Scare Craft

[karzrus]

Hope you get some rain too. We are in the same situation up here but my house is in the city so it should be OK, just kind of smokey if the wind is in the wrong direction.

 

[Jimway]

Fires were scary, burnt right up to the barbed wire fence that surrounds the big old barn on old Sharks place. Streamliner is in a bunch of pieces right now. Frame with some of the body is down at Fast Eddies, he says that he'll personally weld it up to withstand the weight of that big old chunk of cast iron engine. Imagine for a moment, a late night meeting at a local speed shop. It's going to be dark and probably rainy, close to Halloween, and close to midnight. There will be three people there. One of them is the grizzled owner of the establishment. Shark and myself will be the other two persons present. Inside of an enclosed cargo trailer will be the 702, on a specially constructed mount that just happens to match up to an engine dyno back in the corner of the shop. Assuming everything bolts up correctly, we're gonna do a full pull and settle some questions that have arisen. Should be something to see and hear. It is definetly something to drive. We have cobbled up some two into one header collectors to fit the exhaust system in the dyno room as the 702 has two headers per side. Dynamometer is a water type, rated for 1500 hp. Has a coolant setup for the engine being tested. The owner of the shop has no idea whats going to be tested. Should be fun to see the look on his face when Shark and I roll the 702 out of that trailer into the shop.

 

[Jimway]

Frame of vehicle (Streamliner) is all welded up. I haven't seen it yet but I'm excited. Fast Eddie and his team work on some pretty high speed stuff and their craftsmanship is second to none. We'll be picking it up from Fast Eddies place and transporting it back to Wayne's (Sharkbait) ranch. There is a new set of slightly taller gears to go into the rear axle. Me and the Shark have cobbled up a big cart with steel wheels to transport the 702 down to the dyno shop. This cart bolts up to the engine dyno. A short drive line connects the engine to the dyno. The 702 is HEAVY. About 1500 pounds before the 14/71, the fancy front cover and gear drive setup, three carbs and their linkage system and cables, two oil pumps, two water pumps, intake tubing, oil cooler, methanol system, nitrous system, and a bunch of hoses. Then comes a transmission and two overdrive units. When the engine is used in an industrial setup, like the irrigation water pump that this particular engine was used for, it had a bell housing with a short snout and drive line to the pump drive. This is the bell housing that will be used for the dyno test. In the car, there is a different explosion proof bell housing with an additional scatter shield. We miss Ace (the guy I call 'The Cadaver').

 

[Problem Child]

 

[karzrus]

Ace is gone?

 

[Jimway]

Yes, I am sad to report that Ace, the guy that I called 'The Cadaver' has passed. Guy was a heck of a mechanic, even more of a drinker.
Nobody is real confident concerning his age. Apparently he was in his early nineties. Real pleasant, kind of quiet. He and Shark had been friends for years and years. He fabricated a great deal of the original 'Streamliner'. Went real peacefully in his sleep, he just didn't wake up in the morning. Shark says he was still warm when he found him and had a smile on his face. The event has shaken old Shark to his foundation. They did most stuff together for who knows how long, so now he is kind of lonely at times. He's really pissed off about the whole thing. So we've been getting together for some football games on tv and some yard saleing. He's doing some remodel jobs here and there so he's keeping busy. There's no holding back time. Hopefully Ace will be riding shotgun in spirit at next years Speedweek.

 

[Jimway]

Picked up the Streamliner at Fast Eddies. It is a work of art now in the frame department. Body too. Don't want to see this bill. I'm probably going to have to build a house for him now. Fast Eddie and his crew work on some pretty high speed stuff. Some of it flies through the air. Some of it goes in circles on the water with helicopter engines powering them. Quite a bit of the frame is rebuilt gusseted and such. The under body is repaired where we bottomed out badly. The wood and cloth cover over what used to be the seating area of the car is now made out of aluminum and has a small fairing. It has ribs underneath and looks kind of like half of a wing. It clicks shut like it's a Caddy. It has a lift cylinder that holds it open. No more stick to hold it open, heh heh. Coil overs have been moved to a different angle both front and rear. There's a power boosted dual master cylinder under the floor boards (it has a floor now), and all new brake lines. It has new radius rods at all four corners and they are chrome. The suspension mounts are now adjustable for tweaking. Some body down there at Fast Eddies did some body work here and there. She used to look like she had on a pair of overalls. Now she looks like she has on a nice pair of Levis, a sweater, and some high heals. She looks good. There's a fancy new steering wheel that is removable and will have a readout on it. I don't know about this change, I'm used to looking at a big tachometer, oil pressure, and water temperature gauges. I'm working on a prototype shift linkage for the main transmission to get rid of the five levers and loops. I've got an old Hurst straight gate that we are modifying to handle six speeds instead of four. Reverse will have it's own lever. The electric overdrive will be a button on the new steering wheel. The methanol and nitrous will be on the steering wheel also. She has three chutes on her now, one for high speed, two for lower speed. The roll cage has been beefed up quite a bit. Fast Eddie seems to be looking forward to a possible tech check at a vast expanse of salt maybe someday. We are talking about an electronic distributor less ignition system as we feel we have reached the advance limits of the original setup. The fuel cell has been enlarged. Of course old Shark complained about all of the changes but when we got her home and unloaded back into the barn, he kept on opening and closing the cover and listening to that wonderful whump sound that it makes when closing. He smiled and said "Now thets quality like, rhat there". We're both pretty nervous. We have a late night appointment with a dynamometer.

