Group,
A couple of the other participants gave us a blow-by-blow of their salty
experience so here goes with mine.
I had the 1313 XXF/FMR ready for the June El Mirage, running a listless
174 on a 184 record. During the post-race checkout I found a couple of
exhaust seats on the Ardun heads that had moved around, ruining the leakdown,
as well as my Vertex mag coil needing replacing.
I removed the offending head and ground the seats in preparation for a
chassis dyno run which yielded 327HP on gas and 425HP on 55% nitro. After the
dyno session and the Muroc Reunion I experienced the same valve problem on
the opposite head, corrected the leaks, and discovered that in the assembly
process I'd only given the exhaust valves 95# on the seat. Off came the heads
again to shim the springs to 140# on the seat. I was hoping that the valves
had hammered the seats rather than the scenario of inadequate heat-treating
done after the heads were extensively reworked.
The car was in the trailer 2 weeks before Bonneville. Talk about a spooky
feeling, wondering what I'd forgotten and when the second shoe would drop.
Thursday noon the 10th, Son Brian and I left Castro Valley (Bay Area)
Calif. with a 2 car caravan and his Bassett(sp?) hound Othella. Friday at
3:30AM found us at the "bend-of-the-road", very sleepy.
We pulled on to the salt at 7:00AM, found pit space that Roy Creel had
saved for us, unloaded the modified roadster, and were in the tech line at
9:00 waiting for the inspections to begin at 10:00 as advertised. Fortunately
the inspection started early and we were back in our pit with the "Inspected"
sticker before 10:00AM.
The rest of the day we "kicked-back" as much as can be done in 100 deg.
weather, renewed old acquaintances, and made some new ones.
Saturday morning brought the drivers meeting at about noon and the start
of the long lines to run. After all the trouble I'd had with this motor I was
preparing myself for the thrash of changing to our spare "bullet" after the
first run. This particular Ardun had given me "fits" from the git-go, mostly
due to my own mistakes and carelessness. The spare bullet was the one we ran
198 with at the World Finals before the cylinder we wounded earlier failed.
About 2:30 Saturday we were at the front of the Long-Course line,
strapped into the car and ready to go.
The "moment-of-truth" with the Ardun always seems to be at the 2-3 shift.
It will pull pretty good in low and second, but if the tune-up is off or the
engine drops a cylinder it won't pull past 5500RPM.
In low gear it doesn't do much but spin the wheels. The 2.46:1 C-4 low
gear really needs to be replaced with something around 2.1:1.
On this run I made the mistake of shifting 1-2 with full throttle and the
thing about swapped ends on me. After gathering my wits I got down to
concentrating on keeping the car between the cones and the black lines, made
the 2-3 shift at 6500, and was delighted to watch the tach start its climb
back from the bottom of the cam range. When it passed 5500 well before the 2
mile marker I knew it was doing OK. The car handled very well but took
constant attention due to a small amount of wheel spin and the drivers
tendency to over-control.
Leaving the 3rd mile the tach was slowly creeping past 6300 and I knew
that we had qualified on Bill Taylor's 1969 record of 201.
As I passed the 4 mile marker I knew the car was several MPH over the
record and started slowing, turning out before the 5 mile marker and coasting
to a stop behind Jack Costella's crew on the return road. They hadn't heard
my speed but gave me a welcome drink of ice water. The sight of my crew
coming toward me with the horn blaring told me what I wanted to hear. We had
a 1/4 mile trap speed of a little over the record, a mile speed of about 205,
and a 4th mile speed of 208.
We then took the car to impound, checked in with Dan Warner, replaced the
nitro with gas in preparation for the return-run warmup, read the plugs,
calculated the density altitude for our run (7800') and waited for the
morning return pass.
The evenings get pretty short when you have a car in Impound. By the time
you get to the KOA, take a shower, and eat dinner it's often 11:00PM Mountain
time. In order to be at the "end-of-the-road", fed, shaved, and ready to
start preparing the car by 5:45AM we had to get up at about 4:30AM (3:30 on
my Pacific Time watch).
Sunday morning brought a density altitude of about 4800' so we changed
Saturdays .115 pill for a .110, warmed the oil with our Moroso pan heater,
warmed the engine on gas, replaced the gas with 55%, and were ready to follow
Dan Warner out to the starting line at 7:00AM.
