The weather around here this year has been the worst summer we've had in decades. It's been cold and wet all summer. I finished last year with a personal best of 9.34. Back in the first week of August, the weather cleared enough for a weekend race and I set a new best of 9.260. For at least the last 6 weeks it's been really cold and wet however at the start of this week, it seems that summer weather has finally arrived but at the end of September.

Last night I went out for the Friday night street legal racing to get some more track time. I walked out on the starting line to see how the track prep was before racing started. This wasn't a race weekend but it seemed to have more prep than a usual Friday night. I could see they sprayed to about 100' and maybe a little more. The surface felt sticky.

I tried my first pass in the right lane. About mid track, I had to lift to straighten the car then got back in it but only ran a 9.93 @ 135.01 mph. Second pass, I took the left lane. I was able to stay in it all the way down the track and managed a much better 9.361 @ 144.57 which is more typical of what the car runs. 60' times were not all that great so I was losing a bunch with mid 1.3xx 60' times. I have managed a high 1.29x when traction was better. I suppose it could be worse. The last time I was out for a Friday night back in mid Aug, I got 1.4xx 60' times because the track was so slippery.

Since the car count wasn't stupid yet, I decided for a third pass after adjusting tire pressures and shock settings. It was now after 8pm and it was dark. It was now too dark to shoot any video. I tried the left lane again and got another poor 1.344 60' time but I stayed in it all the way down the track and was rewarded with a 9.248 @ 145.48 MPH. All the street cars going down the track must have added some heat as track conditions were actually getting better.

I had enough fuel to make at least one more pass but the staging lanes were really filling up with street cars so I decided to call it a night.

Here's a video of my second pass. You don't notice it but I am fighting to keep the car straight down the track. I broke my shifter mount on the floor from slamming the shifter forward so hard. I welded it up today and will do a better fabrication over the winter. There's two more Friday night's planned before the end of the season and the long range forecast is looking very good. I should be able to get a little more track time before starting winter projects.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VG36C2mF7MU

 

Congrats! good runs

 

Well done.

 

AlkyIROC--
Congrats!!

I envy you!! How was the air quality??--Did you have to make any major adjustments for air//fuel delivery??

You guys that run alky ever think about making a sticky about all the involvement on running the good stuff?? A basic " How To Alchohol... "??

 

I haven't changed my "tune" all year. A typical race day here is around 5000'. Back in August when I set a personal best, the DA was 5042. On Friday night, my last 2 passes were at 3778 and 3721 DA.

I was finally able to look at the datalogs from that night. O2 reading was better than I expected. For all fuel types, there's a safe range at WOT of 13-19%. The higher the percentage, the richer the fuel mixture. Early in the run, I'm running very close to 13% rich and just before I cross the finish line, I'm 19% rich. I think I'm running slightly fat over most of the run but I'm in the range where I won't hurt anything so I'll leave it alone.

The nice thing about alcohol is there needs to be a huge change in the air before a fuel tune change is required. You're not chasing a tune on a day to day basis. Apparently my tune works well in 3700' and 5000' air. My fuel pump may not be putting out enough pressure though. As I cross the finish line, it's only at 70 PSI and I'd like it to be closer to 100 PSI. I run a #0-1/2 pump and may need to upgrade to a #1 pump or get this one flow tested. It was used when I bought it.

As for a "how to run alcohol", injection is the way to go. I ran alcohol carbs for a few years but once you use injection, you'll never go back to a carb. There's nothing wrong with using a carb but injection is so much easier.

If you want some information on alcohol injection, the first places to go are
www.ronsfuel.com
www.killerrons.com

Although I set a new personal best, performance was off slightly and probably just because of traction. According to my laptop, I should have run 9.132 @ 147.24 MPH based on previous best performance. Since I wasn't in competition, I was just gathering data to use at future track dates.

Based on Friday's results, the car was making 754 HP from the ET and 725 HP from the MPH at altitude. Corrected to sea level conditions (basic dyno results), I was making 828 from ET and 797 from MPH. The best corrected results so far have been 860 from ET and 826 from MPH so performance was off slightly. Traction affects ET so that number can change a lot in relation to the MPH results.

For those who haven't seen it, here's what the engine currently looks like. I don't have room for air filters but a couple of strainers picked up from Wally World fit perfectly to keep stuff from getting into the engine. Those are 4.1" flying toilets sitting on the tunnel ram. I got some new valve covers to install this winter plus a few other changes.

 

I haven't heard much in the news about your local track (51°N 114°W is Race City isn't it?) and the potential for it to be shut down.
My intention next year (as was the aborted attempt this year) is to drive to see family in Edmonton and then race at Castrol and maybe head down the highway to Race City.
I'd look forward to checking out your machine. Looks like all business under the hood.

