Just for those that don't follow my racing progress on my web page, here's a more detailed version of how my race weekend went.

Saturday night was rained out but I decided not to go anyway.

Sunday morning. The density altitude hovered around 4400 feet all day. Around here, that's a good race day. The track was still cold and damp from yesterdays cold and rain. We finally got on track at 10:30 am. My first pass down the track netted a wheel spinning 1.935 60' time and still got a 11.565 at 120.46 mph. I played with air pressure and took out the power valves and installed plugs for the second pass. Much better 60' time as the track was starting to warm up and I got a 1.590 60' time and 11.258 at 119.22 mph however the car died at the end of the track and wouldn't start. They towed me back to the pit (this is getting to be a common sight) and I started working on the car. It fired right up when I got to the pits but there was some problems. There was fuel leaking from the front float bowl. I took it off 3 times before I was finally able to keep it from leaking. I also put the power valves back in. I rechecked the timing, pulled all the plugs to see if any were damaged and dried them off (flooded the carb). All this was during the final T&T pass and the lunch break. They called up my class for first round eliminations just as I was putting on the air filter. As a guess I dialed in at 11.3 and headed for staging.

First pass was against a car dialed in at 12.10 so he left first. That was a strange feeling. I'm usually the slow car. He red lit and gave me a free pass but I nailed the tree with a .587 and ran a flat out 11.114 at 120.85. He ran a 12.101 on a 12.10 dial! Off to second round I go.

Change the dial to 11.11 since the air changed little up against a 12.08 car. Again he leaves first and again I nail the tree with a .558 to his .609. I pass him around the 1000 foot mark and I'm hard on the brakes to keep from breaking out. Even my opponent thought I won. When I hit the brakes, the nose must have dipped enough to break the beams and I ran a 11.049 at 123.16 breaking out by a bunch and oh so close to a 10 second time slip.

They were starting to go through the final rounds quickly and I was only able to play with the timing and check a few other things to make one more T&T pass. The track must be going away because I was only able to get a 1.601 60' time but ran a 11.054 at 121.65 mph with a .553 reaction time to call it a day.

Final results from testing after today. Tire pressure is at 11 psi. Timing was bumped from 36 to 38*. Launching at 2500 instead of 3000+ is a softer hit by letting the converter flash and gives me a much better 60' time. Talking to local Stock Eliminator racers helped me there. The playback tach shows the converter flashing to 5200 from a 2500 launch. Shifts are at 6800 and I cross the finish at 6800. The EGT temperature is still low indicating an over rich fuel mixture. Next race I need to jet down a lot.

There's still an oil leak at the front of the engine that needs to be fixed. I need float bowl extensions so I can use jet extensions with brass floats. All this will be fixed before the next race in 2 weeks.

11 passes now with this engine and it's still together. I'm on a roll.

 

sounds like things are workin out good so far for u. keep them coming.

 

Sounds like things are coming around Stephen. That 10 second slip should be in your hands the next time out.

 

Hey Sephen, I dig the car, man. I haven't really posted any replies to your threads, but I promise I always read them. Congrats on the wicked times and good luck this racing season.

Joe

 

Seems like it never fails our cars always are on a fast run during elimns, when we hit the brakes I've always told myself if I knew it was going to be that way I'd break out on purpose just to get the slip!! Sounds like the 10's are'nt far off with some more fine tuning, good luck with it.

 

Over the years, I've had my "fastest run ever" on the brakes on a break-out run at least three times (including once this year).

Pretty good for the first time out.

 

Stephen, do you still have the power valves in? I've had much better luck plugging them both. I get a lot better tune. Have you tried putting extentions on the bowl vents? What size pumps, and squirters are you running? I'm running a 800 dp on a 383 sbc, with 50cc pumps 45 tube type squirters, dark brown cam on the front and orange cam on the rear. I'm using a piece of fuel line on the front bowl vent to keep from flooding at take off. Not pretty but it works. 3000 lb car pulling 7.20s at 103 mph in the 1/8. Can't seem to get past the second round. Last Sat. second round, ran a mustang with a 393. He ran a 7.14 on a 7.12 with a 5.02 rt. I ran a 7.27 on a 7.20 with a 5.02 rt. Man was it close.

 

Power valves were in but I now have plugs in. I needed to lean the carb down so that's a good way of doing it. I also went down 20 jet sizes (The carb was really rich). From 185 to 165.

50cc pumps and I think .045 squirters but they don't really matter. Same with the pump cams. I leave off a transbrake and 2 step so I'm already at WOT when the lights are coming down. I also connect both bowl vents with some tubing and a cut at the top.