 

[slowdiesel]

Love this story and love reading any of your stories. Are we ever going to see a pic or video of this thing.

 

[Jimway]

The guy that we call Dyno Don called up and ushered us in last night. I drove up and picked up old Sharkie and the 702 and we made our way down to an industrial area in town that we call the tide flats. Traffic was quieted down on the way down the mountains, on the way over, I encountered a greater number of num skulls than usual on the road. It would appear that everybody has a phone stuck to one of their extremeties. These phones seem to be very needy, as their owners fuss with them constantly. We backed the trailer right up to the shop door. Old Donnie himself came out front and looked suspiciously at me, old Shark, and then the trailer. "You still driven this piece of (stuff)?" asked Don as he pointed his thumb at the truck. Shark smiled and let out one of those mailman from the movie 'Funny Farm' laughs. " The last time that we were engaged in a little friendly wager, as I remember, the headlights of your Camaro could be seen plainly in the rear view mirror of this piece of (stuff)", I said, partly under my breath but loud enough to be heard. "Yeah yeah yeah" says Don. "Well, what have you brought down here this time?" asks Don. "Let me guess, two man unicycle, go cart, motorized Big Foot suit. oh I know, a turbo charged chainsaw". Dyno Don laughs it up. He goes quiet when I say "Lets get this thing inside the shop and close the door". We move the truck and trailer inside. Dyno Don stands speachless but smirking when we swing the doors open. When I pull the blue packing blankets up, Don says "What the H*** is this?" Then he puts his hand to his chin and says "I shoulda known it was you." "Uh oh, somebody's been talking", I say. "Well,.. no" says Don. "Awhile back, I seen this big camshaft down at the cam grinders and wondered what it was out of". "I see your welding skills have improved" he adds. He first thinks that we have welded up two engines together "Look a little closer" I offer. He spends a while looking over the engine. "Is this for real"? he finally asks. "Why don't we unload it and find out?" I offer. We ever so carefully lift the 702 from the trailer with Dyno Dons specially modified fork lift. Don watches how careful we are and begins to walk around the engine as we remove all of the packing. He tries to move the engine across the floor. Good gosh almighty, how heavy is this thing?" he stammers. It takes all three of us to push it through the door of the engine enclosure. "Over 2000, we figure, not counting the stand" I say. Old Don just stares at me. We spend some time bolting the engine up to the dyno. The wheeled stand actually mounts to the front of the dyno that is bolted to the floor of the shop. Then you hook up a short driveline to the dyno itself. The wheels on the engine cart are on big bolts that can be raised or lowered to level the motor up to the dyno. Exhaust pipes that go up through the roof are directly behind the dyno. It tales a while to hook up cables, wires, fuel lines, coolant hoses, driveline, ect. Dyno Don just shakes his head as we work. I watch him out of the corner of my eye. The time finally comes. "Think you can get it started"? asks Don. "Don't you worry none about thet"! says Shark, his feathers ruffling a bit, "Ah jus hope yer machine don't get broke". I run the pre oiler while Shark opens the primers and shoots some fuel in to the intake runners. Don looks on with an amused look on his face. He is still smiling when I tell him not to take it past 5500 rpm. Right before I push the starter button, I say to Dyno Don, "Feast your ears on a supercharged seven hundred and two cubic inch gear drive full roller vee twelve"

 

[Jimway]

