Sick Week Florida

Hi, Do we need a Sick Week thread? Are any members planning to go? I'm planning on it with the Hemi Coupe if nothing goes wrong. I recently moved off of the wait list and am officially registered for the Hot Rod class. My son Cam will be handling the Trunk Monkey duties for the first time.

If you are there, look me up! Warning, I try to get my pass/passes in early and hit the road, so you won't normally find me at the track after 10 or 11.

Schedule:

January 28 - Orlando Speed World, tech and testing.
Tech from 7am, testing from 2pm.

January 29 - Orlando Speed World, day one.
Driver’s meeting at 8am, racing from 9am.

January 30 - Bradenton Motorsports Park, day two.
Racing from 9am.

January 31 - Gainesville Raceway, day three.
Racing from 9am.

February 1 - South Georgia Motorsports Park, day four.
Racing from 9am.

February 2 - Orlando Speed World, day five.
Racing from 11am.

I've been laid up for 6 weeks, recovering from a serious back injury, but I'm finally up and around and starting to work on the Hemi Coupe. It's going to be a mad thrash to be ready. I had found a LOT of problems with the Hemi. The heads had cracks, and a couple of valve guides were falling out of their cracked bores. The valves were making contact with the pistons around the perimeter of the valve reliefs in the pistons. Why? I'm not sure. The pistons rock about .030 in the bores. How much were the valve stems flexing?

So it has 8 new intake valves and 2 new exhaust. I am in the process of opening up the valve reliefs. I'm doing it on the assembled block, in the car. Because I don't have time to take it apart. It looks like a surgery patient, all covered up except a little hole where the cutting is taking place. I can work for about 2 hours, then I need to lay down and rest it for an hour or 2. I'm limited to lifting about 25 pounds now, but I was able to lift the aluminum heads if I got positioned right. So I could check the clearance with clay.
Hopefully, I'll have it all back together by the end of the day sunday and see how it runs. It's winter, so I won't be able to test drive it. Planning to go to Immokalee in southern Florida and make some test hits friday night before Sick Week, then do some street driving..

Good luck mate. never say never. hope you have a great time. Rob.

Good luck and safe travels! We need a picture of driver and trunk monkey.

Not to derail the thread but the coloring of your header merge collectors is interesting.
Does that indicate anything useful?
And get better quickly.

Aren't those "Hot Heads"? Were they new? Any idea as to why they are coming apart? You only run gas correct? Thanks Joel for representing and good luck!

I know a certain green duster is planning on being there.

I bought the heads new in about 2014. I had them ported, then when I first assemble the motor and tried to dyno it, one of the intake ports leaked into a cylinder and hydro-locked it. It blew out a cylinder wall and I had to have it sleeved. I had the head welded up.
When I had the cracks repaired this time, he said they were porous and difficult to weld and that the valve guides were to tight in the heads, leading to cracks. Yes, I only run gasoline.

Thanks.

The headers are nickle plated. They discolored very quickly. I'm not sure why it is more blue on the collector? Maybe from when they are capped?

Good luck Joel!!

I’m looking forward to watching the events unfold on the live feeds!!

I'm only 1hr away, and looking forward to seeing the action on 2/2
Good luck!

Good luck, both with the race and healing up! I'll be watching as much as I can. I think they moved the feed for the Sick Week races to FDRM+ on Cleetus's channel but any Sick the Mag subscribers I believe get a login code.

For the run order, they went by ET for Sick Summer and Sick Week. A was anybody quicker than 8.50, B is 8.50->10.0, C is 10.0->11.50, and D is 11.50->slowest of the slow. Each group typically gets to run first one day, and then the fastest groups typically get a repeat (plus there is also the quarantine fast pass lane for anybody top 3 in class if you're quicker than 10.0). I was in the D group and we got to run first on Wednesday. The days I was stuck running last, I'd get a pass in around noon and then was usually on the road by 1.

