking them too slowly or making them too fast
I tend to aim for about 5%, any more and it starts to taste cidery

He who lives in grass houses shouldn't get stoned. Or something like that.  :-D

Anyhow
That stuff's not legal in Victoria, not like SA
G
Chief Motorcycle Steward Dry Lakes Racers Australia Inc
Spirit of Sunshine Bellytank Lakester
https://www.dlra.org.au/rulebook.htm

Offline fredeuce

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #748 on: September 22, 2009, 11:22:48 PM »

Grumm thanks for the tip on the home brew caper.
It is pleasing to see a Victorian come over from the dark side and find the joy of Coopers' finest. :cheers:
Fredeuce

Offline interested bystander

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Re: Australian Belly Tank
« Reply #749 on: September 23, 2009, 12:22:24 AM »
You Aussies are OK.

If you aren't talking about your hotrods you're talkin' about BEER!

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5 mph in pit area (clothed)