When the 702 is first started, it has what I call blower roll. The blower is shoving so much air and fuel into the motor that it will idle up substantially but then cut out like it is going to stall, catch, and do it again. If you run it up to 1500 or so, it will idle more steady as it warms up. When it catches and starts, Dyno Don has that same raised eyebrow look as most every one else does as he steps back one step and looks at us. You can plainly see the dyno stand flex as the motor rolls before I reach down and give it some throttle. As she comes up to 1500, there is the wonderful sound of 12 cylinders, 24 big valves, roller lifters and rockers, about six gears and a bevel driven alternator (purloined from Fast Eddies hanger from his extra airplane parts stash), two water pumps, and a really big blower. We warm her up gently until the oil temperature stabilizes. The desk where Dyno Don sits and runs the test is right next door to the engine room. He goes to work. Shark and I stand there and watch. Old Don runs the motor up to 2500. The blower tries to injest the carburetors. The dyno make a funny sound as he begins to accelerate the 702. The 702 falls back to idle. He does this a couple of more times. He runs the engine back up to 1600 and fiddles around with the knobs in there and looks incredulous. The 702 lugs down slightly. The 702 comes down to an idle. You can hear the tinkle of the exhaust through the headers. He signals me to shut it down. I figure we are going to make a couple of adjustments or some thing while I replenish the fuel level. "Don't bother refilling the tank" says Don. "Guess we need a bigger dyno" he adds and sits down in a metal fold up chair. "What the he** you gonna put this thing in?" he asks. "Maybe a go kart or a really big chainsaw" I smile. Don looks at me over the top of his glasses. "No, really" he says. "You wouldn't believe me if I told ya" I say. "So what happens when you try fogging it with nitrous? asks Don. I turn to Shark and we say in stereo, "Don't know, we haven't tried it yet." as we shrug our shoulders. Don lowers his head so that he is looking at us over his glasses. "It's late, lets get this monster back into the trailer and get the **** out of here" says Don. Me and Shark exchange some glances and smirks as we unhook the 702 and reload it into the trailer. As we close the doors at the back of the trailer, Don stands right in front of me and says "This beast has seen combat, You know it and I know it. Where's the car?" I point at Shark. Don looks at him and says "What kind of speed are you seeing?" Shark points at me. "Get your sorry ***** out of my establishment" growls Don. "I want to see the car, you better call me or you're never gonna see the inside of this place again". "Next time you go down to Fast Eddies, look out back" I smirk to Don as I jump into the cab of the truck. I might have forgotten to mention that we already picked it up.

 

[slowdiesel]

Not that my heap is anything even close to as fast as this thing but I really relate to this ride. Years ago a bought a 500.00 truck (1984 Dodge D100) no motor no trans original slant six truck. My plan was to re power it with a straight six. So i went out and bought a 1100.00 motor and transmission. I stabbed that power plant in there and drove it for a summer. Then winter can along so I figured the machine needed some more air. Couple of Turbos later, air to water cooler, Water Meth, Ford 9in for a much taller gear and O ringed the head to keep her from lifting and she was making about 78lbs of boost.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--phando-Z0


​

 

[Gimme Fuel]

I figured his 1500 HP rated dyno would be too small.....hehe

 

[Jimway]

So on the way back up the mountain, we are feeling pretty happy. "You see tha look on 'is face whan thet merchine of his couldn't hold down yer motor"? Shark laughed. "Yup, he's pretty b*tt burnt over the whole affair" I add. "This thang go any faster"? asks Shark. "You care to drive"? I shoot back. "Nah, you need the practice" says Shark. And so it goes for a while. Shark grows quiet for a few minutes and looks out the window. "You aint gonna cry are ya"? I whisper. "Shut yerself fer a moment wont ya" but he's smiling. "It's been mah dream ta take the old girl ta the saltflats". "Whan I was younger, Ah figered Ahd do the drivin". I knows now thet Ah aint up to it anymores". "Me and Ace was plannin on baskin in some glory when we unloaded the Streamliner in front of all of those Folks out there". "Ah'd give ah purty penny ta see tha look on all there faces whan the old girl barked out down the straits". "I don't know" I say. "You gotta go through a big technical check before they would let you out on the track". "You would probably deck the first one of them that even looked at you" I add. Old Shark laughs. "Ah aint thet ornery" he says. "Oh yes you are" I shoot back. "I'm guessing that we are going to hear from Dyno Don very soon." I interject. "I'll just bet that he is going to come up with a bigger dyno somewhere". "Let im eat static fer a spell" laughs Shark. "He'll keep calling and calling and calling" I add. We laugh.

