1990 Troyer Modified Hillclimber

In reply to KevinGale :

Mine I traded the labor it took to swap that transmission for a traditional synchro 4 speed.  The owner could not get used to shifting without using the clutch. And if you use a clutch on a dog ring gear box you quickly ruin the gears. 

But at the time is was about $3200-3600 plus spare change gears.  Since he ruined 3 sets in a weekend and twice I went out in the car after changing the gears and found it shifted beautifully. He accepted that the gearbox was fine, he just couldn’t  change a lifetime habit. 

I see them once in a while on racing Junk. Not a whole lot of depreciation. 

Yes I have made that clutch mistake.  I was initially worried with the Jerico that habit would be a problem but so far not so much.  I haven't made the mistake of using the clutch in a quite a while.   I do sometime still do it at really slow speeds like when I am driving around not racing. But then I just shift very slowly  and it works without lots of noise.

I have also made the mistake a few times while racing of not shifting aggressively enough. The Jerico is really really happy when you shift hard and fast like you are trying to break something.  If you accidently try to do a gentle shift it gets very upset and lets you know but the loud banging sounds and the nasty vibrations you can feel in the stick. 

Its a sadomasochistic tranmission.  Hurt me please!

In reply to KevinGale :

Hit me, beat me, shift without the clutch!  I love it!  

I went through 12 years and the gears still look new. He drove one weekend and totally destroyed  three sets of gears. 

I cant imagine Jericho gears are any cheaper than Hewland or  Seinz. 

Racing Jaguars teaches you to be gentle, delicate even if you don’t want to be rebuilding  engines and stuff after every event.  Then you get a gearbox that forces the most abusive shifting imaginable and the dichotomy of the two really warps your mind.  

Wheel to wheel racing means if you are going to take advantage of any little edge you have you have to be hyper aggressive at the start and in every single corner.  You put yourself in really tight spots  with no room for error or contact because any body contact can get you a 13 month ban AND! A 13 month suspension!   

Then you have a engine designed during WW2 with a stroke right out of the 1880’s steam engines that will punish you if you rev it over 5500 rpm but a gearbox that absolutely demands brutal no clutch shifting.  Skinny little tires barely wider than a motorcycles and 150 mph corners that force you tip toe just slightly past the edge of control.  

I LOVE IT!  

Just realized I never posted a Burke II update.   Not a bad event overall.  The car seems to be running good. I finished second in FL behind Paul.  Sherman went off and did some damage to his car but nothing he can't fix.   First time he has been off in many years.   I was fighting traction issues. My tires are going away.  The plan is new tires before the final event this year (Ascutney).  My main problem was issues with the new shifter on Sunday.  I couldn't get the car to go into 4th gear on the final run.  So I just ran the hill in 3rd with a lot of running of the rev limiter.   My first guess is I didn't get something tight and the linkage or shifter mount moved.   Working on that today. 

Loading the car I also noticed a strange steering clunk and movement.  Today I figured out the steering rack bolts are loose.   At least that is an easy fix.  

New rubber for long course Ascutney!

HOW in THE Hell have you been doing this season.....i nodded  of in the BIG CHAIR and just now remembered this..MY BAD....hell gettin' old....wink

Funny I've been thinking that I've been avoiding posting for a while.  Ascutney long course wasn't my finest moment.   On the first run of the weekend I went off the road just after the traditional finish.  Bent a frame rail, nerf bar and a nerf bar support.  The bent nerf bar support prevented full suspension travel so my weekend (and season since it was the last event) was over. So I worked on Sunday instead of driving.

The off was from multiple causes.   The car didn't feel right part way up the hill and it was particularly bad once I hit the bumps at the top.  It was darting and just felt wrong.  It was so bad that I decided to pull off at the traditional finish.  But then at the last second I decided that I might as well finish the run.  Bad idea.  Since I had been planning on pulling off I was really not positioned well for the next corner. This is also I corner I haven't raced since we last ran long course in 2013. The corner was a lot sharper than I remembered.  So I was coming in with a bad line and too much speed.  Add in the two problems I later found that were causing the darting and I went right off the road at the exit of the corner. 

