Engine cooling system for Drag car

[Yenkocamaro]

Hey Guys, I'm working on a 1/18 diecast 31 Ford Tudor Sedan, that I'm turning into a Drag car. Maybe late 60's, early seventies vintage. On a few of my early Diecast Altereds, there seems to be no sign of an engine cooling system. Is this correct? I realize that its a short 1/4 mile run, but these engines can create heat mighty fast, and it doesn't seem like the air running by it during the run, would be enough. I want to make sure that my build is correct. Does it need a radiator? The 31 is running an older Hemi, with twin blowers. Thanks for any help.

 

Cheers,

Lance

[Ace-Garageguy]

The great majority of rail, altered, comp coupe, etc. style drag cars in that time period ran pretty much zero cooling system....no radiator. The coolant that was in the block and heads was all there was, and a lot of supercharged cars didn't even run a water pump to circulate it. Some cars would run a crossover tube between the front of the heads, with a radiator cap on it, to facilitate filling.

Here's a blown 392 in a rail. You can see a crossover with the radiator cap below the blower front cover, just behind the belt tensioner support plate.

On this injected early Hemi, you can see how the factory-style crossover tube, with hose neck in the center, bolts to the water jacket ports in the end of the heads.

Edited March 2, 2016 by Ace-Garageguy

[Yenkocamaro]

Thanks Bill, I appreciate the quick response I was looking at my 1/18 Acme Stone- Woods- Cook 41 Willys, and its running a radiator with a blown Hemi, so I wanted to be sure. Thanks again.

 

Cheers,

Lance

[Force]

Many drag racing cars do infact have cooling systems as they usually gets hot after the run and if you drive the car back to the pits, but it depends on what you use for fuel.
Gas cars almost allways have cooling systems with a radiator and water pump, either electric or belt driven, Alcohol cars more seldom as the alcohol engines runs much cooler than a gas engine, but they will eventually get hot too and needs to be cooled down, Nitro cars don't have any cooling today as the engine blocks and heads are billet and don't have water jackets, they are cooled by the large ammounts of fuel injected in the engine, earlier Nitro cars did have some cooling and they had water jackets in the heads and engine block sometimes, but they were usually just filled up with water but no radiator or water pump, or they could have a water tank and pump circulating the water between the engine and tank.

[Ace-Garageguy]

Thanks Bill, I appreciate the quick response I was looking at my 1/18 Acme Stone- Woods- Cook 41 Willys, and its running a radiator with a blown Hemi, so I wanted to be sure. Thanks again.

Yes, the Stone-Woods-Cook Willys cars were were built for the gas-class, "gassers", and at the time, operational equipment was required by the class.

As Force said above though, it depends on the class and fuel a particular car is running, and a blown car like your model above could be correct with no cooling system other than a crossover / fill tube, and coolant in the block and head water passages.

Many of the dry-lakes land-speed-record cars even ran closed cooling systems, no radiator, and simply circulated coolant from an onboard tank through the engine. Consider some of these cars ran for several miles, flat out.

[Yenkocamaro]

Thanks Guys, I appreciate your knowledge on the subject. So, would this car run on Alcohol, based on the era it would have run in? Can anyone give me an idea what class this would run in?

 

Cheers,

Lance

[Ace-Garageguy]

... would this car run on Alcohol, based on the era it would have run in? Can anyone give me an idea what class this would run in?

The only double-blower setup to run a pyramid manifold like that (that I know of, anyway) would have been from Romeo Palamides (later to become American Speed Equipment), and dates from the early 1960s, but the fuel injection setup on your model, with the butterfly valves visible in front, is a little later. Dating the parts on the car to a particular time-window is step number one, and then fitting the setup of the model into the drag rules for that time window is step number two.

A quick scan of the '63 NHRA rules, for example, would put a car like that in either the Altered (AA /A or BB/A, supercharged) or Competition (AA/C, supercharged) class. The specific class would depend on vehicle weight, engine displacement, and exact modifications and other specs.

Here's a list of links to the drag rules of the general time, and going through them to determine exactly where your model would fit is your best bet.   

http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/87579-link-to-nhra-rule-books-1958-to-1960s/

                                                                         

The FI units on your model appear to represent the very popular Enderle "Bugcatcher, Birdcatcher" style, which was in wide use by 1965.

Edited March 2, 2016 by Ace-Garageguy

[Yenkocamaro]

Thanks Bill. I was thinking Altered, but wasn't sure. Thanks again for your help, and the link.

 

Cheers,

Lance