Prepping for Primm!!

[Dzrtcj7]

Well, RumbleGoat Racing has been hard a working getting ready for Primm!! Coming off of a victory at the Parker 425, the truck fared VERY well!! The damage list consisted only of a body work on the bed and a bent knuckle. Steve actually had to cut the taillight section out of the bed this time to try and make it look decent.

So, the rear leafs have been rebuilt by Deaver and reinstalled, new torsions, new knuckle, shocks have been freshened up and A LOT of cleaning has been done. You wouldn't believe how much Arizona dirt one little truck can hide!

We are less than a month away from the Primm race. In the next couple of weeks the truck will get final touches, a quick test session, then get loaded on the trailer to head south again.

We are looking forward to meeting Jim, his wife and all the rest of the TRS folks down there!!

[Dzrtcj7]

http://c2.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/22/l_7b793d6923574e43b2a755d34c1b805d.jpg

http://c3.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/66/l_013db51f32364dbaac303cb47d1d8db6.jpg

You follow much more in depth prep updates on our BLOG at: http://rumblegoatracing.com/blog/

[oldgreen]

The truck is ready and we start leaving for Nevada tomorrow :o

Part of the crew from Portland is coming our way tomorrow night so we can leave on Wednesday morning for the long trip south. It is 1000 miles one way to Primm.

The Terrible's 250 at Primm (the richest off-road race in Nevada) starts at 5:45AM this Saturday. There will be live race tracking and comentary on www.rumblegoatracing.com/forum. TRS's own Jim Oaks will be at our main pit helping with refueling and working on El Chivo when we come through. Make sure to follow along!!!!

PS: If any of you are in the Las Vegas area. . .come on out and watch the race. We'll also be out in Vegas on Thursday night so look for RGR crew members!! There are. . .I think. . .25 of us for this race.

[PaleBlue90]

good luck!

[gw33gp]

I will look you up on Friday around noon.

[84projectFORD]

Yup i should be around there the same time as gw, if not earlier. What time do you guys plan on goin through Tech? any idea yet?

[Dzrtcj7]

I decided to get on the road a little early, so I will be in Vegas Thursday night, and head to Primm first thing with the truck. So, we will be in registration around 10am, and get the truck in the contingency line about 11am. The truck will be in the parking lot, probably with people working on it, all morning long. So, feel free to come stop by any time.

[84projectFORD]

ok cool. i should be arriving about the same time so ill keep an eye out for ya.

[84projectFORD]

Dzrt, where is the update from the race? Jim told me the tranny went out on her and i was waitin to see you fly by the alternate pits out there but never did lol. We broke too.

[Dzrtcj7]

That is correct. The transmission went just after Pit 1. We haven't torn it down, so we aren't quite sure what happened. What it was it was catastrophic. We tried to hunt down a transimssion anywhere in Vegas and do a swap in the pits, but nothing could be located. It was disappointing, but we managed to have a really good time, and give a hand to a several other teams that needed help in that pit. That is the joys of racing, one day you are on cloud nine, and the next your face is in the dirt!!

Right now we are looking into full race transmissions. We have had too many problems trying to run stock and need to come up with a solid solution.

I'll keep posted on what we find out inside that trans.

[oldgreen]

Based on how and what happened. . .our Ford tech is saying that either the main shaft broke or the converter went all at once. At any rate, that tranny is going to get diagnosed, fixed and put on the shelf as a spare. :icon_welder:

[canyoncritter]

dang, that sucks guys, was hoping you would get some of the ford money.

IF you havent allready got a trans guy picked out, give teamramco.com a call, and try talking to flash or corkey. And see if they can do something for you. Ford bought some of the tooling flash made back in the day for the A4,and is a stand up guy.No B/S type of guy.

[84projectFORD]

That is correct. The transmission went just after Pit 1. We haven't torn it down, so we aren't quite sure what happened. What it was it was catastrophic. We tried to hunt down a transimssion anywhere in Vegas and do a swap in the pits, but nothing could be located. It was disappointing, but we managed to have a really good time, and give a hand to a several other teams that needed help in that pit. That is the joys of racing, one day you are on cloud nine, and the next your face is in the dirt!!

Right now we are looking into full race transmissions. We have had too many problems trying to run stock and need to come up with a solid solution.

I'll keep posted on what we find out inside that trans.

oh i got ya. thats no fun, specially for how far you guys drove. unfortuanltly i didnt know anyone that had a trans for your truck either. Full race trans is definitly a good idea. Do you guys have a bigger trans cooler on the front? have you thought about switchin to a manual?

[gw33gp]

Do you guys have a bigger trans cooler on the front? have you thought about switchin to a manual? That's interesting, I asked similar questions before the race. I hope I didn't jinx them.

During the race I was on the berm behind Buffalo Bills waiting for RGR to come around but just kept waiting. I was setting up to get a good photo of them. I searched out a good jump in hopes of getting a flying through the air photo of them. Here is one of my practice shots.

http://img513.imageshack.us/img513/6765/flying2.th.jpg

[Dzrtcj7]

We have had a long history of dealing with transmission temp issues. But, that is one thing we are sure are resolved. We have huge alum. cooler in the back window with a fan, and another cooler in the bed. We now have temp senders located in the right spots to know exactly what the temps are, so the overheating can be pretty well ruled out.

