Thread: 1968 Corvette Like No other ***Die Hard Corvette Guys Step Away

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If I remember correctly it did 420hp and kept spinning the tires on the dyno. They had trouble loading trucks all day.

Here was the first attept ever on the strip. I can't remember exact times.






Here's a vid from that night. Ignore the fowl mouthed idiot in the back round. He thinks everything he owns is fast.



The next trip was Union Grove Wisconsin. We faught a brake locking up issue and the intake pipe kept blowing off and broke the windshield. I think it was running 12's when we finally got to make a pass. It was June and hot out. LIke 102* yeehaw! We also were trying to get the suspension raised so the tires would quit rubbing on the big end.

At the end of that season the throttle pressure cable came off and we fried the forward clutch packs. Ever since then we've been fighting an issue of not being able to get the trans to stall above 1250rpm. Before this we could leave the line at 2200rpm, the engine turns 4200. This pic was in Ennis Texas spring or 2010.



We came home mad, made some changes and tried again.



I love this pic.






It ran 11.55 and at the 1/8th mile did this.





It did this not once but twice. I changed to a garrett primary and we also got the car painted.

Hey Thanks Ryan for making time to post up all these pics and video! Looks like you've been having a blast!!!

Right after we brought it home from the body shop.








Here's the video of the 2nd turbo blowing up before the garrett.



This is at the NHRDA World Finals







On that pass the engine blew the tappet cover gasket, and someone didn't tighten the hot pipe clamp between the two turbos so it was dumping drive pressure all over the fire wall. I also noticed a miss in it too. We got rained out that day and continued the next day.

The next day we started swapping injectors thinking that was the miss. Well #5 wouldn't come out. We tried everything to get it out and it started spinning but not coming out. we were near missing qualifying so we put it back in and made qualifying by the hair on our necks. It came back around and I got the tappet cover gasket back on so we could make one more pass. It made one final pass and did 11.43@125mph on 5 cylinders.

Whut, another '68-'72-'73-78 Diesel-powered twin turbo 'Vette? Ho-hum. Boring! NOT!!!
Honestly can not understand any car guy not loving an original piece of machinery like that. Way to shake up the troops, man!

What an incredible thread and a marvelous example of hot rod ingenuity. Ryan, you are to be commended for not only the technical expertise required to make all the required systems work but beyond that, the creativity you have demonstrated puts you a category shared with the likes of Carroll Shelby and Zora Arkus-Dontov – way outside the box in terms of what most people would consider for a race car.

I have a great deal of respect and admiration for those who do “the un-thinkable” and you sir, have done it in a big way! Congratulations on your successes with this car and please keep us in the loop as you continue to refine and “re-define”. I really have enjoyed this thread!

Regards,
Glenn

That's nuts!!

I LIKE it!

Just finished reading whole thread. Love the diesel powered dragster. Everything you did with the mods, turned out great. The car looks great and really moves too. Thanks for adding the videos too. Never been on a drag strip, but it looks way fun!

Originally Posted by R Pope

Whut, another '68-'72-'73-78 Diesel-powered twin turbo 'Vette? Ho-hum. Boring! NOT!!!
Honestly can not understand any car guy not loving an original piece of machinery like that. Way to shake up the troops, man!

Thanks. It's really fun but a pain in the butt too. Haha

Originally Posted by glennsexton

What an incredible thread and a marvelous example of hot rod ingenuity. Ryan, you are to be commended for not only the technical expertise required to make all the required systems work but beyond that, the creativity you have demonstrated puts you a category shared with the likes of Carroll Shelby and Zora Arkus-Dontov – way outside the box in terms of what most people would consider for a race car.

I have a great deal of respect and admiration for those who do “the un-thinkable” and you sir, have done it in a big way! Congratulations on your successes with this car and please keep us in the loop as you continue to refine and “re-define”. I really have enjoyed this thread!

Regards,
Glenn

Glenn, thanks for the kind words. Once we get it in the 9's I'm thinking about removing part of the interior cage and redoing it so I can redo the interior and turn it into more of a pro touring car. Take it on power tour or anything we want.

Originally Posted by Bob Parmenter

That's nuts!!

I LIKE it!

Thanks Bob!

Originally Posted by stovens

Just finished reading whole thread. Love the diesel powered dragster. Everything you did with the mods, turned out great. The car looks great and really moves too. Thanks for adding the videos too. Never been on a drag strip, but it looks way fun!

Thanks. I should finish posting more pics. The dash has been changed last year and we installed a set of Isspro Performax gauges with a data logger. That really helped us try to figure out what's going on.

Here's the new dash. I really like the mid year dashes so I tried to get that look here. I started with a set of 66 dash pads and used them for a base and made this:





It didn't turn out how I had planned but the roll cage kind of hampered my design ideas. I also eliminated some un-needed wiring in the harness.

This was the engine last year before I added the intercooler.





If you notice, you can see the hydra boost I added as well.




Here were some problems we ran into at Indy last year. The billet gear housing cover wasn't machined deep enough for the cam gear retainer. The cam gear retainer was holding out the front cover and causing an oil leak. What a PITA!





Here's a couple of blurry pics of the intercooler and piping.





Here's me sitting in it at Indy.



Pits in Indy

Here's it in Brainerd MN.

Here's it last fall. I had to fix my screw up in the engine, and we put in a bigger cam.