Almost Have the Cuda Going Again!

Trying my darndest to make the end of the season big car show and then maybe some TNT with it. Finally got a radiator, fans and shrouds that should keep it cool. And on top of that adding all the proper wiring so that does not fry again.

4-relays and a ton of wire and connectors later....might be ready for this weekend, we will see.....

Good luck! I hope you get it out again...you sure have had a time w/ this car lately.

Looks great. Still HEMI power?

What fans are you planning on running? Single speed or two speed? I run two, two-speed, Derale fans to reduce the load on the electrical system. On my car, they don't need to run at high speed except on rare occasion when driving and sporadically when idling so the load on the electrical system is much lower than if I ran them at max speed when not needed. .

Yes....And I think I have a trans brake valve body around, so if I can find it, I would also like to add this in and launch at 3k to see what it will really do. I will probably end up doing that over the winter, but I have not had it out with the efi on it...So this will be interesting.

And don't forget last years carnage....One broken Monoque wheel, one Firecore Distributer, One set of Hemi wires, a pile of under dash wiring that melted down....etc..

New radiator and custom shroud....No goofing around this time...Thanks to the guys at Wizard Cooling.

What a sweet hot rod. Good luck!

Thanks....I have new front wheels & tires on it I should have posted as well....Maybe later. Car is coming around, just need to keep going. The plan is to buy some rear wheels and try out 315 drag radials and another set just for street tires.

Some updated pictures from today......

The struggle to make the annual Olcott car show this Sat continues:

Get rid of those junky seats. Put something comfortable in that beautiful car.

[spoiler][/spoiler]

There in is part of the problem....I have a Kirkey seat I bought for it....Well, it hits the roll bar. I have to throw these back in for now as they clear everything.

IF...I decide to put a full cage in it this winter, then yes a set of Kirkey's will go in it.

Put the new seat where you want it after cutting out the old roll bar and build the new cage around that seat

So last night I got some more wiring done, and I have to say, I really do not like the Painless kits...Wires are too short, they are wired weird, use weird fuses, and for the money, I think the alternatives are much better. Luckily I ordered lots of extra wire when I bought their tripple relay harness. I should have built my own harness, and just bought the relays. Either way, its all coming out this winter or next for a nice Leash System...

As it got late last night, I looked at putting the seats back in, and for the life of me, the bolt holes in the floor would not line up with just the holes in the seat, even though when I got the car in '95, the seats were flat on the floor with lots of shims. I put them on brackets cause I was a lot skinnier then and needed a little more height....So trying to mount them without the brackets would require all new holes and a crap ton of spacers.....Well I pulled that Kirkey back out of the Lawn Ornament, and took a shot at it again....That actually mounted up semi -ok...Its up hard against the roll bar, and a little more straight up than I like, but its not bad. Roll bar has to go, but I think this will work for now....Only issue is, I only have the one!

Pics man.

Keep on keeping on

Love your car, really appreciate the updates.

Well, I wasn't sure I was going to make it to the biggest car show of the year that is local to me....At 10pm last night, I was going to throw in the towel...The wiring was just killing me. The painless kit I bought was way short, the new fans I got from Wizard didn't come with pig tails, and the mess under the dash is bad...

I put in a separate 4ga 150 resettable breaker just for the entire cooling system. I did not use that stupid weird 60a fuse from Painless. I figure the new fans need between 20-30A each plus what ever the water pump needs...And a weird fuse like that is going to leave me stranded.

Summit has these really nice resettable breakers that are perfect. ran the 4ga to that, and everything off there....Well I have to say, at 10pm last night, I made a semi cognitive decision to keep going....even if it was nowhere.

At 11:30, I put power to the system and had the water pump working where the fuel pump1 was supposed to be, and no fuel pump, but I had fans on the high setting only since I wired low into a 185 stat..Tinlered with it one more time, now had the water pump for fuel pump1 and fuel pump working under fuel pump 2 and fans on high cool....It all I needed....Except....It was all untested....And I could not test any of it with the engine running that late at night. Neighbors would collectively murder me.

Sooo I filled the system with water, and no leaks, and pumped it down a few times on just the pump alone.....Put the battery on charge, filled the darn near empty fuel tank, trimmed the tree blocking my exit, and moved the tractor bucket out of the way with the tractor....I also hooked the truck to the trailer, and put in place.

Went to bed at 12:24am and woke up around 5am and couldn't sleep.....Should I trailer it or drive it 35 miles to a show that you have to wait in line about 1hr to get into and killed the cooling system last year?

"Don't think Maverick, just do".....I climbed into the car, lit the fire, and left for the show at 6::40am.....

Sooo...I did get the one spare Kirkey seat I have to fit without chopping much. I cut one of the brackets they make for the seats down a little and spent the better part of an afternoon test fitting it. What a PIT nuts....Its a little more upright than I like, but it fit and I can deal with it for now. It is mounted very solid as the last bolt went right thru the damn flat steel drive shaft loop....

So....35 miles to a car show with all new front wheels, front radial tires, old bias ply pro street rear tires, a totally untested cooling system, enough wire nuts & zip ties to open a Walmart and sell off what I dropped on the floor.....And some wires I couldn't figure out what they were and left dangling under the dash.

Did it make it.....Hell yeah! Even stopped for breakfast...Damn I need a cup holder of some kind......But a huge shout out to Wizard cooling on the awesome fans and shroud, and Griffin Thermal Rad for the awesome new rad....It was in the low 60's this morning and car got all the way down there at 149* where I parked and waited for the line to start moving....An hour later, I was in and parked, and highest temp was 152*...And would actually cool down further at an idle.

Thanks to the Mechman alternator for holding 13.3 vdc at idle with all this crap running....Just awesome, no issues at all...

Nice glad you made it. That's what thrashing on these old cars are for , to get them out and enjoy which you accomplish.

So now some car show pics....

Some more..../

more....

I took a few pics.....

.........................

...........................................................................................

..................................................?

Congrats man. Way to go. I

Right on!

Glad to see you made it! Looks great and thanks for the pics!

So to finish up my story, at about 2 in the after noon it got to about 87 or so, and my body was shot. Been hot the last week or so here, and even on the lake for the show, it was warm out. Sat down in my chair, and just gabbed with the locals....

About 4pm, packed up, and was determined to leave even though everyone else seemed determined to sit and keep me blocked in...Once I fired that beast up, people got the idea, and started to help get out of the way....I will say that stupid Kirkey seat is so tall, there is no seeing behind you...

I finally idled my way out of the show for the 35 mile ride home and a stop for gas in between...So on the way home, she got to 172* and what I really noticed was the heat in the car....Man, my floor boards were not holding any of the heat back, and in fact I had direct hot air on my legs from somewhere. Thats an issue if I want to run drag week. Filled up with fuel, car fired right up with that new XS battery...what a beast. Drove it home...No issues!

And for those unaware how big this show is: (Mine is at the 39min mark behind a van of all things)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWjCO65Z1e4

Got to be sharp to see it at 2:40
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1y6K1iENxY

Well, I missed all the remaining cruise nights and car shows, but we have one Gasser race left this weekend....Gonna try and not break it and have some fun. Need to learn how to datalog anyways and I wish I had more sensors on the car for more data, but I think I will add some over the winter. I need to add drive shaft rpm, oil pressure, trans temp and fuel pressure.

What are you guys hitting for AFR at WOT? I think I have mine set around 12.4 at WOT with 93octane E10....