Post by Dave Schultz on Apr 18, 2010 11:17:49 GMT -5
I've had four large cubic inch (540 up) motors in the last five years for the two Coronets, and now the wagon.
The first motor I had in the Big Red Ram was a iron block 540 with Indy 440-1 heads. I had it in the car for three years and maybe 250 passes. I ran it hard and the last pass I made was 9.32 @147mph. It was the best and most dependable motor I've had -- maybe tied with the used Indy 540 (before freshened) for dependability and reliability.
The motor was rebuilt as a 572ci and put into the black car for Dallas over a year ago -- but the car has had to be parked on the trailer at every event it has been dragged to because of an oil leak that after 40 hours and $900+ is still there. That car must be bad luck as the used Indy 540 motor that was in the black car before it was a also great motor, but completely destroyed (the damaged heads, the intake, and the Dominators were the only things salvaged) when windowed two passes after being freshened. Callies crank, Mega block, BME rods, Weisco pistons, ..... everything else all scrap. It would appear that the aluminum rods shouldn't have been reused. A $15,000 loss before talking about the transmission and converter also damaged in the incident.
The replacement to that original 540 in the red car was an Aluminum block motor with 572 heads and Jesels. Although I had a ton of money in better parts on/in that motor -- it really never felt as good as the original 540 motor. I never really had a chance to air the car out with that motor -- so its best was a 9.4. I was having mysterious ignition/timing problems with that motor all year, which caused me to not be able to get the car down the track in Maple grove, and suck at other races like Zmax and the Monster.
After a dozen hours and couple hundred dollars (new MSD Distributor, cap, wires, rotor) spent converting the crank trigger back to a dizzy while at the Monster after the car quit in Class Eliminations, had to be towed back to the pits, and wouldn't ever restart. After 3 hours of wasting time trying to start, and time running out before the first elimination pass, Ken Presley suggested it sounded like it wasn't timed properly to start and to replace to conventional from crank trigger. I found at Memphis (the last race of the year) that the balancer was slowly coming off the crank when it finally tore into the radiator the pass before eliminations started. That was causing the crank trigger to not have a good reading -- thus my timing issue before removing it. The motor might have been stronger than I thought, if the problem had been caught early in the year (no one who looked at the problem saw it) -- but I'll never know.
I only put 50 passes on that 2nd motor (in Big Red Ram) -- and pulled it to freshen up and replace the aluminum rods with steel Manly 3Ds. When rebuilding, it was found that the Jesel bearings were completely worn out after just 50 passes. Jesel appeared to feel like that was the standard deal -- and said to rebuild them annually. I ordered TDs instead -- although they've not been installed on that motor yet, which is going into the 60 Plymouth wagon.
Over the winter I had a new aluminum block motor built, much like last year's motor, for Big Red Ram. We'd ordered the Jesels before seeing that they were crap on the last motor.
Yesterday at the Mopars at the Motorplex, on just the first fricken pass with that new motor, something happened to the motor just as I was hitting 2nd gear. I had to be towed off the track and then to the pits - becoming a spectator. Pulling the valve covers -- the mini rocker shaft on #7 is broken as is one of the rockers. I'm not yet sure what other damage has occurred.
I was going to buy another set of TDs, but after doing a google search of broken Jesels on Indy 572 heads -- I see that many people appear to have this problem with Jesel (as do a bunch of Chevy people) -- but at least one has said TD is even worse.
I can't believe we could send a man to the moon 41 years ago -- yet Comp Cams cost me a ton when their rockers/arms failed on the Magazine motor, and now these Jesels are garbage. Don't get me started on money wasted on garbage adjusters on Pro Comps rockers. Can't anyone make a decent set of rockers and arms -- and not rape you?
Is anyone else running 572 heads -- and if so what kind of rocker experience have you had.
If feel like if I didn't have bad luck lately -- I wouldn't have any luck at all. I really can no longer afford this. I'm about as frustrated with drag racing as I've ever been. I love it -- but don't think I can afford the recent problems I've had getting my shit to run.
