Steve Reasbeck on Drag Racing 1962 to 1965 Mopars
January 2012
OK, more apologies are in order. It has been way too long since my last blog, and I do apologize. But, once you’ve hit a certain age your no-maintenance lifestyle seems to come to a screeching halt. I had a brain tumor a couple of years back, and for a while came back great guns, but this past year some other issues have popped up. Either way, we’ll just deal with them, and keep going.
At one of my favorite races of the year, Beaver Springs’ “Flashback Friday” at Beaver Springs Dragway, the venerable old Hemi in my 1965 Dodge Coronet came up limp during the first pass. Nothing seemed major, but it wasn’t pulling hard, and developed a miss around 700 feet down. Oil pressure was good, water temp was OK, but something was wrong. By the time I pulled back to the pits, the miss had become much more noticeable. Pulling the valve cover, Kyle and I found about a half inch valve lash on number 5 exhaust. Further inspection revealed a broken roller lifter, which had taken out the Comp Cams roller, as well. So, my weekend was done.
Some of you many know that I have had on and off health issues for a long time, so I haven’t been on top of my game. As a result, I have been kind of slow in getting the car repaired, as well as these up to date blogs being written. Doing a bit better now, so this blog is the first update in a while and, hopefully, we’ll be able to keep them updated on a quarterly basis during 2012. Leastwise, that’s the plan.
Anyway, when I started to get around a bit better, we pulled the pan off the Hemi to find everything looks fine, bearing wise. I expected it to, and that it did. Also, we pulled the head to take a real close look at the cylinder below the broken lifter, to check the cylinder and the piston skirt. Quite often when a roller goes away the little rollers will drop down and tear the wall up a bit, but it seems we got away with one this time. Everything looked good. Those old TRW MoPar race pistons, 60’s era, are like trying to damage a Sherman tank, anyway. They are old, obsolete, and heavy. But, for a Nostalgia racer they are just fine.
While the heads were off, we took a close look at everything, and found a spring damper on the same number 6 cylinder had broken a valve spring damper on the intake, the same valve the broken roller controlled. So, that has been taken care of too. Also, while we’re at it, we’ve updated the oiling system from the stock internal to a Milodon single line static. To be frank, and going against the grain, I am not totally convinced that it is totally necessary for a 6700 rpm Hemi motor. I’ve used the internal for years, with a good Milodon pan, and have never had any bearing trouble of any kind. But, we’ve had the pieces laying around, so what the heck. Besides, with what is planned, engine wise, for later in 2012 we won’t be able to use an internal anyway, so we need to be set up for the external.
While things are apart, we’ve discovered a bit more stuff that needs some attention. The car has been had the stuffing raced out of it for over forty years, so there is a lot of little things that need taken care of. By the time I update this blog in a couple of months, I should be pretty much along...Stay tuned. God Bless!
January 8, 2012
