The GM52 Funco Hustler clone conversion

Kevin said:
the pads sticking is plausible for sure, however im still leaning towards the trans having a quirk. the way it was locked up and not moving even after we rotated the tires by hand makes me think that.
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Guess I missed this in original post with the wheels jacked up and turning and still no go. Trans is only other option.

 
One of the rotors out of spec or defective ,warps when hot? Had that happen on a bug I owned. Locked up then after cooled off would free up. 

 
You guys got me thinking................

If I had one caliper locked up or one side of the turning brake line locked, wouldn't the other wheel turn fine.  Wouldn't I be able to spin one wheel when I was trying to get un stuck????

No different then me grabbing a handful of turning brake and on the gas. One wheel is driving the car and the other is locking up.

This situation I have been in is without a doubt both rears locked up.  In forward and in reverse. The car is not going to move

I have been in two gears before in a bug I have owned many moons ago.  The hockey stick broke between shifts and locked the car into 1st and 2nd.  It took a ton of power and clutching to get it to move when it happened.  Just like this situation I am having, But.....

If we jack up the car and roll the back tires it will unlock and drive out.   Which is why I am questioning the Mendi S4

 
The S4 is an open differential, so even when 1 wheel won't turn, the other will.

Not saying it is the trans, but that is how they work.

 
Sandkist said:
Mystery for sure. Caliper is parallel to rotor? No kinked hard line or hose? Have you tried flushing out your brake lines to remove any possible debris or obstruction.
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All good with the fluid.

 
So... What I've found is the rear brake pads may have been too thick.  Now that I've machined off 25-30 thou they float. 

I've been running the car on stands. Power breaking and now the pads are loose and wiggle as they never did before. 

Pulled th drain plug on the trans and it has some fuzzies but nothing major. 

Thinking this is it. Maybe praying. Mostly hoping. 

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Too thick of a brake pad would totally stick with some heat. If f one wheel is locked up you really aren’t going anywhere from a stop either

 
Hmmm that would have lowered hp ratings on the dyno and it will be faster in the dunes……are you ok with that?  lol 

 
For a while last season every time I hit the brakes it would lock up at least one of them and they wouldn’t release until I actuated the turning brake in either direction. I never really figured out what was causing this and it seems to have gone away. Prolly not much of a help to you, but maybe the same problem, yours is just more severe.

 
Curious too as to what the cause of this way. What did you find out? 

 
So found the rear brake pads scored pretty bad. Center of the pads where the vents run on the rotor.  I think the pad thickness kept the pads rubbing more than normal. Heat built up and when I would stop, they would stick to the rotors.  As new these pads were tight. The whole brake assemblies and midboard assemblies were made by grey area. I haven't reached out to them with my findings yet. 

Since taking some material off the pads. Making them thinner, I haven't had the issue. 

Hawk makes the pads. They are offered in .800 - .750 - .700 and so on in thickness.  These were .800's and I took .025 off each with the mill. 

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10 days in glamis. 8 days with no problems. 

Car is running great. Getting very comfortable with it and liking everything that's been done. 

Day 9/10 and had a few issues. 

Air compressor started running every 5 minutes. Found the head cracked and leaking air.  Set the bags and unplugged the air controller.  Same day, steering started locking up. Rack finally stopped working so parked the car. 

Did a good look over and found drivers rear bag perch was bent. These are original and already have a new updated hd set coming. 

Grants got the rack for rebuilding. Grants getting the spring perches ready.  Air compressor has arrived. Waiting on some 12 point bolts to arrive to remount the steering rack. Will make getting the rack installed easier. 

Should of got a photo of the passenger side foot pad. It's bent away pretty good. 

Think @Greengois still picking his underwear out of his crack. :lol:

All in all. Happy and looking forward to the next trip.

 
So end of last season I was doing what I do in the dunes. Push the limits..... Good ole Hozay was leading and we were coming into the china wall valley. We see china up ahead on the left. Hozay decides to go up about half way and come down. I head up and being me, I go all the way. Not really side hilling but covering some of the hill going up. I make the quintessential Funco turn at the top and head down. Got some speed on this, a bit more that I should have and as I was coming down, the cars ass end wants to come around. I decide to power thru this, yes more speed. The car straightens up but continues to want to come around the other way. Im a bit more than half way down at this point. I put my foot in it again to straighten out but its too late. As the ass end comes around, I am floored. The front end lifts straight up into the air, the passenger tail end of the car hits the sand. I am now into a pirouette. The car drops into the hill like this, mind you, after a complete twist. It hits and puts me up and into a flat barrel roll down hill. We are not sure if it was one or two barrel rolls. All I knew was, I was I bad shape. My headsets gone, goggles gone, world is spinning, sands flying and I havent stopped. I had let go of the wheel and pulled my head into my chest with both arms. Much like an airplane crash landing position.
Then everything comes to a stop. Cars running, cars on all 4, sand has settled down and I check myself. Shut off the car and here comes Greengo. Bunch of holyshits, gawd dams, what the fffff's and I get out.
I am shaken but not broken. Car is in good shape with a few bumps and bruises to the roof and rear tin.

I settle down. We talk for a bit and I decide I need a beer and I know Cheff is just over the hill in wash 22. We head there, wash down some pride. then head back to camp.PXL_20240222_025808000.MP.jpgPXL_20240222_025842008.MP.jpgPXL_20240222_025852616.MP.jpgPXL_20240222_025814069.MP.jpgPXL_20240222_025836585.MP.jpgPXL_20240222_030321573.MP.jpgPXL_20240222_035605203.MP.jpg
 
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So here I am, just a few days away from the Funco Regatta. Cars messed up. Engine has a slight rpm ramp and dies occasionally on warm up. This wasn't the case before the crash.
I pull the rear tin off. Install a single whip on the only mount remaining and we plan on enjoying the next 5 days.

