1979 Malibu

[GMJohnny]

I think it’s cool that if you raced Chuppa in a handicap race, he’d leave first.

GM

[TireSmoker]

In preparation for Drag Week, I need a trailer to haul some tires, tools, and maybe some fuel.

Big progress yesterday with the install of the trailer hitch. Paul found me this super vintage setup for $50 on ebay.

Speece brought me a piece of 1/2" (?)flat stock, and a custom bolt-welded-to-a-bolt, both of which would prevent us from needing a wrench on the back side of the bumper to tighten it down. Tapping the holes in the flat stock took a little more effort than planned, but that kind of stuff is his wheelhouse.

And since I guess I didn't post pics earlier, here is the trailer I bought. And a fake-but-accurate photo from a couple weeks ago.

[markss327]

Good choice on the hitch. Less weight than a Class2. (40ish lbs)
Nice trailer too! 4x8? What's the make?

[TireSmoker]

It's a DK2 4x6. Here's the link, https://detailk2.com/mmt4x6og.html

[TireSmoker]

Do I need to make some sort of adapter bracket to lower the height of the hitch ball, to level out the trailer tongue?

[Basement Paul]

Looks good to me. Mine sits at way more angle than that when it's on my truck. Good to go!

-BP

[GMJohnny]

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Do I need to make some sort of adapter bracket to lower the height of the hitch ball, to level out the trailer tongue?

As long as you make sure the weight is on the tongue the correct way, BP is right,
you should be good to go. If you had an insert type hitch it might be good to get a
step-down hitch, but there’s not much you can do with what you have there.
Run it.

GM

[markss327]

Ideally, you want the tongue to be level. But as previously stated, you don't have much of an option. Send it!
Tongue weight is key. 10-15% of the overall trailer weight, on the tongue.

[Basement Paul]

Keep in mind your not hauling enough weight to matter. Mark's 10-15% logic is correct typically. But I pull my quad (400lbs) with a 450lb trailer, and I had 200lbs of sandbags too and I could lift the tongue easily with one hand and it pulled like it wasn't there with no swaying or bouncing. You're looking at half that weight behind you. Tongue weight in this scenario matters very little because your load is so minimal.

-BP

[TireSmoker]

I brought home the street tires for Drag Week. P235-75-R15 truck tires, mounted on 15x7 Aero Race wheels. They're slightly taller than the MT E/T Street R 275-60-15 drag radials.

Wiper arms showed up today. However, I looked up the forecast for each track's town for each day, and there is never more than a 12-15% chance of rain. If buying those keeps it from raining, money well spent!

The last real thing I need to do is wire in the trailer harness.

[wxo]

Be sure to take a lot of photos to show us all about your week from a participant's point of view.

[TireSmoker]

There hasn't been much off-season activity with Maliboost. I changed the oil and the spark plugs. However, I'm pretty sure I managed to cross-thread the #5 cylinder. The new one is in there and I fired it up for a few seconds, it sounds normal. But I bought a spark-plug thread chaser just in case. In a truly worse-case situation, I'll need to pull the head. My fingers are crossed that my threads aren't.

I pulled the transmission pan and drilled/tapped it for a temperature sending unit. Pretty easy, although my first time doing NPT tapered threads. The fluid looked good and red.

I still need to pull the rearend and have it inspected. I would also like to convert the rear axles to Chevy bolt pattern. They are currently Ford.

I remounted the tach earlier in the winter, as part of the dash cracked where it was previously mounted and it was flopping around a bit.

Scott has requested some cupholders before next Drag Week, so I ordered a couple from Amazon, we'll see how they work out.

[TireSmoker]

I took Maliboost out for my first trip of the season to Thompson. First trip. In July.

I drove it there, no issues. I made my first pass of the season, a respectable 10.18 @ 133 in the heat. I bumped the rev limiter in 1st, probably should've gone a touch quicker. But the big problem came when it wouldn't restart after I went to the pits. It would start/fire/die in like 1-2 seconds. I had to throw in the towel and call Mason & Healy for a tow home. Dude dropped it right in my garage.

When I got home, everything was checking out good. In test mode, I could hear all the injectors and coils firing. I pulled the return line on the fuel cell and there was a good amount of fuel being pumped. It sounded ok when I was cranking it and it'd briefly catch. I finally decided to swap the Megasquirt for a spare I had, and it fired right up.

But all wasn't well. The spare is a unit I bought from FB Marketplace a while ago. I tried this same unit in the Chevelle just a week or two ago and the car wouldn't even run with it. That was a bit unexpected. While it would start Maliboost and idle, it wouldn't really run over 1500 rpm. RPM signal would go to 0. The RPM circuit is on the main board, and all the injector and coil drivers are on the add-in 3X board. I swapped the 3X board from the spare into my car's Megasquirt and it now runs to at least 3500 rpm. I didn't try any higher. But I feel like this combo will work for now. It should be a good spare, as I ordered a brand-new unit too.

MS 3.57 main board (blue board, machine soldered)
MS3 processor (white board)
MS3X add-in (green board)


But even though I only got a single pass in, it was a good one. I cut an .02 light and beat Carsten on the tree in the other lane. And the car ran strong! I'll try to head out again soon.

[Basement Paul]

Sounds much better inside without the rearend whine. Looks like a fun ride! That thing really pulls...

-BP

[TireSmoker]

It pulls like crazy, its a super fun car to race. Very happy with what I've created. I just wanna go some rounds with it now. I'm planning on going out again on Wed.