Getting my new 406 SBC installed, running, and driving

[IROCZman15]

The AUTOCROSS at Met-Life stadium got canceled today. Not because of rain, not because of low turnout, but for a really unfortunate reason....parking.
So, yesterday there was supposed to be a Monster Truck Monster Jam event, which got rained out. So, the stadium rescheduled it for today, the same day as our MSNE autocross event. Both COULD have gone on simultaneously, but the word is that the stadium realized that they could gain more money in vehicle parking fees from monster jam spectators, compared to the money they would gain from MSNE autocross. So, at freaking 9 pm last night, less than 12 hours prior to the start of the autocross race, they canceled it on us. What a bummer it was. I planned my whole weekend around this and needed the practice so I could get used to the new tires, new roll bar, 5 point harnesses, and to built an EFI tune off of what I would have gained today. Now I will be showing up to the big UMI autocross with no real autocross seat time. Not cool. not fun.

I took the car over to an industrial/business park area and did my best to run the car through some pretend slaloms, tight turns, and lock-to-lock turns. Car did well, tires got sticky and picked up a ton of rocks/gravel. Kept it at safe speeds, but doing this was not nearly the equivalent of what I could have practiced at a real autocross. I am mad at Met-Life stadium for being greedy and pulling the last minute cancellation on the MSNE group. I'm guessing if it was the SCCA autocross group scheduled for today, they would not have gotten bumped out in favor of parking.

[wretched73]

Well that blows.

[IROCZman15]

heading out to Clearfield, PA tomorrow mid-day for the UMI Performance Autocross. Still have to pack the car up tomorrow morning and then it is about a 4 hour drive to get out there. Scott, Billy, and Joe are going as usual, and a few thirdgen.org people I know will also be there. Won't be back until Sunday probably.

[Blackbirdws6]

Have fun and safe travels. It's a good ride and a great time.

[IROCZman15]

Just when I thought everything was in place for a great weekend, a complete curveball comes my way! During my drive out to the event I had a misfire, and checking the holley sniper handheld I realized that there was a fuel issue because it was compensating by adding a TON of fuel. Determined that one of the 4 injectors in the holley sniper throttle body is not flowing any fuel; verified this by looking down the barrels. 3 of the injectors spray fuel, the front passenger side does not. As i was troubleshooting this on rt 80 in Nj I was texting with Larry and changing tunes and going into open loop mode. The sniper CL comp and learn functions did their job quite well and I did an easy cruise alllllllll the way to the track, which took 5 hours instead of the usual 4 hour. Chatted with Tom, Ramey and a bunch of people here while trying to source a replacement. Apparently Holley uses a non-available style/specification of injectors, and when people's injectors fail, they require the sniper to be shipped back to holley for repair. Kinda not what I had hoped to hear, 230 miles from home, and less than a few hours before my favorite autocross event of the year. O'Rileys auto parts has an LS# injector that may fit, but it only flows about half the fuel 942 pounds) compared to the 100 pound holley injector. I ordered it anyways, it is Standard Motor parts PN FJ988 and it wont be in their store here by the track until 4pm tomorrow, which is when day 12 of autocross ends.*

* Not sure what I am going to do, would hate to sit the event out before I even make one lap. I could run it on 3 injectors and just add a ton of fuel to the other 3 injectors to compensate..because it is a TBI setup.* *Man, of all the weekends for something to fail, it had to be this weekend. jeez

[LTb1ow]

Sucks but I would not run it when you know it's down or rigged.

You will end up with a pair of cylinders with poor afr unless you try and adjust via fuel cylinder trims to "fix" the smaller injector.

[IROCZman15]

I will type up a better version if this next week after this ordeal is all said and done, but just as a brief update here is where I am at now.

After learning from this forum that I can't just go out and buy a holley specific 100# injector, I spent tons of time searching for a compatible one. O'Riley autoParts is near the track and was able to order me a "comparable" one, but for 4pm on Friday. The race is all day Friday and Saturday, but I had them order it anyways. IT is standard Motor Parts STD FJ988 which cost $83.

In the meantime, I knew I was going to miss the day of racing, so I tried calling local shops at 8am when they opened up Friday. A local diesel fuel injector repair shop was my best bet, but they told me they doubted they could check mine. They turned me on to a guy names Al, who is a retired engine builder and local winning racer of years gone by. I called Al, who was busy at the moment but he told me to meet him at a local Napa. I then borrowed Scott’s truck and met Al, and followed him through the hills of rural PA out to his house. He certainly was a local engine builder, with trophys, old racing hats and Polaroids, engine parts galore, a 2000 trans am Ws6 with a 427 and two stages of nitrous as his current toy car.

