Sick Week 2023

The casualties are stacking up:

Bryant Goldstone is out, unknown issue.

Cleetus McFarland is out with a hole in the block of that Steve Morris big block.

NickD said:

The casualties are stacking up:

Bryant Goldstone is out, unknown issue.

Cleetus McFarland is out with a hole in the block of that Steve Morris big block.

For as much drag and drive that he does, it's impressive that it lasted as long as it did, but still it's a $60k+ longblock! 

DirtyBird222 said:

NickD said:

The casualties are stacking up:

Bryant Goldstone is out, unknown issue.

Cleetus McFarland is out with a hole in the block of that Steve Morris big block.

For as much drag and drive that he does, it's impressive that it lasted as long as it did, but still it's a $60k+ longblock! 

That was more or less a fresh rebuild. Though the original build ran so long that on average it probably still met or exceeded expectations.

They accidentally ran it for a bit with basically no oil in it during an oil change the day before, not sure that's the cause but I'm sure it didn't help.

Went out there today and watched; enjoyed talking to people and seeing some of the crazier combinations.  There were a couple of Australian cars with Barra inline 6s in them, a Roots blown BB Pontiac Firebird, and several Coyote swapped Mustangs with the engine compartment jammed full of stuff.  The "Hauling Ash" hearse was absolutely bonkers.
 

The Swedish C4 Vette finally made a pass in the mid-afternoon and pedaled about three times, still went mid 7s at 192 mph!  Looked like a wild ride.  The door was duct taped on and didn't fly off again, at least.. Alex Taylor's shoebox Chevy seemed to have the least drama of the fast cars today and went an easy 6.9x at 208, I think.

dps214 said:

DirtyBird222 said:

NickD said:

The casualties are stacking up:

Bryant Goldstone is out, unknown issue.

Cleetus McFarland is out with a hole in the block of that Steve Morris big block.

For as much drag and drive that he does, it's impressive that it lasted as long as it did, but still it's a $60k+ longblock! 

That was more or less a fresh rebuild. Though the original build ran so long that on average it probably still met or exceeded expectations.

They accidentally ran it for a bit with basically no oil in it during an oil change the day before, not sure that's the cause but I'm sure it didn't help.

The idled it for a couple seconds after draining the oil. Unlikely to have caused the issue (it still had almost 80psi of oil pressure when they blew it up). They're pretty sure they split the block. Steve Morris said that really that thing was rated for 35psi, and they were pushing 45psi in a heavy car.  On the Day 2 drive, it had actually been showing lower than usual oil pressure (before the oil change). They contacted Steve Morris and he said it wasn't critically low and was safe to drive and likely just needed the oil changed. In retrospect, Steve thinks they probably cracked the block internally on Day 2, drove it to Georgia not knowing it, and that probably wiped out some bearings (oil pressure bypassing things and block out of alignment) and then it came undone when they put the 6.40 tune in it.

The engine held up last year, because most of the year they were running 28-30psi. It wasn't until World Cup Finals when Cleet really started leaning on it and running 45psi of boost. Then, after the refresh, they were immediately running that thing as hard as they could, with 40+psi of boost.

In reply to NickD :

I can't remember, did they ever have a boost cut situation with Mullet, or was that Leroy or a different car?  Spiking to 60-80 psi, even for a split second can't be good, either.

In reply to eastsideTim :

That was Leroy. They had the boost sensor line for the boost controller fail once (melted through, I think) and another time they pinched it between the bellhousing and block. So the sensor for the boost controller was seeing 0psi and was commanding as much boost as it could and spiked it to 60+psi so fast that the boost safeties couldn't react quick enough. The first time put rods through the block, the second time just bent a lot of rods. As far as I know, they've never had that issue on Mullet. They also said that they went back and looked at the oil they drained out of Mullet on the morning of Day 3 (before starting it with no oil in it) and there was some bearing flakes in the bottom of the pan, so that engine was going away before they started it without oil. 

While waiting for the final day to begin, I went down the rabbit hole of drag and drive events, wondering how much faster cars have gotten, and it's pretty insane.  From this article, it looks like the winning average ET at the first Drag Week was 8.58, but it only goes to 2018.  A little looking around, and Tom Bailey managed to average 6.58 at Drag Week last year, and I know there have been individual runs dropping down into the very high 5s.  Seems like quite an improvement in less than 20 years.

In reply to eastsideTim :

Especially when you consider how controversial Carl Scott's Nova was when it won the first Drag Week. It didn't have windshield wipers, headlights, any sort of an interior, and a Lenco trans. It was pretty radical for something that isn't considered that fast anymore, and even then people screamed about how much of a street car it wasn't. Comparatively, Tom Bailey's car has all the lights, power windows and a regular TH400 with an overdrive unit. Or Cleetus' Mullet, which runs 6.40s-6.70s and is pretty tame on the street.

I saw on 1320Video's coverage where someone was protesting Brett LaSala's green Mustang because "one-piece front ends aren't allowed in that class." Keith Turk was trying to bump him to Unlimited, but Brett was pointing out that it's not one-piece, the hood is one component and the front fenders and front bumper are another piece, making it a two-piece front end, especially because you can't take it off all as one. You have to remove the hood separately to be able to unclip the fender/bumper part. He told him "Look, if it's such an issue, I'll cut the fenders off the bumper at the seam, bolt them back together, and it'll be a 4-piece front end, and it'll have zero effect on the car's performance and I'll still be leading the class."