Getting my new 406 SBC installed, running, and driving

[IROCZman15]

thanks matt. I'm digging it too. I'm going to take the car for a drive tomorrow and bust out the laptop too to get the tune stuff lined up if it needs it.
adam- I'm probably not going to do an alignment because these wheels will basically only be used for the drive to/from the dragstrip and while making passes. Since I did the alignment last year with the new Falken tires on the street/show/autocross wheels, its pretty well dialed in and I don't want to mess with it. You do bring up a good point though, and I am curious to see how it drives and street manners.

[IROCZman15]

Took the car out this afternoon, but whew there was a lot of people on the road so didn't get crazy. Made some adjustments to the idle in the driveway, and with the new placement of the oxygen sensors they are able to get a better more uniform reading of each bank.. but especially I am able to have a more accurate idle and I did NOT come home smelling like exhaust fumes which was a common occurrence these past two years. Still will need some tuning at WOT because I was seeing AFR numbers in 11s, 10,s and occasional 9s when I would get heavy on the pedal. Obviously it lacked power there too and I felt it. I'll see what I need to do to get that dialed in, but the exhaust/muffler is opening up and getting a nice louder sound to it. I know I have fouled plugs from all the quick on/off cold starts over the winter but I actually didn't expect really rich AFR numbers when doing the exhaust project; in fact I expected leaner afr numbers instead. Next drive I will take more datalogs, but the ones I took show some pretty heavy CL comp negative numbers (pulling fuel out) while still being rich. Light blue line is target AFR, pink line is actual AFR, and yellow line is CL comp%. I'll dig into it soon. Learn table data said it was Adding fuel at these rpms too!





.

All coolant temps and numbers were good on the dashboard. Had between 30-40 psi of oil pressure at hot idle, and right between 65-70 when on the throttle. Still running that winter 10-30 thin oil for another week and then I will switch back to the 20-50 VR1 for the rest of the year. The drivers side (holley) afr readings are about half a point leaner than the passenger side (AEM wideband) numbers. I think I am probably a little low on trans fluid too and might need a slight adjustment of the TV-cable, but will check that out. The new rear wheels handled just fine along with the skinnies. No rubbing from anything in the front or the back. Put some air in the rear drag bags too and the rear suspension was quite firm, so I'll tone it down if needed, but I don't plan on doing frequent road driving with these wheels on either. Took a few photos too.

oil pressure at idle:



..and oil pressure at moderate throttle:

[LTb1ow]

I would change plugs prior to transferring any learn over.

[Blackbirdws6]

Ditto on the new plugs. Looks great with the wheels/tires.

[sweetbmxrider]

Wheel/tire setup does look good

[IROCZman15]

It has been a while but I do have an update.
Despite the several times I wanted to go to the track in March and April, the repeated bad weather and rain-outs didn't allow my spring shakedown of the car to happen until just this past weekend. Even the swap meet I wanted to go to, got rained out. Anyways, prior to going, I had done some street driving and street rips with the car and was moderately "ok" with the AFR numbers I saw on both the Holley and the new AEM gauge. The car felt pretty slow on the street and I had done datalogs and tune revisions several times. Basically I would do a pull in 2nd or 3rd gear, and the car was real rich at tip-in and stayed that way while sloooowly climbing the rpms. Adjustments to the base table and AE were never really fully successful, so I went into the Test and Tune Friday night at Island Dragway with pretty low expectations . However, I knew that if I got a few actual WOT dragstrip passes, I could probably dial in the tune better. Jerry and my buddy John went to the track too, and Jerry brought the firebird. I had hoped to get about 5 runs on the night but that plan came to a halt when a huge oil down happen just after the first few sets of the cars went down the track. That cleanup took 1 hour and 50 minutes, so basically 2 hours of a 4 hour race night were gone and I didn't have a pass in yet, and temps were going down as well as track surface temperature.









