Tater's "OH Deere 116 dragster" [2017 Build-Off Entry]

Sooo... can you make me some headers for my 318?

Those look good!

I am kinda stuck with simple bends and crappy mig welds right now. A Miller mig/tig/stick will be my next machine when this one crapps out.
I did have the trigger switch quit on me in the middle of tacking the frame. I swapped leads with my parts machine and ordered 2 from Amazon for $6 each. Hobart wanted something like $40 a piece for theirs.

That is pretty darn sweeeeeet looking! Love it.

I think I have finally come up with a fix for the head pipes. I will have to move the heads forward about 2" to get clearance on the right side for the plumbing fitting and spark plug clearance. I can do the same thing on both sides and it should flow pretty good.

427 or 409 should be written on the valve cover looking part hahaha! That'd look sweet.

AllisKidD21 wrote:

427 or 409 should be written on the valve cover looking part hahaha! That'd look sweet.

Nah, 440 or 396. Are you modeling this after a mopar, chevy, or ford? I assume it's not ford or it would be blue

I didnt really want to go with the pipe fittings. I tried 1" EMT, 3/4" EMT, 3/4" copper and nothing would bend as tight as I wanted it to without kinking. I thought about a custom welded manifold, but that wouldnt work without moving the heads. I even looked at some 3/4" flex piping for water heaters. I found that on another site where they were talking about exhaust back pressure and some guy said he used them and they worked great. The set I looked at had a 3/8 hole in the fitting. That would really restrict air flow. I am not crazy about having a 45 and a 90 in the first 4" of the exhaust, but it will work and should look decent. Porting the exhaust should help a little too. I will extend the fan shroud to the carb inlet to make everything look more symmetrical.

I tried to form the heads like the SBC. I had to modify the shape to fit inside the JD hood. I might make a set of valve covers to run with the rat body set up. I dont want to put a hump in the JD hood to clear the valve covers when you cant even see them and I dont think it would look good with a cut out to clear them. I may have to cut out around the carb depending on the slope of the hood. I will cover that with a scoop if I do, but I am not sure how it will affect the air flow to the carb with the flywheel sucking in air. It may force air into the carb or it may create a venturi effect and try to suck the air out of it.

I scrapped several feet of tubing, bought crap I didnt need and wasted several hours trying to make the hot gas go to the resonator where it looked the best. I moved it about 2" and threw on some fittings I had laying around and had one side knocked out pretty quick. I still need to blast a hole in the back of the fake head and fab up a flange, but the hard part is done.



This ladies and gentlemen is a custom combination of a 45 and a 90. It is fourty five-ty. Not sold in any stores. Get yours now.





Tune in tomorrow when we install a fuel line in the wrong end of a mini bike gas tank

Will there be any sort of suspension in the front?

Not at this time. It will be a street racer. The frame is stiff and if 60 mph is too rough, I will add a suicide front axle. I dont expect the front end will be on the ground much anyway

well, damn, bravo man, you have an amazing build going on, have you been on any other mower forumn? the batmobile thing looks familiar, like something similar i saw on another forumn once

I was on XMM about 10 years ago, 'til the mod went bonkers and ran everyone off. Came over here for a few years, then went to GTT, snooped around on MTF and a few miscellaneous yahoo groups.

As promised yesterday....

I found a cheap minibike fuel tank that would look good on this, but it has the fuel port in the skinny end. That wont work when this thing is coming off the line with the front tires 18" in the air.



10 minute fix: plug it and silver solder an 1/8 pipe fitting in the other end

This thing is going to be so damn sick I cant stand it. I decided to not do the rusty rat rod body because it wouldnt look right with the shiny engine and frame. The tub gets a shot of yeller and frame is gloss black. There is a fine line between rat rod and ugly.

.. and here is a teaser... I have a 3 day weekend. I hope to finish the exhaust and the battery box... that means a fire video... not necessarily fire from the pipes because doc was shiggin my deal from way back, but I think i can start this thing and find out what the pipes sound like.

Yellow body eh....

After painting the rails, I might change the body color to black. Doing 2 different bodies with 2 different paint schemes is a bit of a challenge. I will go with the typical JD colors for the 116. I have a second set of wheels and tires for the back planned, and might do yellow inserts for the front. With the black rails, orange engine and thorax shaped fuel tank, It kinda looks like a Black Widow and I just might go with that. Not sure I can get the home made body to look good with black paint, but WTF, this whole build is a challenge and I have 284 days left.

I painted up the smoothies and the lightened rails to do a quick A-B thing. not sure which one I like better.

The last pics are kinda swapped. I planned on doing smoothies and zoomies, but I did the prototypes on 2 different sides

i like the smoothie pipes better, they fit the build more

This whole build is TOO DAMN COOL!!! Will those skimpy front tires hold up to 60mph? And aren't you planning to use a MTD varishim setup? Will you still have a clutch in with that or how is that gonna work?

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I gotta do a +2 and a 0 offset on the wheels, but these are gonna be the back shoes for this...

That. Is. Awesome.


I have no further statement at this time

CraftsmanQuad19 wrote:

That. Is. Awesome.
I have no further statement at this time

I would have to "Ditto" that remark. That's going to be super cool!