He had a fuel injector tester at his home garage, and we were hopeful that he could remedy the situation. He put the injector into an ultrasonic bath cleaning for 10 minutes, back-flow cleaned it, ohm tested it, pulled out he internal screen, ran a speed test and so forth. The injector would click, but not flow a drop of fluid. his determination was that the internal mechanism of the injector came apart, so there was no saving it. He tried, but it was hopeless. Went back to the track and spectated.

Luckily ORileys had their truck come in at noon instead of 4 pm. So I borrowed Scotts truck again and got the injector. Height wise it was the same but I noticed the bottom seat was tapered where the Holley injector is flat. Went back to the track, installed it after conferring with some of my buddies. Worked and sprayed!! Wow! Very cautiously I looked for leaks and none were found. I went out and made a lap, even though my plugs were fouled and tune was not the best. Made a decent lap but the whole
Time I was ready to get out of the throttle
If it started to backfire, but it did not. Made a couple more autocross laps and everything seems good to go now for the full day of racing. I changed the spark plugs last night and re-loaded a clean tune as well.

What a roller coaster this situation has been, but I am hopeful I can race all day today and then drive the car the 230 miles home tomorrow morning.














So let’s see how today goes…!

[wretched73]

Glad you're getting it sorted. Looking forward to more updates

[IROCZman15]

Whew, what a weekend! I will certainly type up an event recap in the coming days, perhaps even next week. Gotta upload photos, videos, etc.

I did ensure that the "replacement" injector stayed snug in the TBI and did not leak. I reloaded a clean tune file and made some fuel tune adjustments to accommodate for the lesser flowing injector. I was indeed able to race all the laps on Day 2 of the event and The engine/EFI performed well despite being down on capable power. Did not explode the engine, did not run it lean, did not foul the new spark plugs, and it didn't even misfire. Thank God for CL-Comp% and datalogging!

Drove the car home on Sunday morning and had zero issues with the drive aside from my dashcam is starting to get sensitive to vibration/harmonics it seems. Will discuss that later or in the other dashcam thread maybe

Anyways, today I called Holley. I am on the Holley EFI forums and have done heavy research on this dead injector topic over the last few days. I knew Holley was going to say "we will not ship you a replacement injector, we can only fix it if you ship the whole unit to us in kentucky". After 45 minutes on hold I spoke to a staffer who fully agreed that my situation was crappy. I got the answer form him I expected. I fought him tooth and nail for half an hour about simply just sending me (or selling me) a proper 100# injector. They refuse to do it. It is a liability if someone installs the injector wrong and burns down their car.... I just do not understand this.. Holley sells FUEL pumps, fittings, lines, gauges, regulators etc. All of that can certainly be installed wrong too though. Someone can overtighten a fitting and crack it, causing a jet stream of fuel to spray out just the same as anyone can damage an O-ring. People on the Holley forums have been angry and in disbelief about this exact topic for years and years now, but nothing can be done. They won't send you a replacement injector. (sidenote, back in the fall of last year they did send me a replacement internal fuel pressure regulator inside the sniper ... and I installed it, which was more "involved" than an injector,....but wth, its their "policy). I asked them where I could buy the exact injector from another supplier (so they were no longer burdened with liability) and they would not give up the source of their injector supply.

Not having much options, I started an RMA number/claim just in case I decide to send this whole sniper in to them for repair. IT will take them 2-3 weeks to get it repaired. Sadly, I can do the injector repair in 3-5 minutes.. tops... start to finish. If I do send the unit in, that will stink, but it will allow me to continue to use the car and race it for the rest of the year. I still plan on spraying a small nitrous shot at it in the fall too. If I were to wait until winter to send the sniper in, I would just be limited to car shows and cruise nights, as I am not going to race the car with 3 normal injectors, and one inadequate injector that only flows 42 pounds instead of 100.. despite mathematical "duty-cycles" and all that can be adjusted in the tune.. I'm just not going to be dumb and race it that way.

I will get to the event recap, just gotta decide what is best to do on this topic first.

[LTb1ow]

It has one wide band and no way to fuel trim cyl per cyl, so its dumping fuel into the other cylinders to pretend that the over all AFR is good. Happy nothing went wrong, but seems super sketchy to have run it like that.

Kinda a long shot, but in theory couldn't you source four new 100# injectors that physically fit and fill in proper injector data?

