Have a Sweet Holiday

God Jul, Merry Christmas, Gladelig Jul, Glædelig Jul, Hyvää Joulua, Fröhliche Weihnachten, Kala Christouyenna, Sretan Bosic, Shinnen Omedeto, Kung His Hsin Nien bing

What´s it all about..

Rules in Pro Twin Bike mandates that the rider starts the bike using the onboard system, I kick start which gives the advantage of carrying less Amps and  less weight. The disadvantage is not being able to set mech. comp. much higher than 13,5.  A few years back the pushbutton racers got a change to the rules allowing remote batterys which kind of took a bite out my advantage, but I´m not whining about it. But what the hell I wouldn´t mind a class with no wheelie bars and Kick start only...... It´s kind of complicated to explain, but I still believe I have some advantage, running much less complicated electrical and the fact that I´m challenged to be properly tuned at all times. I do have a remote starter when I´m up on a lift or stands, and it has saved me a lot of grief when lost in tuning and little time to T/S.

Good weekend

Ran a 10.16 at Tierp Arena, personal best and I got som good data, totally different baseline after the headwork and I´m down on mainjest to numbers at the lowest end of my chart. Everybody else was trying to get richer on fuel as the air was 100%, and I couldnt believe that my A/F log recorded I was already fat, so after going against the data and loosing topspeed I ended up with the smallest Main Jets I had...and I´m back, and really satisfied. The winner Mikael Bagge/Warrior Racing Yamaha Turbo outperformed even himself and ran a super final aginst Keneth Holmberg/Swecomposite

Picture by Patrik Jacobsson - racebilder.nu

Magic @ Tierp Arena

Last week of September in Sweden can be compared to places like Anchorage, of which i have limited  experience, but i general here in Europe drag racing is very dependent of weather, and right now we got warm  blue sky and dry, for a dragracer this is Tropical, add a robust forecast for continuing warm and dry and the ambitions rise, cause this may be what we have to remember for the reminder of 2011.I`m thru tech Inspection and seven Pro Twin Bikes are in,

A-Check

Tension is building up for the last and final race at Tierp Arena, no less than 33 TopDoorslammer (Outlaw) are registered and the bandnames for the final party in the GoldenBarn are actually known....so as of tonight i´ll start race preparations with leakdown and removal of the fr. head to correct an oil leak which came as a result of having to do a makeshift fix earlier when the return line from the fr. exhasut tin was soldered shut. I quess the Quality Inspection Engineer was of duty at the tin manufacturing plant............. but what the hell it´s intersting to see what the chamber looks like after the last w.o.t. runs.

Allright test

Kjula Dragway, is friendly efficient and relaxed. Did a good 1.57 60 fot launch which felt perfect and like you want to store it for future use, thru the quartermile trap @10,2732 e.t. and 206,66 km/h, somewhat lacking 5 km/h top speed, but next week is preparations for "Night of Fire" so I will take leakdown and check timing.
This week I´m, Dad, work and getting my house in order.

Sunday

Yesterday was break in and adjustments, not so cool was when I realized right before my first run tha tire press was adjusted for street, no gauage so I just released on a hunch ended up too soft.
Took of wheelieing 10.90/203km/h. Today it feels like we might be ready for som W.O.T.

Racing this weekend

Kjula Dragway this weekend, is next to last opportunity this year, after that Tierp Arena and "Night of Fire" last weekend in September. I wonder what the odds are for a dry track by then but what the hell, the party barn holds four hundred. I will test this weekend and try to break it in and tune, so I really don´t expect PB´s. I have shaved of more than 20 punds of myself, so sure if all is as it used to be it should make a difference.

Warmed up , flushed & leak checked.

Ran a couple of quarts Oil  thru on the warm up, topped up and took it for a spin. Hit third gear outside the retirement home out of pure love, one never knows, it could make somebodys day....Engine is completely dry, pipes are dry and it felt like it delivered. next weekend is test at Kjula.

