Engine sealing
 

When a class car passes a teardown I've heard they "seal" it. I assume this is so they don't need to take anything apart again unless it becomes unsealed.

My question is what do they do or use to seal it?

If I have any of this incorrect please forgive me, I'm just trying to understand this process.

Thanks in advance for any answers.

Re: Engine sealing
 

They (IHRA) sealed my engine everytime I set record...BUT if it was still sealed & it was a new season it still had to come apart ;)

Re: Engine sealing
 

How is it sealed is what I'm trying to find out.

Re: Engine sealing
 

You might not get an answer to that.Some people don't want to give a top secret weapon away.See the post about the quickest D/SA in the country.

Re: Engine sealing
 

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.

Re: Engine sealing
 

In past years on friends that had gone through teardown, an orange or red colored plastic was dabbed over an intake bolt. If the bolt was removed, the plastic would have been in the way of a socket and would show.
I think this is the info you are asking about?

Sean

Re: Engine sealing
 

There are several ways I've seen engines sealed. First is the colored paste used by I&N they put it on various fasteners that would have to be removed to make any changes, carb studs,intakebolts, ect. The second I've seen in carting they use drilled studs and insert wire with a crimped tag that would keep it from being disassembled without tearing up the tag. You could ask your tech. guys to devise a way of sealing your engine, maybe they will work with you on this, the cost of gaskets are not going down not to mention the labor involved. Joe

Re: Engine sealing
 

back when i used to race Karts, "tech paint" was the common thing. problem was that anyone could buy some themselves. later they went to a situation where two adjacent head bolts had to have a hole in them (like for safety wire), with a wire ran through them with a lead seal.

We have had our carburetors "tech painted" last year at the Memphis D4 race. not for a record or anything. They just told everyone to pull their carb, bring it to the trailer and submit it for inspection

Re: Engine sealing
 

Wesley was doing EFI throttle bodys the same way.

Re: Engine sealing
 

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.

Re: Engine sealing
 

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.

Re: Engine sealing
 

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.

Re: Engine sealing
 

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.