Am I under a Geas?

For those not into fantasy RPG a Geas is a compulsion spell that forces the victim to do something. I have to write even though I don’t actually have anything to write about. This is kinda what a Geas is like.

Since I’m trying to win a GenIII Hemi™ engine, I thought I would see what that does to my weight-and-balance for the Sprint-T. To put it succinctly, nothing good. The GenIII Hemi™ is physically larger and also has a cast iron block, so it adds over 170 pounds to the front end of the car, 415 pounds for the LS compared to roughly 580-590 for the Hemi™, and a similar situation for transmissions I could use.

I still have the “no room for 3 pedals” situation so I still have to use an automatic, even though I’m not going to be shifting much if at all when I race, and very little when I’m driving on the streets and highways. The Goodguys’ racing is all in first gear, and SCCA is first and second but mostly first. There are almost limitless models of transmissions, between the old Chrysler 3 speed and more recent 4, 5, 6, and 8 speed transmissions for sedans, SUVs, and trucks. There are also kits to bolt up transmissions from LS engines. This just gives more options.

Basically any Mopar/FSA transmission built for a V8 engine works for a GenIII Hemi™ including some weird ones like the NAG1. The 545RFE weighs 238 pounds, the NAG1 has a listed dry weight of 125 pounds without the converter, fluids and a torque converter add weight of course. Other transmissions will bolt up, but those two have the widest ranges and the tallest overdrives for highway driving. They also have torque ratings that even a built GenIII won’t exceed.

And I’m starting to fade, so I’ma put this baby to bed and me shortly after.

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Still looking for improved performance for the Sprint-T

I have been looking at the various engines available on a cost/performance basis, and the Gen IV architecture LS family is starting to look better and better. The Gen IV engines come with things like DOD (bad) and VVT (good) to balance performance and fuel economy. I’m looking at the prices for the aluminum 5.3 L engines with VVT that came in trucks and SUVs. They are trending slowly down to something I can afford to pay after getting removed from the vehicle, the oldest being 12 years old now.

The reason I want the VVT is it gives me the benefit of a wide powerband. How camshaft timing affects engine performance and from Richard Holdener Tested-SBC adjustable cam timing. Basically VVT lets the engine controller adjust the cam timing on the fly, with the cam advanced below torque peak, and letting the cam retard as RPM increases to increase upper RPM power. Basically this lets a small cam (short duration) act like a big cam (long duration) at high RPM while retaining the small cam goodness down low. It’s not exactly like a bigger cam, but it makes the small cam better. Since what I’m looking at is making the powerband as wide as possible VVT is what I want. I can advance or retard the cam as needed depending on RPM. I can adjust the cam events to the best time for the rotational speed of the engine.

And I watched the NASCAR Cup race from ‘Dega today, and there were fewer wrecks and the wrecks were smaller than in previous years. Aaannnnnd, congratulations to Brad Keselowski, they had the 9th different winner in 10 races, the playoffs are going to be LIT this year, and the race for the cutoff is going to be cutthroat.

October is somewhat early for this

But what the heck.

I’m doing a wish list of what I need to finish the Sprint-T, with markers for get it running (R), Nice to have (N), and ultimate race car (U). Now some items will cross over and get 2 or more tags (U, N, R) or (U, R) or (N, R) or (U, N) so if you want to mix and match as long as the item has at least one tag in common with other gifts it won’t be a wasted purchase. And I will also update this list with items given or purchased. So I will post a link to this post when the list gets updated.

I’m going to start the list with the tings I already have and where they fall on the list.
Body with no doors or floor (U, N, R)
Windshield posts (U, N, R)
Front axle (U, N, R)
Spindles (U, N, R)
Steering arms (U, N, R)
Steering wheel (U, N, R)
Wilwood 12.2″ disk brakes and calipers and brackets to fit spindles (U, N)
Brackets and heims for the axle (U, N, R)
Swing arms for the rear axle (U, N, R)

Now the stuff I don’t have is much longer.
Category engine:
Junkyard 5.3l LS architecture engine (R)

3.26″ stroke LS crank and matching rods from a 4.8l LS (U, N) with an aluminum block 4.0″ or larger bore (U) or a iron block from a 6.0l LS truck engine (N) a set of 862 casting number LS heads (U, N, R) and an aftermarket “Truck intake” that matches the ports on the heads (U, N, R) and this cam (U, N)

Microsquirt ECU and LS harness (U, N, R)

Category transmission:
Junkyard 4L80E transmission (U, N, R)

Junkyard 6L80E transmission (R) This one is heavier and has more loss in 1st and 2nd gears compared to the 4 speed, but gives better gas mileage highway.

Category rear end:
Junkyard 8.8″ ford axle and disk brakes in 5 X 4.5″ bolt circle (R) Found in 1983 and later Ford trucks and Ford Rangers and some Mustangs and SUVs until replaced by independent suspension. They still use the 8.8 as a center section for the independent suspension, but it won’t work for my car.

Winters or Speedway Engineering quick change with magnesium center section and aluminum tubes set up for GN or Superspeedway hubs with 1° negative camber (spindle up) and 60″ hub width (U, N)

Aluminum 5 X 4.75″ bolt circle hubs to fit the axle above (U, N) If you’re wondering the front hubs can be either Ford pattern (5 X 4.5″) or Chevy (5 X 4.75″) and the aluminum GN or Superspeedway hubs are available in 5 X 5″ or 5 X 4.75″, so they need to be the 4.75″ circle so I don’t have to buy as many kinds of wheels.

2 X 11.75″ X 0.81″ vented brake disks to fit the calipers (U, N)

Speedway emergency brake calipers Part # 91031046-L and -R and brackets BSB Manufacturing 7070 Steel Bearing Brake Floater Part # 91045534 (U, N)

That’s the current list as of 10/19/19. Watch this date to see if I update the list because I know there is stuff I left off the list of things I have, and I need much more stuff but don’t know what to get yet based on what I have and have room for in the car.

Yesterday was Fair Day

I did a food tour of the State Fair Of Texas yesterday, until I ran out of coupons. I took some pictures but not of everything. Anyway, this was lunch.

I also had a $4 lemonade that I think was 16 oz, and a $1 bottle of water. I forgot to take pictures of them.

This I wanted to stuff into my bag and take home for the Sprint-T, but it didn’t fit through the top of the bag. This is about as far as they could push the rules that required injection at the throttle body, and you can just barely see the coil pack on the front of the engine if you follow the plug wires back to the front. The ECU is mounted to the back of the engine stand but would be on the top of the dashboard under the windshield in the car. The throttle body is a standard Holley part that NASCAR requires, that Holly uses for their EFI conversion kits, because it worked and was cheaper that way.

And in this picture the coil pack is clearly visible along with the tiny alternator and the Holly EFI throttle body.

Something I noticed at the back of the engine was the bellhousing pattern appeared to be the same as the SBC and LS engines. I guess this was to make it easier to use available parts to connect the engine to the rest of the drivetrain.

Something else I saw at the Ford display was they had various sizes of SUVs, pickup rucks, and some Mustangs, and that was it, no actual passenger cars other than the Mustang. Their brochure listed another car, the Fusion, as available in 2020, but I saw nary a one in the display. Now there were some car-sized SUVs on display, basically full-size station wagons that didn’t have a sedan counterpart, some smaller and some bigger than the 1971 LTD wagon the family bought when we got back from when we were stationed in Africa.

And I have been transferring pictures from my phone to my computer to my blog media file for hours, and I’m ready to quit now.