True, I was still burping the coolant system and the car was not moving so there was no airflow as I was checking/setting timing and looking for leaks. I don’t see what would have changed in the engine to make it run hotter, so it’s only that the new location of the temp sensor is reading the hotter coolant at the lower part of the engine. I’m sure if I put the sensor back in the intake manifold, I would get a 170-180 degree reading, so that’s what im trying to understand here. Anything I need to look at, change, or setup differently before I go race tomorrow night at the track ?

 

Difficult to say really from this vantage point.
What's the t-stat setting? Fan(s) set point? Gauge reading when at steady state cruise as well as idling in traffic?
If it tops out at 220, some say that's good to go.
I know aluminium heads will tolerate more heat as compared to my iron versions but anything above 200 for me needs to be checked out. I had high idle temps at one time but after pushing my base timing from 12 to 20, things cooled down quite a bit. (Plus my throttle response picked up nicely!)

 

Thermostat is a 160 degree Meziere unit. Fan #1 was set to come on at 195 and turn off at 180. (it hardly ever came on). Fan #2 was set to come on at 205 and turn off at 190. After this CTS location change, I changed when the fans come on. Took the car for a drive today, about 15 minutes worth of driving. Basically everything just "shifted upwards" on my scales because the location change of the CTS now reads expectedly hotter since it is right between the combustion chambers of cylinder 6 and 8. Up at hte intake manifold Thermostat its much different readings. This is based off of the holley screen data AND my temp gun. Engine runs exactly the same, drives the same, just higher numbers due to CTS location.

What I might do for a week or so, is leave the Holley sensor in the cylinder head, and buy another CTS ($18 for the TX3 coolant temp sensor) and put it back inthe intake manifold. While I only have one wire for the holley CTS plug, I can plug it into either sensor a few times during a day of racing or driving and see/verify that my manifold temp numbers are "x" amount higher than my cylinder head temps. Then I will certainly find out what a normal cylinder head temp reading is, know it in my brain, and program the holley software accordingly.

 

The jacket water in the cylinder head is a good place to reference. It's closer related to the temp of the walls of the combustion chamber. LS engines reference this location too.

You absolutely do want to retard timing as jacket water temps increase. I'm not sure what is good slope for SBC engines. You'll need to research that.

My LS7 is set to retard timing above 200°F CTS at a rate of about 1.5° for every +10°F temp rise. I got that number by inspecting a stock GM tune for LS7. An SBC engine might need a steeper slope (more spark retard) since it is more prone to detonation.

 

I might edit and add stuff to this post later on, but I'll try to get most of it out here now. First thing first, the intake manifold gasket repair held up just fine, no leaks, no loosened bolts, all good. Radiator still has a very slow drip, but Champion is waiting on a hopeful order/shipment from china to ship me out a new one under their lifetime warranty. I'll keep waiting. But the intake is good.

Got 8 runs in. most were garbage due to an issue I am very eager to resolve. Something is happening in Closed loop in ONLY first gear where the CL comp is adding a tremendous amount of fuel and causing the engine to stumble. Pass #2 was good and did not stumble, and after the 6th pass, I said to hell with it and trusted that my base tune was good enough for me to turn off closed loop fuel compensation and just run an open loop (base fuel table) pass. I was still hesitant and expecting it to bog so I was not at full WOT in first gear, but when it took it and didn't misfire, I went WOT and ran a full pass. It actually hit so hard it slightly spun the tires at the launch. Hot lapped it and did the same exact thing just to make sure it wasn't a fluke, and it did the exact same pass, but it spun the tires even more at the launch. So, good news, the base table is great (a little rich) but that means the closed loop compensation is way screwed up and only in first gear. - Details below

** also below, I might be considering getting an inexpensive set of front 90/10 drag struts to bolt on if I am going to be doing a drag race event. Unless I am missing something, Its only two bottom bolts, a top nut, and a brake line bracket to remove the strut. Something I can swap in 15 minutes while putting the drag wheels on or off. Reason I am considering this, is because if I am spinning the tires now at NA power on the open loop launch, there is no way a koni yellow strut will transfer the weight properly to the back on a nitrous launch. Even on the softest and loosest koni strut setting, you have to use 2 hands and your whole body to try to lift the front of the car up at all. With a 90/10 I've seen guys be able to bounce the car like a toy. So I am considering this, and would swap them off for street and autocross use of course.


Did not get any GoPro footage, didn't' have time to play around with it. Some of my dashcam videos are corrupt, so I only have recordings from 4 of the 8 passes, and I did not include any rear-camera video footage. Also, Did not remember to check the DA after the first 3 passes as I was so scatter-brained about what the heck was going on with the 1st gear fueling. The Da started around 800 and was pretty much down to 600 or so by the end of the night. It was humid and rain was expected. I kept the drag radials at 19.5 and 19 psi all night, and the shocks stayed at .05 out of 5 on the front koni struts, and 2.5 out of 5 on the rear koni shocks.


Pass 1: no video
4 second burnout. launch from idle at 878 rpm. converter flashed low at 2543 rpm and then the first bog/misfire of the night happened right around 3,000 rpm. see the jagged pink line in the graph, thats my actual AFR.The pink line should be super super close to the light blue line (target AFR). And the rising yellow line above it is CL comp, which is what the computer is adding to my base table to try to get the AFR to where my target (12.7:1) afr wants to be. CL comp added 56% !!!! before I got out of the throttle, pedaled it, and then revved 1st gear to 6,723, second gear to 6,524 and finished the run at 6,065. This "bog" in first gear has happened earlier this year at TnT . My buddy John was there with me and we looked at the tune file (GCF file) and can not make sense of why it would be adding THAT much fuel).







Pass 2 : no video5 second burnout. footbrake launch at 1,661 and flashed at 2,668 rpm. No bog! Shifted 1st at 6,461 and dropped to 4,803 shifted 2 at 6,532 and dropped to 4,853 and crossed the finish line at 6,128 in 3rd great. An optimal pass. felt good. full pass, no blips, bobbles, or issues. The pink line is very close to the light blue line, AFR was good, nothing weird. the yellow CL comp line had very low single-digit fuel compensation numbers. I was happy, and the 11.94 at 114 seemed promising because thats where this car has been happy before.








Pass 3: video with audio of the bog

A 6 second burnout, and footbrake launch right at 1,598 rpm. After the converter flashed at 3,050 the CL comp (yellow) camein hard and added an INCREDIBLE amount of fuel... actually up to 76% additional of my base table for a total of 391 lbs/hour of fuel at that point. I shifted during this while getting out of the throttle, pedaled it, and got back into it for the rest of the run, even shifting 2nd very early at 5,691. Getting frustrated after this run. John and I were looking at the base table and CL comp limits and parameters, Nothing is activated that we can see that should require this much fuel compensation to be coming in at these rpms in 1st gear. Even in 2nd and 3rd gear, the table doesnt use this much fuel at these rpms.








Pass 4: video with audio

5 second burnout, launch at 1,769 and flash at 2,755 rpm. It actually spun the tires at the hit, you can see the car rotate sideways to the left as the tires are spinning just a touch. Yet, again, a lean spike and CL comp comes in hard, ramping up the fuel compensation into the 50%and60% value from my base table. I get off the throttle, back on it, shift and make another confused trot down the dragstrip. The yellow line should not be like that, no way, not at all.








Pass 5: video

5.5 second burnout. launch at 1,530 flash at 2,602. stumble, misfire, "overfueling", pedal it, abandoned the run.







Pass 6:
4 second burnout. 1,719 launch and I actually cant tell where the converter flashed on this log. same stumble, bog, CL comp way up, got out of it and abandoned the run.

 

OK, continued

*** Please don't think that I was just continually running the same tune trying on hopes and dreams that it would resolve itself... I was adding in fuel to the base table in the areas that it was CL comp adding, in hopes that it would be sufficient. BUT there was no way I was going to add 60% more fuel to those areas. that number does not make sense. Again, I wasn't that dumb to just keep on running the same exact tune. Adjustments were made to the closed loop tunes in between runs.
.


Got very frustrated, and John and I decided that If I am comfortable with my KNOWN good base table numbers (from al the track stuff last year) I can just make an open loop pass and turn the Closed Loop fuel compensation off, as well as the learn data. So basically, just fueling the engine off of the base table and the base table alone.

Pass 7:

(OPEN LOOP) 4.5 second burnout. Footbraked a little low at 1,210 and because of the recent bad launches, my foot was hesitant to go full wot. the light green line on the Datalog shows I was at 80%-84% throttle for all of fist gear, BUT THERE WAS NO STUMBLE OR BOG. I must have been so stunned, that I shifted way early, at 5,530 rpm. I then went to 110% wide open throttle and shifted 2-3 at 5,691 rpm (way early) and finished the run at 6,115 rpm. I was ecstatic, surprised, and impressed. I noticed the AFR numbers were a tad rich while I was making the pass (12.3:1) but I had NO time to make a change, because they were closing the lanes in 2 minutes.








