Fangdango! V8 drag car

[CertifiedMike]

My 150psi cannister (we'll see if it really is) arrived, so I started on the nitrous kit.
View attachment 218661

After a few minutes of pondering where and how to mount it, think I found a good spot, and the charging port will clip right on the wheelie bar for easy fill up. The solenoid will get mounted on the throttle servo bar.
View attachment 218662

I have an 8 channel receiver arriving today so that I can actually use this. (1 channel for steering, 1 throttle, 1 ignition cutoff, 1 transbrake, 1 nitrous shot). The cannister is very lightweight, and if it works, I might some smaller ones on my other cars. The solenoids can only handle 100 psi, so in theory they should work great.

This is my FAVORITE kind of insanity!!!
This is going to be NUTS on the track!
You might want to consider running this car on a full 1000' track! NUTZ!!!!

 

[johnnydmd]

Nitrous kit installed. That was easy enough. Did some testing of the system. With this large cannister, only need about 50 psi to get a pretty long, steady blast. If that's not enough volume, I'll put in one of my other solenoids that can go to 100 psi and try that, but I think this will probably do the trick.

Snagged a spare engine for a song this week too. I also got the final CF parts to replace the prototypes, including the lower plate. I'll probably replace the easy parts, but that lower plate will likely wait until I have to tear it down for any reason, I can't see an easy way to swap that out. Got my black links installed too.

Saw another guy testing his build this week too. It's a 5th scale with a 4-speed manual transmission and pressure plate clutch. Amazing build, custom rail frame. He was being gentle with it, but it looked like it could have some decent get-up, though it's geared really low compared to mine. Engine had no trouble spinning the tires out on that much heavier car too.

Today it's dry, and 50 degrees out. But it's Tuesday. Why can't this happen on the weekend? Calling for 4 inches of snow Thursday now I'm getting serious cabin fever right about now.

 

[CertifiedMike]

Nitrous kit installed. That was easy enough. Did some testing of the system. With this large cannister, only need about 50 psi to get a pretty long, steady blast. If that's not enough volume, I'll put in one of my other solenoids that can go to 100 psi and try that, but I think this will probably do the trick.

View attachment 219330

Snagged a spare engine for a song this week too. I also got the final CF parts to replace the prototypes, including the lower plate. I'll probably replace the easy parts, but that lower plate will likely wait until I have to tear it down for any reason, I can't see an easy way to swap that out. Got my black links installed too.

Saw another guy testing his build this week too. It's a 5th scale with a 4-speed manual transmission and pressure plate clutch. Amazing build, custom rail frame. He was being gentle with it, but it looked like it could have some decent get-up, though it's geared really low compared to mine. Engine had no trouble spinning the tires out on that much heavier car too.

Today it's dry, and 50 degrees out. But it's Tuesday. Why can't this happen on the weekend? Calling for 4 inches of snow Thursday now I'm getting serious cabin fever right about now.

My snow blower has more miles on it than my truck does this winter.
4" of snow every 2 days.
Def ready for a warm vacation!!!

I might install nitrous on my hat so I can keep laughing during the snow removal!

4 spd manual trans?!?! That must have been a neat trick to build! Any chance you have a link to that?

 

[johnnydmd]

My snow blower has more miles on it than my truck does this winter.
4" of snow every 2 days.
Def ready for a warm vacation!!!

I might install nitrous on my hat so I can keep laughing during the snow removal!

4 spd manual trans?!?! That must have been a neat trick to build! Any chance you have a link to that?

He's only got it posted on FB - Video

I think he took the trans from the 4 banger and fabbed up a converter.

It'll be interesting to see how fast he can get it with that setup. I'm pretty convinced the only way to make any of these 4-stroke V8's fast is to gear the engine output way up though. Using a 1:1 style approach won't be fast, but I guess it all depends on what you're building it for.

 

[Roog]

What a beast!

it will be great to see and hear it run.

 

[johnnydmd]

So, I picked up a spare, running engine that a guy was selling dirt cheap. It was from the first run, which had a number of issues, but he upgraded the parts that were required, and it came with a stand, tank, radiator and switches. Also thrown in was a bunch of spare parts including gaskets. Score

This little stand will make a great test/tune unit. I had some issues with the oil pump not moving any oil, traced it to the filter cannister gasket being torn and sucking air. Plus, those pumps do need to be primed, and I guess with the oil drained, and in transport, it was bone dry. Engine fired up and ran great

As you can see in the pic, he also threw in some yellow plug wire, which is much better stuff than stock, so I went and redid the wiring on my other engine as well.

Meanwhile, I've been slowly ordering, and stocking up on various spare parts.

 

[WickedFog]

So, I picked up a spare, running engine that a guy was selling dirt cheap. It was from the first run, which had a number of issues, but he upgraded the parts that were required, and it came with a stand, tank, radiator and switches. Also thrown in was a bunch of spare parts including gaskets. Score
View attachment 220261

This little stand will make a great test/tune unit. I had some issues with the oil pump not moving any oil, traced it to the filter cannister gasket being torn and sucking air. Plus, those pumps do need to be primed, and I guess with the oil drained, and in transport, it was bone dry. Engine fired up and ran great

As you can see in the pic, he also threw in some yellow plug wire, which is much better stuff than stock, so I went and redid the wiring on my other engine as well.

