FJ Land speed racer

[Pat Conlon]

Welp...I lost my bet....
After all you've been through, I thought *for sure* you were going over to a wet system.
I know, I know, double the mess, etc, but it just seems safer to me.

Onward and Upward Chris!

[fj1289]

I thought about going wet - but I really believe in the advantages of dry with a capable ECU.  One of the biggest is better fuel atomization, better fuel control (especially when progressing), and full integration with timing, switching AFR targets, etc. 

If things work out with the Holley ECU, I'd like to setup the street bike on the MS3X with a Hall style crank sensor.  With what I've learned while getting the Holley up to speed, I really think the ECU resets may have been the cause of the melted plugs.

Also, hopefully the shifting issue will be resolved with new nitrous cut transmission and new shift forks - hopefully it wasn't an ECU issue. 

Guess we'll see as we work thru testing the new setup. 

[Firehawk068]

Chris,
Glad you are getting things sorted out.
I know you were pretty frustrated last time out.
It's a shame they cancelled the Colorado event 
My son Logan keeps asking me when we are going back.................he loved it!

[fj1289]

Alan, do you remember Jim Cole?  He had the blue turbo Hayabusa (full race build).  This weekend he will be at Spaceport America in New Mexico at an invitational race put on by ECTA (East Coast Timing Association - the group that started Maxton, NC race).  Jim is working with the ECTA to bring back the Colorado Mile — possibly this year!  Fingers crossed...

[Firehawk068]

Alan, do you remember Jim Cole?  He had the blue turbo Hayabusa (full race build).  This weekend he will be at Spaceport America in New Mexico at an invitational race put on by ECTA (East Coast Timing Association - the group that started Maxton, NC race).  Jim is working with the ECTA to bring back the Colorado Mile — possibly this year!  Fingers crossed...

That would be awesome!
Keep me posted.

[fj1289]

Small update.

An opportunity came up a few months ago to buy some one-off parts made for the FJ — a couple full-auto billet transmissions made by Bill Robinson (Robinson Industries Inc).  Knowing this would pretty well train wreck the race budget I decided to go for it.  These parts seem to be the last bit of FJ parts from Rod Mumfords estate.  You can read a little about Rod Mumford's drag race FJs on Barry Edwards' FJMods site.  Not sure why these transmissions didn't go earlier with the race bikes, etc that I'm sure were previously sold. 

Why the auto trans?   The advantage of the full-auto trans is no ignition or shift kill needed to shift gears.   I'm still trying to come to terms in my own head with what's going on in the engine when killing ignition and or fuel for full throttle shifts while spraying a large shot of nitrous.  It seems when we burn plugs it is associated with a shift event - often a missed shift.  Nitrous bikes are known to be more difficult to shift in higher gears - often requiring longer kill times to allow the transmission to unload and allow the shift to occur.  To address the shift issues we've had last couple times out I had Fast by Gast do a "nitrous cut" transmission for us.  I "think" this is a standard undercut on the lower gears and a modified undercut as well as open up the widows on the upper gears.  Add new shift forks and I'm hoping this solves our shifting problems. 

Will still need to sort the normal trans shifting before going to the full auto trans.  The BIG drawback of a full auto trans I'd you can not back out of the throttle until you are in top gear - otherwise you will as a minimum bend shift forks (and maybe take out transmission shafts or worse!).  So the nitrous and chassis setups will have to be pretty well sorted prior fitting the full auto trans.  If it spins or wheelies the only option is to shift out of it while keeping the throttle pinned.   

As an aside, another interesting thing is this parts lot is a 3 plug cylinder head.  I had heard of this previously on the Vance and Hines FJ engined Pro Stock motorcycle many years back.   Found this from Jan '93 Cycle World:





Hoping this could be a V&H head Rod had acquired - would be really cool to get a look at the port work.   But, I figure this is probably a head Rod worked up himself based on what V&H did with the 3 plug head preciously.   Mostly interested in seeing the ports - don't think a 3 plug head is what is wanted with nitrous - want fewer things in the chamber to get hot as well as no need to speed up combustion - if nothing else you are looking to slow it down a little. 

