The Forgotten Man - Jon McNaughton

Winter's back, I hate winter!

Woke up to gray skies, drizzle and cold temps and had a car show to go to in Golden too. We did go and while it was drizzling/light raining at the house, the sun was out at the car show. Ok so it only lasted about a half an hour but it was out none the less, but then the clouds took over and it was cold again. The car show let out around 2pm and yup that's when the skies cleared and the sun came out and it was nice. I've had to close some windows in the house, thermostat say's it's 66 in the living room and that's cold to me. In the end it sure beat being at work though, just ask the wife, she had to work.

2010 High Altitude Bracket Nationals

It's been a long time coming but I was finally able to race the car with the new 347 and not have it leaking all over the track.

I made 3 runs Friday all in the 11.7 range at 117 mph, the only problem I had was the car bogged real bad on the launch. I thought about the problem and Saturday made an adjustment to the fuel level in the secondary float and it really helped. I made 2 time runs Saturday and the first was a 11.59, the second an 11.65 so the car was running better in the heat we had.

For the first round I had the bad luck of having to race my Phast Phat Racing team member Steve and got lucky and won because he red lit. He had a great day too though, he was picked to run a special money race and won his first round but lost his second when he went to quick.

So on to the second round I go and won that one when my opponent went too quick and I ran closer to my dial, 11.63 on a 11.64 dial in. Now I'm on to the 3rd round and get a car that's a lot quicker than mine so I leave first. I knew when let go of the trans brake button I was late on the light, and sure enough the other guy caught me by about 1000' and won rather easily.

No complaints from me though, all the nights under the car, swearing at it and being frustrated paid off, the car ran great all weekend with no problems.

We have another race next Sunday where I'll be putting some runs on the set up to try and get it a little quicker.

Oil pan update!

Finally some good news after a summer filled with me whining and bitching about the new motor.

I was able to pull the pan and apply enough sealer to it and put it back together Friday night. Today I fired it up to see if it leaks and I'm happy to say it's not. I'll fire it up again tomorrow to check again but I think it's going to work.

On to the Bracket Nats!

Next week on As The 347 Turns

The soap opera that is the 347 continues to run daily on the Klondike channel, but I hope to end it's run soon.

As you know I had an oil leak at Pinks and couldn't run the car. We thought it was a galley plug in the back of the block not sealed and took the transmission out to reseal them. I finished that Sunday and started it up only to have it still leaking badly and determined it's the oil pan gasket that's actually leaking. After I saw it leaking again I snapped badly and threw some things in the garage, punched a few inanimate objects and looked pretty stupid, but I have to say I felt better at the time, now I feel stupid.

So the plan is to drop the oil pan down and clean it and then using silicone sealer try and reseal the gasket. I hope this works because if not the motor is coming out and the year will be done for me because I'm not going to try and get it back in for just a couple of fall races. I have this weekend to get this done, the Bracket Nationals are next weekend and that's last big race this year.

Latest update on the race car

As you can see by the photo the car actually made it to the Pinks All-Out race last weekend, but this run you see here was it's only one. It had a bad oil leak and I had to park it for the rest of the weekend and now it's back in the garage up on jack stands getting fixed. We aren't 100% sure of where the oil was leaking from but it's most likely from one of the galley plugs on the back of the engine block. There are three plugs back there that are oil related and none of them had any sealer on that I could find and also were rather loose. I really hope that's all the problem is because I really want to race the thing now that it's done. That one pass I put on it was a really easy one and now it's time to run it hard and see how it really performs. I'm hoping to make a race next weekend in Pueblo at a Ford vs Mopar race, all I have to do now is ask BP how they got the gusher capped, lol.

The last straw

I gave it a a lot of effort but in the end the car won and is not racing any time soon. My friend Kevin figured out a solution to the trans dipstick problem and he also fixed the steering problem I had but the last straw was no oil pressure.

The last thing I had to do to the engine was install the pushrods and rocker arms, prime the oil system and start the thing and let it run for a while to break in. I did all that and went to prime the oil system and can't get any oil pressure at all. I tried for over 2 hours to get that oil pump to pressurize with no luck so I finally had to throw in the towel.

