TRACO Fans

[Jon Mello]

Thanks for the recollections. Pretty neat that you worked alongside Bill Howell in Vince's group. Certainly a wealth of technical know-how in that group. It does not seem logical to me to defeat the dampening properties of the harmonic balancer but obviously it was done.

[Pigpen]

"did you ever meet bill howell your days at traco ?? i went to the TA races thru GM and bill and i would spy on the ford camp by hanging around in their pits."

Hi motorman,

I knew 2 people named Bill Howell; One was "Davy Crocket" at TRACO who left about a year after I started work there, he's the one who tagged me with "Pigpen". Last I saw him he was riding off on his Harley, never heard any more about him.

The other Bill Howell was the "go-to" person (engineer) for Chevy racing components at GM, he frequently stopped in at TRACO and many of the races, I met him numerous times but only had a conversation with him when I needed Aluminum 427 Heads and oversize valve seats while I was working for Roy Woods.

[motorman]

bill was my go to guy at GM racing and katech. used to get care packages as the mrs called them from both back in the day.

[motorman]

Thanks for the recollections. Pretty neat that you worked alongside Bill Howell in Vince's group. Certainly a wealth of technical know-how in that group. It does not seem logical to me to defeat the dampening properties of the harmonic balancer but obviously it was done.

the inter part of the damper where the 3 screws went thru was slotted so the outer ring could still move radially . the screws were there to keep the outer ring from coming off. I can't post pictures here so I can't show you

[Jon Mello]

OK, now that makes sense. Thanks for that extra information.

[motorman]

OK, now that makes sense. Thanks for that extra information.

I sent you a email with the sketch

[Jon Mello]

Here it is. Thanks for sending it in.

[motorman]

glad i was able to help out because some sites don't welcome my help.   

[Jon Mello]

Well, you did good here so thanks for your participation.

[Pigpen]

That dampener modification make a lot of sense, although I never saw any dampener problems on the small block or 427 chevys during the time I spent at TRACO, and we did not make that modification then (on any of the engines I remember).

The only engine I remember having a dampener problem, as I mentioned previously, was a 454 block Chevy, where the dampener and crankshaft had to be balanced together, the dampener had additional material added in one area. That 454 was 1 of 2 used in a cigarette boat for offshore racing, and subjected to extreme over rev conditions, when the boat left the water and the throttles could not be pulled back fast enough. The pilot said it failed during one of the over revs.

I mentioned the 2 Bill Howells I knew in a previous post, Bill Howell (Davy Crockett) at TRACO was actually Walter Howell, but everyone called him "Bill", I'm not sure why Bill and not Walt.

Pigpen

[Jon Mello]

Here's Bill Howell from GM standing next to Mark Donohue. This was taken at Marlboro Raceway after the '67 Trans-Am season was
over. I think it was December '67. Penske's team was testing Goodyear and Firestone tires and the new Holley double-pumper carbs.
Penske had been a Firestone tire distributor but switched to Goodyear after this. The crossram set-up would render the double-pumper
Holley irrelevant for the upcoming '68 Trans-Am season.

[motorman]

i was at marlboro race track when mark was almost killed. the was practicing in a open wheel formula car when he spun coming up onto the oval. he was setting facing traffic when dr geo don't remember his last name drove his ferrari over the front of marks car and stopped several inches from marks head which was against the roll bar. i was there that day with ed lowther and he had been pushing SCCA to stop allowing the open wheel and the closed wheel car from practicing together. this stopped it

[motorman]

here is bill's business now run by his son matt. http://howellefi.com/

[Pigpen]

I found this old photo of Davy Crockett on the TRA-CO website under "Friends". I'm not sure when it was taken, it's marked 1984. He looks exactly as I remember him back in the late 60's.

Walter Howell III aka "Davy Crockett" 
© Jim Jones 1984

[Jon Mello]

Short SEMA "Heritage" article on Traco pointed out to me by Robert Lodewyk. Nice to see them still getting some recognition.

http://www.sema.org/sema-enews/2013/22/sema-heritage-chevy-small-block-and-traco-engineering