View attachment 220262

Meanwhile, I've been slowly ordering, and stocking up on various spare parts.

Wire looms! It's missing the old school wire looms that mount to the valve cover.

 

[johnnydmd]

Wire looms! It's missing the old school wire looms that mount to the valve cover.

I just made them myself from plastic tubing and superglue

 

[Doom!]

Nice score!

 

[Roog]

So, I picked up a spare, running engine that a guy was selling dirt cheap. It was from the first run, which had a number of issues, but he upgraded the parts that were required, and it came with a stand, tank, radiator and switches. Also thrown in was a bunch of spare parts including gaskets. Score
View attachment 220261

This little stand will make a great test/tune unit. I had some issues with the oil pump not moving any oil, traced it to the filter cannister gasket being torn and sucking air. Plus, those pumps do need to be primed, and I guess with the oil drained, and in transport, it was bone dry. Engine fired up and ran great

As you can see in the pic, he also threw in some yellow plug wire, which is much better stuff than stock, so I went and redid the wiring on my other engine as well.

View attachment 220262

Meanwhile, I've been slowly ordering, and stocking up on various spare parts.

Wow, I mean wow!

 

[johnnydmd]

Motorama was crazy, and this car got dozens upon dozens of onlookers, question askers, picture takers. Sadly, I could not start it up for anyone as it wasn't permitted being indoors. I did manage to start it up for a few guys when loading in and all the doors where open. It was a lot of fun! Chris Rankin, Caden Rankin, El Kiko, and a few other Street Outlaws were our booth neighbors. Kiko I already knew from him being at one of our events over the Summer. They were all racing RC's along with displaying their 1:1 cars. The RC dragstrip ran right in front of our booth, so we got a full two days of watching quite a bit of carnage to say the least! Sold some chassis and got a ton of people interested in racing with us.

Our booth after set-up.

All day long (both days) I had people asking about this car.

It was utterly exhausting, but we had a blast. Wife and I got a nice steak dinner for Valentines Day (ate the leftovers the next day). Sunday a snow squall hit but it got really crowded again for a few hours before we packed up and left. We had videos and episodes of RCSO playing the whole time, and it was crazy how many people loved seeing the nitro cars, and videos of the V8 running. Probably around 30 people asked me how much one of the V8 chassis would run when I get it out there. Nobody seemed even phased by the costs, other than maybe a few young-ins.

It would have been cool to make a pass with the car on the track, but it was good that it didn't. For starters, one of my coolant hoses split and was leaking badly. The other thing was that the radio glitched out really badly when I did start it up. This was the exact same glitching JQ90 has with his monster truck using the same engine.

The coolant line was due to me, not reading/following instructions and using the wrong hoses (to be fair, the instructions do suck). I saw the proper ones to use after looking at the new engine I got. That new engine has proven to help me quite a bit actually, to rectify a number of mistakes I made.

The radio issue was strange. I had put in a new 8 channel receiver, replacing the 4 channel one, but not tested until now. So, I put the 4 channel back in, and it worked fine. Hmm. Decided to move the radio to the rear of the car and put it in a box.

Fired it up and it still glitched out. Each time, I have to turn the receiver off, then back on. However, now it took a little longer to happen. I kept playing around, and soon I realized that the issue occurred when I had the transmitter within 2 feet of the engine. This was also happening because I was standing with the car facing me, and the engine close to the receiver. Standing behind the car, and keeping it 2 feet away, no problem at all. I'll be very interested to see what JQ90 comes up with as a solution, though I think I can live with it.

While I had it running, I decided to give the trans brake a test to see if it was truly useful. Man, that thing works great! I engaged it, hit the idle bump, and the engine revved up and was snapping and popping and sounding like a real drag machine, with the rear tires staying locked. Yeah, I'm gonna keep that. I should have videoed it.

I also got the spare engine up and running, and it runs perfect.

 

[CertifiedMike]

That place looks like a PERFECT place to get stuck during a snow storm!!! What a cool set up you have!
I'll bet those folks running 1:1 didn't flinch at all at the price tag! No much cheap about hot rodding these days!
I'm glad you got so much interest. Making some sales is always nice too. It sounds like a great time!

 

[DavidB1126]

Nice! Couldn't go up this year but hopefully next year!

 

[johnnydmd]

Daylight savings and 70+ degrees, woohoo! I got my butt out there and testing this thing.

Fired it up, warmed it up, and tuned. Set the beast down and gave it a nice little launch, not a ton of throttle, but it was easy to see it gripped a good bit better since last time. Tried a couple quick shots from stop, and it was still pretty easy to get it sideways, but it was definitely driveable now.

