6/29/13
Well, after diagnosing the
transmission fluid leak that developed during our last start-up a couple weeks
ago, a new longer transmission input shaft has cured the problem and everything
is back together. Other issues, such as proper starter indexing to the
crankshaft, head gasket sealing, reworked and powder coated oil pan and a few
others were addressed during the down time waiting for the new input shaft.
Mike Kuhl, Don Bowman, ace crew man,
Daryl Woods and computer expert, Reese, gathered at the shop yesterday morning
for a final check of all mechanical and electrical systems before moving on to
other items on our ever evolving check list. The objective was to start the
engine, and check the clutch, transmission, rear-end, brakes and data recorder
for proper performance. To the absolute delight of all present (including many
of the folks that routinely spend time around Kuhl Klassics such as Jess
"The Flea" Sturgeon and his entire crew), everything worked
perfectly. After the engine cleared itself of the normal gunk that inevitably
collects during a disassembly and rebuild, it ran like a Swiss watch on
straight alcohol. After the initial fire-up, it didn't even require priming to
light off instantly and cleanly.
If you're interested in watching a
six minute video of the first and final fire-ups of the day, just click on the
following link:
After I return from a family
vacation in a couple weeks, the car should be pretty much ready to do a
shake-down run just to make sure it'll pull away from the push truck and shift
into high gear. Kuhl assures me that he and Daryl will be pleny busy in my
absence, as they refine a few systems and make everything perfect. That's the
only way Kuhl rolls!
With Bonneville Speed Week now just
six weeks away, the final push toward completion of the project (including an
all new trailer being built by Bowman and his crew up north) is on in earnest.
That said, yesterday's progress was a huge step forward toward the goal of
participation at this year's Speed Week event.
5/16/13
Last Saturday, the car was ready for
another fire-up with all of the new whistles and bells installed and adjusted.
All tanks, including water, transmission fluid and fuel were permanently
mounted. The belly pans were on for good, and all the wiring was completed for
the data recorder.
At exactly 11:00 am, Kuhl spun the
engine over and lit 'er up. Well, to be honest it lit and died, but the problem
was immediately traced to the fact that the fuel shut-off valve was still in
the "off" position. Once the valve was turned to the "on"
position, the engine ran like a Swiss watch. Other than the magneto being 4
degrees off, all systems appeared to be "go". Not a single drop of
any fluid leaked anywhere, and it appeared that we were ready to put the body
panels on the car and ready it out for a shake-down run.
Kuhl wanted to start the engine
again, and instructed me that when he gave me the patented "nod", to
hit the pneumatic shift button to shift the transmission from low to high gear.
That all went very well until Kuhl shut the engine down, and we noticed that
there was a transmission fluid leak under the car. Without taking the
transmission out, there was no way to know exactly where the leak was coming from,
and what the problem was.
The bottom line is that the rear
belly pan had to come off again, and the fuel tank (and possibly the other
tanks) will have to come out, the rear end will have to come out (again), and
the transmission will have to be removed, disassembled and inspected. The good
news is that we've had all of these items apart and back together so many times
now that we can probably do it blindfolded.
As soon as the transmission leak has
been identified and corrected, it'll be time to take the car somewhere to see
if it'll pull away from the push truck and shift into high gear. The bad news
is that our chosen facility at which to conduct this shake-down, Great Park in
El Toro, is no longer available to us as the company that was running the driving
school and sports car course had its lease expire on December 31st of last
year, and no longer has access to the park. We'll be seeking another facility
where we can accomplish our objectives as soon as possible.
I've attached three photos taken
just prior to fire-up, and if you're interested in viewing a video of the
fire-up, go to http://youtu.be/GCPUDsBu0OA. It's about 10
minutes long, so you may want to fast forward or stop playing.
As has been the case throughout this
project, last Saturday was two steps forward and one back. That said, we're
getting closer and closer all the time. Don Bowman is building an all new and
improved trailer, which should be nearing completion in the near future. About
the time we'll be needing it, all issues with the transmission should have been
addressed and resolved and we'll update everyone again.
