Well Sunday I had to take my car to the track but the only one open was 2.5 hours away. Since its a 1/4 and my car has never been on anything but 1/8 I decided to make the trip. To date may best is 8.35 with 82.96 MPH with a 1.89 60ft. It used to bog off the line bad. On the street I have got rid of the bog so sunday was the moment of truth. First pass off the trailer...

1.788 60ft
8.079 1/8 @ 84.92
12.73 1/4 @ 104.17 :D

Now for the bad. That was my only pass to make. About 50 ft from the end of the track I lost what felt like 2 cyls. I thought maybe I floated the valves since its a 4.10 and never been on the 1/4. Well I accellerated a little on the return rd. and something is defanately wrong. I pulled the driver valve cover and no valve train problem. There was too much dirt around the pits to start working on it so I loaded up and headed home. I'm off in the morn tomarrow so I will try to see what happened.

To top it off we got stuck in holiday traffic on the way back on I-20 Took 5 hours to get home. :mad:

You must have been to Hallsville. I thought they were done for the year. Are they still running test and tune races on Sundays? How was the track prepped?

Randy

Originally posted by ToyzRMe:
You must have been to Hallsville. I thought they were done for the year. Are they still running test and tune races on Sundays? How was the track prepped?

Randy The track was pretty good. There were some 9 sec cars hooking good. The small block S-10 that ran me went 1.32 60 with a 9.25 sec ET.

Nice run graemlins/thumbsup.gif
Sure hope that engine problem is a small one :eek:

Where is Hallsville ? I'd like to check it out some weekend. I am on the west side of Houston.
How bout those Cowboys? graemlins/clonk.gif (sorry bout that) :D

Hallsville is about 50 miles outside of Shrevport in east TX.

I'm going to start looking in to it in the morning. I hope its not bad but we shall see.

Richard, if your car has headers fire up the motor and wet your finger and touch each pipe. The ones not firing will not be hot. Then you can focus on them.
If I can help, E-mail me and I'll give you my phone numbers. I'm here on the East side of Dallas off Garland Road and 635. I'll help any way I can.

Randy

Well just did a compression check. Cold 7 are reading between 140 and 155 and number 5 is at "0" . :( My guess is a piston but we shall see later.

Well I just got the head off. Short block is OK. Its was an exhaust valve tapped the piston and bent. It only left minimal marks in the piston so I think I am OK. If I see no other damage do you think I can get away with
replacing the valve and the guide and be safe?

Why do you think it dropped a valve? Did the spring break, or maybe you don't have enough piston-to-valve clearance? If it's the latter, you have a lot more work to do or it will just happen again.

The piston is probably OK. In an enormous bout of brain fad, I one time installed a piston backwards (single valve pockets). Both the intake and exhaust valves hit the piston hard. I cleaned up the "new valve reliefs" and turned the piston around. It's still running strong. Cast pistons probably wouldn't have survived. Now the question is why did this happen? One suggestion is too little seat pressure.

Just got back from my head guy. He found the problem for me. The spring on the bent valve was dead. Only had about 70 Lbs of seat presure while others were in the 95 range. He says that they are running too close to coil bind and he thinks thats what killed the one. He had a spare 1.50 Manley valve just like what I a running. He gave me it and ordered a new set of springs. The ones I am running are the springs that are listed in the Crower cataloge for this cam. He told me to watch out on these so called cam kits. Half of the time its not what a particular cam needs.

I'm just glad its nothing major. Won't cost much more than time to put it back together.

It's true about the recommended springs. A buddy had higher rpm valve problems and dropped a valve with the "recommended" springs. He change to stiffer inner springs, raising the seat pressure from about 118 to about 135 and all the problems went away. Gained almost a tenth in the 1/8 mile. I've noticed that a lot of Comp springs have a max lift that is less than the cams they are recommended for.

I like hallsville track, however everyone around this area seems to think Baytown is a faster track. Sorry, to hear about your problem, but its good to hear that it won't cost much!!