Progress report: I've been moving forward on the Hemi coupe, but slowly. I got all the valve reliefs in the Pistons opened up.
After the mad thrash to be ready for death week, my shop looked like a tornado went through it but I didn't want to take the time to clean up so I've been working in the mess. Finally today I got so sick of it, and realized it's been slowing me down, so I took most of the day to clean up. I feel so much better working in a semi-clean shop!
Since the heads got a cleanup cut in the mill, and with the cutting I did on the pistons I wanted to check where the compression ratio ended up. I just got done with that. Right at 13.0 to 1. Good enough. Hopefully before the night is through I'll have the heads back on and have some new intake gaskets trimmed to fit so I can get the intake back on tomorrow morning.

Good luck Joel! Go kick some butt!!!

Amaaaaazing

What gas do you use on the street and if different, at the tracks?

Cab, I have 2 tanks and 2 fuel pumps in the car. The 17 gallon tank for the street gets 93 or 91 pump gas with Klotz octane booster in it. I use a little street pump for the street that doesn't get hot. The 3 gallon tank get VP C12, and uses a 150 GPM Holley pump.

I was just about ready to slap the heads on last night and the power went out. So I had to quit early. Thankfully, since it was 9 below zero, the power came back on around midnight.

Cam came over and gave me a hand and we got a lot done! Still a lot to do, but if nothing goes wrong we should make it to sick week.

We had a big setback today. We got The car all put together and running, but it leaked water into the oil. After just having had the heads repaired and welded up, I have not yet determined if it's a head gasket issue or something with a cylinder head. I'm trying to do some pressure testing and diagnostics before I pull the head to try and figure out what to do.

Hopefully something simple.
I normally don't post much but love reading the thrash people do for the events.

Thanks. I found multiple problems, still working on it. If I make it, it'll be at the last minute again with no time for testing.

Keep at it, hoping to see you there

Good Luck Joel. I know it hasn't been an easy road.

Good luck sir!

The Hemi coupe is as good as it's going to get. Since it's winter time, all I could do was test drive it in the driveway. I hate to go to a race with zero testing after major repairs, but that's just the way it worked out this time. Again. No matter what, it's still going to be a great vacation in Florida! Now I need to get busy packing. Thanks for the well wishes!

Glad to hear you powered thru!!!

Good luck down there…….. looking forward to the track reports

Awesome it's back together, best of luck and safe travels with the tow down to Florida!

Looking forward to the stories

i should be there with a friend in his chevelle.

Have fun Joel!

Fun is a given with Joel...

Keep the shiny side down, and the dull side up Joel.

Made it to the tech line!

.

Does anyone have a schedule of this and is it available online. I did hear of one pay service to watch.

Jeez if I would’ve just reread the post there it was.


January 29 - Orlando Speed World, day one. January 30 - Bradenton Motorsports Park, day two. January 31 - Gainesville Raceway, day three. February 1 - South Georgia Motorsports Park, day four

https://www.sickthemagazine.com/sick-week

?

If you're a Sick the Mag subscriber you get a login code to watch. If not, I think Cleetus McFarland was running a special for $9.99 to subscribe to FDRM+ for a month and that would include the livestreams. Outside of that, there will be a bunch of youtubers covering it independently.

Glad you made it to tech, Joel! The attrition leading up to the event is pretty brutal this year. Steve Morris hurt his motor, fixed it, then wrecked yesterday during testing. Saw a few others drop out as well.

Steve Morris is already out!

Killed the car when a trans line blew off...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ig_TG_jiHNQ

We all made it to Orlando for Sick Week 2024! We hope to make a few test passes today once the rain clears up! We will be posting updates all week so stay tuned
#big3racing
#holleyefi
#501performance
#summitracingequipment
#hptturbo
#procharger
#wiseco
#clevelandinjectorhospital

Nice, looking forward to see this closing action, back at Bithlo on Friday!
Good luck

I didn't see what he ran, but it looked like a clean pass. I'm still waiting to get call to the staging lanes.

Facebook find

Joel,
What’s the goal for the 5 day average?

I think his goal is to just survive the week with the Heartburn HEMI, then get home and rip it out to start on a new build.