 

[Jimway]

We found this present motor in a tin shack out in a field. It powered a well pump for irrigation in Eastern Washington. It ran on lp. It sat on a frame of sorts in the corner and had a short drive line that ran to the pump head. It was covered in an inch of dust but was full of oil and anti freeze. Woman that owned it couldn't understand why we had the hots for it. It had been replaced by an electric motor with generator backup. The tin shack was in a field owned by a big cow with horns although we had no idea of that at the time. Old Shark had been searching out likely spots for a while and happened to stumble (remember the white lightning) upon this one. Since we were in the neighborhood, so to speak, we just dropped right in. We were able to park right by a gate and walk right up to the shack. Door wasn't locked. "I knew it, Ah jest knew it" says old Shark the minute he spies the 702. The moment I saw it sitting there, I was sick for it. Shark and I spoke at length about it. Would it be for sale? How much? Would it run? We checked it out all over. Presently there was a sleight scuffling at the door. "Ah bet thet's the owner of the prop pty" says Shark. He motions me to the door with his thumb. "Get that wont ya?" says Shark. I open the door a bit to look outside. There stands an enormous cow with horns. I look into it's eyes and see a tombstone with my name on it. It's pupils narrow and it's left upper lip flares up a bit in a snarl. I softly close the door and look at Shark, in his red t shirt. An idea just kind of pops into my noggin. " Uh, uh, Its for you" I try not to stammer.

 

[Jimway]

The Shark steps past me to the door and whips it open. I can see the big cow through the crack of the door. "Hy Yeah there" says Shark to the big cow. The big cow slams it's horn up against the tin shack. It sounds like a Volkswagon Beetle hitting a Freightliner at 30 mph. Shark mentions the savior's name. He steps back and starts looking around the room. He looks pale to me. "Looking for some toilet paper to clean up with?" I chuckle. "No, you blank blank blank of a blinkin blankin blank" growls Shark. "Ah needs me ah stick ta show him who's boss". "I think everyone around knows who is boss here, especially him, or her, or it" I say to Shark. "You aint gota be a fraidy of no cow". "All you gotta do is pop em right straight in the noggin, he'll get the hint real quick, fast, and in a hurry, savvy?" says Shark. "May I make a suggestion"? I ask.

 

[Jimway]

Wow, I never finished this story. It's been almost a year. Perhaps we should fast forward to recent events. Old Ace past on. The Shark nearly followed in Ace's footsteps. I was lucky enough to witness the whole affair and didn't even have to pay a penny for the entertainment. Some of you know that there is a wicked fast Roadster that a limited few of us take to an empty length of roadway somewhere in Eastern Washington every September. If you were standing there at the end of a measured mile, this year, and didn't blink, you could have seen a 29 ish Ford Roadster, powered by a 50 some year old supercharged GMC v-12 logging truck engine, that had 5 miles to accelerate, pass by at full song. This is the very same engine that we were looking at above, in the old tin shack. But alas, high speed tires and a blend of av gas, toluene, acetone,and some other stuff (probably nitro glycerin and picric acid, knowing the guy that mixes it up) is expensive. The cars owner and friends, do some odd jobs during the year to finance the September foray of maximum velocity. I was gypped into helping the Shark (he cheats at cards horribly) do a tree clearing job.

 

[karzrus]

Had to go back and read about a half dozen posts, I'm up to speed now.
Please carry on.

 

[Jimway]

The Sharkmiester came up with a tree clearing job. In past years, he was involved in the logging trade and still has some ancient equipment. By ancient, I mean old, broken down, leaky, smokey, welded, patched, no more safety guards, ancient. The plan was to meet at the job site and remove all merchantable timber. Then we would pull stumps and brush it all out. The proceeds of the job go into a little account at the bank that we use to finance 'speed week'. As luck would have it, I was late arriving at the site and fully expecting a heat round to be deposited you know where from you know who. I should mention that the job site is just down the road from the Sharks abode, which is a two hour jaunt from my place for me, I'm just sayin. I talked my old ground man into coming up with me. As we arrive on site and are just driving up, here is the Shark, on an extension ladder, reaching above his head, to undercut a big branch from the lower end of this monster oak tree. I glance at my ground man seated next to me. "Really", I ask him? He looks out the windshield and raises his eyebrows then shakes his head yes. "We better stop him before he cuts that thing and it takes him out" I say. "What's this 'we' stuff" states my ground man? "You better do something". "If he doesn't get smashed by that branch, I buy lunch" says my ground guy. "You're on" I shoot back.

