- Thread starter
- #26
david buschur
15+ Year Contributor
- 282
- 27
- Mar 29, 2004
-
wakeman, oh,
Ohio
We hit the track tonight with the car again. Last time out at the Shootout the car ran a 9.55 at 143 mph, the MPH made no sense as we ran 140 at 30 psi and only 143 at 38 psi. The next pass the pump failed in the trans, my thought was the trans was failing on the 9.55 pass.
We fixed the problems but didn't have a new HD flexplate so opted to use one I was skeptical about. The plan was to make one pass, get the car up in the air and then double check the bolts and go from there.
I drove the car on the street and it felt FAST.
I wanted to video tape and to be honest I enjoy watching "my creation" run so Kevin came out to drive it. He said he wanted to take it easy the first pass and come out soft, no burn out and leave a little extra air in the tires. I agreed.
Watching a run through a video camera sucks, I hate it but videos are great for advertising. So I did my duties and when he left it seemed weak. I was watching through the video camera thinking how slow the car was, WTF could be wrong with it and where to go from there. Then he crossed the finish line and I looked up to see the score board and saw a 9.31 at 146.73 mph and about shit myself. There was absolutely no way in hell the car just ran that fast, it looked like a 12 second pass to me!
Dean, Kevin's dad and my son Zachary were out there so we rushed back to the trailer. I knew we needed to check the torque converter bolts, pull a log and decide from there what to do with tire pressure and launch RPM.
We waited and waited.........Zachary volunteered to start walking to see where Kevin was and I went and found another racer with an ATV to go pull the car back.
The car was broke. I jacked it up and found all the bolts were gone and the holes in the flexplate were oblong by a good 1/2". Whatever happened wasn't good as it backed the damper off in the process and I can't turn the engine over. I'm guessing one of those bolts are lodged in the bell housing. Going to be a bi*** to get apart I am sure.
The good news. The trans works for sure. Kevin left the line at just 3800 rpm on the foot brake, 4.7 psi of boost is all, the car left soft and then he said it started to spin and he decided to ride the spin our instead of pumping the gas to get it to catch, the 60' time was still a 1.43, then it ran a 3.91 in the 330', 6.00 in the 1/8th at 118.86 mph and the 9.318 at 146.73 mph.
I pulled the log, 38 psi of boost peak, AFR's right where I want them, timing is still down maybe 5 degrees from where I'd set it on kill.
My guess is once again once the car was in 3rd gear the damage was being done.
I'm guessing it's going to take about 150-151 mph trap speeds to get the car in the 8.90's. This turbo really like 43-44 psi of boost and that's where we ran the 9.0 at 159 with the car on the 5 speed. So we have another 5-6 psi of boost to get to that sweet spot and we already know the car has run 1.39 sixty foot times, add it all up and I am very-very hopeful of running some great times.
So, tomorrow we will start taking it all apart to determine what got torn up this time. I'll have to wait for Kiggly to build the new custom flexplate for me, I sent him a sample and he's had it a few days now.
Still a good night, I have nothing to complain about. We are moving in the right direction and I'd rather sort it out than have customers trying to do it.
We fixed the problems but didn't have a new HD flexplate so opted to use one I was skeptical about. The plan was to make one pass, get the car up in the air and then double check the bolts and go from there.
I drove the car on the street and it felt FAST.
I wanted to video tape and to be honest I enjoy watching "my creation" run so Kevin came out to drive it. He said he wanted to take it easy the first pass and come out soft, no burn out and leave a little extra air in the tires. I agreed.
Watching a run through a video camera sucks, I hate it but videos are great for advertising. So I did my duties and when he left it seemed weak. I was watching through the video camera thinking how slow the car was, WTF could be wrong with it and where to go from there. Then he crossed the finish line and I looked up to see the score board and saw a 9.31 at 146.73 mph and about shit myself. There was absolutely no way in hell the car just ran that fast, it looked like a 12 second pass to me!
Dean, Kevin's dad and my son Zachary were out there so we rushed back to the trailer. I knew we needed to check the torque converter bolts, pull a log and decide from there what to do with tire pressure and launch RPM.
We waited and waited.........Zachary volunteered to start walking to see where Kevin was and I went and found another racer with an ATV to go pull the car back.
The car was broke. I jacked it up and found all the bolts were gone and the holes in the flexplate were oblong by a good 1/2". Whatever happened wasn't good as it backed the damper off in the process and I can't turn the engine over. I'm guessing one of those bolts are lodged in the bell housing. Going to be a bi*** to get apart I am sure.
The good news. The trans works for sure. Kevin left the line at just 3800 rpm on the foot brake, 4.7 psi of boost is all, the car left soft and then he said it started to spin and he decided to ride the spin our instead of pumping the gas to get it to catch, the 60' time was still a 1.43, then it ran a 3.91 in the 330', 6.00 in the 1/8th at 118.86 mph and the 9.318 at 146.73 mph.
I pulled the log, 38 psi of boost peak, AFR's right where I want them, timing is still down maybe 5 degrees from where I'd set it on kill.
My guess is once again once the car was in 3rd gear the damage was being done.
I'm guessing it's going to take about 150-151 mph trap speeds to get the car in the 8.90's. This turbo really like 43-44 psi of boost and that's where we ran the 9.0 at 159 with the car on the 5 speed. So we have another 5-6 psi of boost to get to that sweet spot and we already know the car has run 1.39 sixty foot times, add it all up and I am very-very hopeful of running some great times.
So, tomorrow we will start taking it all apart to determine what got torn up this time. I'll have to wait for Kiggly to build the new custom flexplate for me, I sent him a sample and he's had it a few days now.
Still a good night, I have nothing to complain about. We are moving in the right direction and I'd rather sort it out than have customers trying to do it.
