Predator Racing

Super Chevy Show @ Norwalk

dlambert — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 02:54:25 +0000

At the last minute I decided to take the DGGM Impala to Norwalk to race at the Super Chevy Show. I ran the time trials on Saturday, the track prep was good but the heat and humidity made it pretty miserable. After I was done with my sessions, I went over to check out the car show. Only two of the OASISS guys were showing their cars. As far as I could tell these were the only other 94-96 Impala’s at the event.

Eliminations were on Sunday. The heat and humidity were down with overcast skies and steady breeze .

Round 1 – 12:54pm
I dialed-in a 12.91 vs. 11.46. I had a terrible reaction time .205, but at 1000′ I couldn’t see the other car so I backed off just a bit to prevent a breakout. I won with a 13.37.

Round 2 – 3:43pm
The sun was out on the track and the temp was up, so I dialed in a 12.93 vs. 16.73. The Camaro red lights and the pressure is off, I have the win. It wouldn’t have mattered anyway, I had a better reaction time of .162 and I ran 12.939, while the Camaro ran a 16.9.

Round 3 – 4:35pm
The lanes start to move and the car won’t start! Last week I blew a fuse, so I hop out and check it. Fuse it good, I only have another couple minutes to figure this out. Luckily, I find a lose ground. I tighten it by hand and hope it works. Turn the key and the car starts up just in time. I quickly get my helmet and seat belts on and it it time to go.

We both dial in a 12.93. This is a heads up race, just don’t break out. My reaction time is a .054 (yes!) he has a .270, I hit the line first with a 13.063 and he has a 13.031. Holeshot win!

Round 4 – 4:54pm ( Final 8 Cars)
I made a quick run to the pits and tighten down that ground and I dash back to the staging lanes. I wasn’t even thinking and I left the 12.93 on the window. The Chevelle is set for 12.06. The car launches hard and we’re off! The Chevelle is right there by my rear quarter the entire way down the strip and gaining. Man this is going to be close! Break out! I ran a 12.86 on a 12.93 dial-in. Where did that extra power come from?? Was the bad ground causing that much power lose?

Polished Wheels

dlambert — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 02:30:51 +0000

Last fall one of the guys at work gave me a hard time that my painted wheels looked dirty. Since I’m waiting for back-ordered parts for the motor rebuild, I’ve been busy polishing a set of stock Impala wheels. Hand sanding with 120, 220, 320, 600, 800 and 1500 grit paper. Then 3000 grit Perfect Cut rubbing compound. The final step was to polish with Simichrome.

Depending on the wheel condition it took between 2 to 4 hours per wheel. I really need to invest in a power buffer.

I’m still looking for a new set of center caps.

Lighting Rod Install

dlambert — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 01:00:30 +0000

I had some requests for these pics, I’ll post descriptions tomorrow.

Hint of things to come….

dlambert — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 02:24:36 +0000

Injector Results

dlambert — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 01:49:19 +0000

Rich from Cruzin Performance called today to give me the report on the injectors. After running multiple tests, he couldn’t find any issues. Injector #8, that we thought might be a problem, is flowing just fine. In fact the entire set was working so well, that Rich didn’t think that cleaning them would make a significant difference. Attached are the flow results.

Header Bungs

dlambert — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 03:58:21 +0000

Last Saturday I picked up the modified headers. Each of the primaries now has an EGT bung. Bungs are tapped 1/8 NPT and for now we have the block-off plugs installed. The welds look good, but I want to run them to make sure we don’t have any leaks before sending them out to have them re-coated by JET-HOT.

Injector Cleaning

dlambert — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 01:37:12 +0000

When the injectors were new they were nicely matched and flowed 43.8 – 43.9 lb/h @ 43.5 psi. The injectors are packaged and ready to make a trip to Cruzin Performance to be cleaned and flow tested. When I get the report back from Rich, I’ll post the before and after results.

Hurst Lightning Rods

dlambert — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 03:22:53 +0000

The lightning rods are repaired.

EGT (cont.)

dlambert — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 13:37:08 +0000

Last night Mike, Rik and I did about 15 minutes work measuring the clearance between the left side header and the Procharger. We wanted to make sure we had room for the EGT sensor. After checking the clearance RIk should be ready to start the drilling holes and welding.

Before we arrived Mike had CC’d the heads. They turned out to be 60cc, this was good news. We’re trying to keep the compression in the 8′s. With the Diamond Pistons we are looking at running the compression ration should be in the 8.6:1 range. Then we spent the next five hours looking a broken parts and discussing ways to make improvements to the setup.

Then we took some tine to discuss and mock up some new ideas.

EGT

dlambert — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 00:32:18 +0000

After looking at all the pistons and consulting with several experts it looks like #8 burned up do to running lean and detination. Unfortunately, this lean condition was not detected by the Wide Band O2 sensors. The wide band sensor is installed in the header collector and it measures an average across all four cylinders on the right side of the motor. For now I’m planning to leave the wide band installed for overall monitoring.

For tuning and to prevent this type of issue in the future we’re going to install EGT (Exhaust Gas Temperature) probes in all the header primaries. Then we can use the temperature reading to determine how the individual cylinders are performing and adjust them individually.