Roadkill | Episode 69: Rescuing an Old Drag Race Car
One of the cheapest ways to go racing is to buy someone else’s abandoned project car
Transcript
00:00 This time on Roadkill, we unearth the elusive barn find,
00:04 '76 Chevy El Camino.
00:06 - And I think we set a world record
00:08 for the longest trail of kitty litter ever.
00:12 - Yo, that guy's gonna beat you with his broom.
00:14 - I know, I'd like to get out of here now.
00:16 (laughing)
00:18 Don't look him in the face.
00:19 - Run.
00:19 (engine revving)
00:22 (tires screeching)
00:28 (tires screeching)
00:31 (engine revving)
00:44 - We're in North Carolina.
00:48 Tony and I just flew in here
00:49 because we found a car on Craigslist
00:52 that is not the Pinto I was shopping for.
00:54 It is much worse.
00:55 Somewhere here on this farm is a 1976 Chevrolet El Camino
01:00 that at one point went drag racing.
01:02 And now we are going to go drag racing squared.
01:05 We're going to go half mile airport runway racing
01:09 if we can make this pile of crap run in the next three days.
01:12 I know in the past, I may have done you wrong.
01:15 (laughing)
01:16 - That's true.
01:17 - But not this time.
01:18 This will not be another Firebird Excavate, unless it is.
01:21 Hey there.
01:22 - How you doing?
01:23 - You must be Tex.
01:24 Nice to meet you.
01:24 - I called you on the phone once and this must be Tony.
01:26 - Tony, how you doing?
01:27 Yeah, we spoke on the phone.
01:28 - Yep, sorry I didn't believe any one of you guys.
01:30 I thought it was a scam.
01:31 - Oh, we get that a lot.
01:32 - We're kind of a scam.
01:33 - Yeah, when you call someone and say,
01:35 "How long has the car not run for?"
01:36 Great, we want to come make it run and go race it.
01:39 People tend to look at you funny.
01:40 - Exactly.
01:41 - It runs.
01:43 - It runs.
01:44 - It does run, but it's been sitting almost 10 years.
01:46 - No, it's 2007 was the last time it was on the strip.
01:50 It runs six passes.
01:51 The best time it did was a seven eight.
01:53 In that 3300 pound body.
01:55 It's got a turbo 350 in it with a shift kit
01:57 and a B&M shifter and 3300 stall.
01:59 - Okay.
02:00 - And how much gear does it have in the back?
02:02 - 488.
02:03 - That's gonna have to change.
02:04 - That's a lot of gear.
02:05 - So we're going half mile racing.
02:06 You're going eighth mile.
02:08 That was perfect for that, yeah.
02:09 Can we see it?
02:10 - Down there in the barn.
02:11 - In the barn.
02:12 - In the barn, okay.
02:13 - Perfect.
02:14 - Might be some bird crap, huh?
02:15 - Well, don't clean it on our account.
02:17 - Look, dude, it's halfway built.
02:18 There's stickers on it already.
02:19 - Perfect, that means it's fast, right?
02:21 - Oh, yeah.
02:22 - That means cool.
02:22 - Oh.
02:23 - That needs cleaning up.
02:25 - You wanna drive it?
02:25 - Yeah.
02:26 - What do you go around for?
02:27 - You want me to pull it out?
02:28 - Sure, yeah.
02:29 - Yeah.
02:30 - Yeah.
02:31 - You do the honors.
02:31 - You wanna fire it up?
02:32 - Right now?
02:33 - Yeah, please.
02:34 (engine revving)
02:36 - Sounds great.
02:37 I have a feeling all those stickers are legit.
02:40 - Yeah.
02:41 (engine revving)
02:43 - Dude, this isn't bad.
02:47 Like the floor is not, I mean,
02:48 except for the ventilated trans tunnel.
02:50 - Yeah, this cage isn't bad either.
02:52 Compared to some of the other cars with cages we've had,
02:54 this is not bad.
02:55 - It's so light.
02:56 I mean, everything is covered in rust,
02:58 but it's got some good stuff on it.
03:00 - Oh, that's not an alternator, that's the electric fan?
03:02 - It's the electric fan motor.
03:04 - That's your--
03:05 - That's spinning the water pump.
03:05 - Oh, that's the water pump.
03:06 - Yeah, it's an electric water pump set up.
03:08 - Wow.
03:09 - That's vintage.
03:10 - So are you running an alternator on here somewhere?
03:12 No, no alternator, got it.
03:13 All right, so we're gonna need--
03:15 - An alternator.
03:16 - An alternator, yeah.
03:17 - Okay.
