[TaxmanHog]

Here we go again.

Put on a new MT slick yesterday in preparation for the new race season.

I'm enrolling in the TOP BIKE class this year, Pro-Tree 400 light, must post a dial of 9.99 or quicker!
Last year I touched the nines several times, I hope to do this again in 2022 and target in on 9.90 which is supergas class in the AHDRA. With road fuel for the truck so costly, I am only racing at New England this year, if the costs come down, I may do impromptu appearances with AHDRA!!

The old MT 25x7-18 was old, I had installed in preparation for the 2013 busted race season, then it sat not used until after I retired in 2019, then started racing again fall of 2020 and all of 2021, I could tell the traction was fading away looking forward to the performance from the fresh rubber this year!!

Out with the old........................................................in with the new!!

 

[bproulxvrod]

Here we go again.

Put on a new MT slick yesterday in preparation for the new race season.

I'm enrolling in the TOP BIKE class this year, Pro-Tree 400 light, must post a dial of 9.99 or quicker!
Last year I touched the nines several times, I hope to do this again in 2022 and target in on 9.90 which is supergas class in the AHDRA. With road fuel for the truck so costly, I am only racing at New England this year, if the costs come down, I may do impromptu appearances with AHDRA!!

The old MT 25x7-18 was old, I had installed in preparation for the 2013 busted race season, then it sat not used until after I retired in 2019, then started racing again fall of 2020 and all of 2021, I could tell the traction was fading away looking forward to the performance from the fresh rubber this year!!

Out with the old........................................................in with the new!!
View attachment 610590 View attachment 610589

Awesome Noel. Good luck with the upcoming season.

 

[TaxmanHog]

Thanks Bryan!!

Kicked off the season with a couple of passes before the rain was falling, second pass very close to my goals, 9.90, Got extended technical inspection done, saves me a lot of morning time each race day. More testing on 4/23, then first race in competition 4/30!!

 

[2003 VRod Rider]

Check out my FB Group #VRodDragRacing

 

[streetrodracer]

Yea, looking great Noel ! Glad to see you & the Destroyer are fully up & running ! I'm looking forward to retirement so I can finally have the time to do so many things that have gotten kicked to the side due to 43 years aircraft maintenance & management. You're an inspiration ! please continue to keep us updated with your progress - what was your prior racing years best run on that bike ? I believe it was like139 mph but I can't remember ET -

 

[TaxmanHog]

Check out my FB Group #VRodDragRacing

Yup I'm in it, though have not posted much yet, me in the group collage bottom row, second from left!

 

[TaxmanHog]

You're an inspiration ! please continue to keep us updated with your progress - what was your prior racing years best run on that bike ? I believe it was like139 mph but I can't remember ET -

I look forward to your retirement and postings about bucket list items, hopefully a bit of racing to be had!!!

Here are my bests, I'll be glad to stay consistent with Super Gas 9.90 numbers for now.
2006 VRXSE Destroyer best ET: 9.661 @ 134.12 mph & 60ft 1.394

 

[2003 VRod Rider]

TaxMan if you ever come West a bit Empire Speedway is where I hang my helmet and it's an awesome 1/4 mile strip with a 1/2 mile run-out. It's in a corn field...most cars don't even use their chutes there and if they go to far they just get dinner! The dragway has made a LOT of improvements during the off season. It's truly a world-class drag strip now. If you ever decide to make the trip you can park with me at C42.

 

[TaxmanHog]

Busy day of racing at the track, cut down on the number of testing passes I could make, strong colds winds out of the west, humidity was low so that made for great power production, best pass of the day 9.832 sec &130.47 MPH in the quarter mile.

My 0.499 reaction time on the pro tree (400 light) sucks, but that will improve with more seat time in competition. First big race next Saturday 4/30.

 

[2003 VRod Rider]

AWESOME!

 

[streetrodracer]

You're there Noel you just gotta tighten up the RT ! pretty soon you'll end up beating your old seasons best ET & Speed if you keep it up - great to see you out there running the Destroyer hard and sending other guys, sad, back to their trailer !!

 

[TaxmanHog]

Well, after this past Saturday, I won't be needing the next 5 gallon pale of race fuel for some time

The Destroyer was running well in Q1 and Q2, but experienced an odd issue at the end of Q2 pass. I usually shut down the engine after making the turn onto the return road to stop the data log on the TTS module, then re-fire to continue the ride back to the pit's,

This time it did not want to start, seemed like a dead cell in the battery and not enough current to turn the engine over.

So I started my long push back, lucky for me another racer [Paul] was able to return with a pit bike to give me a push back.

Got back to the pit area, pulled out the volt meter the charge on the battery was at the low 12,xx volts I don't recall exactly, but I tossed on a 10amp 12v charger to try and revive the charge on the battery, after about 30 minutes the charger turned green and the voltage looked much better, the engine turned over and all seemed good to go, engine came up to temp, so I shut her down and continued with preparations for elimination round 1.

