Project updates thread, when will you hit the track?

[White90GT]

Thought I would start a new project update thread to see when everyone is going to make their maiden track voyages.

Haven't done a thing to mine lately. Been sitting in the garage since the last race at HRP (index race). I bought the autometer tach from Larry, but have yet to install it, maybe this week. I will probably try to get the car over to Strictly this week to finally get a chip for it to lose the rev limiter and bring in the timing earlier. Maybe racing at Clobberthon 13 at HMP Saturday if the weather holds out.

The 92 vert is just sitting in the barn, I'm slowly accumulating parts for it, but until I can afford to put a new convertible top on it and fix all the brackets on the top, its going to remain in the barn. I've got new brake rotors and shoes, new power window motors, some seat rails to fix the power seat that don't work, most of the gaskets for the head gasket swap, a set of E7 heads to throw on it, a stock radio, steering column covers, a set of pony wheels with tires, and probably a few other things. I'll get to it one of these days.

[Timebomb]

I found some bugs and got rid of some gremlins that have been bothering my car since the cam and head swap last year. It should run much better now, I need to get it to the track this weekend hopefully. Then I'm going to do my best to have the car painted by FFW Houston. It doesn't look like I'm making the FFW race in Belle Rose this year.

[TxBandit]

I have some more parts on the way and some new parts in the fabrication stages. I'll post some pics on my project thread later this week.

Troy

[Otis!]

I bought new head gaskets and put them in the back seat of the car three weekends ago...

O!

[Chad82GT]

I'm in the process of accumulating thoughts and ideas as to the best way to install this new twin T70 setup. The old combo will see the track one last time this weekend for the Fastest Street Car Shootout, then it goes under the knife :woot: :burnout: :thumb: :D

[Silversnake91]

I working on mine as I type this(ordering parts). The motors out of the car for a new set of head gaskets(cometic this time), relocating the wiring inside the fenders, and painting the engine compartment. I should be getting a couple of pieces back from the chrome shop tomorrow and have been busy polishing everthing I can. If the part isn't getting polished it will be getting painted(wanted to powder coat the stuff but funds are getting low). The plan is to have the car back together and running in time for FFW Houston. I will try to get some pics of the chromed and polished pieces as soon as I can.

[Blue91]

Let's see....

Needs:
Battery (anyone have an optima for sale?)
Connect leads from FP relay to batt.
Check all wiring functions once car has power.
Check all fuel connections for leakage.
Extend existing SFCs to full length.
Install D/S loop.
Alter/install exhaust.
Weld tabs to axle housing for anti rollbar.
Install new shifter cable and reinstall shifter.
Jet Hot coat upper intake.
bolt converter to flexplate.
install crank pulley.
finish installing front accessories.
install radiator/hoses
align car.
get new windshield.
get polished IAC.
install new bling bling starter (Ben-style).
Install vacuum lines.
I'm sure there's some other crap needed, but that's the main stuff.

I doubt it'll be done by FFW. :(

[rsnow]

Waiting on parts arrival from Holcomb Motorsports.Then install all those parts which are all fuel system related,then get new distributor and off to the races.Should be all complete by April I hope,could possibly be done by this weekend ifin the parts show up soon enough,ethier way i'll probably be at the clobberthon this weekend,with some car if not mine.

[FE_rex]

Actually have heads and a valvetrain on it now. Waiting on another motor to be finished and off to the dyno.

May hit Martin up for a heads-up race - I'll have to only let him spray a 200 shot to be fair. :racing: :racing:

[96GTS]

I just picked up my purty new SA00 helmet :bubbrubb:
Still have to finish my SFC install.
swap my 26" slicks from my steel wheels to my prostars and put the 28s on the steelies.
Install the stupid friggin linelock :crying:
Pull the diff cover off and see why its leaking...more RTV :rolleyes:
Change oil, coolant, diff fluid

Then I should be good to go to the private track rental this Friday, and hopefully, with some new shift points and the 26" slicks, I should get my 11s!!!!

