The 62 Valiant
As I began to prepare the Valiant for a fifth Drag Week journey, fixing or building a new hood was the first hurdle, but it wasn't my only concern. After the 128 mph at Indy, the mph had seemed to fall off, so once again I wondered about the health of the front clutch pack in the 904. The constant battle with engine temp was still on my agenda as well, as it seemed worse on the last drive of DW15.
I wanted to change up the scoop, and to that end had ordered a reverse tear drop, and a Pontiac SD scoop from VFN fiberglass, but were told they were 10 weeks out! My fiberglass guru agreed to make a mold from my last good 62 Valiant hood, and I took it to him about 6 weeks into my wait for the scoops. He finished making a mold and popping out a hood quicker than VFN got the scoops to me, so he used another mold he had on hand to add a RTD scoop.
I was happy with the initial mock-up, but when I attempted to mount a 16" ram-air breather, it became abundantly clear that it wasn't going to work! The Valiant hood slopes off so fast towards the front and the sides that a scoop to cover up a large diameter breather would take up most of the hood!

Digging through my shed, I found an 11" K&N filter with a 5" element. I was taking the car back to my fabricator, as he had agreed to mount and paint the hood for me, and I figured that would be better than the tiny 6" breather I'd been using with two stacked 2" elements.

So, it was back to the old scoop, as more of a necessity than by choice. The scoops finally arrived from VFN a day before Brian called and said the car was ready to go.

With the hood on the car, it was time to deal with all the other issues that I had ignored for the last 10 months. Chief among those was the decision of what class to run. The ladder bars limit my choices to Modified, or Pro Street, and neither of those classes are broken down by small block or big block, so I'm at a disadvantage already. The fact that I've been able to snag a 2nd place plaque, and a third place plaque out of my four trips had more to do with the number of finishers than it did with how competitive my combo was in the NA classes.

So I asked myself, "even if I showed up at the 2016 edition of Drag Week, ran 10.30's all week in Pro Street NA, and squeaked out another 3rd place plaque would that make me happy or satisfied"?
The answer, being completely honest with myself, was a resounding "NO".

That 9.86 in the Shootout had proven to me that the Valiant was a legit 9 second street car, and my goal for 2016 would be to prove that to the rest of the world. So, the nitrous would be on for the whole trip, and I would be in Modified Power Adder...a class full of 7 second turbo monsters that were going to eat the Valiant for breakfast...oh well. Now that we had settled on a class and a goal, the first hurdle to jump was to get the cage certed.

Pics: the new hood.

I checked the Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park schedule, and saw they had a "Drift and Drag" event coming up on August 20th. A quick call to Division 7 chassis inspector Ed Brady confirmed that he would indeed be in attendance at that event, so I had a workable plan.

I jumped up early that Saturday morning with the intention of getting the front end aligned, as it was towed out a good deal after the wheel stands in Bakersfield. None of the local shops had time for me however, so that was a bust. I decided to drive the Valiant the 32 mile trek to WHP, and as soon as I got it up to highway speeds, there was a healthy vibration which felt as though it was from the back of the car. The drive took well over an hour as I had to stop five times and cool it down from 230 degrees. Shortly after I arrived at the track a late evening thunderstorm rolled in that threatened to cancel all racing anyway, so I decided not to bother pulling the exhaust off. I cleared tech, and Ed told me to make a few runs, and he would certify the cage once I was done, insinuating that if it failed he didn't want to send me home without getting to run!

