Activity Log of the Diesel Dragster

We went to Billings to go have some fun, and unfortunately, we had damaged the engine in Denver on a test run the previous Tuesday, and could not run. We still had fun, and tried hard to fix it, but we had lost the top rings and the new variable turbo, and did not have a spare.

5/24/08 - Gov. Richardson of New Mexico fuels our dragster with Blue Sun Biodiesel

We were invited to have our car at the grand opening of a new alternative fuel center in Santa Fe, NM, and got to have some good exposure!

We had the car at ConExpo, the worlds largest trade show for construction and off highway equipment. We were the key vehicle in the Valvoline HD product booth, and had a ball with the guys from Valvoline...

We had the car at SEMA, and got a lot of press coverage and tons of people taking photos of the car...

Latest on the cars is that the old car got a facelift on the turbochargers, and we have added a set of Holset turbos. One is a VG and one is a huge fixed geometry. We have tested them on a stall test, and the data looks great. We are finishing them up, and getting ready for a test day. Things are busy at Cummins, and I am buried.

On the new car, we are getting the drive system for the fuel pump drive and a few other things worked out. Getting anxious to get it running, and painted. Working on a new paint and logo scheme for it for next year.

We will be getting ready for Houston, our last major race (unless work gets in the way) and then off to SEMA show for the year end.

Putting updated fuel tanks on the big truck to give us better fuel capacity, and the ability haul our Blue Sun fuel the entire way out and back.

Great weekend! The largest ever group of attendance, and participants!.... We had the chance to get all 3 current diesel dragsters that are in competition into Denver, and spent the weekend playing at Bandimere together. We had John Robinson from Texas, and Dan Sheid from Indy playing, and they all struggled like we did in the thin air, trying to build power in nearly 10,000 ft corrected air. We also had the Dr. Performance Pro-Stock truck in town with Charlie Stewart driving, and they did well until locking a piston up in the engine.

We ended up running the best time ever for us in the thin air, with a 8.55 at 157 MPH. It was 100 degrees out, and we were running a single turbo. We had blown up our twin setup in testing last Wednesday, so went to a simple ATS Aurora 5000 for the weekend. Here are some photos....

Even more trouble, but we sure learned a lot. Our first pass was a bit agressive, and we blew the tires off and had to pedal the car. Did a 9.40 at 155. Not good. Second run, we blew our large turbo due to a nitrous backfire. We fixed it, and were ready for the first run Sunday. The new tune-up exploded the converter stator on the line, and caused a red light. Back to the parts bin for bigger parts..... Here are a couple photos:

Well, as the story goes, there is always a good day when you are racing, no matter what the outcome. We towed out to the Vegas DHRA nationals, and made one good shakedown pass, but it made a monster wheelstand had Dustin all over the track, but he never let off. What a ride..... We came back, checked the car out, and made a few tuning changes, and as soon as we spooled the turbos up, we snapped the input shaft in the powerglide. That was the end of the racing weekend for us. Here are a couple photos:

Well, we got it on the ground, and cleaned up the garage. Ready to get the original car back in, and get it prepped for April testing. First race will be in Vegas on May 4 and 5. We will be working on both cars, and hope to have the new car ready for Truck Fest in July.

Lots going on... The new body is taller, and looking great. Here are photos of me fitting the windshield, and how you build one for a dragster, starting with a cardboard template, to the installed unit. It has a vinyl coating on it, so it is white until we peel the coating.

So far the new car is progressing well. Body panels going on, and working on the new engine and components. The car should be lighter and simpler than the old car. Getting excited to get it finished up. Lots of work. Photos soon...

I have been busy in the garage working on the new chassis and getting it ready to drop in the new engine and transmission combination. Here are a few photos of the chassis under way:

We took the car to Las Vegas for the SEMA show, and had it right out front of the main entrance. There are over 600,000 attendees, and we spent a lot of time talking to all of the diesel fans in the ATS booth and at our car

We are changing the torque converter and rear gear to try to get our 60 ft times back. We have had issues, and think that there is a lot of performance left in these areas. We still have more power, but until we get the TC and gearing right, we cannot use it. We are hoping to test the new combo soon. A few races left this year, and need to step it up.

