Engine sealing

[Ed Fernandez]

Originally Posted by racerron5

All I'm asking is what they are looking at to see that it is still sealed.

Not looking for any secrets on anything.

We race in a diiferent form of motorsports and are asked quite often to pull the intake and a head. We do that, everything passes tech, we are good to go only to get asked again a month later. Even when they watched us put it back together. They say well we can't tell if you took it back apart or not. So I'm just trying to find a visual thing that they can put on the block and head or intake that would have to be removed or cut off or whatever if a person was to remove a head or intake manifold.

So all I'm looking for in this post is what does NHRA or IHRA use to see visually that you have not taken it back apart.

Thanks.

That was just my warped sense of humor.Last time I set the class record (2006) they used what appears to be a blob of thick yellow paint on my valve cover(6 cylinder) head bolt,carb stud and water pump bolt and intake bolt.Hope that helps.
BTW this was done on Fri afternoon with teardown on Sat morning so I did have the car in my pit area till then.Some of the stuff is still on the intake,water pump and head bolt to this day.

[racerron5]

Thanks for the responses, that's the sort of the info I was looking for.

I would have thought in this day and age there would have been something a little more high tech. I was picturing an adhesive backed metal label that would go across the surface where two things met, such as a head to a block. Like the chassis certification style of label. Where you would have to visibly leave a cut mark or remove the label if you had taken it apart.

[dragst racer]

The wire and lead seal works OK but you can wiggle the wire around a little and work one side out and then just slide it back in after you change what ever you need to.

[Jeff Lee]

NHRA typicall seals an engine or component (like the carb or valve cover) so you can continue racing and once you are out of the elimination (because you lost), then they will go for the tear down. It could be because you ran under the record or just because it's your turn for random selecting. You can set a record every weekend and will get a tear down every weekend at the discretion of NHRA.