My v6 Drag Week build

[c2xejk]

Minor update, I have been driving the car a lot working on the tuning in the Accel Enrichment in. The car developed a problem where it would sporadically die when trying to move from a dead stop. Originally I thought the problem was AE related, then I finally managed a good log file during a stall. AF looked great right up till the moment of the stall. In fact everything looked good except battery voltage dropped from 14.x to 11.x...

That had me thinking wiring (grounding) issue. There were signs that the starter cable was not always making good contact. I remounted the battery cables (small battery). Then I started going over the ground cables, I found one from the block to the body with body end very loose. Opted to run the wire back to the battery.

The result, the engine cranks WAY faster and so far after two days of driving, no stalls... The battery voltage has a more variation in it than I would like. In the log file I even see sporadic spikes to 16.x volts (once or twice during a 30min drive, they only last for a small fraction of a second (one data cycle.) ) I think I may need to run a ground wire over to the voltage regulator...

[Ondonti]

Updates? I have been thinking about cleaning and sealing up the grounds on the Junkyard because doing that made a great difference on my daily. Solved some very annoying drivability issues. The Junkyard had a lot of weird corrosion/growth (white dust on the aluminum, mold growing on braided nylon fuel lines, etc) after sitting under a cover in the rain when I first moved back to Seattle. The grounds were not properly prepared or protected from the environment.

[c2xejk]

This car has been down with shifter issues. I have been putting time into figuring out the chuggle that my Spirit R/T has developed...

My current plan is to run it in the Rocky Mountain Race Week. This spring it should get a cage and then start working on AWD. I just need to get a spare 543 to start the AWD conversion...

[forcedfedmopar]

This car has been down with shifter issues. I have been putting time into figuring out the chuggle that my Spirit R/T has developed...

My current plan is to run it in the Rocky Mountain Race Week. This spring it should get a cage and then start working on AWD. I just need to get a spare 543 to start the AWD conversion...

I have one, you could pick it up on the way to RMRW

[c2xejk]

Rocky Mountain Race Week is less than a week away. The car is close to being ready. Most of my focus has been on modifying the trailer I have used on prior Drag Week's.


Today I finally started putting miles on it while my truck is in the shop getting a new clutch. Once the truck is done I need to drive it to break in the clutch before I tow out to Denver...


The new transmission is a lot notchier than other 543's I have driven. 1st and 2nd in particular are notchy. 1st is notchy enough that several times I didn't actually get it into gear even though I thought it was... Annoying. Might try changing the fluid and see if that helps.


The Morroso vacuum pump is rather noisy, but it seems to pull a consistent 7-10 in-Hg of vacuum! Unlike the air injection pumps I tried before, these like some oil...

[c2xejk]

Rocky Mountain Race Week was last week. I want to put together more details about the event, but bottom line the car ran a best of 12.36@122 on 18psi of boost.


The first day was tough, but got things got better as the week went along. That said, the car (and I) did not like Bandimere Speedway… The car did not hook well there and boost was off there compared to everywhere else (9-12psi vs 18psi)…


The day we arrived and talked to the security guard about where we should park and he had no clue. Actually, I think his words were closer to “we are not doing any ‘Rocky Mountain Race Week’, nobody is racing on Monday” while showing me a printed schedule. At first I thought I might been had, but then I remembered seeing RMRW on the Bandimere web site. Pulled it up on my phone and showed it to him. That was enough to convince him to call his boss… Eventually we were directed to a place to camp.


Had a few more details to work on with the car. Windshield wiper for the passenger side stopped working just before we left. Bushing broke and the rod fell off. I was able to use some safety wire and get this back on. The alignment was way off. With some effort we got the tires close to straight up (one wheel was right on the other the adjuster couldn’t quite get it there.) and just a little bit of toe out (~1/16”).


Sunday was a big VW event at Bandimere. While we were taking care of a few more odds and ends we saw Poison Gas in line with the VW folks. Finished up the task I was working on and went to say hi and see if we were supposed to be in line! By the time I got down there he was out of line and his wife was just finishing up talking to somebody related to the RMRW race. Found out that tech time for the event was later in the day (I couldn't find any timing so I had planned on being there early Sunday.)


While waiting, I realized I had forgotten the lines for the cool shirts so EJ and I headed out to a local Lowe’s to get tubing to rework the setup and hopefully make it useable.


Tech was pretty straightforward (simple rules) but a little confused since this was their first year… The smaller number of cars made it ok as they worked through the issues.




Day one, ran a 16.1 on ~5psi and the car was so rich (<9.5) it was popping and spitting the whole way down the track. Adjusted the boost and VE tables and ran an “acceptable” 13.6@107 (best MPH to date.) I ran against one of the guys in my class and he ran a 13.9, so I knew 13.6 was good enough for at least second. Time to get on the road.