Well, on Saturday, at the ATS Diesel on the Mountain, we made 5 passes, best of a 9.12 and 166 MPH. We were chasing a small wiring issue with the nitrous, and finally found it. A small pinched wire. We ended up winning the event, and had a ball. We did pull the head and checked the engine out to see if we hurt anything. Waste of time, all was fine.

On Sunday we made 2 passes, and had fun running in front of the crowd. Best pass 8.80 and 165 MPH. Check out the photos:

We got the re-power on the tow rig done, but not in time to get to Indy. We are now shooting for more local testing and getting ready for Truck Fest. Here are some photos of the truck:

Finally got the new tow rig fired up today, and looks like we may make Indy after all. The new ISL sounds good, and the Jake really sounds good and works great. For towing that 50' trailer, it should be sweet. Photos soon.

We are putting in all of the new Nitrous Express system, and a fresh ATS 5 Star transmission, and a couple other new tricks. Hopefully, we will put on a good show if we make it there.

Talk about a bad day. We went to move the car, and found that we had been broken in to, and all of the tools stolen. We are still trying to see what is missing. Hopefully, the Jefferson County Sheriff's may get a lead and find out who did this. We are in the process of getting ready to test, and this does not help. The sheriff that investigated had his bloodhounds there, and they were pretty neat. No fingerprints, no real tracks. Luckily, most of the spare parts, and the car were not in the trailer.

We are excited to announce that our newest sponsor is the oil that has been Cummins official oil for years: Premium Blue, by Valvoline. We will be redoing the graphics and logos on the race car, uniforms and transporter for 2006. We are proud to have them on board with us. Great product, and a long track record with Cummins.

1/13/06 - Re-power is doing well, new Cummins ISL400 with Jake into the GMC 6500 tow rig for 2006

We still have a bunch of work: Wiring, plumbing, driveline, and more. But, when done? It will be a 106MPH rig, capable of towing in cruise at 85 easily with the 50' trailer. The Jake is the big deal, as I hate the weak brakes on a rig like this. Still better than a dually, though.

Our dragster made the show from the DHRA Nationals that we attended earlier this year. Click Here for a clip from that of our car, and on our Drag Race Video Page are more of the entire event.

We just got back from the SEMA show, where we had the dragster in the ATS Diesel Performance booth. It is a unreal show. It covers 66 football fields of space, and lasts 4 days. We never saw it all and were there for the whole show. Here are some photos of the cars and the ladies in the booths. Our car was quite a hit, and we picked up a lot of people that want to help. As you see, ATS debuted the all new 5 Star Viskus Converter drive. It is a 5 disc converter, very tight tolerance for improved efficiency. We have one in the dragster.

We have now installed the new turbos on the car, and getting ready for the SEMA show in Las Vegas. The turbos are installed behind the cylinder head, putting more weight on the rear tires, and making a lot more room to work on the engine. These turbos will finally get us the air we need to step up the fueling and timing to take the next step. We also put on new large ID Stainless injector lines, in order to deliver the fuel better from the pump modifications.

Well, at least we found the limits of the little chargers. We ran a 9.17 / 155 MPH, on a soft pass, and then on the second pass, we had the low pressure charger break a shaft, and let the turbine wheel come flying out. Good reason for the cross bolts in the exhaust pipe regulation on tractor pulling. We never gave it a thought, and now I think it would be a great idea.

We are putting on a set of ATS's Aurora's to test next. These are huge! We are relocating them to the rear of the engine, over the transmission. We are wanting to get the weight on the back where it belongs, and keep the car planted.

As you can see, the wheel did some damage on the way out. The turbine wheel ended up on the track, spinning at about 2000 degrees F. It took both turbos, and so far, no damage to the engine. I am tearing it down, and leak testing it.

We took the long trip from Colorado to Palmdale California for the High Desert diesel Roundup. We made 4 passes, 2 on Saturday, and 2 on Sunday. The best pass was a 8.52 at 162 MPH, and we ran the new ATS TripleLoc and 47RE transmission. We are making good progress with this combination.

We had a lot of fun and even though we spun the tires and shook the tires on each pass, we kept learning more and more.

The new tow rig worked good, but the CAT HAS TO GO! The ISL-400 is getting ready to drop in. Double the HP, and nearly triple the torque!