3/25/13
Work continues on the
Kuhl-Olson-Bowman A / Blown Fuel Rear Engine Modified Roadster. Last Saturday,
we put the car on our new digital scales. With the understanding that there
were no front body panels, rear body, water, fuel or driver (not to mention a
few other items), we just wanted to get a preliminary reading on how close we
might be to the front / rear, and side / side weights. We were encouraged that
the car is pretty well balanced from front to rear, but that we'll need to
tweak the suspension to get the proper side to side balance. Very soon, we'll
put the car together complete with everything but fuel, and begin adjusting
suspension and ballast to arrive at the desired weight distribution.
As with most Saturdays, we enjoyed
the company of Kuhl tenant / long time dragster racer / friend and good guy
Jess "The Flea" Sturgeon who can be seen helping "the Kuhl
one" brainstorm his next move. Or perhaps Kuhl was just trying to remember
what he did the day before LOL.
The next major objective is to fire
the engine again with all the changes that have been made to make sure all
systems function properly. Then we plan on taking the car out to Great Park in
Orange County to do a fire-up, push start and transmission shift. August Speed
Week isn't that far away.
Now that Kuhl has completed all of
his engine and supercharger projects, my SFI work load is starting to subside
and our ace crew member, Daryl Woods, is on the mend following his recent
surgery, progress should start to pick up at a rapid rate.
3/3/2013
It's been a while since we've
prepared a progress report on the Kuhl-Olson-Bowman Bonneville roadster.
Suffice to say that things like the holidays, the NHRA WINTERNATIONALS, a very
heavy workload at SFI and other issues conspired to slow progress to some
extent, however lots of projects have been completed over the past couple
months. That said, there's been quite a bit of "two steps forward, one
step back" as changes continue to be made that require disassembling what
Kuhl refers to as our "giant Chinese puzzle", and then reassembling
it.
The swap over to the new MSD 44 amp
magneto looked like a pretty easy deal until we tried to fit the roadster body
on the car, and determined that there was an "interference fit"
between the magneto cap and the body. This required ordering a one-inch shorter
magneto drive from Mike Dunn (no, not the former driver and TV commentator, but
the master machinist), which arrived a couple weeks ago. That wasn't the end of
the agony, though, as the magneto now had an "interference fit" with
the supercharger manifold and supercharger drive idler bracket. Off came
everything from the top of the engine again for the necessary machine work.
The next step forward occurred when
Kuhl obtained one of his 8-71 superchargers from an old customer, and decided
to swap it out for our 6-71 in order to have access to more boost when and if
needed. More fitment issues presented themselves as a corner of the new
supercharger case needed to be trimmed in order to clear the magneto, and some
linkages and the puke tank needed to be moved around. Those items completed,
the top of the engine is now back to full functional status, and only some
electrical work involving the MSD controller and coil and its relationship to
the data recorder need to be accomplished. Once that's done, and a few minor
revisions have been made to the fuel tank, it'll be time to put some "fire
in the hole" again.
I've spent considerable time getting
fitted into the driver's compartment, including adjusting the restraint system
for the tightest possible fit. In most cars this would be a five minute job,
but in our "Chinese puzzle", it took the better part of two days. We
finally got it "spot on" yesterday, and in full suit, shoes, helmet,
head & neck restraint and gloves, I did a successful "bail out",
which is a requirement in SCTA / BNI tech inspection. This car is a very tight
fit, and a bitch to get out of, but it's not impossible. I suspect that if the
car were on fire, I'd be able to cut my exit time considerably.
Our most recent acquisition was a
set of computerized digital scales, with which we'll be able to help balance
the car properly from front to back and side to side. In the next week or two,
our plan is to put the car completely together including all fluids and driver,
and to set the desired suspension heights and then scale the car. We'll then
know where and how much ballast we'll need to install to achieve the desired
balance.
