NHRA scattershield

[SlowSVT]

jesus....Im just not going to even respond to that.....do you run the car at the track???? if you do any you know how to drive...ITS REQUIRED...PERIOD. thats what this thread is about so start your own about how dumb safety is somewhere else.

If your are drag racing your car where the rules require a bell housing that will contain a flywheel explosion then the decision whether you run one or not has been made for you.

I would like to apologize and should read the thread originators question more carefully. It was a pretty straight forward inquiry asking where an NHRA approved scatter shield can be obtained, that's all. I should not even have posted on this thread. My bad :nono:

No one will argue safety is a bad thing but in most cases a scatter shield would be fairly low on my priority list if the rules didn't require it. A friend of mine who regularly runs 9's at Ontario has never seen a clutch explode and the only time I've seen one was in a photo in a magazine and it wasn't pretty (from the back of the engine all that was left was the last throw on the crank shaft and everything behind it was gone ).

On a street car or a road racer this problem is pretty much non-existent. That is what prompted my response. Some guys read this stuff and think it is something they need and start making phone calls. A few years back someone was installing a Lakewood bell housing on a street car thinking it was a good investment (personally I think the guy just wanted it there so he could tell his friends he had a scatter shield suggesting his car was in league with a fuel burning funny car :rollseyes). An on-board fire extinguisher system in his case would have been a better choice for safety equipment but I don't think he would accept the weight penalty that brings.

Perhaps the tone of this thread could have been a bit more civil but I don't think it anyone got scares to show for it. The bottom line with regard to any statements on this thread whether to run a scatter shield or not on a drag racer is moot since the rules require it. End of debate!

Live long and prosper :beer:

 

[BADASS03SVT]

No one will argue safety is a bad thing :

yet here you are....

 

[ShelbyGuy]

If you don't think your car needs safety equipment then you are slow and so is your driving.

 

[jumperjack]

Anyone have any pictures of their scattershields installed?

Do quick time have a website??

Quicktime on my 96 w/Gforce T5. Not the best pics but you get the idea.

 

[BADASS03SVT]

If you don't think your car needs safety equipment then you are slow and so is your driving.

:lol:

 

[BADASS03SVT]

here is my McLoud when I had the t-56 in between Mac LT's

 

[64T-bolt]

Quicktime on my 96 w/Gforce T5. Not the best pics but you get the idea.

How bad is it getting the tranny out of the car to install this, and how does it fit? Did you have to dial it in? I'll probably do a clutch/26 spline shaft at the same time. .

 

[64T-bolt]

here is my McLoud when I had the t-56 in between Mac LT's

Looks great. . thanks for the input! how did you like the McCleod?

 

[BADASS03SVT]

Looks great. . thanks for the input! how did you like the McCleod?

went in just fine w/ no issue's ceprt for the motor plate. not sure if they have fixed it by now but the hole in the motor plate wasnt big enough...so you just had to enlarge it. not a big deal

 

[slowr w/o blowr]

During the five years I have been on this site I have yet to hear of one clutch explosion. There are 20,000 of these things running around. The stock redline is 6500 rpm's and I am sure Ford has tested them at much higher rpm's to keep their liability exposure to a minimum plus the car has a rev limiter. Generally heat is what destroys a clutch more so then rpm's. A friend of mine runs Bonniville and showed me a granaded flywheel and you can clearly see all the heat discoloration it was exposed to prior to letting go.

I'm curious if anyone actually has heard of a Terminator clutch self destructing?

Not needed IMO

here is my 03 04 cobra clutch that came apart in my 03 mach1. I missed a gear and this is what happened. I was running a 3650 at the time and had to have the bellhousing welded up since it got torn up. I consider myself lucky and since then i have installed a t-56 and i am looking for a scattershield.

 

[BADASS03SVT]

here is my 03 04 cobra clutch that came apart in my 03 mach1. I missed a gear and this is what happened. I was running a 3650 at the time and had to have the bellhousing welded up since it got torn up. I consider myself lucky and since then i have installed a t-56 and i am looking for a scattershield.

wow...glad you came out ok man!

Ive seen it once at my local track in an old chevelle. pieces came right through the floor. driver wasnt hurt though.

 

[64T-bolt]

here is my 03 04 cobra clutch that came apart in my 03 mach1. I missed a gear and this is what happened. I was running a 3650 at the time and had to have the bellhousing welded up since it got torn up. I consider myself lucky and since then i have installed a t-56 and i am looking for a scattershield.

Thank you for posting. . . . . .point proven.

 

[BWH2003]

When you say missed a gear, you missed and over revved or missed into a lower gear?

 

[BADASS03SVT]

When you say missed a gear, you missed and over revved or missed into a lower gear?

either one is going to hit the limiter

 

[slowr w/o blowr]

wow...glad you came out ok man!

