Dave's 72 Dart

[Johnny Dart]

You're going great guns. I've still got the gearbox out on mine.

[Dave81]

Long time since my last update, so here we go.

The car was all back together for the start of July 2023, following months of pushing hard to make the MoparNATS for the last Nostalgia Super Stock round.
After draining the funds to get the engine build complete I ended up going for a Boss Hogg converter with around 3200 to 3600 stall. This should match the engine combo perfectly.

A few local runs were completed with the longest being about 30 miles, so around 200 all said and done. On the Thursday of the Nats, loaded the car and started the 120 mile drive to what was the conclusion of a five year plan.

Well, the roads were bloody awful, the air temp was around 23 deg, so sat in traffic around Birmingham watching the temp get to 220 was not how I envisaged the start of the trip.
The car, bar running warmer than usual, seemed to be happy, so as I dropped down onto the M1 near Watford Gap, I gave it some beans on the slip road. Within 30 seconds of easing off to a cruising speed of 60 aconstant plume of white smoke was billowing off the right-hand side of the motor.
I knew it wasn't water, so quickly exited to the services which was within 400m thankfully.
Huge line of trans oil followed me to where I stopped the car, the converter was spraying it onto the header collector, which was the the smoke show.

Out with the tools, to check everything and wipe it down. Let the car cool for two hours before setting off again as easy as possible. Only 30 miles left, so happy to limp it to the track and look at it after a beer.

Nope, one mile later, cruising at 55 the car cuts out completely, dead.
Again, small bit of luck that the live motorway was downhill and close to a lay by. That was it for me, Green Flag to the rescue and back home. I diagnosed the cut out very quickly as a fuse, which when replaced, let me start the car and dump it In the garage.
Thats how it sat for 7 months.

[Dave81]

Nice day in Feb and invited to a local pub meet only 15 miles away.

Checked everything over and drove the car to the pub.
No drama thankfully and a decent pint to boot.

On the way back, gave it some up a local bypass, cue the smoke show. Only 10 miles left, so limped it home using light throttle and slow cruise.

Sack of Bananarama!, hate the bloody thing. Back it goes for another 4 months in solitary confinement.

It's gotta go back to Jims to investigate.

Well that happened three weeks ago, via trailer.
Out in the sunlight, we had a look at the trans oil........oh, not good.
Redy/Purple in colour and full on metal flake.
On the lift and off comes the sump.

[Dave81]

At this point, my suspected front seal leak, had now grown arms, legs and heads.

[Dave81]

The amount of metal in the sump put it into full rebuild territory.
Keep in mind this was built around 2000 miles ago with uprated parts.
Gutted and already broke was not a good combo.

After droppind the pan, we pulled the converter to see if we could identify the leak point.
The front seal was fine, but after looking at the splines on box, it became apparent something wasn't right.
We then had a look at the converter as bar that, the front seal looked good.
Didn't expect to find this.

[Dave81]

Guess we found the leak point.

Trans was delivered to Duncan for a complete strip down and rebuild.

[Dave81]

Amazingly after two weeks and various calls it appears that the 300 miles I did on the car didn't kill the trans.
Everything was good to reuse after a good clean, no damage to clutches or bands etc. Only the valve body had slight scoring on the surface, but nothing that should cause an issue.

So this leads to the only thing that could have contaminated the oil being the converter.
This will be split open in the next few weeks, I will post the outcome. To say I'm u happy with ACC and their Boss Hogg line is an understatement.

After a very expensive engine build last year, I opted to go with ACC to save £250 over the Hughes converted I actually wanted.
Well, that has now cost me well over £2k.

I've also had to dump all the teflon braided line and the mocal oil cooler, as their is no way you could clean it sufficiently. The AN fittings have been break cleaned and flushed.

[Dave81]

Today, I was Jims apprentice.
Decided to go over to his and sepnd a few hours replacing all the lines and cooler, so he only has to install the trans and converter.

I forgot how fun these cars are. A few hours turned into 8.

[Dave81]

Took the opportunity to upgrade the cooler for a bigger surface area version and to relocate it up away from the radiator.

Duncan recons the converter was slipping constantly, so a potential reason for the car running warm, feeling 'off' sometimes and just not putting the horses down I was expecting for a 390 build.

So, another race to get the car sorted and back together before the next NSS race at Dragstalgia. Fingers crossed.

Oh, and after last year, that was my last to drag and drive with the car.

It's just not an enjoyable journey, so the Alfa went in April to be replaced with a pickup that can pull in comfort to Santa Pod in the coming years. The Dart is the only reason that I ended up with a pickup, so I'm classing it as another expensive mod.

If anything happens now, it's in the garage for 12 months.

[Blue]

I assume you found out what was wrong with the convertor?

[Dave81]

I assume you found out what was wrong with the convertor?

Still to cut it open, so will post what I find when it's done.
Needed to wait to see of Chris G wanted it back to review himself, but he has left it with me, so will ask Jim to cut it.

[cadboy]

feel for you Dave, I sort of knew that racing has its expenses and that is one reason I never even thought about it.

I hope you get it sorted soon and and can get into the racing with her behaving and giving you the pleasure

good luck

[Dave81]

Its been a while, so thought id take some time out to update the thread on the second half of 2024.
With the refreshed gearbox, and engine all back in place I managed to get about 30 miles on it before Dragstalgia weekend arrived.

No longer tempting fate, a hired trailer is now being used to get the car to and from the track. Its a lot less stressful and means at least I can get home at a decent hour if it breaks.

Nerves a plenty and also my first outing in the NSS class, I paid the cost for the Friday RWYB to see what I could get out of the new motor and trans.

Started steady, listening for any nasty sounds or weird handling, but soon grew in confidence as the car did its thing.

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One of the downsides of the gearbox expense, was that i could not afford to do anything else but run it in street trim with road tyres and full exhaust system on.

My main aim with the car, my engine build and discussions with Jim, was always something that would run mid 12s and be happy on the street as well as the track. A true street strip setup.

Safe to say the 4th run hit the required time on testing.
Reaction times were ignored in the hunt for limits of grip and the best shift point. The above were all done at 6k shifts, but i had misfire at around 5700rpm on run 3, which after the gearbox issues had me questioning life!

Thankfully one of the NSS group, when discussing the issue, questioned the MSD limit setting and advised they have a soft limit that starts earlier than the dialled in number. Turned this up from 6000 to 6400 and that solved the issue dropping me into the mid 12s.

[Pete]

Great Post, Dave and congratulations on the success at the Track!

All the best,

Pete.

[Dave81]

For anyone that enjoyed the delights of Dragstalgia 2024, the weather played games throughout the whole of Saturday.

Four qualifiers became one, with the Santa pod crew trying to find a dry spell for all the other classes, so I opted to go safe at 12.5 dial in.
Didn't expect the weather and cooler air would help and went and broke out drastically whilst sleeping on the light.
Was quite happy at the breakout number though, hitting 12.19 @ 111.

This put me up against Don Scott for my first ever elimination.
Nothing like starting easy......

Sunday - Cooler and overcast, plus an early start on track.
So decided that id chuck everything at it and put 12.0.
Don is significantly quicker than me so dialled in 10.05.

Safe to say I didn't embarrass myself for my first run.
The adrenaline of the race and being hunted down (I could hear him gaining on me), still makes me smile today.

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I was out in E1, but didnt care one bit.
The car ran faster than I'd hoped for and it was still in one piece at the end. That's a weekend win after years of pulling my vision into reality, with various little bumps along the way!

Only one problem really. 12.01 is very close to an 11.................