Michigan that is.
Just thought I would share.

DRAG WEEK 2009 / WELCOME TO HELL (MICHIGAN)

We started about 3 months ago with a fresh motor, started tuning, and got it to a 9.64/ 140mph. Then the very next run it burnt 3 pistons. I was sick to say the least! I have wanted to do drag week for three years and it seemed as through it would be four now. Two good friends (Rick, Toby) had been helping me. They came over the next day. We tore the motor down and found the pistons burnt bad. I could not understand why, the AFRs were good with only 12/13 lbs. of boost. This time I called Steve Morris at NEW ERA RACECRAFT, told him my set up and what was going wrong (four motors all the same). He told me wrong cam profile, it will burn up every time out. I asked him for help with cam, springs, lifters, pistons rings. At this time we only had six weeks till we needed to leave. Almost forgot the F2 didn't sound right, so Sergio at PROCHARGER said send it, and they will get it done. It ended up needing a new gear set. Steve stepped up and got me the parts in about three weeks. We got the motor together and ordered pushrods from Smith Brothers. They were there in five days. I messed up and had to send them back to shorten the intakes .075. Overnighted them back, so they got them the next day, cut to size and shipped to same day (overnighted back to me). We now had three chances to test before leaving the next Thursday. Wednesday night we went out and had a battery go bad we called it a night only to have Friday night and a bracket race Saturday to test. Friday we got rained out, and we went back Saturday, and rain again. We did a little test ride around the block and started loading the car and tools.

We left the house right after work on Thursday and drove to Lake City Florida about 4.5 hours away. We stayed over night there as the next morning we were to pick up two 55 gal. drums of E98 to mix our own E85 for the trip, when we couldn't get it along the way. We got up, got our fuel, and hit the road with spirits very high and still not knowing if the car would run right, we were thinking positive. Steve said he would be there to help us tune. The three of us are all laughing having a good time when the left rear trailer tire decides to blow. This is going around a curve in the mountains of Tennessee with a small shoulder. (Are we having fun yet?) We get the tire changed and down the road we go to find another for a spare. We get a spare at Wal-Mart and drive till 11pm stopping in Louisville KY. Sprits are still very high.

We get to Muncie Drag way Saturday about 1pm and decide to spend the night down the street at a small RV park. After setting up camp we unload the car and drove to the drag strip to watch some bracket racing. Drove the car to town for dinner and back to camp, everything seems to be good with the car, as we now have about 20 miles on the new motor. Sunday morning (test and tune) comes around and the excitement is high we load up and hit the track running in high gear. Get the small trailer, put together with job box bolted down, two drums of fuel, spare tires, gas cans, jacks, ect. and jump in the tech line. Man, two hours later we are done and ready to make a hit.

The burn out feels good, first run down the track the car won't get out of its own way (13 something), keeps laying over not making boost. With a lot of Steve's help, we start putting jetting, timing, charge the battery, change the MSD box, change the battery, check the BOV, check for leaks in the intake, we just can't get it to respond. Monday comes around, and we try a few more Hail Mary's, with only an 11.50 ET. I talked to Steve and he says he will loan us a gas crab at 131 raceway the next day. So we load up and hit the road, the drive goes good a little longer then we expected as we stopped at Nino's house for dinner.

The food was GREAT to say the least! Tuesday morning we got up early and headed for the track. We get there later than we wanted to. It seems like if it should take 1 hour it takes 2 or 3 (is it just me?). We work on the car again, starting with the carb. First hit and it's not good, back to the pits and drain the fuel, change to C12, Steve loans us a gas carb we try a hit and the car responds, but backfires out of the hole. It did make 7 lbs of boost and this is the most we have seen yet, just the carb isn't right for the car. We work on different things the rest of the day with no good results. Toby's wife calls and tells him his ass is famous, cause it's all they can see of him on the internet (he's under the hood of the car all day). It's late and all we mustered was an 11.30 et. We need to pack up as the track time is over. Steve tells us of a friend that has an E85 carb on a 540ci and it works great. He will ask the guy to overnight it to the next track for us to try out.