I just want to finish, but if I can run low 10's I'll be happy. If I can break into the 9's, I'll be jubilant.
My first test pass was fraught with driver error. Went 10.92 @125.
I forgot to bring it up on the 2 step, and I let off before the end.
I'm in line for the all run session.

Second pass yesterday, spun the tires a bit, ran a 14360 ft, then I missed third gear and aborted the pass. I figured out that the new shifter I put in that I never should have put in sits a few inches further forward than my old shifter and when I'm strapped in the bucket seat and my arm is straight I don't have enough reach to get it all the way into third gear. So I'm trying to find somebody with an acetylene torch here in the pits so I could heat it and bend it. Otherwise I'm going to put a couple half rolls of paper towels behind my right shoulder before I strap in and see if that works.

https://www.forabodiesonly.com/mopar/threads/sick-week-2024-pictures.556201/

Joel TnT

Just saw this

I wasn’t able to catch much of the live feed, but Joel turned in a 10.71 at 136 on day 1. Killer mph!

There were an incredible number of oil downs today, I don’t think D class made any passes until 3:30. Two of the radial cars went sub 6.50, and Jeff Lutz’s pro mod is there and went 6 teens.

We just got to the hotel in Bradenton at about 12:45 a.m. It has been a long day but a good one. My trunk monkey in training, Cam really stepped up to the plate and kept us organized this morning for getting everything that we need out of the trailer and organized in the trunk of the car and having us already before the driver's meeting.
At the driver's meeting I couldn't hear a thing they said. The PA system had a lot of reverb. But Cam heard it so he filled me in.
After the driver's meeting we had a half an hour to be out of the area where the trucks and trailers are being stored, and we made it with plenty of seconds to spare.
On both test passes Sunday, I missed the third gear shift. I have just installed a new shifter that I never should have put in there, and I was blaming the shifter. But this morning I figured out that The handle on the shifter is further forward than my old one was by at least a few inches. When I'm all strapped into the seat and my arm is extended straight forward as far as possible, it's not far enough to put it solidly into third gear. We tried to find an acetylene torch to heat and bend the shift lever but no luck. Someone lent us a mapp gas torch but it just didn't have enough heat to do the job.
So the solution was when I strapped into the car, I had two rolls of paper towels behind my shoulders holding me further forward. It was pretty uncomfortable but proved effective.
We got called to the lanes at 11:15 a.m. and we were ready. 3 hours and 58 minutes later, after a ridiculous number of oil downs and what seemed like slow clean ups, I finally pulled into the burnout box. The guy in the other lane pre staged first so I put a little pressure on the brake pedal and held my line lock button and bumped in to stage, then just as he was moving forward my stage light went off which threw me off a little bit. As I started to bump ahead just a little bit, I didn't have the engine up against the two step revlimiter yet. Oops.The yellow came on almost instantly after I staged again and we are on a pro tree so the light was green before I even got the engine up on the limiter. I wasn't really thinking about reaction time, because I'm used to drag weak where it doesn't matter. When I was ready, I launched the car and the rear tires spun and hopped a little bit but then they really dug in in the car took off! It felt like a really good pass and I was thrilled that I hit the third gear shift with no problem. The car pulled really hard all the way to the finish line and felt good and stable in the shutdown.

I ended up running at 10.31at 136, but got a penalty added to my official ET because of the slow reaction time. That's a Sick Week rule I'll definitely remember!
We got the car changed over to Street pretty good, but we have a few issues that we had to address and will have to address. It's too late now to tell any more of the story. Hopefully tomorrow goes as well.

Thx for the update, keep at it!
Interesting about the penalty, how much, and what reaction time triggers it?

Anything over 1 second gets added to the et.

I'm looking for an oxyacetylene torch near Bradenton Motorsports Park to bend my shift lever. If anyone is around here and has one I could use for a few minutes, please give me a call at 612-221-0910.

It can't hurt to try asking one of Cleetus's guys, either Tye or Zach. They have torches at both their shop and the Freedom Factory, and you're right next to them. Good luck, and it sounds like the car is running awesome!!

