Tech Tips

     Jake: Unibody LSR Build
                          by Tim McMaster

In Sept. of 2010 I decided it was time to build a LSR (Land Speed Racer) truck to compete in D/PP class at El Mirage and Bonneville.

It had been suggested that an early '60s Unibody F-100 would be a bit more aerodynamic than the “Fridge cab” we had been using in E/PP class.

I asked Todd Jolliff to see if he could find one for me in exchange for some engine work I had done for him. In short order we were pulling a relatively rust free 1962 model out of some guys tomato patch in Stockton CA, where it had sat for the last 20 years.

We hauled “Jake” (as the truck is now known) back to Todd's house where the work began. Todd flipped the front axle (moved it to the top of the springs) to lower it 6“, notched the frame and moved the steering box up 6" to keep the steering geometry correct and eliminate "bump steer".

He also lowered the back a few inches with longer shackles. While Todd was working on the chassis I had the front and rear axles to clean, paint and rebuild with new bearings, bushings, king pins, ring & pinion (4.11) and brakes all around.

It all came together in March 2011 at Todd's in Modesto, CA. Then Charlie Burns and I brought the rolling chassis down to Visalia for the rest of the work. I had a slightly better than stock +.060 292 Y-Block to run for testing with a T-5 trans behind it. With the fuel tank, lines, battery and wires I had a runner ready for the cage to be installed. The truck then went to Hanford to my friend John Garner's for the cage work. John is the same man who did such a fine job building "Elwood's" chassis (my Y-Block powered FED).

Cage together and ready for paint, the truck went to Lewis Milinich Pant & Body in Hanford where I was told that my prep work was not quite good enough for his standards. I needed the truck back in a week and just wanted color on it. Lewis stepped up to the plate and in a week he had redone the whole truck with a very nice two-tone turquoise/white paint job. Then it was back to my house for final assembly. I would like to add that all this moving around was done by my friend Chris Hamilton of Hanford Towing, he and his truck were a great help.

With the truck all together we took "Jake" out to a local country airstrip for a little testing. The engine ran strong and Jake ran straight and true. Good job on the suspension Todd!

2011 Bonneville Nationals "Speed Week" was a testing year for "Jake" the LSR Unibody. We went to the salt with the basically "Stock" 292 bottom end with some C1TE truck heads (ported with 1.85" in and 1.6" ex) and a special cam and made two back to back 120 mph runs. We then changed out the modified cast iron "B" intake for an out of the box Mummert intake and ran 120 again. All of this through mufflers! Next we changed the truck heads for a set of ported and polished ECZ-G heads with 2.02” in. and 1.6” ex. valves that came off of Charlie Burn’s "Yellow Brick" from last year. We fed it through a ported "extrude honed" Blue Thunder intake, on loan from Ted Eaton. We then went out for a best of 127 mph run. The best part is that the truck drives like a dream at speed. All in all, a good year I went out looking for 130 with this engine and got 127 with a 12 mph head wind and my "D" license. This winter will bring some changes to the engine that will hopefully get us closer to 150.