Fuel Shut-Off Delete

After breaking a belt and tearing up the fuel shut-off cable along with some other related parts I ran the rest of the weekend with the shut-off secured in the off position. We were considering deleting the fuel shut-off all together and were looking for any useful thoughts either way. This is on a screw blown hemi promod. Thanks!

Joad Donnelly

 

Huh ???

Maybe a typo ? If you secured it in the OFF position.......you didn't get anymore runs !!!

Fuel shut-offs have saved many lives and stupid mistakes through the years, if you are really thinking of deleting it, where are you going to race ? Some outlaw track with no rules ? (or common sense)

Just jump off a cliff, it'll be quicker and you won't hurt anyone else.

 

shutoff

To clarify its an automatic car with electronic controlled promag so there are several ways to kill the mag plus the trans goes to neutral when the air dumps at shutdown.
I've seen a PX car with no fuel shutoff and I've never seen any type of mechanical shutoff on a N20 or turbo car.

 

Keep the valve. Just move it out of the way.

 

Yep, typo....it was secured in the on position. lol

What type of scenarios have you seen a fuel shut-off save lives and stupid mistakes? I've been in a couple of situations where I was damn happy to have a big easy to hit master kill switch set up so that it kills the ignition and dumps the lenco air at the same time. I'm leaning towards keeping the shut-off because there is probably a worse case situation where it could be useful to mechanically stop the fuel flow but like was stated, not all blown alcohol cars out there have one so just thought I'd ask.

Joad Donnelly

 

What if your throttle sticks open, you can't close it with your pull back on the throttle pedal, and the Mag shut off button fails....

 

Not trying be an a--

Joad; do understand I've been at this stuff for over 50 yrs. all over the planet. I've seen it all and done some pretty stupid stuff myself! (early 60's with a Vertex and dieseling started, switch did nothing, FUEL shut-offs weren't invented yet, and went for the ride of my life with wheels cranked over, both arms pushing brake handle let the clutch out trying to kill it). Don't forget all the cars through the years that banged the blower on the burnout.....( or finish line) jerked the line out of the top of the shut-off, then proceeded to burn the car to the ground......or worse yet Cory Mac at Pomona with blower and hat tipped up with doors wide open, hose off, geyser being sucked into open doors, slow acceleration until at about 140 mph it went into the net totaling the car.
If it's electrical, sooner or later it's going to fail ! I've seen every type of "this weeks hot tip" switch fail. Today's "hot tip" is to kill the power to the Power Grid which is low voltage compared to any type direct mag kill switch. It seems to work.....so far!

Here's the easy part..... NHRA, IHRA, FIA, ANDRA and ant other rule book that may exist states you HAVE to HAVE ONE ! And if you make it through tech without, and make it to the final and win......the other guy has you thrown out for rule infraction !!! (Also from BT-DT book)



Bob Meyer
Meyer Race Cars / San Diego
2014 Our 49th Anniversary

 

How about the reason i was told blower cars have them...To drain the system so it doesn't drain in and attempt to hydro a cylinder the next time you spin the motor over.

I rarely ever shut off my blown alcohol car with the mag. Probably 99% of the time i pull the fuel.

Just my .02

 

Thanks for the replies. I'm going to keep the shut-off but I wouldn't assume that if someone else decides not to that they are an idiot with a death wish. In the end you can "what-if" safety to the point where we would all live in a bubble, safe from all potential danger in life but that ain't livin' in my book. I'm sure there are plenty of people who think that those who choose to race in any capacity must have a death wish. lol I've always preferred to shut the fuel off before the ignition for a number of reasons, some of which are stated above. With a roots blower it would kill it rather quickly with just the fuel cut but the screw will run on a long time so I kill the ignition a few seconds after the fuel normally. As far as the potential of hydraulicing the engine, I would recommend rolling the engine through prior to start to check for this no matter what method was used to shut down.

Joad Donnelly