Pogo Midget
Pogo Midget
After the visit to the Museum, we headed home, with a snowstorm building up behind us.
We were pretty tired when we arrived at Indianapolis that night, and again when we made
home to the shop the next evening. We unloaded the car, and began to inventory
what we'll need to finish the car. The sales broker had described the car as follows:
"The only thing this car is missing is an engine, radiator and push truck. Car
is complete with a Halibrand rear, Alcohol fuel cell, complete dry sump system,
complete steering system, brakes, bars, shocks, and all the gauges." As it turned out,
the driveshaft, rear end gears, driveshaft u-joint and
Chevy II button were missing, as well as the front right brake hat, rotor,
caliper and hose, and all that was there from the "complete dry sump system" was the dry sump
tank. In addition, one of the wheels didn't match the other three which still had the
Sportsman Midget Mickey Thompson
I-Bar pattern tires that were used when the car was last
driven by Kellen James. The only gauge that worked was the water temperature gauge. All of the
hoses and AN fittings had been stripped out of the car as well. The fill tank and hose for the
rear end were also missing. Our
first step was to try to locate and buy all the missing parts to get the car up to the
rolling chassis stage.
We spoke with Jason Dull, and were lucky to
buy from him the spare driveshaft that had been with the car, as well as the front U-joint
and Chevy II adapter button. We bought a new
front right brake hat and
a rotor from
Sierra Racing Products. Jason also had the fourth matching wheel and Mickey
Thompson tire for the car, and so we bought that as well. We then had a good set of
four wheels and tires we could run on asphalt.
At the end of the month, we got a lead from Jim Sutter, that there was a complete
Chevy II midget motor near Albany, NY, that Joe Sukup was selling. It had spun
a rod bearing and blown a headgasket, but was otherwise complete and included a Hilborn
Fuel injection system. We drove to Albany and brought the motor home and took it apart to
have a look at it. We found that it had been run without oil and all the main bearings
were melted, and the crank wasn't worth fixing. The cylinders were also worn out. However,
there were some good parts in the motor, including a Racer Brown roller cam, a nice set of
Venolia pistons and a set of Ansen connecting rods.
One of the connecting rods was damaged, so we took all four rods to Rockville Ring and
Bearing to see if the damaged rod could be fixed.
December, 2004
After taking apart the Albany motor, we put a "Wanted" ad on the
ARDC web site, looking for another Chevy II
motor and also a set of wheels that we could use for dirt tires. Through that ad
we met Brian Suchy who had raced a Chevy II midget with ARDC, but was now running
a sprint car and was selling his Chevy II parts. We bought seven wheels from Brian,
a good Chevy II 153 engine block, a Mercruiser head, a Hilborn fuel pump, a E.V.M
Fuel injection system and a couple of trick timing gear covers. He also gave
us a much appreciated pile of take-off dirt tires.
When we got home from Brian's shop, we took 6 of the wheels and the best tires over to
Executive Tire in Rockville for mounting, and then put a good starter set on the car.
We also test fit the engine block in the car. There were holes in the rear engine plate
to mount the block with a 45 degree layover to the left, and also holes for a 10
degree layover to the left. We found that at 45 degrees, the fuel injection ram tubes
became the widest part of the car, sticking way out past the side nerf bars. At a 10
degree layover, the left side rail was in the way of the fuel injection. We measured
and drilled four new holes and mounted the block upright with no layover. That seems to be
the best position, with the fuel injectors up out of the way. The cutouts in the engine
cover even seem to match the fuel injector system in this configuration.
We worked full time on the car the last week in December. We bought a couple of used JFZ front brake calipers, and six good rear end gear sets from Shannon Mausteller, a former ARDC racer. We installed one of the gear sets in the rear end, and mounted one of the brake calipers on the front right of the car. We bought a new brake hat and rotor from Sierra Racing and a new front right brake hose from Speedway Motors, and fitted them on the car to replace the parts that had been stripped out of the car before we got it.
The tri-drive we ordered from
Ron's Fuel arrived and we test fit it on the car.
We also fit the Hilborn pump that we got from Brian Suchy, after carefully reversing the
direction of the pump. We are front mounting it and it was set up to run off the
back of the cam. We also got a set
of fuel injection nozzles, and the main bypass jet for the system from Ron's Fuel.