Pass 8; (Open loop) Drove directly back into the staging lanes, and I think I was the very last car down the strip that night. launched at 1,862 rpm and a flash at 2,478 rpms. I was still hesitant to go FULL WOT in all of 1st gear and all of 2nd gear (green line). No bog in 1st gear at all. The base table is good, and open loop is good, no input from CL comp involved. Shifted 6,549 and 6,294 under about 87% throttle and then went WOT in 3rd gear.








Hungout with John a little bit more (he has a 3rd gen silver TA that was racing with me 3 weeks ago. Needs a clutch replacement. His car runs 11.0 and 11.1x Goal is 10.9 next time out. Lives in woodbridge, very cool guy. Put the car back into a known good closed-loop tune and drove home.


TOTALLY CRAZY INSANE LEARN TABLE NUMBERS?!?!


base table of the day:
[

[img]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51166974295_48155a518b_c.jpg


any ideas what in the heck is going on in first gear with that HUGE fuel compensation?




Also, thoughts on a set of 90/10 front struts for drag days?

 

* A volcano in the fuel map is usually a sign the fuel pressure is dropping.

* Funky things happen if Learn Rate is too high, especially in throttle transitions and shift points.

* If engine isn't burning fuel (still has a lot of oxygen in the exhaust) then the O2 will see a lean condition and try to add more fuel.

 

gotcha, smart stuff. Makes sense to me, but I don't think its related. If fuel pressure was dropping, it would be at WOT at the top end of the track, not 1.5 seconds into the run. Also, I made two back to back hot-lap passes in open loop right after a series of bad bog passes, and fuel pressure/flow/pulse-width didn't do anything wacky at all.

i cranked learn rates up only after pass #3 because I wanted to get as much learn data as I could on one single pass and was starting with a totally clear learn table.

Someone mentioned to me that it could be the signs of a failing Oxygen sensor. I am going to have to dig into this. I do know that holley sensors aren't the greatest and most reliable. This "bog" did happen a month ago. In fact I discuss it in post #270 of this thread, on April 6th, and it was the 3rd pass. Exact same thing happened, but yet never appeared again despite lots of street driving.
**Edit, I just looked over my passes from April 18th, and the same bog happened on pass #2 that day. back then thought it was a fluke/oddball issue maybe caused by the 2-step, but now its happened 5 times out of 6 closed loop passes on one single day.
I get what you are saying about a lean condition, but the ecu was about to max out my injectors (96% duty cycle in one log) and fuel flow was at one point 390 lbs/hour!! thats insane. My normal numbers at WOT in 3rd gear at in the 270 lbs/hour.

 

It's too hard to study your screen shots. Really just need to share the tune and datalogs so somebody can examine it. I'd like to help more but I'm not willing to load Sniper EFI on my laptop for risk of messing up my own HP/Dominator software.

I'd pull up everything that has to do with fueling and plot it and study it, including MAP and TPS Rate of Change that are inputs to the accel fuel enrichment, and battery voltage, and any custom tables you've created. Injector Pulse Width is better than fuel rate when you're trying to troubleshoot. Fuel rate is a calculation, whereas PW is real. Also check for large swings in timing (I'm not sure which trace is ignition timing in your pictures).

I'm on my second Bosch O2 sensor with my HP EFI. Kind of just lost some pep and power for a while (like months) and then one day it ran screwy and that's when it became obvious enough that I figured it out. Went open loop and car ran fine.

Holley EFI is also very sensitive to voltage at the ECU. I had alternator quit working at the drag strip and the system had to add 25% fuel to compensate for the voltage drop.

 

The state of your tune notwithstanding, this is more where I expected you to be. Stuck with a real issue of wheel spin. If I can blow the tires off with my meager setup, I failed to understand why you weren't doing the same. Now with your power production at early revs more in line with the expectations of that engine, the need for the weight transfer is becoming more apparent.
Your comment about how the drag guys can lift the front of their vehicles with the 90/10 shocks was something I observed way back in the day. Something I didn't care to get in to as I was more street inclined than anything else. That said, if I ever have another car capable of making drag strip passes, this is something I'll explore as well.
I see a wheelie in your future...

 

QwkTrip:
I totally understand, and I agree with you about not wanting to screw up your software by downloading the sniper software. Smart choice! I have posted these datalogs, videos, and tune files on the Holley Sniper EFI forum. link: https://forums.holley.com/showthread...602#post251602 . I am getting some responses, but they are all in the category of a weak/failing fuel pump. That just does not add up for me, since this bog happens only at the track and only in first gear at the launch, but intermittently.. not every pass. it was one time during my session in early April, one time April 18th, and then 5 times this past weekend. But i drive the car often, on the street, and I am rather aggressive when getting on the throttle. If the fuel pump was inadequate, it would also show this on the datalog during the two open-loop passes I made (pass 7 and pass 8), and wouldn't it be especially evident at WOT in the top of 2nd gear and 3rd gear instead of the split second during 1st gear. Thats why I am not of the thought process that it is fuel pump or fuel delivery related, but more electronic related.
- I am going to dig in deep on Monday or Tuesday this week and examine the logs and tune files as best as my skillset will get me. There has got to be something there. As for timing, I now keep timing simple and put it at 34 deg at WOT, so it is that other green line that is usually dead-flat-horizontal in the middle of the datalog if I am on a full pass. If I am working the throttle, the timing line will change.
- I am partially thinking it might be oxygen sensor related. I have read countless times about the Holley sensors failing, but the symptoms people describe don't seem to match mine. Lots of topics on this at the Holley forum, and most I have read just have a sensor go pegged dead lean at 35 or something.
- as for the voltage issue, you might be on to something there too, and that is something I can easily investigate. When i dig into the datalogs, I will look at the battery voltage trace and see if it does anything wacky when i stab the throttle to launch the car. It is worth investigating, even if it turns out not to be the culprit.


SkinnyZ:
Yup, you brought up this topic way back in last year and I knew it would need to be revisited one day. As you mentioned (and I reluctantly came to agree with), I am probably close to teh limits of my launch with these suspension parts. On those open loop passes it launched harder than I had been used to feeling, and despite the track being cold and going away, there was noticeable tire spin, especially on pass #8. It leaned back, dug down and spun, is what I felt. But wanting to see if I got the problematic bog and to ensure that I got another full open loop pass, I stayed in it and made the pass, without having the troublesome bog.
-So, I am now toying with the idea of spending some money on a set of the Lakewood 90/10 struts. From my research, people say don't bother with a special brand of 50/50 rear shocks(JUST YET) because I do have the ability to adjust my konis. I drive the car to the rack which is a 25 minute drive on busy NJ roads, but I also don't goof-off while driving there because I am loaded with tools, gear, and have no front sway bar. So, a 90/10 set of front struts would seemingly be ok for the drive to/from the track, and then if I am not doing drag racing for 2-3 weeks, I will just swap em out for my koni yellow struts. I imagine it would only take about 15-20 minutes per side, just big torque on the bottom two bolts. Right?


feel free to keep the advice coming. Would love to get this issue resolved really soon, as I am due to bring the car for the roll bar install in a few weeks and would really like to have an 11.7x pass under my belt by then.

 

Just an FYI to those here following. I was at the track with Dave and was surprised how much CL comp would add fuel but wouldnt subtract it. The problem with the tire spin is all in the track prep. At the end of last year, we were at Island Dragway. I would dead hook off the line(full drag setup) 1.48 60' but 80-90feet out I would spin top of first gear and into second gear almost skating around. I run a 28x10.5 stiff sidewall Hoosier slick at 16#. Its all in the 60' and I suggested to launch the car with the brake pedal burried and the e-brake up enough to hold the car at the line while raising the rpms up over 2k. Im running a different setup but when I tried riding the clutch out on launch I could only get a best of 1.84 60' 11.6@122. Once I was able to drop 60' by dumping the clutch with a hydraulic clutch release valve, et's dropped to 11.0-11.1. At the end of the day closed loop is great for tuning and seeing where you are off percentage wise in the VE table. If consistency is key then youll just have to dial in AFR testing in CL and run at the track in OL. I did just notice you've gone faster in the 1/8- 95 mph with the 3.55 gear, but only +20 mph backhalf which meant you were dead in 3rd gear and couldnt reach peak hp before the 1/4. Now with taller gearing your +22-23 mph in the backhalf where it should be for optimized performance. The power is there to run a 1.55 60' and 11.6 1/4. Well get this figured out!

 

John is the man, thanks bud. Super helpful via text messages and in person too. Glad to have a friend like him who is local and knowledgeable. Big thanks to Nick G. too as we have chatted about the bog issue a lot as well.