After I got pulled out I found that the panard bar had somehow loosened up and had quite a bit of play.   That didn't seem like it was caused by the crash since I didn't hit the rear end at all. I know I had checked the bolt before the event so I think I will have to do some design changes with a longer bolt and a jam nut to prevent the problem bolt from loosening.  Last night I also noticed that one of the u-joints in the steering is really loose.  Broken really, in that it now clunks back and forth.  During the crash I didn't hit the front end at all and there was nothing that should have broken any steering parts.  The u-joint is old and I was planning on replacing all the steering shaft u-joints this spring but I ran out of time and decided to do it this coming winter instead.  

So some mechanical problems and as usual plenty of driver error.  If the driver had pulled off like he knew he should have all would have been OK.  :-)   

I also put in my entry for Mt Washington which is coming next year. 

In reply to KevinGale :

At least you are ok. Metal we can fix, flesh we can't.

Post pics / updates when you can.

But now you are clearly aware of those issues, once addressed, that will prevent the really BIG OFF.

Motor is coming out today.  My good friend Sherman is coming over tomorrow to pull the motor apart for a refresh.   I'm hoping to get rid of a few oil leaks in the process. 

Also as proof that I do use the garage for some things that are not race related.  Here is the new (to us) Chevy Bolt EV on the lift.   After I drove it home I found one tire had a slow leak.  So it was up on the lift to rotate tires around and plug the leaking tire.

Love this place ......hey, are your garage door openers Liftmasters??? Is Sherman the dude running the short wb chevy PU in all this Hillclimb crazyness? 

In reply to 759NRNG :

Yes they are Liftmasters.  I like them so far.

Sherman is the one running the Suzuki Hayabusa powered dwarf car.  (Picture below) Although we call it the mod lite since it looks like a small modified.  It is wicked fast and Sherm is such a good driver.  

What's on the menu...... slight overbore with new slugs? 

759NRNG said:

What's on the menu...... slight overbore with new slugs? 

No, probably just a hone. It is already about max bore.  Just checking things.  Also we think it may be time for valve springs.  Going to check those.

This is my fave Ol Skool SBC and i know you know it like your favorite  pair of .....pick one....did you here ever go into pertinent SBC details .....bore/stroke....fuelie heads/not.....er bumpstick(secret data)?????

I think I've posted most of the "secrets" at one time or another.    Maybe someone can find some more in a picture.

3.5 stroke 4.165 bore

This is the cam

It is a fairly mild ramp solid roller cam.  I am running ETEC 200 Edelbrok heads and a Edelbrok Super Victor Vortect intake with a 650 carb.  The combination is really setup to have a really broad power band.  Most people would say it is a torque beast.   I wanted a really broad power band so I had to shift less and just because we are so up and down on speed and rpms in hillclimbing.    John Reed spent many hours using engine simulation software picking the cam parameters.  John also took into account that I'm just a part time racer and I don't want stuff that needs constant rebuilding or adjusting.  

Over 6" long rods?

In reply to 759NRNG :

6" rods.

The rods are these Scat H-Beam 6"

And the pistons are basically these Mahle PowerPak Piston and Ring Kits SBC550165F05  although my kit number was SBC250165105 and I think that one isn't made anymore.

Today I'm using a tungsten carbide scribe to mark the position on all the rockers and roller lifters.  When we took them out we marked them temporarily but I need something that won't wash off when they go through the parts washer.   I don't have the link but a pair of these pen like scribes was $7 on Amazon.

I'm also enjoying having a new work table. Thanks to my father in-law I now have another one of these stainless steel work tables.  Sam's club sells these. The first one I've had forever and I was thinking of getting a new one now that I have more garage space and another table will help more than get in the way.  Kelly's dad had one he wasn't using anymore and it turns out it is exactly the same as the one I already had.  

I love the stainless steel surface since it cleans up no matter what is spilled on it.  They can even be sterilized when I use the garage to process a deer.

One nice thing about having a lift is you can stack cars.  Snow coming tonight so I'm parking Ruby the Outback in the garage just to make clearing the driveway easier.  

Also picked up a new addition to the garage.  My father in-law decided he no longer really needed his Craftsman 15 1/2" drill press. Not sure the exact year of this drill press. My father in-law thinks it was made in 1973 but the manual that he still has what appears to be a 1977 date code.  Either way I'll take a working drill press.

Engine refresh is well in progress.

Sherman figured out how to covert the hand crank ring filer into something a little faster.

Fitting rings

Doing the initial install of the bearings so they can be measured.   My first time using a bolt stretch gauge.  Lot of feel here and it took time to get it right. I got better as I went along.