On Labor Day weekend, prior to Drag Week, I was at Thunder Valley Dragway in Marion South Dakota. While there, I met up with Moparts members J Body (Jay), Big Dad (Daryl), and Dakotahotrodder (Wade). Wade had stopped by the track to hang out, and brought with some home smoked ribs, BBQ, and plenty of Hamm's beer. Perfect track food, and it was delicious. One of Wade's buddies, Matt was there, and we began to talk some, and the discussion of Drag Week came up. His face lit up, and he said that he was going. I asked if he was spectating, or entered in the event? "Oh I got in!" "First time?" "Yeah, what can I expect?" I just chuckled, and asked what car he was bringing? He told me his Mustang blew up earlier in the year, and he was bringing a "Plan B" car. Plan B cars are not unusual for Drag Week, but when he told me it was a newer Chevy Impala SS, with a LS engine, I asked him "Aren't those front wheel drive?" Yeah, why? "Do you have slicks or Drag Radials for the car?" No... was his response. "Well you're going to need them, or you can't run the event." I know in the back of my mind, Matt was thinking, what was he going to do? I was also thinking great, if we needed help, we could maybe have Matt give us a hand, as he was entered in the event. Little did we know that we would need Matt almost immediately on Day one...

While Joel was looking up some info on the pump he installed in the T56 magnum, I placed a phone call to Matt. "Hello." "Hey Matt, where are you?" "Still at the track, just watching some cars." "Have you made your run, and turned in your time slip?" "Yeah, why?" "We need your help." So I gave Matt our location, and he and his Trunk Monkey Lance headed our way. Since they were already switched over to Street trim, and packed up, it only took them 20-25 minutes to arrive at the gas station. While they were on the way, I told Joel to move the Coupe, so we were not getting sprayed by the sprinkler system, while we were working on it. "Good thinking."

When Matt, and Lance arrived, we told them the situation, and with some digging on the internet, Joel was able to find out that if he removed one of the plugs on the transmission, installed some fittings, and a oil cooler, dumping it back into the fill plug, it just might solve the problem. Joel then got on the phone, and called the near by NAPA store, and told him that they did have the oil cooler, and rear seal he was looking for. So with a list of parts he thought were needed, Joel and Matt hopped into the Impala, and off they went. I got started on cleaning the bottom of the Coupe, and removing the rear drive shaft loop, and driveshaft. Lance was helping by handing me new clean paper towels.

Disclosure: I was not there to witness the following that happened, but was told the story by Matt.

Joel and Matt arrived at the NAPA not too far away, and when Joel walked in, the lady behind the counter wondered if she too was seeing Blake Shelton's Stunt Double after a horrible accident? Joel assured her he wasn't, and had absolutely no clue who that was. Matt nudged him, and said "Lets get what we need, and get going." (I'm glad it's not just me pushing Joel.) The lady was super helpful, and most likely a Saint to put up with Joel, and his 10,000 questions. Fittings, Check. Cooler, Check. Trans Fluid, Check. Rear seal, Check. Matt asks Joel, what about hose? "Oh yeah, gonna need that." lady asks Joel how much hose he needs? "Hmmm... Not sure where we are going to mount a cooler, so give me 12 feet of hose. If we are short, Matt can drive me back up here." Matt replies, "Get 14 feet!" Joel pays for everything, and they hop back in Matt's Impala, and head back to the gas station.

Once back at the gas station, We looked over everything, and Joel got busy installing the fittings in the transmission, and then it was determined that the cooler could be mounted right under the trans, and held in place with zip ties. With only needing about 3 feet of the 14 foot section of hose, Joel looks at Matt, and asks if he can drive him back to NAPA, and return the remaining 11 feet, since he still had the receipt? "NO." was all Matt replied. LOL! OK, on to the next problem. The rear seal. We removed the new one from the box, and compared it to the current seal. Nope not even close to fitting the transmission. Now what? We could attempt to clean the old one, and reinstall it. If the cooler idea works, we should be good? Now how do we get it on the tail housing? "Joel, I have an idea. What if we use one of the measuring cups as a seal driver?" "Lets try it." So we cleaned the seal, and tail housing up with brake cleaner, and then found the correct size cup to fit the seal, and drove it home with a hammer. While I finished that, and started to reinstall the driveshaft, Joel, was putting fluid into the trans. Rear driveshaft loop installed, Floor pan reinstalled, pack all the junk we had scattered in the parking lot back up, a quick trip to the bathroom, and get washed up, and we were ready to hit the road again. Matt, and Lance said they would follow us, and make sure everything was OK. We piled back into the Coupe, Joel fired the HEMI up, and pointed it South bound on US 131 for the 3rd time. As we merged in with traffic, I saw a sign for a rest area a couple miles ahead. I told Joel we should just do a quick stop, and make sure everything was where it needed to be, before we got too far away. "Good thinking." So we roll into the rest area, and I quickly unbuckle my safety harness, open the door, look under the car, and give the Joel the now too familiar "AH SH!T!" The seal had pushed itself out again. Luckily for us Matt, and Lance pulled into the rest area behind us. Looking back, I'm sure they wished they hadn't.

