Discussion
Re the Urs Erbacher incident last week.
http://www.eurodragster.com/news/news.asp?Story=ap...
Wayne Dupuy is basically saying that Urs' boomer at Houston was caused by the teeth being stripped off the bottom crank gear, causing the cam to stop in its tracks. He goes on to say it was the same problem which lead to the Tony Pedregon explosion at Pomona.
Apparently, it was a known problem with that componant from a known manufacturer, but 'We're not really in the regular clique of racers over here, so we hadn't heard about the problem. Most of the other guys talked about it after Tony's deal and they've fixed the problem. We just weren't in that loop, so we learned about it the hard way'
WTF? A known weak part, and no one thought to tell every single individual on the planet with a fuel car about it? Just because people don't move in the right circles, they dont get to hear about a major safety related parts issue?
'We just weren't in that loop, so we learned about it the hard way'
So, learning the hard way destroys a 120,000 dollar race car, damn near kills a very talented and affable driver just because SFI, NHRA and the other racers cannot be arsed to pass this information on?
What on earth is going on?
http://www.eurodragster.com/news/news.asp?Story=ap...
Wayne Dupuy is basically saying that Urs' boomer at Houston was caused by the teeth being stripped off the bottom crank gear, causing the cam to stop in its tracks. He goes on to say it was the same problem which lead to the Tony Pedregon explosion at Pomona.
Apparently, it was a known problem with that componant from a known manufacturer, but 'We're not really in the regular clique of racers over here, so we hadn't heard about the problem. Most of the other guys talked about it after Tony's deal and they've fixed the problem. We just weren't in that loop, so we learned about it the hard way'
WTF? A known weak part, and no one thought to tell every single individual on the planet with a fuel car about it? Just because people don't move in the right circles, they dont get to hear about a major safety related parts issue?
'We just weren't in that loop, so we learned about it the hard way'
So, learning the hard way destroys a 120,000 dollar race car, damn near kills a very talented and affable driver just because SFI, NHRA and the other racers cannot be arsed to pass this information on?
What on earth is going on?
Unless you are talking about a component which has an SFI tag (i.e. Safety related), then it just not happen. The only way you learn these things is by speaking with someone on the US race teams specifically about it, or they are talking to you and happen to mention it and you take note. Running a nitro car is not like running a VW, nothing comes with any real warranty or guarantee, and manufacturers don't really want to shout about having released a "bad" part or batch or parts for obvious reasons. I've lost count of the number of things like this I've heard over the past few years, and only picked up through Bill Schultz experience or because Knut had been told by one of the big teams he dealt with in the injector business. Plus, for most European racers who are not running brand new parts, it is one of the inherant risks. Maybe those "only 5 runs" cranks have a bit of an inherant problem that the people who ran them and sold them have discovered but don't communicate onwards because then no-one would want to buy the parts... I'm sure Urs is running brand new stuff because over there and to make runs at that level you need to, but you see what I mean. Nitro racing is expensive with a captial 'E', and even when you're using good stuff and have a good crew chief with a good tune-up you can still be unlucky with parts breakage and blow many thousands of dollars up in a big yellow cloud.
Jon C said:
Re the Urs Erbacher incident last week.
Wayne Dupuy is basically saying that Urs' boomer at Houston was caused by the teeth being stripped off the bottom crank gear, causing the cam to stop in its tracks. He goes on to say it was the same problem which lead to the Tony Pedregon explosion at Pomona.
Apparently, it was a known problem with that componant from a known manufacturer, but 'We're not really in the regular clique of racers over here, so we hadn't heard about the problem.
Id have thought Tony Pedregon would have been in "the loop"?Wayne Dupuy is basically saying that Urs' boomer at Houston was caused by the teeth being stripped off the bottom crank gear, causing the cam to stop in its tracks. He goes on to say it was the same problem which lead to the Tony Pedregon explosion at Pomona.
Apparently, it was a known problem with that componant from a known manufacturer, but 'We're not really in the regular clique of racers over here, so we hadn't heard about the problem.
Edited by veryoldfart on Tuesday 7th April 08:25
The way I read it, one of the reasons is caused by the set back blowers with their longer snout. All nitro racers currently using this configuration take note... Quote by Wayne Dupuy "The blower snout is longer, so there's more torque on the blower belt. That pulls that crank gear up more than normal and it gets hot. After awhile, the heat treatment wears off and you have trouble."
I think it was more a case of Tony P being the first racer to have a failure because of it. To be honest, we've broken cam drive related parts plenty in the past, even before the set back blower came along. But with the old mag system without the electronic control there was maybe a little less chance of a spark being generated and sent once the cam had stopped moving because the triggers on the base of the mags were used to trigger the spark. Now the spark is triggered by the Pro-Mag ignition control box using trigger signals from two pickups on the crank, so as that keeps turning the box keeps receiving trigger signals and will try to fire the spark off. However, we still saw plenty of blower bangs in the past even still. They weren't probably as vicious as they tend to be now because we ran much smaller fuel pumps, jets and less blower boost. So less fuel collected in the manifold, less air and less compression on it all in the intake when the valve hangs open.
I think most people who run the set back blower system are aware of the extra loading it places on the crank and on the blower snout. We broke a couple of snouts last year actually, and many teams now run cranks with splined instead of keyway'd snouts to try and keep the cam drive gear from shearing on the crank. But it is not down purely to extra loading from the setback system, its a combination of that and extra loading from the blower overdrive and boost levels teams are having to throw at their motors to burn the fuel loads they're pumping through them in order to set the ballistic times we now regard as the norm. This was also why MSD developed those crazy big amperage Pro-Mags a year or two ago and the NHRA outlawed them immediately in an attempt to stop things going totally nuts.
I think most people who run the set back blower system are aware of the extra loading it places on the crank and on the blower snout. We broke a couple of snouts last year actually, and many teams now run cranks with splined instead of keyway'd snouts to try and keep the cam drive gear from shearing on the crank. But it is not down purely to extra loading from the setback system, its a combination of that and extra loading from the blower overdrive and boost levels teams are having to throw at their motors to burn the fuel loads they're pumping through them in order to set the ballistic times we now regard as the norm. This was also why MSD developed those crazy big amperage Pro-Mags a year or two ago and the NHRA outlawed them immediately in an attempt to stop things going totally nuts.
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