Summertime Builds

[Short_track_champ]

With a couple day off I made some good progress on the silly car’s going in circles stuffs.

Busted out a solo rear end pull....Probably would have been easier had it been drained and axles pulled but wasn't about to have that mess on my shop floor.
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Slapped on some new rear rotors
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Plumbed out the front spindles and rear snouts
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Gave the back end a quick spray job then got the new rear end mocked up. It all lined up pretty good considering I bought the housing sight un-seen.
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Going to move to the front next week and start pulling the old stuff off.

[wrackmaster]

Lookin good! Lookin fast! When's the next race?

[Short_track_champ]

Lookin good! Lookin fast! When's the next race?

Thanks! Trying to breathe some new life into this old Lefthander. Everything I touch wants to be replaced or upgraded which is making simple jobs turn into pricey jobs.

As far as racing, I think our season is a wrap. There is 1 more open show at Irwindale (last race for the track) for the Pro-Lates, we still have fuel and tires so we are just thinking about going at this time. Off-season build time then the first practice shakedown days are first week of March.

I'm just hoping my car can hit the track early summer. I still have an Elephant in the room with my motor....

[Hoggin]

The cars are cool. But your food pics are where it’s at!

[Short_track_champ]

Started to play around with the front end a bit.

Took off the old outdated front hub/rotor and spindle assembly.
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Slapped on some repurposed spindles and hubs with some nice new rotors.

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Needed some trimming around the lower ball joint for some clearance. It came out pretty good.
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Next up will be some new calipers on all four corners, and to get some new trailing arms on her.
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A slow expensive project to say the least.

[Buck70]

Looks good

[Short_track_champ]

Still working on the front end geometry, new brake shimming and stuff. Getting closer need to do some switch-a-roo on the front spindles to get my brake brackets on.

In the meantime I can across an absolutely smoking deal on a seat that I couldn't pass up. Drove half the state to meet a guy and it ended up being one of the best damn FB Marketplace purchases I've ever made.
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I'm multitasking and starting the prep to pull the motor. Gunna have to pull it, crack it open and throw a affordable (lol) refresh at it. Plan to pull it this next weekend.
A little valve cover porn in the meantime.
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[Short_track_champ]

Well I decided to rip off the band-aid and pull the motor. Had to pick it from the side, since I have the nose piece on and didn't have the room (and didn't want to remove it).
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Had to bring in a Big Time mechanic for an extra set of hands. The irony of this photo is Thick. My wife has tried to get me to sell this car for YEARS. I mean YEARS. But, here she is helping me pull the motor out to give it a little freshen up.
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It all actually went smoother than expected, wife felt like a badass for pulling a race motor, told her to brag to her friends.
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Some parts shopping this weekend, then hopefully we get some time to crack into the motor.

[wrackmaster]

Not removing the nose piece? Lazy! It's only 2,243 3/16 aluminum pop rivets! LOL! Freshening the engine? Rings, bearings, valve springs? How many laps since last freshened? Good for your wife! My wife was Very involved with my racing. Not turning wrenches, but tire pressures and temps and such at the track every night. Finding sponsors was her specialty.

[Short_track_champ]

Not removing the nose piece? Lazy! It's only 2,243 3/16 aluminum pop rivets! LOL! Freshening the engine? Rings, bearings, valve springs? How many laps since last freshened? Good for your wife! My wife was Very involved with my racing. Not turning wrenches, but tire pressures and temps and such at the track every night. Finding sponsors was her specialty.

I have the body almost perfectly mounted, it's nice and clean, backing washers on all 2,243 rivets as well. It's not coming off 'till I hit something!

I'm not 100% sure on the motor history, the issue, I feel, is that it hasn't been fired or turned over in many years.
I want to see if I can get lucky and just throw some new valves, springs and gaskets at it. I have a feeling it's going to want rings as well.....(then, well might as well do bearings)
Going to also switch intake manifolds as well to a 4bbl so I have better carb options.
Really don't want to go overboard on spending money on this motor but need to run it until a can afford to put together a crate engine piece. (better weight break)

My wife has never been hands on with any of my racing stuffs, so this was a nice change of pace.
She know how important it is to me to finish this build. It's has been YEARS in the making.