The route took us through the mountains. A local told me we were going from 5000 feet in Denver to ~10K feet at one of the high points… Early on there was a long climb and I notice coolant temps starting to climb, so I eased up and dropped a gear. Stopped to see if I could help one person that was stopped and let the car cool. They were pulling the hood to help cooling… Getting restarted on the hill was a little tricky. First attempted I stalled the engine trying to avoid rolling backwards. Next attempt I squealed the tires pretty good and scared the guy as they finished lashing the hood to his trailer.


During the drive we had a large cloud of smoke come out from under the hood and lost charging. NO WHERE to pull over so we continued ~1/2 mile before finding a place to pull over and inspect the damage. The alternator belt had broken... Poison Gas stopped and we decided going back to the last town was the best option.


Drove 3 miles without the alternator back to a known gas station. Had to stop once to use the jump pack to recharge the battery. EJ worked on hailing down a racer while I went in to find the location of nearest parts store.


Found out that the closest parts store was ~18miles in the direction we had been heading. We got a break and caught a ride with a photographer to a parts store to get a new belt. (found out the only person behind us was Larry Larson and he was having problem of his own (no windows on the doors and it was raining.


Found three possibilities. One slightly shorter, one slightly longer and one the right length with one less rib… The one less rib fit. After the camera guys left I realized the evac pump was seized and thus the reason the belt broke...


I just about decided to give up! Thankfully I decided to open up the Morosso Vacuum pump. Found I could gut the contents and it would spin freely! As we finished up we decided to hit the Subway for a late dinner only to find out it closed a 1/2 hour ago. Microwave burrito's it will be! Also found a hat (forgot mine at home.) I will show a picture of it in a future post but it says "Fast or Last" and EJ and I agreed that is we felt things were going to go.


So with a roadside gutted evac pump we soldiered on and made it to the next track…


In the dark (almost mid-night) the entrance to the Pueblo Motorsports Park looked like an entrance to an abandon amusement park that you might see in a horror movie… And we still had ~1.5 miles to get to the entrance to the drag strip! Luckily other had already arrived and greeted us or I would not have stuck around…


Thus ends day 1 of racing....

[Ondonti]

At least from the best time posted you can say you had a real personal victory compare the to the last few years of issues on both turbo cars. Sorta thought that Moroso pump was sounding cool until it almost ruined your long planned "vacation"

Drag week has those weird "help" rules. Same thing in the Rocky mountains?

[c2xejk]

At least from the best time posted you can say you had a real personal victory compare the to the last few years of issues on both turbo cars. Sorta thought that Moroso pump was sounding cool until it almost ruined your long planned "vacation"

Drag week has those weird "help" rules. Same thing in the Rocky mountains?

Your opinion mirrors mine on the Moroso vac pump. I think am going back to just a vent... That worked well enough during Race Week....

- - - Updated - - -

Day two, (Pueblo, CO) started bypassing the evac pump. As I looked around the number of cars looked low. Looks like we were not the only ones having problems on the road to Pueblo. I think something on the order of 8-10 of the original 58 cars did not make it to Pueblo…

Run one was not great. Made some tweaks and went to get in line again.

Driving through the pits I hear a “tink tink tink” and think, that can NOT be good… Open the door just in time to see the alternator tensioner pulley roll by… Grab it and go back to my pit. The stud for the pulley looks ok, but I don’t have a fine-pitch 10mm nut… Found a ride into town and was able to locate one at a local parts store… This one was a nyla-nut, so it should stay on.

Went out and ran a ~12.5@114 (I think) on my second pass with ~12psi... (60’ on both passes was ~1.91x vs 2.0-2.1 at Bandimere.) That is the kind of pass I have been looking for! Loaded up the car and head out, but the alternator tensioner pulley seemed to be making a lot of noise, like the bearing is missing a bearing (clinking omniously every so often.)

Fearing that may be why the pulley came off before, we decided to change it. Took visiting a three parts stores before we find one with it. Drove behind the parts store and change it. But that doesn’t fix the noise! Feeling the evac pump and alternator, seems like the evac pump is the source of the noise. I used some nitrile gloves to form caps for the pump lines and then pour about a ¼ cup of oil in it. The noise quieted down. So we repack our tools and take off.

The drive was relatively uneventful other than going in circle because we made a turn too early. On our second trip around a new white Corvette that was running RMRW decided to follow us after he had obviously done the same thing…. Eventually he passed us since I was limiting speed to keep coolant temps from climbing too high. (strangely, neither EJ or I remember seeing him at the next tracks…)

It was somewhere this day that I noticed that the transmission was shifting better. It is now going into 1^st and 2^nd smoothly! One thing going right!

Instead of camping at Great Bend we opt for a hotel room. Turns out the track has showers! Oh well, we slept very soundly…

Thus ends Day 2 of racing….