We ordered a large number of AN hose fittings and 30 feet of steel braided hose from
Speedway Motors , and installed the missing fill
tank for the rear end, and made up all the fuel lines for the fuel injection system. We also
fitted new gauges in the dashboard to replace the ones that were broken. We also fabricated
the front motor mounts.
We bought a used radiator that had some crash damage, but we able to straighten it and it looks
good. We also bought a dry sump pan from
A.R.E.. We also need
to buy a Barnes oil pump for the front of the tri-drive. Then we'll need to build all the
lines for the dry sump system.
We put our number two engine block in the car, along with our number two
Mercruiser head, and took the car to
Stahl Headers in York, Pennsylvania
so they could fit a custom exhaust system.
January, 2005
While the car was at Stahl, the crankshaft, rods, and pistons came back from the balance shop and we finished assembly of the bottom end for the number one motor.
The motor has a Ron's fuel tri-drive with
EVM water pump driving off the crankshaft and a Hilborn fuel injection pump running
off the idler gear. A custom Barnes Systems
two-stage oil pump is on order and will go on the
third mount on the tri-drive, to be driven off the end of the cam. A Racer Brown
camshaft with roller lifters, Venolia pistons on Ansen rods, and A.R.E. dry sump
pan complete the package. We'll put the Mercruiser head on the motor once the
motor is in the car.
We put the motor in the car and installed the Mercruiser head after moving over
the trick valve springs from the orange motor. We then spent a number of days
building hoses. We built the fuel
injection hoses first, then the water hoses, and lastly the hoses for the drysump oil
system. The custom oil pump arrived from Barnes. Since we had less than 5 inches
between the front of the timing cover and the radiator, and there was no room for two
scavenge sections, they built the pump with an extra large single scavenge section.
February, 2005
When we finished the oil lines, we filled the oil tank with oil, and pushed the car
forward in gear, and the oil pressure came right up. We installed a set of Autolite
racing plugs and a set of competition solid wire plug wires. Lastly, we
installed a pair of Vintage Garage decals from ARL Signs in Rockville and
declared the car ready to test. We pushed it outside and took a couple
of photos before loading it on the trailer for the trip to Zephyrhills.
We had a nice trip to Zephyrhills for the DAARA races in late February. The Florida weather
was great and we went down early
to enjoy some of the Florida State Parks around Zephyrhills. We went to Rainbow Springs,
Hillsborough River, and Little Manakee. We arrived at Zephyrhills on Wednesday and were
pleasantly surprised to find the Morris Monster in the paddock. We set up next to the
Morris Monster and took this photo:
We went through tech inspection Wednesday afternoon and were looking forward to
our first track session on Thursday morning. The weather was again perfect on Thursday
and we got help pushing the Pogo up to the pits. After the drivers meeting, DAARA gave
priority to the new drivers and let us out on the track first, which was much
appreciated. Unfortunately, we didn't do so well. The engine popped and fired, but
never ran well enough to get off the bumper of the push truck. Oil pressure was good,
and fuel pressure was good, and by the end of the attempt, we had a lot of alcohol in
the oil. We spend a couple of hours changing the oil, and at the end of the day, had help
from the Paquins and one of the TBARA push truck drivers and made 6 attempts to start
the engine on the paddock lane. Finally, we gave up and headed home early. We think that
the main problem is a weak spark, but we're not sure.
We installed a MSD 6AL Capacitive Discharge spark unit in the car to boost the spark, using the
stock Mercruiser distributor to trigger the MSD unit. We retained the solid core spark plug wires
we installed before Zephyrhills, thinking that the car might run with a hotter spark. We put on the Mickey
Thompson DOT Sportsman Midget tires that came with the car and decided we were ready for the asphalt
track at New Hampshire International Speedway.
March, 2005
We had a nice trip to New Hampshire International Speedway, and were one of the first teams to check in.
NHIS is a wonderful facility, and the management really rolled out the red carpet and treated us well. We
were assigned one of the NASCAR garages and were able to park the Warrior right out in front of the garage.
Each garage has a large workbench, with compressed air and electricity right at the workbench.
May, 2005
We went through tech inspection Wednesday morning, and the cars were separated into groups for track time.
