Tigger's Digger B/FD

Yep, Tigger’s Digger is finally alive! With considerable help from Western Fuel Altered President Jim Maroney (who has driven one of those evil, wicked & nasty short wheelbase things over 220mph, we spent a long Saturday taking care of all the little things (and a few big ones) necessary to get it running. Then we lit it off, but something wasn’t right – lots of really LOUD banging in the pipes, hard to start regardless of timing, so we packed it up and waited until the next weekend.

Same thing – even Ray Carter (NHRA Comp Eliminator Champ Dean Carter’s father, who lives two doors away) came over and helped. Finally in desperation and searching for answers, we pulled the top of the Joe Mozeris-donated HEI distributor off and discovered that the little wires from the coil inside were arcing out big time! Ray offered the use of his extra MSD Pro Billet distributor he had at the shop and once we got that in – boom, fired right up. I took a video that I tried to post here, but it says it’s the wrong format. I’ll see if I can get it converted.

Now I’m putting on the diaper and squaring away a few other things. I’ve got to get a new helmet, but other than that, it’s just about ready. (I’ve already gotten a new MSD Pro Billet distributor of my own so I don’t have to borrow Ray’s backup one.) However, Wild Horse Pass Dragstrip (formerly Firebird International Raceway) is back running again and I’ve been announcing there for the past 3 weekends, so no time to work on the car. The NHRA National is next week, and I’m announcing on Friday, but hopefully soon after that we’ll head for the track! Stay tuned!

Tigger’s Digger is slowly – VERY slowly (because it’s summer here in AZ and very hot – 119° last Saturday) but being made. Engine is together & back in the car, just waiting to get the shop A/C unit repaired so I can go out and start bolting all the stuff back on. Also hook up and bleed the new CNC master cylnder and Wilwood disc brakes.

I’ve got a new project…. the reassembly/renovation of one of the most famous & historical cars in drag racing: the Walton-Cerny-Moody T/F car that was officially the second car in the 5’s (at the 1972 Ontario Supernationals) with a 5.91, a record that held for almost a year. They won over $100,000 during the 1972-73 season (over a half-mil in today’s funds!), then sold the car and it faded into oblivion. We found it about 18 months ago in Indiana, brought it back to Phoenix and are gradually assembling it with a large percentage of ORIGINAL parts, including chassis (which is being gone over by the original builder Don Long), the low-profile 4-port Hilborn injectors, the Cragar magnesium blower manifold, the seat & steering wheel/gear, some of the wing struts and the body, which we found hanging in the rafters of a barn, just like it was taken off (other than the first buyer painting over the name with his own. Otherwise it is the same paint, same decals, everything just the way it was run back in the day!

We’re not doing what is considered a ‘restoration’; rather a rennovation back to the condition it was sold in 1973. We feel it is historically much more valuable that way.

That’s all for now, I’ll be back later with more info on what is in the next picture!

The Frameworks has done a great job on the lame & unnecessary chassis mods, and at the same time installed a brand new set of Wilwood rear brakes! The engine is done and ready to go on the dyno – I decided to spend the extra and get the jetting dialed in before I reinstalled the engine to save a ton of time and hassle (as I know very little about mechanical fuel injection at this point. Guess I’ll learn, huh?)
The only issue now is for MACH Development to have time to do the dyno deal – they’re got lots of engine work lately. Hopefully, we’re looking at the 3rd week of November. Stay tuned!

When this whole website converted to the WebPress deal, it kinda neglected to tell me all the details, and I found I was unable to post. Finally a friend helped me discover how to change my password and get access again, so I’m back.

A lot has gone on since my last post. Danny at the Frameworks did a great job on the SFI-mandated updates and installation of the Wilwood brakes, and the engine has been completely repaired by MACH Development (6 bent valves, among other things). However, having been gone much of the summer and with it being so hot, I haven’t returned to Maricopa to pick it up. I’ve also decided to spend the extra $$ and let Bud run it on the dyno to get the jetting a little more dialed in, but due to the heat we’ve put off the dyno session until it cools down – which is finally starting to happen! We’ve had a very nice week with 7 days of under-100° temps so hopefully by the first or second week of October, the dyno session can take place. I want to be there, of course, and with all that’s going on in October (including the California Hot Rod Reunion), it will be challenging to find the time. Since it will be a mid-week session, though, we’ll figure it out.

I’ve also got a slow leak on one of my trailer tires which will have to be fixed, along with replacement of the two trailer vent covers, which were broken in last year’s hailstorm. So there’s plenty to do, but it’s slowly getting done. I’ll try and post at least once a month until everything gets back together, then more often.

