24JUN04 June has sure turned out to be a great month. I'm been in Mississippi for my high school reunion, which was well worth attending, and I've rather enjoyed the freedom that I have had during this vacation. We did make it to the Maryland International Raceway back on the 13th of June. I start from the beginning so I don't leave out anything: Our first problem was actually when we got to the track: the truck just would not start. How frustrating is it to finally get to the track for the first test and tune for the year and the truck not start? We took a time out, cleaned the plugs, and got the truck to start. Well, next, I ran the truck and got like a 13 second run and I noticed that the truck would not shift out of drive. I had melted the plastic sheath that surrounds the shift cable. We pretty much thought the day was done but I brainstormed for a while and realized that I could wrap the shifter cable with some rubber house and provide it with a new type of housing.. it worked and off we went back to testing and tuning. I ran the truck some more and finally got a 12.1 second run on the third try. On the fourth run, the truck missed terribly. I did some research and realized that the magnetic pickup wire running from the distributor to the MSD box was also routed side by side with the coil high voltage wires... humm, that can cause interference and missing.... and not to mention fluctuating timing. So, when I return to VA, I'll be troubleshooting the ignition system and hopefully we will be back at the track in no time. New pics and videos will be posted soon from our recent outing at the truck.

21MAY04 Well, things have been rather interesting over the last month. The flowtech headers that I got in the ceramic coated version sure did fit great with the iron 993 casting heads; however, with the AFR angle plugged heads, it was a no go. Of course, the last thing to do after fitting up the new heads, torqueing every bolt, and fitting the headers, was to install the spark plugs. We could only get like 2 plugs in on each side not to mention we would have burned the boots off the plugs we did get to fit. So.... it was back to the drawing board. I did a lot of research and found out that the headers that I did have were 1 5/8" primaries and the heads required 1 3/4" primaries so those headers would not have been right reguardless. I ended up ordering a set of Hedman Headers made for angle plugged heads, 1 3/4" primaries, and for square exhaust ports. Well, these headers, as of today, are not fitting 100% yet. I have had to modify the motor mount on the drivers side because the number 1 tube goes right through half of the motor mount. On the passenger side, I have had to modify the motor mount and make some notches in the frame for the number 4 and 6 tubes to pass through. The torsion bars are totally in the way so we are going to have to heat the tubes and try to bend them away from the torsion bars. Once this is done, I can probably get a flat seating surface on the heads. It is close now but not close enough. Geez, what we do for a hobby!

11MAR04 Its nearing spring and with the nearing of spring comes the opening of the local strips. I can smell the exhaust fumes and burning rubber already; however, the heads I ordered aren't here yet so each day they are late is another day away from getting to the track. I ended up ordering the AFR 210 heads with 7/16" studs and milled to 64cc chambers. To help the heads breath, I am incorporating a super victor jr intake manifold, comp cams roller rockers, and some new valve covers with a proper evacuation system. I am anticipating we will be at the track by the middle of April and have a chance to try out all the new parts. I'm also going to try to use some new camera angles to get some more interesting video both for entertainment and for research and development.

12NOV03 Well, been a while since I updated everybody to what is going on with the racing. I took off the Edlebrock carb and replaced it with a Demon drag race 750 cfm, took off the Mallory Unilite and replaced it with a MSD Billet Distributor, and guess what? The truck doesn't overheat anymore. We have come up with the thought that perhaps the carb was running way too lean thus causing the cylinders to overheat. As well, I am getting consistant timing readings now using the MSD Distributor. Also, I got breathers for the valve covers so I don't have the crank case overpressurization problem that I was having (no more oil blowing out the dip stick!) I also installed a mini starter and single plane intake manifold. For now I have the torker II on but I'm most likely going to get a Victor Jr or one of AFR (Air Flow Research) single plane mainifolds. I'm also eyeing the AFR 210cc heads since these GM 993 casting iron junk heads just aren't flowing quite well enough. We went to MIR on this past Saturday, 08NOV03. My best run was 12.02 at 109 with a best 60' time of 1.59. It just seems like I'm running out of breathing room in the high RPM range so I'll be looking forward to some upgrades over the winter. I'll post the time slips soon. Until then check out the new videos on the videos page. Also, I met up with Greg of Holeshot Performance and learned that he has a dyno at his shop so we can now get a baseline for the truck. Also, on the videos page you'll find videos of a couple of cars they are working on: Derek Krein's 11 second blue mustang and the red Roush mustang they are working on which is running in the 10's. I must say though I have a horror story about the brand new Demon. The truck had a horrible miss from about 2,000-5,000 RPM. Derek noticed that we had way more fuel dumping on the left venturi versus the right. I took the from float assembly off and the right jet wasn't even finger tight and the left jet was out and rolling around in the float area. Derek tightened them back up and the truck ran great after that. It just goes to show that even though something is brand new, it may not be adjusted right. It never hurts to second check!

AUG1803 We have now gone to the track twice. The two tracks in Richmond only allow street cars on Friday nights so we have been going to North Carolina to the Hertford area. The track is called the Northeast Dragway and it is an 1/8th mile track. Here is a breakdown of the current events: Three weeks ago we went for the first time. The truck did ok but we had major starter problems. We thought it was just heat soak so in the meantime I wrapped the starter and the mainifold to try and protect it from the heat. We also noticed an oil leak but i thought maybe it was just the oil pan so i tightened on the bolts a bit. Well, when we got to the track this past Friday, we noticed that the oil leak was really bad, the starter was still not turning the engine over when hot, and we were running into overheating problems. I located the source of the oil leak to a hole in the oil dipstick from where I put it in. As far as the starter goes, I think that the stock starter is just too weak and we will need a mini starter. For cooling, I may try to go back to a pully and use the engine on the water pump instead of electric drive. We'll see. check out the videos off the media page for a good look. Our fastest so far is 7.9 at 86 mph in the 1/8th. I just am making it to 3rd gear at the end of the 1/8th so we should have good 1/4 mile gears.

22Jun03 Updates, Updates, Updates, well... the battery and the fuel cell are mounted as well as the bed of course. Fuel lines are also run and the truck is now operating somewhat with the exception of brakes. The brakes are not 100% yet but we are doing daily troubleshooting which will end today with me making the determination of whether or not the stock master cylinder will work or not. We will see. Goto the media page and look on the videos page to see the recent videos of the truck.