03:17 Put the hood back on it in the air cleaner
03:19 and go see if it'll do a burnout.
03:20 - All right, we'll work it out.
03:21 We'll just get some 100 leaded and we'll be in business.
03:24 They sell that around here.
03:25 Aren't we in like the cradle of racing
03:26 where they have that stuff around here?
03:28 - I think it comes out of the wells here.
03:29 - Yeah.
03:30 Knock 'em out of the faucet.
03:33 - This is awesome.
03:35 Oh my God, it's way better than I thought it would be.
03:38 I gotta be honest with you.
03:38 Anytime you pull a car out of a barn,
03:40 it doesn't go this smoothly.
03:42 And the best part about it is he's taking care of it.
03:44 He's come out here every now and again,
03:45 fired it up so the motor's not locked up.
03:47 You know, it apparently runs.
03:49 It sounds good.
03:50 It sounds healthy.
03:52 But there's just enough things on this car
03:54 that do need replacing, do need maintaining,
03:57 and do need modifying that we have work to do
03:59 that is genuinely gonna be fun.
04:00 We will be able to improve it.
04:01 We will make it faster.
04:03 We will have an epic road trip.
04:05 Before we do this, I just wanna point out something
04:08 that in no way, shape or form is gonna deter you
04:11 from what we're about to do.
04:12 That's duct tape holding the top of the fuel cell
04:15 to the bottom of the fuel cell.
04:16 - Oh, great.
04:18 (upbeat music)
04:20 (laughing)
04:25 - It's loud.
04:46 - It's not helping.
04:48 - I don't think this is a good idea.
04:55 - That floor is really hot.
04:57 - It's from the explosion.
05:00 - Yeah.
05:01 Look at that.
05:03 When it backfires, it makes the leaves jump.
05:05 We're probably gonna do more harm than good right now.
05:09 - I agree.
05:10 (laughing)
05:11 - Let's go work on it.
05:12 - Oh my God, this is, I felt okay before.
05:16 I feel less okay now.
05:18 - All right.
05:19 Where do we start?
05:20 - We need a list, dude.
05:21 We need a list of everything that stops us
05:23 from getting to the airport
05:25 and everything that stops us from beating a Lamborghini.
05:28 - We need a multi-tiered list.
05:30 - Yeah, there's gonna be a lot of levels to this.
05:32 - Wants and needs.
05:33 - Yeah.
05:34 - Some sort of just haves.
05:35 Don't care.
05:36 Not gonna have.
05:37 - Hope we get this.
05:44 - I think I got three good two-for.
05:46 - One bop, there you go.
05:48 Right now we're taking the spark plugs out
05:50 and that's a good easy way to determine
05:51 if there's anything seriously wrong with the engine.
05:53 You know, if there's water in the cylinders,
05:55 you'll see it here on the spark plug.
05:56 If there's a lot of oil in the cylinders,
05:58 you'll see it here on the spark plug.
05:59 And right now we look good.
06:00 I mean, they're sooty, it's been running rich,
06:02 but there's not much oil on the threads, so.
06:06 I say, give it nitrous.
06:08 [upbeat music]
06:11 - Yeah, that is hot, chunky garbage.
06:18 - This is what happens when you don't run any freeze
06:21 in your radiator, when you just run straight water
06:23 and it sits around.
06:24 So we're gonna replace the radiator,
06:25 we're gonna replace the hoses,
06:26 we're gonna flush the block out
06:28 and put probably just a little bit of any freeze in there.
06:31 What are the odds that that would go right in the pan?
06:33 [laughing]
06:36 - That is right in the pan.
06:37 [upbeat music]
06:40 - Ooh, watch your hand, dude.
06:47 That was close.
06:48 Hey, there we go.
06:51 It's a gusher.
06:54 So we decided that we're gonna put on a proper alternator
07:02 that will run the fan, pulley and charge the car.
07:06 And since we have the radiator out
07:07 and we have all this access,
07:08 we're gonna do all that stuff now
07:09 and then work our way back outward.
07:11 Look, we have a radiator.
07:12 It's not the same as our original radiator,
07:14 but it is a radiator.
07:15 So we're gonna put it in and go for a test drive.
07:18 - I'm fabricating this strap.
07:20 And later, I'm sure when we get to this half mile race,
07:22 they'll frown on this heavily.
07:24 [upbeat music]
07:36 - So we got the car all back together
07:38 and Tex was nice enough to let us take the car out
07:40 and make a little bit of a test track in his backyard.
07:43 - I'm riding under protest, just so you know.
07:46 - It's fine.
07:47 [engine revving]
08:05 - Hey, is there oil in the engine?
