Dragway 42 Buckeye Stock S/S report. Many wouldv'e thrown in the towel, not me

[dvw]

Q1 Saturday morning (based on R/T) .007. Good for #9 spot, tough crowd. Had pretty good lights. Rd #1 double breakout. I was 9.221 on a 9.23, he was .056 under. Rd#2 I get Chris Lozon. He has been on a roll 3 wins, 1 runner up in his last 5 races. He's .004 and my day is done. Sunday Q1 Buckeye has dialing for dollars. Set the dial at 9.20. .004 R/T, 9.2001. Win the $100 for the dial. Miss #1 qualifier $100 by .001. R#1 opponent red lights. I saw his red and lost concentration and went red as well. Rd#2 Opponent barely red lights, .001. RD#2 win. Back in the pits the car isn't cooling down. Never does that. Radiator is cold. Pop the cap and make a mess. No water flow with the pump on. Have a spare in stock imediately start draining the radiator. Get the radiator and fans removed. then pull the pump. Spare pump has the wrong plug. They come by and tell me I have a bye and to hurry up to the lanes. Test the bad pump it does spin. Through it back on rinse and blow all the water off and just make it to the lanes. No hood on the car, just break the beam and drive back. Pump has quit again. My friend Casey (Saturday's winner congrats) is pitted next to me. He has a pump with the correct plug. We rip it apart. Jeff ross series director comes by and tell us we have 5 minutes. At this point its completly apart. Get the pump installed Casey hooks up the hoses and fills it while I bolt the radiator back in. Quickly glance at the weather it shows 9.17. No time to look at more data. Get to the lanes with 30 seconds to spare. Double breakout and a .004 stripe. Back in the pits I realise thet run #2 never got loaded. Weather actual predicts 9.156. Car ran a 9.153. If I woulda coulda shoulda looked it would've been dialed 9.15. So all in all good weekend. Got another $100 for making it down to the last 5 cars. I'm not very happy with Meziere pumps right now. This is the 3rd pump on this engine and is less than 2 years old.
Doug

 

[HEMI-ITIS]

what a weekend you had!

 

[Tex013]

certainly a trial . At least got a few rounds and a couple of $ . Must be tight in there to need to pull radiator for pump - or do you pull fans/rad combined ? I feel your pain with different plugs , I have gone through that with ignition boxes redone them to the same now .

Tex

 

[BSB67]

Great read. Thanks for posting.

 

[padam]

That’s some tight racing!
No one can say you’re not putting the work in.

I don’t know who makes a better pump, aren’t they the top name?

Frustrating to be let down by name brand parts at such a critical moment. One of the crappy parts of the sport, ref my other thread.

 

[dvw]

certainly a trial . At least got a few rounds and a couple of $ . Must be tight in there to need to pull radiator for pump - or do you pull fans/rad combined ? I feel your pain with different plugs , I have gone through that with ignition boxes redone them to the same now .

Tex

It actally comes out easily. The fans stay attached to the rad. 2 bolts at the top, the 2 hoses and the fan plug. The bottom sets on rubber exhaust hangers turned sideways. Both pumps were disassembled and inspected yestreday. Same failure on both. Meziere will warantee the newer pump. They said send the other as well and they will see. He said they have seen this failure but it's very rare. Both have multiple broken wires at the commutator crimp.
Doug

 

[dvw]

certainly a trial . At least got a few rounds and a couple of $ . Must be tight in there to need to pull radiator for pump - or do you pull fans/rad combined ? I feel your pain with different plugs , I have gone through that with ignition boxes redone them to the same now .

Tex

It actally comes out easily. The fans stay attached to the rad. 2 bolts at the top, the 2 hoses and the fan plug. The bottom sets on rubber exhaust hangers turned sideways. Both pumps were disassembled and inspected yestreday. Same failuure on both. Meziere will warantee the newer pump. They said send the other as well and they will see. He said they have seen this failure but it's very rare. Both have multiple broken wires at the commutator crimp. Look closely below the center shiny spot. The wire has broken and there is an arc mark.
Doug

 

[JC Boatguy]

what a weekend you had!

 

[WhompinWedge]

One heck of a thrash!

I was just impressed of how calm and focused you were to get it swapped out as fast as you did and up to the lanes with Jeff there every couple of minutes. Well done man.

Casey FJ

 

[padam]

I really commend you on your effort. One look at your car says it all.

I have had a lot of instances where I have broken the car and have to thrash (usually over a week) to get ready for the next race. i always think that the racing gods will see my heroic deed and reward me with win lights. Nine times out ten it doesn’t happen!

The satisfaction of knowing I made it to the line lasts a long time though.