There were two divisions of stock cars, and a group each of Indy cars, Sprint cars, and Midgets. When it was
time for the Midgets to go out, we pushed our car over to the pits.
When it was our turn to push off, we were disapointed to find the results worse than at Zephyrhills. The
engine never fired, and we never got off the front bumper of the push truck. We got a push back to the
garage and checked the car over, and found that we now had no spark at the spark plugs. While reading the MSD
trouble shooting guide, we found that we had missed the warning not to use solid core spark plug wires
with the unit, and on top of that, it looked like we had blown up the MSD unit. It seemed to be working
in the shop back home, but at New Hampshire, we couldn't get any spark at all. We didn't have a spare MSD unit
so we went back to the stock Mercruiser distributor and coil setup that we used at Zephyrhills, and went
back out on the track for the second Midget session later in the day. The results were about the same as
at Zephyrhills.. the motor would pop and sputter a bit at throttle off, but when the throttle was open, there
was no fire. We never got off the front bumper of the push truck, and gave up for the event.
We sent the MSD unit to MSD for repairs and it came back in about two weeks, with a sheet that said that
MSD had replaced a couple of the internal components. We installed it in the car, and this time used the
MSD recommended resistive spark plug wires. The spark seemed nice and hot now, and reliable. We also ordered
a leakdown tester from Ron's Fuel for the fuel injection system to set the rate of flow in the fuel injection.
June, 2005
We tested the leakdown setting in the fuel injection system, and found that it was less than 1%. We
reset the leakdown in the fuel injection system to be 12% at idle. We put the dirt track tires back on the
can and declared it ready to test at Latimore Valley.
July, 2005
In August we went to the Eastern Museum of Motor Racing/Williams Grove Old-Timers convention at Latimore
Valley Fairgrounds. We unloaded the car in
the pits at Latimore Valley under the double pop-up canopy provided by Jim Sutter. Earl
Barnes had his #22
Edmunds Pinto parked under the other half of the canopy.
At Latimore Valley, the cars were divided into three groups for track time. The stock cars were first on the
track, followed by the sprint cars, and then the midgets. When it was our turn to go out on the track,
the Pogo fired up immediately and finally got off the front bumper of the push truck. Not only did it fire up,
but it ran great! We ran all fifteen laps of the session, with good oil pressure, good fuel pressure, good
water temperature, and no leaks. The performance of the Chevy II engine was thrilling!
August, 2005
We got back from from Latimore Valley and received a note from Stuart Rea that he found the
original engine side panel for the car and is sending it. The panel arrived the next day, and
it made the car look so sharp, we decided to bite the bullet and paint all the side panels.
It was hard to keep the panels shiny in the bare aluminum, and we like the look of painted
sides anyway. We took the fiberglass hood to Mattos and got a color scan to match the red
on the hood, and bought a couple of quarts of red Dupont Chroma One. We laid the panels out
flat and first primed them with VariPrime self-eching primer. When dry, we then applied a coat
of regular gray lacquer primer, and then the red Chroma One top coat. We also removed the
blue coating from the right rear beadlock, and painted the blue rear wheel
torque plates yellow.
We also raised the driver's heel blocks in the car to make it more comfortable for us,
and re-engineered the drive pin/spacer arrangement on the rear axle. Previously, only
three pins per side were taking the torque, now all six on each side are in service.
We also changed rear end gears for the 5/8 mile track at Thompson. We loaded the car
on the old mini-stock trailer and left for the Vintage Oval Extravaganza at Thompson,
towing the trailer behind the Warrior. We hope to further test the car and to make
continued improvements.
We arrived at Thompson the afternoon before the event, and the track owner Don Hoenig
let us in early, which was much appreciated. We unloaded the midget, and Einstein and I
walked the track and also the old road course.
This
satellite photo from the TerraServer shows the track and the remnants of the
road course. We also took a photo of the empty track.
The track opened first thing in the morning and there was a steady stream of midgets,
sprint cars, and stock cars coming in. The cars were divided into five race groups, of
roughly 20 cars per group. The first three groups were for the stock cars, then there
was a group for the midgets, and lastly a group for the sprint cars and big cars.
Our car ran great in the
first session. We were taking the turns at 2500 RPM
but were hitting our RPM limit of 6000 RPM before the starters stand. When we start to go
faster in the turns, we'll really need taller gears.