[Ondonti]

You should edit your first thread post to include your current setup. Its lost in 19 pages.

[Vigo]

122 sounds great! The car is finally doing what it was built for! Congrats.

[c2xejk]

I just remembered why the first run at Pueblo was slow. About half way through the intercooler tube to the TB blew off... I believe the run was ~14.1.

[c2xejk]

Day three, (Great Bend, KS) Pitted along the “return road” where everybody did during the Drag Week 11, but ended up being away from everybody but one other racer (smaller group for RMRW…) Made sure the evac pump was sealed since it was showing signs of leaking… Purchased some race gas and turned boost up some more.

First pass was ok, but I blew off the vacuum line to the brake booster so I didn't have full boost all the way. On the second pass I have never felt the car pull soo HARD on the top end as it did on this pass! EJ biked out to meet me and when he gave me a thumbs up I knew I would be pleased with the run even before I saw the slip. A 12.36@122! (1.91x 60’). The 122mph correlates to ~430whp... The 12.36 means I need to tune the suspension to hook better. Two days of some solid runs! I was thrilled!

Packed up and headed out for Kearney, NE!

After an uneventful drive we arrived at Kearney Raceway to a fantastic welcome from the track workers/owners! Spent some time talking with the owner as EJ shagged shirts as they tested their new shirt cannon! One of the guys there let us use the shower in his motor home. The rest of the evening we watched them prep the track for Thursday's racing.

This was definitely one of the best tracks we ran on during RMRW! Great owners and the surface was well prepped, only a screw-up on my part kept me from having my best run of the week here! If you are in the area, definitely a track you should run at!

Thus ends Day 3 of racing...

[Vigo]

What was your 1/8 mile MPH on the 122 run?

[c2xejk]

Day Four, (Kearney, NE) We pitted near a tree that I thought would give us some shade. (And it did.) We also had a bunch of the other big guys pit next to us. On one side we had Larry Larson and his 5-sec S-10 and Doug Cline and his 6-sec Camaro. On the other side we had Alex Taylor and the film crew following her (she turned 18 during this event.) I took an early pass and lifted early because I am used to the sign boards being at the end of the track, then I put my foot back down and pulled 12.48@114.26 A “good” pass, but it could easily been much faster…. I opted to take it and get packed since we had a 420 mile drive ahead of us… The plan was to try and make an 11-sec pass at Bandimere, if I knew then what I know now, I would have made another pass at Kearney!

Before we left, we had to grab some ice cream from the concession stand! It was wonderful on that hot day!

The drive back to Bandimere was slow despite being on the interstate. With the hot temperatures the engine liked to get hot if you drove too fast ( >60-65 MPH.) But if you drive 60-65MPH the trailer likes to wag and jump all over the place. So you can drive slower ~55-60 or faster 65-70MPH. With the early start we were able to get drive faster for the first couple hours. But in the heat of the day we had to slow it down… We went from being 1^st leaving the track to 3^rd or 4^th.

The biggest pain was driving through Boulder, CO during rush hour… There was stop and go traffic on two hills. Starting on a hill while towing was a pain! I abused the clutch so bad on those hills! Not to mention we saw coolant temps climb way past where they had been… But we got through and back to Bandimere. Luckily the gates were open, but nobody was there and we went straight to the pits.

During the week we noticed that bumper was being bent down slightly. So we decided to not triple tow home and try to load the trailer into the bed of the truck. For once Bandimere not being flat was helpful. We found a raised area on the return road where we could put the trailer that would be close to bed height and make winching it on better. So after we thought the workers went home, we started loading. Took the trailer over unhooked it and about to head back to get the truck when a vehicle at the bottom of the return road turns on its lights and heads our way. It turns off early and ignores us.

I get the truck and get it lined up to load the trailer when the other vehicle on the return road turns on it’s lights and heads our way. At this point I am blocking part of the return road…. Thought for sure we would get busted. I moved the truck to option two which didn’t block the road, but was harder to load. The guy drove right by without saying anything.

We finished loading the trailer in the truck and go get some sleep…

Thus ends Day 4 of racing…

[86Shelby]

Had I known you were going to Kearney I would have been tempted to take some PTO and go watch.

[Ondonti]

Something about following speed limit laws makes trailers wiggle Sometimes you have to hit the gas to get straight.

[c2xejk]

Day Five, pulled the tow hitch and passenger seat to reduce weight, purchased a gallon of 110 race fuel to hopefully get a 11-second pass… First run was 12.896@111.99. Looking through the log file I found that boost was ~12psi (despite not having changed it since the last track) and we were pig rich (~10.0). Leaned out the VE table and cranked the boost controller up a little.

