Today, I went to Mr. Moody’s shop to help him work on the motor. This was probably moreso for my benefit than his aid, but I wanted to learn and wanted to be able to contribute, so Mr. Moody humored me. What I learned, is that people vastly underestimate the potential of factory ford parts… as evidence of my recent performances.
We have had no problems with the motor after approximately 70+passes, save for the small lifter incident on the first test outing in February of this year. That’s 70+ passes on a stock block, cast crank, and under 24 psi of hairdryer pressure. I don’t know what I was expecting to find as I dropped the oil pan (literally, all over the floor… sorry, Mr. Moody!), but I was pleasantly surprised to find…. NOTHING. Nope, nada, zilch. The rod bearings were good as new, the cylinders all showed way rich conditions, and everything was intact and looked as though it had just been put together. (Save for the outside, which was covered in gunk from that pesky leaking valve cover)
So, Mr. Moody will be replacing the cast crank with a better unit, and buttoning it back up for the Bristol FFW race coming August 4th-6th. Mr. Moody assures me I can now up the power, and expects that we will be able to hit in the 50’s with the stock block before the end of the season. He’s not often wrong… after all, he guessed the cast crank performance to a T. In Bristol, we will attempt to combat the thinner mountain air by turning up the boost a little in our typical sneak-up-to-it style.
Maybe I’ll be fortunate enough to hang onto my #2 rank in the points… (John Gullett has plenty to say about that I’m sure… don’t worry Johnny, I”ll save you a parking spot next to me!) But for now, I’ll just focus on getting down the track consistently and working hard with what we have!
