Vega Time,AGAIN!!! Now going twin turbo...

[Rickracer]

OK, I know it probably seems like I've been slacking, but I promise ya I haven't. I found out that the Lexan I ordered last spring is NOT big enough to do the windshield, causing a change in plans. Gotta use the piece I ordered to do both door windows for the windshield, and I only get one door window out of the one I ordered for the windshield, so for now, I'm using one of the old windows on the passenger side. I got the windshield and driver's door Lexan fitted last night. I hated the way the Lexan was riveted into the window frames before, so I'm doing it a little different. I welded up the rivet holes in the outer part of the window frame, got some window channel, and I'm bolting the Lexan in at the bottom, and using door edge molding around the Lexan to make it fit snug so it looks like stock.

Got this windshield "spacer" from Jerry Bickle Race Cars:





The plan is to use a certain kind of rubber molding to make the windshield flush mount, like newer cars. My glass guy showed up yesterday without the molding (he was out of it), but he'll bring some Monday evening. Got it fitted, and drilled all the screw holes though...





No sense putting the nyloc nuts on yet, cuz it's gotta come back out to add the rubber trim, might need to do a little more trimming too.



Door window, gotta go get some weatherstrip today to fill the gap between the door skin and the bottom of the Lexan...





Started working on my old trailer, I built this thing from scratch about 20 years ago, I designed it to haul a 3300 lb race car, and made it light and flexible, with solid mounted axles, and 4 wheel braking so it would pull nice behind my 79 Cutlass, that part was a HUGE success, I could run 80~100 mph with the old Vega on it, and hardly even know it was back there. Then after I sold the Vega, I sold the trailer to Krazy Vern, (Krazy Vern's Car Wash, Krazy Vern's Pawn shop, Krazy Vern's Storage, Tyler Communications), about 12 years ago, he said he was just gonna haul Christmas trees with it. Next thing ya know, he's hauling Ditch Witches, Bobcats, and small backhoes for his Cable laying business. In a few years, he'd pretty much trashed it. When I got serious about the Vega and started the backhalf, I went and bought it back from him. This is the beginning of the restoration, (and the kinda stuff I do when I'm temporarily outta money for race car parts,











The big piece of I beam is my frame and axle straightening Jig, borrowed from Preston's Auto Salvage (just scrap I beam, but straight, and long enough), with some chain and a stout hydraulic jack, I can straighten just about anything, including both axles that were bent all to hell.
At some point, he had somebody put springs under it, and they did a really crappy job, (or their "nice" work got trashed by abuse, kinda hard to tell at this point), I'm not sure if I'm gonna keep the springs or not, but if I do, it will get all new hangers and hardware.

[Rickracer]

Got a few more pics to post but I've been too busy to upload them. The Vega is FINALLY going to the track for it's debut tonight. For anybody local, I'm going to CFRC, gates open at 6 pm. There WILL be more pics and video tomorrow,

[grandam75]

Good luck at the track!

[RockDaddy]

I'm jealous!

[cosworth0135]

I hope it lives up to your expectations,I will be waiting for the pics and vids Timmy

[gmagilla]

Is it tomorrow yet ? I wanna see !!

[chevy art]

rick its sat at 4:30 pm and i am waiting for the pics. please hurry art

[Rickracer]

OK, here's the rest of the window pics...









Next, vids from the track, the motor wasn't running right, details after the vids, upside it that it went straight as an arrow, stopped very well, and hooked pretty good considering there was a diesel race going on, (those things seem to dump a lot of raw fuel mist all over the track)....















The motor sounded a little off the 1st couple of passes, then really went south after the 3rd pass, best pass was a 7.18@97 mph, wound up last pass running a 7.74 on 7 cylinders, only got like 4 time slips out of 7 or 8 passes. I found out today that BOTH pushrods from #5 were bent, one missing completely, it also broke the tops of both lifters. So it could have been a LOT worse, and not a huge deal to fix. All in all, I'm pretty happy with the first outing, little disappointed in the motor, but it should do a LOT better running on all 8, especially with some carb tuning, it was a bit lean too.

[Rickracer]

Turns out there were only 2 straight pushrods in the motor, and both pushrods on #5 were bent or broken, as well as breaking the tops of those two lifters. This thing is gonna FLY next time out....

[chevy art]

rick is there a problem with the geometry of the valve train.? seems strange that all pushrods are bent and lifters are breaking. just curious. im sure you have solved this problem already. get some more movies up there for me to watch. good luck art

[Rickracer]

It was just weak pushrods, basically just stock replacements, (they were in the motor when I got it).... running on a solid roller with triple springs, and spending a little time each pass with the shift light on,
I've got some 5/16", 1 piece, chrome moly, .080"wall pushrods on the way, they will do the trick,


When the pushrods bent/broke, they busted out the sides of the tops of the lifter bodies....





I lucked up and a buddy had 2 pairs of the same Comp rollers left over from a blown up motor, rollers were shot, but the bodies were still good, so I rebuilt them with the parts from my broken ones.

This pushrod had the hardened ball shoved up inside it a little bit, the ball was laying just ever so sweetly in the cup of the lifter...





I think I will better my best ET by a pretty fair bit next time out,

[HAULIN' IT]

Please spend a few moments checking coil bind, retainer to guide clearance, ect. I would be VERY nervous about winging the engine again until I knew for certain what caused the problem. Better pushrods might make you sorry! My Two Cents, Lorne

[Rickracer]

All that was checked when I built it, about 45~50 runs ago. I did find some valve lock problems when installing the new pushrods this evening though, hoping the local speed shop has some tomorrow, or no racing this weekend. I also found some very minor rocker to retainer interference which is being addressed as well, probably wouldn't have happened if some of the locks weren't beat up, but they are all being clearanced anyway. I will put a 7200 chip in the limiter as well, it hasn't had one since I couldn't make it through the 1/4 mile with the 7000 chip in it back when it had the 4.88 8.2 and 28x9 slicks. I do appreciate your concern though Lorne,

[Rickracer]

Went to the track again tonight, track was crap, wasn't hooking well at all, here's a couple decent passes, the rest were spinning, two were bad enough to almost cause me to cross the center line....

[Rickracer]

Well, the bugs are pretty much gone, but the combo still needs some tweaking. It has not matched it's best MPH yet, (which is the best indicator of horsepower). Could be a difference in weather conditions, it was much warmer this Friday night than it was the past Friday, and my friend Tonye said even though it was getting cooler as the night went by, it was also getting more humid, (he keeps a portable drag racing weather station with him all the time). It could also be the difference in gearing and converter stall speed, over the old combo. With the previous 28" tires and 4.88 gears, the lower stall wasn't affecting the car that much. Now that it's got 4.30 gears and 29.5" tires, it needs a lot more converter to get the motor into it's power band. I expected 6.70s to 6.50s out of the changes I made, and it's not there yet, but my bag of tricks isn't empty yet.........

Edit: OK, enough slacking, here's the rest of the Vids from Dec 16th, there are a couple of runs of my buddy Tonye's Monza thrown in too, that's him in the 1st vid here, and his son James is driving the Monza:











I HATE the left lane at CFRC.....






I REALLY HATE the left lane AT CFRC...