With the exception of unloading all my tools and lowering the tire pressure, I entered the lanes exactly as I had drove the car to the track. The F250 in front of me bounced the suspension hard enough to dislodge all the dirt and mud he had collected in the wheel wells for the last month, so after I finished my burnout, I sat and waited for them to sweep the mess up. I was about the 10th set down, and nothing to this point gave me any confidence in the track so I decided to leave on the foot brake at about 1800 rpm. She spun fairly good for the first 30 feet, and when I shifted to second I could feel the return of the vibration that plagued the drive out. Just past the eighth mile the vibration had worsened considerably, and I was convinced one of the Quick Time Pros was out of balance, as I've made enough passes on slicks to recognize the symptoms. Right before the finish line, the passenger side rear mini-quicklatch that we had used to secure the new fiberglass hood on all four corners, let go and the back of the hood on that side lifted about two foot, immediately sending my heart into my throat at the thought of losing yet another hood. I rode the brakes hard, and the hood settled back down. The time booth gal handed me a 10.98-122 slip, and I drove straight to Ed's area to get my cage certed...I couldn't get this night over fast enough.

Pics: Old breather and hood, new breather and hood.

I had removed the x-bars from the back of the Valiant when I converted it to a street car (they attached at the same basic point as the down bars, and both sets went all the way in the trunk) since, by the rules they were redundant. They had measured .134 thick with my caliper, so the sonic check shouldn't be a problem if that tubing was used throughout the car, but any cage installed in the early nineties is a roll of the dice in my experience.

I held my breath as he tested all the main tubes, and ran his fingers around all the top welds, since my cage has no gussets.
"It's all good Billy, so you can lay down some nines on Drag Week this year", Ed announced with a big smile on his face. He loves Hot Rod Drag Week, and follows it on the internet every year.

On the drive home, the temperature hovered between 210-230, and the passengers side rear quicklatch came loose every time I exceeded 60 mph.

When I woke up Sunday morning the 21st, I had thirteen days left before "hell week" began with my trip to Tulsa, and my confidence in the Valiant's readiness had just been shaken to the core. I ordered a new Milodon high volume water pump and high flow 160 degrees t-stat from Summit that morning, then I drove the Valiant to my oldest daughters house to babysit the grandson. It seemed to be pulling harder than ever toward the center line, and I noticed a flare up on the two-three shift at half throttle! This was really going south in a hurry.

The trans fluid was about a quart and half low. The Strange 1350 front yoke doesn't have a plug in the back, and fluid runs down the splines and onto the ground anytime the car is resting at an upward angle...like in my driveway, or riding on the back of the two car trailer. The bad news was, if it was low on Sunday morning, it was low on my trip to the track the night before, so I certainly wasn't doing that front clutch pack any favors. I pulled the radiator out, and took a hole saw to the support areas which extended in front of it, looking for any help in cooling I could find.

I stumbled upon what was probably the biggest culprit of my worsening cooling problem quite by accident. With only seven days until "hell week", I was finishing up the install of the new water pump. I tightened the alternator down with the belt as tight as I could get it, so I could use the belt to grip the water pump pulley while I tightened the four bolts down. The first one was barely above finger tight when the water pump pulley slipped in the belt. I pushed down hard on the belt and tried again, but the pulley slipped easily, while the belt gripped solidly to the alternator and engine pulleys.
I removed the belt and inspected it closely, the sides were burnt quite severely, and the inside of the pulley groove was polished to a brilliant shine. I went to a wider belt, which rides high in all the pulleys, but nothing was available in between, as the O'Reilly's salesman explained that the choices in V-belts were drying up considerably...yet another reminder that my car and I are quickly becoming dinosaurs!

The quicklatch problem was remedied by replacing the latch piece, I had banged it around some trying to remove the hood by myself and it felt completely different than the other three, or a new one, but this didn't leave me extremely confident in them.

When I loaded the old girl on the trailer for the trip to Oklahoma, I still hadn't addressed the alignment, or vibration, or transmission issues, but this was the first Drag Week trip that I drove it on the trailer in Phoenix under it's own power, and I wasn't sure that was a good omen, or a bad one!

The 67 Belvedere
The Belvedere wasn't making the trip to Hot Rod Drag Week 2016, period, exclamation point. The 2015 results had pretty much closed the door on a no-bar car qualifying for the quick 32 in Street Machine eliminator, and Skippy had asked Rachael to marry him on New Year's eve, so if she wanted to make the trip again, he could pay for it.

