PROPOSED FUEL PUMP CHANGE HAS THE NITRO PITS BUZZING
The test will be conducted by Tim Wilkerson and John Force since longtime tuner Austin Coil will also participate.
“The goal is to reduce the size of the bomb,” said Wilkerson, who has been the NHRA’s primary test driver for the majority of nitro data gathering sessions. “I don’t know that anyone knows if this is the way to go, but it looks like a logical direction in reducing the size of the bomb.”
The NHRA, in a continuing attempt to slow down nitro cars, has planned another data gathering test on the Monday following the Midwest Nationals in St. Louis. The focus of this test will be in reducing the size of the fuel pumps used in the nitro cars to 65 gallons per minute [gpm].
The test will be conducted by Tim Wilkerson and John Force since longtime tuner Austin Coil will also participate.
“The goal is to reduce the size of the bomb,” said Wilkerson, who has been the NHRA’s primary test driver for the majority of nitro data gathering sessions. “I don’t know that anyone knows if this is the way to go, but it looks like a logical direction in reducing the size of the bomb.”
BIG JIM AND THE PROPOSED CHANGE
Jim Dunn remembers the last time he ran a fuel pump as small as the NHRA plans to test on Monday during one of their data gathering sessions in St. Louis.
The tuning veteran was tuning his son Mike Dunn behind the wheel of the Snicker’s-sponsored Funny Car and they became the third car into the four second zone.
Dunn is far removed from that point in his career. Today he runs a different kind of nitro Funny Car, one on a tight budget with little wiggle room.
“It’s going to cost a lot of money to convert these cars,” Dunn said, as he prepared his engines for Sunday’s final eliminations at the NHRA Midwest Nationals. “You have to change heads because they’ll be too big in the exhaust ports. The blowers are too good.
“The big teams will still be good because they’ll just throw the parts on the ground,” Dunn said. “I’m not happy about this.”
Dunn has drag raced for 50 years and considers himself a purist but the thought of making these changes, such as the smaller pump, questions how safety will be affected.
“They want to go 1320 again, which means we are going about 280 with the parachutes out,” Dunn explained. “That means they are taking 330 feet away from the shutdown area, which is our only problem and making us go 25 miles per hour faster. That’s just not safe. The NHRA cries that they are all about safety … they are if it doesn’t cost them money.”
Safety aside, Dunn believes the financial investment in the fuel pump change will be substantial.
“I have three fuel pumps here that are $7,000 apiece,” Dunn said. “They are too big to even bring down to 60 gpm. I will now have to buy about three more 60s, which will be about another $3,000 - $5,000. That’s another almost $20,000. Then I’ll have to buy new cams for the motors. I’ll need another six for spares.
“In the old days, we used to have just one motor. Now you have to have ten engines on a short block ready to go. That’s a lot of money. You have to have spares for the ones you break. This is probably going to end up costing me another $75,000 to comply.”
According to at least one crew chief who discussed the current nitro engine, when the cars are in the midst of a run, and the clutch comes in pulling the engines into the “belly,” the rpm is usually in the 6,500 range. The engine is at its most efficient rpm requiring 80 gpm of fuel flow. Any less than that, teams will run the risk of running their engines lean and as a result creating more carnage.
Bill Miller, a leading manufacturer of nitro rods and pistons, believes if the NHRA implements the smaller pumps, the line between the haves and have nots will be even clearer at the races.
“To those who can afford to burn the heads off on every run, it’s really no big deal,” said Miller. “In the 120 years we’ve been racing cars, the guy with the largest wallet usually wins the races. If you have a competitor who can afford to burn the heads off of the thing every run because he misses the fuel tune-up, he’s going to win the race because those who can’t afford to or don’t desire to do that won’t run as quick or fast.”
Miller believes the teams will adjust but the margin of error in tuning window will decrease considerably.
“The teams will put in just enough clutch to try to get the rpm level at a point where they won’t burn up,” Miller adds. “If they miss, you think you’ve seen explosions now … not only will they be as large … there will be ten times as many. The engines are designed to run on large fuel pumps.”
Alan Johnson, owner of AJPE, a leading supplier of nitro blocks and engines, declined to offer his opinion of the proposed fuel pump change. He did confirm with Attitude’s CompetitionPlus.com that Miller is absolutely correct in suggesting the smaller fuel pump will create more engine damage.
Miller believes the fuel pumps are already limited because there’s only so many pounds of air in the combustion chamber.
“If I put more fuel in there … it just turns it rich,” Miller explained. “If I had a 300 gpm pump, I couldn’t burn it anyway. If the engine says I want 80 gallons per minute at 6,500 – that’s what it wants. If I try to give it 85 gpm, it puts cylinders out.
“Airflow is what got us to this power level. The fuel pump volume is merely a requirement of how much airflow you have. It seems only logical that if you want to slow them down again, you do not address the device that is merely responding to airflow. You need to slow the airflow back down.”
For Wilkerson, he’s reserving judgment until he makes a few runs.
“We’re going to run it down there a few times … probably won’t run it far and see how it does,” Wilkerson said. “We’ll get some data and Coil will get some too. We’ve been talking about it and he’s going in one direction and I’m going in another.”
Regardless of what decision the NHRA makes, Wilkerson says the teams will adjust. He believes something needs to be done.
“When I’m using 13 pairs of tires in two races like I did in Gainesville and Charlotte, we have to do something about that,” Wilkerson said. “I know the small fuel pump will take care of that by reducing the power.”
Wilkerson is also prepared to face the reality if this rule change causes drastic carnage and increases the cost of doing business, he might just be done.
“When we ran these pumps, we were a lot poorer,” Wilkerson admitted. “Nobody had the kind of money which is out here now. If it takes a pair of cylinder heads to beat the competition, it wouldn’t hurt John Force or Don Schumacher … if that’s what it takes, that might be enough to run me out business. But, maybe we are overreacting. That’s why they call it testing; maybe we ought to just give it a try.”
At this point and time, Wilkerson believes it’s worth a try to determine whether whose right and wrong in their assumptions.
“There are many different ideas of what the right thing is to do,” said Wilkerson. “This is just one of the opinions and it’s still early in the year. At least there are two people testing it, and if we both burn the heads up – we’ll know, that doesn’t work.”