After the session, we checked the car over, and were surprised to see that we were getting about one (1) MPG fuel consumption, and there was some alcohol in the oil. We put in a bigger pill for the second session to lean out the fuel mixture. The car ran just as well for the second session, and still used a lot of fuel, so we think we still need to be leaner. Toward the end of the second session, something broke in the dry sump drive, and we were done for the day. We had a good outing, and came home with a big list of things to improve.
September, 2005
We pulled the engine, and found that the head of the drive spud for the oil pump had twisted off. By examinining the part, we determined that it was a 5/8" socket head screw which had been turned down to 3/8" and then threaded with fine threads. We decided that it needed to be beefier, so we turned a 5/8" socket head screw down to 1/2" and then threaded it for fine threads. We then drilled out the end of the camshaft for 1/2" fine and insterted the new drive spud into the cam. We also made a trip to Rockville Ring and Bearing for a new set of rod and main bearings, and replaced them in the engine. We then put the car back together. We also removed the front 2 inches of the seat to inprove foot room in the car. The car is now ready for Zephyrhills in November!
November, 2005
We had a great time at Zephyrhills. The car ran great, and we came home with the car still running, and with no major problems. The seat, pedals, and pedal blocks are finally just right and the car is comfortable to drive. There were two midget heats every morning for about 7 cars each and a midget feature each afternoon for about 14 cars, each of four days. Other groups having heats and features were the sprint cars, stock cars, and Model A's.
December, 2005 & January, 2006
We didn't do much on the car in December and January, focusing instead on building "Sammy Sapling", our little push truck. All we really did on the Pogo was clean it up from Zephryhills, and empty the fuel tank for winter storage.
February, 2006
We finished the push truck and returned to focus on the Pogo to get it ready for February Zephryhills.
We welded up a new catch tank mount for the radiator catch tank, acquired a set of lower gears for the rear end,
and moved the fuel return lines from
the bottom of the fuel bladder to the top, near the fill opening. With the fuel return lines going in to the
bottom of the bladder as originally designed, fuel would sometimes gravity feed back to the injectors and fill
up the intake ports. We're hoping that locating them above the fuel level will correct that problem with
no adverse affects. We also welded up a new exhaust turnout with a small muffler in it and sent it to
Jet-Hot to be coated. We also bought a new set of Hoosier dirt tires.
We also learned that Tom Pogo had died. Here is the write-up that was on the BMARA midget web site:
Waukesha,Wis.--Tom Pogo, race car builder and manufacturer for over three decades died suddenly on
Friday Jan. 27 at Waukesha Memorial Hospital. Born on Jan. 24, 1946 Thomas Pogorzelski was a champion
go-kart driver and briefly raced modifieds, before designing and building his first race car. By the
early 80's Outhouse Engineering under the direction of Pogo was building midgets, sprint cars, modifieds
and stock cars. The company was also a stocking dealer for most major race product lines. Pogo designed
and built cars that claimed countless victories at race tracks through out the Midwest. The Outhouse
Chassis scored multiple championships in the Badger Midget Series, Dairyland Midget Series, Eastern
Wisconsin Stock Car Association and IRA Sprint Series to name a few. Tom along with his son Jeff also
provided team management and maintenance programs for several teams in various series over the years.
For the last ten years, Pogo turned his attention to street rod and high performance hot rod design and
restoration, countless number of vehicles were worked on at his Mukwonago, Wis. shop. Pogo's Racemaster
Industries was also producers of a popular line of racing hardware marketed under the name of Racebolt.
Tom is survived by wife Karen of 39 years, children Shelly and Jeff, along with two grandchildren
and his mother.
We also mailed in our entry for February
Zephyrhills, and are looking forward to seeing our friends at
DAARA!
March, 2006
We're back from Zephyrhills! The midget ran great and we had a great time! The Pogo, mini-stock trailer, and the Warrior all came home running, so all we have do do before the next time is to clean up and inspect the equipment. Here are a couple of photos from meet taken by Randy Harbaugh:
| Date 2008 | Event | Surface | Sanction |
| Nov.13-Nov.16 | DAARA Midget Races, Zephyrhills, FL | 1/3 Mile Dirt | DAARA |