"Now what Joel?" "Not sure. We might have to drop out, but I don't want to after that pass this morning. It's Drag Week, and we have to do what we have to do." Crap, it's going to be one long night... "Joel gets on his phone, and tries to call someone that knows T56 Magnums, but isn't having any luck. I do a Google search for "T56 magnum pushing out seal". One of the search results led me to a web forum, that had discussed this problem, and what a POS the rear seal was for these transmissions. One member had suggested using a Ford C6 transmission tail housing seal, as it was the same dimensions, but a old school type that was encased in steel, and not just a rubber POS. That member was even good enough to give the part number. I took a screen shot of it, looked it up on NAPA's website, and it said it was in stock at the location Joel, and Matt were just at. They both hop in Matt's car, and head South on US 131 about 10 miles before they can then head North back to NAPA. I'm sure when Joel (Not Blake Shelton's stunt double after an accident) walked in, the lady thought great, not another 10,000 questions... Joel just gave her the much needed part number, said he would sign an autograph, but she just wanted him to pay for the part.

While Joel, and Matt were gone, I started to get things ready for the new seal. Hoping it would work when it arrived. One thing I forgot to do before we left the track was fill up the rear slicks with air. In 2018 when we left the track, we would have to search for a gas station that had air, and then pay to fill the rear tires for the drive. This year I brought with my Dewalt cordless air compressor. With no clue if it would work or not at this point, I hooked it up to the right rear tire, set the air pressure to 25lbs, and turned it loose. I had heard stories of these type of compressors not working, so I didn't have high expectations. After about 2 minutes, the pump shut off. Great, battery must be dead already. Nope. Tire had 25lbs of air in it. Impressive. So I unhooked it from the right tire, and hooked it up to the left side. 2 minutes later, and that tire was at 25lbs. I was sold on the small compressor, and it proved to be a great tool all week.

Lance, and I, had some time to chat for a while again while we waited. A few people stopped by to look the Coupe over, one guy stopped by in his Trans Am, and asked if we needed help. "Thanks, but we got it covered" He had to tear out of there to impress us I guess? My visual ET guestimater said it ran 17's in the 1/4 mile. Next thing I know, this small pickup pulls up next to the Coupe, and a guy gets out laughing. He looks at Lance and I, says I don't know you guys but I got to show you guys this. He holds his phone out, and shows us a meme that his boss sent him. He then got back into his truck, and drove away. Lance looks at me and says "What the #$*@ was that?!!!" I just looked at him, and said "Welcome to Drag Week!" Not 5 minutes later Joel, and Matt arrive. With the seal in hand, I crawled back under the Coupe, and sure enough it was going to fit. We got out the proper sized measuring cup, and drove it into place. The cups were well worth the $7 price now. Reinstall the driveshaft, the rear driveshaft loop, stuff our gear, and tools back into the trunk, go use the bathroom, and clean up, and pile ourselves back into the Hot Rod. Joel points the Coupe South now for the 4th time. "I can't believe we're really doing it!" I'm glad Joel still has enthusiasm at this point. We merge back into traffic, and once again, we decide it's best to pull off on the next exit, and check for leaks. By this time, if I were Matt, and Lance, I would have kept heading South, and tell us we were on our own, but they didn't and followed us. Must like punishment? We quickly find a small parking lot, and I told Joel, just keep it running, I'll hop out, and check. If it's good, I'm hopping right back in. With the Coupe stopped, I quickly get out, look under the car, and THANKFULLY the new seal is holding in place. No leak. Joel gets us turned around, and heads back to US 131 South for the 5th time. With a sigh of relief, we just might get to our Hotel 250 miles away before midnight.

I must say, the rest of our trip went fairly smooth. We had a couple check points. The first one was across from a gas station, and we filled up there, and got a slice of pizza to go. By the time we arrived at the second check point, it was very late. I dug out my LED light from the trunk, and we did a once over of everything to make sure fluids were where they belonged. No leaks. Whew... Last leg of Day one... Joel informed me that he wanted to go over the Coupe when we arrived at the hotel. That would include changing the oil, setting valve lash, and he wanted to retorque the cylinder heads. Changing oil, would mean a stop at WalMart to pick up a new drain pan. When we arrived at the WalMart, I jokingly asked Joel if we were going to change oil in the Garden Department again, like in 2018. "No we'll do it at the hotel." We made it to WalMart about 15 minutes before they closed, and I would just stay outside with the Coupe. "Just get the essentials Joel!" "Duh, whadda ya think, I'm an idiot?"

Joel walks out of Walmart, and hands me the giant oil drain pan. Guess I'm going to be holding this in my lap until the hotel? "It's only a couple miles." Joel says. I'm glad Google Maps is a better estimator of mileage, than Joel is with the time it takes to finish a project. Only a few minutes later we arrive at our Hotel, and we see a bunch of Drag Week cars. We were one of the first to leave the track, but definitely not the first to arrive at a hotel. "Hold on Joel, I see Squirrel's Nova here. What kind of a place did you book for us?" We know Jim is known for liking dive places, so I was getting a little nervous. 'I'll check us in, and you get started on the oil change." 10-4...