Ready for startup

6 days and 6 Nights later I´m finished with the overhaul after the Exhaust valve dropped into the front cylinder. The crank and rods are refurbished and the heads are as Zero set as they can be.Seats, Guides, new tins and spring washers.Most challenging has been to produce absolute round Seat recesses as the weld repair did pick up carbon from the iron, and hard it gets.In the Sunnen the borehead has two cutters and the solution was to run on very  low RPM with only one. Then when ran in to the same problem cutting the seats using a typical set up where the cut extend outside the seat to match the surface to make the smooth transition, worked around it by becoming dentists using a 700000RPM grinder to remove hard material very precisely. all well the bike is completely ready for start and I´m celebrating. Nothing would have been possible without the help from Cala Steimar at Calas High Performance. Everything done or parts used was checked and double checked, one of the new intake valves was found to have variation to the stem dia, so it was honed straight by using a diamond setup, and one of the new tins had to be opened up after found having the scavenge tube soldered complety shut,

Honing hard chromed stem

    

The Front Head after the failure

The same head after restoration

I´m on it, barely....

Due to sad but unavoidable circumstances I have been off track for a while. Eventually I did collect myself and did a reenergizing 3 days in Cala`s shop. Finished the surfaces on the heads successflully, designed new valve guides with some minor changes and adapted to the original style tins, departed from the idea of having the guides holding the tins, but improved the guide for locating the tin and bottom spring washer. Completely rebuilt the crank, new shafts all three, Remains to install guides, machine seat recesses, install seats and do a slight hone in the pair of cylinders with Ross pistons this time. Good news is that the Racestar organization invites to an event last weekend in September on the the new track Tierp. I will do everything possible to be there with a serious intent to nail the single digit.

Logistics

Collected the parts needed to zeroset the heads, new tins etc. The Crank needs a check and I needed to adjust (change) the drive shaft in order to correct a spline length issue.  C´s shop is very full and transportation of disassembled engines is not necessarily easy, so i made a prototype cabinet on rollers with a detachable undercarriage. Easier said then done as always, some of the oak blocks had to get added functionality like the rear engine mount got hinges to allow the cases to rotate down in the cutout. The basic cabinet was so flimsy that I had to weld some square tubing to the undercarriage otherwize it would not have been possible to detach without it falling apart. Took  pictures before it was finished and it actually turned out allright.

We have also ordered the cases and crank etc. for the new engine, so the cabinet will actually stay at Cala´s shop while the components for the new engine gets completed. 

Waiting and a Movie

Ordered Tins a couple of weeks ago and I´m patiently waiting for the package. Meanwhile you can watch a serious movie in which I´m racing against a legendary ironhead "Sprutster" and I really think he is running on Jack D. and he is good, , this is the run last year where i realized my kickstand came out so I held on to the rotation and landed nice and soft...

Preparations

Received the Heads back from UCC where Ronna in master fashion prepared and TIG welded the material required to fill the dimples, he also cleaned out the mysterious fillings between the seats on both heads (hard soldered) and filled that as well. After some reasoning and analysis toghether with experience it turned out that the FHP Castings are weldable, hence I turned away from trying powder welding and it came out very nicely. So next step was heading to the holy grail of restorations and Cala´s High Performance, and we had a great day and a half  (and a great lunch too), finishing fixtures which would accept both NOS heads with Tins installed as well as these heads which caused some adjustments to the height and location in the Sunnen machine having an added straight exhaust tube.  The fixture required for the lathe was also cleaned up. Cala`s  Machining capability and absolute requirements for preregusites in the set ups, fixturing and dimensional control is what´s needed restoring these one offs, New tins are on the way and we are looking at installing as original with the guide holding the tin, but one step at a time and now it´s machining, Guides, Seats, Valves ......(the bottom picture is the ´rear head from "Mother", the other pic´s are a pair of original).

Update

Heads are in good hands in order to get material added to dimpled surfaces.

Planning is underrated..

Allright I got some danged up surfaces in my front head, no cracks so..
Decided to remove both heads and strip completely, seats and all.
I have some added material between the seats most likely welded in way back chipped just slightly. If everything turns out right with vacations I might have both heads in the powder welding next week already, so I´m busy stripping. And, yes..the entire engine will be stripped and checked, the head work will be restoration not just repair.

Challenged

Klonk!

Blacksmith Nat´s was fun as always,. more altereds, Norwegian Classic dragbikes, Nitro Ironhead Sporters, double engine nitro Java etc etc, I believe i did six passes and I was chasing some lost topspeed, found it and started to manage my launches, and on the final pass Saturday, hitting third gear I lost thrust and it sounded like I would imagine a rod coming out of the Engine Block, came to a halt, engine still running turned it of . no hole, no pool of oil....In the pit after being towed I started to turn the engine with the kick start slowly and it turned to a stop, so started to remove the front cylinder plug and it did not feel right, so, something is doing something it´s not supposed to in my front cylinder. back home and unloaded , I will take a closer look tommorrow.

