Is anyone comming out this Sat. for practice? There is a work party to get everything ready for the nats., then they are going to spray the track.

Jake and I will be up about noon. Will the track be open for practice. We will help with the work if needed.

From what Ted Hammer said, the track will be spryed after the work is done. since we will be painting on the main straight. Hopefully it will stop raining by then.

Hey all I need some information. Like the spastic bonehead that I am (became??) I cross threaded my glow plug after MWS Detroit. Ben P. helped to get me running at MWS Cincinnati but other issues came up ~ thank you for your help and patience, Ben!! We may have damaged the button (2 new ones on order) and desire to avoid this in the future. Does anyone know the threading of a glow plug so that I can acquire the proper tap such that if I, or anyone else, does this again a proper fix can be implemented. Please note that such taps cost less than $10 which I think is half the price of a head.

Further, is there a difference between turbo head and non-turbo head??

Non-turbo head you can probably use a tap since the opening is straight through. The Turbo-head is tapered so I don't think you will be able to use a tap easily on that.

The thing is is that you want a good seal between the plug and the head (which the turbo plugs accomplish a lot better than non-turbo plugs). So, rethreading the head might cause some leaks.

HHmmmm...at this time I ordered non-turbo heads. Just so I understand what you are saying turbo heads seal better and (my impression) be less likely to crossthread as when you start turning the plug the plug is already partway into the opening by the nature of the tapered design???

I think you mis-understand the comment referring to tapers on the turbo heads. The threads are straight, machine threads. There is a taper at the bottom to seat the plug. It is smaller in the taper than the thread so you can't run a tap all the way through. There is a tap called a "bottoming tap" that might fix your problem. I also can offer that the thread for the standard plugs is an 8x40 UNF. I think the turbo plugs are the same. The standard plugs I am referring to are the McCoy brand. Good luck on this one.

Non-turbo head you can probably use a tap since the opening is straight through. The Turbo-head is tapered so I don't think you will be able to use a tap easily on that.

The thing is is that you want a good seal between the plug and the head (which the turbo plugs accomplish a lot better than non-turbo plugs). So, rethreading the head might cause some leaks.

So if a head is crossthreaded the seal between the plug and the head will be compromised?? Doesn't the gasket provide for the sealing??

David - thanks for explaining that. :)

Steve - Yeah, that's a good point. For the non-turbo head you will have that copper gasket. The turbo-heads don't have that copper gasket, but the tapered end is supposed to accomplish that seal.

Thank you for the information. I will be acquiring a tap to save heads. If anyone happens to need it please feel free to find me. I am at all MWS and TDM races. Beyond that it is up to the wife.........

To clarify, same glow plug size for big block engines??

SPRagan - you bring up a good point about the size of the plug for big block engines. I assume you are talking about .21 and .15 engines. These are all the same size, which I said earlier was 8x40UNF. I have noticed that there is a smaller plug thread in the RB .12 engines, at least the model I worked on, so be carefull about the tap you get. I would feel more comfortable if you would take your plug to a shop that can check the thread size. All that needs to be done to check it is to run the plug into a die with your fingers, no tools required. If it goes in somewhat easily, the thread of the die is the proper thread of the plug. At machine tool store may help you with this as well. Good luck.

I went to Larry's Performance to see if they had a die. They referred me to a well-known industrial grade tool shop. I showed them the plug and they told me that it is a unique size and that they thought they had something but they did not have the corresponding die to verify. Hence my posts here. The next step is to try another shop that they recommended as well as contact RB. Whatever happens I will post here. Thank you for your help.

There are three clutches available for the MTX-3: black (soft), gray, and red (hard). Which clutch do you use when?