Pass 1:

Finally got to make my first pass at 9:21pm, and it went pretty well surprisingly. I had set the brand new rear MT tires at 19.5 psi. Air bags were at 7psi drivers side and 11 psi passenger side. Rear shocks were both set at 4/5 so on the tighter side. After a 3.5 second burnout I footbraked the launch from 1109 rpms. Rear tires had a very slight slip, but then hooked and I shifted 1-2 at 6,490 rpms. rpms dropped to 4,816 in second gear and I shifted a bit early at 6195 rpms. Rpms dropped to 4,772 in 3rd gear and then I crossed the finish line at 6,069 rpms. I was targeting a 12.8 AFR in closed loop and total timing was 34.0 deg advances. The car felt good, and it didnt do anything funny, but I expected a low 12 second slip. Was certainly surprised to see an 11.78 e.t. at 115.7 mph, which is actually my fastest N/A pass to date (previously was 11.800 back in november 2021)
-Checked the datalog and was happy with what I saw, but knew I might only get 1 or two more runs in for the night. the fueling still went rich at the hit, like very rich (in open loop), but as soon as closed loop came on, it cleared it up and I looked over the CL comp numbers. I would love to get that rich dip out, but pulling fuel from the base table (open loop) and the AE functions still doesn't seem to help?

Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EswZSWsQqP8



Timeslip:






Datalog:






Pass 2:

I was satisfied enough with that NA pass but I know I could improve on it NA later on in the coming weeks. Did not pull spark plugs, maybe I should have checked a few. I wanted to see how a nitrous pass would do and I had to decide if I should do a fixed 150 shot and see if it would hold the launch, OR do a progressive ramp. i decided to try the fixed 150 shot knowing if I got a 3rd pass I could load the progressive tune in and make adjustments if needed. Jerry jumped in the gamblers $ race and John was running his Envoy because his silver 3rd gen TransAm is still not up and ready. Jerry video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nv-F-gifsWs

With the 150 shot tune loaded, I kept the shocks and air bags the same. I lowered the rear tire pressure from 19.5 to 18.0 psi. Did a 5 second burnout. I launched from a dead idle at 921 rpms. The nitrous came in withte full 150 shot mid way through 1st gear (as I set it to do) and it spun the tires. I pedaled it very quickly, got off the button, and then got back into it, shifting 1-2 shift at 6,611 rpms. The rpms dropped to 5,272 in second gear. Took second gear to 6,607 rpms and it dropped to 5,023 rpms in 3rd gear. Nitrous turns off at the shifts if I hit the hi-side 6,500 rpm limit I pre-set. I crossed through the finish line at 6,510 rpms which was just a fraction of a second after the nitrous clicked off.



Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpEYRY72Cp4


Timeslip:





Datalog:





pass 3:
I now knew that I would have to wait until another day to test the full nitrous launch, but I looked over the datalog and aside from the spin in 1st gear, I was happy enough with the AFR numbers that I saw. I target 12.4 afr on nitrous and the holley adjusts CL comp to this. My AEM gauge is usually a bit richer with the readings, in the 12.0-12.2 range if the holley is reading 12.5. (still not sure why..) So at this point in time, I am happy keeping the afr rich (safe) and then working from there as opposed to running it lean and dialing it back. I loaded the progressive 150 nitrous tune in, which ramps from 50%-->100% in 1.2 seconds (essentially spraying a 75 shot ramped to a 150 shot in 1.2 seconds; see below) I also increased the rpm rev-limiter for the nitrous cut-off to be at 6,700 rpms instead of the 6,500 rpms from last run. John advised I try the other lane and that I take more psi out of the rear tires so I brought them down to 17.0 psi.
- I did a decent burnout, but as I rolled to the line I did not see that the guy next to me had pulled way past the line and started staging with his back tires. At this point I was already staged, while they rolled him back. I probably could have rolled back out, but I decided to just stay where I was at. He finally got it sorted out and when the tree dropped I left from an approx 920 rpm idle again. I felt the tire slip (maybe like 1/3 of 1 rotation, not too much), but then it was allll good. unfortunately the datalog recorded very stupidly and it only has very strange intermittent data points. the log started recording normal, and even ended normal, but the whole middle, it only seemed to record about 1 data point every half second. So I have no data on shift points, rpms, fueling, closed loop compensation, or anything. That especially is sad, because this is data I wish i had for the future, because this turned out to be my best pass to date, with a 10.77 at 126.7 mph !


Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUphOhmyzqk
-***- watch this video until the very end for a weird surprise as to what I saw happen!


Timeslip:



Datalog (if you can even call this nonsense a datalog?!?!)


(entire datalog) see how it starts and ends with LOTS of data points, but gets "dumb" ? what the heck is that about?!?1


progressive nitrous tune settings/limits/timing:


and






I did NOT expect any personal best timeslips during this shakedown-session , but I am ok with how it turned out. The personal goal I set over a decade for this car was mid-high 10s on nitrous and mid-high 11s on motor. If this car can pull a 10.55 timeslip at 130 mph, I will consider that as "goal accomplished", so I am hoping I can get there. Maybe on a day with a sticky track for a great launch (and wheelie) and i can up the jets to the 175 shot or the 200 shot. After hanging out with the fellas in the pits, I packed up and drove the car home, thumping into the garage at 12:30 am with a sense of relief that the car didn't do anything dumb after a big winter of garage work.






The next morning, with the tools removed from the car, I took it over to get an approximate "race weight" on the car at the local stone quarry's scale. With me in the car it weighed 3,620 pounds, which is heavier than last year. Later on in the day I switched the race wheels out, put the subwoofers and amplifier back in the car and weighed it in "street weight setup" to learn that it weighs 3,780 pounds with me in it.






While looking over the car remembered that I had heard a clunking noise from the back of the car when going over some bumps on turns. Soon noticed that it looks like the "roto-joint" end on the axle side of my UMI Panhard bar is experiencing some wear and clunking. It was hard for me to film it and shake the car at the same time, but you get the idea
video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmgMg8miHmI
I guess I will call/email them and see if it is salvageable, or if I need a new joint.

[sweetbmxrider]

Nice passes! Congrats on the new bests, too.

[townsend]

nice work!

[Blackbirdws6]

Can't argue with progress. Nice work! 10.50's aren't far away!!

[IROCZman15]

thanks guys. I'll keep on chipping away at it. Hopefully some more Test-n-tune and I can get the timeslip I've been after for a long time.
the car is running pretty darn good on the street too, and I put about 80 miles on it last weekend.


- I emailed UMi abotu the loose roto-joint on the panhard bar. They advised that it most likely just needed to be disassembled and then I could tighten up the outer face of the adjuster and snug up the set screw. I did that, and t fixed it right up! awesome


I am thinking that I might go to the Nostalgia Spring event this upcomign Sunday May 1st at Island Dragway.
https://www.islanddragway.com/events/list/
Since I have yet to make a set of consistent nitrous passes, I would probably be better off just running the car N/A since it has become pretty consistent that way, and maybe I could go a few rounds in the N2 (10.00-11.99) class?

[IROCZman15]

I went over to the Nostalgia Spring Event at Island Dragway on Sunday May 1. Lots of cars were there and the weather was good almost all of the day until 6pm. Jerry was there with his firebird, and I had already decided to run all motor for the bracket-race event because the car is much more consistent that way at this point in the game. We got two time-shots (test runs) so I did one in each lane.
I have in-car video footage, and it had audio with it, but I think when I clipped the videos to length I didn't click the button for retaining the audio.. so that stinks, no sound. Sorry.


Pass 1: (test pass)
Footbraked the launch from a dead idle and launched at 966 rpms. Shifted 1-2 at 6,571 rpms and 2-3 at 6,386 rpms and going across the finish line at 5,949 rpms. Felt good, and turned out to be my best NA pass to date by a little bit. Track photographer snapped a photo of the leave, and the rear squat is looking much better with the air-bags and these taller tires... but it was nothing dramatic for a launch photo. .




Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNgIE0JluEE

Timeslip:



Datalog :




Pass 2: (test pass)
After looking at the learn data and datalog, I was happy and left everything with the tune alone... in fact I just re-used the same tune as pass 1.
Car felt slower, and timeslip confirmed it, but not by too much. I think engine temp, air temp, and heat soak to the sniper tbi were a factor. Footbrake launch from 1741 rpms. Shifted 1-2 at 6,564, shifted 2-3 at 6,596 and finished at 5,931 rpms.

Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqQvrPVv76g

Timeslip:


Datalog:





Pass 3: (Round 1 Eliminations)
Chatted with Jerry and some other racing guys about what to do. I think I over-estimated how much I would want/need to slow the car down, so it was probably my mistake by dialing in an 11.85. My thought process was that I could tap the brakes if I was too far out ahead. Instead, I left way late on the tree, and around the 1100 foot mark the car int he other lane blew past me. I had actually just started to get off the throttle (see green colored dip on datalog, that is the the Throttle position sensor), but then when he passed me I got right back on the throttle thinking I was going to now be wayyy slow. Instead, I was still well below my dial-in and got knocked out.
- Footbrake launched at from 1828 rpms. 1-2 shift was at 6,623 rpms and I tagged the rev limiter just a bit. 2-3 shift was 6,583 rpms and I crossed the line at 5,933 rpms which was weird because I had gotten out of the throttle just one second prior.


Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUnwVphrTi4

Timeslip:



Datalog:






Pass 4: (test pass on nitrous)
I spoke to the track staff and as the event was winding down to a close (and the weather radar was showing a big rain storm coming right at us) I waited for more competition rounds to go on. When there was a break in the action, I did a solo test pass. I have been curious to move beyond the 150 nitrous shot, so I put in my home-math calculations for the 175 horsepower nitrous jets. I also knew that the track prep was great and the starting line should be great. but I didn't want to put a fixed 175 shot on the launch. So , I did a progressive ramp from 50% (of 175 hp) to 100% (of 175 hp) over the course of 1.4 seconds.
- I footbraked the launch and left at 2,032 rpms. I had the nitrous programmed to come on at 2,800 rpms and when it did, I felt the front drivers side wheel come up and then touch back down to the ground. The launch was great and was the best 60 foot I have had to date. In fact, everythign about the pass was the best to date, especially 106 mph in the 8th mile and the 10.601 e.t. Anyways, first gear ran up quick and it was on the rev limiter faster than I could react to, so I lost a little bit there, but I shifted 1-2 at 6,641. The 2-3 shift was at 6,536 rpms and I went through the finish line at 6,571 rpms. It felt fast, especially the first half of hte track. Was bittersweet to see my timeslip, because I was hioping that it was the 10.5x second pass I have been working towards, but instead it was just supppperrrr close to it. However, that means that I now know a 10.5x pass is possible. Mayyybe not a 130 mph speed though.
- I was pretty stoked about the 1-wheel in the air launch, but sadly, by this late hour in the day, the track photographers were long gone so I only have the dashcam footage (with no audio sadly) ad you can see the hood shake a little bit as the tire came down. But there was this video from the bleachers with audio, and I actually think the car sounds damn good with the true sound of just one small block chevy with a full muffled exhaust system and on nitrous going down the track.


Video (in car)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzFt4zYqYks


spectators video:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/gwdetMeYnuQ


Timeslip:



Datalog:



I am pretty sure that I can now go back one day when the track prep is really good and the track photographer is there in order to get a photo of the car lifting a wheel (or 2) up at the launch. I also think the 175 shot will get me into the 10.5x territory, but if not I can put in the jets for a 200 shot and that should be it.
-as I was packing the car up, the sky grew dark and rain drops started. Yet, it didn't rain too hard and I had a pretty easy drive home. Good times indeed. the car seems happy too.

[sweetbmxrider]

Awesome, Dave. Glad the car is performing well. Hard work is paying off now

[Blackbirdws6]

Getting closer!!! Spray it all.

[IROCZman15]

Its been a little while and this was a good time to update this thread.


