I thought what Zeeco did with the Zetec was pretty awesome when they went 10.19 at like 144 or something and said they had the fastest FWD Focus in the world last year, but this guy, Shaun Carlson, built a drag focus way back in 2000 and ran 8.53.
Here's an article on the focus before he made that pass with some info about it. Pretty cool read.
And as far as strengthing/hardening the stock crank it can work but I will see this summer as I am working with the stock crank trying a couple of things.
several years ago when tom had his drag car he started breaking cranks but i think he was pushing to over 800hp. he pulled the power back down to 735whp i think and he didnt breaking them anymore i dont think. it seems like the real killer is the torque though. maybe he will pipe in and correct my memory if im wrong. im also curious about what torque he made. the hp was widely known but i dont remember ever seeing what the torque was.
Maybe the tune, don't know who tuned it, at some point in timing and power they can be more susceptible. There's another focus in PR in around 750whp, that one has a billet crank, he thought about spraying at that point but the axles went, he is coming around now with aftermarket ones, never ran though.
I did 723 and I also broke crankshafts , came down to about 630-650 and stopped braking the cranks
Hardening a stock Zetec cast crank wont help it rarely does with any crankshaft the hardness in only about .008 to .015 thick
Awesome thanks for the info mother focus. What I am doing will help with strengthen the stock crank and will be a lot cheaper than a bullet crank. I will be doing testing this summer to make sure it does work before releasing info out
Your money so you will do what you think is best , heat treating a cast Iron crankshaft only buts a surface hardening on and and wont make you crank any stronger or last any longer , its the flex in the crank that brakes them and the only way to remove most of the flex is going to a stronger metal like steel cast or from billet , this doesnt mean they still dont bend and flex they just do it less and can take more to a point , they can still brake
With building dozens of race engine a year for over 20 years I have tried heat treating , nitrided , cryo etc etc , they dont work but thats your call to find out just trying to pass on information from something I have had customers try many times and it failed
thanks for the correction tom. and i thought that cryo freezing the crank worked pretty good. i KNOW i remember you talking pretty hard about that several years ago. that must have been right after you started doing it and before you realized it wasnt as good as you thought maybe? what kind of torque were you putting down?
so how about some info on this new RWD drag car you are working on? i saw the test run on youtube. when are we going to see more track videos of this thing where you are really pushing it? do you think you will get into low 8s?
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