Ive seen it once at my local track in an old chevelle. pieces came right through the floor. driver wasnt hurt though.

I think that when the clutch decides to come apart, its the luck of the draw as to where its coming out at. My starter took the brunt of the force. Thank you little baby Jesus for that.

Thank you for posting. . . . . .point proven.

I understand what you are getting at, thats why i posted up this pic. I was only at 300rwhp when this happened.

When you say missed a gear, you missed and over revved or missed into a lower gear?

Jake, Missed 3rd gear on an up-shift. I don't believe that my missing the gear had any thing to do with the clutch coming apart. Yes i did hit the rev limiter, I belive that was somewhere around 7k rpms. This clutch had 700 miles on it when it grenaded. I sent pics up to the engineers in Mich. They had not seen one of their clutches come apart before. They are or were using that same clutch (M7560D46) in the FR-500 race cars at the time. They couldnt believe that a 300 horse car did that.

I still have that clutch out in my shop hanging up as a reminder. If you want, i can bring it up to Halls some saturday night for you to see.

 

[BWH2003]

either one is going to hit the limiter

My point was if he missed into a lower gear the car is forced to go past the rev limiter mechanically which will easily blow/gernade the clutch. If he missed and just over revved the car, the rev limiter will prevent the clutch from over spinning mechanically which should save the clutch.

 

[BWH2003]

Jake, Missed 3rd gear on an up-shift. I don't believe that my missing the gear had any thing to do with the clutch coming apart. Yes i did hit the rev limiter, I belive that was somewhere around 7k rpms. This clutch had 700 miles on it when it grenaded. I sent pics up to the engineers in Mich. They had not seen one of their clutches come apart before. They are or were using that same clutch (M7560D46) in the FR-500 race cars at the time. They couldnt believe that a 300 horse car did that.

I still have that clutch out in my shop hanging up as a reminder. If you want, i can bring it up to Halls some saturday night for you to see.

See the problem and correct me if Im wrong but the rev limiter will try to stop the motor from over revving but since it mechanically cannot you could have very well have been over 8000 rpm at any point. Thus if it was that high the clutch is not capable of that rpm or over that rpm.

Btw im not Jake he has the white cobra, my name is Bryan and I have the torch red 04. I have not been out for two summers now due to modding the car and working on it. I have had the car out two weekends in a row now and I think its actually done. Anyways I hope you get your car back together soon and I look forward to meeting you up at halls sometime.

How far along with the car are you?

 

[BADASS03SVT]

See the problem and correct me if Im wrong but the rev limiter will try to stop the motor from over revving but since it mechanically cannot you could have very well have been over 8000 rpm at any point. Thus if it was that high the clutch is not capable of that rpm or over that rpm.

Btw im not Jake he has the white cobra, my name is Bryan and I have the torch red 04. I have not been out for two summers now due to modding the car and working on it. I have had the car out two weekends in a row now and I think its actually done. Anyways I hope you get your car back together soon and I look forward to meeting you up at halls sometime.

How far along with the car are you?

hmm..what am I not seeing here? the "rev limiter" doesnt "limit" the revs? and its electronic not mechanical??

 

[slowr w/o blowr]

See the problem and correct me if Im wrong but the rev limiter will try to stop the motor from over revving but since it mechanically cannot you could have very well have been over 8000 rpm at any point. Thus if it was that high the clutch is not capable of that rpm or over that rpm.

Btw im not Jake he has the white cobra, my name is Bryan and I have the torch red 04. I have not been out for two summers now due to modding the car and working on it. I have had the car out two weekends in a row now and I think its actually done. Anyways I hope you get your car back together soon and I look forward to meeting you up at halls sometime.

How far along with the car are you?

Sorry, I got you confused..... my bad!

I seriously doubt that it hit 8k rpms. maybe 7500, but i was shifting at 6800 like normal on a NA mach1. It gave no warning, just a boom and a crunch. i drove the car home in first gear at an idle. I was no more then a mile away from home.

as far as mods for my car. I'm still running a baby KB 2.1 Just got done building the internals on the SRA. Wednesday i start my torque arm conversion. I hope to have the car out and running on Saturday. I wont be making a full pulls with it yet. Still needing to get everything dialed in. I went with a MM complete suspension package.

 

[SlowSVT]

here is my 03 04 cobra clutch that came apart in my 03 mach1. I missed a gear and this is what happened. I was running a 3650 at the time and had to have the bellhousing welded up since it got torn up. I consider myself lucky and since then i have installed a t-56 and i am looking for a scattershield.

Not pretty. As I'm sure you know had that been your flywheel or PP it would have been ugly. Never said this wasn't a possibility but it is a rare occurrence. Glad it wasn't worse.