Got the pairings al sorted, I was ready to go, just in case I had a recurrence of low voltage, I walked the bike to the staging lines instead of riding her., only fired when we got the 2 minute warning our lane would be pulled next, engine fired and warmed to operating temperature, ready to roll to the water box.

Water box tech was not doing his job, cement pad was dry,, I had issues getting the tire to break loose, ended up just going up the line , pre-staged then staged and on the hit the engine failed to launch correctly, power was down, (Did I forget to drop back to 1st gear after the failed burn out? A 2nd gear launch would cause the results of that launch, not sure at this point.

As I continued the pass, the power started to drop off and then some unpleasant sounds coming from the crankshaft.

I think I had previously spun a bearing and had overheated the crank causing the Q2 not start situation, when she cooled down the crank rotated as normal (or so I thought), the E1 pass finished the job with the spun bearing and probably starved the galley feed to the rod bearings, this in turn toasted the rod bearings and might have busted a cap fastener (rattily noise).

The case is intact, and the engine does rotate, but nasty noise from a knocking rod, so I shut her down after a few seconds of that, loaded her in the trailer, packed up the pit and stayed to watch the rest of the racers finish the day.

I have not dropped the oil yet, but I anticipate a lot of golden flakes in the pan, I'll begin the investigation, engine pull and tear down this week, so that I can determine what parts to order, of which many are becoming hard to get these days!

Stay tuned!

 

[2003 VRod Rider]

8027K Bearings in stock at Manchester Harley-Davidson. I had two on order for over 3 months and they finally shipped!

 

[streetrodracer]

Taxmanhog - shit does that suck ! What the Hell happened ? Main bearings should not have spun, are they pinned or not in the stock Destroyer engine ? Also if one bearing spun, does it ruin the key slot where the bearing anti rotation ramp fits into it ? If so can you get the new bearings pinned and can you even get another Destroyer crank if needed ? Hopefully you got it shut down before unrepairable damage was done. Best of luck, let us know what you determine -

 

[TaxmanHog]

I dropped the oil this afternoon, I have seen worse metal flake in my oil in the past failures, but I definitely have metallic shards at the end of the drain plug.

In stock form the bearings are not pinned, some folks, but not I have had them pinned.

I previous episodes, bearing does rotate and the machines recess for the shell offset has been ok, but we will see what this event has brought. I will be preparing to pull the engine Tuesday, cleaned up the shop work benches and got my parts boxes & fastener cups & zip-locks ready to fill up.

I'm fearing troubles acquiring my parts kit's, will hold off on bearings until I know how much damage was done to the crank main and rod journals if machining is needed that will change the specifications for the next set of shells

 

[freudie1]

Couple of thoughts: Triple sprocket bolt loose? Excessive KR logged? Aggressive timing table values?

Beyond that, time to pull the pan and get inspecting.

 

[TaxmanHog]

I'll look for the loose triple sprocket bolt during dis assemble.
I definitely have a rod knock now so she is coming completely apart.
Zero KR on F & R during the run screen shot from peak MPH IN Q2.

 

[TaxmanHog]

I think I will turn it ON post rebuild!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
@freudie1

 

[freudie1]

I think I will turn it ON post rebuild!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
@freudie1

View attachment 611250

Yes!!!!! Only reason NOT to turn it on would be if you are getting what is referred to as "phantom knock" that results in unnecessary knock retard (KR). I haven't encountered said phantom knock with ion sensing systems....acoustic based knock sensing? Very often (and sometimes...SOMETIMES...the solution is to disable knock detection OR reduce degrees of timing retard when KR kicks in to minimize phantom occurrences).

More food for thought: Turn it on and if nervous set KR retard values to basically nothing. At a minimum you will get confirmation that you ARE seeing knock hits (make sure to log knock counts!) without suffering from reduced timing......however, I rarely advocate neutering KR as the worst you will encounter is a bad run due to timing being retarded (and I'd rather have that happen than possibly 2 ash trays).

As for the comments about O2 readings prioritized over knock control? I think BOTH are critical. I tune my fuel tables based on O2 values (WBO when possible). I tune my SPARK tables based on knock hits, boost level (if tuning forced induction) and power curve. Without knock detection you are asking for trouble if you get to aggressive tuning while chasing numbers (and once again you COULD check plugs for knock indications, but that ideally would require new plugs every run, pulling air box/coils/etc...massive PITA on these bikes and STILL not as accurate as a knock detection system).

 

[streetrodracer]

TMH - Noel hey what heads up do you have for oil pressure on the bike - a gauge, light or both ? Any chance it did lose oil pressure then spun the bearing ? If evidence shows it did spin a main bearing and if you had previous episodes of it then I would think pinning of the mains is a requirement for you. I know that too thick of a coating of sealer on the case halves can allow play that may promote bearing spin from lack of installed bearing compression from the cases but I'm thinking that's not the case based on your quality of build so sounds like you may have lost oil pressure then the crank friction spun the bearing - I know you rode the bike around to settle and wear in the parts after your rebuild so I wouldn't think the bearings were too tight and spun - what do you think ?