I hadn't touched it at all since pushing it off the trailer and into the carport following Drag Week 2015. I didn't feel comfortable replacing the drive shaft without checking out the 727, and the poor 440 is very tired...it pushes oil out of every orifice when the nitrous is applied!

Then, the grumblings started from Oklahoma about the first of August, "There's no way we are going to have enough cars running to fill all four of these entries, so you better get the old girl ready for one more circuit!" I could read between the lines though, what they really meant was, "without the Barnyard pulling a trailer, we need a dependable drag week mule"!

At around that same time Rachael informed me that she was definitely going, she had the vacation scheduled and she had a plane ticket to Tulsa on Thursday night of hell week.
"The Belvedere will only be entered if one of the other guys drop out", I explained to her.
"I don't care, I'll be a trunk monkey then, but I'm going!"

My original idea was to drag the Belvedere back to Oklahoma untouched, and have my brothers help me swap out the transmission, but as Hell Week approached I was very concerned about the workload they had left on their cars, so I changed it up a bit.

I always attempt to be ready to leave for Oklahoma on Friday evening, as soon as I get off work...and it never happens. I typically get loaded up on Saturday, and head out that night or early Sunday morning. With the old 12 valve '93, and the two-car tag trailer, I'm limited to around 62 MPH, so it's usually a 24-26 hour trip and I pull into Dale's yard early Labor Day morning.

I decided to do the trans swap in the comfort of my own carport instead, and avoid the mess at Dale's for a few more days. The CRT 727 with RMVB was yanked, and the old 727 with forward pattern Trans-go TF-3 was installed. This was the same transmission that had cost Rachael and the Belvedere a DNF on day 1 in 2013, so I hoped Dad got it right this time. Rachael was appalled to realize I hadn't swapped out the slightly burnt shifter cable at the same time, but I explained that it wasn't completely ruined. She mumbled something about me going under the car if it failed during the week, but I was too busy wrapping it with black electrical tape to really understand her.

I fielded calls all weekend from the brothers about when I would arrive to help them, and they were really not happy when I didn't roll out of Phoenix until Tuesday morning, the sixth of September.

I was hoping now that winter settled in you'd have time to start on this again....

James and the 70 Challenger

James has been Dale's co-pilot for the last 3 years. He was signed up for the last two years with his 70 Challenger (my old race car). After not finishing the car last year, Dale vowed it would make it in 2016, and had basically been ignoring his Gremlin over the last few months. From an outsider's view they seem to be stuck in a constant cycle of "we need to upgrade that" on nearly every component of the car, and that has bogged down any real progress.

With less than a month to go, James hurt his back at work...once he was on worker's comp, and under a doctor's care, they informed him that he wouldn't be allowed to take his vacation that he scheduled six months earlier. He rushed himself back with just two weeks to go, but re-aggravated the injury on his third day back, and was out. He implored Dale to finish the Challenger and take it without him, but Dale declined, so both the Challenger and James were sidelined for Drag Week 2016.

The Ruster Duster

Darren and Dale purchased this car from a friend of mine in 1984, it was their first car. Dale was just 14, but before he turned 16 he had bought out Darren, and the car was solely his.

When I dropped a 440 in my 73 Cuda, the Duster ended up with my low compression 340 to replace the slant six. After a series of 340s and 360s, I convinced him to go 440 in 1995. After just two years as a BB car, with a best of 10.74 (street car with a plate) he sold it rolling for the money to buy his first back halved, ladder bar race car, a 70 AMX he still owns today.

Twelve years later, he got a call from the guy he sold it to, asking if Dale wanted the car back because his Grandpa wanted it out of his field. The opportunity to get your first car back was one Dale couldn't pass up, so he grabbed a trailer and brought it home. He decided then and there it would be his son's first car.

I tried to talk him out of the idea. It had been sitting without tires and wheels, so the bottom of the quarters were in the soft, moist Oklahoma dirt and were rotted away. It still carried all the dents and scars from Dale's formative years, as well as all the mistakes he made on his first foray into hot rodding.

