First Day At The Track
 

Here's a couple of shots of Mutt on the trailer, ready to go to Coastal Plains tomorrow. While 1/4 mile isn't ideal it'll give me a chance to test and tune.

http://www.bangshift.com/forum/filed...2954&type=full


Same shot, different angle. I didn't take one from the other side 'cause the sun would have been in exactly the wrong place.
'
' http://www.bangshift.com/forum/filed...3037&type=full


Enjoy! I know I will.

News Flash! We made the runs as planned and outside of a couple of glitches all went well. First of all the Mutt (the S-10) got a lot of lookers and the feedback was all positive. Few of the folks understand LSR but that's OK.

The track was set up for 1/8 mile yesterday (they sometimes do 1/4 if they expect a bunch of slower street cars - there isn't enough shutdown area to run faster cars a full 1/4 mile) so I got limited data but mostly I got to do a shakedown and see how everything is working. Just for fun - after an easy first pass I averaged about 13.8 seconds and 51ish MPH. I wasn't expecting more and was satisfied with this.

The engine ran great and there was no overheating or anything. It got to about 200 in the staging lanes but I switched on the fans and it came right back down to 180 or so. Perfect! The trans worked perfectly as did the clutch and my manual brake conversion. The grinding into reverse is diminishing which I think means that the pilot bearing is clearanceing itself.

The big glitch was that my spiffy idle stop solenoid intermittently failed meaning that I'd have to hold the idle with my foot. NOT handy! So I'm sittin' in the tub washing away the grime of the day and it comes to me.....HEAT! The solenoid sits on the cam cover with one end hanging over the exhaust manifold and it didn't work after a run or when otherwise heated up. So today my job is to build a heat shield to go under the solenoid and deflect the heat away - should work (I hope).

So I'll build the heat shield and schedule another trip to the track. That will give me more time to tweak the boost controller (I made yesterday's runs with 5 PSI of boost - way too low) and also check EGT once the boost is turned up.

I forgot the camera so I have no video - you'll have to take my word that this really DID happen!

Dan

All new projects need a good shake down run.
Glad to hear it all worked as you hoped, you did a lot of work to get to where you are.

Bottom line is you had a good time.

Charlie

Thanks Charlie! Yep, we had a ball. It was Dick's first drag racing experience and he's 67 years old! Like a kid in a candy store. We were pitted with a friend of mine and his Pro Mod car - 5.7 seconds in the 1/8th and he had to lift! They're still sorting out the chassis as this is an almost new car. He's planning to run into the 4s once everything is working correctly. 632 CID!

I'll probably make 1 more trip to the drag strip before the May LSR meet to make sure my fixes work and to adjust/check out the boost pressure. Maybe I can hit a 1/4 mile day.

Dan

More Track Pics
 

My friend Dick did get some shots at the track so here they are.

1) My friend's Pro Mod car. Pretty amazing.

2) Me and Mutt in the staging lanes. I was out of the truck chatting because they were running bikes and Jr. Dragsters for a while.

3) Me and Mutt at the starting line looking like a fish out of water, which we were.

Enjoy!

Dan

Very nice ! Great work Dan !

I'll do one more track day at the drag strip before heading to Ohio in May. Mark, others - PM me and we'll meet there. The track isn't THAT far from SC! As far as "when" - I'll look for the best weather but hopefully soon.

Dan

At first I didn't understand the paint scheme, but now I do......Rich

There's an interesting story behind those colors.

When I got Truck (the Dodge) he was black. Living in The Southland you learn NOT to have black or any dark color over your head - you'll get cooked for sure. That's why you see so many white, silver, or light fawn colored cars around here and further South.

So the top needed to get painted. I ruled out white as the truck would look like a cop vehicle. I considered a light silver but my wife HATES black and silver (old HS issue). Fawn didn't excite me. So I was looking thru a color book at a paint store (there must be 10,000 colors available) and saw a 2011 Nissan green that I liked but it needed more metallic to be really attractive. For some dumb reason I decided to have MAACO shoot the color so they brewed up the Nissan green/silver toner paint. Their painter didn't want to shoot the paint ("That'll look like crap") but I insisted. Once it was shot everyone including the painter was saying "Dang, that looks GREAT!"

I dinged a door and found out that the MAACO franchise had changed hands and the guys who mixed and shot my paint hadn't saved the formula. REALLY annoying! But by then I'd made friends with a guy at the local PPG store and we worked to brew up a good match. Now the formula is on file so I can get all I want whenever I want it.

I REALLY like that combination and now everyone knows me by my truck. It stands out in the parking lot and is the only one on the planet. So when it came time to paint Mutt it was a no-brainer. I think I'll keep that as my livery from here on.

Dan

Looking good!

How many pounds of boost were you running? Did you remove the overboost system from the engine?

14-ish second 0-60 is good for a 617 with no pump mods.

The engine is sorta stock. Greazzer made up some big injectors (315's) and the turbo compressor side is upgraded to a T03 (I think I got that right) by Tim's Turbos in Virginia. But stock otherwise.

I'm using a Vibrant manual boost controller and one of the reasons for running at the strip is to dial it in. So far it's only making 5PSI but I'll tweek it until I get 15ish - 1 ATM. Tim built the turbo to double the VOLUME, not the pressure - I like that!

So this was just a shakedown run. More to follow and there's more info in my build thread.

Dan

You will notice a big difference at 12psi.

Also, if the ALDA is still hooked up your fuel is being restricted based on intake pressure.

The ALDA line is just hanging there in mid-air. I think that means it's inop, right?

Given my turbo mods, Tim recommended 14.7 PSI (1 ATM, +/-) or rounded to 15 as it's hard to read the gage really well while rolling down the track. That seems reasonable.

Another question: I noticed that the engine falls over at 4500 RPM. Is there an internal rev limiter in the pump? Or elsewhere? I was hoping for 5,000. The RPM would be nice to have at the long end of the track.

Dan

Oh man, that thing is going to be fast if you're turning 14s NA. With the ALDA dangling, it's in the fully restricted mode. Right now your pump is only putting out NA levels of fuel.

Personally, I like to remove the ALDA physically from the pump, and then restrict my foot movement until the turbo has spooled. For a track vehicle, just mash the pedal-the bit of smoke will be negligible(as it's not your DD).

I can't speak to the RPMs, but the max RPM can be adjusted if you pop the rear plate off and adjust the max rpm limiter. If you pop the cover from the pump there are several tweaks that would be advantageous.

The alda still restricts fuel flow of its on ip I think. Unless you gutted it. I got a car that would barely move. I pulled the Alda and it ran awesome. I got a few aldas sitting in my garage now.

Like Simper=Better said, there some IP mods that you can do that should be able to get you some more power and allow you to wind it out another 750-1000RPMs. Have you read the pump mod write up by 616? His document is generally considered to be the closest thing we have to a bible on these IPs.

Also, +4 on the complete removal of the ALDA. I had LARGE gains in preboost power on the Jeep. And it was strangling your engine on those runs you made. It makes a great feed for your boost gauge as well. Props on the good times being NA! I wish any of my cars were that fast WITH boost!