Project 68

[MadMike]

gee maybe I should buy a Lotto ticket ;D ;D ;D If it's not the Throttle it might be the Timing, didn't u change fuels? could use some more advance maybe?Glad I could help ,Madmike

[81pumagtc]

Rudy:

I have the Sway-a-Way camber stops on the Pig of Plastic, and I like it. It just prevents the axles from tucking under, but does not impede the upward movement of the axles in any way. This way it does not create additional springing at the back. Might help with autox. The urethane cups at the end had to be modified slightly to clear the KYB's at the back.

Weighs about 6 lbs.

Dave

[dubfreak1]

The throttle checked out ok. After giving it more thought, it seemed like a good idea to compare the time slips from Wed to the 18.5 pass from last year. Maybe this will pinpoint the problem. Sure enough it did. There are 4 problems: The notes from last year showed the car and driver were at 1640 lb, this year 1655 lb. So I guess that problem is probably...............me. The 60ft times were 2.4716 then and 2.4810 now even though before I had to idle off the line and now, with the solid mount, the car will leave at higher rpms. So it seems the failure to capitalize on this goes back to.............me. I also experimented last year and found that the best shift points to be 4400rpm when shifting to 3rd and 4200rpm when shifting to 4th. Yesterday I remembered it wrong and shifted at 4600 and 4400, so the problem is..................(wait for it)...............me! Lastly, I also noticed last year that the car got quicker without any changes just because the driver got a little more experienced, so that sounds like maybe more seat time is needed, or yeah,.................me

This is all really good, guess there is really only one problem

I'll try to have it fixed next time out

[81pumagtc]

Rudy:

Ashamed to say I laughed...

Hard.

I know what you are talking about. First road racing SAAB I did. Needed (wanted) more power, so I breathed on the engine a little bit for about 10 extra horsepower. It was great...until I broke a half-shaft. Sigh...

Got heavier-duty half-shafts. (Read: heavier.)

Broke the freewheel unit. Sigh...

New mainshaft, welded freewheel. Felt good. Broke the ring gear, damaged the pinion. Sigh...

New (used) special rally gearbox...quite bulletproof. Quite expensive. Quite heavy. Geared too short. Sigh...

Modified the shifter, stiffer rear mount, better gearing. More expensive. Found out 2nd gear needs to be longer so I don't get into 7500 rpm to shift or the powerband drops into the Grand Canyon...turns out the SAAB V4 seems to turn fuel into lots of noise at this point...not fuel into power. Not good. Sigh...

Went to virtually solid engine and gearbox mounts...two in front, one at the tail of the gearbox so the third to second gear change doesn't pop into neutral all by itself under hard deceleration. This requires very robust engine mounts and a special C&C rear transmission mount to mount the urethane donut.

It's again heavy and expensive. Works great, but the shifter rod appears to need to be made of heavier stuff, because the fancy (and heavy) engine mounts and gearbox rear hanger are slightly different and suddenly hard and fast upshifts cause the shifter to flex and then it does not seem to find any gear...fortunately the built-in protective valve float saves me from really expensive engine work when I find myself suddenly at 12,500 (high as the tach goes) rpm. Sigh...

Have a special shifter rod custom machined and custom Teflon bearings made so 12,500 (high as the tach goes) rpm never happens again. It works great, shifts great, and like a good Alfa gearbox, it only takes a little while to get used to not shifting quite so fast that you beat the syncros...but it does shift nice and direct, and for the first time, the gearbox feels GREAT! (Shameless Tony the Tiger imitation.)

Oh oh. Bad noises. No power. Turns out that 12,500 (high as the tach goes) on a SAAB V4 does break it. Just seems to take a while before the engine knows it's dead. Sigh...

Pulled the rocker covers off. Turns out that the fancy dual-spring valve springs are mis-marked and I have used Rally parts which are good to 7500 RPM max, not the road racing dual-spring valve springs which are good to 10,500 RPM, but I console myself that they probably would have failed anyway. Fortunately the replacement springs only cost $165, making the least-expensive thing I have done in the last month and a half to the car with exception of putting air in the tires.

