Because Race Shop - Left Eye Blind Racing

UTfball68

UTfball68

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 18, 2008
Location
Granite Quarry
So I've had another little project I've been working on the last 15-18 months or so, and it's helping jump start a race shop. Kinda crazy how it all came together...just a couple of e-buddies, that transitioned to hobby work, to opening a bonafied business about 18 months ago, to a new shop, that should be open in the next 12-18 months. Next on the to do list is a plasma table.

Here's the link to the bidness, so far anything from bolt on disc brake kits, to steering links, to engine mounts, to traction bars, to $20k engine builds and anything in between. Feel free to give feedback about the website, products or any ideas you may have.

Products

But anyway, here's some of what has been worked on, and what's currently in the shop:

The one that got it started, George: Pretty standard 600hp 521 aluminum headed mud truck:
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Project Shaw: Fully trimmed daily driver with 500hp 383:
Before-
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After-
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GMB (Get Motivated Bronco): 500hp 466 with iron heads, tows lawn trailers by day and races super street by night:
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The current Pride and Joy of the shop, Paul's personal purpose built Super Street truck: Project Leftovers, 7-800hp 466, iron headed (heavily worked d0ves) and 14.7:1 running on c16 (currently looking for a set of D0OE-R's or ex 514's)
Before:
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After:
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4 month project...video taking first right off the bat-
Left Eye Blind Racing and Fabrication

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And now for some satisfied customers...

Numbers Matching 69 Boss 302 refurb...
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Steering links that made it all the way to Australia:
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Random axle build:
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Making people go faster one mota at a time:
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Now I hold this one near and dear to my heart because I'm a 400 lover. Even though the internet says they're boat anchors, this bad boy is going to be one of the baddest NA 400's that still has stock stroke:
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And the complimentary customer service (yes I know, no M after 400, inside joke):
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And a couple more...

This 466 is headed off to Canada:
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Pretty Secksy Weezy:
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And a cute little 2.9 between my 460 and the beginning of Leftovers:
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Crazy...just reminiscing now...very first product (outside of engine builds), very first 3G alt swap kit produced, that ended up going on my Bronco. We wrote up instructions and everything...

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Pretty cool to see a dream come to life, looks good.

Now, about your pricing....and this is just something that caught my eye, but what are you doing to your disc brackets to justify a $40 premium over already established vendor's pricing?
 
Just as an FYI, the dual turnbuckle alternator "bracket" isn't a great long term solution.
It was used and abandoned in circle track applications a long time ago.

Without going all "engineer" on you the linear single plane support does little to control fore and aft rotational deflection putting repeated stresses on the internal bearings and the drive belt.

Life expectancy of each is less than 20% of a rigid 3 plane mount.
 
I'm sure @Fabrik8 can fill in the gaps
 
tkeaton said:
Pretty cool to see a dream come to life, looks good.

Now, about your pricing....and this is just something that caught my eye, but what are you doing to your disc brackets to justify a $40 premium over already established vendor's pricing?
Click to expand...

It is a smidge high, but right now its a matter of volume. We're getting 1-2 orders a week for the disc brake kits, but that doesn't really allow us to buy in bulk. And, as far as I'm aware, most disc brake conversions require at least a little welding, this is 100% bolt on. Also a reason we're targeting a plasma table...right now, we're having to outsource pretty much anything that needs to be cut.
 
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Ron said:
Just as an FYI, the dual turnbuckle alternator "bracket" isn't a great long term solution.
It was used and abandoned in circle track applications a long time ago.

Without going all "engineer" on you the linear single plane support does little to control fore and aft rotational deflection putting repeated stresses on the internal bearings and the drive belt.

Life expectancy of each is less than 20% of a rigid 3 plane mount.
Click to expand...

I don't disagree, the product is primarily a clearance solution for the engines being built. Chances are pretty good our customer base will be going through engines quicker than the mounts, with annual tear downs. Or they're just looking for something 'prettier' in their show queen. If/when it fails...a $50 mount can be tossed in with a $20k build. But if there's a better alternative, I'd love to hear it.
 
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And for those interested...here's a step by step for my 460 build, with break-in and run stand videos. When we can coordinate dyno time, we'll probably do a give away for this particular engine from the FB page. Closest to max HP gets some free product, closest to max TQ gets some free product, closest to peak rpm will get some free product. If someone can peg all three, exactly...free disc brake kit...

Project Cheap Bastard: LEB 70 460 build
 
Ron said:
Just as an FYI, the dual turnbuckle alternator "bracket" isn't a great long term solution.
It was used and abandoned in circle track applications a long time ago.

Without going all "engineer" on you the linear single plane support does little to control fore and aft rotational deflection putting repeated stresses on the internal bearings and the drive belt.

Life expectancy of each is less than 20% of a rigid 3 plane mount.
Click to expand...

You still see them in circle track, because they are such an easy tensioner to make and use, but (like you're saying) they are used with types of alternators that have proper mounting support and case pivots. If you're using tab pivots on the case of an alternator that's meant for plate brackets, it's going to move all over the place. You only see Heim brackets used with alternators that have something like long double-shear pivots along the axis of the alternator, with a bolt through the pivot (a 3 point pivot essentially) that gets tightened after belt tensioning. That way there is enough alternator case rigidity to support the belt/drive loads against the Heim pivot without twisting the case.

Of course, nothing at a high level in racing is used without being suitable for the intended purpose, and these aren't parts off of production cars that are being haphazardly adapted for race use. These alternators are designed to mount like this, and if the bracket design needs to be changed for some important reason, the alternator case design changes as well.

The alternator on the purple Canada engine is mounted with 3 points, but still marginal for rigidity because of the types of case tabs (and location) and bracket used, having them all on roughly the same side of the case. Hard to tell from the picture. I'm guessing that engine will likely not see enough run time to actually matter though.
 
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Thanks fir the info and feedback. As you stated and I mentioned earlier, primary purpose is a quick, cheap and easy solution for guys that need some clearance. But there's always room for improvement, I'll see what can be done.
 
not sure what you mean when you say the record. i assume you mean your build record.i just redone my 406 this winter and it dynoed at 605 hp at 6400 rpm with stock stroke and 23 degree heads. i put a 350 shot of nitrous to it so should close to 1000 hp
 
witchdoctor said:
not sure what you mean when you say the record. i assume you mean your build record.i just redone my 406 this winter and it dynoed at 605 hp at 6400 rpm with stock stroke and 23 degree heads. i put a 350 shot of nitrous to it so should close to 1000 hp
Click to expand...

For a ford 400...from the 335 series engine family. You're talking Chevy...your distributor goes in a different spot.
 
Now I get it. Getting 600 hp from those old fords is a challenge. I used midland machine and engine in midland nc and when I got it built I took it back to them to dyno it. I bought a new block,crank,cam and a whole bunch more from him so got a deal so I don't know what he charges. 704 888 6362 his name is mike.he is a good guy.
 
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