You can't just bend it with your brute strength you always talk about???

I found a guy, we are there now

At the track, ready to race, waiting for our group to be called. Hopefully one good pass.

One and done at Bradenton!

What did it run?

Here is the time slip. I'm pretty happy with it.

Hemi Joel, I saw a couple of your passes. Car runs hard for a 392...

As far as coverage, man they are figuring out how to get all the stories & drivers interviews on the youtube...Just top notch...

i just won't run a car without a floor covering the transmission for just this reason.
if a floor pan/transmission tunnel had been there, the fire would have been kept out of the interior.
just my opinion being old. and i hope to get older by avoiding a fire inside the car.

Unfortunately, sick week 2024 ended a day early for me today. We made it all the way up to South Georgia Motorsports Park in Valdosta. I made some changes on the car that I was very confident were going to improve it, maybe even break into the nines. I was two cars from the burnout box and signaled to move forward. When I started the car, I noticed that there was zero oil pressure. We had to push it back and I pulled the distributor and verified that the oil pump drive shaft had broken off. I'm sure a piece of debris got into the oil pump and jammed it. So I got a ride with some nice people back to Orlando and tomorrow We are going to go back to Georgia and load up the car.
All in all I have no regret. I did everything I could do to get there, and then to stay in. When something beyond my control happens like this, well there's always next time!

I feel for you Joel, I had a small piece of the rear main seal holder on my old M.W. stocker do the same thing when I used oil pan bolts that were a tad bit to (long (.050+) to work with the stock rear main seal holder The longer bolts broke the bottoms off the seal holder bosses off which got sucked up into the oil pick up into the oil pump locking it up and breaking the tip of the oil pump drive gear off

Joel, sorry about the early end to your trip. Your hotrod certainly has 9 second potential.where do you race when home?

Man, I hate to hear you broke and had to be done early! You sure made a helluvan effort!

All of these guys and cars that do Drag week, Sick Week and all these Drag & Drives are so impressive. As they say all it takes is money. Most of these guys have alot of it. However, for the little guys still doing on a budget, that is even more impressive. Everyone that does it says they are all a blast to do.

For gearheads, it quite possibly is the coolest thing you can take part in. One week of racing, hanging out with like minded people, and making new friends that will last a lifetime.

x2. If you're thinking about it at all, just sign up for one and do it, you won't regret it at all. Money helps but there are a lot of low budget operations, and you can certainly do them frugally by camping and bringing your own food too.

Joel, super bummed to see you out but you had a great showing this week, and it'll be awesome when you get it into the 9's. Are you going to do Sick Summer, Drag Week or Sick 66 this year with it?

For someone who wants to follow along, and be involved at the same time, I like the idea of using a car that should be trouble free.
Like the guy with the Hellcat Charger running 10.60’s in the DYO class.

Watch the action, make a few passes, enjoy a stress free drive to the next stop, have a nice meal.

Like a “racecation”.

I have had several buddies do Drag Week and they all had a blast, even after spinning out on the freeway in the pouring rain (spool) and hitting a guard rail and taking out the front clip. They still had fun.

I have done 9 of them since 2012, it is really hard to beat. There is not much better than doing race car things with race car people for 6 days. Bonus is you can do it with your Dad like I have been able to. Extra bonus you get to meet people like Hemi Joel and JerichoGTX.

If you car is running and reliable it is pretty easy to predict your costs for hotel etc. Showing up in something totally untested is nightmare fuel for me lol. My Dad and I have been lucky to only face minor issues on the road and none on the track. Nice dinners and sleep make for a really good week and lots of guys don't get that luxury.

I'll start filling in some detail that I didn't have time for before. The cam end play was way off, so I ordered some shims from McMaster car and got that dialed in, then torqued the cam gear bolt with orange locktite. After I got the heads back on, Cam came and helped out. He got the intake cleaned up and ready to install and got the linkage for the 8 carbs all re-adjusted, and we lifted that on and bolted it down. When we started the car, water was pouring out under the drivers side header flange, staining from the copper seal head gasket sealer was visible on the outside of the block under the leak area.