08:08 - Yeah, I think so, it's got pressure.
08:10 - Oh, okay.
08:11 [engine revving]
08:14 - That car runs way better.
08:25 That was super fun.
08:26 Sometimes I just need to like get behind the wheel
08:28 and do a bunch of sliding around.
08:29 It's pretty much my favorite.
08:31 - Never before has Roadkill had such success
08:33 on the first day.
08:35 I mean, I'm so cocky right now.
08:37 I'd say we've already won
08:38 and we could probably take the next three days off
08:40 and still be the Lamborghini.
08:42 But we won't, 'cause there's nitrous.
08:45 And it's like an atomic bomb.
08:47 You just have to put the pieces together.
08:49 You have to drop it.
08:50 You have to find out what happens
08:51 when you put nitrous on an engine
08:52 you know nothing about for a half of a mile.
08:56 We will, soon.
08:58 [upbeat music]
09:00 [engine revving]
09:03 - It's day two, morning time.
09:17 We have two days left
09:18 before we are supposed to be racing the Earl Camino
09:22 for a full half mile.
09:23 That's right, we have a name, which is important.
09:25 It is named after Tex Earl, the guy who sold us the car.
09:28 And also, my name is Earl, great TV show.
09:31 What did we accomplish?
09:32 We sort of have an alternator.
09:34 It threw the belt yesterday during the test drive.
09:36 - Test drive.
09:37 - So I'm not crossing that off.
09:37 I did cross off radiator 'cause it has one.
09:40 And batteries, 'cause you installed a battery.
09:42 - I did.
09:43 - And we crossed off things we bought, sort of.
09:46 But there's a lot left.
09:46 I don't think we're gonna do all of this here
09:48 'cause that's not much adventure in that.
09:50 I think we're gonna re-gear it, put a windshield in it,
09:53 take out the side windows so we don't suffocate.
09:55 - And hit the road.
09:56 - And hit the road.
09:57 - Hit the road.
09:58 (upbeat music)
10:00 - We're good, I got three holes showing.
10:02 - Yeah, you do.
10:03 (upbeat music)
10:06 So we've got the car running pretty well,
10:13 but with the 488 gears, this thing only wants to go
10:15 about 95 miles an hour.
10:17 And in a half mile, we're trying to go about 150 or more.
10:20 So we have a set of 308 gears,
10:22 which I think technically would put our top speed
10:25 at like 160.
10:26 (upbeat music)
10:28 - Oh, that's clean.
10:30 That's really clean.
10:32 - Yeah.
10:32 - That probably tastes all right.
10:34 - The blocks came out all right.
10:36 But those center pieces are, look at that.
10:38 - Is that broke?
10:39 - It's broke.
10:39 See this square edge here?
10:41 That's how it should be here.
10:42 (upbeat music)
10:45 - Yeah, I'll pull it all the way out.
10:48 (upbeat music)
10:51 (metal clanging)
10:54 - All right, so we have an alternator,
11:00 but we don't have a complete charging system
11:02 because we need to connect the output of the alternator
11:04 to our battery.
11:06 Except our battery is all the way in the back
11:08 of this 116 inch wheelbase car.
11:10 And I only have a wire that long.
11:12 So I'm gonna do something I'm ashamed to do.
11:15 I'm actually going to splice the zero gauge wire
11:20 that's going to the starter from the battery.
11:22 I will poke a hole through it,
11:24 put that through it and twist it around
11:25 and wrap it in copious amounts of tape.
11:27 Because I know the rules,
11:29 which means you can break them here on Roadkill.
11:32 Yeah, 3A off the list.
11:36 (upbeat music)
11:39 (upbeat music)
11:42 Suddenly I got a pee.
11:57 (upbeat music)
12:00 (drilling)
12:05 (upbeat music)
12:08 (drilling)
12:10 (upbeat music)
12:13 - All right, gears done.
12:16 - I like that you crossed out gears,
12:18 but then added mini spool.
12:20 The list technically didn't get shorter,
12:22 but you accomplished something.
12:23 - I got to cross something off.
12:24 That was the big move.
12:25 - Tomorrow we roll.
12:26 - Oh, totally.
12:27 - Yeah.
12:28 - First thing in the morning.
12:29 - Well.
12:29 - First thing in the afternoon.
12:30 - Tomorrow.
12:31 (upbeat music)
12:36 - All right now, I'm drilling out all of the popper
12:39 that's holding this old Lex into the side of the car,
12:42 because we can't see through it
12:44 and making left and or right turns is kind of dangerous.
12:47 So we're going to roll without the windows
12:49 and maybe if they require us to,
12:53 we'll put these back in at the racetrack.