To celebrate, I purchased titanium lifters and chromoly pushrods.

(I tell myself that that the lighter drivetrain will help prevent damage to the engine in case of high RPMs, and help prevent the onset of built-in protective valve float.)

I FINALLY get to make some time at the track in the modified SAAB. Newer, better gearbox, new gearset, welded freewheel, new heavy-duty half shafts, better shifter. Better valvetrain, lifters that would float away if you left them out. Lots of new, shiny parts in the engine compartment.

I'm happy.

I'm also slower.

Turns out that all of those heavy-duty parts are also just plain heavy, and since almost everything heavy was added AHEAD of the front axle, I can't make it steer or stop quite as well as before...and because the solid engine and gearbox mounts, weight transfer when you come off the throttle becomes far, far more pronounced, and I realize that it will require me to lower the car significantly, get larger front brakes, and re-learn how to be fast again.

By that time, I'd have to probably do more to the engine to make up for all of the heavy parts I added to keep the gearbox together to handle more power.

Sigh...

I chose to hoist a few beers to the stupidest man on the planet.

Me.


Dave

[dubfreak1]

Hey Dave. I'm not ready to give up the title that easily ;D

Glad you got a chuckle out of my story. I really do intend to prevail over these problems. I'm afraid the first one will probably be the worst one to overcome.

[81pumagtc]

Rudy:

Always something to aim at.

It will be interesting to see what your times do at different shift points. The SAAB just turned fuel into noise at certain RPM, but did not turn noise into power. Very strange...just kind of became breathless. The Pig of Plastic seems to go pretty well, but I am a little gun shy about anything more than 5500 RPM.

My experience is not good with over-reving engines, and I really don't have any pressing need to go faster than 5000 RPM, but I do see 5500 every now and then.

Dave

[MadMike]

Rudy,,, Ex-lax the day before the race good for atleast 5lbs ;D ;D ;then 5hr energy drink for the great reaction timing ;D ;D Dave,,, maybe some of my Meds ;D ;D ;D You Guys are a Grin ;D ;D

[MadMike]

Do the rules allow 40 IDF's? that will wake it up big time ;D

[dubfreak1]

Rules? We don't need no stinkin' rules ;D ;D ;D

However, my own plan is to see how far it will go with stock bore, stroke, cam, valves and a 34PICT-3. Then maybe I'll go to the next level with more mods, but still 1600, Then...............

[MadMike]

Bore the carb!!!!!

[dubfreak1]

Yeah Mike, the thought is there. It already has the choke shaft removed and the top has been radiused out to flow nicely into the venturii. Made absolutely no difference in time. Even tried a velocity stack instead of the air cleaner. I read later that 28mm venturii really wakes this carb up and that 30mm is ok at wide open throttle, but suffers a bit in drivability. Sounds like 30mm venturii and profiled throttle shaft is the next step for the carb.

It is downright scary how you think like I do ;D ;D ;D

[MadMike]

Must be an age thing ;D ;D ;D

[dubfreak1]

The 68 made it back out to US131 last night. Things went much better this time. Out of 9 passes 2 were 18.5's and 2 were new bests of 18.4's. I really concentrated on paying attention to business and found even a little lapse shows on the time slip.

One of the 18.4 sec runs had a 2.40 sec 60' time and the other was a 2.51, so an 18.3 is in the car, just need to get the driver to find it. I worked on finding the best rpm to shift with the new gearing and it is 4400 upshift to third and 4200 to fourth. The RPM at the line is 3900 at about 71 MPH. I stayed on it for a while on one pass and it will pull past 4200, so even shorter tires may be in the future. Maybe some 22.5 tall slicks from a Formula Ford

[dubfreak1]

Worked on cleaning up some parts for the next generator. I was recycling some copper at the same time as working on this and the 2 projects may have overlapped each other. The finshed "generator" weighs 10lb less than a regular 12V generator.

Can't decide if it should be called AmpFree or NoVolt..........

[bren]

Wow, 10 lbs! Amazing. Never would have guessed there was that much weight to save there. Are you going to weld the fan while you have it out?