One thing I forgot about is that the header studs go into the water jacket, so I didn't put sealant on them. So we fixed that. Then restarted it, and water was still leaking from the same area, but not as much. It was the head gasket apparently, that is why the copper coat stain down the side of the block. Then I discovered milkshake oil from water in it. Cam went home. It was monday, and I was still in MInnesota. I was planning to leave 2 days ago. Cams flight to Punta Gorda Florida is scheduled for Thursday, and I need to pick him up at the airport. Sick week starts Sunday. I thought long and hard about staying in or dropping out.

I decided to do my best to stay in until it became impossible. If I quit because of causes beyond my control, I have no regrets. But If I quit because I'm tired and discouraged, or the odds are slim and everything is going wrong, I'll always regret it later.

So I retorqued the heads, then pressurised the cooling system. It was slowly loosing pressure. How could the water be getting in the oil? Last time it was a leak in the intake port. So I pulled the headers and the intake and the spark plugs. with 20 PSI in the cooling system, I visually inspected and listened with a tube on my ear in each port and each spark plug hole. No leak sounds. I used the leakdown tester and pressurized each cylinder. No leak sounds except in the crankcase which is normal due to the old rings.

Then I got an idea! I removed and pressure checked the Mopar oil to water oil cooler. Sure enuff, it was cracked inside, allowing the oil and water to mix! So that came out permanently, and I flushed out the oil pan and refilled it. I started the engine and added a bottle of Moroso ceramic seal. That stopped the leak from the head gasket. As per the instructions, I drained and flushed the cooling system to get rid of the excess ceramic seal. But I could see in the top tank of the radiator that it had plugged up a bunch of the tubes. I wanted to back flush the radiator with a garden hose to try and clear it out. But I don't have water in my shop. And the hill up to the house was snowy and icy. So we towed it up the hill, and I devised a way to plumb in the garden hose. DUMB idea, the water just bypassed thru the block, thru the upper hoses, and shot ceramic seal out the top of the radiator all over everything. So, back down to the shop to pull the radiator and bring it up to the house to flush it. It helped, but I could still see plenty of plugged tubes. It would have to be good enough.

I put the radiator back in and started cleaning up the mess. That's when I noticed that the timing cover was now bulged out and cracked...

By This point, I was really tired and really in a hurry. Time was running out. I called Cam and asked if we could change his flight from Thursday at Punta Gorda to Friday night at Orlando. We would skip the test and tune at Immokalee, and go right to Orlando untested. That would give me more time to fix the car, get everything ready, and drive to Florida. He said OK.

I pulled the damper and the front cover and found that the cam bolt had backed out. I KNOW I torqued it, and i KNOW I put orange locktite on it. I fixed the cover with epoxy, chased the threads in the cam and on the bolt, and cleaned them both with carb cleaner and compressed air. I used red locktite, and torqued 10 lbs over spec. Then put everything back together and let it sit overnight for the locktite to cure.

Tuesday Morning, I started the car and let it warm up to 210 degrees before I turned on the fan. It was holding in all its fluids and the oil was clean and clear. So I drained out a gallon of water and dumped in a gallon of antifreeze, then opened the overhead door and drove it out into the winter air. I drove it about a mile, up and own our long driveway with no apparent issues, then back into the shop, did a few last minute things, and started packing tools and supplies. Cam came over after work and helped.
Wednesday morning, I threw my luggage and some food and stuff into the camper, hooked the trailer behind the old dodge with the camper in the bed, loaded the car and finished loading all the stuff, then about mid afternoon, I hit the road for florida. Luckily, I was just about an hour ahead of a nasty ice storm, but I had dry roads. Friday night, I made it to the airport, just 1/2 hour after Cam was ready to be picked up. We drove to a Cracker Barrel and had dinner, and spent the night in their parking lot. I was so tired, I was in a fog. Saturday morning, we drove to a Walmart parking lot close to Orlando Speedworld. The Sick Week instructions said that there was no admission to the track prior to Sunday at 7:00 AM, so we were going to unload the car here and go for a test drive, and start organizing stuff to bring with on the Sick Week drive, plus buy anything we need at Wally world.
The rear view morror had fallen of the car and the glass broke, so I went into walmart for a mirror. The best I could find was a pink rimmed cosmetic clamshell mirror. So I bought it and some JB weld. I felt like I had to explain to the cashier that this was not for my make-up. Back at the trailer Cam found the pink mirror to be quite hilarious. So I made him install it.