I did tear down the existing 1314 motor we've used the last couple years.  Hoped to throw some rings, bearings, and touch up the valve seats to freshen the engine.  Head and valves looked good on tear down, but we hurt the #2 piston - started to "smear" the skirt a bit.   So that means new pistons as a minimum and possibly a new sleeve.   Not sure what hurt it - most likely the clearance wasn't enough for the amount of nitrous we tried to feed it. 

Still going to get this one back on track later this year - and hopefully to a 1/2 or 1 Mile event this fall.

[fj1289]

Pic from above post

[FJ1200W]

Pic from above post

Thank you - great to see that!

[Firehawk068]

Chris,
Are you going to have a "Shop-Day" anytime soon, where I can come over and gawk at all your exotic parts? 
I can even help if you need any.....................

[fj1289]

Will do!

I probably won't receive the parts for several weeks - looking to have them shipped in July sometime. 

Have spent considerable time sorting the garage once again.  Can't wait to get this project underway again!

[FJ1200W]

Will do!

I probably won't receive the parts for several weeks - looking to have them shipped in July sometime. 

Have spent considerable time sorting the garage once again.  Can't wait to get this project underway again!

[Firehawk068]

Will do!

I probably won't receive the parts for several weeks - looking to have them shipped in July sometime. 

Have spent considerable time sorting the garage once again.  Can't wait to get this project underway again!

Sweet! Let me know.................I know how much time it takes "Sorting" the Garage.... Just did mine again, and it already needs it again! 

[FJ1200W]

 
Have spent considerable time sorting the garage once again.......

Sweet! Let me know.................I know how much time it takes "Sorting" the Garage.... Just did mine again, and it already needs it again! 

Oh my, I am in the same boat.

I really need to make a day or two and focus on sorting the garage.

It seems to keep getting put off, now I'm needing the room.

This morning I rebuilt the 1960's glass sliding back door.

The rail cap was shot, wheels shot, but I was sold on a replacement cap kit for the rail when they recommended JB Weld.

Everything went smoothly (pun intended) and the close Westlakes Ace hardware even had the correct replacement roller mechanisms.

Fun getting stuff done, and that's been on the list for, oh, a couple years........

Hope everyone is well

[fj1289]

Got the load of parts in last week.  

Here are some pics of the 12 plug head.  Interesting - but not anything I'd try running - especially not with nitrous!

Ports have some work done to them too, but not as much as I would have expected to see.  Head was also setup for individually mounted Lectron carbs and nozzles for a wet nitrous system.  









Kind of curious - but it doesn't appear any of the plugs have been indexed - I would have thought that would be something critical for a setup like this.  Then again, he may not have been finished yet - may have just put the plugs in for painting the head.  I don't know if Rod ever actually ran this head or if was still in the development stage.  




Unfortunately no jets in the nozzles, so I have no idea how much Rod was spraying.  

I'll try to post pics of the auto trans later this weekend.  Just pulled them out to have a look at them last night.  Looks like a nice piece of kit!

[fj1289]

Here's a couple pics of the "nitrous cut" transmission I had done at Fast by Gast (same shop Randy sends transmissions for "normal" undercutting - - actually Randy has gear sets 1, 2 and 3 undercut vice the "usual" second gear only). 

We had problems in 2018 with the bike not wanting to shift into 4th and 5th with more than a 50 HP shot of nitrous.  In 2017 we didn't have that issue - at least not consistently.  A few things may have contributed to the problem, but the higher loads On the transmission from the added torque from the nitrous was definitely one of the factors.  Shifting issues in the higher gears is not unusual with bikes using larger nitrous shots.  The "nitrous cut" helps with this.   Most bikes transmissions are manufactured with 6 dogs and 6 windows in each gear set for the higher gears.   The nitrous cut involves removing 3 of the dogs and "opening up" the windows to make 3 long windows.  The FJ transmission stock is already half way there - they are manufactured with just 3 dogs, but have 6 windows.   Every other divider between the windows are machines out, leaving 3 large windows.   This makes it much easier under load for the transmission to "find" the next gear and make a quick, clean shift during the shift kill. 

The mods done to the two gear sets compared to a "standard" transmission. 





The nitrous cut transmission is going in now.  We will get the new ECU lined out and explore the limits of the nitrous systems before we try out the "full auto" transmissions.   

Next will be about the "full auto" billet transmissions.