John Robel
Member
Hello, I am John Robel, 62 years gearhead. Been around RACING in the pacific Northwest (the left coast, ughh) most my life. Been involved with oval and drag racing, tour cars, open comp, sprinters, super mods, mods, Nascar West NHRA, AHRA, NWSSA, ASA, and now WESCO. I've been away for a while to raise a family and have avoided the track quite a bit because when I smell it, hear it, feel it, I GOTTA DO IT ! My son (wild ass) and I have a late model and an historical Barnett sprint car. My health ain't gettin' any better so we've decided to go do it "one more time". Yeah right. My, how time changes things and what was the hot ticket even 20 years ago is junk now. Cross drilled cranks for example, "Fuelly heads" used to get you by in the lesser classes. While I LOVE old SMOKEY, Grumpy, and Waddell, those books are dated nowadays. I bought ALL of David Vizards books as well as DYNO SIM5 and Chassis RD advanced asphalt setup software. Still have my caster/camber and bump steer tools from Long Acre as well as a Bridgeport, 12x48 Sheldon lathe, old Sioux valve grinder, Miller Mig and Tig, and Quick Way boring bar. (don't worry, I WONT use the valve grinder or boring bar on ANY performance work). Building a new engine for the sprinter and WESCO rules are the following-- flat tappet cams (ouch), flattop pistons, any IRON head, any "production" crank and rods, Dry Sumps okay on alky,with a 365 cid limit. So my thoughts are Callies CompStar crank 3.562 stroke (light weight) Callies 6.125 rods, DSS 2618 coated pistons, Gapless rings, Clevite coated bearings, billet timing set, Dave Vizards Grind Lunati DV298-08FSH cam, nitrided forced lube lifters, Dart Platinum 215/49cc/205,106 heads, beehive springs, with my old Hillborn 3 piece 2 3/16 injection and vertex magneto, gambler 3 stage dry sump. I'd like to see around 600 hp at 7200. Everything will get the coatings and hardenings available.
Last edited: