The next upgrade we knew the car needed was in the cooling system. We have struggled with coolant flow since we switched back to gas and especially since we started making 950+ horsepower. We have tried about everything on this car but with the radiator laying flat between the front frame rails it is a problem. We tried different electric block mounted pumps but always had airlock problems. The Shogun remote pump works but the small expansion tank we had always ended up getting air in the system and then cooling down in late rounds was a major hassle. We think we have isolated the problem and we built a larger expansion tank to prevent the air locks. We redesigned the way the coolant flows into the cylinder heads and back out of the block. I think this will really increase flow and prevent hot spots and air pockets.

The aluminum expansion tank was designed by Andy and welded up by Steve at Stokes Welding. I think we have solved the problem but I’ll just have to wait for one of those 8 round races to be sure!

The new method of plumbing the water into the cylinder heads first then through the block should lower cylinder head temps and flow water more efficiently.

That’s it for this edition of “Project 4-Link”. Next month I will show what was involved in getting the new Jesel Rocker Arms on the Indy 440-1 cylinder heads, results of the TCI converter test and the ins and outs of our MSD Data Acquisition feature of the 75301 Digital 7 ignition. It should be interesting to see if the larger 17.0x34.5-16 Goodyears slow the car down due to their diameter or not. Should be interesting, so stay tuned to DRO in the upcoming weeks.

If you have any questions just email me. Be safe my friends!

Project 4-Link  [11/8/04] It has been an exciting race season and we reached some goals