A Tale of Two Bulkheads: I-500 Prep

[JoeRainville]

Hi Guys,

This is a short, but hopefully not tragic tail of two rusty Liquifires bulkheads from the pre-internet era of 1980. Both of them were separated from their long held bonds (rivits) to their aluminum tunnels. The Watersboy then nursed them back to health (welding, sandblasting and painting) before returning one to me this past weekend.

Here is what I am supposed to race on January 22nd, 2011 at the Red Lake I-500:



While here sits the reconditoned parts for my race motor, include a freash Jermome Kretzman crank, new Wisco Pro-lite pistons, Titanium Nitrided rings, reconditioned Millenium jugs and the Watersboy prepped heads:



Luckily I was home from Texas for the weekend, and was able to make some progress Saturday and Sunday...

[JoeRainville]

By the end of the weekend, a whif of progress was in the air! The bulkhead was attached to the tunnel with steel rivits in place of the factory aluminum ones, the hidden bolts behind the bulkhead mounted heat exchanger were put in place before riviting the exchanger home. An NOS stearing colum and TPR where also attached to chassis, with the result looking something like this:



Thank God I have off almost 2 weeks over Christmas to wrench. Looking toward a hopefull completion and testing session before returning to Texas. With about 85% of the parts in house for the build, I hope to be running her by New Years weekend, but I might need to call in for reinforcements...

Later Liquidator,
-Joe Rainville

[JRC ETD]

Buddy....get those tools warmed up, time is creeping up! JRC

[kenwaters]

True true... Tomorrow we are T-1 month from the truck leaving the dooryard and counting...

[JoeRainville]

Buddy....get those tools warmed up, time is creeping up! JRC

Hi Jon,

Trust me, we feel the pressure, and should have been this far along about October. I've fired my mechanic daily, but it's not helping:>) I will be in NY for 10 days over the holidays, and plan to spend much of it in the shop. Both Kenny and I watched the Brian Nelson and John Sanborn video of them testing their Cats already.

Both Tim and Nick are wrenching on other projects for me, but I may need to re-task them soon. Thank God for good friends:>)

-Rainville

PS: Do we have an update from the aspriring "Charlie Daniels of the torque wrench?"

[Norton]

Joe,

Thanks for the update and pics on the Red Lake racer. You have some work ahead but it looks like the real time consuming parts are behind you. Saw the video too of Nelson testing the Cats. That kinda puts the pressure on, but what I really wonder about is, the silence out of Roseau. It would be a tough pill to swallow if a vintage TXL with race legal modern updates is as fast or faster than the liquid 440's. Hows that for adding pressure????

By the way, I will be free and in the area if you would need assistance that weekend. I had committed to ETJ but he has decided not to run this year. So that leaves me a free agent..

Best on your LF construction.

keith

[kenwaters]

Not a real one...I am too busy working!

[JoeRainville]

Keith,

Thanks for the compliment, and we would love to have you pit for us on Saturday. Tim Kudla is running the entire I-500, but we will have at least 3 guys running on Saturday: Tim's new Cat, and Kenny and I on Liquifires. Hopefully we make it to the Gas stops!

I will post more pic's after Christmas, hopefully of the sled moving on it's own power!

-Joe

[ICCSF 108]

Joe, question: will they fill you guy's up or do you have to have a Pit crew for that?? & How many gas stops will there be??

Kenny

[JoeRainville]

Grumpy,

We have to supply our own fuel and pit stop crew for either the vintage or the modern class. I think there will be two gas stops each day, so I will be glad that the Liquifires aren't too bad on fuel. If I had time,I would look at adding a rear tank...

-Joe

[Norton]

Joe,

When your ready to make detailed plans for the race weekend, call me one evening and let me know what I can do on this end to make this a FUN and fruitful trip for you guys.

keith

PS
Snow conditions in the race area are OK but nothing like the Minneapolis area has. Have had some strong winds which mixes some field dirt into the snow which makes things more gray than white. Course things can change over night! Have not had really cold temps yet. Think one night was down to -12. Highs in the single digits (above zero).

[ICCSF 108]

Joe, I wouldn't worry about a rear tank but I might suggest a 76-77 tank those were 8 gals I believe, I don't know how big the 80+ tanks were?? Also how far apart are the gas stops, those PJ carbs didn't save gas at WOT IF I remember right they were just as bad as the regular 36mm Mikuni's @ WOT

ME

[JoeRainville]

Grumpy, good point on running WFO. But I can tell you that the 84 LF Stan Hayes rode on the Vintage Challenge last year was a fuel sipper compared to several of the other sleds. It could have made the trip up to Fishtails without stopping for fuel with gas to spare.

The Watersboy and I have also named the team "VDR: Vintage Deere Racing" and have asked Jesse to do some graphics for us. Second contender was Tabors "Vintage Deere Posse" suggestion.

I will post some progress pictures after Christmas, and if a small miracle happens, maybe a shot of the sleds on the snow...

-Joe

[JoeRainville]

After several long nights, my I-500 Liquifire is starting to come together. Once all the holiday hoopla and visiting calmed down, we got to work on the chassis. Joe Sherwood stopped over serveral days to assist in the final assembly. We typically spent the morning bead blasting and painting parts, and the afternoon doing assembly work.

Over the last week the TPR and bumper installed on the chassis along with the spindles and tie rods. Chaincase, track and drive axle installed.





We spent nearly an entire day on the rear skid, as the deep snow kit did not work with the new Fox rear shock. So we ended up using a stock LF rear arm along with the front arm Kenny modified to accept a coil over Fox shock for the center position. Took a bit to get the geometry and shock travel vs. arm travel worked out, but it seems to be about right.



The refirbished skid was installed and the sled flipped over to work on the drive trail and stearing. A Cat jackshaft was installed along with Cat bars and a custom adapter Kenny welded up for me. The hybred Hays-Willwood hydraulic brake set up was fit after some trial and error and shimming.



The Cat 15 plate "Sno Pro" chain and gears were installed as insurance over the factory 11 plate set up.

I really owe my buddies a big "THANK YOU" for their help this weekend!

- Rainville

[JoeRainville]

Once the bulk of the chassis work was done, the motor assembly was started last night with the new Jerome Crank being installed. Of course we hit a last minute snag along the way. One of the jugs we had recoated did not survive the process un-harmed. A porus or soft casting was suspect. Kenny is shipping out another one asap for replating.



Thanks to Kenny, Joe and Mike, we made a ton of progress over the holiday.



And as of now, the chassis looks like this...



-Rainville