I had located several rust-free AZ bodies, and tried to convince him to just take a few parts from the original car to build his son a new Duster, but he was not deterred. Until Boone presented him with the opportunity to take it on Drag Week 2016, I really felt like the car would be destined to languish away in his backyard, always on the back burner. Now they had five months to turn it from a scrap heap relic into a functional 9 second street car. Dale's old personalized plate for the car was "Sizzler"...it seemed appropriate now because it was on the front burner, and the fire was turned up high!

My Brother in Law just got a book self-published, and sent me a nice hard back version with a cool glossy jacket. I'm really jealous, I really want to write a book, but it's always been one of those things about five years in the future. Now I've spent half my day reading articles on the 'net about self-publishing, e-publishing, and the whole process.

If you think getting people to agree on how to build a 600hp 440 is hard on this site, wait 'til you try to get opinions on the process of writing a book!

it might be a challenge to get a book published, but one thing can not be disputed, you have the ability to write a great one !

From the very beginning of the Duster revival project, time and money were stacked against them, and it was obvious some shortcuts would have to be made if the car had any chance of making the show. Dale had installed the Direct Connection kit for moving the springs into the frame rails years ago, but retained the stock slant six Duster leafs. With a 440 for power, Dale recalled that it wasn't the most stable package.
"I found a set of SS springs", he told me on the phone one night as we were having a long distance planning session, "I think they are the 3400 pounders, but they are cheap and the owner brought them to me."
"I'd rather have the Hemi A-body spring. What are those, the 002 and the 003?"
"I get that", he agreed, "but I just need to get this rear-end taken care of as quick as possible. Do you think I need to back brace the 8 3/4 housing?"
"Duh", I laughed into the phone, "Boone wants to go nines right? You need to do everything you can to help it survive! What third member are you guys putting in it?"
"Found a '71 3.91 in a bunch of parts we bought, it's got the 7290 yoke and a sure grip, so it will work", Dale surmised.
"A factory third member with a cone type. Are you crazy?"
"Look, I'm running out of money fast, and I've got to get this thing put together!"
"I understand", I made a decision not to beat him up at that time, "but you know those springs will have it sitting high like an eighties bracket car."
It was his turn to laugh, "It IS an eighties bracket car! With the exception of a big radiator, exhaust, and a tag, that's pretty much exactly what we are throwing together here!"
"What are you doing for rubber?"
28 X 13.50 Hoosier QTPs on ten inch Pro Stars", he recited.
"Still with the Pro Stars, eh?" I had sold him all my old ones ten years ago, and he still seemed to end up with them on every car he had.
"I like to think of them as 'timeless'!" He defended his choice, "I still had a spare set of fours for the front anyway".

Jay Brown, who you know from Drag Week, had a book published a few years ago with his FE engine dyno testing. He's on his second or third printing. I know he learned a lot from the experience. He would be happy to talk to you about it I'm sure. You can e-mail him though his business - jayb@fepower.net

Billy Do you think I have a chance of living long enough to read your book?

Thanks, Kevin.

Ross,
That is a fair question. I think the Road Runner keeps you young and you have good years still in front of you, but as slow as I have been writing lately, it makes me wonder if even I would see it through to completion!



Dale often spends 50-60 hours a week at work, and he was also tasked with building all the motors they would take on Drag Week 2016. The 512 for the Duster was the first to get his attention. Then he had to assemble Darren's 512 for the Charger, and finally try to find time for the Gremlin engine.

Part of the difficulty has always been getting parts in a timely manner, especially with this many projects in the pipeline. Dale makes twice as much money as the rest of us, but steadfastly refuses the use of any credit cards, having learned everything he needed to know about such temptations in his early twenties. So, occasionally the flow of needed parts is stymied by the flow of income into his account. He's a patient, disciplined man who plans accordingly, but his brothers do not possess any of those three qualities, sometimes this leads to problems.