12:55 If you're ever considering doing this at home,
12:59 you don't need this many.
13:03 One here, one here, one here.
13:05 It'll be fine.
13:06 Trust me.
13:08 It's like they were on sale.
13:09 Big progress today.
13:18 It's the end of day two and we've gotten a lot done.
13:20 We have a cooling system.
13:22 We have a charging system.
13:23 We have a fuel system that leaks
13:24 and a rear axle that won't spin on its own,
13:27 which we'll fix tomorrow.
13:28 Tonight, we're going to get a windshield put in it.
13:30 We're going to program our new ignition system
13:32 that we finished today.
13:32 And I anticipate us leaving tomorrow night in the dark,
13:35 probably with flashlights taped to the front of the car
13:38 because we have no headlights.
13:40 Yeah.
13:41 So everything's normal here on Roadkill.
13:45 Except that Dave's not here, which is weird.
13:47 It's day three.
13:53 I'd really like to leave today because the bugs are bad.
13:58 The humidity, real bad.
14:00 The tools, well, they don't exactly work.
14:03 I'm about to cut this transmission tunnel open
14:06 with tin snips that are not tinny, nor are they snippy.
14:10 And we need to finish the wiring.
14:12 We need to get another seat in here,
14:13 patch the hole in the floor, and hit the road
14:16 and find out how truly awful is the Earl Camino.
14:19 That's better.
14:28 That's beautiful.
14:29 The diamond plate will be good for when we're running
14:30 across the transmission tunnel, too.
14:32 Yeah, I mean, I don't want anyone slipping--
14:34 Exactly.
14:34 --when they're in here.
14:35 Yep.
14:37 I hoped that would suck that up, but it didn't.
14:40 OK, floor's fixed-ish.
14:41 I just spent five minutes drilling out all the pop
14:52 rivets holding in the Lexan for the back window, which
14:55 we can't see through.
14:56 And I don't know why I bothered to do that,
14:57 because I could have just done this.
15:00 [LAUGHTER]
15:03 That was really strong.
15:05 Wow, that is strong.
15:06 This is unreal.
15:12 You're getting there.
15:13 And it looks super cool.
15:14 It looks super cool.
15:15 Yeah.
15:16 That's definitely making the episode.
15:19 Oh, there it is, ventilated.
15:22 Done.
15:24 Done.
15:26 Done.
15:27 Not much left.
15:28 Just brakes, and speed, and seat.
15:32 We're close.
15:34 We had jegs overnight.
15:35 It's a fresh mini spool.
15:37 So there's spline pieces here that replace the spider gears.
15:40 So more or less, the axles are now
15:41 connected to these outside pieces.
15:43 And there's just two big blocks that go between them
15:45 and connect everything to the carrier with this center post.
15:49 [MUSIC PLAYING]
15:52 [LAUGHTER]
15:57 [MUSIC PLAYING]
16:01 All right, dude, that's it.
16:03 One of the last things we have to do
16:08 is get the brakes working, and we can finally get out of here.
16:11 So I managed to convince those two to do the drum brakes,
16:14 because they're experts.
16:15 And I don't know what I'm doing.
16:16 But I'm going to do the fronts, because it's way easier.
16:19 And it's just going to be a fresh set
16:20 of hard-store calipers and some EBC yellow stuff brake pads.
16:25 [MUSIC PLAYING]
16:28 Gross.
16:34 All right, so I've got the new master cylinder in place.
16:36 And it's time to bleed the brakes.
16:37 I've got this Rad Motive Products one-man power bleeder.
16:41 There's these two ports on this plate.
16:43 I kind of chain this thing down.
16:44 And then I think we just add pressure here
16:46 and push the fluid through.
16:48 And so the whole system is now pressurized.
16:51 And I'm just going to go around and crack each bleeder.
16:53 And it should pump all the way through.
16:54 And then I can do this all by myself.
16:56 [MUSIC PLAYING]
16:59 All right, so this is race gas.
17:03 There goes $8.
17:04 Hold on.
17:05 12, 14.
17:06 There it is.
17:07 [MOTOR RUNNING]
17:10 There she goes.
17:14 [MOTOR RUNNING]
17:18 It's great.
17:20 [MOTOR RUNNING]
17:24 Yeah, baby.
17:25 That's good.
17:26 [MOTOR RUNNING]
17:28 [LAUGHTER]
17:30 [MOTOR RUNNING]
17:33 Yeah.
17:42 We're crowd testing.
17:43 [MOTOR RUNNING]
17:47 [MOTOR RUNNING]
17:51 It's not bad.
17:54 It works?
