Decker0004
15+ Year Contributor
- 42
- 1
- Dec 1, 2003
Thank you
Shelor Motor Mile Speedway September 2nd & 3rd
It has taken me a long time to get to where I am now. Since late 03 when I purchased my first Eclipse, a 95 RS, I have wanted to race on the track. I am a Web Development major, so to me the most logical choice was to make a search on Google. That's when I found dsmtuners.com. One of the first things I learned was to use the search button. Almost every question I had, someone had already asked. All I needed to know was right there in the forums, the tech articles or the parts catalog. I learned quickly that if I wanted to go fast then the RS was not going to cut it for my budget so I started looking for a first generation Turbo.
One night riding through West Virginia I found a 90 GS, I took down the number and called the lot the next day. I was in luck, it was a one owner car that a nurse had drove back and fourth to work until she traded it in. The car only had 96 thousand miles. They were asking 3200 but when I started talking to them about having to replace the caps in the ECU (thanks everyone) and the fact that I had cash helped me to buy the car for 2400. Finally I had power.
I started to mod the car when I had money and I continued to read the forums at DSM Tuners so I could learn as much as I could. I sold the 95 RS and picked up a 91 A/T GS that had lost a timing belt for 600 so I could another 6 bolt to build. In this amount of time I also added another child to my growing household and I realized if I raced my GS and something happened then I would not have another car to drive. I had been trying to talk a friend of mine out of his 90 GSX for sometime. He never drove it because he spent all of his time in a 92 Galant GSX with a JDM Turbo Swap. When I told him my situation he sold me the car for 1600 and a set of 720 Denso injectors, I felt pretty good about the deal. He had not been able to get the car to start since he parked it for the summer. I thought about it for a little while and realized it must be the ecu, so I grabbed the rebuilt ecu from my GS(thanks Steve), plugged it in and prayed. The car fired on the first try.
I started working on the GSX when ever I could get time away from work, school, and the family. It took me from March to September 1st to have the car ready to race. I worked with what I had and spent a small amount of money to get the fuel and air flowing. I dropped a little more to get a new clutch and BG Syncro Shift II. (See mod list)
I spent this past week logging the car when I could get away for awhile. I was getting knock in the 4000 to 4500 range no matter what boost I was running 8 pounds or 16 pounds ether way I had knock. I ran a boost leak test and found a small leak coming from the Dejon upper intercooler pipe and with a little tightening the leak was gone. I replaced the fuel filter and installed an fpr off of the 91 A/T parts car, raising my base fuel pressure from 37 to 43. This helped to lower the knock from mid thirty's to peaking at 16. I remember reading what andymoraitis had said about adding race gas to the mix to see if it could be a bad sensor or mechanical knock, so I decided to wait and see what happened when I got to the track.
Thanks to the hurricane/storm that rolled up the east cost they were calling for rain on Friday, I worked this long trying to get my car to the track and going to rain. I was very disappointed. Friday came around and just as I expected rain. I checked with my mother-in-law about mid day to see what the weather was near the track. She works just a few miles away and she let me know that it had been raining there all morning but it had let up about an hour before my call. She suggested I call the track and check on there plains. The gentlemen I talked to said they had started prepping the track as soon as the rain let up and everything looked good. Yes! It was finally going to happen, or so I thought.
I kept in contact with my Uncle who races a Nova at the track on constant bases. My Uncle arrived at the track first and I called him to find that the track was pretty dead. By the time I got to the gate the official told me they were getting ready to call it off. It boiled down to there not being enough people to pay the employees if they kept it open. I have been so excited all week along there was no way I could wait another week with out running my car. What other options did I have? I have only been down the track once and that was in my Dads 80 Z28 that has 160,000 on it and he was in the passenger seat telling me what to do the whole time (9.3 in the 1/8th). My Uncle stepped in with a suggestion to save the day, come back the next morning make the two time trial runs in DOT street and if I did not want to race then drop out because of car trouble. Although I was not big on lying to anyone it would give me the chance to see if all this hard work would pay off. If I did want to back out then I could fall back on the problems I have been having with knock and I would not have to lie. I decided to sleep on it.
