LSR List, Friends and Crew,
Today we fired-up the Dragmaster Dart for the first time with the blown
Ardun installed. I' ve been collecting parts, having components fabricated,
and dreaming since 1985 about having one of my Ardun engines with a blower
sitting on top. When I was a kid the "big-boys" at the drags had blowers,
thus my fantasy followed those lines.
I started getting serious about assembling the engine a couple of years
ago, putting the short block together at the same time I built the engines
for the Bonneville Modified Roadster. After we escaped the "broken parts
curse" at Speed Week 2000 I came home, checked the "vital-signs" of the Ardun
in the Modified Roadster, determined that it should be OK for the November El
Mirage 2 day meet, and started the finishing touches on the blower motor.
The dragster hadn't run since the 1998 Palmdale, CA Antique Nationals
when we spun a bearing and blew the motor in a loss to Mc Cain & Houtz with
their blown Flatty. Luckily the chassis certification was renewed in late 99
so I didn't have to deal with that in addition to finishing and firing the
new engine combination.
The engine is small by Flatty standards, 258 ci. The blower is a 4:71
topped by a Hilborn "2-holer" injector and driven at between 15% and 30%
overdrive. Static compression ratio is 8:1 with Ross forged pistons,
Cunningham rods, and a SCAT billet chrome moly crank. Fuel is alky for the
time being with some nitro a possibility at the drags and gas for the LSR
classes that require it.
Son Brian wanted to be here when I started (or attempted to start) it for
the first time. I had warmed the oil yesterday and spun the engine with the
starter to circulate it. With the spark plugs installed the engine only
cranked about as fast as a good 6v Flatty starter with a stock engine so I
was a little worried. I bought a couple of 1960's blower starters this past
year but was going to start out with my trusty 6v Ford unit on 12v.
I had set the barrel valve leakdown, secondary (idle) bypass popoff
pressure, main bypass pill, and all the other parameters according to what
Gene (Lean Gene) Adams suggested. I was still unprepared for what happened
next.
With Brian at the controls I gave the Hilborn a squirt of gas and
signaled him to hit the starter. It started immediately and idled like a
stocker (well, almost). It even has that slight RPM surging at idle, one of
the things I always thought sounded so bitchin' about blower motors in the
olden days.
After setting the ignition timing and fiddling with the barrel valve
adjustment the thing had quite a loud throttle response. After we went in for
lunch I was amazed that the thing quickly started again with no priming after
an hour or so of cooldown time.
It has a couple of oil pan leaks (I use silicone rather than cutting out
Velumoid gaskets every time I pull the pan) and the front motor plates are
dripping water so it's back onto the Backyard Buddy hoist to remove the pan
and re-seal it.
Within the next couple of weeks I plan to take it to a Sears Point
Raceway Wednesday night grudge/test-n-tune session and start the process of
establishing a "base-line" where the tuneup is concerned. It sounded pretty
ferocious in the driveway but that doesn't necessarily guarantee a good hard
pass down the 1320.
Anyway, just getting it assembled, installed in the dragster, and started
was a major hurdle for me. With any luck we will have a baseline soon for the
engine, run it for a while at the nostalgia drags, then put it into the
Modified Roadster and go after the SCTA XXF/BF(G)MR records at Bonneville, El
Mirage, and hopefully Muroc.
Thanks for all your interest and support...........Ardun Doug King
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