If I dont break, I'll be ordering my alum DS, and a matching pass seat next week... :racing:

[Robert B]

I need to uhhh... change my h pipe and my tires then im kinda ready :D:D

oh and make sure im not one tire fire :rofl:

[Saleen91]

I need to put gas in my car and load it up on the trailer. It's been parked since the last index race I was in sometime in Feb.

[HoustonLX]

Still need to swap my 3.73's out for the 4.10's I picked up not long ago. If the weather works with me this weekend, I hope to do it then. I need to hit up a few bracket events out in Sealy before FFW to re-learn how to react to the tree after swapping over to the AOD.

[Chuck98GT]

I need to swap my Lightning MAF back onto my car. After swapping to the Pro-M I just has calibrated, the tweecer was doing some crazy chit. Seeing air flow rates in the 4000+ Kg/Hr range. Could have also been the connection on the tweecer to the EEC. Also going to put remove the race crank pully and run the standard underdrive at FFW. Running two classes might have cooling issues otherwise.

After FFW Bella Rose, I'll also swap some 30# injectors back onto the car then try to get the Pro-M working again. Tweecer show my 24# injectors at 89% at HRP last weekend.

I also noticed in my tweecer data logs, full throttle hits at 2500 RPM when I mat the gas out of the whole. I has my Nitrous window switch set at 3500 which is 300 RPM 3800 under my flash stall. It takes almost a half second to go from 2500 to 3500 RPM. I think I'll set my window switch to 2500 or lower so that the nitrous starts flowing a half second earlier and it should hit harder out of the hole on the WOT swtich. I was disapointed that my car only did a 1.51 60ft last weekend. I expected high 1.4's.

I plan on being at Sealy this friday for some finally Test and tune before FFW.

[89 coupe]

Actually have heads and a valvetrain on it now. Waiting on another motor to be finished and off to the dyno.

May hit Martin up for a heads-up race - I'll have to only let him spray a 200 shot to be fair. :racing: :racing:
Fair :D If I had your cubic inches and big a## tires. :rolleyes:
I don't even have a roller cam. :razz:

[Silversnake91]

Went by the chrome shop yesterday and picked my brackets up. This should brighten up the engine compartment a little.

[Blue91]

Where was that done Mike and how much did it run you?

[Silversnake91]

I had it done at Airline Plating. It was $95 plus tax for both pieces.

[Saleen91]

I've been to that place before... Cash upfront, which made me kind of nervous so I left. Your stuff looks awesome!

[Silversnake91]

I put half down on credit card, and paid the balance off when I picked it up. I know several people that have had parts down and it always looks good. I am very pleased with the quality. I got all the wiring loose and started sanding today on the engine compartment. It lookls like this is going to come down to the wire as usual for FFW.

[White90GT]

OK, so I have an update, some of you have already read about it on WSM, but here's the context of the post without the dyno graphs, you'll have to go over there to see the graphs.

Well, I went back to Strictly to finally get my rev limiter by-passed. Before everyone starts in about actually doing some tuning with the chip, we were pretty time constrained and my main goal was to lose the rev limiter.

Dynorun 1 was the same tune that was on the car about a month ago when I ran in the index series and ran a new best of 11.31@118.9 on motor with a 1.59 sixty foot. 329 rwhp, 387 rwtq. This was with 20 degrees base timing (about 36 total) and 40 psi of fuel pressure with an a/f of 14.5 or 15:1, fairly lean
Dynorun 2 we added fuel pressure 44 psi and installed the chip. The chip set the rev limiter to 7500 and added a little more fuel all around at the injectors and also turned off all the warning indicators like CEL, etc...
Dyno run 3 and 4 were pretty similar, we added more fuel up to 46 psi of pressure. Each time we increased fuel the torque increased drastically, so I'm really hoping that this will help the car get out of the hole better.
Overall on motor we picked up close to 15 rwhp and close to 100 rwtq by playing with fuel pressure. Timing was never touched, we left it at 20 degrees base on all runs.