I notice that Lexus in my class is about to make a run so I creep up so I can see it. I didn’t think much about it at the time, but I noticed he was being towed (by a golf cart) to the staging lanes and pushed to the starting line. Then he stages up way off to the side. Takes the light and then backs out…

I later heard he broke a timing belt. I think he was staging and use the starter to get a 20-sec time slip. Since he had been running 9.9’s a 20-sec time slip still leaves him ahead of me… However, I think it is a violation of the rules to be towed to the line. I would love to know when he broke the timing belt… I question him breaking it at the track, but I have no proof otherwise…

Anyway, back to my second run. This time the camera crew was in the staging lanes and directly in front of me as I do my burn-out. As I staged a voice in my head kept saying “parking brake”. I am there think, I don’t need the parking brake right now, be quiet. Half way down the track I noticed the parking brake was on. I was so focused on not hitting the camera guy that I forgot to release the parking brake (that has never held well.) Resulted in a ~13.1 run… I swung by the scales and the car weighed 2930 without the tow hitch and passenger seat.

Still 12-psi boost, so I cranked up the boost controller some more. Tweaked the VE table a little more and went for a third run… 13.0… Boost was still 12psi. Decided the 11-sec pass was not going to happen today. So I went back to the pits and we started packing and then waiting for the awards ceremony.

Thus ends Day 5 of racing…


Things to work on:
- Parking brake: the current setup has never held well… Thinking about VW calipers that have the parking brake in the disc brake portion… Or Line locks...
- Crankcase evac pump: I think I may ditch this and work on getting the AC working. Just a crankcase vent seemed to work…
- Boost controller: the current boost controller varied from track to track… I would like one that closes the loop on boost pressure so it is more consistent…
- Roll bar/cage. The 122MPH convinced me the car is ready for a roll bar… The power is there if I can get it to the ground…

[Ondonti]

A lot of big dollar turbo cars now just seem to vent and concentrate on having a generous box to filter through. Think I saw one car where the giant (empty and light) tank was located where you might expect a small fuel cell up front. Some people seem to be working on moving weight backwards on the car with traction limited setups.

Seems like you would have been better off with a grainer? My boost changes with a bleed valve AND and an electronic setup seem to only vary by the atmospheric pressure changes, so you could lose a few PSI as you go up in elevation (0psi sea level, -2psi Utah, -3psi if you were in Colorado). I don't really trust the electronic controller I have on my Duster because it would sometimes switch onto high boost when starting up.

I guess out in the middle of nowhere you probably didn't have a compressor to pressure check your charge piping etc. Lots of possible issues, wastegate, turbo damaged, etc. When you have to keep cranking up the boost controller, make sure you are not overcoming a boost leak. Watched someone frag their turbo doing that. Making 20psi with a coupler disconnected is bad for the turbo.

[c2xejk]

A lot of big dollar turbo cars now just seem to vent and concentrate on having a generous box to filter through. Think I saw one car where the giant (empty and light) tank was located where you might expect a small fuel cell up front. Some people seem to be working on moving weight backwards on the car with traction limited setups.

Yup, That is likely my solution... Just gotta find room, not much left under the hood...

Seems like you would have been better off with a grainer? My boost changes with a bleed valve AND and an electronic setup seem to only vary by the atmospheric pressure changes, so you could lose a few PSI as you go up in elevation (0psi sea level, -2psi Utah, -3psi if you were in Colorado). I don't really trust the electronic controller I have on my Duster because it would sometimes switch onto high boost when starting up.

The current controller is "grainger" type setup.

I guess out in the middle of nowhere you probably didn't have a compressor to pressure check your charge piping etc. Lots of possible issues, wastegate, turbo damaged, etc. When you have to keep cranking up the boost controller, make sure you are not overcoming a boost leak. Watched someone frag their turbo doing that. Making 20psi with a coupler disconnected is bad for the turbo.

Something to check, but I think this is unlikely...

[Ondonti]

Yup, That is likely my solution... Just gotta find room, not much left under the hood...



The current controller is "grainger" type setup.



Something to check, but I think this is unlikely...

What spring are you using in the wastegate? You only get so much boost over baseline spring, and it hurts a lot more at high elevation. Sometimes guys have to take apart their grainger and play with the spring. How big is the bleed hole? I have never had to stretch out my spring and my bleeder is 10 years old. My friend said he had to do it all the time.

When I was running 20+psi at high elevation, I think at some point I changed to a 12psi spring instead of the 5.6psi spring. Probably due to excessive backpressure, I couldnt' make more than 20psi on the dyno with whatever spring I had installed, ran more like 222-23psi on the street after I blew the exhaust apart due to a spark blowout backfire (this removed 2 mufflers from the system and I just pulled it out to go racing), and then in Vegas it gained quite a few more psi of boost due to dropping 2000 feet. Oops. Not cool when your setup is not prepared to do that.
I may have never run more than 14psi on a 5.6psi spring (by choice) but I don't think I tried any higher. Member here made me change out the spring with one of his.