Did a few car shows and cruise nights in recent months, and a bunch of street driving, but was unable to get the car to any local SCCA or MSNE autocross events; as my wife and I had our first baby who was born mid June.
Like last year, I was hopeful that I could get some autocross laps in before the big UMI Autocross challenge event, but sadly that was not the case.


The UMI event was this past weekend, and I barely had time to pack and prep the car. The day before leaving I took the car over to weigh it with almost all of the gear and tools in the car, and it weighted 4040 pounds. The next day I packed the rest of the stuff which was another 30-40 pounds, so the car was heavy for the 230 mile trip out to the track. Left med day on Thursday and the drive was pretty damn good. Spent about 80% of the drive cruising at 80-85 mph with the torque converter locked-up. Since I had decided to save some money and not stay at the hotel this year, I drove directly to the track. Stayed in a tent this year, as many more people each year are camping in motorhomes, trailers, tents and whatnot. Got setup, unpacked car, registered and hungout with a bunch of familiar faces, as well as walking the track. the weather was due to be hot all weekend, with temps mostly in the 90's.

Friday went well, I might add some details later, but having not made any autocross laps in almost a year, I needed to get re-acclimated. I left a little bit on the table, but ran clean runs without any cone penalties which is more important to me early on in these events. I have to keep reminding myself,t hat I have done absolutely zero upgrades to the car to make it better prepared for any autocross since last year. Every year, these guys are getting faster and building better cars, and that is not the case for me this year. Almost everyone there shows up with their car on a trailer and ready to rip; only a very few street drive, and generally we are not that fast. Some people are running 3 and 4 degrees of negative camber, and I am only at -1 degree. For the most part, I am outgunned "off-the-bat" by about 50% of the cars there. Anyways, we got 3 runs in the morning and then 3 runs int he afternoon. Just prior to my final run of the day, a heavy rain and windstorm came in, so that delayed everything quite a bit. I took soem guest-riders on several runs and that is always fun to do. UMI provided a big lunch, and an even bigger bbq/grill dinner, along with nighttime entertainment of a country band, fire pits, and big cornhole tournament.


Saturday, they switched up the course and it was a modified reverse version of Friday. I got a little more aggressive during the runs, and got faster, but, of course, so did almost everyone else. Got 3 runs in the morning and after the UMI lunch got 3 more runs. Took some riders and on my very last run, I clipped 1 cone.
Hungout for a bit as the event finished up, then packed up my tent, gear, tools, etc. A big rain storm was heading to the area, so I bounced out of there about halfway through the awards ceremony. Got on the highway and made the long drive in a relativity short amount of time. Overall, out of 125 registered competitors, only 114 showed up and made any laps...and of that number, I finished in the 72nd spot of everyone, which puts me in teh 63rd percentile. Scott and Billy were there as usual, and they outgunned me by a bit this year.

The car never skipped a beat all weekend. Tires were outstanding, powertrain was stout. Power steering pump did not overheat and fail. Car behaved fantastic on the highway even loaded down with all the extra gear. The only catastrophe of the whole entire 4 day event was that during the rain/wind storm one of the fiberglass poles on my tent snapped.

I is unlikely I will have the time to get to any other autocross events this summer, but I might be able to get a few car shows in. I do plan on getting to some drag racing events in the fall, and would be very happy to get that elusive 10.5x timeslip. I am also super motivated to get a proper wheels-up launch, so I am going to start digging into that topic soon here on the forums. Possibly a different torque converter, since there are no reputable trans-brakes for a 700r. Anyways, the UMI Autocross event was spectacular, as always, and I look forward to doing it again next year.

[sweetbmxrider]

Seemed like a good time as usual. Thanks for sharing.

[Blackbirdws6]

I keep telling myself I'll get back there but other obligations make that a challenge. Glad you enjoyed the event. You're absolutely right on the number and quality of builds that show up.

Next year I'll hope to get there...