Race Day
My father raced a lot when he was younger and then gave it up after I was born, not because of me, he just ran out of time to mess with it. He still owns the car, it's a perfect 1970 SS 396 Nova that will never touch the track again. It's worth too much money for him to take the chance on totaling it. That's why he picked up the Z28 when he retired, but with its tired old engine the best pass he's made so far was a 9.07. I had to beat it. All I have wanted out of this year was to get into the 8's at the Motor Mile's 1/8th mile track and after Dad started running, it made me want it that much more. We all know it's hard to get respect from a true American Muscle car fanatic. I wanted to beat him quick before he built a new engine to go in it.
When I arrived at the track the next day, after being so excited I could not sleep on it, I went straight for the 110 octane. I purchased two gallons at 6.50 to mix with the three gallons of 93 I had already had. I was very nervous but my Uncle Matt showed up and started helping me on what ever I needed. Matt is only two years older then me and we grew up together so he is more like a brother then an Uncle. I had already gutted the back end of the car and scraped up all the sound detaining material but Matt suggested I remove the passenger seat until the end of the day, so we made quick work of loosing about fifty pounds.
We waited for what seemed like forever for footbrake and Super Pro to do there first time trial, and when I heard "DOT" come over the loud speakers my heart started its own run down the track. I had asked Matt to do two things for me, one was to direct me around the water box and the other was to make sure I did not forget to hit go on my logger. Matt also comes from an old V8 background so he was amazed by this little computer I had laying in my lap. Slowly working my way down the staging lanes I kept going over everything I had studied over the years in the Drag Racing Basics thread. I had already decided that I was going to try and launch at 4500 rpms. When it came to my turn and Matt started directing me as close to the wall as possible to avoid the water everything else just disappeared. There where no crowded stands and no other cars behind me it was just me and the light. I pulled up and finally took notice of the 5.0 in the lane beside me. I had seen him race before and I knew that I was out of my league but that did not worry me, I was here to race the clock. I locked in the first light and waited for the mustang to do the same and then I eased myself forward to queue the second light. My foot went down to the gas and I revved up to a steady 4000-4500 and just thought about what I had read about going when the final yellow light hit. First yellow, second yellow and then when I saw the last yellow I eased the clutch out and punched the gas all in one fluid motion. The tires barked and I was off, 7000 shift, 7000 shift, 4000, 4500, 5000 and the race was over. I slowly eased on the brakes and let the mustang make the turn before me since he had been there for a while. I could not wait to see the time so when I pulled up to the ticket hut I stopped long enough to see 9.4 at 73 mph. Damn, but it was only my first run.
I remembered feeling the car fall flat above 6500 and thought about what I had read about the stock cams dropping off around then. I needed to install my EBay shift light. I always solder my connections so the idea of hooking it up with only black tape almost stopped me, but since it would go in the same location as my SAFC wires I diced to go for it. After I hooked it up and got it adjusted by testing it at 3000 rpm's and then placing it at 6500, I thought about the logger. I got truth about my sift points first, I actually launched at 5375. My second gear shift came at 7125 and third at 6812. I let off over the line at 5968. KNOCK I got a peak of 5 counts in first at 4750 and in second it went from 0 at 6750 to 17 at 6843, and third gear was fine. Hmmm what to do, I checked the SAFC and I had it set to 0 across the board accept from 5000 to 7000 where I had added in 4%. I was thinking it might be reach knock because I knew 14 psi was fine on race gas, so I flattened it back to 0 and raised the boost half a turn.
