RAPID
Nitro Member
- Joined
- Jul 8, 2006
- Messages
- 1,136
- Age
- 65
- Location
- Waukee, Iowa
Since Kerry can't seem to figure out the tune-up to get himself installed on the Mater he asked me to post this for him. 
Here is his weekend report from the Cedar Falls Night of Fire
Black Reign traveled to Cedar Falls Iowa Sat to participate in the Night Of Fire. It was our 3rd Night Of fire show this year, and our 3rd match race against Scott Gaulter's Nitro Madness fuel altered. We love racing against those guys, and were tied 2-2 in rounds for the year.
Last time out, we ran a little "pop" and pushed out the head gaskets.We were planning a thorough freshen-up and that was the perfect time to try it. The 509 Chevy no likey nitro. Found all 8 wrist pins bent. Had rods ordered for 5 weeks, and they finally came.Ordered new wrist pins (thicker/heavier) and sent them to get coated.This required us to rebalance the crank.Thank you to Jan Cohee who squeezed me in on the crank balancer.We double teamed that and got it spun to match the new bobweight.
MBE helped me out on the heads, which was a time saver.Had to do a little welding to keep from milling much off.They also did their competition valve job and blended the chambers nicely. Thank you MBE!
Our titanium intake valves were getting thin, being from the original build in '03. Ordered new ones and I ground and backcut them and redid the o-ring receiver grooves in the heads. Finished them up and went to set the spring ht, and bad news. Springs shot. Oh well, no time to get new ones. Have to run these for now.
Had already honed the block and changed ring package (C & A out of business and couldn't get the rings we normally run). Gerardot restripped the blower, and flowed both our pumps. Found a rough roller lifter so we replaced the whole set. Some of our parts were a little late getting back, and put us behind.No big deal, racers adapt.
Got the shortblock done Fri morning. Got the heads finished Fri afternoon.Loaded the truck and headed to work on the car around 4pm Fri.Slipped in the shortblock and while I put the heads on, the team put the driveline in. Worked until 1am Sat morning. At that point I had worked 94 hours in 5.5 days. I told them to put the tools down, and we would load the trailer.
Drive straight thru all night and finish the car in Iowa when we got there. Left Bunker Hill around 1:40am. Made the 9.5 hour trip to the track.Unloaded it and started working again.We couldn't come up with a throttle cable the correct length back at home, and hoped to find one at Cedar Falls.Found one 6" shorter. Had to redo the brackets and the launch control.Broke a bracket off the frame.Had to borrow a welder.Generator wouldn't run the welder.Had to borrow a generator.
That's the great thing about drag racers. Always helping each other out. Got that fixed and fired it up. Ran it thru a heat cycle and then began tearing it down so it could cool off and then we would retorque the heads.
Driver Frank Cervelli called and said he and Kim Marjama (of Pro Jacks) broke down and would be late.
We thought we had everything buttoned up but found a bare wire on the shifter button had toasted a relay. Worked on that right up to 5 minutes before getting called to the lanes.
We worked so hard, we never got to look at the track.As we came around the corner, it was pleasant surprise to see such a huge crowd! I think it was the biggest spectator turnout we had witnessed this year! Unreal.
Sean Belt did his usual long distance burnout in the Nitro Madness Fiat.Frank warmed the hides on our car and headed headed for the stage beams. Frank got away first by .038 to take the early lead.Belt had an outstanding .960 60' and caught up and began pulling away.Then his blower belt asked for a leave of absence and departed.Frank went past him around 800' and took the win 6.96 to a coasting 8.29.
We didn't have a killer tune-up in it, since restripping the blower throws the cyl temps off. Last time out before restripping the blower and freshening the engine, we had the temps within about 40 degrees of each other. This pass they were 300 degrees from high to low. So we changed the port nozzles to reign that in a little and headed up for round 2.
Again, Frank was out first (by .069) but he was .003 early!Red light.They had detuned their car a tad in an effort to get down the track, and the 60's were almost identical (our 1.002, their 1.008).Belt started gaining slightly by 330' (our 2.840, their 2.827) but began to get loose. He could have aborted, as he had the win at that point (red light).But to his credit, and to make sure the fans got a show, he stayed with it.He ended up crossing into our lane and got a closer look at that Olson Paint & Body paint job!
As my buddy Rapid Randy says "...lane markings are only a suggestion for blown altereds..."
So we got the win on the first or worst rule, not that it mattered.The fans got a great show, and the cheering was off the hook!That right there made all the hard work worth it.
We ran a 6.900 and got the temps a little closer.Sneaking back up on it.We took a 4-2 round lead over Nitro Madness and will square off again at the World Series in Cordova.