[IROCZman15]

Videos:
Watching playback of the videos is interesting. I know the course and keep watching saying, man it felt much faster, but looks so slow on the screen. The car is pretty much at its capability for g-forces and not spinning out or sliding around too much, so as fast as it was (and as slow as it looks on screen) is how its pretty much going to be.

Day 1:

Run 1: 41.821 seconds
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mts1HHvj3pM

Run 2: 40.293 seconds
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nvxldo-hxg

Run 3: 39.475 seconds
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCMnZkMsYz8

Run 4: 40.665 seconds
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tO_m3RGE25w

Run 5: 39.393 seconds
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuJUl82Tw_g

Run 6 39.801 seconds (after it rained and track still was wet in areas)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZNW55gTiZY


Day2:

Run 7 : 39.273 seconds
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9_TwCau6P4


Run 8: 37.931 seconds
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCkFSrNALs4


Run 9: 37.586 seconds
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eucnZk7-80Q


Run 10: 38.402 seconds
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpKJFaUUm-Y


Run 11: 37.553 seconds
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQvatPAydbM


Run 12: 37.364 seconds (plus one cone which is a 2 second penalty)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2cFIhqU7ac

[IROCZman15]

Woah, time flies. I have not had a chance to update this thread in quite a while. Life has been ultra busy, but the car has not been forgotten. In fact, in early August I finally got serious about the topic of a better 60foot and the hopeful "money shot" wheelie photo that I have always wanted to put on my garage wall. Spent a LOT of time researching stuff like transbrakes, converters, and suspension stuff, mostly on Thirdgen.org. In fact, I created an entire new thread about it over there and it is filled with pure technical info, advice, photos, videos, results, etc. Here is the link to it: https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/tran...d-wheelie.html (lots to read, not short)


Anyways, as you will see at the bottom of that thread, I do have the ew converter installed and the car is happy. I just need the rainy weather to cooperate so I can get this thing more dialed in before winter arrives.

The old Edge racing3400 lockup converter was great. Still it! It did outstanding things for the car, on the street, dragstrip, autocross, and on nitrous. But to hit my personal goals, I knew I needed to get something a little more purpose built for the car. Dave Meyers at Yank converters is awesome, and we spent a LOT of time on the phone in early August discussing all aspects of this topic. He is the owner of the company for decades, and every time I call, he is the only one who I speak with, no middle man and no confusion; very cool. We spec'd out a PAS-3800 which is the Power Adder Series with lockup and a 3800 stall. He has it setup to somehow take care of the BIG rpm drop that I used to experience between WOT shifts while drag racing too or as he called it the "shift extension". Its great. And the lockup clutch is super awesome too! For comparison, the Edge 3400 converter I would have it unlocked in OD on the highway and activate lockup manually and it would take 400-500 rpms out of the engine. The new yank 3800, If I lock it up in the same rpm are on the highway it takes 900-1000 rpms out of the engine! Truly feels like I have a 5th gear.



Some photos.














filling up trans fluid with little buddy

[IROCZman15]

this whole post is a copy-paste from TGo so I didn't have to retype it again for njfboa.
Sorry if the formatting is weird.


After getting the converter bolted in, trans back in, driveshaft, y-pipe, new spark plugs, fixing a stripped header bolt into the Dart 215 aluminum cylinder head, and topping off trans fluid, I went out at 11pm last friday night and put 121 miles on the car, making sure to lockup the converter manually probably more than 100 times, under light loads in several gears. The 3800 Yank converter takes a slight bit more throttle input than the 3400 Edge to get it going from a stop, but its not anything drastic or bothersome. Fluid temps stayed normal the whole time during this drive, but ESPECIALLY when I had it locked up. Wow, in OD (4th gear) on t he highway I was taking the unlocked rpms to about 3200 or so and then activating lockup, and it would take 900to1000 rpms out of it! The old edge converter took about 400-500 rpms out of it in OD, but this is double that. It engages with a solid feel and totally feels like I have a 5th gear; incredible. Got home around 12:45 am, well pleased. Put another 11 miles on the converter the next day while fueling up and whatnot, and then for the remainder of the 150 mile break in period I counted my slow and easy drive to Island Dragway as part of it on Sunday morning. This meant that I arrived at the track with no heavy-footed brake-stall testing or knowledge of how things would react under heavy load. Oh well, that's why I was just doing the Test-n-Tune portion of the race day and not the brackets.