I am currently making a (long) list of all possible avenues to explore to get this bog situation resolved. I'll check out as much as I need to mechanically and tune/datalog wise to get me back on track. Heck, even if I have to run open loop below 3,500 rpms and then bring in closed loop at higher rpms just to keep the high rev fueling "safe", I will do that. I think it will also make sense for me to turn down the limits of Closed loop once again. I did have them very high as a safeguard, but it seems the computer wanted to "run-away" with adding fuel once it was given the opportunity to do so.

I am probably only going to squeeze in one more actual Test-and-Tune track session before the roll-bar gets installed in early June. After that, drag racing will be put on hold for a bit, as I want to get my new Falken Azenis RT660 tires mounted, get a full front end alignment, and start hitting a few local AutoCross events, prior to the UMI autoX event in PA July 22-24. So, my next drag session will probably be my last for a bit, and that might happen to be this weekend, either Friday night or Sunday. I fully intend to have investigated/resolved the 1st gear bog issue by then.

-Additionally, I bit the bullet and ordered a set of the Lakewood 90/10 front drag struts for the car. In talking to John and a lot of other drag race gurus, I was probably at the limit of my launch when it came to having the Koni yellow front struts. Even with the struts on the softest setting, it is nearly impossible to lift the nose up when using two hands. The koni's keep this car glued down, even on soft. On full tight, the car will NOT move up or down, its WILD. So, if the struts arrive from Summit Racing by this weekend, and I can get them installed, I do plan to go to the track. If the weather is poor this weekend, I will have to move my plans to next weekend. We shall see

- also, I do want to give it a try by dong what John suggested, holding the E-brake as well as the foot brake to see how much better of a launch I can get. My mind was too scatterbrained last weekend to try this, as I was just mostly consumed by the 1st gear bog. I will try it next time!

_and yea, John, I have been very surprised by the minimal impact the 3.91 gear swap has made (so far) when comparing last year's timeslips to this years slips. I figured I would be quicker and more mph to the 8th, and 1/4 mile too. The only real thing that has changed, is my rpm coming through the finish line traps. But yes, I ran 96.36 mph in the 9th last year which was my best, but so far this year, only all 91-92 mph in the 8th. That confuses me.

 

Now you have tire spin.
Coincidence?
Fix that and you'll realize the potential of the gearing.
As a carb guy, a gear swap or a converter change generally needs a rethink of the current tune. Then you go faster.

 

skinnyZ: You are right. I think I need to put a little more fuel to it early on. See below:

I can get into more details about the 1st gear bog if anyone would like to discuss that further. Spent lots of time looking at past datalogs and examining the VE table and modifier tables. Also checked as much mechanical stuff as I could (fuel pressure gauge reads 62psi and barely takes a dip when engine is revved, all exhaust bolts tight, all injectors are spraying equally, zip-ties the notoriously unreliable injector connectors to stay locked in, checked a few plugs, etc). Did some test driving, the car acted better, but the true test would come on the track.. which I went to yesterday for my last Drag race day until probably the Fall of 2021. Also in the tune, I took away the ECU's ability to be in closed loop all the time. One of my thoughts with this bog, is that the ECU is spiking rich, lean, rich lean so quickly through 1st gear it cant make up its mind about what to change quick enough. So for the first two passes, I kept the ECU in open loop until 4,000 rpms. For the second two passes, I kept the ECU in open loop for until 4,500 RPMS. The car didn't bog or stumble at all in first gear, but there was usually a very quick spike in the AFR trace. I've been told that on initial "tip in" with no air filter and a TBi, I should expect a spike/blip. So by keeping the ECU in open loop past this point, it avoided making ANY changes, and it really only came in to adjust my CL fuel compensation when I was higher in the rpms in 1st, 2nd, 3rd gear. I'm happy about that.

Also, I decided to buy the most inexpensive front DRAG strut available to see how the car lifted at launch. I bought the Lakewood 90/10 Drag strut. I know there are adjustable struts for big $, but I do not have the budget for those. These lakewood's do come up quick. I filmed a few short videos of them compared to the koni yellows when I did the strut swap. I have yet to edit or upload those videos, but I will do so in the next week. The lakewood 90/10 drag strut is not as "treacherous" on the street as some people have made it seem. The car was a bit floaty on the road, but I also had no front sway bar, skinny front tires, and the 90/10s. The did help the car lift and transfer weight better, but I launch at such a low rpm, that They aren't able to do their best job just yet. more on all that in the future.



Front tires were at 43 psi all day and rear tires were at 19 psi all day. Lakewood non-adjustable 90/10 struts up front and the Koni yellow shocks in the rear were at 4/5 all day which is medium-tight.
-fun note, every car in the lane next to me all 4 passes ran in the 9 second zone, so I felt like a total chump!

Pass 1:
Did a 6 second burnout, and now I am getting used to shifting into 2nd gear during the burnout, before I would jsut do 1st gear. My buddy John was there and we decided to see if I could get a little more RPM off the launch by not only going heavy on the foot brake, but also using the E-brake. The car began to roll just as I got close to 2,100 rpms and almost rolled the beams, so I just left. Datalog showed I went WOT at 2,228 rpms and the converter flashed at 3,015 rpms. No BOG ! Shifted 1st gear at 6665 and landed in 2nd gear at 4,732. It was right after the shift, when i saw the red light on the dashboard, and realized that I had not fully put het E-brake back down!! What a dope. So I fully released the e-brake, shifted 2-3 at 6,530 and landed at 4,870 rpms. Crossed the line at 6,214 rpms. Entire run was at 34 degrees of timing and target afr was 12.8, DA was 1365, Temp was 71 deg, and Humidity was 42%.

video:







Pass 2:
Another 2-gear, 6 second, mid rpm burnout, just enough to get the tires to smoke a puff. Footbrake launch at 1575 using the ebrake, and I put it down fully this time. Converter flashed at 3,018 rpms and I shifted out of first gear at 6684 rpms and landed in 2nd gear at 4870 rpms. Shifted 2-3 at 6596 and landed at 4888 rpms. Crossed the line around 6,100 rpms. Target afr was 12.8, Timing was 34.0 deg, DA was 1286 Temp was now 70 deg, and humidity 44 deg.

video: -this video John filmed finally gives me an idea of how the car leaves the line. I can try to view itin slow-motion, but I can't see any tire spin, rear body squat, or anything bad.. it just leaves from such a low rpm that it takes a little effort to get up-and-go...











Pass 3: (quickest pass ever, so far)

Mid rpm 2 gear burnout for 5 seconds. Launched from an idle this time at 933 rpms and the converter flashed at 2950 rpms. Shifted out of first at 6,545 and landed at 4841 in 2nd. Shifted 2-3 at 6593 and landed at 4910. Crossed the finish line at 6,202 rpms. I had bumped the timing up one degree to 35.0 deg, and we also leaned out the target afr a little bit to 13.0. DA was 1174 temp was 68 deg and 48% humidity. In the lane next tome was my friend Kevin who runs high 9's in that awesome Trackhawk.

video:












Pass 4:

6 second, mid rpm, 2 gear burnout. Launched basically at idle again since my 60 foot was great last time. Converter flashed a little low this time, at 2812 rpms. 1-2 shift was 6736 landing at 4,876 and the 2-3 shift was 6,552 landing at 4,847 rpms. Finish line rpm was 6,230. Target AFR was 13.0 and ignition timing was 35.0 I did not remember to check weather data before this last pass.

video:









So overall, man, I was really realllly hoping for a timeslip with an 11.79x et on it at around 117 mph. I am o.k. with the timeslip from pass 3 which was 11.8000 at 116.19 mph. I do think it is possible, but I will have to wait for a while as I switch the car over to autocross and car show mode for the summer months. I am also set to have the roll-bar installed in June.
















After getting home, and as always keeping an eye on the high oil pressure, I removed the drag wheels to give them a wash since they will be going away for a few months while I switch to autocross. At this time I noticed a crack in the hub of the drivers side front Jegs SSR wheel. WOW. scary. I removed the passenger wheel and noticed a similar crack. Wow, extra scary. I have never ever, not even once, used an impact gun to tighten these down. I always, always, always use my mechanical torque wrench. I bring them to 90 ft/lbs each, and then bring them to 110 ft/lbs each. How the heck could these have both cracked? I do think they are salvageable, and I am going to research what to do. Cast aluminum, so I am thinking the crack can be opened up to its deepest point, welded with aluminum filler rod, and buzzed down. Thoughts?


Drivers side:





Pass side:

 

No wheelies for those rims.

 

That's a lotta torque. Why so much?

 

I am indeed glad I noticed them, but I do not know how/when this could have happened. I have the wheels on and off pretty frequently, since I do street drive this car duringthe weekdays, but not with the drag wheels. I also had the wheels off on Saturday, while installing the Lakewood 90/10 struts, and I did not notice any cracks.

I have always torqued aluminum wheels to 100-120 foot lbs. Ever since I bought the car in the year 2000, with the original IROC wheels, i have torqued them to the 100-120 range. My second set of Eagle Allow aluminum wheels were always torqued to this spec also. My Boze Forged Aluminum wheels, same torque specs. Never ever used an impact gun to torque wheels, not once in my whole life. Torque wrench only.