17:55 It's not bad.
17:57 We're going to get arrested.
17:59 Yeah?
18:00 Yeah.
18:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
18:04 What are the odds?
18:05 We'd buy a car off Craigslist, and the guy would be so cool.
18:08 Not only would he let us wrench in his garage,
18:10 he'd rob parts from his own car collection
18:13 and then tell us to screw up his lawn
18:15 and do burnouts in his driveway.
18:16 It's one in a million.
18:18 If he had a daughter, somebody should marry her.
18:20 I know.
18:22 Come on, baby.
18:23 [MOTOR RUNNING]
18:27 Oh, yeah.
18:44 [MOTOR RUNNING]
18:45 Woo!
18:46 It does the Humpty Hump.
18:48 Please don't catch on fire.
18:49 [MOTOR RUNNING]
18:53 Hey.
19:01 That's a lid.
19:03 I can't hear anything.
19:05 [LAUGHTER]
19:06 [MOTOR RUNNING]
19:14 Yeah, we're all set to go.
19:15 But I think maybe the residual effects of Finnigan
19:18 off-roading this thing-- we are puking out transmission fluid.
19:21 So we're going to figure out what's going on.
19:24 Everything was going smooth.
19:26 The car does burnouts.
19:28 We screwed up the man's lawn, spun the tires down the street.
19:32 Brakes worked.
19:33 Awesome.
19:34 And then we decided to park the car in the garage tonight
19:37 so it would be secure, get up, and leave in the morning.
19:40 And we rolled in here, and look, Drag Yard 2.0,
19:43 the exact same thing that happened to that Turbo 400
19:46 happened to our Turbo 350.
19:48 It blew out the adapter for the speedometer cable,
19:51 pshh, right out of the side of the trance.
19:53 So tomorrow morning, we get to find one of those
19:56 off of Texas cars, put it back in there, plug it, fill it,
20:00 hit the road again, find out what else is going to break next,
20:02 because roadkill.
20:04 [MOTOR RUNNING]
20:07 Here's our solution to fix the hole in the transmission.
20:12 It's a lot like a drain plug for a boat.
20:14 Tighten this nut.
20:16 The washer squishes down on it, and it expands the rubber part.
20:19 This will plug nearly any hole, as long as you can get the right-sized one.
20:23 Well, the trans leak is fixed.
20:26 It is now well into the afternoon, and we are finally hitting the road
20:29 to find out, you know, does the car even work?
20:32 We've basically only been around the block,
20:34 and we're not going half-mile racing because it's raining at the airport.
20:38 We are now going to go to Mooresville, North Carolina, south of us,
20:41 where there is some drag racing and truck pulling and shenanigans.
20:45 [MOTOR RUNNING]
21:10 How far have we gone?
21:12 Not far.
21:15 I'm out of gas.
21:18 Oh, we're driving down the road, going deaf, passing out on fumes.
21:30 Everything's good.
21:31 Yeah, getting real woozy.
21:33 And then, boom!
21:35 Engine just decides, I don't want to run.
21:38 Dying or out of gas.
21:39 Now, listen.
21:40 It's full.
21:42 I felt like one little hesitation, and then stumble, stumble, stop.
21:47 That's not good. It has fuel.
21:53 [LAUGHS]
21:59 I have a bad feeling I know exactly what's wrong with this.
22:02 Yeah, what's that?
22:04 Cam gear, camshaft.
22:07 Maybe that distributor's spinning?
22:09 Scrab tools.
22:11 You got any kind of dodgy power on your MSD setup?
22:18 Well, yeah, I mean, all the wiring in the car is dodgy.
22:21 That's true.
22:22 Definitely.
22:23 It's got power.
22:24 That ain't right.
22:29 That ain't right at all.
22:31 [LAUGHS]
22:32 I'm going to check for spark.
22:35 Yep, we have spark.
22:36 You got it there?
22:37 There's spark there.
22:38 [LAUGHS]
22:39 It's not as bad as it should have been, though.
22:41 We have troubleshooted the entire ignition system,
22:46 and we've discovered we have a spark, but it's kind of a crappy spark.
22:50 It's like yellow, weak.
22:52 So we went down the road, bought ourselves another coil,
22:55 and of course, that coil doesn't have the same kind of terminal as our coil wire,
23:01 so we're going to shove this metric bolt in our coil wire here.
23:05 We're going to shove that in the coil.
23:07 Nothing but the best for roadkill here.
23:09 Look at that.
23:11 Insulating it and everything.
23:12 Yeah, notice that's the good tape, the Super 33.
23:15 That's right.
23:16 And you want to go vertical when you do this,
23:18 because you want to make sure it's on there.