After the usual safety-tech inspection I got the care prepped related to tire pressure and suspension settings.
** SIDENOTE; the tech guys confirmed some of the rumors that I had been hearing about most tracks starting to switch their big and medium sized race events over to 8th mile only. Only a few events and some test-n-tune events will remain 1/4 mile. I think a lot of people watched it happen elsewhere, and they said most north eastern tracks are doing this in 2023. Anyways, there was not that many cars and bikes there at the track, so I was hopeful that I would get a good 7or8 runs in, but we all knew that rain was on its way in the early afternoon.

Set front tires to 50psi, rear tires both to 18.4psi, rear shocks D: 2.5 and P: 3, rear air bags D: 7.2psi and P 10.2psi. I went off of the settings that were close to where I have had luck in the past, but I think I am going to soften up the bags, shocks, and tires in the future, just a little bit.

mid-typing photo break.






Pass 1:
Did a 6 second burnout, but I had the rpms too low and not sure if it was sufficient. Staged, and got on the footbrake while throttling up, but it revved past where I intended it to be, and slow pushed through the beams. So, I just launched and took the red light rather than restarting the process. The tires spun (track was glued but had no heat in it whatsoever yet). Pedaled it very quickly and it hooked and pulled the front drivers tire up a few inches! (Unknown about the converter flash on this pass due to the pedaling). Shifted at 6512 (rev limiter) and it dropped to 5138. Shifted from 2-3 at 6181 and it dropped to 5275. Crossed the finish line at 6042, but I was very tender on the throttle for my first pass with the converter, and I never went full WOT (see upper green line on the datalog, that's the TPS sensor. Normally it would be 100% the whole pass). Glad to not have any noises, weird vibrations, shakes, or issues after the whole converter/trans project; got the jitters out of my brain. DA was 1,441 and the temp was 64deg with 72% humidity. my mph was slow, but the sixty foot was better than I had EVER done wit the old converter, and again, this was with tire spin off the line!





Timeslip:



Datalog screenshot:



GoPro camera:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7Fdm2NVG3I



Dashcam:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDseA3LsBTg








Pass 2:
After a very brief look at the datalog, I jumped back in the lanes because there was talk of rain coming inbound. I kept the shocks and air bags the same, but lowered the rear tire pressure to 17.4 psi. Did another 6 second burnout, but had the rpms higher this time and got some heat into the tires. Footbraked the car to 18811 rpms and think I can go more in the future, but 1800 was my number last time or else it would push through the beams. Launched and according to the datalog, it looks like the converter flashed to 4773 rpms?! Datalog shows it went rich (9.6 afr) at tip in, so I will have to sort that out. It definitely lifted the front up on this pass, and that felt good. I short shifted it though, at 6267 which dropped to 5227 and then shifted the 2-3 at 6319 which dropped to 5365 in 3rd gear. Crossed the finish line at 6-63 rpms. It felt fast, despite the rich dip at the launch and the short shifting, and only being at a max of 91% throttle instead of 100% wot the whole pass, it went my fastest 1/4 mile e.t ever, of 11.67. Mph was slow, but I think I have an idea why. Most importantly,. the launch felt great, and the timeslip showed that It went 1.491 in the sixty foot, which is by far my fastest N/A sixty, and real close to my best ever nitrous launch sixty (which was 1.44). Dave Meyers at Yank had told me back in august, that my days of bring in the 1.6x second sixty foot zone were over and assured me I would be in the low 1.5x to high 1.4x sixty, and he was dead on, even on my first outing. WOW! Got a nice photo of it too. DA was 1412 and 64deg with 74% humidity.