After many years of my wife begging for us to upgrade, we did it. We bought a real nice 50' trailer with a 14' living quarter, along with a 6500 GMC truck to pull it. As you may guess, the truck does not have a Cummins in it...YET! Re-power plans are already underway! More Power!

Our Transmission sponsor, ATS Diesel Performance, was the major sponsor of the World Strongman Cup here in Denver. We had the car on display, and watched the event get filmed. It will be on ESPN soon. You may see the car and trailer during the show. These guys are huge!

I put a new wing on the back of the car, after a couple passes we saw some tire slippage on the top end. It really makes the car look a lot better as well.

We had a great Friday at the Cummins Tech Center, Corporate office, and Day Care Center showing the car off to the Cummins people. Here are some photos.

We went to to the track Saturday, loaded for bear. The bear got us. The weather was way too hot, and we could not get the car to hook, and we had way too much power cranked in to the car. We made 4 passes over the weekend, and never broke out of the 9's. We learned a bit, and we will get back to our normal tune-up and see about running another low 8 or high 7. Here's a great burnout: Click Here --> BURNOUT.

We had a chance to check out the brand new race track in Billings. What a great facility. We were wanting to test out the new ATS Trans and a new ATS TripleLoc super trick converter. The new FASS System worked flawlessly as well. Nice to get everything working all at once.

Let's say that the new converter gave us a few lessons. It worked too good. Now, we have the ability to use the HP we have on the line. On the first pass, we saw tire spin in each shift and unfortunately, Dustin skip shifted from 1st to 3rd gear due to a shifter malfunction. With all that, the first pass still netted a 8.95 pass at a great 163 MPH.

On the second run, we cranked it up, and put the big tires on it. We spun right from the hit of the throttle, and the car made a move for the center line. Dustin clicked it off to save the car. Smart move.

Here is a movie of it, first pass smoking out our volunteer camera man, Bradley Lipple, and the second pass footage is a bit shaky, and from way down track. It does not look as wild as it did from the starting line. Click Here --> Billings Run Video.

After a month of rain delays and schedule conflicts, we finally got back to the track. Bandimere Speedway invited us out to do some exhibition runs on Sunday for the Mopar only race. Since we are a Dodge pickup powered dragster, why not?

We wanted to test out the new transmission and fuel system. The fuel system is one we built with Diesel Performance Products, a F.A.S.S. System, and we did pretty good on the first test pass. We finally maintained our desired fuel pressure all the way down the track. The new transmission is a 47RE ATS TripleLok converter, Trans Brake equipped 4 speed overdrive. It is a one of a kind, custom built from ATS, our sponsor.

The back half of the run was unreal with the lock up converter. Just as soon as we went through the finish line, though, the oil start flying from the engine. We dropped a valve seat in #6 hole, and blew a piston. Not a bad run for a soft pass on 5 holes!

We are throwing our new engine together to go in now. A few new parts, but similar to the old engine. We will be testing some of ATS's new turbos, the Aurora 5000 and a HUGE twin set up. Getting ready for THUNDER AT INDY, June 24.

Well, we are on The Men's Channel next week, showing me getting interviewed about our 2004 season and plans for 2005 at the ATS open house here in Denver.

Well, we finally got a chance to test the 47RE ATS TripleLok equipped transmission. It is a one of a kind, with an electronic internal transmission brake, overdrive, lock up converter, giving us a super strong transmission with 4 forward gears.

We are excited to get it on the tack and test. We tested it at the ATS parking lot (where all good testing happens) and it held strong with 10, 20, and then 35 PSI launches with no slippage, and blew the tires off each time. It looks killer!

Well, we made the dragster for the second time this year. Here is the article when we broke into the 7's for the first time. Click to enlarge:

Wow. Talk about going from high expectations to a low, and ending on a high. Here is the story:

Wednesday, at the Youth and education show, we got there and had a good tune-up in the car, and were ready to get one good run in before Sunday.

We rolled out, and did a good burnout, and right when the car hit and hooked, it went BANG! The car would not move on it's own power. We towed it off, and went back to he trailer to figure out what happened. We tore the car apart, and it did not take long to find: We broke the "unbreakable" input shaft. When it broke, it wiped out the front pump, torque converter, and my wallet.