Next morning. I take the car for a rip and the steering locks up. Dam steering rack is wonky again. Just had this fixed. Well, Grants in town and lo and behold, he has a loaner rack. We get that swapped out and finish up the week trip.

We make a few more trips to end the season all while the engine isn't happy. John sets me up with things to check and I report back with nothing found. Last trip I run the car hard and come back with it burning oil.
Season ends again with some engine work. I'll go on and fill in what was the issue later on in this thread.
 
Summer 2024, Glamis gear is home. Time to get on Johns schedule and get the car to him.

Car arrives, I have a list of what it's doing and what it's not doing. John digs in and we find an ecm issue. This takes the focus away from the smoking issue for a bit. Once we have a direction on the ecm, he then see's the oil smoke. This leads into engine removal and tear down. It's got oil in all 6 cylinders and I had a burnt plug. Final tear down shows 2 collapsed pistons. John says it's heat. Too much heat. I'm scratching my head at this. How and why...

Engine gets a full refresh and installed back into the car. Off to dyno for break in and ecm fiddling. Mind you, we've consumed 4 or so weeks on this initial work, I am eager to get it back as Trey at Kali Kustoms is holding a spot for me to get the body work done on the car. Now, onto the dyno. The car has a backfire at mid rpm. This is not your little ole briggs and stratton backfire. It's a big one. Johns seeing it on the laptop and tries to tune out the noise (frequency) to get rid of it. The files in the ecm take the change, key off, power cycle etc, fire up and make a pull. Bam its back. Go back to the file and all the boxes that were checked and confirmed/saved have unchekced themselves. This goes on for a few days. AEM is contacted and with the Holley aquistion its a challenge to get anyone in that division to help. Weeks are now being counted. John is staying on it and sharing everything with me. I even reach out to AEM as the customer and give em hell. AEM sends John up and down every tree to no avail. Updating firmware, retro dated firmware and so on. Was even in a position to have to send out the ecm for repair. AEM finally stepped up with a file that had those filters locked out and John was able to install that file and get the car to run. Tuning and dyno pulls finally commence.

First good heat cycle and John finds the intercooler fan turned off. Its got power but stopped running. Couple of bangs with the fist and it turns on. That doesnt last long and its shutting off again. I mentioed earlier about John saying heat... Well he was spot on. Darn good chance the intercooler fan went to pot after the roll over and me continuing to drive the car killed the engine.
Dyno done, back to 750ish crank HP on E85.

Now its a mad dash to Kali Kustoms for the body work. We are 4 weeks behind from when I was supposed to get the car to KK.
 
Off the dyno, onto a tow truck and straight to Kali Kustoms. I arrive at Kali a few min prior to the tow truck. The place is jam packed with sandcars. The empty spot that I was shown in a photo 4 or so weeks prior is full and not even sure if my car would go inside at night. Trey and Adam greet me and watch as the car arrives. We go over the scope of work and unload my car.
Trey gives me the 10c tour of all the cars and what's going on. There's 3 or more F9 Funcos, 3 are carbon body cars. Other gen 4's, Buckshots, Alumacrafts and a few other full size high end cars. All are getting serious work to season preps completed. Blower motors being removed in place of turbo motors and so on. Adam comes over and shows me one of the F9's with the LS7 and 4.5 Whipple 1100 hp. Fires it up and says this engines coming out and he's building a twin turbo 1600+ hp motor for the owner. Adam is an engine builder and has been for many years. Apparently he has been in the offshore boat engine side for a long time.
So my cars off the trailer and we go over the body stuff, season prep stuff, a few upgrades and shake on it.
I head home and that blown LS7 kept haunting my thoughts. The price was right, wait what am I thinking. I can't do this. But it would be silly. Nope, can't. The S4 trans isn't geared for this LS nor is it strong enough. But my car is only 2400 lbs. I toss and turn and give Sean at Weddle a call the next morning. Sean says no of course but we go over the gear stack and options for a new S4 so I could better prepare for this if I choose to.

I go back to Kali a few days later. They are about to pull the blower motor out of the F9 car. I ask him to start it up. He does and I get horny. I shake on the deal for no good reason and agree to buy the Blown LS7 with the caveot that it gets a health check and if anything needs to be fixed, it's on the owner. So now I have bought this LS and im going to stack the chips on making this veterans day trip. Weeks behind, spending stupid money, asking for prayers to be answered for a situation I put myself back into again.

I check with Sean on a new gen3 S4. Everything is in stock but they can't build it for 4 weeks. I call around and find a builder that would do it in 2 days. Order the transaxle and make it happen I say. Chevy bellhousing, internal slave etc. I pick up the trans and head to Kali. Drop off the trans and see my car. Subi is out and an LS block is sitting in the frame. Tabs welded, support bars welded and it looks good. I am now having second, third, fourth thoughts on what I am doing. This blown LS is going to be too much, wtf did I do. I am stressing and had to talk to Adam.

I find Adam and tell him to stop. I can't put this stupid power in this little car. The torque and weight is just going to make this car undrivable. He says "why don't you just put an LS3 NA motor in the car. I say its too late, I've done screwed my season up already. Adam walks me over to a built LS3 427NA long block and says your in luck. It's ready and if you let me dress it my way, you will be blown away. So here I go again. Bought another engine.............
 
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