Now if I can just figure out how to post more pix!

Monday, Tigger’s Digger went to The Frameworks to have the (useless/lame/unnecessary/trivial/bullshit) mods done to the chassis in order to meet the newest SFI/NHRA specs. Danny Rhodes does awesome work at a fair price, and is the only one I trust my chassis with. While the car is there, I’m going to upgrade the brakes to a set of Wilwood or Strange calipers, ‘coz it’s very hard to get Airheart parts anymore, and I sure don’t want a problem with the brakes!

Thursday, I made the loooonnnngggg trip to Maricopa (actually about 20 miles into the desert south of Maricopa) to M.A.C.H. Development to let Bud Yancer solve the problem with the timing chain. I would guess we’ll end up selecting some sort of gear drive, which will end the problem forever.

The unfortunate part of this whole deal is that it’s almost certain that my car won’t be at the Ron Miller Memorial Race….. AGAIN! On the other hand, it’s really nobody’s fault but mine – we should have started on getting it done a long time ago. Oh well, it’s gonna be right and nice when done. Stay tuned….. again…. lol

At least it’s not the engine this time – at least not yet! I’m hoping the valves didn’t kiss the pistons too badly and necessitate removal of the heads. No, right now I’m tearing the car down to remove as much stuff as possible before I take it up to Danny Rhodes at The Frameworks…. who, by the way, is building dragster chassis again. If you’re in the need for a new set of pipe, there’s no one better than Danny. Bill Kent is having Danny build two new B/D chassis for him…..

Tonight I pulled off the wheels, pulled out the battery (due to welding on the frame),  took out the belts, took out the seat and removed the body. But it’s 34° right now (at 9pm) headed down to 25°, so I’ve quit for the night. Yeah, I know, I know… you live where it’s really cold – like in ChiTown tonight, some areas will get down to 30° BELOW zero with the wind chill factor…. but for us here in the Valley of the Sun, it’s too frikkin’ cold already! Besides, that’s YOUR fault for living where it snows so much!

Tomorrow I’ll take the trailer back to Arizona Off Road and unload all the stuff we had in there for a big swap meet out at the Speedworld MX track, then load the car tomorrow afternoon, after remounting the wheels. Stay tuned…

… I think. When I finally got the engine out and on the work stand, I was easily able to remove the last pan bolt and remove the pan and front cover. There I found (besides the broken timing chain wadded up in the bottom of the front cover), a mangled woodruff key from an earlier attempt to install the balancer with the engine in the frame (a genuine pain in the ass, or should I say neck). In addition, the crank and cam sprocket are not aligned as well as they should be.

However, so far nothing else appears to be damaged. Once I get the new timing chain (or possibly gear drive) installed, I’ll do a leakdown test on all the cylinders, to ensure there are no bent valves. Stay tuned, film at 11….

Tigger’s Digger came to life Friday night, January 21, after a several hour thrash by Jim Maroney (the head of the Western Fuel Altered group), my friend Levi Hill and myself. We set the butterflys and idle on the injector, leaked down the barrel valve (and are not totally satisfied with it yet) and set the timing.

It sputtered to life fairly easily, but the timing was way off and it was barking very sharply with big yellow flames (not good on alcohol), so after advancing the timing to around 35°, it sounded pretty good. Since it was about 8:30 at night, we were in the race shop with the big door open but it was still very loud inside, and the fumes got pretty gnarley LOL.

After about 10 minutes total of fiddling with a variety of things, we were just letting it run when it just shut off, with kind of a weird sound. Jim looked at me and said “we’re done…”  The timing chain had broken – a brand new good, solid roller (not split) one that maybe had 15 minutes on it. But no matter, at least it was running.

Engine came out last night after a protracted battle and I got it apart. Haven’t yet determined the cause of the failure, and now I’m contemplating some sort of gear drive.

I had a friend who is an NHRA tech guy and is authorized to do chassis certs. He checked the car out (that had passed with flying colors 4 years ago) and told me it failed in three areas…… unreal. Three relatively small things, knitpicky things, chickenshit things (in my opinion) that will have to be fixed before I can run. One of them will require the rear end housing to either come out or at the least be loosened and slid back. What a pain in the ass, all because (again, in my opinion) some bored SFI guy decided he didn’t have anything to do so he was going to go back and create some work…… oh well.

I’ll keep everyone posted, and thanks for visiting!