Untitled by David Martin, on Flickr





Timeslip:





GoPro camera:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKu5XHdB1QI


Dashcam:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_O0e56IC5v4








Pass 3:
Decided that I was going to try an easy progressive nitrous pass, so I turned on the bottle. Small rain sprinkle came in and I had the bottle heater off. They dried the track quick and called us to the line, and I had no heat in the bottle so nitrous pressure was only 825 psi, very not-optimal. I had the 150 hp nitrous jets in there but had the shot ramped in from 50% of 150 hp over a 1.2 second sweep. So basically it was a 75 shot at the hit and then it would ramp to the 150 hp in 1.2 seconds. Did another 6 second burnout. Footbraked on the line to 1691 and launched. Car hooked and with the nitrous hitting, it looks like it flashed the converter to 5130 rpms. I short shifted 1-2 at 6297 which dropped rpms to 5717 in second gear (woah, only a 600 rpm drop! nice) Took second gear to a short shifting 6208 rpms and this dropped it to 5574 rpms in 3rd. I had set my high-side rpm limit on the nitrous to turn the nitrous off at 6300 so at the top end of the track it hit that nitrous rev limiter a few hundred feet away from the line, so I got off the nitrous button and finished all motor at 6263 rpms. Timeslip was pretty good, again, testing only today. DA was 1560 at 66 def and 74% humidity.




Timeslip:




Datalog screenshot:




GoPro:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JD7Erz96S8


Dashcam:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtjQLzYHd5s




Was super motivated to get another pass in, and I had changed the nitrous settings to be a fixed all-in 150hp shot which would come on at 3,200 rpms in 1st gear. I heated up the bottle to 975 psi in the lanes, and just as they were running the motorcycles it began to rain with no chance of it stopping anytime soon. So, just when i had my confidence boosted up, the track closed for the day. Packed up the car in the rain and chatted with a few of my buddies before hitting the road. Drove the car home in the rain with zero issues. Overall a good first test outing, but I know I would have benefitted from a few more test passes. I am elated about some of the numbers I am seeing, especially the less severe rpm drop in between changing gears, which is something Dave Meyers said his converter would resolve! I had left the whole 4" mufflex exhaust system off the car when installing the converter/trans and I am definitely going to put that back on (later today probably) and do an oil change. I want to check spark plugs too, and a few other things, but I am super excited to get back out to the dragstrip for some more passes. Was planning on going tomorrow, but this rain from hurricane Ian is now here in NJ and it might wash out the whole weekend. Nonetheless, I am going to prep and pack the car to go race tomorrow anyways.
***Oh, and the photos I took of the photographers online photos, I DID buy two color printouts from him, but they will take 2 weeks to be delivered, so I didn't really steal these from his website, since I paid for prints.. I just don't have them yet.

So, some more track time, and a nice 150 fixed nitrous shot launch looks promising for getting both wheels up high in the air and a nice photo! And some real quick sixty foots I hope are also in store!



I'd say at least 60% of my race events these past few years end up with me driving home in the rain. Ha, but ugh!

[thehazguy]

Dave,nice shot yanking the wheel(s).

Took some time but your work has paid off.

Nice job.

[3.4 grape of wrath]

I'd say she's a keeper, nice job.

[Joey D]

Great wheelie pic. Sorry I brought the rain when I showed up to watch.

[IROCZman15]

thanks guys...more to come, hopefully this Sunday goes well.
Nostalgia event at Island with some of the normal weekend bracket racing classes, plus vintage funny cars, about 8 of them. So, the track will definitely be good and prepped, and maybe, if I can do my job right launching the car on a nitrous hit, I can get the nose of the car another 8" in the air for a killer photo. But I also want to run fast and get some timeslips to better my old converter setup.


link to Sunday:
https://www.islanddragway.com/event/...s-neto-mandra/

[V]

Awesome work, progress, and dedication.


I wanna get my car to Island for some Test and tune before they close for the season. Not sure when though. I haven't been to the track since like 2012 so i'll probably embarrass myself. Too bad no one is having a rental that I know of.

[sweetbmxrider]

Glad you got a good converter in there now, can’t wait to see a full nitrous pass.