Running alcohol I have to use brass floats. They don't make a notched brass float for jet extensions. I now have float bowl extensions so that I can use my jet extensions. I never had any bog off the line to indicate a lack of fuel from the rear float bowl before.

I get to see how the changed carb setup works this weekend. I want the EGT to be around 1300* as I cross the finish line. It used to be around 900* and falling which was way too rich.

 

Getting alot better That little tic right above the next level is soo freaking anoying to break isnt it!

SSC

 

Update again.

I wish I was just a tic off the next level. This weekends racing was good and bad. I think the changes I did to the carb last week screwed something up. The car is now off around 3/4 of a second. The best I could do all weekend was a 11.712 when I should have been running low 11's again. I'm pretty sure what the problem is but I need some parts before I strip the carb down to fix it. Traction was also an issue this weekend. The best was only a 1.628 60' time. The mph is down to 118's and reverse is almost gone so the transbrake was useless.

On the good points I never actually broke anything. I made another 11 passes all weekend. The local track has changed the timing clocks to show .000 as a perfect light. I had 2 red lights all weekend, one perfect .000 light during time trials today and I made it to the fourth round (semi's) before falling asleep at the tree with a .139 light and ran 11.853 on an 11.85 dial and lost with a MOV of .0205. I lost by 3 1/2 feet. My worst light other than that was a .079 with many of them in the .03x and .04x range.

Nothing to brag about this weekend except for the perfect light. It's been about 4 years since I've had one and that was when I was racing the truck. I now have 2 weeks to get things repaired again.

The tranny now needs to come out to be repaired and the carb needs to be stripped down to see what the fuel problems is. 2 weeks until the next race and it looks like it's going to be another double header with a points race on Saturday and Sunday again. It's the tracks way of making up for all the races we've had rained/snowed out so far this year. If I can keep going rounds, I might get in the top half of the points series this year.

Oh, the Saturday night points race I lost in the first round.

 

Well as long as we're talkin track, I'm still happy from this weekends results. Finally got the S-10 entered in the points chase-more for fun as it's waay to late in the season-so I was able to drop the Firebird back to Street and ran 2 classes/2vehicles. Humidity was high, temps in the high 80's so it was pretty miserable Sat. Running 2 veh./classes is alot harder physically than I had ever imagined. Had them both out on Fri. T&T to get my groove going, and Sat. morning my neck was frickin killing me from launch after launch...So bought a neck brace for Sat. points race, made it 3 rounds in the new truck with 1.50 60's and a best of 10.72 and lost with a terrible light-staged a tad deeper than normal and did'nt want to force a red eye, so the light was bad, I ran the dail but cound'nt catch him. Ended up going all the way Sat. in Street class with the Bird, finally a win at home again. Then today storms were in the forcast for late afternoon. Won 1st round in Mod with the truck, treeded the heck outta the guy, and started pickin them off again with the Firebird in street. Then the sprinkles-(spitting) started. Top would'nt run, and we street guys wanted to get it over with since we only had 4 rounds left. Ever drag raced with your wipers going? Definately something I won't forget!!!! Got the bye run in the semi's for a shoe in to the finals, treed the guy in the finals for an easy win at the 1000' mark plus his break out, they kept us hot lapping to keep the track hot and to get 1 class outta the way I guess. The other guy dailed up too much. All in all a nice weekend, double header, 2 day sweep in street. Just wish it would'nt have rained since I was "in the zone" as far as running the truck. Oh well. Another big double header next weekend too so I'll see if I can keep the streak alive. Get this, I raced 2 street races at the beggining of the year and the rest in Pro/Mod. As of Fri. my street points had me in 8th. Now after today I'm holding second with about a 50 point lead, since the 2, 3, and 4 guys went out 1st round. Gotta like that, too bad we don't get anything for winning the class at the end of the year. Soon as they get the website updated have to throw a link up-they did'nt want to take my picture again, so I only get 1 photo up with credit for the 2 day event.
Problems with the truck are things vibrating off. Finally got everything loctited that has loosened up and all weekend was pretty non-exciting as far as problems. Finally got it to stick off the line and were rewarded with a 1.450 60'. Still need to tweak suspension for days when traction is'nt at a premium. Transbrakes and fast cars are bad asssed!!! Lovin it right now Gotta throw some pics up quick too!

 

Truck 3rd TT Sat. wife does'nt-DID'NT...know to get in front of the lauch pad for pics of some tires up shots-only a few inches, but that's the way it should be.

 

And the 2 cars I drive/sponsor and the Malibu I sponsor-had to get my company logo in 1 pic. even though it's hard to see from this distance. It's the little strip at the top of the windsheilds and back window.