On the second leg the car behaved well, turning 202 in the 1/4 trap, 208
or so in the mile, and 211 in the middle mile. Not wanting to flog my 50
year-old block I lifted after the 4 mile marker and was on the return road
before passing abeam of the 5 mile markers.
Back to the Inspection lines again for the event I'd been after since
first attending Speed Week as a spectator in 1968 and driving at Bonneville
in 1987, the induction into the "Two-Club". What I'd wanted for Sooo long but
dared not anticipate had finally happened.
J.D.Tone, one of our LSR group, did the engine measurement with a folding
device I furnished (Elmo Gillette invented it) that fits down the spark plug
hole and confirms the bore. J.D. is a long-time XO GMC racer/record holder
and has been a great supporter of my LSR efforts.
If I'd been any help to my crew before getting my "hat" I was completely
worthless afterward. I was on a different planet.
Back to reality, it was Sunday morning and we had achieved our main goals
on the second day of the meet. Dave "Hayseed" Thomsson had upped his own
XXF/BSR blown Ardun record and was ready to go after my 1988 XXF/STR record
of 143. Not wanting to go out leaving anything on the table we changed
classes and started after Hayseed's XXF/GMR record with Brian driving.
Back in the pits we discovered a long split in one of the welds in our
coolant tank. Brian, Ed Weldon, and Kent Walton scrounged some J-B Weld,
silicone from town, and aluminum angle trim from my trailer, and fashioned a
temporary "fix" that stopped the leak.
I knew from my experience at Muroc that the Ardun on gas needed a shorter
gear than it did on nitro. Brian, however, insisted on trying the 2.48:1 cog
on gas. We changed nozzles, spark plugs, fuel, pill, reset the barrel valve,
and were at the front of the line at 2:30 Sunday.
When Brian made the 2-3 shift the engine had a helluva time pulling it,
finally getting back to 5600RPM at the end of the first timed mile for a
speed of 179. Still, we had qualified and headed for impound.
In impound we discovered another split in the coolant tank and the guys
went to work with more J-B Weld, silicone caulking, aluminum trailer trim,
and sheet metal screws, this time fighting the 4-hour window allowed for
preparing the car for the return run.
Monday morning found Brian with the gears changed to the recommended
2.7:1, the engine warmed, and ready for the second leg of his record run. He
turned a 186 in the 1/4 trap but the car got a little loose and he lifted in
the mile, slowing to 184. The average was still 181 for the record, Brian's
first Bonneville record. He's been driving our Ardun powered Dragmaster at
the nostalgia drags since 1992 but this years Muroc Reunion was his first LSR
record.
Meantime, it was Monday afternoon and we still hadn't had the rocker
covers off, the oil was still looking OK, and the oil filter looked clean, so
we decided to do Rookie runs on gas for crewmembers Ed Weldon and Mike
Gorvad. You should have seen the smiles on their faces. Now they're REALLY
hooked.
Tuesday the car just stayed parked in the pits. Brian took the chase
pickup and headed for home with grand-dog Othella. He is starting a new high
school teaching job in Napa, CA, moving into a new house, and has a lot of
preparation to do.
By afternoon the weather looked pretty threatening so I trailered the
car, cleaned up the pit, and moved the rig to the "bend-of-the-road" to avoid
a soggy mess if we got hit by a thunderstorm.
Wednesday night was the Two-Club banquet. Lots of vintage engine people
there including McCain & Houtz (220MPH XF/BFL) and the Hudson Guys (220+MPH
XO/BFS)(I believe).
Thursday AM I headed west, arriving home in 11 1/2 hours. Now the cleanup
starts.
It's now Tuesday night and everything's cleaned up and de-salted, the
Ardun's vital signs look OK for the November El Mirage 2-day meet, and I can
spend some time getting ready to test-n-tune the dragster with the 4:71 blown
258ci Ardun. Hopefully we'll be introducing this engine to the modified
roadster soon.
My street roadster, the Wife's car, and my 1958 Morris Minor LCV Van are
all sporting "Bonneville 200MPH Club" license plate frames.
For those of you that have read this missle thus far, thanks for
listening.
Ardun Doug King
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