I have always thought the rule of thumb was:
- steel wheels 80-100 foot lbs torque
- aluminum 100-120 foot lbs torque

I think these cracks are fixable with some proper welding. Going to do some research on it.

 

Decided to take a closer look at the wheels today. Noticed something that I never took a close enough look at before. Weird. Some kid of machining that removed some of the metal on the hub face. Noticeable difference in the metal height. Hard to see in the pics. Also I included a photo of the spacer that I use, and the ridge that is in the hub face is not from the spacer. It looks actually machined. Wondering if this ridge/step in the metal face caused the hub to repeatedly get tightened strangely enough to distort the wheel and eventually cause a crack.


Check this out. Different material thickness at the wheel hub face. Less material towards the center opening of the wheel, probably a fed thousandths of an inch. Why would this exist?

 

Torque to bolt spec to produce proper stretch, not wheel type. You're high on the torque for a M12 stud.
If the wheel can't handle the clamping load developed by the torque (yields under the nut) then need better wheels or different nuts.

 

Yes, very true. Agreed, I am on the higher side of torque for the front 12 mm studs. Just been doing this for about 20 years without an issue so its never been an issue I second-guessed myself about. Will keep it in mind going forward.


I had success today getting the wheels repaired. I am now ready for Drag Week 2021.








(joking obviously)





I installed the lakewood 90/10 struts a week ago and they definitely helped with the weight transfer of the car at launch. I did not even have a hint of tire spin, but I still can't get the nose airborne, likely because I can only leave from idle or high idle, or up to 1,800 rpm. From my research, nobody makes a great transbrake for a 700R4, and I am skeptical of going that route anyways. Dana at ProBuilt does not recommend trans brakes.

I did make a video about the Lakewood 90/10 front strut install, just because I was impressed with how quickly the struts sprung up. To skip past my chattering, you can start the video at 7:30 mins in.
- However, since I am not drag racing for a few months, I already took the struts off and put the Koni yellows back on the car, along with the front swaybar.


This weekend there was a big fundraiser car show-cruise event here at Lake Hopatcong, with the Cops-n-Rodders club. They had about 400-425 cars that metup and drove around the lake. Tons of spectators along the route, the mayors and police and firefighters all worked to block off roads and ENCOURAGED BURNOUTS ! There were certain spots along the way where everyone was frying the tires; seriously almost everyone! I did 12 burnouts along the way, some of them using the line-lock an going from 1st, 2nd, and into 3rd gear, right next to police and spectators. Way cool!















- I was always curious to see if my brake lights were bright enough in the pure daytime sunlight after tinting the rear tail-lights, and this photo answers my question
-Also, just moments after this photo, I did a good burnout directly under that american flag. Someone got videos from far far away of this burnout spot, my car comes across the screen at about 20:05 in the video.....which was apparently filmed with a very bad camera! link:

lastly, on the way home from the cruise, I stopped by the local concrete quarry to weigh the car as it sits in full street mode. This is with the whole sound system in, empty nitrous bottle, full full tank of fuel, full interior. Weight with me in the car is: 3760 and without me is 3560. Seems legit, as I weigh about 194 pounds. I weighed the car now to find out what it weighs pre-roll-bar-installation. Last time I weighed the car last year, i had it stripped down for a drag race test-and-tune day and without me, the scale showed 3320 if I remember correctly.




Thats it for now. Still scheduled to drop the car off at the chassis fabrication shop next Tuesday for the 6 point roll-bar install.

 

LOL! Still laughing about the band-aid

 

A buddy of mine sent me these two photos that someone random posted online from that Lake Hopatcong cruise:








Got a great deal on a used NOS nitrous cheater plate from articwhite. Will clean up the gasket/mounting surfaces and probably paint the outsides of it silver to match the theme of my engine.





The car is currently at the Fabrication shop for the roll bar install. He will be starting on it this week, as the swing-out pieces just arrived.



I ordered the SFi padding for the main hoop, and not sure if I will use the non-SFI padding anywhere else, but I got two pieces anyways since they were only about $5 each. I got this cool 2-part paint, with a button on the bottom that releases an activating agent. Just need to pickup some good etching-primer.


Also, when the car gets back, I need to replace the radiator. It has had a very small pinhole leak somewhere in the lower area of the core/rows, and I can not visibly see it. Champion has LIFETIME FREE REPLACEMENT on these radiators. I have been in contact with them for many months, waiting on an EXACT replacement of my 2-row AE951 radiator, but they have not had any in stock in months. Sadly the cores are made in china, and nothing has come over in a long time. So, instead they shipped me a 3-row replacement. Hopefully it cools just as well, and does not leak. Free shipping both ways, and hopefully I don't loose too much fluid while I do the replacement.







While the car is out of the garage, I am doing a bunch of work to have better storage, work areas, and use of the space.

 

Had dropped the car off a few weeks ago at the fabrication shop. He had some other projects to finish, but once mine arrived at the shop it was in-line. Miro is a 1-man operation at his shop, but his quality of work is top-notch. He got a good amount of progress done this past week, and if all goes well he will be finished with it by Friday of this week. Then my plans are to get the bars primed and painted. Swap the radiators. Get the 4 new Falken tires mounted, and get an alignment. After that I hope to get to a SCCA or MSNE autocross event at Giants Stadium before the UMI event in 1 months time.


Base plates installed (power wires were pulled away from the sheetmetal, that is not how they normally are routed):









He ensured all the interior panels fit and are fully removable with the bars in place, so in the event I ever need to take panels off there wont be any problems.

 

Looks like great work!

 

Beautiful welds.

 

Picked up the car today from M.T. FABRICATION, in Stanhope, NJ...just 15 minutes from my house.

Miro is an incredibly welder and a very easy person to talk to. He took good care of the car while it was there and I highly recommend him to anyone and everyone. Everything is MIG welded except the joints for the swingouts/door bars. Those are TIG welded so that the weld is not raised as it prevents anyone from scraping their hand on the raised metal.




















I will be masking, prepping, priming, and painting the roll bar tomorrow.
in the coming week I still will need to:
- use upholstery dye on the front seats
- get the 4 new Falken tires mounted and balanced
- get a front end alignment
- swap out the Champion radiator with its replacement
- probably get a replacement battery for my 75/25 Optima Red Top battery p/n 8022-091 (one that fits into my battery box, possibly an Odyseey )
-sign up and get to an Autocross event at Met Life Stadium for next weekend.

 

Many hours of masking the car off, covering everything exterior and interior, scuffing surfaces with red scuff pads, wiping down with acetone; and finally primer, and paint. Also used some $5 upholstery dye to dye the front seats black.

 

Got the interior back in today and did a half-setup of the 5-point harnesses too. Gotta spend some time getting them adjusted. No big deal really, just didn't get to it today. Decided to take out the oem seatbelts, I had toyed with the idea of leaving them in place for when I am just doing a short drive, but having them along with the 5-point harness looked too cluttered for me.

This winter I will be redoing the trunk area and stereo system with new subs and a new amp. . Right now it is just laid in place and not wired up, because I have to take it out most weekends in July for some autocross events.

Took some photos, but not really good ones yet. Filmed a video also.

 

Getting the tires mounted Friday as well as the alignment done.
I am thinking of:
- an even 5.5 caster (same numbers for each side, as opposed to bigger # for crown in streets)
- a -1.0 deg camber
- I might go complete 0.0 for tow in/out. Used to go 3/32 toe in for the past 20 years, but I have been told that 0.0 is best for drag racing, and for autocross, actually 3/32 toe OUT is better. Thoughts?


Was hoping to get to an autoX this weekend but there is nothing at the Meadowlands, and the one down in Warminster, PA is some kind of novice driving school thing, so I am not going to go to that. I will be signing up for autoX for July 18, at Met Life.

I also still have to install the roll bar padding.


Did get the new/replacement radiator installed yesterday after work. It went in with no problems. All champion could give me was a 3 row at the current time, when I had previously had the 2 row. Hoping it cools similar enough. If not, I will have to wait until they have the 2-row radiators back in stock and ask them to ship me the proper replacement one.

 

cool, thanks.

Got the new tires put on. Alignment done also. Put about 80 miles on the tires so far, damn they are great! They do throw around a LOT of road pebbles into the wheel-wells and the outer fenders. yikes. Traveled about 15 of those miles in active rain too, and while I was a bit nervous, they did good and nothing silly happened. ​Didnt get good photos of them on the car yet.













As mentioned before, the new replacement radiator is installed and doing well. Temps seem to be pretty much about where they usually are, but time will tell if the 3-row is better/same/worse than the 2-row. I am just happy for no leaks.

