I called Darryl as I waited to get zerks installed, and the front-end lubed, and asked if he and Rachael could re-trace my path and look for the dust-cap. I knew it was a long shot, but I doubted I was going to find a replacement at this point.
When they arrived in his Dart, I showed Darryl the now 8 inch diamater puddle of oil under the car. "How much oil did you put in it?" he asked.
"'bout 7 and a half..." I recalled.
"I've always been told Milodon calls those an 8 quart pan, but that windage wise, they do better at 6.5, maybe we drain out 2 quarts, dump in a quart of that Lucas seal conditioner stuff, and give that a try", he reasoned.
"Might as well", I agreed " If I drop that much on someone's starting line, I'll be done!"
We stopped at the O'reilly's across from the lube place to grab more supplies, and got a "Good luck on Drag Week guy's" as we went out the door. This is the closest parts store for all my brothers, so they were quite aware of what was going on.
Rachael jumped in with me for the ride back, intently watching her side of the road for the missing wheel end cap. Half-way through the drive back, she looked over at me, and said, "You're gonna drive this thing 1400 miles? I'm glad I'll be in the Belvedere!"
Girls just don't understand the cool factor these days. I turned a corner about a half-mile from Dale's house, and whacked the throttle about 80 percent. The old girl jumped up on the tires in approval, and I grabbed 2nd early at about 5800, it felt good but the black smoke was rolling.
Once back at Dale's, Darryl demanded to tear into the carb, "If you drive it around that rich, those new plugs will be dead before you even make a run with them."
Dale's favorite thing to do on a car is play with Holley carbs, so as soon as he saw Darryl taking a bowl off, he had to come over and jump in. I just got out of thier way, jacked the car up just enough to pull some oil out and started dealing with that problem.

Very cool write up man!

hold off on posting any more for a bit so I can go out to the garage and get something done, haha

74s with a power valve in the front and 82s in the back is where they ended up...I hate power valves but I was outvoted. To be honest this Nuyten modified 850 that is supposd to flow 900+ has not really delivered, and if I had tested at any time before either of the past 2 Drag Weeks, the 389 would probably be wearing the annular booster 750 that it was raced with for 7 years.
We buttoned up a few more things on the Valiant, The Belvedere, and the Dart. Dale's stepson Cody came out to get on his crotch rocket and announced, "I'm going to the track for the Midnites, any of you guys coming out?"
I looked at Darryl, and he shook his head, "Naw, I think we should go to bed early tonight so we can get out there in the tech/registration line first thing tomorrow, and get plenty of time to make hits then."
I quickly agreed, for two reasons, I was wore plum out for one, and I felt better about getting Rachael acclimated to racing the Belvedere in the daylight, and a more controlled
environment than most of the Midnite races at Tulsa that I had been to before.
I went over to check on Boone and Dale, who had been joined again by Tom, where they were making progress on the Gremlin. They had re-built the steering completely to make room for the header on that side, had added a bolt-on short cowl scoop to allow room for the breather, switched shifters, and had rocker arms scattered everywhere...
"What's with the rockers?"
"Trying to get something that will fit with the pushrods I have here", Dale mumbled.
I had only seen the engine with the valve covers on all week, so I didn't realize that was a hurdle that hadn't been crossed yet.
"Rachael and I are gonna knock off, and head over to Boone's and try to get to bed early." I commented.

We arrived at Boone's to find my Mom fixing supper...perfect timing! "Mom, what are you doing down here?" I asked.
"Came to pick up your Father..., you boys are working him too hard, so he needs a day of rest. I'll bring him back Monday morning", her tone let me know it wasn't open for discussion, so I didn't push it.
After we ate, and Mom and Dad left, I looked at Darren, who had came in from the shop. "You going back out there?"
"Naw, I'm going to bed, and getting back up at 3AM, to start again", he decided.

After throwing a load of laundry in and a shower, I fell asleep quickly. Several hours later, Boone woke me up. "Darren went to bed?"
"Yeah, he's gonna start at 3am, or so he said."
"Dale and I just came over to help him..."
"What's up with the Gremlin?" I interjected.
"Threw in the towel...3 sets of rockers and 6 sets of cup/ball pushrods and nothing that we could make work!"
I mumbled something and rolled over, giving in to unconsiousness yet again.


Hot Rod Drag Week 2011: The Experience Previous thread


Hot Rod Drag Week 2012: The Experience Next thread

At this point, I've decided to move to the beginning of the actual event. Sunday Registration ..I've included the links because I had feedback that some people weren't able to follow along.

Thanks everyone for all the input, and encouragement to continue with this tale, hopefully it sheds a little light onto why people enjoy this event so much!

This is great stuff Billy ...

Billy, anymore progress on the Barnyard Viper ?