When it was mine turn up again we lucked up and got a lane that let me go all the way around the water. I noticed that I was racing a late 90s Z28 and never thought anything else about it. When I got to the line the official motioned me to stay back while he cleaned up the track in front of me, finally I was able to stage with the Z28 already waiting on me. I paid better attached to my rpm's and when I launched I never lost grip. When I slammed it in to second I could feel the car surge forward like I had never felt it before and I looked down long enough to see I had hit 16 psi. The red from my shift light illuminated my dash and I pushed it up to third and held on. I passed the finish line with the Z28 on my bumper. I just beat a Z28 WOW. I was excited and even more so when I got to the ticket box and saw Matt waiting for me with his thumbs in the air. I pulled up and took my first ever white ticket as Matt climbed in the car. I did it, 8.96 at 77.17 mph with the Z28 getting a 9.2 at 75. I was ecstatic; I could not believe I got in the 8s on my second run. All the work, all the studying and constantly hitting that search button had finally paid off. I beat my Dad. My Uncle Mark(the one with the Nova) was very excited for me. His cars best run so far had been an 8.8 he could not believe what that little four cylinder could do. They asked if I was going to go on and race and I told them there was no way I would miss it.
I realized that I had forgotten to hit the go button on the logger, so I started getting iffy on running the race. I did not want anything to happen to the car. I felt like I had shifted before the major knock point so I decided to go ahead. When it was time to go again I was ready, I wanted to race. I decided to dial in at 8.94 and see what happened. If I broke out I would be happy because my main concern for the day was to see how the car preformed. I was paired with a Chevy Chevelle that had dialed in at 9.5. Cool another V8 that I was faster then. We both staged and the lights started down and when I saw the first flicker of the last yellow I slamed the gas and watched as the green light turned to red. Seeing the red light through me off, I was disappointed and I shifted out of first late. I noticed that the Chevelle never left the light; I thought he was just taking his time since he had already won. I found out when I got back to my spot that he had broken something. My final run was a 9.2 at 77.17 mph. The mph was the same as the 8.96 but I spun off the line so my 60' time went from a 1.98 to a 2.14. I was very satisfied with my day and I decided not to buy back in since I was still showing knock. I went back home with a filling of accomplishment.
I want to thank everyone that posts here at dsmtuners.com because you have all helped me to reach my goals. This is officially my tenth post on dsmtuners and I am still listed as a new member but thanks to all of you, I know I can make all of my goals with this car come true.
If you guys have any ideas on my knock let me know. I am going to switch it out with the one on my fwd because I know it works and see what happens. If it fixes it I will order a new one.
Here are a few pictures.
Shelor Motor Mile Speedway September 2nd & 3rd
It has taken me a long time to get to where I am now. Since late 03 when I purchased my first Eclipse, a 95 RS, I have wanted to race on the track. I am a Web Development major, so to me the most logical choice was to make a search on Google. That's when I found dsmtuners.com. One of the first things I learned was to use the search button. Almost every question I had, someone had already asked. All I needed to know was right there in the forums, the tech articles or the parts catalog. I learned quickly that if I wanted to go fast then the RS was not going to cut it for my budget so I started looking for a first generation Turbo.
One night riding through West Virginia I found a 90 GS, I took down the number and called the lot the next day. I was in luck, it was a one owner car that a nurse had drove back and fourth to work until she traded it in. The car only had 96 thousand miles. They were asking 3200 but when I started talking to them about having to replace the caps in the ECU (thanks everyone) and the fact that I had cash helped me to buy the car for 2400. Finally I had power.
I started to mod the car when I had money and I continued to read the forums at DSM Tuners so I could learn as much as I could. I sold the 95 RS and picked up a 91 A/T GS that had lost a timing belt for 600 so I could another 6 bolt to build. In this amount of time I also added another child to my growing household and I realized if I raced my GS and something happened then I would not have another car to drive. I had been trying to talk a friend of mine out of his 90 GSX for sometime. He never drove it because he spent all of his time in a 92 Galant GSX with a JDM Turbo Swap. When I told him my situation he sold me the car for 1600 and a set of 720 Denso injectors, I felt pretty good about the deal. He had not been able to get the car to start since he parked it for the summer. I thought about it for a little while and realized it must be the ecu, so I grabbed the rebuilt ecu from my GS(thanks Steve), plugged it in and prayed. The car fired on the first try.