Then we ran into some other sick weekers who said they were letting folks in early is they bought a spectator admission for the Saturday event. So we packed up and drove to the track and got in. We unloaded the car and took it for a 10 mile drive. After not having driven the car since Drag Week 2021, it seemed kind of sketchy, but I figured we'd be OK. I was still in fog from over fatigue. It's a good thing Cam had a clear head, he really took over on the brain work and organization side of things.

Thanks for the link.

Is there a reason not to have the ignition killed with a loss of oil pressure?

on the tranny? I think a better line, not rubber, neoprene or any slide on flexible hose with hose clamps, would be a lot safer

I talked to Steve Morris in the pits after the crash. If I'm not mistaken, he said that it was an AN line that blew off of the fitting. I asked him how much line pressure they were running. He didn't know. I was surprised that an a AN line came off. How much pressure would they be running in a transmission that is built to handle a few thousand horsepower?

I was referring to the video of a crankshaft with a spun main bearing

He made a video last week.

He said the reason the line came apart was because when he reinstalled the trans the line didn't easily seat against the connection point and he basically forced it into place,. He had some tire shake issues, he showed a video of his tire shaking, it violently shook everything and that is what pulled the line right off the fitting .

I've learned the hard way to not mix fitting and hose brands between most of the major brand, also make sure the fittings your using are for the type of hose your using,, neoprene fitting with that type of hose, same thing on Teflon lined hose, you MUST use the proper fittings to make them safe

Saturday night, I decided to change the oil and filter, to flush out any remaining water that might be left in the pan. To my astonishment and dismay, Cam came out from under the car with a bolt stuck on the magnetic drain plug, along with a few metal slivers. It looked like one of the bolts from the timing cover. I thought long and hard about what all bolts are in the crank case, and was certain that it could not be from within the engine. The only thing I could think of was that it must have fell in that last time I had the timing cover off. But I don’t remember having a bolt missing. Come to think of it though, I did hear an odd clink-clank sound when I restarted it after re-tightening the cam bolt. But I only heard the sound once, then it quit so I continued.
Cam filled up the oil and installed the diaper around the pan, then we called it a night.
Sunday morning starting at 8:00 AM was tech, both for Sick Week rules and NHRA safety. I decided to give the lights and horn one last test before heading up there at 7:30. Lights, check. Blinkers and brake lights, check. Horn – yikes, no horn! I did some snooping, and found the the horn relay was clicking when activated, so that was good. The old ahooga horn sits between the right hand frame rail and the engine block and was covered in oil. We cleaned it up and messed with the wire and thankfully, it started working.
I had seen a sign on Saturday announcing the location of tech. So at about 7:45, with all the safety gear and required paperwork, we drove up towards the sign. When we got there, we learned that there was already a long line heading off in the other direction. So we found the end of the line and took our place. I was kicking myself for having spent the night at the track, but yet not being at the beginning of the line. I counted 40 cars in front of us out of the 400 entries, which helped me relax with the realization that with 300+ cars behind us, weren’t in too bad of shape.
Walking up the line a bit I saw some familiar faces, and introduced them to Cameron whenever I got a chance. Time to start plugging him into the social pipeline.
While in line, it dawned on my that I should test the remote kill switch. Oh no. It didn’t kill the engine. I KNOW for certain that it used to did. I figured it had to be something wrong with the alternator that was back-feeding. So I figured I’d just unplug the alternator before we got to the front of the line. Cam suggested a couple times that we test that theory, but for some reason, I didn’t think it was necessary. I can’t remember having anyone check it at past events anyway.
When we got to the front of the line, I was greeted with a man-hug by my friend Keith Turk, who was the head tech. Then I heard another familiar but unexpected voice greeting me. It was Joe Timney from Delaware Chassis works who was now part of the sick week tech team.
We went through all the usual stuff: putting numbers on the windows designating class, run group and car #, scrutinizing the paperwork, tire width check, etc. Then a nice NHRA tech lady told me that my window net was expired. Honestly, I didn’t even know they had a date. I asked if she would pass it this time, since it is like new. She asked how fast the car goes. I told her low 10’s so far, but I’m hoping to get into the nines. She asked me to start the car, and while it was idling, she went to the rear of the car pushed the cut off switch. The Hemi just kept right on rumbling away! Oh-oh, very awkward moment. I was dumbfounded. But why didn’t I follow Cams advise and test it again? I tried to explain that it used to work and I’d take care of it, do I pass tech? Joe was inspecting the arm that attaches to the shaft on the cut-off switch. He said in a way that everybody could hear that the set screw was loose, and if I just tighten up the set screw it will be fine. I knew that the switch had killed everything except the engine. And it is a single pole switch. Either the switched worked or it didn’t. What was Joe thinking? Then it dawned on me…