Decided to dig into the oil pressure issue again because I have some autocross events coming up. Hooked up the mechanical gauge and got readings of 55-60 psi with a cold engine at idle. With some revvs on the cold oil/engine it went to 85-90 i am happy with this. Just the readings on the dashboard gauge tell me a different story and it is unsettling looking at an incorrect gauge wile driving. Did lots of wiring testing, swapped out sending units and pulled out the dashboard. I could get into details but I don't know if it is worth it. I emailed Cajun Tach Supply who built the tachometer (which has the oil pressure gauge built into it) and he is kind enough to send me out a new board to try out, so hopefully that will be here soon and fix the problem! basically even though i know I have healthy oil pressure, i want to visually see it on the dashboard gauge. Instead, as soon as key on/engine off the needle maxxes out and lives there, showing me that I have 120+ psi of oil pressure with a non running engine.
I have tested grounds and ohms and whatnot.

I just signed up for the MSNE autocross day this upcoming Sunday at Met-Life Stadium. Hopefully it will be sufficient practice prior to the UMI event next weekend.

 

Last weekend's autocross got canceled which really threw a wrench in my plans. It was only canceled because the stadium (met Life/Giants stadium) wanted to make more money on parking fees for a Monster Jam event. They actually flat out told MSNE that! Sadly, this was the autocross session I needed to get a feel for what my new tires could withstand. Bummer.

This past weekend, I (and about a dozen others on this forum) went tot he UMI autocross event out at UMI Motorsports Park in Clearfield Pennsylvania. It was an awesome event as always, but surprises and unforeseen things sure can happen, and they did.



Here is a recap. Get a drink and some snacks.





Had the car fully loaded and left my house for the 230 mile trip out to UMI Motorsports Park at 1pm on Thursday. Eight (yes, 8) minutes into the drive, a moment before I turned onto route 80, I felt a misfire and noticed lean AFR numbers in the Holley handheld display. I was confused but I got onto route 80 and soon pull over at the nearby "rest area". Check over some things and load a new tune file just in case something was weird with the one I had in the car. Still same misfire after driving another 10 minutes, and I pulled over again as I got nearby Blairstown, NJ. Checked spark plugs, wires, fuel lines, etc. Turned on my laptop, checked the learn table, and opened up the CL comp limits to let the computer compensate fueling and help smooth out the lean condition. This did work, but something was still not right. Limped the car for 200+ miles (4.5 hours) while watching the AFR like a hawk. That was nerve racking; 200+ miles is a long time to think about the problem and how to resolve it. During the drive it occurred to me that I probably had a bad fuel injector, and my thoughts were confirmed when I pulled off the air cleaner and saw that 3 injectors were pushing fuel, but the front passenger side injector was not flowing any fuel. WILD. I had hoped to get on at the track because Every year at UMI, the Summit Racing parts trailer is on the infield and sells parts. They can also OVERNIGHT parts to the event, since they are over in Ohio. However, sadly I later learned that this year.. no summit racing trailer at all! Anyways, when I got to the track, my buddies were there and we discussed the problem. I was all jumbled up in my own head, but my friend Scott (2nd gen red camaro Z28) is an ace with sourcing out parts online. He used the Holley part number (which is internal to Holley) to get the specs of the injector and find a suitable replacement injector in size, but not in fuel flow. Apparently a fuel injector for a 2014 SS camaro LS3 is of a similar shape/size. O'Riley auto Parts is about 7 minutes from the track so we went there since the website said they had some LS3 injectors in stock. They did not! The soonest they could get one would be 4pm on Friday, which would mean that I would have to sit out with a dead car for all of day 1. What a bummer. Didnt sleep much that night. Spent a few hours on the Holley forums and online reading about how quite a lot of people with Holley Sniper units have had locked up injectors and have explored possible remedies....yet nothing has been found to be a 100% complete replacement/fix.

click below for a 9 second video of the failed injector:
by https://www.flickr.com/photos/iroczman15/, on Flickr





The next morning I called a local Diesel injector cleaning service who told me they could not help me, but the gave me the cell phone number for a guy named AL who is a retired racing engine builder and former winning dirt track racer. I called AL and he agreed to meet with me in Clearfield mid-morning. I went to the track for the drivers meeting and event opening ceremonies. Racing started and my group was called, but instead I borrowed Scott's truck and met AL. I then followed him way out to his house/garage/barn and this was wayyy out of cell phone service and off the grid. He turned out to be a really really cool guy, his garage is filled with old trophies, hats, engines in various states of assembly, etc etc.. AND a fuel injector testing/cleaning machine. Sidenote - Al has TWO silver 2000 trans am's one is his wife's and it has 33,000 original miles, and the other one is his.. it has a 427 LS engine, TWO 150 shot stages of wet nitrous, a 12 bolt, t-56, long tubes, and so forth. He fired that thing up with the exhaust uncorked and it sounded awesome. He no longer races, but has fun on the streets.

Anyways, he back-flowed the injector and fluid came out. He put it in an ultrasonic cleaning bath for 10 minutes too. He ran a speed test on it and used a pick to make sure that the pintle would open. The injector would click, you could hear it and feel it, but it would not open when it clicked. The conclusion was that the internal mechanism inside the injector is broken or disconnected. Therefore it was stone dead for life. I drove back to the track, using my memory and geography to find civilization again, and I stopped at O'Rileys on the way. They said the injector was not in, but it should arrive on the 3:55 pm truck. Then, back to the track and arrived just in time for lunch break. As I was eating lunch, Scott and Bill joined me and I divulged my adventure. As I was talking to them, O'Rileys called me and said, Hey, the injector is in! What the heck guys, I was just there 15 minutes ago!

Anyways, I borrowed Scott's truck again, went to Oriley's, and picked up the STD FJ-988. (It only flows 42pounds of fuel where the Holley injectors will flow 100 pounds. I've looked at drag race datalogs and My fuel flow duty cycle is around 68%) BUT, It does match for size, but the bottom mounting surface of the FJ-988 is tapered, while the sniper injector is flat. I was willing to try to install it, knowing I could return it if needed. Got back to the track, installed it, checked for leaks, and fired the engine up. It ran, idled, and revved up. No leaks, and my tune files and spark plugs were allll sorts of screwed up, but I was so happy, I didnt care about fixing those at the moment. Scott and Bill asked the track bosses if I could make a lap, and then I did. We all had fire extinguishers at the ready! I was super timid about leaning on the throttle and my foot was ready to leap off the accelerator if I heard or felt a misfire. I didn't though!





Was able to make 4 runs in the afternoon, still nervous, but with boosted confidence that I could salvage the weekend. Despite being down on some top-end power (due to the less capable injector) I made some good runs. Nothing too fast, but I was also on brand new tires that I did not know how much I could realllly lean on them because I had no experience with them since last weekend's Met-Life event was canceled. After the track was cold, everyone got cleaned up and UMI put on a dinner at Ken's motorhome. Fire pits, cornhole, a country singer, and tons of food.












For day 2, they ran the course backwards. I still was uncertain about how frisky I could get on the new tires when they were cold, and I found out real quick in the hard right turn at the beginning of the course during Run 1 of Day 2. That run I got a DNF, since I blasted through a wall of cones. The rest of the day I made clean passes, but still a bit timid. I think the hot tires could have taken more and more, so it is my fault for not working them harder. A fellow autocrosser told me I have too much rear brake because he said he could see my rear wheel almost stop when braking in hard turns, but my front tire is rotating much faster. So I took some rear brake bias out of it. Can't actually tell if it did anything though? Anyways, I had a blast on Day 2, despite coming up justttt shy of making a 39.xxx second run. A bunch of us then went over to Denny's beer barrel pub for burgers and whatnot.

Stayed overnight and drove home in the mid-morning after a double breakfast. Car drove great on the ride home and engine/EFI was happy. Car was filthy, but that is easily remedied. Will be getting a replacement injector from a guy in Oregon next week. All weekend, even in the long staging grid lanes, I never saw a temperature above 194 deg. So the new replacement 3-row radiator is doing its job just fine! Another thing that I was happy about, was the whole brake/vaccum booster situation. I haven't made any autocross runs since the UMI event in 2020, basically a year ago to the day. I know the vacuum canister has been working on the street and also for drag racing, but I can now say that I had zero power-vacuum-brake issues on hte autocross course. So, I am pretty well set without an electric vac pump or going manual brakes. The $30 canister seems to have done just what I needed.


All in all, it was a roller-coaster weekend for me. Despite al my excessive preparations and planning, something totally bizarre can happen and throw everything into a frenzy. Glad that I was heading to a place full of hundreds and hundreds of racers and mechanically skilled people and I appreciate the help of Billy and Scott very much.

I don't think there is a need for me to post up any screen-shots of my tune files or datalogs like I usually do for drag racing. Unless someone wants me to.

I will post some photos I took of the other cars maybe tomorrow, and in a few days I will load some of the professional photos that UMI took.