We ran around, and found a new TCI Pump, and Vasco Input shaft that is now better designed. Instead of the lube hole out the side, it has external bleed slots. Stronger. Better. Unbreakable. Right. Not behind a Cummins. We know that expecting a Powerglide to live at this torque level is a bit nuts. We put the car back together, and tested it on the stands. It worked great. Sounded great. No way to know until Sunday when we run. We show the car, and hang out in the Lucas Midway trailer until time to run. Hurry up and wait!

We tow up to the line, with the car set pretty aggressive. We figured with the air, elevation, and track conditions, we had to lean on it a bit. Dustin did a mild burnout, fearful of the new trans parts. He staged the car, and left at about 70% of our usual launch boost. He pulled a .181 light on a Pro tree, and the car went straight, and when the scoreboard lit up, we all went nuts.

Now on the way home, we had a little trouble: Broken throttle linkage, lost a tire and wheel on the trailer, blew 5th gear again out of the transmission. But you know what? It was worth it.

We had fun, but on the Sunday pass, we ran to the 1/8 mile mark (faster than ever) and the primary turbo blew. Would have been a great pass. We peaked over 125 MPH before the 1/8, blew up, and coasted through at a 9.7 at only 94 MPH. All is fixed, going to Pomona next week. Got our fingers crossed.

Fans!	On Display	Fans again!	Ready to go
	Hi res shot

Come see us! We will be in Las Vegas, October 29, 30, and 31. We will be in the Lucas manufacturer's midway trailer. On Sunday the 31st, we will make a pass in front of the crowd right ahead of the finals.

In Pomona California, at the World Finals, we will make a run on Wednesday, November the 10th, at the Youth Education show at 9AM. Then we will be in the Lucas trade show area for the weekend, and again running ahead of the final rounds on Sunday the 14th.

We have tested out the new tune-up, and hope to do better than ever. The 8.92 at altitude was a good start, but clearly not the full potential.

We went out today to test some new parts, and had some fun. We are still having a fuel delivery issue, and even with that, we ran our first 8 second pass at over a mile high with a 8.92 pass. The second pass, we ran 152.57 MPH. Here is a link to video of us "smoking" a 10 second mustang when we ran the 8.92. Here is a video of us against a pickup running the 9.07 152.57 pass.

We are planning a trip to Vegas and Pomona for the national events to display the car at the Lucas midway display, and hopefully run exhibition passes.

We are currently reworking many components and changing the car around a bit. In general: Rework and inspect turbos, inspect transmission and OD, reseal side cover leak, re-plumb fuel system to reduce restrictions, rewire a few things, clean up some intake piping, and a few more little things that may surprise our competitors. Time to go a little faster, as some of the "other teams" are getting close.

We are working hard to get a better fuel / converter / transmission / ratio match, as most of you that have seen the car run live or video have all said the same thing, "why does it not smoke?" Many reasons, but one simple one - we are trying to bring the fuel up as we go, to make the car easer to launch, and not wait for 15 seconds to spool up to launch. The key to making these things run? That match up.

The car launches great, and runs strong to the 1/8 mile, but is out of fuel and nearly out of RPM by this time. We now know a few more things as to why. Working on that too.

In addition to our normal local schedule and testing, we are making runs at the Vegas NHRA Nationals in October and the World Finals in Pomona in November. We are making sure to have a faster than ever pass in front of those crowds.

We were the hosts for nearly 8000 fans at the 2004 Truck Fest at Bandimere Speedway in Denver. Cummins Rocky Mountain is the main sponsor for the event.

We were trying a different tune up and only ran a best of 9.40 for the day. Time to go back to the old set-up. There were quite a few fast trucks and a couple race only vehicles with Cummins power, one from Washington, and one from Montana, nice people, and they are getting close to running some good numbers. Both had some trouble (we know how that is) but gave it a good try. Our 9.11 at Bandimere is still the best ever, but we better get a deep 8 before season end.

ATS had a open house today for all of the people in town for the Cummins Rocky Mountain Thunder Mountain Truck Fest on Sunday. We had the car there and did some tuning before the race Sunday.