Keep it comin

WAG…… oil pump mounting bolt?

The first gen, Fire Power Chrysler, Hemi motor oil pumps mount on the number five main caps like the LA SB motors due

Correct. The Gen1 HEMI's lower end is basically a Small Block.

it be vice a versa
The early Mopar Firepower hemi motos in the Chrysler cars had similar poly motors with less HP and torque used in the cheaper Windsor and Saratoga cars, I think the blocks are the same for both type motors,
I'm not sure when Mopar started making the Poly headed motors and which brand they used them in first either
Dodge and De Soto both had their own Hemi motors from 1952 on is what I've been told, I don't know if they had poly head V8 also
Plymouth supposedly didn't get V8 motors until 1956 is what I've read on here, I'm not sure if that is accurate or not

Joe was trying to make it sound like a super simple fix so that the NHRA tech lady would pass the car. At least that's what I think he was doing. It's great to have friends who have your back!

Next thing I know they were telling me to go over to the tent where the ladies were completing the paperwork, but nobody ever said whether I passed tech or not. So I went over to the tent and was greeted warmly by the ladies who gave Cameron and I our wristbands and all of the necessary paperwork. When we got back to the trailer I figured out that the wire for the water pump somehow got moved and was hot even when the master switch was off. Somehow that must've been back feeding into the ignition. So I got that fixed. But I still didn't know where I stood with the NHRA tech. So I called Keith Turk on his cell phone and asked him. He said I needed to bring the car back up there and just demonstrate that the master cut off switch worked and I would be good to 8.50. By now, there was a couple hundred cars in line and getting back in line would mean burning up the whole day and being deprived of my very much needed test passes! That was a very real possibility, and one that I definitely did not relish. I didn't want to be presumptuous and assume that I could skip the line, so I asked Keith if I need to get back in line now, or if I could make some passes first and get in line later. He said no, don't get in line. Just go around the line and pull up to tech, they're only going to test the switch. Exactly the answer I needed to hear, yippee!
So I drove back up there, parked the car in the tech area, and went off looking for Keith. Then Cameron came trotting over to me saying "you need to move the car, somebody's really wound up about where you parked it!". Thankfully when I explained the situation, the guy calmed down and pointed to a spot where we were okay to park. He said if all we need is that switch checked he can do it. He checked it, it worked, and he wrote down on the clipboard that I was good to 8.50.
We went back to the trailer and started getting ready to make passes!



I don't have any pictures of this, but I made it into Vice Grip garages video at the seven second mark. https://youtu.be/Z8FNdcvvq-c?feature=shared

As usual, I didn't take enough pictures, and I was so focused on my own game, I can't report too much on what everybody else was doing.

saw you motor past.

I’ve been watching some replays of the first 4 days.

Holy crap are there a lot of Mustangs!!

I think it’s the least number of Mopars I’ve seen at one of the bigger DND events.