Nostalgia Dragster Rebuild

[Preen59]

More progress today... And one issue to be resolved tomorrow.

We started cleaning up the magnesium Halibrandts. They've terribly oxidized and are going to take some work to get back to new looking and polished.



Here's a shot of the piston gudgeon buttons i turned up the other day..



A shot of 3 piston/rod assemblies



A couple of shots of the aluminium flange i had to machine up for the back of the bell housing. It has a 4340 insert in it where the circlip will run to stop the jack shaft falling out when the greek coupler is disconnected from the diff.







And now for the big issue..

The ONLY thing we didn't check was to make sure the pin end of the rod would fit the pistons (we assumed that they would without modification). They bloody things are 100 thou too wide! ARG! I took the rods to work this arvo and milled 25 thou a side off the pin end (We assumed that would be enough). When i got back we fitted 2 rod and piston assemblies in the block on the same journal.. There isn't enough clearance still.. So off to work tomorrow to machine another 50 thou off the rods.. After that.. Everything should be shhhhhhweet!

[whiteVR6]

Is the Piston and rod the same material ?

If not wouldnt it be better to take a fracton more just in case there is a different rate of expansion with heat ?

[Preen59]

Is the Piston and rod the same material ?

If not wouldnt it be better to take a fracton more just in case there is a different rate of expansion with heat ?

Correct-a-mundo mate. They currently "fit" but are too tight. So another 50 thou should fix that.

And yes, these engines have crazy thermal expansion rates. For instance, it has 14 thou (0.355mm) piston to bore clearance. I'll post some more of the specs at a later date..

Oh and it will be running STRAIGHT 60w oil.. At 90PSI oil pressure.

EDIT: Sorry i should have pointed out for people that don't know.. The rods are BROOKS forged aluminium.

[Preen59]

Progress.

I took the rods into work and machined the additional 0.050" off the sides of the pin ends. I also milled 0.160" off the top of the external oil filter adapter to give clearance to the chassis.

The cam has been fitted and the Milodon timing gears have been assembled and fitted also.



The bottom end is now done and all torqued down. Everything went together well and we had no issues (Phew!).









We then prep washed the block and etch primed it ready for paint tomorrow.



The wheels are pretty much finished off. There are a few deep scratches that i am going to have to take some coarse emery to and hook in on them. Luckily this is meant to look like a race car as it would have been run and not a show car, so they don't have to have all the small pits removed.

[rayray086]

This looks awesome! Unfortunately I don't know much about engines and all that so can't fully appreciate your work, but I love how the dragsters look!

I've been buying The Rodder's Journal magazine over the past half year and love looking at the cars they feature. I remember going over a feature detailing someone's recreation of Tommy Ivo's Barnstormer in its bare-metal stage and it just looked insane!

[VW Convert]

Great thread Chris, keep it coming.

Might have to change my sig to "top fuel convert"
Cheers

George

[Preen59]

This looks awesome! Unfortunately I don't know much about engines and all that so can't fully appreciate your work, but I love how the dragsters look!

I've been buying The Rodder's Journal magazine over the past half year and love looking at the cars they feature. I remember going over a feature detailing someone's recreation of Tommy Ivo's Barnstormer in its bare-metal stage and it just looked insane!

Haha it's never too late to learn, though Ray!

Here's something that you'll find interesting.. Rick Macdonald from California, who is the Nitro Cackle car "guru" is the guy who built the engine for the 'new' Barnstormer.

He helping us with this engine build. He has done the fuel system etc for us and has been a great help. We have pages and pages of emails from him with all his info and he has sourced parts for us and become quite a good friend. Really top bloke!

Great thread Chris, keep it coming.

Might have to change my sig to "top fuel convert"
Cheers

George

Thanks, George. I'm glad to see you've taken an interest in drag racing!

[Jarred]

chock full of the good stuff. Love it, love the progress..

[Preen59]

One thing i forgot to mention is that to increase the rigidity of the block, the water jackets have been filled with "Hardblok", which is basically concrete!

chock full of the good stuff. Love it, love the progress..

Glad to see some interest.. No point in posting this stuff if there isn't! hahaha

[Mischa]

lookin good preeny keep posting just cos we dont have any input or useful info doesnt mean we're not interested!