"I need a CSR shield, so we can install the engine and trans in the Duster, and start getting all the other stuff fabbed up", Boone complained on the phone.
"I thought Dale was buying everything for the car?"
"That's the plan, but he has a pretty large list of stuff to order already, and he says the shield is two weeks out. I can't wait that long, and I know you have one that you bought used six months ago with a fresh cert. Just mail it to me."
"Yeah, that's not going to happen. New ones are available now, just order it!
He talked me into ordering it on my card, even though I explained to him that I felt I had paid the Barnyard Viper off in full. It was probably good that I did, as the process of getting the low deck, raised Indy exhaust port 512 with the 2" Hookers and an AndyF engine plate did not go as smooth as they felt it would.
Dale took great pride in the fact that he had installed his old 440 without cutting the "shelf area" on his Duster's inner fender wells, but that wasn't the case with the new combo. Another problem area was the radiator. They wanted to run the big 55GPM Mezziere electric pump. The thick engine plate combined with the long water pump, and a thick aluminum radiator featuring a huge shroud containing two electric fans meant it was impossible for the radiator to fit in the stock location. The time constraints for completion dictated that alternate plans would not be explored, it was time for the family to "get their hack on"!

they'd thought they died and went to heaven if they had my old Sho Gun remote pump set up....

Had one of those on a 73 Cuda I raced for a while, Jay. Not sure it would flow enough for a street deal though.

The Gremlin
Other than engine work/swapping, the Gremlin was untouched from Drag Week 2015. So Dale had a grand total of five passes since he had added lighter springs to the new front end setup, and now he would be running an engine about 75 lbs. heavier. The 547 that he picked up along with cash for his 572 Hemi, had turned into a complete nightmare.
Once Dale got the World iron block tore down, he decided to move from the 4.395 bore, straight to 4.500 effectively building a 572. He wasn't exactly comfortable with the spray bar oiled Jesel rockers, so he went with his oldest set of Indy -1 castings, that he has had around since the nineties.
He found himself waiting so late to order a cam that he was limited to whatever solid flat tappet grinds Comp had on the shelf, and he ended up with a 290@.050, .650 lift dinosaur that probably had two inches of dust on the box before they mailed it.

The fact was, the Gremlin was a more of a plan B, safety net deal in Dale's Drag Week 2016 approach, and the 572 was more of a "what parts can I toss together in 2 weeks, and make this happen" last ditch effort.

I pulled in front of Dale's house a little after 1pm on Wednesday afternoon, feeling as if I'd used up every bit of the respite from fatigue a three hour nap on the seat of the 1 Ton in a Texas rest area had afforded me. Dale had installed a new whistle in his ditch, and added a driveway at the end of his property which would allow much easier access to long rigs, in theory anyway. I quickly discovered that he hadn't bothered with grading out the new white crushed rocks covering the whistle. When the trailer tires came off the humped up rocks, my dove tail trailer used the end C channel like a grader's blade to drag the top 5 inches of rock into the yard with us. The rocks, in turn, destroyed all the tail and clearance light wire that usually sits undisturbed within that same C channel.
The second thing I noticed upon entering the yard was the large, mature shade tree at the end of his property. This tree has provided the work area and base of operations for my Hell Week adventures for the past five years. Apparently the ravages of Oklahoma wind had bested the tree sometime in the last twelve months, and the top of the tree was lying in the spot I usually park in.
I climbed out of the truck and slowly stretched out my legs and back, then ambled towards the shop. Boone, Dale and James were inside, working on the Duster.
After a little small talk, I asked where I could park the Valiant to start on the rear suspension. They agreed I could pull it onto the pad in front of the shop.
"What do you need to do to it?" Boone asked.
"Jim Sam told me the rear was an eighth out the last time he aligned the car three years ago, so I need to get that straight before I take it back to him for another alignment. Since James is here, he can cut the safety tabs off the ladder bar, then weld them back on when we have it done."
"He's building a pan protector for me first", Boone explained. "We put a big aluminum pan on this thing, and I need something to come down off the k-member and keep it from getting crushed by road debris."
"So", I laughed, "an armadillo killer, of sorts?"
All three of them chuckled at the name. Armadillos had entered into Drag Week lore a few years earlier, when Gary Putnam's Pro-Charged Fox body ran over one on the day 1 drive. The resulting damage hampered his effort for the remainder of the trip, and good armadillo jokes have been prevalent in DW bench racing ever since.

