V-10 Nationals Trip/ Details within.....

Hello all, I just wanted to give my characteristic short post account of the preparation, drive down, event and return home........==> Those with short attention spans can order the cliff notes(LOL).


Well, a month before the event, I had a blown up tranny, I stripped out a part of the supercharger tensioner bracket, the lower heim joints on my front shocks were cracked and my power steering reservoir was leaking fluid out the bottom.

I also broke off the hydraulic fitting for the slave cylinder of the clutch and found a local guy who happened to have one for $20.00.==> Thanks to Doug Levin for offering to look for any parts I might need while I was preparing for the event. Like I said, I found a local guy who had one and I was spending every moment I had to get everything in perfect working order and did not respond to many posts except for one or two of Tom Welch's......

I will not go into all the details of all this shit as that part alone would exceed my response to Tom Welch a week or so ago!LOL!

The highlights are as follows:

After not centering the friction disk properly with the shit tool that comes with the clutch, I used the outer edge of the pressure plate rotor and everything lined up perfectly.........BUT as I was tightening up the clutch bolts 1/2 turn at a time, one became stripped out.

I remember a couple years ago, I was helping a former Viper Tech install a Centerforce clutch(The biggest piece of shit of a clutch I have ever had by the way...) and one of the threads became stripped{If you can only imagine how many clutches were put on this alum. flywheel, it would make sense why some of these have stripped}.

I remembered having the helicoils and threaded the insertion tool.

I found them and really patted myself on the back for still having them and being able to locate them.

I used my handy dandy tap and die set to re-thread the flywheel portion to accept the helicoil...... I threaded in the helicoil and everything was perfect.

I should have left it at that, but... I decided I should really add ANOTHER helicoil for EXTRA STRENGTH, you know? If one is good, two would surely be better right? WRONG!!!

It never occurred to me the threads would not line up from one to the next one.

The bolt, of course stopped. I could not for the life of me get the 2nd helicoil out.(I am of course freezing my balls off in the out building {as usual})

I got the bright idea I could use a tap to just RETHREAD the helicoil. This should work no problem, right? Those of you who know how wrong this is should really be getting a clue as to my degree of proficiency in regards to being a mechanic.

To make a long story short, I broke off the tap in the hole and could not get it out by drilling or pounding(the only methods available to the guy who does not even have a workbench with vise attached==> Can you say STROKE?=>Yes, I am talking highly of myself!)

Luckily, I had my steel stock flywheel sitting on my shelf and I used the new wire brush attachment on my drill to clean off the rust.

I used 80 grit sandpaper to put a cross hatch pattern on the friction surface=> If it works for cylinders and pistons to mate together, I figured this should work just fine and it did!

The trans went in with very little drama aside from the initial misalignment of the friction disk. I loctited and torqued everything properly.

The power steering reassembly was easy enough and the installation was not that bad either aside from my not marking which holes need the long and short bolts......

The pressure line was another story......

I got a $15.00 replacement one from Napa. It was about .75 inches shorter than the factory one.

It threaded in by hand a couple of turns no problem but became cross threaded the tighter it got as the line was a tad too short.

When JDAWG came over for a ride that night, the line pissed fluid all over the place.

When we looked, it seemed to be cross threaded by one thread. Obviously one was all it needed.

I went to the aout parts store the next day and got a bunch of o-rings and ended up cutting my 18mm whench in 1/2 to get the proper angle as to not cross thread the bitch this time.

We turned on the car and nothing leaked! Hahleleulia!(About fucking time!)

I took the car around and had a friend, John Walker drive the car as the stock clutch did not feel right. Since John had recently had a stock clutch put in, I relied on his feel for the clutch as the stocker did not feel anything like the RPS carbon clutch.

John said it felt fine and we put the car back up in the air to check for leaks everything was cool. It was 12:00 am ==> Time to take JDAWG for a ride until 3:00am!

Now, the preparation to leave: I always seem to leave about 12 hours later than I plan to.

I had a major mess of tools all over the floor.

It took me quite a while to get everything together to go. I got the car on my goofy trailer by myself and got my ass on the road by midnight/friday morning.

I had snow and ice and cars and trucks in ditches as I made my way south.

It was a long ass drive as I was whipped really before the trip even started.