To get all the major obstacles out of the way and then have something so simple thwart my effort left me on the verge of tears really. The only thing left to do now is take the front of the engine apart and try to see why there's no oil pressure.

At this point I'm about ready to push the car into the trailer and forget about for the rest of the year.

The Saga of the 347

This started last year when my friend Mike bought a bigger motor for his race car and was going to sell his 347. Well I got this big idea to buy it from him, put it in my Coupe and run quicker than with my 308.

So in January I bought it from him and in February I took it to my friend Kevin for him to check over and put a bigger camshaft in it. That's when the nightmare started really.
He started looking it over and found the pistons were too lose in the bores and would be a problem. It turned out I had to buy new pistons for it so I decided to get ones that would also increase the compression in the engine. More compression means more power which is good for a race car.

So with new pistons ordered and the engine at the machine shop we decided to work on the cylinder heads so we could put a larger camshaft in it. Larger camshaft means more power, again a good thing for a race car.

Now another nightmare begins.

Mike had these cylinder heads built by a reputable race shop and they did at all wrong too. We always wondered why the motor never ran any better after he had all the work done on the cylinder heads and we found out why. The supposed race shop took the heads apart and put parts back in that weren't even as good as what came out. The valve springs were too light and couldn't support a very big camshaft. The valves they but back in were too small, they put in 2.02 inch valves when they should have been 2.08. The valves were also too short which why they couldn't put a very big valve spring in it. So basically Mike spent over $2500 on this and got back heads that were worse than what he had to begin with.

So now I have to take the cylinder heads down to the machine shop and have those rebuilt too with all the correct parts. The shop I took them too did a great job on them and now I have a very good set of cylinder heads for my 347.

My friend Kevin assembled the 347 for me and we ran into another nightmare.

We started putting it together way back in the second week of July and things were going along fine until we started to put the connecting rods in the block. It turns out the connecting rods used in this motor take a special rod bearing that I didn't know about. I'd ordered regular Ford rod bearings and guess what they didn't fit. So we did a little research on the internet and found they actually used a rod bearing from a 1979 Chevy Monte Carlo with a 3.3 liter V-6.
I called the machine shop and told this to them and was assured that I could use a standard small block Chevy rod bearing. So I ordered them and guess what, they didn't fit, too big. So I called them back and told them this and they ordered the bearing for the V-6 Chevy, but I had to wait another 3 days for those to come in.

So in the mean time we decided to do what could to the cylinder heads and my friend Mike was going to let me use a set of rocker arms he had laying around. Yup, they wouldn't fit, too small. My cylinder heads use a 7/16 rocker arm stud and they were for a 3/8 rocker arm stud. So now I had to track down rocker arms and it turned out I needed a special set that's only sold by one company. Lucky me this time and they had a set in stock, just had to wait a week to get them is all.

Well in the mean time Kevin got all the parts and finally able to start assembly of the engine, and another nightmare pops up. Now there wasn't enough clearance for the connecting rods, so it had to come apart again and Kevin took it to another machine shop where they fixed that problem, just took another 3 days.

The time line is important because this whole time I was working toward trying to make the Pinks All-Out race on August 13-14, which I might not make it looks like.

So after all this Kevin only needed 2 days to put the engine together and I was able to pick it up Friday night after work. And another nightmare pops up.

Well after spending all day at it the motor is in the car, but the headers are being a pain in the neck. I borrowed them from a friend and they fit except for where the evac tube. Because they came off a EFI car they welded the evac tubes on the inside of the collector, leaving the outside for the O2 sensor. Because I have a pan fill transmission instead of a case fill the dipstick tube is in the way of the evac tube preventing the header from mounting to the head. So that's where I'm at right now, trying to figure out how to get the headers to work in the car. I'll be back at tomorrow in hopes of figuring it out.

Puppy update!

Kyanna is doing fine, she had her operation last Friday and is healing nicely. We have been keeping her and Mystique separated just in case Mystique still has a problem with her.

