The art of the 75-minute rebuild

Anyone who's ever taken some time to observe professional Top Fuel drag racing has probably marveled at the teams' ability to rebuild an engine between rounds. In less time that it takes most of us to TiVo through a week's worth of The Daily Show, the crews in charge of engine maintenance are able to swap out the parts required to keep these ticking time bombs together for another five seconds.

A mere thirty seconds after pulling the car into the pits after a run past 300 MPH, a specialized tool organizer is set into place on top the car's roll cage, and a team of about eight men goes to work. Less than 14 minutes later, the engine is torn down to a block containing only the camshaft, cam bearings, crankshaft, and upper crank bearings, and the reassembly process begins. The cylinder heads get dropped back on the block just a bit more than a half-hour into the overall process, and at five minutes past the one hour point, it's time for each crew member to man his station for the warm-up process.

Check out the Read link for a lengthier tear down of the the 75-minute rebuild.

[Source: Hot Rod]