I did have an issue with my dash-cam cutting out, and I think it is vibration related. I don't think it is from any type of harsh shocking vibration, but more like harmonics as it is windshield mounted. I am trying out a thicker padding now to see if it will insulate the camera better. So, basically I don't have very many videos to upload and share. Some dashcam files were corrupted or not available. I also was so wacked out on Day 1, that I never bothered to set up my GoPro camera either. It is what it is!




Day 1:

only run I have footage from is Run 7:
40.766 seconds



Day 2:

Run 1:
DNF !

Run 2:
42.731 seconds

Run 3:
40.917 seconds


Run 4:
41.408 seconds

Run 5:
40.978 seconds

Run 6:
40.674 seconds


my best run from day 1 was 40.447 and from day 2 was 40.674. That number gets added together for your total time, and then thats how you stack up. UMI does classes by year of the car. So you could have a super highly modified car in the same class as a stock-ish street driver just because of the year of the car. Makes rankings weird, but that is how they do it. I finished 25th out of 43 in the Mid muscle class. I looked over the overall numbers and had to do a lot of adding positions of the classes together to find where I finished overall and I finished in 78th place out of 126 registered competitors. So about the 62nd percentile, which is not too shabby, especially due to the surprise circumstances I found myself in.

 

I was able to buy an actual Holley Sniper Injector from one of the fellas on the Holley EFI forums for $40. He runs a performance shop out in Oregon and has a few snipers that have become "parts donors". He shipped me the injector, and I installed it in a matter of minutes. Test primed the injectors and all 4 sprayed. Loaded in a known good tune and the car ran just like it should. Issue solved, and hopefully staying solved. I will be hanging on to the O'Rileys FJ988 injector in case of another bizarre injector failure, but now I know where I can get sniper injectors should the need arise; I will probably buy one more from him to keep as a spare.








Had a bunch of conversations with Jegs over the past few months regarding the cracks in the front wheels (see photos/description back from around may 2021). As mentioned before, since I was not the original purchaser of the wheels, they couldn't help me out with a zero-cost replacement. They agreed that the cracks in the hubs were odd, and also that the machined surface of the hub was not true. I was offered a take-it-or-leave-it reduced price of $106 per wheel, so i decided to just go ahead and buy two new ones. Prior to this I did bring the wheels to the fabricator who built the roll bar and he said he could certainly fix them for me, but his work load is too heavy for a while and it would cost me more than $106 per wheel for him to fix. If I can ever get my Miller EconoTig welder to weld aluminum properly, I still might try to fix them one day if I am looking for oddball projects to do. Yet, for now, I will just peel the tires off the cracked wheels, have the tires mounted on the new wheels and put the cracked ones off to the side to be re-visited another day. Looks like Jegs (or whoever casts this wheel) has made some changes to the design over the years. The spokes are bigger and the triangle windows are bigger. There is less meat to the rim, and the hub area is also different too. Both wheels are 15"x4" but the design has changed. I think I like it better, but I will see what it looks like on the car with a tire.














Took the afternoon on Saturday to do a clay, polish, sealer, wax job on the exterior paint and got het car looking mighty slick. Planned on going over to the TriCounty Car show over in Wayne on Sunday, but they canceled it due to iffy weather. Turned out to be a really nice weather day, but oh well.. another canceled event for me this season, seems to be a trend.




There is a MSNE autocross next week at MetLife Stadium and I think I am going to sign up. It is a Friday (usually MSNE is Sundays), but I am off on Fridays, so I think I will give it a go. IT might be my last autocross event of the year, as I did want to start getting nitrous stuff installed come September. So a very short autocross season was caused by Met Life canceling two events, and me having the car away at the roll-bar fabrication shop the entire month of June. It's ok, UMI was a general success and man, these tires are just killer!



oh, also, Motor Trend did an online article about the UMI event.
https://www.motortrend.com/features/...enge-coverage/
Pretty good gallery of action photos. In my photo it was when I was heavy on the brakes going into the 180 degree left handed downhill turn in the afternoon of day 1.

 

Took the car to the MSNE afternoon autocross at Met-Life arena parking lot J. Had given everything a thorough check over beforehand too. These events at Met-Life are far more stretched open and longer than the AutoCross events I have done at UMI, Warminster, and Optima (NJMP). They also run your run group in a hot-lap style, so there is only a few minutes of "down time" in between each run... really quick turn-around time. Basically 8 runs all within 1 hour's time. Was excited to put the new Falken tires to the test. Have found that the tires like to be between 32-33 psi up front and 28-29 psi in the rear, when the tires are hot. Have the Koni Adjustables set at 1/5 and 1/5 so on the softer side. This setup seems to work for me the best.










I was learning the course and in the middle of my 3rd run, all of a sudden I felt the power steering give out on me. "Not this again" I thought, and finished the lap and went to check the system. Found that the cap had unlocked itself and Lucas PSF got all over inside the engine bay, even on the headers. Cleaned it up, and tried to put the cap back on, yet it would NOT click on and lock into place, it just free-spins ! WTF, ha. No matter what I knew I could not loose the cap, either making more laps, or on the ride home, so I freakin' duct-taped the cap onto the housing so it would not go tumbling away and be lost forever. I've been down the road of overheated power steering system before, in fact July of 2020 at a MSNE event. So I tried to cool off the power steering reservoir and the DeRale power system fluid cooler (installed summer 2020) and made another lap. Still, no power steering, but only at low rpms. At mid and mid-high rpms, its there. The pump doesn't whine or scream like the other blown up one did, but it does not power-assist at low rpms.

Took some experienced autocrossers for ride-alongs and also went for some spine-crushing, g-force pulling animal laps in their cars. That was a thrill. I did not hit any cones, but did spin the car out for a loop at the very very last turn of run #4. I only did 6 out of the 8 laps, because I sat out twice while trying to cool the psf system down. The trans temp, coolant temp, and everything else with the car/engine was in perfect working order. My holley efi "Learn table" was super good, and my efi tune was really spot on. The brakes, suspension, tires, all were awesome, but the lack of power steering definitely killed me. Drove the car home, in the rain, through construction on Rt 3 and 46 in Friday afternoon rush hour traffic, with an intermittently working power steering system! Jeez, that was no fun. made it home, cap was still held on by duct tape, but of course the system was not holding fluid properly.







Learn table after the total data from all 6 runs:





Event results:
https://axwaresystems.com/axorm/live...AtwuLkpI5qcZY0

I finished 3rd out of 5 in class D.
I went for rides with Irman Karamat and Ryan King, both of them are in the RACE tire class and have very purpose built autocross cars.








I have found that the GoPro video footage is better to watch from an autocross race style, as you can see my steering input and the course. My front/rear dash cam was up and running and shooting 4k video, but it just shows the course, and not really the amount of steering input or car's cornering. So I only included the short videos of the GoPro action.

Run 1:

Run 2:

Run 3:
right at 0:43 seconds into the run you can see my arms on the steering wheel just get tight, this is when I felt the power steering system give out, right in the tight left turn and slowed way down as the car went way wide. I then had to muscle the car through the rest of the lap, and do the same for the remaining 3 runs that I did.

Run 4:
spun out on the very last turn, didn't hit a cone, but it killed my time


Run 5:


Run 6:


The next day I took the car over to the quarry after I had put the sound system back in it because I wanted to get a new "street' weight of what this pig weighs in at when I am in full regular street mode, especially now that the roll bar install is completed. I was stunned and sad to see that it weighs 3,780 pounds with me in it, and 3,600 pounds without me. This is with a full tank of fuel, empty nitrous bottle, roll bar, full interior, sound system installed, and my 18" wheels. Yikes.







As for the power steering system/pump. Gotta figure out what to do, as I would prefer to NOT have to replace a ps pump every year. I know there are some performance options out there, but I will make this very clear, I have yet to find one that would look good under the hood. I do not want some mess of hoses, or a bare gen 2 style modern looking pump. Cosmetics and engine bay appearance is a big deal to me, and I will not sacrifice that just to have a better PS pump and reservoir. I already have an in-line DeRale PS fluid cooler, and it has not done me wrong at either UMI autocross or other autocross events... it seems to do the job. I think I need to find a way to better cool the fluid, even if it means a fan on a toggle switch or something. I have only used regular Lucas PSF, but I am not learning that there are superior "race" PS fluids out there too. I am hesitant to buy another gen1 style "teardrop looking" ps pump and reservoir, but so far it is the only one that looks good under my hood. Any thoughts?

-also, I had a spare PS cap(with dipstick) from my old pump and it locks onto the reservoir just fine, so the busted one is going in the trash, and I now have a sealed system, but still no power steering at low rpms.


I am switching back to drag racing for the fall as I had planned to do anyway. Will be getting the tires mounted on the new Jegs wheels next week. I am also going to begin the nitrous install in the coming weeks. I think I might be better off starting a new thread on that topic as opposed to detailing it on here.

