[DeTomaso] Russ Fulps Race Engines & Dick Drenske to the rescue

[John Bentley (jab)]

THAT'S the DAWG I know.  Good for you.  That's teamwork!  I'm glad to
hear you got it fixed.  A big thanks to Dick and Russ for bailing you
out so close to the event.  There is no replacement for experience
(well, except for dumb luck!).  Instead of being curled up on the porch,
you got BUSY.

Ely in 4 days.......

JB,  official TPR motivator!





 

-----Original Message-----
From: detomaso-bounces at realbig.com [mailto:detomaso-bounces at realbig.com]
On Behalf Of Mad Dog Antenucci
Sent: Saturday, September 08, 2007 11:00 PM
To: detomaso at realbig.com
Cc: ddrenske at murraycompany.com
Subject: [DeTomaso] Russ Fulps Race Engines & Dick Drenske to the rescue

I have had this intermittant miss I couldn't ID. Took it by a local
tuner and he was certain it was the distributor and if not the
distributor a broken spring or worse a piston ring. The intermittant
miss started quite a while ago even before the Nebraska ORR in August.
In August it wasn't bad enough not to run but the miss got worse after
we came back from  Nebraska.
   
  I  talked to some of the guys as well as another tuner and just kept
getting the same answer. So yesterday I just decided to bail on the team
at Silver State next week, leave the Pantera home  and just go up and
hang with JB, Chuck, Jason and Doc while they ran...party a little bit,
relax and not have to worry about doing anything.  Then JB started mad
dawging me threatening me with my own medicene threatening to expose Ely
party photos IF I did not get the Pantera fixed this week. 
   
  As a side note you gotta love your buddies for loyalty,  understanding
and compassion. Yea, I was whimpering like you sad sacks usually
do....But all it  took was  JB to kick me back in the ass to get me jump
started again and that was enough to at least convince me to get some
expert advise and get Russ and Dick to work on Saturday to find the
problem once and for all.
   
  I met Dick and Russ Fulps, who by the way had earlier rebuilt this
engine in '06 early this morning at Dicks shop in Huntington Beach and
they both dug into the Pantera with a vengence.....Dick had pulled
headers, plugs, valve covers etc and again inspected the MSD distributor
and gear thinking it might be the problem (it wasn't)....last weekend
we replaced plug wires, spark plugs and a new MSD cap and rotor and even
took the MSD dist to a dist shop to have them re-check....Dick double
checked the valve train, valves, springs, etc...and everything looked
good and was tight. . .but I still had the f@%ing intermittant miss. I
was as close to the problem as I was to my tail and I still couldn't
find it. Frustrating and pitiful!
   
  Dick and Russ put everything back together and I re-started the engine
and they both listened to the engine again and Russ said, "lets pull the
Holly 830 apart"....
   
  Russ immediately found the problem which turned out to be a bad power
valve!!!!   I've never had a power valve go 'half ass' on me before in
25 years but this one did go half ass on me....I have had power valves
go  twice before but they were obvious and it was so obvious even I
could figure out it had to be a blown power valve....Anyway, I drove
across town  to Team C's Race Shop in L.A. and bought a couple
replacement power valves, came back to Dicks shop and Russ and Dick put
the new power valve in the Holly and they had the engine and 180's back
together in short order.
   
  Soon as we re-started the engine there was  an immediate big
improvement just in sound alone. I took the Pantera out for a quick test
run and the engine felt like it picked up an easy 50HP...Yea, the miss
and power loss was that great.
   
  The Pantera in my short test run home ran like it did at the NORC in
May...a wild scalded monkey... Dick and Russ followed me in their cars
to make sure all was okay. Took the car out about two hours ago again
and it feels so good to have the power back and the miss ID'd and fixed.
   
  So to Dick Drenske and Russ (Russ Fulps Race Engines) I want to say
thanks again for supporting me and supporting the team and working on
your day off to get me ready for Silver State for next weekend. Oil and
filters tomorrow and one final safety check and I am good to go for
Silver State.
   
  And JB, you rat-bastard... I'll see you in Ely. ;-]>
   
   
   
   


Mad Dawg Antenucci 
Team Pantera Racing 
  The 1st & still the only vintage race team in open road racing 
www.teampanteraracing.com
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