I got into San Antonio at around 5:00 am and got the car off the trailer by 6:00 am.

I washed and detailed the car until around 9:00 am.

I took a shower and got a call from Smokin V-10 that I had better hurry up and get to the dyno before they closed it.

I did not sleep that night.

I went to the dyno and met a bunch of guys from the board like Smokin V-10, 1Tony1(What a nice guy), Hennessey, Jeff'yellow fever', Manny, Anthony '98 GTS, David Boggs, Thor, Big Carrot, Dean Word, Lawboy, and everyone else{I must apologize, I am drawing a blank as I am not that good with names}

Then, this goofy, "Adam Sandler on steroids-looking" motherfucker is standing next to my car with a grin on his face like the 'cat who just ate the canary' says to me, "Hey! how's it going?"

I ask him, "Do I know you?"

He says, "Mike, Moundir from the board"

I have to say the only way I could really bitch slap a guy that big would either be to club him while he is asleep or to do so in a highway roll-on race!

==>Mike, here's to you!, You big little whore! :rofl:

We will roll for sure!

Within ten minutes of arrival, I got to put my car on the dyno.

Obviously the belt was not tight the first run and I only pulled 790 RWHP.

After tightening the belt I pulled a surprising corrected 862.5 RWHP. I say surprising as I had on a bigger pulley and less aggressive timing than when I pulled the 887.7 RWHP earlier this year.


In the initial posting of this thread, I forgot to mention seeing Tom Welch at the dyno. We spoke briefly and everything was cool.

The following day at the dragstrip, Tom gave me some good advice which I tried to implement: That is a lot of things to think about when it goes by so quickly! Thanks Tom!

My favorite part of the event was racing Jason Heffner in Sal P.'s Heffner Twin Turbo.

I have attached the timeslip for all to see.

I SPANKED him SILLY!==> Just kidding!

We both had stock clutch smoking problems and moved from the 9.99-10.49 class to the 10.50-10.99 class.

Jason got me out of the hole(Big surprise there)

He had a .7287 RT I had a .8844 RT
He did a 1.7356 60 footer, I did a 1.7410 60 footer.
He had a 4.5523 330 ft, I had a 4.5633 330 ft.
He had a 6.8761 1/8 ET, I had a 6.8675 1/8 ET.
He had a 107.58 1/8 MPH, I had a 109.28 1/8 MPH.
He had an 8.9108 1000ft, I had an8.8613 1000ft.
He did a 10.7090 @126.23MPH, I did a 10.5076 @ 142.23MPH.

When we got back to the trailer, I asked him if he let me beat him....... He said yes and no.........

Jason did not see me in his rear view mirror and did not want to break out of the 10.5, do he let off for a split second and by the time he saw me go flying by him, he nailed the gas and it was too late! Game over.

Then I proceeded to roll foreward while revving before the lights even started and Big Carrot walked away with the 1st place! Congrats you bastard!LOL!!!!!==> Like Dan Akyroyd said to Chris Farley in "Tommy Boy"- " Savor the flavor son, 'cause that wont happen again" :thumb:

I also ran the Hennessey turbo car near the end and practically had to tighten the 6-point harness while I was doing the burnout.

I lost by about 5 cars in the 1/4.

I was disappointed about not being able to run Hennessey on the highway. He apologized and will be coming to Chicago in the spring to run the PC Heffner Twin Turbo.

I have to say that I saw Sal's car and the whole kit looks like Dodge spent millions of $$$$$$$$ to make a factory TT kit for the Viper.

I also went for a ride in Sal's car.......

All I can say is that as hard as my car ever pulls in each gear, Sal's car puls that hard in that gear THE INSTANT you hit the gas!==> Not bad for 10 PSI on a stock motor!

==> I can only imagine how hard my car will pull with the turbos set at 15 PSI!


The trip back was a total disaster as I went almost 300 miles out of the way and ended up driving 1500+ miles home instead of the 1250 miles I drove there!

I also got my trailer stuck in the mud and had to be towed out when I got home!

Thanks again to Dr. Roof and all! Also especially to Lawboy who took everybody out to lunch. I would have to say that was one of the best chicken sandwiches I have ever had==>Since It was free I would have to say it DEFINITELY WAS THE BEST! Thanks again! Paolo