So off we go, not far into the trip we have charging problems, and the car dies as we coast into a gas station. Battery is dead, and I saw a Tractor Supply about ½ mile back. I start walking, and a man and his wife picked me up and gave me a ride to and from the gas station. To most, this would not be a big deal but to me it was a knee saver! I put off a right knee replacement till I got back, so I could do Drag Week. I get a new battery and jumper cables. The man and his wife take me back, and we jumper it off with the new battery just sitting in the trunk. About 5 miles down the road, we find an Auto Zone and pull in the shade to remove the alt. Once inside, we ask for a 140 amp alt. (this is when you know your not going to have an easy stop) they ask me what make and year of car. Somehow, they didn't understand the humor of 1959 Impala. After about a ½ hour of them looking in the books, they told us to go look in the boxes for ourselves. We did just that, and ended up with one that would fit, but had no amp infor. for us. She told me there would be no warranty because it was going in a race car. We argued for a little (it's a street car) LOL, and out we went.

There were others from the event there with us, the white Firebird, white Chevy II wagon, and Nino's red Firebird. We get this on and down the road we go late as always. We can't find fuel again and stop in a Bank parking lot with parking lot lights on. As we are mixing / filling the car, the local PD decides to pay a visit to see what we are doing in the middle of nowhere (mixing up a bomb, maybe?). This went better than I thought, and off we went. About an hour and a half down the road, we were going up a 2 lane bridge and the car dies in the middle of the road with no shoulder! We are stuck with no power to go up, no where to roll back to, and NO LIGHTS!! We have a couple of close calls with cars and we are all in a panic!!!!! We get some lights out of the job box so people can see us, get the battery and jumper cables out, start the car, and off we go.(Are we having fun yet???) LOL!!! It seems as if we drive forever (2 hours means 5) and we finally make it to Hell Michigan.

This is one of the check points that we have to have a pic of the car with the sign. Well, needless to say, Toby's camera doesn't want to flash, so he does the best he can and off we go. We are definitely in the middle of no where, going down a hill, around a corner, and the motor starts to knock bad, then DIES. (OOOOH SHIT!!!) Its 10:30pm, and I manage to coast into a rock driveway, just barely off the road. That's it, as things are now completely silent, no one says anything, and we just sit there for a min. We try to start the car and nothing. I get out and I don't feel safe where we are at. It's a blind spot for cars coming and going, and my car is black. We are two miles out of Hell and Toby says we haven't left yet, we are still there (HELL that is). We get back away from the car and I call AAA.

They get there around 11:30 -12 midnight with two tow trucks one for the Impala and one for the trailer. They get us loaded and we make the 31 mile trip to the Hotel. We unload pay them $200 for the trailer the car was free.Then start pulling the Supercharger and Valve covers, and we find the number three exhaust rocker stand, lying on its side. From what I can see and understand, the heads have a taller stand in the casting on the exhaust and should have a 1 ¾' or 2' bolt in them. Well, mine only had a 1' bolt, so it broke the stand with the T&D rocker and shims off the head. We had about 10 people telling us what to do, and it was complete overload. Our sprinters were broken and all the advice was going through our heads, Toby had to walk away, as it was too much.

Rick and I just looked at each other like now what? We closed the hood and went to get a room, and sleep. The next morning I had to get up early, cause we had a couple of others tools, and I wanted to make sure they got them back, as they may need them. I started calling around and nothing opened till 8am. At 8, I tried to rent a car at Enterprise, and they said they would find one and call back (it's almost a week and I still haven't herd from them)! I called NAPA, and asked for a (8) 7/16 x 2' bolts to try and fix it just to make it back to the RV and trailer, 250 miles away. They delivered the bolts and they won't work. (Now what?) The night before one of the guys looked up some speed shops for me, and for some reason I put one number in my phone. I called Steve to let him know we would not make it to the next track and have Kyle pick up the carb for us.

By now, everyone has left, and Rick from Gear Venders calls to offer help /support / advice. After that, I call the number I have in my phone and tell the lady on the other end my story and she says you need the engine dept.. I wait a couple of sec. and a man on the other end says this is Mark at Roush Racing. I think to myself, oh man, did I screw up this is a FORD place! Well, I told Mark what had happened, and what I thought I needed and he knew just what I was talking about 7/16 x 2 -12 point or alan head bolt. He took my number and said I will look and call you back. To my surprise, he calls back and says he's got an alan head in his hand and he's on his, way give him 10 mins. and I'll be there. I'm thinking wow!!! A big business Ford guy is willing to help me out??? Mark arrives in a Saturn SUV, get's out in a white shirt, slacks and dress shoes. Hands me a card and says lets see what you got.