Good times

The European and NDRS Championship racing was sweet, Tierp Arena is beyond expectation and coming in to the campground and greeted by one of the Builder/Owners, is stuff that makes myths, boots on the ground.
Fantastic racing and I take Mr. Ashleys (SuperTwin Top Fuel) and Tommy Johnsson J.r.`s (Top Fuel) with me, very professional indeed, good show. I´m participating in Blacksmith Nat´s this weekend,  pre-73 stuff and more on Kjula Dragway.

Time to see some real Dragracing

Finishing up at work, truck is loaded with necessary beverages..., and we are going to Terp arena to watch, smell and hear high class European Championship Drag Racing. 13 Top Fuelers and well over 30 Pro Mods, Pro Stock etc in the new arena, I´m really looking forward to it.

Inspirational

Good video from Mosten Raceday 2010, turn the volume up....
Mosten is all about Time slips and Rock awards, the main event this year..Johnny Winter.



 Publicera inlägg

Bad Timing

Waited out the rain, and it looked real good, just another Jr.Dragbike, myself and not so many cars., When we are about to get goin, the Timing equipment dies...

Loong day

We had a great event today with an inviation to the test twin bikes on the track, supported by the drivers association STSBA (Super Twin Street Bike Association) free hot dogs included, and some twenty newcomers to the sport tried out on the quarter mile and we will surely see more of some of them in the future.
My runs wasn´t very exciting, a couple of 10.35 , 10 .36 but at least I finished the day with a 10.2480 and
212.85 TopSpeed, but in between I did som double wheelies which kind of makes me mad when the track is predictable and it´s just in my head.
It always comes back to yourself, what if this... and what if that..., tommorrow I will be focused.

At the track

Arrived to the track, watching the weather. Noticed some hits from Philadelphia, got to be "Columbo" our latest export to the U.S., not homesick are ya,....didn´t think so,..but it´s sure nice to be at the track.

Kjula Dragway 28- 29 May

Timeslip racing coming up this weekend, Kjula Dragway relaxed and good track.

Cancelled by rain

Sunday was cancelled when the rain came on and off, but I´m still happy. Good feeling when things work right away.The CORDONA SHIFT KILL SYSTEM  works perfect and I was able to focus on the shift light and the light on @1000 before the shift RPM and then strobing when time to shift, I made a diaper with a replaceable absorbing material and just beacuse of that it didn´t leak worth mentioning. I´m still curious when I forgot that I had the shift point @ 5300 v.s. my normal  5700 beacuse I  was testing and forgot the low setting, the bike remains in the AATV (Acute Accelerator Transport Vehicle) Next race will be Kjula again for me.

10,1731

Kjula Raceway, 5 runs on Saturday. full 1/4 mile
4th run and 60 foot 1,5730, 1/8 speed is 173,74, 1/8 E.T. 6,4837, 1/4 speed 210,44, E.T. 10,1731
5th run 60 foot 1,6564, 1/8 speed 175,32, 1/8 E.T. 6,5309, 1/4 speed 213,10, E.T. 10, 1787
Sunday moderate rain in the early morning hours, no rain 10.a.m. and meeting at 11.00a.m.

I will adjust some shift light rpm´s and max rev limiter, and then we will see, 0.17 seconds to retirement.....

Top Fuel bike test on the new Strip

Let´s Go!

True Heroes

The True Heroes this winter is the robust crew who took the first step in building Europes first purpose built dragracing facility late last fall. Tierp Arena .  Record amounts of snow and a cold winter and they just did not bother. They have proven unrivalled stamina and progress,  never before witnessed in any large infrastructure project in this part of the world,....ever.