The first motor I had in the Big Red Ram was a iron block 540 with Indy 440-1 heads. I had it in the car for three years and maybe 250 passes. I ran it hard and the last pass I made was 9.32 @147mph. It was the best and most dependable motor I've had -- maybe tied with the used Indy 540 (before freshened) for dependability and reliability.
The motor was rebuilt as a 572ci and put into the black car for Dallas over a year ago -- but the car has had to be parked on the trailer at every event it has been dragged to because of an oil leak that after 40 hours and $900+ is still there. That car must be bad luck as the used Indy 540 motor that was in the black car before it was a also great motor, but completely destroyed (the damaged heads, the intake, and the Dominators were the only things salvaged) when windowed two passes after being freshened. Callies crank, Mega block, BME rods, Weisco pistons, ..... everything else all scrap. It would appear that the aluminum rods shouldn't have been reused. A $15,000 loss before talking about the transmission and converter also damaged in the incident.
The replacement to that original 540 in the red car was an Aluminum block motor with 572 heads and Jesels. Although I had a ton of money in better parts on/in that motor -- it really never felt as good as the original 540 motor. I never really had a chance to air the car out with that motor -- so its best was a 9.4. I was having mysterious ignition/timing problems with that motor all year, which caused me to not be able to get the car down the track in Maple grove, and suck at other races like Zmax and the Monster.
After a dozen hours and couple hundred dollars (new MSD Distributor, cap, wires, rotor) spent converting the crank trigger back to a dizzy while at the Monster after the car quit in Class Eliminations, had to be towed back to the pits, and wouldn't ever restart. After 3 hours of wasting time trying to start, and time running out before the first elimination pass, Ken Presley suggested it sounded like it wasn't timed properly to start and to replace to conventional from crank trigger. I found at Memphis (the last race of the year) that the balancer was slowly coming off the crank when it finally tore into the radiator the pass before eliminations started. That was causing the crank trigger to not have a good reading -- thus my timing issue before removing it. The motor might have been stronger than I thought, if the problem had been caught early in the year (no one who looked at the problem saw it) -- but I'll never know.
I only put 50 passes on that 2nd motor (in Big Red Ram) -- and pulled it to freshen up and replace the aluminum rods with steel Manly 3Ds. When rebuilding, it was found that the Jesel bearings were completely worn out after just 50 passes. Jesel appeared to feel like that was the standard deal -- and said to rebuild them annually. I ordered TDs instead -- although they've not been installed on that motor yet, which is going into the 60 Plymouth wagon.
Over the winter I had a new aluminum block motor built, much like last year's motor, for Big Red Ram. We'd ordered the Jesels before seeing that they were crap on the last motor.
Yesterday at the Mopars at the Motorplex, on just the first fricken pass with that new motor, something happened to the motor just as I was hitting 2nd gear. I had to be towed off the track and then to the pits - becoming a spectator. Pulling the valve covers -- the mini rocker shaft on #7 is broken as is one of the rockers. I'm not yet sure what other damage has occurred.
I was going to buy another set of TDs, but after doing a google search of broken Jesels on Indy 572 heads -- I see that many people appear to have this problem with Jesel (as do a bunch of Chevy people) -- but at least one has said TD is even worse.
I can't believe we could send a man to the moon 41 years ago -- yet Comp Cams cost me a ton when their rockers/arms failed on the Magazine motor, and now these Jesels are garbage. Don't get me started on money wasted on garbage adjusters on Pro Comps rockers. Can't anyone make a decent set of rockers and arms -- and not rape you?
Is anyone else running 572 heads -- and if so what kind of rocker experience have you had.
If feel like if I didn't have bad luck lately -- I wouldn't have any luck at all. I really can no longer afford this. I'm about as frustrated with drag racing as I've ever been. I love it -- but don't think I can afford the recent problems I've had getting my shit to run.