We show him the carnage and tell him our thoughts to make a temp fix to get back to the RV. We try the bolt and the two pieces being threaded won't let us screw it together. So Mark says, one of you bring the parts, jump in, and we will make it work back at the shop. Toby grabs the pieces and off he goes. Rick and I sit for a little while, and Rick says man, Toby gets to go to the engine building shop for Roush Racing! I'm bummed! I want to see that place! LOL we start to laugh a little, and things are not as gloomy. It takes a while but Toby and Mark come back, they cut the head of the alan down so it won't hit the rocker, cut the bolt two threads shorter, drill out the tower so the bolt will thread in the head, and tig weld the crack in the tower where the pins for the rocker base split. It goes on like a glove. We set the lash and fire it up. (YES, BACK IN SERVICE)!!!!

We are happy now, and thank Mark for saving our butt!. But the thought of it happening again is on our minds, then Mark says you know we can fix this right back at the shop, we can build anything! He says follow me back, it is just a few miles, so off we go. He takes us on the grand tour and shows us everything! All I can say is WOW, what a place!!! We get to the back of the shop and meet Roger, he's the guy that tigged the tower. Roger says pull it in the back and I'll pull the welder closer. We pull the car around back, drop the trailer, and drive in the shop. We start pulling the valve covers off and Toby's butt isn't getting any camera time here .LOL

We get all the pieces out of the way and Roger preps the oil bathed head for welding. Roger tigs the tower back on the head, and Mark takes the bolt that works in the shop and comes back with 8 just alike. We put all 8 on the exhaust towers, readjust the lash, call Steve and tell him that we will make it to National Trail Raceway and let Kyle know we will try the carb there. I can't say enough about the folks at Roush Racing Crate Engine Dept.as they took us in, like we were one of there own! Mark canceled all his appointments and would not leave our side till we were 100% fixed and on our way! Incredible! They ask us only to let others know that they are not JUST Ford, they can and do all brands, makes and models. A million thanks to ROUSH RACING in Plymouth Michigan!!!

Well, sprits are high and off we go its 3:30pm not enough time to get to Newark, so we head to National Trail. We get to the hotel around 8pm and people that knew what had happened, ask how the Hel'¦..did you get it fixed? All we want to do now is make a good clean pass and we will be happy. The next morning we get up eat and off we go. About 80 miles into the trip the back wheel starts to shake, so we slow down and look for a place to pullover and check it out. About 5 miles down the road we find an electrical sub station with a rock driveway. Rick, Toby and I start looking at all the tires and find nothing, we keep looking a little deeper when one of them says OOOH NOOO, look at this. The right rear caliper is on the bottom of the wheel, still on the rotor. We look under the car, and the only reason we still have brakes, is when it broke off, it pinched the line. Out of all the tools we brought, we didn't have air. We limped down the road 12 miles to a gas station.

My car has stock wheel wells, and to get the tires off, I need to air the bags all the way up in the rear, jack it way up and let all the air out of the tires. Then, help it by walking the top of tire out of the fender well. We get out, and there is no air at this station (you didn't think it was going to be that easy, did you?) We ask for the next closest, and were told a Marathon about 2 miles in. By now, we are getting a little frustrated to say the least. We start driving and wouldn't you know it the road is closed, they are repaving we can see the station but takes us for ever to get there.The guys have us pull around back. This was actually better for us because they had the bolts we needed, and a grinder to take off one side, so the bolts will fit the 9'housing and a plug for the brake line. Again, we got the use of some ones place that didn't know us from Adam, and again, no charge! We used the half of the bracket that was left and two large washers for the other side, holding the axle in. I forgot to get the name of the shop, but many thanks to the Marathon gas station in Mount Veron OH.

And off we go. We get to the track, and we can taste it, one clean good pass'¦. We start bolting the supercharger back on (we took it off to fix the rocker stand) things are together, so we pull the carb and I call Steve and ask were Kyle is, because we don't see him. Steve tells me the guy did not send the carb like we thought. At that moment, it was like all the energy and hope was ripped right out off my soul. I hated it, but had to tell Toby and Rick. They didn't says anything and didn't have to, I understood completely. I tried to make one last effort, and of course the car didn't responded. We loaded up, I tucked my tail and headed back to Muncie 180 miles away. We got there about 8:30pm got a room cause the RV was locked up in the track. We went to dinner and got good nights sleep. We got to Muncie Drag way about 9am, they let us in and we started taking the trailer, tools all apart and loading up. We got done at 11am, and we wanted to stay, but having to wait 5 hours for the start and our sprits were down anyway. We decided to head for home. I would like to thank Steve Morris from New Era Racing, Mark from Roush Racing, Rick Johnson from Gear Venders, Sergio from Procharger, the Guys at the Marathon in Mount Vernon OH., Nino for some great food, the guys and young lady in the Chevy II wagon, White Firebird, green Pontiac, white Malibu, and many others who helped a long the way, But most of all, Rick and Toby no one could be so lucky to have friends like this!!! With all that happened, I consider myself one lucky man, as my wife always says just enjoy the journey. DAMM can't wait till next year!!!!!!!!! Rod .