If I didn't mention it just before Kyanna's operation they had a run in where Mystique attacked her and in the process of trying to separate them I got scratched up pretty bad. I'm mostly healed now, and they don't seem to remember it but I'll have some scars from it.

Kyanna has escaped from the kitchen a couple of times and was in the same room as Mystique and wasn't harmed so we're hoping it's over and done with. The Vet was thinking that Mystique could sense Kyanna going into heat and thinks that after she's fixed it should get better between them.
I hope so because I don't want to give another dog away like we had to with Cubby a few years ago.

One and done, lol.

So the race car has had one outing this year and it's parked again without an engine. I sold the one that was in the car so I could put the new I've been working on in the car. I didn't get much for the old one but it had to go because there's no room here to store it.

The new one is 347 cubic inches and should make a lot more power than the old one did, we're hoping for 500 horsepower at the rear wheels. If it makes that kind of power the coupe should be running in the 10.90 - 11.0 range @ 124 mph.

After this project is done the car won't be getting any modifications for a while, it's just too costly to keep changing things. As it is now though, most of the drive line is all new, just the rear differential might need some attention but that will have to wait.

The Coupes first race of the year

I finally got the coupe up to the race track with big expectations, and ended up with a let down really. The one thing I neglected to do this whole time was change the spark plugs and it came back to bite me on the first time run. But first there's the issue of getting the car through tech inspection and this did not go well, but my fault not theirs. So the first thing they tell me is I have to completely fill out the tech card and I'm thinking why I've already filled out one each race I've been to this year, all be it with different cars, and the coupe is the same as it was last year so I'm thinking waste of time and holding me up here. I fill it out and a different tech comes over and starts going over the car, finds nothing wrong and sends me over to the tech shack to get my yearly tech sticker, only to be denied it there. It turns out the seat belts were expired and needed to be replaced which I was able to do there at the track and finally get the tech sticker.

Well I'm driving the race car down and back from tech and it's not running real great, it has a miss in it and I'm not sure where to look for it. So I get back to the pits and change the seat belts out, all good there now, and start messing with the carburetor and it's all ok and it's time to make the first time run so I go down and give it a shot. The launch of the car was really soft, it didn't want to rpm and that miss was there in spades so it ran really slow. I had bought new spark plugs and intended to put them in before I got to the track but just didn't get it done so I decided to do that now and see if that helped, boy did it. It turns out the gap on the #4 spark plug was completely closed up so it was only running on 7 cylinders, but all the other plugs were fine. I put in the new set and fired it up and it sounded like it's old self again and ran like it too.

Overall the car's running slower than I would have expected since I took almost 100 pds off the front of the car. Last year with the stock K frame in it weighed 2645 with me in it and this year with the new tubular K frame in it weighs 2585 with me in it. So I was expecting to run a little quicker this year but the car ran about the same times it did last year for the air conditions. I also red lit in the first round, still having problems leaving on a good light.

So today is All Ford day and I'll be up there trying to win some rounds and get the car running better. Last year at this event I made it to the semi-finals so I'm hoping to repeat that success this year if not better it.

Truly forgettable day

Well it started with Thursday really, we had a series of really nasty thunderstorms roll through that included hail. I had both Mustangs parked outside because I was cleaning the garage and there was some flooring material in the way. I didn't give it much thought to move it out of the way so I could pull the Mach 1 in until I found out it also hailed on Thursday. I've also had the race trailer parked here because we were going racing Saturday, which we didn't because all it's done today is rain. Anyways, I go out this morning to get a couple of parts I need out of the trailer and I find water all over the floor. I looked up and the hail had trashed one of my skylights, broke it in 3 places, so now I'm worried the Mach might have hail damage. Well I managed to get a plastic bag over the broken skylight and then took the trailer back to the storage yard and parked it.

I decided to run an errand for a friend and as I'm driving around town in my big black truck, the speedometer starts going crazy then stops working all together. Great, now what's wrong? I checked all the fuses thinking it might be a short somewhere and didn't find one so now what? I sat down and google is your friend and found it's most likely the VSS, Vehicle Speed Sensor. It's about $20 from Auto Zone and pretty easy to replace so I'll take a shot at it tomorrow and let you know.