With just over five months left
until Bonneville Speed Week, one could easily conclude that we've got all the
time in the world to get everything finished and sorted out, but experience has
taught us that we can't afford to slack off one bit as time flies and before
you know it the deadline has arrived. Kuhl has one engine project to finish for
a customer, and two superchargers to build, and then he's stated that it'll be
100% Bonneville car until we're ready to head for the salt. Our ace crew man,
Daryl Woods, underwent some recent major surgery, but should be back to 100% in
the near future and will be key to our ability to get everything done in time.
We'll endeavor to keep you posted on
our further progress in the weeks and months ahead.
10/13/12
Well, even though K-O-B Team 7707
didn't make it to the salt flats this year, progress continues to be made. When
it became obvious that the World Finals event was out of the question for this
year, we undertook a number of upgrades that we'd anticipated doing next year.
That included the acquisition and installation of a "killer" MSD 44
Amp magneto, controller and coil. Clearance problems required the removal of
everything on the engine from the long block up, due to the fact that the
intake manifold and supercharger had to be machined to make room for the larger
magneto. The good news is that it's all been done, and the engine is completely
back together again.
Kuhl was finally able to get the
transmission shifter air bottle and associated equipment back from our friend,
Mike Thermos at Nitrous Supply, and it's now permanently mounted and plumbed.
The biggest progress was getting the
tank mounting brackets fabricated by Squeek White back from the powder coaters,
and bolted into the car. The water and lubricant tanks are now all fitted, and
only need to be plumbed. To say that Squeek did a superb job on these, and
several other brackets he made for us would be a major understatement.
9/14/12
Well, we missed the USFRA World of
Speed event this month, but thanks to the great fabrication work of our good
friend, Squeak White, we were able to pick the car up from his shop this
afternoon and get it back to Kuhl Klassics. Now we can get on with all of the
items on our "To-Do" list, of which there are far too many. The 100+
degree weather didn't help the geezers involved in the loading process, but we
survived and got everything back and ready to unload in spite of our advance
ages and feeble bodies.
Squeak did an outstanding job of
mounting the water tank, ATF / Rear-End Gear Lube tank and puke tank,
electrical lube pumps and fabricating the dual parachute release cable dash
mount and roll cage shroud. The shroud is already on its way to "Painter
Phil" Whetstone for a coat of K-O-B red, and we'll get after the necessary
plumbing and wiring.
I'd like to say that we're going to
be at the SCTA-BNI World Finals event early next month, but it would be a
long-shot at best. There's still lots of work to be done on the trailer, and
more than enough "five-minute jobs" on the car itself. Realistically,
some local shake-down runs before the end of the year and next year's Speed
Week would seem to be much more likely at this point.
Attached are a few photos of the car
and trailer, and I'll post more of the various fabrication items that Squeak
did such a nice job on as soon as we get the body off.
Disappointed, but not discouraged...
4/3/11
The latest on the K-O-B Racing progress
is that the engine short-block is 100% complete and assembled. Once Kuhl
receives the rocker arms he's ordered next week, he can finish assembling the
cylinder heads, and mount the blower. There's still some work to be done on the
fuel system, but it won't present any problems.
Yesterday, we stuffed the engine,
flywheel, bellhousing and transmission in the car for mock-up purposes to
facilitate fabrication of the exhaust headers, fuel tank, linkages, etc. Once
those items have been finished we can pop the engine back out, trim and powder
coat the bellhousing, install the clutch and drop the engine back in the car
for good.
Major projects will include
finishing the seat and seat supports, pour-in-place seat inserts (one for me
and one for Don Bowman), driver restraint system (including new anchor
brackets), exhaust headers, body modifications (to accommodate the headers and
the new 2nd parachute attachment brackets), bodywork and paint. In spite of the
great progress we've made, it'll still be a major thrash to be ready for Speed
Week in August. We'll definitely be ramping up our efforts in the coming weeks.
Don is waiting for the leaf springs
to finish construction of our open trailer which will make transporting the car
around to the various fabrication shops much easier. He and I are collecting
all our necessary safety equipment, including new SFI Spec 3.2A/20 firesuits,
gloves, shoes, arm restraints and helmets. We already have our Safety Solution
head & neck restraints, so we should be in great shape come August.
We'll post our next progress report
as soon as there's anything of substance to report.
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