 

dude, split that mess up into paragraphs before you give someone a brain tumor

 

It was a painfull read... but great story.

You better have taken pics of the machine shop!!!

 

No splitting up HELL ... the pain started in Hell, it never ended till he was back home.. well I hope you actually made it there.

Glad to hear the GOOD GUYS and Random folks that stepped up to help you out.

Wow, I thought I had a bad weekend cause I chunked a clutch at the track.

 

man, there isnt enough beer to get over that, lol
one thing i have always noticed, you can count on someone to help out, which makes it pretty cool-i wanted to do dragweek once,
prob never happen at my age now, but you never know-with this o/d trans, the road trip isnt a problem
sorry about all the problems, at least you gave it a shot, and if you do it again know what to expect(not the problems, the way its layed out)

 

You guys are winners. You never gave up till things were out of your control. You have my respect all three of you . Congratulations on a very successful weekend because no one can take away all the little victories. Next year you will get the big one, but I guarantee 09 is the year you will remember!

Really Congratulations.

 

Thanks, we did drive the car almost a 1000 miles. Now we just need to find out what's wrong. I know not to leave the house with an untested car again. Sorry for the formating I'm really not good at this. Rod

 

Dragweek is very hardcore. Anyone who gives it a go has my respect. You'll remember that for a long, long time.

 

No worries, I was just trying to read it and was losing my spot haha, I could fix it up for you if you would like

 

please!
It induces epileptic seizures!

 

I didnt realize this was the 59 at Martin. I came over a talked with one of the 3 of you when you had the carb apart toward the end of the day. Who ever was working on the carb at the car anyway. I could smell you where running e85 so I had to check it out. Hope you get everything figured out.

 

x2

 

If you would not mind, it may save a few from hurting thier selfs. LOL Rod

 

I broke it up in to paragraphs and I am glad I did, what an epic adventure! This is a must read guys!

 

That was truly a wicked read, and a journey you'll never forget!
It is good to see that their ARE still people willing to help others in need...Yes, WE as "car-guys" are a special breed, but no one had to give you any assistance. It's times and people that that make you enjoy the hobby or way of life. Never getting discouraged, and pressing on...
but the true question I really want to ask, is HOW MANY beers did you have when all was said in done??? lol

 

Great story sounds fun and frustrating at the same time!! I heard somewhere that Rousch at one time or maybe currently put together some of the GM crate bbc engines. Anyone know if that is true?

 

I was at Muncie and anyone that hasn't seen this car, it is a show quality piece. It was easy to tell there was much more in this car and that it just wasn't working right. I kept hoping you guys would get it sorted and put down a good number. They were working like madmen on it, and the desire to get it going right was very evident. Hope you can make it next year, I would really like to see that car run the number it is capable of. Good luck.

His car is the first one in this video clip. The video isn't that good.


Can you clarify the rules for me? I thought as soon as you loaded on a trailer, you were out of the competition, except to move the car the minimum distance for any safety concerns.

Hope to see you next year.

 

Thank you sir.

You can have the car towed to a safe place to work on it. I'm not sure if 32 miles would fit in is. Some were saying that if we drove back to where we broke and started over after fixing the car we would be OK. I never ask HOT ROD I just took it as we were out. We just wanted to finish for self satisfaction.

Yes, that is true they work on all brands. They even built one of the Olds motors used in Indy cars.

The bad part is I don't drink. But I was close to starting. LOL

I don't think I gave Steve Morris the credit he deserves. He drove 5 hours one way on Sunday, worked on helping us all day. Then drove 2 hours one way on Tuesday and helped us. The car just did not want to make boost. The old motor made 24 lbs of boost with this pulley combo. I will start pulling it apart to find out what is wrong. I go in for my right knee replacement tomorrow so it might take a little time. Thanks again to all. Rod

 

Great story, please keep us posted on what you find.
Always next year.

 

Great story, after being broke into paragraphs!

I too hope to one day do Drag Week and the Power Tour.

In my Aussie Falcon. It looked like an epic adventure, and even though it was trying, you made some good aquaintances along the way!

Isnt that what the adventure is all about in the end?