23:21 Car should run now.
23:22 Woo!
23:29 [MUSIC PLAYING]
23:55 It's the next day.
23:56 We drove a whopping 154 miles.
24:00 We're in Mooresville, North Carolina,
24:02 and there is an 1/8 mile drag strip right around the corner here from Custom by Biggins,
24:06 and we are going to race it tonight after we install the nitrous.
24:09 You're showing off.
24:10 [LAUGHS]
24:11 Hot stuff.
24:12 You know you can roll those, right?
24:14 Woo!
24:15 You are a silly, sad man.
24:17 Woo!
24:18 [LAUGHS]
24:19 We're doing 1/8 mile drag racing because we are poor planners,
24:23 and our 1/2 mile event got rained out,
24:26 which is bad because I spent all that time putting these 308 gears in it,
24:30 and the 488s that came in the car would have been perfect.
24:33 So we shot ourselves in the foot,
24:35 and then we will hopefully jam as much nitrous in there as we can to get back to square one.
24:38 [LAUGHS]
24:39 So the delivery of the nitrous and the extra fuel are controlled by these solenoids.
24:47 You need at least one of each.
24:49 We've got two of each because we have a dual-stage pretty gnarly--
24:51 I think it's like a 250 shot kit.
24:53 So we're just assembling everything out of the original packaging.
24:57 It's weird. This thing also came with a bunch of sheets of paper that says instructions on it.
25:04 What does that mean?
25:05 I have no idea.
25:06 [MUSIC]
25:23 Big 'un happened to have this monster bottle clamp laying around.
25:27 We were thinking, you know, instead of running a million small bottles,
25:30 we have this giant monster mother bottle.
25:33 We'll just weld it into the car and hit the road.
25:36 We're kind of antsy, and it's going to take a while to fill the regular nitrous bottle.
25:41 Sounds boring.
25:42 Why fill it when we just have a full one?
25:44 Right to the source.
25:45 Right.
25:46 [MUSIC]
26:07 All right.
26:08 [MUSIC]
26:10 [BELL RINGING]
26:12 Got it.
26:13 Holy cow.
26:15 Don't throw that in.
26:17 What is the lottery up to right now?
26:19 I don't know.
26:20 Thank God the cap was on.
26:22 [MUSIC]
26:25 This is one of the stupider things I've ever done.
26:29 We mounted the bottle up, opened up the line,
26:31 and it is spraying out of the middle of the line where someone might have arc welded it to the battery
26:36 and almost started a fire.
26:38 [LAUGHTER]
26:40 And it's also leaking up here where someone might have plumbed it backwards.
26:45 Man.
26:46 Who could it be?
26:47 Both are false.
26:48 Yeah.
26:49 High five.
26:50 You suck.
26:51 [MUSIC]
27:13 Might have gone in the wrong way.
27:15 [MUSIC]
27:23 We're at Mooresville Dragway.
27:24 I'm about to rip this El Camino down the track and try to beat Texas 780 number.
27:28 I will do it without the nitrous first, and then we will cram a ton of nitrous into this thing,
27:32 and hopefully it's fast and doesn't explode.
27:35 [ENGINE REVVING]
27:58 [MUSIC]
28:15 9.28.
28:16 That means that we've got about a second and a half to knock off the ET using spray.
28:20 Otherwise, we are fools.
28:23 And we've spent a lot of time rescuing a barn find drag car and actually made it slower.
28:30 So, yeah.
28:31 Back to the pit, turn on the nitrous system, be heroes.
28:35 Not bad.
28:36 It sounded like it shifted fine.
28:37 Yeah.
28:38 No more flaring?
28:39 Not as bad.
28:40 Nice.
28:41 There's more there, but I say screw it.
28:42 Let's go right to the bottle.
28:43 I'm with that.
28:44 All right.
28:45 I've always wanted to just stick the mother bottle in the car and run it for miles.
28:49 And we're not going miles, but it still looks amazing to have a missile in the back.
28:52 If you want, I'll hold on to it.
28:53 I'll just keep going.
28:54 [LAUGHS]
28:55 No, I'd like to have you come back, and maybe we'll do this again sometime.
28:58 I like it.
28:59 This button turns on the nitrous.
29:01 That's the fun button.
29:02 You could have put it on the throttle switch, but this is much funnier.
29:04 Don't forget, you have to flip on the headlight switch to arm everything for that to work.
29:08 And as soon as you go wide open out of the hole, get on it.
29:11 Got it.
29:12 And stay on it.
29:13 On the button.
29:14 On the button.
29:15 And stay on it.