I then got up the courage to take the car cover off the Mach 1 and see how bad it might be. It was nice to see it didn't break any glass so I pulled it in the garage and started to clean the dirt off it when I saw them. I counted 3 dimples on the roof and one on the fender so far. I haven't been over the whole car yet because it was getting dark, so I'll have to do a more detailed inspection on a better day.

I never thought I'd say, I'll be glad when this weekend is over, and I will be. On the bright side though, we go on a mini vacation starting Wednesday. We're going to Steamboat for the

Rocky Mountain Mustang Roundup and the long range weather report looks very good. Cross your fingers for us it stays that way.

So how crappy was your weekend?

Race car update

The new, correct A arms are now on the car and boy is that a long job for a rookie. I tried to do it without removing the rotors which wasn't happening at all, so I had to totally disassemble both sides and go from there. I'll tell ya, doing this by yourself on your garage floor sucks! Many times I wished I'd had an extra pair of hands to hold a wrench, but no one available so I went it alone.

I'd like to know how in the hell they expect you to torque the A arm bolts down to 200 ft-pds, there's no frigging way with that thing down on the floor. I also managed to break my one good torque wrench too, so I'll be looking to get a new one of those. Tomorrow will be the big test when I take it out of the garage and put it in the trailer, cross your fingers I put it together right, I am.

Major frustration

That's about all I'm getting right now with the race car, major frustration. But I have figured out what the problem is with the front suspension on the car.

I bought a tubular K-frame from a friend and have been struggling trying to get it installed correctly. I found out over the weekend, after missing my 3rd straight race, that the idiot they bought it from had bought the wrong A-arms for it. The knuckle head bought ones for a 94-98 Mustang when mine is a 79-93 Mustang. So I've sold the incorrect ones and ordered the correct ones and hopefully the car will be at the next race.

On the plus side, the 347 is finally out of the machine shop and in my garage waiting it's turn in line to get assembled by Kevin of High Risk Racing Engines. Once that's done I'll taking the 308 back out and putting the 347 in which should be done in July since we don't race in that month.

My San Diego Padres

That's what Ted Leitner says during his play by play on the radio and after demolishing the Braves Monday, 17-2, how many runs will they score in the game tonight? I'm thinking 4 and it's going to be a closer game, but with Chris Young on the DL the Padres pitching is pretty sad now.

Nice weather, finally

We're finally having some nice weather around here, only the wind to deal with which I don't care for at all. This past Saturday was the first test and tune at Bandimere and since I'm still waiting on a engine I just sat around and watched Dr. Who DVD's all day. The car is almost finished with the k-member swap (for those that forgot, I was given a tubular k-frame from my buddys at Phast Phat Racing to replace the stock one and take about 50 pounds off the nose of the car. The k-frame is where the engine sits). I only have some little odds and ends to put back on it and it's ready to come off the jack stands.

On a good note, Carrie is finally able to go back to work Monday, hooray!! She's been off since Jan. 19th and has been going nuts wanting to get back to work.

That's about all for now, the new puppy is getting bigger, and nuttier every day, I'll have to post some pics soon.

Spring?

It says on the calender tomorrow is the first day of spring, but look out side and the snow is blowing side ways. Colorado, if you don't like the weather wait 5 minutes because it's going to change, for the worse.

Name change

We struggled all day trying to come up with a name for the puppy, we tried Storm, Rouge and my mom suggested Pawnee and thought that was a good one. The problem with that one was when she went pottie it was confusing to us and probably her too. So I looked at a map and since she's part Husky I was looking at Alaska and saw town named Kiana. Carrie heard that name and liked it right away, so as of now that's the one we're going to start calling her. To be different though we'll spell it Kiyana.

New family member

We have a new puppy in the house, Pawnee is 8 weeks old, Australian Shepperd/Husky mix, that's what the puppy rescue thinks anyways. My mom gets the credit for naming this pup, Carrie changed the spelling though.

