Hopefully a "went rounds" long day and not a "broke s**t" long day

 

Got up yesterday and finished all the little things that needed done. Installed the grille that we bought on tuesday. Installed the radiator again, a new voltage regulator and the new carb. The fuel pressure gauge kept bouncing all over from 0 to pegging the gauge so we cleaned all the filters and that seemed to help a little. Set the floats on the new carb and took the 96 jets out and put 94's in the front and 93's in the back. Took it to the car wash and called it a day.

Got up to the track today at 8, unloaded and took a few warm up laps. We noticed the alternator was not charging so we looked under the hood and found that the lug had grounded out and the hot wire to the alternator welted and was still smoking. So we had no alternator all day. We had to keep the inverter on the battery until we got int he burnout box and then pull it out before the run or the MSD box would quit working.

Run#1

Reaction .1821 (took a small nap)
60 ft 1.7860
330 ft 5.2564
1/8 et 8.2956
1/8 mph 79.46
1000 et 10.9580
1000 mph none
1/4 et 13.2531
1/4 mph 97.85


Took the first pass real easy. Did a good 5000 rpm burnout, shifting into second gear. Launched basically at an idle, just enough peddle to take the slack out of the tranny and rearend. Ran about 3/4 throttle and shifted at 5000 rpm to get a good feel for everything. Decided it was running really rich when it died on the return road and jetted the carb down to 91 square.

Run#2

Reaction .3190 (Huge bog at the hit of the throttle)
60 ft 1.8862
330 ft 5.0892
1/8 et 7.8891
1/8 mph 86.42
1000 et 10.3453
1000 mph none
1/4 et 12.4680
1/4 mph 105.49

Put a 5800 pill in the shift light to let the motor work a bit more. Just installed the carb the day before with the messed up regulator and the pressure was so high that it was pushing past the needle and seat and totally filling the float bowl. Also found out the 5.14 gears with 33" tall tires and a motor that revs twice as fast as last year equals 6000 rpm at half track. had to basincally carry the rpm at 5800-6000 to the finish line. ran and sounded a lot better but still had balck plugs. Adjusted the float and checked the tires.

Run #3

Reaction .0047(running a good friend so I really concentrated)
60 ft 1.7137(spun a little)
330 ft 4.9084
1/8 et 7.6797
1/8 mph 86.62
1000 et 10.1551
1000 mph none
1/4 et 12.3129
1/4 mph 103.52

Truck it extremely low geared and still having to peddling it for about 3-400 feet. The float bowl adjestment took the bog out and brought the 60 ft time back. Also jetted down to 89 square and add three degrees of timing. On the return road the motor started sputering and finally died. In all the hurry to change jets, adjust the float, and keep the battery charged we forgot to keep the fuel cell fuel. At least it ran out in the return road and not at 1000 feet.

Run #4 (rounnd one of elimination)

very hard at this point to pick a dial in as we picked up .096 from the first run to the third. Run we decided on 12.31 since that was the last time and the temp and the wind were about the same. We had originally planned on running time-onlys but decided to run PRO ET so we could get more time trials in the moring.

Reaction .0945
60 ft 1.6829
330 ft 4.8884
1/8 et 7.6397
1/8 mph 87.62
1000 et 9.9987
1000 mph none
1/4 et 13.3321
1/4 mph 88.75 (hard on the brakes)

The guy I was running killed me off the light but was about 3/10ths of his dial so we won round one which was a big bonus for the day. In the second round we raced Greg Jones of AMS aoutmotive who did the machine work on our engine. Still guessing on the dial at 12.31 for the second round.


Run #5

Reaction .0946 (consistantly as slow as run #4)
60 ft 1.7739
330 ft 4.9238
1/8 et 7.6360
1/8 mph 88.65
1000 et 10.0427
1000 mph none
1/4 et 12.1887
1/4 mph 100.54

I let off about 1200 and coasted. Greg runs a 9 second camaro and thought we would come blazing around me at 135 any second but it never happened and I broke out pretty bad.