29:16 This is going to be crazy.
29:17 [ENGINE REVVING]
29:20 I think reverse might have left the building.
29:22 No way.
29:25 What did you do?
29:26 All right, well, we don't need reverse to race.
29:31 Yeah.
29:32 Well, just push it.
29:33 Do it.
29:34 [LAUGHS]
29:35 [ENGINE REVVING]
29:48 This may be the end of the transmission.
29:50 Come on, transmission.
29:55 Come on!
29:59 [ENGINE REVVING]
30:02 [ENGINE REVVING]
30:05 Everything that could have gone wrong went wrong.
30:27 During the burnout, the wheels wouldn't spin.
30:30 Then the engine shut off.
30:31 Then it really didn't sound like the trans was shifting good.
30:34 We ran a 9.22 this time.
30:35 We didn't pick up much, like a couple tenths.
30:37 So back.
30:38 Back again.
30:40 Hey, I think the car threw the belt. And I'm up here
30:43 by the big white trailers.
30:45 We'll come get you.
30:46 [MUSIC PLAYING]
30:49 This is no good.
30:52 Oh, no belt.
30:53 Yeah, it broke.
30:54 Was the trans slipping too?
30:56 I think so.
30:58 I didn't really feel it.
30:59 It was the same time.
31:00 9.2 again.
31:01 No, didn't you run a 9.8 the last time?
31:03 9.2 both times.
31:04 Both times?
31:05 Yeah.
31:06 It sounded like it turned on.
31:08 I think so.
31:09 It didn't go anywhere, though.
31:10 OK.
31:11 But also, I think that's why it kept stalling at the line.
31:14 How hot did it get?
31:15 Oh, all the way.
31:17 Peg the gauge?
31:18 Very hot.
31:19 That gauge goes really far.
31:20 Peg the gauge at 280.
31:21 280?
31:22 Yeah.
31:23 I'm refraining from going--
31:25 Tony, it just broke, dude.
31:28 All right, let's go get a belt.
31:30 That'll give it time to cool off.
31:31 Yeah, that's perfect.
31:32 We can tell you back.
31:34 I think we pulled too much timing.
31:36 Maybe.
31:37 I pulled 10 degrees for a 250 shot.
31:39 Yeah.
31:40 We only put a 150 shot.
31:41 They only tried to pull like 8 degrees for a 250.
31:44 We only need to pull like 4.
31:46 [MUSIC PLAYING]
31:49 Here's where we're at.
31:56 Pretty much, the transmission is screwed.
31:58 We don't have reverse.
31:59 It slips in every gear.
32:00 We're going to put more fluid in it right now, a new belt on it,
32:04 and a whole bunch of timing at the motor,
32:06 because pretty much our first nitrous pass was not clean.
32:09 We're the only team in the world that
32:10 goes exactly the same with nitrous as without nitrous.
32:14 That's not something to be proud of.
32:18 Well, we put another quart of trans fluid in it.
32:21 That would be 4 for today.
32:23 And suddenly, we have reverse.
32:24 So I think what's been going on is we
32:26 drove all the way here from Texas house
32:29 with very little to almost no tranny fluid in this thing.
32:33 [ENGINE REVVING]
32:36 [MUSIC PLAYING]
32:39 We need to figure out where the tranny leak is.
33:03 Want to go back to the start?
33:04 Yeah, go back.
33:05 So I'm saying the only place I see that thing even wet
33:11 is like the front corner here.
33:12 And it's not from the top.
33:13 It's not from the vent.
33:14 It's from like the pan seal.
33:16 All right, let's try again.
33:19 [INAUDIBLE]
33:22 [ENGINE REVVING]
33:25 Hold on.
33:32 Man, where you at?
33:34 I have no idea where it's coming from, but it's coming out bad.
33:37 All right.
33:39 We tore the center cover off and haven't found
33:41 any crazy significant leak.
33:43 We think that it's maybe just the pan bolts being loose.
33:46 So we're going to tighten those up and see what happens.
33:48 That's something we haven't looked at yet.
33:50 There's just no like, oh my god, it's crazy pouring out of here.
33:52 We don't have that.
33:53 No.
33:54 It only happens when you sit there
33:56 and put it on the converter for a little while and spin the tires.
33:59 It looks like it's coming out the edge of the pan right down there.
34:03 Because this side is completely dry.
34:05 All right, going out for our third attempt at a third run.
34:09 We got shut down for transmission fluid leak.
34:11 Again, heading back out.
34:14 I think we have to race people now just to get out there.
34:18 [ENGINE REVVING]
34:28 Unreal.
34:29 Let's see, is the converter soaked?
