Truck has been sitting since the Mopars race. I don't look forward to fixing the brake issue.

Did get some tinkering done on the new engine though. Put the injectors and fuel rails on, got the M1 manifold bolt kit from Richard at HiPoTek.

4150/4500 adapter came in so I bolted it on and put the throttle bracket on. Looks like 1" nitrous plate, 1/4" TB flange, a nut, the bracket, and another nut should make it work.

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Got the dragster engine together, got it running, pissed off the neighbors. Went to the track, nuked the trans. Think we found the issue, so now for the next saga...

De-Icer is used for a reason!



















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Not much new on the Dakota.... It has kinda been a back burner to the dragster for now. Allen Sherman at Sherman Racing Engines has the whole engine and a healthy deposit, realistic time frame is July or so, depending on pistons....I'm being a little picky on those and there may be a waiting list on them.

I got the driver front fender trimmed to clear the blower outlet and the mounting plate. I've talked to a couple people (namely Brian Esser), and there are a couple options for getting a charge pipe made to clear the tire. He has some impressively tight turns on his boosted setup.

Meanwhile, there's some news on the Dragster side. Went over to the new track (Xtreme Raceway Park) and got our 2 initial hits complete for a baseline.

Maximum G's were 2.84, burned 63 ounces of fuel (basically a half gallon) in 4.1 seconds, and the tire circumference grew 10 inches at the 1/8 mile from 110.5 to 120.5 inches or so.

** EDIT- Silly content filter is marking some of the random test in the Google String. The second timeslip:
60 - 1.0292
330 - 2.7050
660 - 4.0986 @ 176.61

 

Not even going to talk about the dragster... Have made 6 passes, blower has been on and off twice, oil pan has been off once, killed 2 pushrods, 2 lifters, and 2 rocker arms.....need I say more.

Truck is showing a little better promise. Bottom end is ordered, Allen Sherman decided that moving the ring pack down 0.200" would be sufficient, using the standard 043, 1/16, 3/16 ring pack. Have not decided on a cam yet, I have pitched some ideas for his consideration. He is going to attack my heads as much as he can, and cut them for 2.02 intake, and install Jesel Shaft Rockers.

He is also going to build the aluminum fuel cell for the truck.

 

Got some good progress in tonight while waiting for the cooling system on the dragster to burp.

Even with a pie-cut 90 coming out of the blower, I'm going to have to move the blower forward at least half an inch to clear the tire.

 

 

Talking to Ryan Rankin and Steve Dziorny, Looks like the nearly-ideal front spring is K225-M5.5 from https://landrumspring.com/wp-content...talog_2018.pdf .

18 inch free length, 225 pound per inch spring rate, 2900 pounds to coil bind, 5" coil-bind height.

Estimate the truck at 4400 pounds with me in it, 65% on the nose, 2,860 on the front axle, 1,430 on each side. The spring will be compressed 6.3", for a compressed ride-height length of 11.7 inches.

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Went back and looked in my photos from the mopars race. 2240/1690/3930 is my weight, less my 200 pounds.

Figure the V8 block and procharger will add 150 pounds to the front and I probably add 150.

2,540 /2 = 1,270 per spring.

18" free length - 11" static length = 7" compression

1,270 pounds / 7" compression = 181 pounds per inch

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It doesn't make sense how my math comes up with 180 in-pounds, when they are running 225's with a lighter platform (reg cab instead of ext). I sent Landrum an email, see if they respond back.

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I tried a couple spring calculators. So apparently the location of the spring on the lower control arm affects the actual spring rate, which is factored off the logical spring rate. The 180# number I come up with above, times the ~1.25 locator factor, comes up with 225 pounds force that is actually acted upon by the ball joint.

 

Well this was a small disaster.

I was hoping to have a standalone harness so I could run the engine break-in cycle out of the truck, while I could still get to everything easily. Damaged the harness trying to learn how the PCM connectors work... But at least now I have the correct wire colors and connectors for extending the harness where such will be necessary.

So the easiest way to do this is to NOT take the connector apart. Have the terminated wires handy, take the rear shield off the connector, and insert the wires into pin 2 and 13. They won't go all the way. Now, QUICKLY, use a small screwdriver to slide the blue locking mechanism over, stab the 2 injector wires in, then slide the blue locking mechanism back. Hopefully, none of the other wires will have moved.

I'm also talking to AGR/Steerco Performance about changing the pressure line to not have the kink in it, so that I can package it into the procharger plate. The story here is that the Dakota (and apparently, Dodge in general) steering rack uses an oddball, uncommon set of fittings. The thread is M16x1.5 with 3/8" line, 1/2" bead, and 1/4" saginaw flare.

I also looked at the rear springs. Landrum says to use the 18" long, 250 #/in springs in the front. I need to talk to Calvert about the back. Stock shackle is 4" long, the front half of the spring is fairly level at about 12.25", then it ramps up and the shackle bolt is about 18" from the ground. I didn't measure the axle offset and eye length, need to do that.

 

Just spoke with Eric at Calvert Racing about a split mono setup. They have a data file for the base Dakota as well as the RT.

The spring rate is set by the thickness of the rear half of the spring, while the ride height is set by the arch of the spring - thus, the same spring rate can be applied to multiple ride heights, and a single ride height can be applied to multiple spring rates. Additionally, shackle length can be used to make subtle adjustments to ride height.

Eric thinks that in my case it would apply closer to a 200 pound/inch spring with a factory ride height arch. There is one free exchange/adjustment, if the spring rate or ride height is not ideal, and the adjustment is only to the back half of the spring. The front half is a rigid structure that behaves like a 4-link, the rear half is the actual spring that dictates how much travel the improvised 4-link has.

 

Called Chris Alston's they had no help for leaf springs. Talked to Curtis at Landrum, he gave me a little knowledge but still not much. Said 200# sounded about right. He did tell me that some people do mix coil and leaf setups to have the best of both worlds, but didn't think that'd be neccesary in my case.

I found a leaf spring calculator and got to measuring. It looks like the stock V6 leaf pack is 130 # spring rate before the overload spring.

Don't laugh at the sway bar link. I have a ton of preload in that right rear....

 

Given the way I intend to stack the intercooler and radiator, I am looking at the AC condenser situation. I don't think the factory condenser will package well.

The wide Scirocco radiator will be 27" x 13" total. Below it, the intercooler is 22" x 12.5" of core, about 27" wide total.

https://www.treadstoneperformance.com/product.phtml?p=104561&cat_key=63&prodname=TR1235+ Intercooler++760HP

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Universal-A...4383.l4275.c10

https://www.ebay.com/itm/AC-Condense...4383.l4275.c10

https://www.summitracing.com/tx/part...-vuc/overview/

https://www.summitracing.com/tx/part...-ova/overview/

https://www.summitracing.com/tx/part...-vuc/overview/