I started working on the GSX when ever I could get time away from work, school, and the family. It took me from March to September 1st to have the car ready to race. I worked with what I had and spent a small amount of money to get the fuel and air flowing. I dropped a little more to get a new clutch and BG Syncro Shift II. (See mod list)
I spent this past week logging the car when I could get away for awhile. I was getting knock in the 4000 to 4500 range no matter what boost I was running 8 pounds or 16 pounds ether way I had knock. I ran a boost leak test and found a small leak coming from the Dejon upper intercooler pipe and with a little tightening the leak was gone. I replaced the fuel filter and installed an fpr off of the 91 A/T parts car, raising my base fuel pressure from 37 to 43. This helped to lower the knock from mid thirty's to peaking at 16. I remember reading what andymoraitis had said about adding race gas to the mix to see if it could be a bad sensor or mechanical knock, so I decided to wait and see what happened when I got to the track.
Thanks to the hurricane/storm that rolled up the east cost they were calling for rain on Friday, I worked this long trying to get my car to the track and going to rain. I was very disappointed. Friday came around and just as I expected rain. I checked with my mother-in-law about mid day to see what the weather was near the track. She works just a few miles away and she let me know that it had been raining there all morning but it had let up about an hour before my call. She suggested I call the track and check on there plains. The gentlemen I talked to said they had started prepping the track as soon as the rain let up and everything looked good. Yes! It was finally going to happen, or so I thought.
I kept in contact with my Uncle who races a Nova at the track on constant bases. My Uncle arrived at the track first and I called him to find that the track was pretty dead. By the time I got to the gate the official told me they were getting ready to call it off. It boiled down to there not being enough people to pay the employees if they kept it open. I have been so excited all week along there was no way I could wait another week with out running my car. What other options did I have? I have only been down the track once and that was in my Dads 80 Z28 that has 160,000 on it and he was in the passenger seat telling me what to do the whole time (9.3 in the 1/8th). My Uncle stepped in with a suggestion to save the day, come back the next morning make the two time trial runs in DOT street and if I did not want to race then drop out because of car trouble. Although I was not big on lying to anyone it would give me the chance to see if all this hard work would pay off. If I did want to back out then I could fall back on the problems I have been having with knock and I would not have to lie. I decided to sleep on it.
Race Day
My father raced a lot when he was younger and then gave it up after I was born, not because of me, he just ran out of time to mess with it. He still owns the car, it's a perfect 1970 SS 396 Nova that will never touch the track again. It's worth too much money for him to take the chance on totaling it. That's why he picked up the Z28 when he retired, but with its tired old engine the best pass he's made so far was a 9.07. I had to beat it. All I have wanted out of this year was to get into the 8's at the Motor Mile's 1/8th mile track and after Dad started running, it made me want it that much more. We all know it's hard to get respect from a true American Muscle car fanatic. I wanted to beat him quick before he built a new engine to go in it.
When I arrived at the track the next day, after being so excited I could not sleep on it, I went straight for the 110 octane. I purchased two gallons at 6.50 to mix with the three gallons of 93 I had already had. I was very nervous but my Uncle Matt showed up and started helping me on what ever I needed. Matt is only two years older then me and we grew up together so he is more like a brother then an Uncle. I had already gutted the back end of the car and scraped up all the sound detaining material but Matt suggested I remove the passenger seat until the end of the day, so we made quick work of loosing about fifty pounds.
We waited for what seemed like forever for footbrake and Super Pro to do there first time trial, and when I heard "DOT" come over the loud speakers my heart started its own run down the track. I had asked Matt to do two things for me, one was to direct me around the water box and the other was to make sure I did not forget to hit go on my logger. Matt also comes from an old V8 background so he was amazed by this little computer I had laying in my lap. Slowly working my way down the staging lanes I kept going over everything I had studied over the years in the Drag Racing Basics thread. I had already decided that I was going to try and launch at 4500 rpms. When it came to my turn and Matt started directing me as close to the wall as possible to avoid the water everything else just disappeared. There where no crowded stands and no other cars behind me it was just me and the light. I pulled up and finally took notice of the 5.0 in the lane beside me. I had seen him race before and I knew that I was out of my league but that did not worry me, I was here to race the clock. I locked in the first light and waited for the mustang to do the same and then I eased myself forward to queue the second light. My foot went down to the gas and I revved up to a steady 4000-4500 and just thought about what I had read about going when the final yellow light hit. First yellow, second yellow and then when I saw the last yellow I eased the clutch out and punched the gas all in one fluid motion. The tires barked and I was off, 7000 shift, 7000 shift, 4000, 4500, 5000 and the race was over. I slowly eased on the brakes and let the mustang make the turn before me since he had been there for a while. I could not wait to see the time so when I pulled up to the ticket hut I stopped long enough to see 9.4 at 73 mph. Damn, but it was only my first run.