Tierp Arena

Vintage Drags

First Test & Tune is now at Kjula Dragway 14-15 May, I´m signed up.
I also noted the upcoming Vintage Drags in Ohio June 25 -26 ,  wish I could be there, check it out at www.vintagedragbikeracing.com

RPM´s

Allright, with the help of my lathe i got a totally clean tach signal (WHITE cable from the DYNA) and went on to set up the CORDONA system.
With a threshold RPM at 3000 i will be able to down shift and change gear before and after the burnout without
risking cutting the engine, I´ll start testing with load cell @ 7 kg´s and an interrupt time of 65 mils. Shift Light logic is in the CORDONA and it is somewhat different with the light coming on @ a1000 rpm before and then it starts to strobe with RPM frequence when it´s at the set max RPM. Now,  if this is going to work in the not so forgiving real world of 5 1/4 stroke remains to be seen.. I´ll disquise my futile attempts of a clean electric installation mounted on a dampened shelf  under the right Tank shell.


  

Observe, adapt, conquer.........

Rules changed a couple of years back and today we can run Two Step RPM limiters and shift kill systems.
I haven´t done any of that caus'e I´m really a fan of K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Stupid).After some time competitors got some of those things to work  it is now proven to be an advantage. So, Two step is down on my list as I don´t run a adjustable slip clutch, I may come back to that later. Shift Kill however gets my attention, basically due to the physics of quicker shifts and less vortex inducing throttle dips.Now.., my middle name is not Tesla even if both my Dad and Brother where professionals, or maybee that´s why and I have failed to get a stable tach. signal to my WEGO 3 log from the Dyna S ignition, and yes, I have tried all the tricks in the book. So I did some research and found one particular shift kill system having a load cell with sufficient quality to survive. But first I have to get the hang of getting the Tach. signal.
Unaware about the unpublished fact that Dyna 4000 has a  "dead rev" function I installed it last year. It has a dedicated Tach. out and many other features geared to my current needs, sure... I started the bike with the handheld and it ran just perfect and then tried three kicks before I called tech support, "It will be extremely difficult" was the verdict, so I removed the whole thing, and nothing is compatible with the dyna S not even the Cables...back to the Dyna S as my own rulebook requires kickstart and now I´m really serious about  getting a tach signal. Time to build a test rig using the spare Dyna S  and after one night i have found out that conncting to the "S" pickup with the white cable out, I can get proper RPM readings to both the WEGO log and the CORDONA shift kill. If I use the Black cable I get spikes and interrupts which confirms my experience with the system on the bike, next test will be to try all the variants of a Tach Adapter, which I have tried before with no success, but now whith the rig and and the knowledge that the signal from the two pickups differ´s I can experiment, and the rig is essential as I don´t have to start the bike two hundred times to test.

Kickstarting

Roll Out and kickstart

Untouched except from a replaced kickshaft I rolled out "Mom" today and started up, Sun is shining and we do think the winter it´s over. Made a little Movie for you ...

28th May it is

This season will be selected events only. and Kjula Dragway 28th May is the first.

Got a minute ?

If you have a few minutes check this video, it´s...revealing.

Big Twin talent

Here is a link to a movie where (in my opinion) one of the the best Big Twin drivers and tuner hits a 9,28 on the quarter mile, Conny Karlsson don´t mind racing against me as it seems his best runs are against yours truly, in this race he certainly wipes out the fat guy in the other lane

He doesn´t hesitate trying different combinations and I´ve seen many variants of  Dual Mikuni setups and then suddenly a single S&S on a high homemade intake, and it always surprises me how he manages to do it no or short time, good welding, machining, raceworthy installations and attention to detail, respect

Seats in place

Allright, got the seats where they belong, relieving will be after intake and exhaust ports are set and radiuses in the channels are known, I can introduce spring seats, guides etc, as they are pre req. for the intake and exhaust envelope.

Yeah I´m workin on it

Retrieved the Jim Miller "Mid Lift" theory papers so I am working on it. Got the intake and exhaust seats on the desk so I have those and the rollers for the rocker arms so that´s what I need to set the geometry. But I´m currently cleaning up the rocker housings and still have the ambition to use as many parts as possible, like the "Tin" covers", So..any decade now..............

Snow and challenges

Shoveling snow is becoming an every other day deal in Stockholm, and it came like a month earlier than usual, but I even enjoy it, beacuse it´s easy, healthy and instantly rewarding compared to restoring the harddrive after serious crash . Looking at the screen nervously (I didn´t back up my latest work) when the file system gets restored sucks. Anyway this pick is a cooling fin, just to prove progress on the head work, this is the 2nd from bottom on a normal front head but in my case it´s the 3rd as I have added two.