Heed this warning

So at what H.P. and at what RPM should one begin to be concerned. I don't recall any Detroit Iron equipped with a factory installed shield. Maybe I'm wrong.
I have seen a lot of factory cars spin over 6K.

Originally Posted by danv

That's the whole reason why Don Garlits pioneered rear engined dragsters.
Because he lost parts of his legs in a front engined dragster explosion.

Not to start an argument, but actually Jerry Ruth pioneered the rear engine top fuel cars about ten years before Garlits revisited and perfected the concept. But all of the current gen rear engine diggers are based off of Ruth's design.

Just credit where credit is due.

Originally Posted by FALCONAROUND

So to reiterate Jon's post, HAS ANYONE SEEN or known of a blow up WITH a scatter shield?


FE

Yes. '68 Mustang fastback, 410" cleveland, dumps the clutch at 7500 and shifts it at about 85-8800. It's a Jerico 4 speed car. Was watching that one too. The pressure plate let go when going into 2nd gear. He just coasted the rest of the way down the track and got towed to the pit (right next to me). The can was dinged up but nothing came through it. 'Course it helps that the can was probably 50 lbs and all made out of ~1/4" thick steel. It was made VERY well! I helped him pull the trans out from the top and he pulled the can & clutch. Soon as the bell bolts were out you could hear the junk rattling around in there when he was working it out of the chassis. If the can had not been there (if it was a stock-ish bellhousing), I'm sure it would have grenaded. Came back the next weekend and broke a 4 link bracket on launching, car went on it's top and over the guardrail. He made it out ok but the car is demolished.

New car is in the works. Tube chassis '68 Fastback with all the goodies. Will be a nice car

Originally Posted by retyler

So at what H.P. and at what RPM should one begin to be concerned. I don't recall any Detroit Iron equipped with a factory installed shield. Maybe I'm wrong.
I have seen a lot of factory cars spin over 6K.

I don't think you can actually determine an HP or RPM limit (I believe that NHRA requires one for cars that are 11.99 or quicker.)

It has more to do with abuse, heat, and fatigue. The Javelin mentioned above was pretty much stock--just had a bigger Holley carb and better exhaust. Never saw over 5500 RPM's while I had it, although it was ran hard. It came apart while I was revving it. Pity in that the car wasn't even 10 years old at the time.

I replaced the flywheel with one from the wrecking yard and covered it up with a Lakewood Scattershield.

Originally Posted by Murff

Not to start an argument, but actually Jerry Ruth pioneered the rear engine top fuel cars about ten years before Garlits revisited and perfected the concept. But all of the current gen rear engine diggers are based off of Ruth's design.

Just credit where credit is due.

Thanks Murff. I just did a check, and yes, Garlits perfected the rear engined dragster after he lost his foot in an explosion.
It was then, that the rear engined dragster started to become the norm.

I got a ford small block blow proof bell housing if anyone needs one . Carlises is a few weeks away and it is going to that swap meet . You can get one off ebay anytime easy for around 200 or so depending if it is nhra approved or not . I can let it go for 125 if anyone needs one and I will go half on shipping .

Not trying to make a sell here off this thread for carlises it is going . Just small blocks shields are harder to find than a fe ..Or I trade it for a fe cause I need another one rather than a small block .

Remember Cain's 69 Mach1??? theres some sickening pictures of what a busted flywheel can do - luckily he came out with both feet- the pics of the severed steering shaft/brakelines and headers on the fourth page still give me chills when I see it...this thread was from over three years ago, yet firmly planted in my feeble memory- sure looked like a nice car from the pics...

http://www.fordmuscle.com/forums/gar...5114-ouch.html

He is SO freakin lucky to not have gotten hit by something.

Damn, that hurts just to see that...

Originally Posted by retyler

So at what H.P. and at what RPM should one begin to be concerned. I don't recall any Detroit Iron equipped with a factory installed shield. Maybe I'm wrong.
I have seen a lot of factory cars spin over 6K.

dont think hp has much to do with it. if you were to pop a u-joint during a powershift, the free revving could easily blow it apart- providing youve got enough valvespring pressure and no rev limiter...
a smaller, yet still very damaging thing can happen in about any car that could be downshifted at high speeds...if someone would try to force it into first at 70mph, the cluch disk will explode- and although unlikely, the exploding disk might possibly fracture the flexplate then flywheel(but they would 'only' be at engine rpm) and still tear up anything in the plane of rotation. Centrifugal force(or centripetal for the sticklers out there) can really tear up a lot of stuff. we built some 3000 rpm wheel lathes at work(twin spindles) and a backshift supervisor removed ONE chuck jaw to repair a locator- told the operator just to run the one side- well the empty spindle literally MELTED a 9.5" tapered roller bearing before it even got up to speed, darn near walked the 40,000 pound machine off its foundation. IIRC, the jaws were 9.5# but at that speed/radius were 25,000 pounds per jaw centrifugal...(BTW- the machines has 1/2" solid steel guarding). centrifugal force aint nothing to play with. I think the formula for pounds of centrifugal force is .000341w*r*n^2(weight in pounds,radius in feet,n^2=rpm squared)...plug in some numbers and they get scary real fast.

I have NO friggin clue what w*r*n^2 means but it scares me