[IROCZman15]

Oh, trust me, it was "super sketchy" to say the least. I was terrified of burning the car down for 100% of every second of the entire weekend. I looked (and felt) like an idiot because I had my tuning laptop with me and I was constantly checking datalogs and tune files. Scott and Billy were joking at me about the computer, and I deserved it, but I mentally just had to make sure I had everything "adjusted" as well as possible. As for racing, its tough to tame yourself back when you have this situation while you go out there and make a series of good laps and want to keep going and improving.

As for the injectors, through the magic of the internet, I made a few in-roads with some people who have some "parts donor" sniper EFI units, and some of them are willing to sell me an oem holley sniper injector. Working on making that transaction take place this week hopefully. I could try what you mentioned, but so far there has not been anything that can be found that checks all the proper boxes regarding size, diameter, flow, electrical connector type, and whatnot. At first glance, the terminator injector is the closest one, but there are mixed reviews on its functionality on the Holley EFI tech forums. Therefore, I am really striving to get a specific Sniper injector for the sniper. (Sidenote- I may only keep the sniper TBI EFI for another year or so, I think I am going to want to upgrade to something with more features, like a Holley Terminator or the 24X system that Larry has been suggestion. Maybe in 2023 though)

[LTb1ow]

If you are used to Holley software, don't do yourself the disservice of going backwards with a 24x 0411 PCM setup. (unless you just mean 24x or 58x with Holley)

[IROCZman15]

I had thought about that too, so that’s why I am probably staying with Holley but I will see what is new/available at that time whenever that time does come to be. If that time was now, I would do terminator x but in two years or so, I’m sure there will
Be something newer and better. We shall see, it’s a long way out anyways

Sent PayPal money to a performance shop
Owner way out west who is on the Holley EFi forums and he has a few spare injectors. $40 plush shipping. Should be here in a week.

[IROCZman15]

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. 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, Scott and Billy were there and we discussed the problem. I was all jumbled up in my own head, but Scott 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:
IMG_1670 by David Martin, 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
https://youtu.be/wa66a26XcJs



Day 2:

Run 1:
DNF !
https://youtu.be/mGFbT3VoStQ

Run 2:
42.731 seconds
https://youtu.be/g260dFochr8

Run 3:
40.917 seconds
https://youtu.be/MvGz4g_z0j0

Run 4:
41.408 seconds
https://youtu.be/Mj5LQDdPplI

Run 5:
40.978 seconds
https://youtu.be/skTRG2pLKpE

Run 6:
40.674 seconds
https://youtu.be/LxgicKcDruE


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.


Scott:






BTK:





Me:

[RamblerRacer]

Great job keeping after it and salvaging the weekend. The car is slick.
I’d like to try some auto crossing myself after my TA is finished

JT

[thehazguy]

Dave, nice update and pic's. You could of thrown in the towel but stuck with it. Now that's being a "Trooper" Keep the posts going, look forward to seeing what you're up to.

[IROCZman15]

Thanks guys! I appreciate it.

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 just before going into the 180 degree left handed downhill turn in the afternoon of day 1.

[IROCZman15]

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:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1hTqK_Gu4Q

Run 2:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5h4Nojbpn0k

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.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbPvIsCiesM

Run 4:
spun out on the very last turn, didn't hit a cone, but it killed my time
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6C6GeExriHo


Run 5:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFmr5WJPWeY


Run 6:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnbbG-P-xNI


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.

[IROCZman15]

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:
http://www.njfboa.org/forums/showthread.php?t=69274

[IROCZman15]

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:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJ9JDggmGtw




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:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnbZx47ZbWo

Launch video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glI6mxj4k-U



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:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yxlu5_pJ9oc


Launch video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyU7Bt2UToc




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:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxQ_V7aEEK0



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:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffHSSKLSEMY


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)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxibcE8AEos




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.

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.

[sweetbmxrider]

Nice, Dave! Congrats!

[IROCZman15]

thanks man. was fun.
Didn't actually expect I'd get into the 10's before that night, probably could have been more patient, but in the heat of the moment, it all worked out. To me, it's only "kinda" a 10, but I'd truthfully like a few more high 10 second passes to "back it up" and run a bit quicker. Will be going back for more improvements and test hits; probably Friday night October 8th at Island

[thehazguy]

Dave, as stated in our text messages. Congrats. Worked on your plan and it panned out. "SWEET" Nice video on the 10.99 run. I'll try to make it on 10/08/21 with the 57.