 

An old racers trick is to cut the top of a junk PS reservoir (the part the cap latches into) and using an appropriately sized hose, use hose clamps to extend the filler by about 4 inches. I'm sure you could make it look really neat. Plus it's removable any time you want to. Like this:

 

I have no idea if he will have a solution, advice, or anything helpful. (Great recommendation, right?)

My brother and I met this fellow at the Frankemuth Autofest (Frankenmuth, MI) a few years ago. IIRC, he's an ex-Saginaw steering engineer, specializing in performance steering. He may have something to contribute. He was a very nice guy.

Turn One Steering

 

thanks guys!

No Emissions: I have never heard of doing that. Very interesting. I can kinda see how it would help the cap/reservoir, but I don't think it will fix my overheated/overworked pump at this time. Also, would this modification just be to add a little more fluid or what does it gain me?


Dyno: I actually have talked to the fellas at Turn-One Steering a few times. They usually setup a booth at the UMI events and last year I chatted with them a bit. They had told me that the type2 pumps are the go-to ones they recommend for what I do. I had the same chat with them last year, that I can't bring myself to compromise on the aesthetics of a type 2 pump under my hood. They understood and said not much they can do for a type1 Saginaw style pump. I forgot where we left the conversation, but that was right around the time I put the DeRalle psf cooler on, and since then I have not had any PSF problems that I know of. Until Friday!


I have done some research online, and thought about calling Turn One again, and I think your post above inspired me to do it. So today at lunch break I called. They said that the type1 pump that I have can be modified by them to bring fluid pressure from the normal 1200 range up to around 1500-1800 psi. We agreed that my pump probably finally failed Due to the hot-lapping, wheel load, g-forces, suspension, sticky tires, and heavy nature of my car. When it failed it is likely that internally it bypassed hte fluid and overheated the internals. Since pumps build pressure responsively, it is likely that my pump is "partially" failed and does not work at low rpms, but comes back at mid and high rpms. Probably an overheated or stuck pressure relief valve inside?

I was quoted about $200 or more to send in my pump to them to upgrade it to hold more pressure. Still not sure that I want to do exactly this yet, but I do need to get back on the road. I have my UGLY oem 1987 pump, but I dont think I will put that back on. In fact, this is the one I would probably send to Turn One, since he said a quality GM OEM part would be better for them to work on, as compared to the pump I just burned up, which is basically a reman unit or inferior product. Maybe I will do that this winter and they can take their time with it, and also send it out for a chrome plating finish afterwards. In the meantime, just to get me to some car shows and the dragstrip for the duration of the year, I might just get another type1 pump like I had. Simple bolt in and fill with fluid. I have found them as low as $104 but usually around $150.

this ebay one is located in NJ only about an hour away, so I could have it here soon and install it this weekend
https://www.ebay.com/itm/22440197079...evt=1&mkcid=28

or jegs
https://www.jegs.com/i/OER/691/A9500150/10002/-1

 

Got the tires pulled from the old cracked jegs wheels, and put onto the new jegs wheels. I am digging the look!









Got the replacement power steering pump delivered yesterday and installed it today real quick. I am not expecting the world of this thing, but it will allow me to street drive, drag race, and car show until the end of 2021 season. During the winter, I plan to send one of my old power steering pumps to Turn One so they can upgrade it to run at a higher pressure. Total cost for this pump was $89 delivered. It was ebay for $104, but it arrived with no chrome cap and the seller said they did not have any more caps to give me, so he took $15 off the price and he is refunding me $15. Luckily I had an old chrome cap in my parts stash, so I just used the old cap for this new pump!




Power steering pump madness:




starting the nitrous setup install this weekend. That is all discussed in my other thread as it made more sense to keep the nitrous stuff a separate discussion:
https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/powe...ous-406-a.html

 

No, no extra fluid capacity. When you are working the steering hard (AutoX), the fluid heats up and expands. This simple mod gives the fluid a little extra room to expand and not push past the cap and leak all over your pretty engine. Not to mention crashing your car because you skidded out in your own PS fluid.

 

ah!!! Now that makes sense to me! Smart idea. Much thanks!

 

Have you ever considered an electric conversion?

 

actually, at a cruise night car show just this past week, someone suggested it to me, and I had never even looked into it. Might be something worth looking into.

 

As for the OEM configuration (that you've got correct?) take a look at Detroit Speed's 3rd Gen. I can't cypher from the 450+ pictures what they run. But I'll bet it's up to anything that us mere mortals might encounter. Theirs is a typical belt drive pump/reservoir (not electric) but being LS based I'm not familiar with the origin. Might be worth a peak.

EDIT: If I'm not mistaken, they have their own steering gear box as well.

 

thats good thinking skinny! That is something i will for sure look into, probably over the winter time in the "off season" awesome!

 

LS engines use a Type II pump, so that's probably what Detroit Speed uses. Although, it's likely been modified for higher operating pressure and less flow rate at high rpm. And they probably use a Delphi 600 series steering box, same as sold on their website. The pump has a max speed rating of 7000 rpm continuous (pump speed) and 7500 rpm intermittent.

Your reservoir is burping because the pump flows too much fluid. Stock pump flows a grossly excessive amount of fluid as it speeds up, and the majority of fluid is bypassed internally and returned to tank. The constant pressurizing, bypassing, re-pressurizing causes temperature rise and the fluid overheats, and tank pressure builds until it burps out the cap.

Type II pump is the way to go, man. It inherently has a lower flow rate and consumes less power (~8 Hp) than Type 1, and it's more modifiable (is that a real word?) than the Type 1 pump. But even my stock LS1 F-body pump burped fluid at high rpm on the street; and other F-body owners have experienced the plastic tank melting during autocross. I had the pump modified by Turn One. They dialed down the flow rate and increased operating pressure to 2000 psi. That solved the burping issue and decreased power consumption another 3 Hp. That's ~12 Hp difference from your existing pump! And it's something you need to do anyway, so..... it's "free" Hp if you're doing the hotrod math.

Use a cooler to keep fluid below 275° and things should be fine. Use full synthetic fluid. 2000 psi is suitable for tires up to 18x10 and 100 treadwear. Higher pressure goes unnoticed when you don't need it and won't make the steering feel soft.

As far as looks of one pump versus another, I like the look of stuff that works....

 

Here's what DSE has to offer. Looks the pump is convertible so as to allow a remote reservoir. That might tidy up an engine bay somewhat.

https://www.detroitspeed.com/82-92-c...inish-090204-1


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https://www.detroitspeed.com/82-92-c...stalled-090301


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https://www.detroitspeed.com/82-92-c...servoir-090901

 

ah, you guys make too much sense sometimes!
I have been so committed to keeping as much SBC essence on the engine, but maybe I can sacrifice I little of that for a PS pump setup that will do what I need it to. I am going to run this pump setup for at least the remainder of 2021 since it is installed and I am only doing street driving, drag racing, and car shows. if I can find a way to make that type2 pump setup look clean and also have it modified like Qwk did for increased pressure and less flow, that will probably be the way I go. The chat I had with turn-1 on the phone he did mention that they could re-valve my type1 pump to increase pressure, but nothing was discussed about the flow, which, as you all mentioned, is the reason why there is so much excess fluid charging around and the source of my problems. I think this will become a winter-time project while the car is laid-up. If you guys have more info to add, feel free, I will re-visit this topic and re-read all the tech info you are sharing again in the winter. Rest assured, I am not having any unrealistic expectations for my current $89 pump surviving years of autocross use, so it is something I need to address.

the focus for the rest of the year is drag racing and some car shows. See my nitrous installation thread for the progress I am making on that project.
Thank you to you all for the tech advice on the PS pump issue.

 

I think that my detailed car update belongs in this thread and not in the nitrous thread because this is where I usually do my event/car recaps. The nitrous thread might get used specifically for nitrous system tuning and adjustments, but vehicle stuff I want to keep here.


So,

I street drove the car over to Island Dragway on Friday night for Test and Tune. Disclaimer, key words, test-and-tune.. that's all this was.. I was not going for any glory shots, but I did have some hopeful goals in mind for the test and tune session. I also told myself I did NOT care if I got a 30 second long reaction time today, i was simply going to leave when i was ready; reaction time was of zero importance. I had a few buddies who were there with me making some passes and a few other buddies who were there to spectate, so sometimes it was hectic in the pits. They only really ran cars for a few hours, as there were multiple long oil-down shut downs, and they closed the track about 10:20 pm instead of 11pm. I still got some good test hit in and drove the car home afterwards without any issues. Took the car to a local car show today, and I have been doing car shows the past 3 weekends also, bringing home some trophies, and putting several hundred miles on the car in the process. Very much enjoying all of it.