We were invited to show the car in the Lucas oil Products tent and do an exhibition run on Sunday afternoon in front of the crowd. We had a steady stream of people in the tent asking about the car, and the engine. People can't believe that we can run a diesel that fast. Here are some photos:

We ended up running a 9.47 at 148 MPH, with a soft tuneup. Getting ready for the Cummins Rocky Mountain Truck Fest next weekend. Hope to try out the new trans and tune-up.

We went to Grand Junction for a exhibition race, and due to fuel pressure issues and a transmission high gear clutch pack going away, only ran mid 9's. I went through the Powerglide and found that our external transmission filter and cooler was plugged and not flowing. No wonder we smoked a clutch pack. The fuel pressure issue is the next problem to solve. Seems that even with a huge primary pump and filter, we still have a restriction.

We have received a lot of press lately, including the National Dragster, the NHRA national paper, and Drag News, the Sportsman Drag Racing Weekly.

Well, we went to to the "Thunder in Muncie" in Muncie, Indiana over the weekend. What a great event. We broke into the 8's with a new tune-up and the better air there. We had a lot of fun and met a bunch of neat people.

Check out the neat tow rig, it was unreal. We met Carl from Kelderman Manufactring and he towed us for each of the 3 passes. This truck has a 12" lift, and truck tires. It was beautiful.

We rolled off the trailer with the Denver 9.11 tune-up in it and ran a 9.07. We then checked it all over, and put a bit more in it, and then only ran a 9.05 for the second pass. Now we knew how much air there is at 900 ft elevation, we went for it. Aggressive tune-up and Dustin hit it hard. We blew through the lights at a 8.75 / 148 MPH with a .501 light.

We were interviewed for a video they are making for the event. Can't wait to see it. We had a great weekend. Thanks to all of the people there that came by and helped out with advice and suggestions.

We ran the car at the Mopar Thunder Mountain event at Bandimere Speedway here in Denver. We had everything ready, but went way too aggressive on the tune-up. We ended up taking out a piston, first failure on this engine ever in over 100 runs. Our fault. Not the engine. Here is a picture of the wounded piston and the injector:

We ran the car Wednesday night to test out the new fuel supply system and the removal of the intercooler. We liked the temperature drop of the intercooler, but the weight and the air restriction was not helping us. We installed a Snow Performance Boost Cooler in the car instead to cool the air, but left it off for the baseline testing. It is a well built piece, and Matt Snow, the owner of Snow performance is great to work with. We will test it Sunday at the Mopar on Thunder Mountain here in Denver at Bandimere Speedway.

We took some photos of the new graphics from Lucas Oil Products now that they are on the car. They are our major sponsor, and sell some great products. We are running their oil, transmission fluid, gear lubes in our race car and tow vehicle.

We (as always) found some more items on the car that needed improved. We are planning on testing Wednesday or Friday this week, and hoping to make good progress.

Well, we picked it up a bit, at 9.21 at 145 MPH today. Not bad, but still a lot left in this combination. With some of the changes we did over the winter, we did what we wanted to do: Get the car to run on the back half of the track. Now we killed the 60 foot times, and are spinning the tires on the launch. We had to drop the tire pressure a bunch, and leave at half of the boost to get close to the old 60 foot times. We seem to be shocking the tires too much. More work to do.

We pulled the engine down to change the camshaft, and found the front cam bearing had spun in the block. Luckily, the damage to the block was minor, and with some light cleaning, we fixed the bore, and installed a new bearing. The new cam fit fine. We are testing out a Diesel Dynamics grind to see how the power changes, and how it affects the power curve. In addition, we are adding a larger (volume and PSI) electric fuel pump and regulator to eliminate any chance of fuel pressure loss at high RPM. Hopefully, we will be able to run again next weekend on the dyno before having to reassemble the car. We start track testing again in 2 weeks.

Ran again tonight. The wastegate added about 100 HP without being adjusted to optimum. The drive pressure is back in range, but we are bypassing too much exhaust, and now the LP turbo is overworked. Simple adjustment after this weekend of repairing some severe exhaust leaks on the header and flanges. We are getting real close to a good combination.

The quality of the photos are directly related to the nerves of running into the dyno room with this thing screaming at 4000 RPM, and snapping a photo before the shrapnel starts flying. Thank goodness for a brave son. We ended up ruining the header on the dyno, and are going back to a ATS cast manifold and adapter for a test. We have another hand build thick wall header for the VG (variable) twin setup.