[Blackbirdws6]

Congrats!! Not expecting 10s and seeing the slip must have been a fun experience. The MPH gain from the shot with it coming on/off the nitrous through the gears def suggests it will go quicker.

[IROCZman15]

Went to Island Dragway on Friday night for Test and Tune, along with Jerry who was running his 57 Chevy. We had a good time; early on the track needed to come around a bit, but after that, things went pretty well. Glad to have helpful advice from Jerry with all his wisdom, thank you dude! Before arriving at the track, I stopped to visit with Larry and Chris at 2nd Gen Engineering and we chatted for a bit as well. Good times!


Front struts are non-adjustable 90/10 Lakewood's and the rear Koni shocks I set at 3/5 drivers side and I tried 4/5 on the passenger side. Front tires were at 48 psi all night and the rear tires were between 18.0 and 18.4 psi all night long. Still suffering from the nervous jitters with the nitrous and even sometimes forgetting to hold the damn button down during the whole pass. That I hope to change, and hopefully soon! The moisture content was high all night, humidity in the 89%-91% according to my app. The DA was about 1200 at the start of the night and right about 1,000 at my last run, again according to my app, which is less reputable than most.
-on all nitrous passes I had the nitrous set to come on at 3,000 rpms. I might lower this to come on directly when I do launch because its almost feeling like I have a "double launch" sensation.
- I use the same timing numbers for my 100 and 125 nitrous shots, so I actually use the same tune file. so even though it says F125 on the page, I use that same file for a fixed 100 shot.. same goes for the progressive shots. I am pulling 4.5 degrees of timing for both a 125 and 100 shot. So it is at 29.5 deg on nitrous, and 34 deg on motor.






Pass 1:
All motor, no nitrous. Did a very short burnout because I forgot to pump the brakes hard before activating the line lock, so about 1 second into the burnout it pushed through the brakes and darted me forward. The track starter motioned that I could do another one (and I should have) but I told him no and staged. Foot brake launch at 1475 rpms and it instantly spun. Pedaled it, short shifted 1-2 at 5400 rpms, and then short shifted 2-3 shift at 5,421 rpms, crossed the line at 6177 rpms like a total goofball and it ran 12.23 at 113. The top green line is my Throttle position sensor, so you can see I was not at full throttle most of 1st gear and all of 2nd gear.

Timeslip:



Datalog:



Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U560xdwQQiU





Pass 2:
Hoping to redeem myself from the above nonsense, I decided to do a progressive-ramp 100 shot. After a proper 7 second burnout, I footbraked the launch at 1580 rpms and then the ramp came in at 3,000 rpms. The 1.52 sixty foot felt real good! The green line in the datalog thats across the middle of the page, you can see the timing ramp before it goes flat. When it is flat I am on the nitrous, when the line goes upwards and then flat and then downwards, those are moments I am off the nitrous. As you cans ee I was off the nitrous between the 1-2 shift, the 2-3 shift and again (twice) at the top of third gear. Anyways, I shifted 1-2 at 6,700 rpms, 2-3 at 6,230 rpms, and crossed the finish line at 6515 (of the nitrous). Same as last TnT event, I am out of rpms at the top of 3rd gear (more info on that later), but thats why you hear the engine "lay over" about 200 feet from the finish line.

Timeslip:



Datalog:


Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxxjR17KXVo



Pass 3:
Changed from a progressive 100 shot to a fixed 100 shot. Did a 6 second burnout and footbraked the launch from 2,002 rpms. Shifted 1-2 at 6,706 rpms, 2-3 at 6,417 rpms, and across the line at 6,536 rpms. Again, not on the nitrous with 200 feet left before the finish line.. out of rpms. I was on the button the whole time and the only time the nitrous turned off is when it hit the "high rpm limit" at the top of 1st gear and also at the top of 3rd gear. I did notice (and can be seen in the log also) that I had less footage between where I was and the finish line when the nitrous went off at the top of third. food for thought!

Timeslip:



Datalog:



Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqhbmUODOMQ




Pass 4:
I decided I was ready to change from a 100 shot to a 125 shot, so I did. Did a 7 second burnout and footbrake launched from 1693 rpms. Shifted 1-2 at 6,782 and 2-3 at 6486 rpms which put me crossing the line at 6477 rpms. I know the nitrous clicked off at the top of first gear, and it appears that I got off the button while shifting from 2-3..and didn't get back on the button for over 2 seconds.. .until I was mid way through 3rd gear! ugh, you can hear it in the video too.


Timeslip:



Datalog:




Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vf0lhM3OumI



continued below...