 

There's a big battle about the lease but Race city's lease is scheduled to be over at the end of next year however the current mayor wants nothing to do with the track. The election is in a month and the front runner is all for supporting the track so if he's elected, we may have a track for the future. Race City is still in operation almost every day during the summer with private rentals, driving schools etc so it's not like it's going to close for lack of business but if it is forced to close, businesses that rely on the track will feel it. Even the police department uses the facility for training. We have a 1/4 mile dragstrip, 2 mile road course and 1/2 mile high banked oval plus they've done autocross racing on the oval infield. It's located in an industrial park with a garbage dump on one side and 2 other sides allocated for the garbage dump so it's not like residential housing is creeping up. The facility is also within city limits which is a big plus however in a city of 1 million people, few know it even exists. I timed how long it took me to drive to the track on Friday night. Roughly 10 minutes The next closest track is a 2-1/2 hour drive.

If I have to travel to Edmonton or Medicine Hat to race, I will, however I'll also have to join a sanctioning body and get a competition license to run as fast as I do now. It's no fun if I have to throttle stop the car to run slower than 10.0. I have all the requirements to run as fast as 8.50 except for that competition license.

 

Nice runs. Your closing in on that elusive 8. Good luck with the track situation, hope it turns out on favor of the racers.

 

what sort of 02 setup are you running? trying to figure out the 13-19% thing... the stuff i've been around would say 13:1 a/f earlier in your run, and 19:1 a/f thru the traps. the 19:1 would be very very LEAN. 13:1 would be alright, though...

 

Gas engines can idle at 14.7:1 air fuel mixture but that is dangerously lean for WOT operation. The perfect air fuel ratio for alcohol is 6.45:1 but that's too lean for an injection system to idle properly. The fuel mixture for all fuels needs to be rich at WOT. A Lambda number of 1.000 is zero percent or a perfect air fuel ratio.

I never said 13:1 or 19:1 but 13% and 19% rich. 13% is .870 lambda and 19% is .810 Lambda with all fuels. For gasoline, 13% is 12.7:1 which is about as lean as you want to go at WOT. 19% on gas is 11.9:1. Remember 14.7:1 is a perfect idle mixture. I just find it much easier to see the percentage rich than Lambda numbers or air fuel ratios.

I use a LM-2 datalogger hardwired into the car with only a single O2 sensor installed in the #6 header tube. I have it set up to display the Lambda and just refer to a chart to see how rich the engine is running. At idle and part throttle, I don't care what the readings are because the engine is designed to operate at WOT. My alcohol injection system idles rich as all do. It idles around 22% rich but that gives me a good idle and throttle response.

Here's a chart I made up showing percentage, Lambda and the air fuel mixture for gas and alcohol.

http://www.hardtail.com/download/lambda-tuning.xls

 

i think i got ya on the %, but the higher a/f ratio # is leaner, not richer.... such as a 17:1 would be very lean. my car n/a at wot is 12:1 across the board on the dyno.

 

You'll make the most power running right at the limit of running lean but if all of a sudden it goes too lean, bad things start to happen. Your 12:1 is pushing it right to the safe limit. Running fat may slow you down but it's safer for the engine.

That's an advantage of alcohol. Running slightly lean or fat doesn't hurt performance as much as gasoline does but finding the perfect A/F ratio will still give the most power.

 

Nice results. I'd be too tempted to hit it with a small dry kit of nitrous.


Lol on the a/f thing. With methanol 5:1 is roughly what 12.5:1 is for a gas motor, 4.5:1 is around 12:1. - It's great data to have, but real world performance and reading the spark plug tells you more about what your combo wants. We've run an alky carb with nitrous and gas enrichment....that pisses with a typical o2 sensor's day, lol.

 

this is when that sensor just goes this is

 

haha, for sure...good thing those bosch's have a warranty!

 

Well, 3 personal bests this year and it's been a short crappy season.

Another Friday night street legal race. There was a Promod doing some testing. They wanted to use the right lane so it was prepped out to about 300'. I made all my runs in the right lane.

My first pass sucked. I was experimenting with timing and had it retarded to 36* and the engine didn't like it. Only ran 9.429 @ 144.83. It just didn't feel right.

Went back to the pits, adjusted the timing back to 39* where I had it last week, adjusted tire pressures, turned off the 2-step to launch at full converter stall of 6200, set the front shocks to full loose and made another pass. I'm pretty sure I tripped the 60' timers with the back wheels and ran a new personal best of 9.214 @ 145.60.

I figured the engine was wanting more fuel as the air was getting better now that the sun had set and it was cooling off. I richened up the fuel and changed nothing else. For some reason my 60' time sucked and I only ran 9.234 @ 146.19 mph however my incremental times down the track were the best yet so if it wasn't for the bad 60' time, I may have run below 9.20. The MPH indicates that the engine liked the extra fuel. Again I'm pretty sure I tripped the 60' timers with the back tires which would also show up as slow 60' times. Since this wasn't competition, the spectators liked watching the wheelies.

I jetted rich again and wanted to make a fourth pass but by then the staging lanes where packed with street cars. I hung around for a while before finally calling it a night. I didn't have my camera with me tonight so no in car footage but it was getting dark so I doubt it would have been any good.

One more Friday night before the end of the season. I hope the weather stays nice for at least 1 more week.