Pass 1:
All motor. Since I had not made any dragstrip passes since May 2021, I wanted to do an all motor pass just to get myself back into the routine of staging, launching, shifting, etc. The car is heavier now with the 6-point roll bar and harness setup. I am using the brand new Jegs SSR front skinny wheels which replaced my other cracked Jegs skinnies. Both weigh the same, but I just figured I would mention that these are the new wheels because there was some debate about the topic back in June on this thread. Front tire pressure was 48 and it stayed at 48psi8 all night long. Rear tire pressure was 21. Rear chocks were set at 3/5 setting , so medium, and front struts are a 90/10 lakewood drag shock which are not-adjustable. I am only launching off a foot-brake, no more 2-step limiter or anything, it messed up my afr readings/computer at the launch.
- I launched at 1660 rpm and the converter flashed at 3063 rpms. Shifted 1-2 at 6460 and dropped into 2nd at 4754rpms. Shifted 2-3 at 6476 rpms and dropped to 4846 rpms in 3rd gear. Carried 3rd gear across the finish line at 6265 rpms. Surprisingly, even with a heavier car, I ran an 11.84 at 115.5 mph, which is super close to my best runs from May 2021 which were were all around the 11.80 and 11.85 range. Also the 60 foot was right where it usually is, and the 8th mile a tad slow, but still in the ballpark. So that was cool and gave me confidence.


Timeslip:

notes( their date/time is way off. The date is off by a week, and the time is off by an hour, and it was off by an hour all during the spring season also.. would have thought they would have fixed this?!?!) The time and date on the bottom corner of my video footage is exact and correct.

Datalog:


In car video:




Pass 2:
Had the 100 jets in the nitrous plate and I was ready to make a small PROGRESSIVE nitrous hit just to see that all systems were functioning properly. I had a slow ramp from 50hp-to-100 hp over the course of 2 seconds which I know is very uneventful. I have tested this on the street multiple times, but I wanted to do it at the track also. I launched the car at 1238 rpm and thats about all I have data for. For some undetermined reason, my datalog in nonsense (same for pass 3). The datapoints and data traces make no sense whatsoever. I did quickly hit the revv limiter at the top of 1st gear. I do know from memory that I did not spray until mid way though 2nd gear, so no nitrous in 1st gear. I then got off the nitrous for the 2-3 shift and back on it for most of 3rd gear. Therefore, my 60 foot, 330ft, and 8th mile are all N/A and my timeslip reflects that when compared to other N/A runs. My top end of the track shows improvement and I could feel the nitrous doing its job but I also felt it shut off when it reached the high-side rpm limits that I setup, so I got off the throttle just before the finish line, knowing that the solenoids and whatnot were flowing etc. Checked 3 spark plugs after this run and timing marks were good, no metal glitter on the ceramic, all looked good.

Timeslip:



Datalog NONSENSE:

[/url]


Video:

Launch video:



Pass 3: With the datalog from Pass2 being useless, yet knowing the fuel/nitrous/ecu was doing its job properly, I decided to change from a progressive shot to a fixed 100 shot. I also lowered the rear tire pressure to 19 psi, but kept the rear shocks set the same at 3/5. The datalog is totally useless here, and I will be working with the Holley EFI forum guys to figure out if it's some wacky setting, or something I need to fix myself. I did not spray nitrous at all until the middle of 2nd gear ( you can hear it in the video) so therefore my 60 foot and 330 are N/A but then the 8th mile time/speed starts to get better. I got off the button for the 2-3 shift but then right back on the button in 3rd. Again, my high-side limit rpm limiter for the nitrous killed the nitrous at 6,100, so I was N/A from basically the 1,100 foot mare to the finish. You can clearly hear the engine pitch change when the nitrous deactivates and it sounds like its breaking up. This is exactly because as one of my safety parameters, I have the ecu delaying the timing 4 degrees (while the nitrous is on) AND for .5 seconds after the nitrous is deactivated. So its a safety feature, but I might shorten it up for next time, because the motor is not making good power 30 degrees in WOT when it has 200+ more feet to go before the finish line. SO, this is something i could not plan for while doing the tune, I had to have it happen in real life in order to find it out. I have a solution for all of this which I will elaborate on at the bottom of the page.

Timeslip:
[/url]


Datalog: what an insane looking datalog for a dragstrip pass!



Video:


Launch video:





Pass 4:
used the same exact tune, same shock settings, and dropped the rear tires to 17.4psi at the advice of my buddies. Had a proper datalog this time too!
They were calling "15 minutes until staging lanes are closed" as I was getting to the lanes.
Launched at 1,753 rpms (footbrake) and the converter flashed at 2,986. Nitrous came on at 3,500 in 1st gear and stayed on until 5,791 rpms in 1st gear. Shifted from 1st to 2nd at 6,571 rpms and it dropped to 5,020 rpms in 2nd gear. Nitrous was on the 100 shot all through 2nd gear, which I shifted out of at 6,585 and this dropped it to 5,082 rpms in 3rd gear. Nitrous was on all of 3rd gear until it hit my (newly increased) high side limit of 6,300 rpms where it shut off and I was N/A until the finish line at 6,597 rpms....with only 30 deg of timing for .5 seconds ...instead of my usual 34 deg N/A. Youc an hear it "break up" a few hundred feet before the finish line, but thats for the same reasons I listed above at the end of pass 3. This is why MPH is lower than it should be.


Timeslip:


Datalog:




Video:




Pass 5:

I had no time to look at the datalog or check plugs after this run. They were calling 5 minutes to staging lanes are closed as I was getting my timeslip. (look at the time difference between slips #4 and #5, and even though he hours are wrong, the minutes are right!) My buddies were all jacked up and said, you gotta get a 10 second pass tonight, so I did the only thing I had time for, and did a super quick nitrous jet change, from the 100 shot to the 125 shot jets. Pulled into the staging lanes and they are waving me to the burnout box yet I didn't have my helmet on or harness bucked yet! Slammed on my helmet and I was the last car to make a pass in the Race-tire lanes.

So, I did a healthy burnout and foot brake launched at 1709 with the nitrous button down. My low-side limit wont allow the nitrous to kick on until 3,500 rpms, and after the converter flashed (around 2860 rpms) I felt the nitrous come on. It shut off at my high side limit before I shifted out of first (at 6,502 rpms) and into 2nd where it landed at 5,208 rpms). sprayed all through 2nd gear until it clicked the nitrous off and I shifted 2-3 at 6,458 rpms and it dropepd to 5,175 rpms in 3rd gear. Sprayed all through 3rd until it reached the high side limit so it clicked off at 6,346 rpms and I muddled my way the last few hundred feet to the finish line, crossing at 6,456 rpms, with a freaking 10.99 at 122.5 mph!! WHAT IN THE HECK!!!


Timeslip:

(they had problems with their 60-foot cone so they turned it off. Some of my buddies also had .000 on their timeslip for the 60-foot but I would have love to know what it was. I am thinking like a 1.54, but without actual timeslip, I am just guessing)

Datalog:


Video:


Full video with my reaction after reading the slip at 2:14 in the video. ha (and you can hear the announcer still calling "lanes are closed" at around 2:01 in the video)




Took a while to chat with my buddies and packed up the car. All my gear was super wet from the fog and moisture/humidity. Drove the car home with a huge smile that things seemed to be working properly. Brought he car to the local quarry to weigh it in drag-race mode as compared to street mode. It weight in at 3,420 pounds without me in it and 3,600 pounds with me in it, yet only half a tank of fuel. So that is its race weight for the rest of this year. Would like to get it lighter over the winter, but WITHOUT compromising street, show, or autocross purposes. So, in-shot.. I remove 180 pounds from the car when i convert it from street setup to drag setup ( 3780-3600 = 180 )

Without me:



With me in it:




So, All in all, a pretty successful first nitrous TEST-and-TUNE session. My bottle heater did its job perfectly too. I have a few ideas for how to not just "coast" through the last 200 feet of the track, and one of them involves taller tires. I know I will certainly Do this for my next set of tires, but I won't be due for new tires until spring of next year. So, I am thinking, I might play around with getting on the nitrous sooner, and holding it through the shifts, which will put me at the top of 3rd gear just before the 1000 foot mark. And, while it sucks to have a 4th gear that is less than 1:1 ratio (in this 700R4), I can then shift into 4th gear and spray 4th gear for the last few hundred feet. It would be better than what I am doing now. Yet, there was no way for me to mathematically figure this out, until I physically made some passes. I also want to see if I can hit the nitrous out of the hole as I launch, instead of waiting for it to come on mid-way through 1st gear. Might really improve my 60 foot times, get me a wheels up launch, and I would like to see if my suspension takes it. As it is now, from the launch videos, it looks like I could crank the right rear shock a bit tighter to a 4/5 and leave the drivers side a 3/5. There is also air-bags for the springs too as an inexpensive technique, but that's only if I do have launch issues while launching on the button. I also WILL be throwing a bigger nitrous shot at it in the coming weeks, so there is no doubt in my mind that I will have to shift into 4th gear. I'm thinking the car has the potential for a 10.75 pass around 129 mph before the year is over on a bigger shot.

 

You made it into the 10's. Congratulations

 

You gotta be pumped breaking into 10's.
And you got more left!