Ran another baseline, and the new turbo setup and waste-gate setup is promising. Much more testing to do. Been too busy at work, traveling, now home for a few days, will get more dyno time. Plan is to get the turbos finished up, and tuned in, then get back to the fuel system, cam and timing tests. Want to try some back to back testing on the new header. Think that the old one is losing way to much energy even though coated. New thick wall model, and stronger for the larger (heavier) turbos we are testing.

See the new logo on top? Yes, Lucas Oil is on board with us. Great people with great products. Watch for more on this soon.

Last thing: Sounds like a few people are building some hot Cummins drag cars, trucks and a dragster or two. Send info, and I will post them up! One is the guys at Sheid along with Eric McBride from the DHRA. Click here for info..... Maybe we will see more cars soon.

Well, we got it running on the dyno, but can't hold the load long before the intercooler is over temp. Working on a larger air to water cooler just for the dyno work. Observed HP is only around 500 with the baseline fuel, turbo and injector setup we wanted to run before we changed over to the new stuff. If we could hold the dyno longer, we would have pulled more. The water in the intercooler box really heats up, and with the 3500 HP dyno we are using, it is difficult to hold a fine control on the load. More later.

Here are some photos of the engine on the dyno. I will post what we find (less a couple of secrets) as soon as we run. As those of you close to this project know, fueling and turbos are the key. We have plenty of parts to test, and maybe will change the cam for a real back to back comparison. Here are a few grainy photos from a video we shot.

Here are some photos of some turbo rework I am trying out, and the beginning of another header for the VG turbo. We are setting up at least 3 different systems to try to keep the bottom end performance we have at altitude, but still allow the engine to breath up on top. Learning a lot.

Pulling the engine out, and testing on the engine dyno at Cummins Rocky Mountain here in Denver. We are ready to throw some serious HP to the drive train, now that we are done breaking parts. We will be testing some new ISB Common rail engines, VG turbos, our old engine with a different turbo match on the twins, and some other internal goodies. Thanks to a few good contacts, more neat new and unique parts are rolling in for testing.

Ran at Bandimere for the last time this year as the season is getting to the end. We shook down some injector and waste-gate settings and did OK. The real news is when we tried the 100% Biodiesel fuel. Interesting stuff. Faster spool upon the turbo, less smoke, and ran smoother. Have not analyzed the download from the computer yet. Actually ran our fastest pass yet with it at 9.301! We got it from Blue Sun Biodiesel from here in Colorado. Link to them here, or the Biodiesel Org here. We will be doing some more testing with it, as it looks very promising.

Different turbo configurations, and waste-gate settings have taught us a lot. Made some more passes, and got more data. We are going to be working with Bell turbo in Stockton California on a better match for the twins. We are really out of range on the drive pressure on the turbine side compared to the boost. In addition, check out these bad boys: HY55V Holsets.

These are the latest technology, and are variable on the exhaust gate. Instead of trying to decide if you want a 9, 10 , 12, 14, 16 or 18 CM housing on a HX35, just control it via electronics, depending on load and fuel. We are working with both Holset and Bell for the ultimate match for quick spool, and then ramp out for the big boost.

In addition, there is a little issue on engine RPM, Torque converter slippage and torque curve match. Changing out the rear gear set, different governor springs in the P7100, and a few other tricks. We will see... (messy workbench!)

Powerglide trans with all billet parts in, and back to the track. Wednesday test and tune, 4 passes. Ran a 9.60 best pass. Ready for Sunday. After reviewing the changes, we decided to tighten up the turbo cases a bit and retest. Back out on Saturday, 24 hours before our race. Things went weird. Ran a 10.04, changed the turbos back, and then a 10.40 in the heat of the day as we see smoke out of the trans. Lost the Kevlar band in the Powerglide. Back to the shop, swung out the rear, Gear Vendor, and trans, rebuilt and back in within 90 minutes. Love these tube frame cars. Ready for Sunday at the Cummins Rocky Mountain Truck Fest on the 27th of July.