 

[Jimway]

I was able to open the door of the truck and step forward toward where old Shark was standing on the orange fiberglass extension ladder. He was about 18 feet up or so. Just as I was pushing the truck door closed, it all happened. I had hoped to step forward and make a suggestion that old Shark get down off of that ladder before something bad happens. I was also going to remark that he looked like something that a rank amatuer homeowner might try and to query if his medical insurance was up to snuff. I was also going to predict that I suspected that the branch that he was gnawing on was going to fall to the ground and then the end that was closest to him would bounce back and then proceed to knock him clear of the ladder possibly causing some sleight scuffing of his rotten carcass and resulting in some large amount of embarrassment and a lot of good natured harassment after he hit the ground. My concerns were well founded. He did under cut the branch and then reach over the top of his head to cut on the upper side of said branch. The left end of the branch furthest from the tree fell toward the ground. As it hit the ground, it kind of coiled up some and as the cut end closest to the trunk came loose, the big branch uncoiled right toward that old reprobate. It nailed him right in the left chest and neatly propelled him upward a couple of feet, but then quite a bit to the right of the ladder. Luckily, he dropped the still screaming chainsaw. As soon as the branch contacted him, he let out a steady stream of curse words that continued, uninterupted, all of the way down to contact with the ground. It reminded me of Yosemite Sam falling over a cliff and swearing all the way out of sight. It kind of looked like he was riding an invisible bicycle as he flew through the air. He some how made it to earth just before the ladder. Not to be outdone, the ladder conked him right square in the head. I walked over to where he fell. On the way over, I reached down and flipped off the ignition of the saw. It was now very quiet. I observed good 'job site etiquette' by asking him if he was all right before laughing. The first scream from him let me know that he was hurt bad. "Grab the first aid kit" I said to my ground man. He was already pulling it from the cab of the truck. When we saw all of the blood, we switched gears real fast. The nearest hospital is about 45 minutes away. We applied pressure, got him onto a couple of 2 by 12's, stablized his leg, packed him into the back of the truck and we were gone like the wind. We covered about 40 miles of winding mountain road in less than 20 minutes. Old Jim was sawing at the wheel, throttle with the right foot and brake with the left. and requested full potential and flank speed from the old f 250. Thought that old fart was going to bleed to death before we got him to the sawbones. I was sweating when we got there. Managed to get a phone signal a few miles out so they were ready at the hospital when we rolled up. We saved his life, and he is less than thrilled about that. Unfortunately, he had a stroke sometime after we got him to the Doctor. The little blank is tuff as nails and has some screws and plates in his leg but is already up and walking with a cane. He can still speak (unfortunately), memory is good but cant see very well yet. He is moving very slow these days. Had to finish the whole freaking job and help take care of him too. Wore me out.

 

[Jimway]

The Streamliner has a pretty slick shifter with linkage now. The old hoops on the side of the gearbox are gone. It's made out of a couple of straight gate linkages with a 'T' handle. "Shifts like buttah". One can go through the gears much faster now, and you keep your right hand on the 'T' handle instead of reaching for four different loops with your gloves on. We changed the rear axle ratio even higher but have run out of roadway at our site. We are thinking about Montana, If we can find about 10 or more real smooth rural miles, we think we may see some pretty unheard of velocity. The '702' also has a new electronic ignition system that some fiend built out of several Ford V-6 components with his own three hands . Biggest problem so far with it is it had a built in rev limiter. Took some thinking to bypass it. So the dual distributor drive setup is gone too, which leaves a bit more room at the stern (boating reference here) of all of that motor. There is a coil pack in between the front and rear valve covers on each side. Kinda looks factory. We are currently varying the timing events to see what works best but it fires right off after a couple of revolutions on the starter. If anybody knows of a nice piece of flat smooth roadway around 10 miles long, out in the middle of nowhere, I'd like to take a look at it, especially Montana or the Dakotas. If it's near your place, and it works out, and you have some free time, you can come down this September and take a look at the Streamliner for yourself. The road needs to be fairly flat and fairly smooth. Asphalt would be awesome, but gravel mat works too, that's what we have right now. Also, still air works best, cross breezes can be problematic. We are fully self contained and only need enough room for three or four motor home type vehicles pulling enclosed cargo and car trailers.