We haven't opened the trans yet, but are pretty confident that the torque converter went south.

[84projectFORD]

yeah id think so if you lost all gears at once or did it gradually drop down a gear before all together quiting?

[oldgreen]

yeah id think so if you lost all gears at once or did it gradually drop down a gear before all together quiting?

It quit all at once. The truck stopped in the dust behind another vehicle that was stuck. When they tried to move it again. . .nothin'. Ford is saying busted input shaft. We're putting in a C4.

[84projectFORD]

It quit all at once. The truck stopped in the dust behind another vehicle that was stuck. When they tried to move it again. . .nothin'. Ford is saying busted input shaft. We're putting in a C4.

The only way to go unless you do a manual :D

[gw33gp]

Something to consider is the C4 only has only three speeds. Is that going to be suitable for all your conditions? Are you going to try to adapt a lockup converter to it? A non-locking converter will most likely develop more heat.

[oldgreen]

All good points. . .

We currently turn the OD off and it will hunt between 3rd and 4th gear on the top end because of the drag (no windshield so it is like flying a parachute). We'd much rather keep it in 3rd. The SOHC motor loves to turn 5500 RPM all day long. Also, we use GIGANTIC coolerS and a low stall converter so heat isn't an issue. If it becomes a problem, we'll know quickly with the temp sender in the bottom of the tranny pan.

[84projectFORD]

Something to consider is the C4 only has only three speeds. Is that going to be suitable for all your conditions? Are you going to try to adapt a lockup converter to it? A non-locking converter will most likely develop more heat.

using a 3 speed is almost better for off road racing. you mostly never use OD in a desert truck as OD was made for cruising at a low RPM. In a race, your hardly ever cruising at low RPMs.

As oldgreen stated, the bigger trans cooler will more than make up for the non-lock up torque converter. Most Trophy trucks the TH400 in their trucks and i have never really seen an over heating problem with an 800 HP motor infront of it. hell the TH400 in those trucks fully built only cost 5 grand, the motors are 30K + lol

[gw33gp]

I wasn't concerned about OD. I agree it should be turned off anyway if you have it. It just seems that having more ratios available would be an advantage to help keep rpms in a narrower band (power band). That is my road racing experience showing though. It may be that you don't need more ratios in off-road racing. With a three speed you will now probably be mostly hunting between 2nd and 3rd. 2nd will be lower than the 3rd you use to use a lot. Will it be less than an optimum gear? Your rpms will be changing up and down more now during the shifts.

I know little about off-road racing but love to drive off-road.

[oldgreen]

We'll be shifting manually from now on. . .reverse manual valve body. In the rough we'll be in second gear and we'll kick it into high for the light chop and graded sections. First gear down the canyons. That's the way we'd LIKE it to have been. If you look at the gear ratios on the 5R v. the C4, 1,2,3 are basically the same.

Here's an interesting thought. When our tranny was going out in Henderson, it wanted to stay in 2nd gear but would pop into 3rd or 4th if you were really careful and feathered the throttle but as soon as you got back on it it would dive back into 2nd. As it turned out, it would have been MUCH better to have been stuck in 3rd gear. Top speed in 2nd is under 50mph and even though we use 2nd in the rough, 3rd would have been better all around. Especially with the 4.88s. It is good from 35mph all the way to almost 90mph in 3rd gear. At the slower speeds, it is a dog but it still works. . .but now we'll be able to bump it down into 2nd at will. . .like a real race car. :)

[gw33gp]

Sounds like you got it figured out. That is one thing that makes a good team.

I don't know a lot about automatics but think I had a C4 in my 68 Fairlane 500. I beat on it pretty hard and never had a problem with it. I could manually drop it into second at any speed and did so once in excess of 100 mph. That is not good for the engine or the transmission but I was young and stupid and everything survived. First gear on the other hand would not manually down shift unless I was below a certain speed. Is there anything you can do to over-ride that safety feature or do you plan to keep it that way? Maybe the reverse manual body will take care of that.

[oldgreen]

The valve body will take care of that issue. The old tranny is ready to drop. . .tonight is the night we diagnose what went wrong.

[Jim Oaks]

Can't wait to see what it was.

[84projectFORD]

so what was the culprit and have you got the C4 in yet? Vegas to Reno is commin quick!

[oldgreen]

Update:
Hard parts of all kinds failed and a planet welded itself together: No Bueno

c5/c4 w/reverse manual valvebody is in and running strong. No problems at Vegas to Reno. It went 706 miles without a problem but we blew the motor on the last day. The good news is that you are allowed to DNF one day at V2R and still finish the race so we got 3rd in class!! The new tranny is awesome and if you guys want to put a SOHC 4.0 in front of a C4, we know how!!! We did NOT use the high dollar Culhane flexplate either.