Race season is near!!

The new racing season is getting very close now! I have signed the car up for a private test session on March 25 where I'm going to try and get in as many runs as possibly can. The first official test and tune is April 9th, then another one April 16-17 and the first race is April 23rd. Finally something to get excited for!! I have a few things to do to the car before March 25th but the biggest hurdle will actually be getting the car to the track since I sold my big truck. My friends have said they'd help get it there so it shouldn't be a problem.

Man I'm getting excited again, winter is ending (I hope sooner, I hate winter), racing is right around the corner and this should be a better year than 2010 was.

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.