The the nitrous dynos were made with a 75 shot NX kit with 1150 psi of bottle pressure on both runs. The 2nd run was the best as I added 2 degrees of timing into the mix. I ran about 15 degrees on the 1st pass and 17 degrees on the 2nd pass. Before you ask, yes I'm running race fuel in it and that is the only reason I chanced running that much timing on the juice. Octane level right now should be somewhere around 101. At HRP last month I had a 2 gallon 93, 3 gallon 104 octane mix which was down to about 3 gallons left in the tank total. Yesterday I added 3 gallons of VP 101 octane from AJ's Performance on Sheldon.
So the car made 418.9 rwhp and 503.9 rwtq on the little 75 shot. I was really hoping to see a 100 horsepower gain from it at the wheels since my car seems to love the nitrous so much, but I guess 77 or so at the wheels isn't bad for an automatic!

So compare these numbers to the last dyno session and the dynos of the old motor:
Last session with the way loose tq converter the car put down 312 rwhp and 371 rwtq on its best pull with a 12.5:1 a/f ratio. Didn't make any nitrous pulls at the last session.
The old motor two years ago: Same heads but unported, same cam, same exhaust, same 75mm t/b, different intake (was Victor, now Holley), different maf (was C&L 76, now Pro M 77), lower compression now (was 11:1, now 10:1), different tq converter (was PA 10" 3200, now TK 8" 4000 or so)
Old motor pulled a best of 309 rwhp and 4xx tq n/a and 424 rwhp and 5xx rwtq on the 100 shot of nitrous at 1200 psi

So in comparison, this motor with the head work and less compression makes nearly 40 more rwhp than the old one showed and makes as much power on a smaller 75 shot as it made on the 100 shot before!
As far as ET, the old motor ran a best of 11.46@116 mph in cold weather, the new motor ran 11.31@118.9 in mid 60s weather with less power than it is showing now.
Can't wait to get it back on the track and see if this new found tq picks up the 60 ft to a mid 1.5x!

[HoustonLX]

Swapped my 3.73's out last night for 4.10's. Heading to Sealy tonight to see how the car responds.

[Silversnake91]

Good luck Shane. I cant wait for FFW Houston. I have to get my racing fix soon because I'm starting to have withdrawls.

[maveRick]

I'm waiting for Bryan's (Highlander's) shop to open up so the Maverick can be one of the first in line to have him start ridding the Maverick of vicious demons. Seems the county won't let him open for another week or so.

I just sat the Maverick down after putting a new set of 28 X 9.0 X 15 ET Slicks on (if I ever get a chance to use 'em). At least now I can roll the car around and not have to air the worn out ET Streets up everytime . Got a good price on the the slicks from Troy S.

I'm running 11.00 X 15 M/Ttubes with 'em. 'Had to overbore the valve stem hole to 5/8" diameter - the (non-English-speaking Hispanic) tire-changer had a very confused look on his face when I stopped him mid-way, brought out my drill and did my thing. :eek:

[Alex in Houston]

Not so much to get to the track typr of affair for me but.....................

I actually got the car off jack stands and then proceeded to start it up :)
it started first try minus not having the mass air electronics on the meter and idled on it's own for about 10-15 seconds. I shut it down at that point because I looked over the guages and noticed I had ZERE oil pressure...................as I had ZERO oil in the motor!! DDOOOOHHH!
I quickly added 5 quarts of oil (that I had sitting on the bench for over a month so I wouldn't forget to add it when i started it..................Yeah That Worked Out Well!) Cranked it back up and again turned right over idled on it's own (nothing sweet sounding but it did idle without any help) still without any electronics in the meter. So needless to say, the 42# injectors had the garage atmosphere a bit rough on the eyes!
Going to add the belt, coolant clean it up a bit later this evening or tomorrow (going to go out and ride my bike for the rest of the afternoon today) I'm going to also load in some vale\ues to the EEC-tuner for the injectors and a few small things (that I understand). Not going to mess with any timing tables, just going to lock out the timing around 20* - 22* and leave it like that until the new house is finished in Mid June. Then I'm going to look into the pros/cons of stand alone (nothing more exotic then a Mega Squirt with the TFI upgrade) VS getting someone to work on the EEC-tuner for/with me. That's all cannon fodder for now as the New House < me when it comes to expenditures at this point and for some time in the future (but it will be finished before my birthday in August so I know I'm getting something car related good for that day!)