Our next race will be in Muncie Aug 8th at the Night Of Fire.Stop by and introduce yourself and say hi if you're there.
Thanks,
KG
Here is his weekend report from the Cedar Falls Night of Fire
Black Reign traveled to Cedar Falls Iowa Sat to participate in the Night Of Fire. It was our 3rd Night Of fire show this year, and our 3rd match race against Scott Gaulter's Nitro Madness fuel altered. We love racing against those guys, and were tied 2-2 in rounds for the year.
Last time out, we ran a little "pop" and pushed out the head gaskets.We were planning a thorough freshen-up and that was the perfect time to try it. The 509 Chevy no likey nitro. Found all 8 wrist pins bent. Had rods ordered for 5 weeks, and they finally came.Ordered new wrist pins (thicker/heavier) and sent them to get coated.This required us to rebalance the crank.Thank you to Jan Cohee who squeezed me in on the crank balancer.We double teamed that and got it spun to match the new bobweight.
MBE helped me out on the heads, which was a time saver.Had to do a little welding to keep from milling much off.They also did their competition valve job and blended the chambers nicely. Thank you MBE!
Our titanium intake valves were getting thin, being from the original build in '03. Ordered new ones and I ground and backcut them and redid the o-ring receiver grooves in the heads. Finished them up and went to set the spring ht, and bad news. Springs shot. Oh well, no time to get new ones. Have to run these for now.
Had already honed the block and changed ring package (C & A out of business and couldn't get the rings we normally run). Gerardot restripped the blower, and flowed both our pumps. Found a rough roller lifter so we replaced the whole set. Some of our parts were a little late getting back, and put us behind.No big deal, racers adapt.
Got the shortblock done Fri morning. Got the heads finished Fri afternoon.Loaded the truck and headed to work on the car around 4pm Fri.Slipped in the shortblock and while I put the heads on, the team put the driveline in. Worked until 1am Sat morning. At that point I had worked 94 hours in 5.5 days. I told them to put the tools down, and we would load the trailer.
Drive straight thru all night and finish the car in Iowa when we got there. Left Bunker Hill around 1:40am. Made the 9.5 hour trip to the track.Unloaded it and started working again.We couldn't come up with a throttle cable the correct length back at home, and hoped to find one at Cedar Falls.Found one 6" shorter. Had to redo the brackets and the launch control.Broke a bracket off the frame.Had to borrow a welder.Generator wouldn't run the welder.Had to borrow a generator.
That's the great thing about drag racers. Always helping each other out. Got that fixed and fired it up. Ran it thru a heat cycle and then began tearing it down so it could cool off and then we would retorque the heads.
Driver Frank Cervelli called and said he and Kim Marjama (of Pro Jacks) broke down and would be late.
We thought we had everything buttoned up but found a bare wire on the shifter button had toasted a relay. Worked on that right up to 5 minutes before getting called to the lanes.
We worked so hard, we never got to look at the track.As we came around the corner, it was pleasant surprise to see such a huge crowd! I think it was the biggest spectator turnout we had witnessed this year! Unreal.
Sean Belt did his usual long distance burnout in the Nitro Madness Fiat.Frank warmed the hides on our car and headed headed for the stage beams. Frank got away first by .038 to take the early lead.Belt had an outstanding .960 60' and caught up and began pulling away.Then his blower belt asked for a leave of absence and departed.Frank went past him around 800' and took the win 6.96 to a coasting 8.29.
We didn't have a killer tune-up in it, since restripping the blower throws the cyl temps off. Last time out before restripping the blower and freshening the engine, we had the temps within about 40 degrees of each other. This pass they were 300 degrees from high to low. So we changed the port nozzles to reign that in a little and headed up for round 2.
Again, Frank was out first (by .069) but he was .003 early!Red light.They had detuned their car a tad in an effort to get down the track, and the 60's were almost identical (our 1.002, their 1.008).Belt started gaining slightly by 330' (our 2.840, their 2.827) but began to get loose. He could have aborted, as he had the win at that point (red light).But to his credit, and to make sure the fans got a show, he stayed with it.He ended up crossing into our lane and got a closer look at that Olson Paint & Body paint job!
As my buddy Rapid Randy says "...lane markings are only a suggestion for blown altereds..."
So we got the win on the first or worst rule, not that it mattered.The fans got a great show, and the cheering was off the hook!That right there made all the hard work worth it.
We ran a 6.900 and got the temps a little closer.Sneaking back up on it.We took a 4-2 round lead over Nitro Madness and will square off again at the World Series in Cordova.
Our next race will be in Muncie Aug 8th at the Night Of Fire.Stop by and introduce yourself and say hi if you're there.
Thanks,
KG
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