I got it rolling out and it was moving rather fast, and so I gave it some gas to see what kind of top end it might have, and in an instant the car was sideways, and cartwheeling. It landed on its feet, but when I drove it back, one of the front wheels was dragging sideways. Man, dumb move even driving that at all without the body on! So, I put the thing on the table, saw that the steering damage was just a screw pulled out of the camber block, and that it wasn't compromised. The rear body posts were a little bent, so I fixed those. The air cleaner was a bit mangled, but no other damage.

I figured all was good, so I put the body on, set up my phone to take some video, and started the car back up. I noticed right off that the rear wheels were spinning at idle. Shut it off and confirmed that the clutch was completely frozen. So that ended my day, and of course, once again, I have no video to show for it. I honestly sometimes feel burdened by recording video, and that is part of the problem. I know I need it though.

Took the trans apart, and found that the bolt holding the clutch bell on had overtighted itself and bound the clutch up. This was partially caused by having a washer that I didn't need, and also caused by the flywheel being slightly loose on the collet. All fixed, and all good now. I figured with that apart, I'd also swap in the higher ratio gears that I figured I'd have to try anyway. I think the 2.5:1 gears were just too torquey and I don't think I'd have enough top end with them.

Those fit perfectly. I will test that it can idle with those without engaging the clutch. Currently my shoes are in the reverse position, and I may have to flip them back to standard if it's too grabby, but I think it'll be ok.

Other issues are:

My exhaust flanges are pretty crap. I really hope to get some proper ones, and a proper exhaust set up. I guess this is ok for now, but they keep getting loose.

I have to re-route the starter button and connector to the rear of the car where I can access it more easily.

Otherwise, the car drove fine, and there were no radio glitches. Hoping to test some Saturday.

 

[Xraycer]

I could never race that thing!

 

[WickedFog]

Daylight savings and 70+ degrees, woohoo! I got my butt out there and testing this thing.

View attachment 225973
View attachment 225974

Fired it up, warmed it up, and tuned. Set the beast down and gave it a nice little launch, not a ton of throttle, but it was easy to see it gripped a good bit better since last time. Tried a couple quick shots from stop, and it was still pretty easy to get it sideways, but it was definitely driveable now.

I got it rolling out and it was moving rather fast, and so I gave it some gas to see what kind of top end it might have, and in an instant the car was sideways, and cartwheeling. It landed on its feet, but when I drove it back, one of the front wheels was dragging sideways. Man, dumb move even driving that at all without the body on! So, I put the thing on the table, saw that the steering damage was just a screw pulled out of the camber block, and that it wasn't compromised. The rear body posts were a little bent, so I fixed those. The air cleaner was a bit mangled, but no other damage.
View attachment 225975

I figured all was good, so I put the body on, set up my phone to take some video, and started the car back up. I noticed right off that the rear wheels were spinning at idle. Shut it off and confirmed that the clutch was completely frozen. So that ended my day, and of course, once again, I have no video to show for it. I honestly sometimes feel burdened by recording video, and that is part of the problem. I know I need it though.

Took the trans apart, and found that the bolt holding the clutch bell on had overtighted itself and bound the clutch up. This was partially caused by having a washer that I didn't need, and also caused by the flywheel being slightly loose on the collet. All fixed, and all good now. I figured with that apart, I'd also swap in the higher ratio gears that I figured I'd have to try anyway. I think the 2.5:1 gears were just too torquey and I don't think I'd have enough top end with them.
View attachment 225976

Those fit perfectly. I will test that it can idle with those without engaging the clutch. Currently my shoes are in the reverse position, and I may have to flip them back to standard if it's too grabby, but I think it'll be ok.

Other issues are:

My exhaust flanges are pretty crap. I really hope to get some proper ones, and a proper exhaust set up. I guess this is ok for now, but they keep getting loose.

I have to re-route the starter button and connector to the rear of the car where I can access it more easily.

Otherwise, the car drove fine, and there were no radio glitches. Hoping to test some Saturday.

That'll buff out with some elbow grease. Glad there wasn't more damage.

 

[johnnydmd]

That'll buff out with some elbow grease. Glad there wasn't more damage.

Haha yup. I straightened it back out already anyway

As for the damage, the whole thing seemed be happening in slow motion, I think I saw a bunch of $ signs while it was upside down in mid air

 

[WickedFog]

Haha yup. I straightened it back out already anyway

As for the damage, the whole thing seemed be happening in slow motion, I think I saw a bunch of $ signs while it was upside down in mid air

Yeah, I bet man. You better get you a beater body for trst and tune days It would have likely felt the same watching that work of art tumbling across the pavement.

 

[CertifiedMike]

I can't imagine!!! That was emotional for ME!
I'm happy to hear it wasn't worse!
You know what they say... as long as the driver walked away...
It sounds like a BEAST on the track! Even tho it wasn't how you wanted it to go, I'm happy that you finally got a chance to get her out again! Its been a long winter!!!
Film, pics... I am bad with all of it. It would be nice to find "THE" camera system.
Thanks for dealing with it tho! These posts, this build has been a highlight on the site. I really enjoy the updates.

 

[Doom!]

Glad it was minor stuff. I would have had some choice words watching it flip!