34:35 The converter's not soaked.
34:37 It's shooting out the side of the pan between the gasket.
34:40 [MUSIC PLAYING]
34:43 All right, fill it up.
34:56 We're going to put fluid back in it, try to get the level right,
34:59 and go make another hit.
35:01 There you go.
35:02 Yeah, that guy let us try.
35:04 He's how he owns the place.
35:06 OK, should be good.
35:08 All right.
35:10 Yeah.
35:13 Man, that carburetor is not happy.
35:15 Hey, leave the ignition off and crank it.
35:17 Now it's out.
35:22 Leave it off and let's look at it.
35:24 Did you screw a bunch of brake clean in it?
35:26 Yeah, I did.
35:27 I cleaned out the air bleeds.
35:31 But it was doing this before, right?
35:32 Yeah, it's trying to do the same thing.
35:34 This isn't the first time it caught on fire.
35:36 Yeah, hesitating and catching on fire.
35:38 [ENGINE REVVING]
35:41 All right, buddy, it runs now.
35:45 You can drive it over there, and we'll put a screwdriver on it.
35:47 Yep.
35:48 [ENGINE REVVING]
35:53 All right.
35:55 Well, trans is back together, hopefully not leaking.
35:58 The track guy just told us they're about to end racing.
36:01 We only get one pass.
36:02 And right now, the car doesn't even want to idle.
36:04 Yeah, and it's got a big hole as soon as you step on it.
36:06 Yeah, we have no idea.
36:07 The carburetor is not happy all of a sudden, now that we've
36:10 worked on the transmission.
36:12 Turn some screws.
36:13 [ENGINE REVVING]
36:16 It's coming to a slowing.
36:18 Timing.
36:20 Ready?
36:22 Yeah.
36:24 All right.
36:25 [ENGINE REVVING]
36:28 Come on.
36:33 Shut it off.
36:35 Shut it off.
36:37 So here's what happened.
36:39 This has a centrifugal advance system in the distributor.
36:43 And so it's got a combination of springs and a stop that
36:46 advances the ignition timing based on load and engine RPM.
36:51 And what was happening is, is he's giving it all this
36:53 throttle and all this fuel.
36:54 And it's so lazy, it's not giving it any additional spark
36:57 advance to go with it.
36:58 So we just put more spark in to begin with.
37:01 And now, it runs.
37:02 So--
37:03 [MUSIC PLAYING]
37:06 Woo!
37:07 This is going to work.
37:09 If I get up there and do a burnout,
37:11 and the guy doesn't scream at me, I'll be so happy.
37:13 [MUSIC PLAYING]
37:16 [ENGINE REVVING]
37:20 [MUSIC PLAYING]
37:23 Woo-hoo-hoo!
37:36 No more leaks.
37:37 Good.
37:38 [ENGINE REVVING]
37:41 It's going to work.
37:42 Yeah!
37:43 Look.
37:44 [ENGINE REVVING]
37:48 [ENGINE REVVING]
37:51 Oh, my god.
38:06 It might be the end of that transmission.
38:11 It's gone.
38:12 Oh, remember, kids, keep having dreams.
38:16 Even if you never achieve them.
38:19 The problem with putting a drift guy behind the wheel
38:21 of your drag cars, when the trans goes
38:23 and you hit the rev limiter, he doesn't lift.
38:25 He just keeps going.
38:28 Well, we worked really hard.
38:29 And we did bring an old drag car out of a barn for--
38:33 you know, it hadn't moved in a long time.
38:35 I'm proud of that.
38:36 Even if we sucked and failed miserably here at the drag
38:39 strip.
38:41 These people will not forget that smoke show.
38:43 No, no.
38:44 No, they won't.
38:45 [LAUGHS]
38:46 [MUSIC PLAYING]
38:47 Sometimes in drag racing, you pump a bunch of nitrous
38:49 into a car and really rip down the track.
38:51 And other times, you'll leave an eighth mile
38:53 slick of transmission fluid trying.
38:55 But going fast isn't always the point.
38:57 The Earl Camino took us for quite the ride.
38:59 We resurrected an old drag car and gave this thing
39:01 a second chance.
39:02 And although we didn't run a super fast time,
39:04 we had a ton of fun.
39:05 And who knows?
39:06 Maybe you'll see the Earl Camino on a later episode
39:08 of "Roadkill."
39:09 [ENGINE REVVING]
39:11 Support companies that support "Roadkill."
39:14 Buy your speed parts at jegs.com.
39:17 Great job, guys.
39:18 It's like a giant golf cart.
39:23 [LAUGHS]
39:25 [BLANK_AUDIO]