1990 Troyer Modified Hillclimber

I would be willing to donate to a Go Pro fund for this beast,just to see 30 seconds of video.Have you considered a shock absorbing cow catcher on the front to protect the expensive bits?

Got a Go-Pro now so there will probably be some video posted this year. I do have some vids from borrowing a friends Go-Pro. Kevin W Gale's YouTube channel Here is an old 2011 Okemo run.

10 days left, Kevin!

In lieu of chassis mods that would require refabrication to fix, have you considered bolt/clamp on aero mods? Not sure of the legality, but it seems likely this is in a pretty open class already :D

In reply to DaveEstey:

I'm not going to be done for Ascutney. Maybe if the motor hadn't needed to be opened up but with that there is really no chance. I'm shooting for Okemo at this point. But I'll be at Ascutney working finish. Haven't missed a NEHA hillclimb in more than 20 years now.

In reply to bluej: I don't mind doing mods but there are advantages to not building a whole car from scratch. I spend plenty of time welding! Our rules allow any aero mod you want. But hillclimbs are mostly low speed events and aero while it can play a role isn't as big a factor as it may be on higher speed track events. The places where you really want the extra grip are also the places where it is a hairpin turn and you just aren't going that fast.

Ahh, makes sense.

KevinGale wrote: In reply to DaveEstey: I'm not going to be done for Ascutney. Maybe if the motor hadn't needed to be opened up but with that there is really no chance. I'm shooting for Okemo at this point. But I'll be at Ascutney working finish. Haven't missed a NEHA hillclimb in more than 20 years now.

I know the feeling. My car won't be ready either, but I'll be there!

Why no independent rear suspension? Or is it just easier to keep the rear axle in and tune that setup? It's a radical looking race car.

In reply to Mr_Clutch42: Never seen a modified with independent suspension. On a smooth track there probably isn't enough advantage to make it worth it. For my type of racing an independent rear would be an advantage but it's more work and more money. The quick change rear setup is also super strong. It can handle lots of power and lots of abuse. The car handles bumpy courses pretty well and it is so tough I don't need to lift on the parts we have that threaten destroy suspensions. I don't feel the live axle rear end is actually limiting me a lot. AWD is a lot higher on the wish list.

You'd need a pretty robust IRS system to take the torque of that engine combined with the wide slicks.

I'm sure a Jag IRS unit or one of the aftermarket solutions would be solid enough. Something like this:
But you would loose the quick-change...unless such a thing exists that I am un-aware of.

You can build one with a quick change. I know a guy who did it.

Polishing the crank and back in.

That's my friend John Reed doing the engine work. Kitchen Sink Racing Engines - "No Grenades" is his motto.

This was all to address the issue where we found lot of copper from #1 rod bearing in the Oberg oil filter.

Big John!

This thread keeps getting awsomer....carry on please.

Crank back in and the gear drive timing cover back in place.

Motor is getting closer to being ready for battle.

The engine is a small block chevy. 4.165 bore 3.5 stroke for 381.5 cubic inches. The compression ratio is 11 to 1 so I can run run a mix of race fuel and 93 unleaded. Cuts the fuel bill down a bit. It's got a mild (for a race engine anyway) solid roller cam that makes great low end power. I've got 400 ft lbs available from the moment I let out the clutch and it goes up from there. Peak horsepower is around 500. This is all at the flywheel via some decent simulator software. It has never be on a dyno.

I've thought about some CNC ported heads and bumping the compression up to 12 or 12.5 and running straight race fuel but it's just a thought right now.

Front end is starting to come together. I think I have all the parts now. The fan is mounted and fits nicely just in front of the rack.

And thanks to John Reed I have a new firewall that doesn't look like it has survived a few crashes.

Front motor plate going on. The snout sticking out with the geared pulley is for the dry sump oil pump. Beyond that is just a hex John created for turning the engine over. I just put a big adjustable wrench on it when doing things like setting valve lash.

Front suspension more or less together. Springs are not in while I am checking travel. I'm still trying to figure out if the car is going to bottom out before the shocks bottom out. With the old front end the car would hit the pavement just before the shocks bottomed out which was perfect.

Edit: It turned out fine and I've bottomed out many times since then without damaging the shocks.

Motor is now sitting in the car. Power steering pump isn't on yet because we found the mount caused the belt to interfere with the dry sump pump. An alternate mount in in the works.

Got the Oberg oil filter mounted to the new firewall and lines connected. This stainless steel mesh screen filter is really nice. Not only is it reusable but you can see exactly what is in the filter. That is how I knew I had a bearing problem.

With a dry sump you end up with a real snake nest of oil lines.

It lives! The Troyer made loud V8 noises today for the first time since the crash last year.