February 22nd 2010 Nosferatu's engine has been greatly improved!
At last the Mysterious Count has emerged from the depths of the cellar where he has been busy breathing new life into Nosferatu's pumping heart. What follows is a translation from his native and ancient Transylvanian tongue, so we apologise if we have mis-represented anything he actually meant!
"Drag racing at this level takes a toll on race engines over the season and in 2009 we had more than our fair share of damage. We broke a crank and cracked 4 main caps right through just getting through the season. Over the dark winter nights Igor The Silent One and I have refreshed the engine from top to bottom, replacing the aluminium rods with new Brooks 65s. All the pistons were damaged one way or another and the full set needed replacing. Six of them were cracking up and the front pair were suffering from damage to the ring lands caused by a little too much heat. This probably happened when the fuel cable pulled the fuel off during a run and leaned out the engine. The cracks were due to a piston design and machining error which has been eliminated on the new ones. The aluminium rods are prone to snap without warning due to metal fatigue so changing these on a regular basis, whilst costly, will save us money in the long run. All the bearings have been replaced as have the rings, although I was pleased that the bearings had done so well, having lasted all year, and only the rear main bearing needed replacing during the racing season. The rears get damaged due to thrust forces acting on the crank, however this year I have modified the transmission to help alleviate this problem.		The Dart Pro 1 heads now fitted to the engine replace the tired Brodix heads and offer the potential for more flow. These have been fitted out with Jesel Pro Series rocker arms with a higher ratio on both intake and exhaust. The higher ratio gives considerably more lift on the valve, again generating more flow. Fitting these heads has not been straightforward and required very careful checking of the clearances inside the engine. I have had to modify the valve covers to clear the new rockers, move the cam 1 degree and correct the valve train geometry which is all very time consuming. The other change we are making concerns the torque converter. The one we have been using stalls at 6,200 rpm which I have always thought to be a little on the high side. The bolt together Neal Chance converter has been modified with a new sprag designed to bring the stall speed down putting it right on the peak torque of the engine. If this all works we could be looking at getting 60ft times below 1 second. If I'm wrong, it's fairly straightforward to change the converter back to a higher stall. So - plenty of new things to test and no doubt trip us up along the way! I am really looking forward to the new season to find out how hard the new heart will be beating. If it's anything like how mine beats during the first run then we will be in the 5s!"