"It's alive...it's alive"

The boys headed down to Rex Rods in Santa Rosa where Keith Tardel had the primary engine ready to run...check out the videos of it coming to life while on the test stand.

By the end of the day, the engine was dropped into its proper home, the Hillborn injectors installed, scattershield on, cooling system and electronics plumbed and wired respectively and the car all but ready to go.

Keith is finishing up a few things and will be delivering the car back this way on Tuesday (fingers crossed).  We'll take the car over to Paul deBecker at DB Tuned (a Subaru performace guru with the only 4 wheel dyno in the region).

Funny aside, I met Paul at a family block party on the 4th of July...I happened to be wearing a Cannarozzi/Tardel tshirt and we got to talking.  Turns out, Paul grew up in Santa Rosa and went to school with the Tardel boys but hadn't seen them in a number of years. Paul offered up his dyno to test the new engine and "tah-dah", new friendships were made and old ones rekindled...gotta like it.

more engine work

Big ups to Keith for helping us document the build while the roadster is down at Rex Rods.

power is coming

Keith is working hard to get both engines (yes, "both", the main and a backup engine) ready by this weekend.  Once done, we'll bring the roadster back to Auburn and then over to the dyno early next week...that should be a blast!

In the meantime, here are some more pics...

Oh, new t-shirts, new design are on the way...keep an eye out!

Melting lead for the sled

Work was completed on the roadster and Randy hauled it back to Keith Tardel at Rex Rods for the engines to be prepped and installed...yes, I said engines - plural. 

In the meantime, Pete ordered up the AN16 and AN20 hoses and fittings for the water tank/pump system and I sourced lead from several folks on the local Craigslist.  After a couple of trips, I ended up with somewhere around 250# for about $90...pretty damn good, because lead usually runs a buck a pound.  However, a good deal of our lead was in the form of wheel weights, dirty ol' wheel weights.  We planned on mounting about 200# of lead in surplus .50 caliber ammo cans, one on either side of the fuel cell in the trunk, directly over the rear axle to act as ballast.

Nothing that a tank of propane, a proper burner, cast iron pan and a loaf pan couldn't fix.

The crew assembled for a combined Pete and Nic birthday / good ol' fashioned lead melting party.

After a few slices of pizza, the work got started.  In all, it's real simple, throw in a bunch of lead weights in a cast iron pan over a super hot burner, heat to about 600 degrees or so and watch the lead melt away from the steel clips. Skim the steel and other impurities off the top with a slotted spoon and when the lead is nice and liquid, pour into a loaf pan.

Half way through, we'd perfected our system and were quenching the hot loaf pan once the lead had formed a crust.  This allowed us to remove the lead brick from the form and go onto the next one.  In case you're curious, an average loaf of lead is about 25#.

By the way, if you are so inlclined, take precautions to wear proper heavy clothing, welders gloves and eye protection...oh, and either do your work in open space with a breeze (like we were fortunate enough to have) or use a shop fan to blow the nasty smoke and fumes downwind.

...and the work continues

Over the weekend, the crew assembled at the Cannarozzi ranch to make a dent in that knock list.  By the end of the day, Jered's transmission tunnel was fitted, the electric water pump bracket was mounted in the grill shell, all oil and fuel lines and corresponding filters were inspected and cleaned.  The roadster was buttoned up to take a look, check out that bitchin' grill.

Enjoy the pics...

Workday at the ranch

The roadster is back in the barn over at the Cannarozzi compound and in need of some work while the engine is at the machine shop.  Looking over the knock list we knew we had more than just an afternoon in store.



Pete and Jered tackled the floorboards while Nic and I got the fuel tank removed, purged of old hi-octane and got the twin battery boxes installed. Rear brake drums were cleaned of rust and scale, victims of the salt and time. At the close of the afternoon it didn't look as though a lot of progress was made, but many things were just on the verge of getting done...another afternoon will mean marking off a lot of the tasks.







Jered got measurements for the tranny cover and waterpump bracket that will be mounted inside of the grillshell - now that there is a 35 gallon water tank.  I guess he thought that the one we had mocked up was not substantial enough.



Here is an example of the fantastic fabrication that Jered does...gotta love that grill.



The hardest working team member.

Summer is upon us and Speed Week draws close

The longest day of the year is here to mark the beginning of summer, a summer which will be interrupted by a glorious trip to the salt.  Keith Tardel, Randy Cannarozzi and others have been hard at work to get the roadster ready for Bonneville.

Here are some pics to document just some of the progress


KILLER CLAMSHELLS


WATER TANK to take the place of a radiator




Check out the fancy HEADERS, looks like a bunch of anacondas


Sweet QUICK CHANGE REAREND


The CREW at Tardel's Flathead Ranch

Below are some pics from the roadster's previous trip to Bonneville.







We will be getting together this weekend for a "work day" on the roadster as it is now back at Randy's ranch...more information and cool pics to come...