So what's new?

Not too much really, Carrie had her feet operated on and that hasn't gone so well, lately she's been suffering from migraines and lots of nausea. She'll be out of work for another 3 weeks, so her days are filled with laying on the couch being bored to tears. We did start doing some PT on it this week and it just about brings her to tears each time, but the DR says to do it and try and break up any scar tissue. Now if we could just get rid of the nausea and head aches she might start getting better.

The race car is torn apart now, I'm replacing some parts in the front suspension to make it lighter and hopefully quicker. The new season is just about 6 weeks away now, the first test & tune is scheduled for April 10th. The other thing holding up the car is the engine, or lack there of actually.

So, that's the happs around here, not much really and happy days, it's snowing again thank the lords of cobalt for global warming eh?

Foot update

Carrie had the stitches taken out today, still in a lot of pain and not feeling very well. She did say she's looking forward to going and visiting my mom for a few days, so am I. We'll be leaving Saturday morning and arriving there by 5pm if all goes well.

The photo is after they were removed, poor thing looks like a Frankenstein body part.

Facebook

I held off as long as I could, but I'm on Facebook now and it's pretty useful. I'm actually amazed at how many people I know that are on here, some I would have never expected. It's just one more app to keep my face plastered in my iPhone, laptop or in front of my desk top.

So we have a new bedroom set for the first time in over 20 years, and shock I actually picked it out. It was the only we saw that we both liked and it has one of those new health foam type mattress that's firm yet comfortable. The set is a bit larger than we thought so it fills up the master bedroom leaving no room for my collectibles so they're being evicted back to the computer room.
Our other new item is our garage door, the original finally gave up. We were going to have the original rebuilt but for just a few dollars more we got a new one. The new one is insulated, and 20x quieter than the old and we got a new opener to boot.

Now to get the race car in there and get to work getting it ready for the new season that starts in 3 months, hooray!!

Foot surgery update

Thought I'd give an update on how Carrie is doing following her foot surgery Tuesday the 19th. While the operation was a success and didn't take very long, the aftermath hasn't been as easy. There's been a lot of pain and problems walking, not sleeping very well at all and lots of nausea.

Here's a photo for you to see how it looks

Sun, Yea!!

It's been in the upper 40's to low 50's the last couple of days, this has me hoping the deep freeze days are over (not likely though). The down side is the 3-4 inch snow pack on the street is now melting in spots creating huge ruts. I'll take that over that below zero stuff any day though, now for spring to hurry and get here.

Race car update: My Phast Phat Racing team members were looking out for me recently. They bought a bunch of Mustang parts one of which is a tubular K-member. What this is part of the front of the car where the engine sits and the front suspension attaches. This is good because it will take over 50 pounds off the front of the car and they saved me over $400 buying it new. So now I need to get the car into the garage and get to work on it, there's only a little over 2 months until testing season starts.

I hate the cold!!!

-11 the other morning when I left work, I'm really tired of this cold weather hanging around.

Stupid global warming, don't believe me just ask Al, he'll bs you all day about it. Well I wish we had some around here cause I hate this stupid -11 cold air!!!

That is all.

Happy New Year!!

Wow!! It's 2010 already, where did 2009 go? We spent last the night of 2009 with the rest of Phast Phat Racing with lots of bench racing and talk of the new season being a Phat one, lol. The goal is to really dedicate ourselves to making it to the 3rd round of each race this season to try and make the division finals race in Sept. Wish us luck, we'll need it to beat some of those racers, they're very good with very consistent cars.

Phast Phat Racing will be hitting the road this year too. It's a long ways off but in November we'll all be going out to Las Vegas for the Street Car Super Nationals race. I was at this race last November and it was amazing, the cars and atmosphere reminded me of World Ford Challenge. WFC was held in St. Louis and featured Ford only cars, SCSN features all brands but the atmosphere is the same.

Back to the Sugar Bowl now, the Gators aren't playing real well at the moment but I'm hoping they get going here. The Boston Bruins won the Winter Classic today played outside at Fenway Park that turned out to be a great hockey game.