fbekholden.com

Well crap, that didn't end well.

Went out to the Day of the Drags yesterday with the wagon. Weather was great, and a good-sized crowd. Lined up for the first pass, and a strong (perhaps overenthusiastic ) burnout. Made the run, and noted some smoke behind the car. Strange. Rather slow (14s), but mebbe that is me remembering how to drive again. Nothing obvious back at the pits.


https://youtube.com/shorts/4qkBKNz9jrE?feature=share


Lined up the second pass, a bit less bogan-ish for the burnout, and sent it again. More smoke behind the car, and again a slow 14s. Not good.


https://youtube.com/shorts/5cIBOP01XVs?feature=share


Checked in the pits, lots of blow-by. Found one rocker breather unscrewed (probably coincidental, stupid me had unscrewed it when we did the head gasket a few months back, and must never have tightened it). Put it back together, cleaned up the oil but no reduction in blow-by.

Called it a day, limped it home, and ran compression:
#1: 162psi
#2: 170psi
#3: 165psi
#4: 184psi
#5: 100psi, came up to 176psi wet.
#6: 166psi
#7: 182psi
#8: 15psi, came up to 20psi wet.

Looks like #8 has left the party, and #5 is not far behind it. Bugger. If anyone has a spare cylinder and a half for a small block let me know .


Preparing for motor out and teardown. Thinking about more convertor, and perhaps a trip to the dentist.

Cheers,
Harv

Oh poo - bad news

More converter and engine work - good news

At least you have a nice new shed to work in now

Bugger Harv!


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I was watching the live feed and saw the smoke screen but thought you were trying to be James Bond and planning a quick get away. That's not what you want but at least Chev bits are realitvily cheap compared to some stuff. At least you do my trick and drive 7 hours to Mildura last weekend and after 2 runs put the HAMBster back on the trailer because of a clunking sound. Flywheel came loose again but I should've checked it before I left to go there. I'm hoping to go to Whyalla in October for the 60th anniversary of Steel City Dragstrip so I'd better make sure of everything before heading off for a 14hour drive.

Q: You see this arm here? [Points inside the wagon] Open the top and inside are your defense mechanism controls. Smokescreen. Oil slick. Rear bulletproof screen. And left and right front wing machine guns. Now, this one I'm particularly keen on. You see the gear lever here. Now, if you take the top off, you find a little red button. Whatever you do, don't touch it.
Harv: And why not?
Q: Because you release the ring lands. Whoosh!
Harv: Ring lands?, you're joking?
Q: I never joke about my work, 007.

I should not have touched the red button. Found the smoke screen, and the oil slick. Not so sure about the machine guns.

spanners wrote: Sun Aug 23, 2026 2:27 pm At least you do my trick and drive 7 hours to Mildura last weekend and after 2 runs put the HAMBster back on the trailer because of a clunking sound. Flywheel came loose again but I should've checked it before I left to go there.

I can't remember if your flywheel has the locking tabs, or the fancy ARP bolts+loctite?

Only one HAMBster there yesterday, black car with a flathead.

Good luck for Whyalla, and safe travels.

Cheers,
Harv

You just wanted to get home to Miss Moneypenny early.
I'm using the ARP bolts and Loctite but because of my slightly agressive burnout and launch procedure I should check more often. Usually I take the starter out and put a pry bar against the flywheel and check for movement but I did that at the track but it was inconclusive. I decided it twas better to be a scaredy cat and put it on the trailer rather than send the flywheel into orbit.
How long has the Chev been in service and was it a reco when installed?
One of the commentators on the live feed didn't know what a HAMBster was and the other one said that Boscovich was the only one running these days. I've done 3 events this year, Ballarat, Gunnedah with a runnerup trophy and Mildura. That's about 4,000 klms of travel with the HAMBster. I did 7 events last year and won 4 of them with the HAMBster that apparently doesn't exist.

Could be anything harv,

You did labour that motor hard in the first burnout.

ring lands probably, especially if it happened just then, could be broken rings as well.

You probably already know, check all your valvetrain then heads off, check your valves for seating and the seals.

Then the piston slop on those cylinders.

Oh what fun !!!!!!

Greg

You do a lot of miles to attend tracks Spanners. Love watching the HAMBsters, cars I can understand and very little off-the-shelf.

The wagon has done 6 years since being fresh built. It did a lot of stop/start Sydney driving, freeway miles, trailer towing. A lot of “spirited” driving. It’s had a few rebuilds of the MSD ignition, where timing was all over the place. Counted the time slips, and has done 82 passes. Poor thing runs on abuse and neglect.

Praying it might be a valve issue, especially as the head for #8 was off recently for a head gasket. Not my luck though.

Cheers,
Harv

A lot of that smoke that I saw was when you was in the breaking area backing off so it might be something simple like a valve seal. The times being a bit slow though are worrying. Try the air pressure in the spark plug hole first to see where the pressure is going. Fingers crossed for you.