[Short_track_champ]

Have been busy doing my part in getting our cars ready for the season, which in turn makes it hard to find the time to work on my own build. Finally connected all the dots on having the time and the appropriate help that was needed to start the motor tear down.

Tested the Pathfinder at the track in the afternoon and went back to the shop for a late night motor tear down and analysis.

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Nice to see that once we started getting into it, we found some good components and hardware inside.

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A nice dbl roller adjustable timing chain.
Pulled the pistons and checked the cylinder head runoff. All of that checked out and looked great, could still see cross hatch from the last refresh on the walls. Pistons look brand new on the skirt side. The entire block had been de-burred and all of the oil ports and work done to them. It is a really nice block.

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Pulled the bottom end, man that crank has seen some RMP's had some work done to it but it has seen some better days. Looked good enough to run in the mean time so we are gunna send it.


Bad news is.....like we thought. The motor had sat sooo long that it toasted the cam. It had gone flat on the compressed lobe. So cam and valve train is going to need some love. Checked out the main bearings and rod bearing, front main bearing and most forward rod bearing had some marks but all others looked pretty darn good. Going to replace all of them anyways since we are already in there.

All in all, looks like I'll get away with a fairly basic refresh and now have the piece of mind of going through it properly. I would have hurt that motor trying to fire and run it with that cam, I'm glad the right people talked me out of it.

[wrackmaster]

Looks good. Are you limited on compression ratio?

[Short_track_champ]

Looks good. Are you limited on compression ratio?

No, there's no restriction on an open.

It was initially built has a high compression motor as was prob really close to 11.5 to 1.

With the new valve train that will go in we are anticipating it to drop a tiny bit and sit closer to 10.5 to 1.

I've really lucked out, because I bust my Ass for these guys they have decided to sponsored/compensated me for the motor refresh.
I have a small parts list of things I need to gather on my end but all of the 'big boy' stuff they are going to take care of and the assist me with the rebuild.
Pretty thankful for all of that.
Sometimes timing in life is really key. I have learned so much this year and feel like I'm making the best out of my situation.

[wrackmaster]

Good for you. It's an expensive sport and you need all the help you can get.

[Sportin' Woodies]

I feel like you two should prob exchange numbers and become best friends. Bc none of the rest of us know what you're talking about

[Short_track_champ]

I feel like you two should prob exchange numbers and become best friends. Bc none of the rest of us know what you're talking about

Just look at the pretty pictures and think of Bald Ealges, the smell of race gas and a BBQ grill, plus the awesome American History behind the sport.

The last thing Greg needs is me texting him with motor/set-up question. He already has my Dad to deal with.. lol

[wrackmaster]

I feel like you two should prob exchange numbers and become best friends. Bc none of the rest of us know what you're talking about

I don't think my advice would do him any good. He is out in California. They run everything backwards out there.

[wrackmaster]

Just look at the pretty pictures and think of Bald Ealges, the smell of race gas and a BBQ grill, plus the awesome American History behind the sport.

The last thing Greg needs is me texting him with motor/set-up question. He already has my Dad to deal with.. lol

LOL! Your Dad and Mom are very easy to deal with. Don't know where they went wrong with their kid living in California, though.

[Short_track_champ]

LOL! Your Dad and Mom are very easy to deal with. Don't know where they went wrong with their kid living in California, though.

Wait a minute, don't you have a kid living in California as well?!? lol. You are right though they run everything backwards out here.

I know your foolin if you lumped my Mom into "easy to deal with" lol.

Oh and tell my Dad next time you see him that he's now retired and to get that damn boat running already!

[wrackmaster]

Wait a minute, don't you have a kid living in California as well?!? lol. You are right though they run everything backwards out here.

I know your foolin if you lumped my Mom into "easy to deal with" lol.

Oh and tell my Dad next time you see him that he's now retired and to get that damn boat running already!

LOL. Yeah, my kid lives out there, too.

Your dad won't have any hair left by the time he gets the boat going.

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