I unloaded the Valiant off the trailer and with Boone and Dale's guidance, drove it through the maze of cars until I could line it up with the pad in front of the shop. I grabbed my jack, and a pair of Dale's stands, and raised the rear of the car.
Every part of my body hurt, I really just wanted to go in the shop, sit in a chair and trade stories with the guys while they worked on their stuff, but time was at a premium and if my junk was going to be ready, I was going to have to be a little selfish. When I pulled the rear tires off, I immediately noticed that the sticky weights had been ripped off the inside of the passenger's side tire. I say "ripped off" because there was a scratch mark across the wheel just before and after the area where the weights had been dislodged.
"Well that explains the vibration I had on my last pass", I explained to James.
"What would've knocked those weights off? You taped them, I'm sure", he responded.
"Yeah, the gray duct tape and weights are still on the other wheel", I explained as I peered into the wheel well and let out a low whistle.
"Did you find the problem?" Boone bent down close behind me.
"Yeah, that bolt probably took out the weights when it decided to abandon it's post!"
His gaze followed my finger, and he shook his head, "the upper ladder bar mount on the rear is missing the bolt! Didn't it feel any different?"
"Yeah, it sure did". I paused to recollect, "it shuddered hard on the last leave, and didn't even attempt to pull the wheels, then it pulled harder to the center line than it ever has on the drive home, but I thought it was all in the front."

I pulled the driver's side ladder bar out of the car completely, and James cut off the safety tabs. Then we extended the front heim out an eighth, re-assembled it, and James welded the tabs back in the proper place.

"Can you put the tires back on so we can move it out of the way long enough to get the Duster out of the shop, and the Gremlin in?" Boone was standing over me asking the question, and was clearly surprised by my negative reaction.
"We discussed this before I even parked here! I explained quite clearly that I had a long list of stuff to do to the car!"
I stormed off towards my rig, with him following close behind.
"Look, plans change, everything is in flux right now. If we don't get that Gremlin in there now, Dale is just going to keep working on the Duster, and forget about taking the Gremlin. That can't happen, he busts his butt on everyone else's projects, and he deserves to take his car. The Duster is a long shot at best, but the Gremlin will go together easy, so we need to get him on it right now."
"I looked the Duster over as soon as I arrived", I gave him my best and honest opinion, "There's too much left, it isn't going to make it!"
"I agree", he shook his head, "but Dale won't give up. The Duster needs to go to the muffler shop tomorrow, so that's why it's coming out. Until it returns with new exhaust, Dale needs to be on the Gremlin, nonstop!"
"OK, ok, I get it. Is that why Michelle and Will have been here cleaning on the Gremlin for the last hour and a half?"
"Yeah", Boone smiled, "Had to call in reinforcements, and they know that the Gremlin has to go together tonight!"

We moved the Valiant, pushed the Duster out and Will, Michelle and Boone began guiding the Gremlin into the shop. Dale motioned me over towards the Duster, to help him cover the engine with a moving blanket.
"What do you think?" He asked in a low tone, motioning towards the Duster as he eyed the other three to make sure we wouldn't be heard.
"It's too far away, we'll have to kill ourselves to finish this car!"
"Then that's what we have to do! Little Billy has the week off from school, and he intends to ride shotgun with Boone!" His face was barely able to control the emotion boiling under his dark glare, "This car will go, I don't care about the Gremlin, the Charger, or any of your stuff, this is priority one!"
"OK, fine", I slapped him on the back, and bluffed with the best smile I could muster, "We'll make it happen!"
He walked into the shop and closed the roll-up door behind him.
I turned towards the Valiant, thinking to myself "this is an abbreviated week, but this is going to be a very crazy seventy-two hours ahead of us!"