Sunday morning, right off of the trailer, we ran a 9.31 at 139 and change. The car launched like a rocket. 1.27 60 foot time. One more pass, we went a bit too much on the NO2, and cooled down to a 9.80. Final round, ran against Banks' Sidewinder on an exhibition run, and had a ball. The tree came down and both cars launched great. Banks pulled a 12.60 ET against our 10.18 with both cars having shifting issues.

So now what? While our goal was to run 9.46 (8.90 Super Comp index at altitude) we are now realizing how much more is left in this combination. A lot.

New Powerglide parts back in, and back to the track. Things went better, and with a real mild fuel setting, ran a 9.8 at 133 MPH, with a 1.41 60 foot time. On the second pass, a little more fuel, and went 1.29 60', but took the input shaft splines out at 300 feet. Back to the shop. Now, the new 47RE is in from ATS, and it and the TripleLoc is going in. Had to do a bunch of machine work and electronics, but hope to test in early July. Will post results. Getting ready for the Truck Fest on the 27th of July.

Tested: TripleLoc is the way to go, but our brakes on the car cannot hold the power on the line without a transbrake. The converter clutch is awesome, and the gearing is perfect. Back to the shop, reinstall the Powerglide until Clint gets the trans brake designed. This trans is a killer deal.

New converter in, and during second stall test on the trans, blew up the planetary in the Powerglide right in the driveway. Next step, stronger parts. Fuel pump timing change and test proved better. Computer make it much easier to see the changes. Shot of the broken gear set. Funny, lived great behind a injected alcohol small block. Just a bit more torque.

Here is a screen shot of our test stall in the driveway, on the QWIKDATA. Interesting info if you look close. Click on it, blow it up and check it out. You can see the 2 boost signals, and 2 EGT's. Intercooler in and out shows 150 F drop in temp with only room temperature water in the icebox. Note the comment on top, "drive pressure". This is the turbine drive pressure in the header feeding the high pressure turbo. A lot of good info here, and a few secrets hidden as well.

First test day at the track, data logger proved worth while. Found that the torque converter match is wrong, had 35% slippage. Really need that lock-up converter. ATS is close to getting the TC and transmission done, testing one more Powerglide TC design next week. Intercooler proved good, had a leak, repairing it. Exhaust temp maxed at over 1800 for 4 seconds during the pass, cooled down after the NOS hit. Getting closer.

We are now adding a Edelbrock QuikData onboard data logger to gather more information on the engine during the runs. We clearly need to reduce our intake temperature, so a water submerged intercooler is the plan now. A different transmission may be the overall answer for the drag strip, as an ATS TripleLok converter in front of an overdrive transmission would be the best way to launch and then lock it up for maximum efficiency. The Powerglide and Gear Vendor will work, and may be a good way for now, but we will see.

Paint is now on, and the new paint design is being added. New info and photos on engine and chassis photo page. QWIKDATA is in and wired.

Best pass of the day, a dismal 10.11 ET at 129 MPH. The car was literally against the rev limiter for over half the track. Back to the barn.

We tested the car first at Pueblo Motorsports Park, and did 60 foot and half track passes, and were impressed with the launch and performance. All was ready for full runs. We went to Bandimere and on the first test run, we found out that the Gear Vendor Overdrive was not engaging. Two runs later and a few more changes, we still could not get it to hold. Upon teardown, we found a chunk of debris in a pressure check valve. Bad deal, as it worked great the year before.

After running the first car for a year and having trouble getting the electronics to react fast enough, and eventually twisting the rear half of the frame, and decided to build an entire new car designed to take the torque of the Cummins engine. In addition, the electronic fuel system went away and we went to a simple mechanical Bosch 7100 pump for easier tuning.

We started with a set of Mark Williams chassis blueprints and changed some dimensions and wall thickness, and had all of the tubing bent. The rear section is .083" instead of .058" chrome moly. Then we jigged the chassis up and went to work. 2 long years later, it was ready.

No more Cat	Building the ISL	Ready to go in	In the truck
Getting closer	New 9 Speed Trans	After 3" cab lift for clearance	See the ISL logo peeking out?

Our car	New turbos	The booth	New 5 Star
Jay Leno's Car	Some inexpensive import	Nice stude	Our friend Burkland's streamliner
Neat SoCal	Check out the scoop	The booth	F.A.S.S. Booth
Duramax land speed car	Girls	Girls	& more girls