After we got home took the alternator off and threw it away. We also decided to check out the fuel system to try to figure out the regulator problem. Turns out in the hurry of the winter project someone (probably me) didn't read the regulator instructions and plumbed the line to the carb on the "in" side and the line from the tank to the "out" side. No wondering the regulator didn't work and the pressure was all over the place. Got the new one installed, the pressure gauge is a lot happier and the float level was set in a few minutes instead of two hours. Going to install the 4.56 gears and a pool along with the new alternator next weekend and try again in two weeks.

Overall I think the truck easily has 11.30's or 11.40's on the motor with a higher gear and better carb tuning now that the regulator and fuel pump are in sync.

The biggest restriction right now are the headers. We ran out of money to buy or have something else better made and the 1 7/8th's primaries and 3" collectors are killing us with the P51's.

 

Got the fuel system all finished up last night. The engine seems alot happier now that fuel pressure is consistent and the float bowl level stays the same. Going to do the new one wire alternator tonight and start on tearing out the rearend tomorrow.

 

Who says these trucks arnt a lot off work. You have had your share. Whats the deal with the rear end?

 

A lot of work for sure, but it is fun. The rear is way to low geared and the locker probably isin't going to survive the abuse so we bought 4.56 gears and a spool.

 

Not too bad considering all the problems you had getting it together... Still alot of room to get more ET out of it..

 

ya, it was basically test and tune day a lot of tuning and not much testing but somehow I managed to win a round with lots of pedaling and braking.

Got the center section pulled out today. Can't get the tires off without pulling the box so I unbolted the coilovers and hinged the whole rear axle, unbolted the tires and slid the axles out enough to pull the 3rd member.

probably see a huge increase in et next weekend once the carb, alternator and 4.56 gears are all a go. Still pretty sure it should run 11.30's or .40's and mid tens with a little spray. Mid tens sounds like a real solid 16 car field for Denver PAO.

 

Finished the spool and gear install yesteday and ordered a one wire alternator from jegs. should be ready for racing by thursday.

 

Wow that thing is running damn good especially considering the problems you had and being way over geared. Should definently be in the mid 11s when you go back. I had a bunch of trouble with my altenator/ voltage regulator before and I chucked it all for a summit 1 wire and haven't had a problem since.

I have 1 question. Does your bench seat go all the way with the roll bar?

 

I think this has been asked but I can't find it in the 350+ posts. How much does your truck weigh? I just bought a short bed last sunday at the track and haven't got it to any scales yet. It ran 11 flat in the 1/8 so it has plenty of room to grow

 

I thought that it ran pretty well considering we weren't as ready as I thought we were. All that should be ironed out now. We took some real accurate measurements before cutting any pipe for the cage and the seat fits by about 1/8". The only way to take the seat out though is to remove the back and wrestle with it for about 10 minutes to get it situated just right and it might come out. Let me see if I can get a good picture of the clearance. Also if you are thinking of do a cage I can get you the measurements that we sent to Alstons.

I don't have any new weights but before with the all iron big block and the stock rear suspension it weighed 3820. I hope that with the changes; ladder bar rear, aluminum heads and roll cage that the weight is probably about the same because the cage pretty much offsets the weight loss from the heads but I am going to feel a lot safer do 115 in a 30 year old truck.

 

ran it again yesterday. runs a lot happier now with the right gears and a working alternator. still working on the carb however. it acts now like it is fat down low and lean at top end. i think we are going to go down to greeley and run it on a chassis dyno in a couple weeks.

best time yesterday was a 12.14 at 109 mph so still quite a ways to go. best 60' was 1.65 so it still launches pretty good.

 

Yup looks like your getting ever closer to have everything run right. A little tweaking here an there for that ultimate run. Funny on how it boils down to the little things that make all the difference. Slowly but surly.

 

Why take it all the way to Greeley - take it to Lundstedt Automotive in north Ft. Collins. Check them out at lundstedtautomotive.com - outstanding performance shop!

 

looks like a real nice shop and it is a few miles closer. i didn't find there options but do they offer tuning on the dyno? the level of tuning needed on the carb is past my skills at this point.