Two Shakes the S10

[fissionspeed]

Looking good! What's your Speed Week target for the truck? '24?

Yes, I think '24 is a safe target. In theory '23 could happen under ideal circumstances but I'm betting on at least one major hangup.

[fissionspeed]

Starting roll cage design and mockup. I take measurements in the cab, put them in CAD, use the CAD to make a mockup, then test fit the mockup. After that I use the markings on the tubes and 3D printed adapters to correct the CAD.

[Stan Back]

Who's this guy Cad?  He seems to be getting around more and more.

[WOODY@DDLLC]

Crazy Ass Designer? 

[SteveM]

In my world, CAD is Cardboard Aided Design.

Steve.

[fissionspeed]

In my world, CAD is Cardboard Aided Design.

Steve.

My personal favorite

[Elmo Rodge]

Or Cardboard And Duct tape. 
Wayno

[tauruck]

Whatever you choose I wish you luck brother.
Enjoy the ride.👊👊👊👊👊👊

Mike.

[fissionspeed]

Hi, back again. Lots of waiting for parts, a little procrastinating. I did finally get around to rebuilding my 80e with a Jake's stage 1 kit. This was originally not in the plan but the more I lug all this junk around the less I want to have to yank it out if it doesn't work the first time. It did come out of a junkyard church van after all.

I would like to get the engine and transmission running on a stand to listen for any horrible noises before I put them in and go deep on cage work, but the purgatory of Terminator backorders may prevent that.

Whole fuel system, converter, wheels, tires, axle narrowing stuff, other goodies have all arrived, so it's starting to feel like one day it might actually be a racecar.

[1leg]

I know a guy with a engine dyno in North San Diego that you can run your engine on, make a couple of pulls to get a baseline tune. and he is a Land Speed racer legend.

[fissionspeed]

Engine work began a few weeks ago. Regrettably, I made a rookie move and looked at the cam bearings:



Whatever happened to this motor also badly galled a lifter bore. Since I splurged to get some nice tie bar lifters, I didn't want to risk just honing the bore and rolling the dice.
So it was off to the yard to find another 4.8. A nice find this one was, as it was a gen 3.5 with the beefier rods and floating pistons.





Lifters installed. Running tie bars allows you to delete the stock plastic retainer tray, eliminating the chance of lifter rotation. I'm also hoping that removing the trays will help keep the oil out of the top of the motor.



Copper spray and pray!

As of now the engine is sealed up and ready for first fire. I finally got ahold of a terminator, so hopefully I'll have a first start video soon.

Bonus content: a scary friend at El Mirage

[Rex Schimmer]

I think that is a tarantula wasp, damn big and I hear that the sting will lay you out. I would advise against petting it.Your motor looks strong, 4 bold mains stock ! Nice.

Rex

[fissionspeed]

I think that is a tarantula wasp, damn big and I hear that the sting will lay you out. I would advise against petting it.Your motor looks strong, 4 bold mains stock ! Nice.

Rex

Yeah, tarantula hawk! I didn't know we had them here but apparently they are everywhere.

I'm very hopeful about the motor. Most of my knowledge base is gleaned from its extensive use in drag racing, it will be an interesting challenge to make sure it stays alive for 5 miles.

[fissionspeed]

Sadly my gamble on the stock piston rings did not pay off, and hole #6 and #8 were dead. Apart she comes again for a quick deglazing, rings, and bearings.



On the bright side, I've got my axle brackets and front brackets tacked in with some mockup bars, and it looks like the geometry is working out as planned. Wishing I had a chassis table and keeping my fingers crossed we don't have an earthquake 



I'm thinking we will have a roller here pretty soon!

[fissionspeed]

Updates:

I was able to start the engine! It made good oil pressure and didn't make any bad noises so in the truck it goes. It was one of those marathon weekends where a ton of little stuff needed to be done. Making AN lines, making cables, where did I leave those flexplate bolts, realizing you don't have the right AN fittings, etc.

One of these tasks was mounting the fuel rails to the intake. These are no-name china rails for a car intake (different mounting hole spacing) and a different injector length. In the end the only thing to do was 3D print some adapters. The final version will be made of Nylon so they don't melt.

After that, I had to test the fuel pressure regulator, it's an amazon special and bottoms out at 80 psi. Fortunately cutting a couple coils out of the spring brought it down to 58. Then, all that was left was to put all my sensors and injector data in the holley and it fired right up!

With regards to the chassis, I still need to finish the suspension. I am waiting to make a crossmember + driveshaft safety loop until the engine/trans are in the car and I can see where the shaft is going. Definitely going to have to make a tunnel. I also need to find a friend with a TIG welder or get one myself because my link bars are chromoly.

Also, I have discovered that I am not very good at tube bending! I went ahead and ordered a cage kit from S&W race cars, so hopefully that will save me some grief. I'll be keeping the tube bender, maybe by race car #2 I'll have more practice.

Sorry for the rambling! All in all I'm happy with the progress just wish I could go a little faster.