I remembered feeling the car fall flat above 6500 and thought about what I had read about the stock cams dropping off around then. I needed to install my EBay shift light. I always solder my connections so the idea of hooking it up with only black tape almost stopped me, but since it would go in the same location as my SAFC wires I diced to go for it. After I hooked it up and got it adjusted by testing it at 3000 rpm's and then placing it at 6500, I thought about the logger. I got truth about my sift points first, I actually launched at 5375. My second gear shift came at 7125 and third at 6812. I let off over the line at 5968. KNOCK I got a peak of 5 counts in first at 4750 and in second it went from 0 at 6750 to 17 at 6843, and third gear was fine. Hmmm what to do, I checked the SAFC and I had it set to 0 across the board accept from 5000 to 7000 where I had added in 4%. I was thinking it might be reach knock because I knew 14 psi was fine on race gas, so I flattened it back to 0 and raised the boost half a turn.
When it was mine turn up again we lucked up and got a lane that let me go all the way around the water. I noticed that I was racing a late 90s Z28 and never thought anything else about it. When I got to the line the official motioned me to stay back while he cleaned up the track in front of me, finally I was able to stage with the Z28 already waiting on me. I paid better attached to my rpm's and when I launched I never lost grip. When I slammed it in to second I could feel the car surge forward like I had never felt it before and I looked down long enough to see I had hit 16 psi. The red from my shift light illuminated my dash and I pushed it up to third and held on. I passed the finish line with the Z28 on my bumper. I just beat a Z28 WOW. I was excited and even more so when I got to the ticket box and saw Matt waiting for me with his thumbs in the air. I pulled up and took my first ever white ticket as Matt climbed in the car. I did it, 8.96 at 77.17 mph with the Z28 getting a 9.2 at 75. I was ecstatic; I could not believe I got in the 8s on my second run. All the work, all the studying and constantly hitting that search button had finally paid off. I beat my Dad. My Uncle Mark(the one with the Nova) was very excited for me. His cars best run so far had been an 8.8 he could not believe what that little four cylinder could do. They asked if I was going to go on and race and I told them there was no way I would miss it.
I realized that I had forgotten to hit the go button on the logger, so I started getting iffy on running the race. I did not want anything to happen to the car. I felt like I had shifted before the major knock point so I decided to go ahead. When it was time to go again I was ready, I wanted to race. I decided to dial in at 8.94 and see what happened. If I broke out I would be happy because my main concern for the day was to see how the car preformed. I was paired with a Chevy Chevelle that had dialed in at 9.5. Cool another V8 that I was faster then. We both staged and the lights started down and when I saw the first flicker of the last yellow I slamed the gas and watched as the green light turned to red. Seeing the red light through me off, I was disappointed and I shifted out of first late. I noticed that the Chevelle never left the light; I thought he was just taking his time since he had already won. I found out when I got back to my spot that he had broken something. My final run was a 9.2 at 77.17 mph. The mph was the same as the 8.96 but I spun off the line so my 60' time went from a 1.98 to a 2.14. I was very satisfied with my day and I decided not to buy back in since I was still showing knock. I went back home with a filling of accomplishment.
I want to thank everyone that posts here at dsmtuners.com because you have all helped me to reach my goals. This is officially my tenth post on dsmtuners and I am still listed as a new member but thanks to all of you, I know I can make all of my goals with this car come true.
If you guys have any ideas on my knock let me know. I am going to switch it out with the one on my fwd because I know it works and see what happens. If it fixes it I will order a new one.
Here are a few pictures.
Last edited by a moderator:
and congrats again.
