Hey! Thanks for that Christer.
If only it way with the Chally.
Got there Friday lunchtime and set up next to Blue, MoparKev, Phil etc.
Saturday morning Linda and myself were at the start line early with Diana watching from the stands.
I had first shot.
It left the line stronger than I have EVER felt it leave before. Man it flew up the strip!
I shifted to second when the shift light came on at 6500.
When the light came on the second time I switched the overdrive on.
Then just as i was about ready to shift to third I was just making sure I had my foot on the overdrive switch when I accidently switched the overdrive off! The rpms went sky high. I backed off, shifted to third, then floored it again.
Ran a 12.3 something. Don't know the MPH. I forgot to collect the ticket later.
Linda then had a go.
But there was an oil-down on the track so we had to shut down and wait until that was cleared up.
Then when she came to launch the car it just bogged big time. In fact I thought for a moment it had stalled completely it took so long to launch. When it did launch it seemed slow and only ran 13.7.
I think the pump squirters had dried out while standing in the heat. But the next problem may have been starting by then....
My turn again.
Just before the burnout I blipped the throttle and the idle rpm suddenly went up from 900 to 1500rpm.
I did a burnout and it seemed OK but not as strong as before.
But when I launched it suddenly sounded VERY rough and miss-firing badly. I backed off and babied it up the strip to an amazing 26 second run!
Back in the pits I pulled the valve covers and found two of the right side intake rocker adjusters on cylinders 2 and 6 had backed off. The lock nuts were missing. There was no sign of the two pushrods or lifters either.
Metal fileings in the heads and on the rockers too.
So I spent all day Saturday and Sunday morning fixing the problem.
In the end we were able to repair the threads in the bottom of the rockers. The pushrods were more of less straight enough to get me home. We found the two lock nuts. One lifter was badly damaged but I decided it would hold together for the 250 mile drive home. I had recovery insurance if I needed it.
A big thank you to all the boys (and girls) that helped out and loaned tools etc. Special thanks to Trevor Young who spent a lot of time helping me. He was a cool head when all around (or maybe it was just me?) were loosing theirs.
The car made it home under it's own power and with style. I drove a constant 70-80mph all the way and although it was clattering by the time I got home it did not fail.
Time for an engine rebuild I think!