[Charrlie_S]

Went to Gainesville Raceway, test and tune, last night. What a disaster. They are haveing "Pinks All Out", this weekend, and the place was packed, with cars, for that deal. One engine oildown, one trans, one rear, and a guardrail incident. So much down time, I only got one run, from 7:00 pm to 11;30 pm. The weather forcast was for cool/cold, so I borrowed the nitrous bottle heater from my Cuda. Had the bottle temp at 90 degrees.The only pass I made was:
60 ft: 1.769
1/8: 8.413 at 78.34 mph
1/4 13.540 at 93.99 mph

The tire size test was inconclusive (only 1 pass), and cool dry air ( last time out was hot and humid), but it was a best for the car, so far.

 

[Charrlie_S]

Pulled the "stock" head, and installed a .100 milled head. This head has 39 cc chambers, back cut stock valves, bronze guides, PC seals, dual springs. This change jumps the compression from a low 8 to 1 up to 10.0 to 1.

 

[Charrlie_S]

Engine liked the new head. Track was running 1/8 mile, last night. Car ran the quickest so far.
60 ft.....1.678
1/8 ......8.108
mph.....81.30

 

[Charrlie_S]

Added a second stage nitrous plate, and went to a slant six race at Farmington NC on May 8th, 2008. During the Fri nite TnT, had a misfire when running just one stage of nitrous. I couldn't locate the problem, and since the only change was the second nitrous plate, I removed the second stage. Still had the misfire on Sat. Ran eliminations on motor only. Car was turning best ever 9.1's at 73 mph in the 1/8 mile. The cost for the 2nd stage nitrous was, about $125 for braided lines and fittings, and a borrowed plate. Also spent $200 for a paint job, to make the car more presentable.

 

[Charrlie_S]

Went to The Mopar Southern Nationals, last weekend. As mentioned in the previous post, I had a misfire when on nitrous, the last time out. I had removed the completed nitrous system, and made sure it was clean. Didn't see anything wrong, so reinstalled both stages. During the Fri test and tune, I still had the misfire, so ran the saturday race on motor only. Car was turning 14.4's at 88 mph, 1/4 mile. Saturday nite, I found I had 34 degrees total timing, but only 0 degrees initial. Something went wrong inside the distributer. Got another distributer, and epoxied a piece of wire in the governor slots. Installed the dist, and set it for 22 degres total advance. On Sunday morning, the track allowed me to make a time shot, without buying a tech card, to see if the misfire was cured. Did not warm up the car, and did not purge the nitrous system, went a 13.41 at 96.20 mph, no misfire. I did hit the second stage, after the finish line, just to see if it would work. It does. Moral of this post is: CHECK THE BASICS FIRST. I never looked at the timing, just assumed it was correct, since it had not been touched.

 

[Charrlie_S]

I took my distributor apart, and partially welded the slots in the governor. Reinstalled and set the timing to 25 total and 13 initial. While I had some time to work on the car, I added a 90 amp Nippondenso alternator (89 Dakota V-8). This just requires the front of the mounting bracket, be shortened 1/4 inch. Also added a relay to the field circuit, connected to the wide open throttle swutch on the carb, that controls the nitrous. The alt will charge normally, at anything except WOT, then the relay opens the field circuit, to take the load off the engine.

Cost was $0 for the dist mods, $15.50 for the alt (junk yard), $8 for the relay and picktail socket.

 

[Charrlie_S]

The old original windshield in the car was badly fogged and scratched. Was really hard to see the tree when racing at night. Ordered a new "aftermarket, made in China" winshield. $190 tax included, and paid a friend in a body shop $40 to install it.

The car is leaving the realm of "low buck", but is still a "budget car". Just making additional improvements, as the wallet will allow.

 

[Charrlie_S]

I haven't been on the site for awhile. My computer stopped playing with many sites. I now have a newer computer, so I am back.
Haven't done much with the car for awhile. Only ran a couple of times in 2009, and still had the misfire on nitrous, so just ran on motor, till I do some more trouble shooting. My old slicks (6 x26x15w) were just about shot. I did have a pair of new 9x28x15 that I bought with the slotted aluminum wheels I have been running, but were too wide to fit the fenders. I traded a pair of used Centerline front wheels for some body work, to radius the rear fenders for clearance, for the bigger tires.

 

[Charrlie_S]

I had forgotten about this thread. I will try to bring it up to date. I have the 9x28x15 slicks on the car. We finally found the misfire. It was bad valve springs. These were new MP springs that were installed with the cam, so never thought to check them. Found it by accident. Pulled the valve cover to check the valve lash and noticed one of the springs had the end of the damper sticking out between the spring coils. While removing the springs found 4 more, like that. Installed some 340 springs that are doing fine.
I don't run this car much, as my Cuda is my primary race car. The next time out, (Reynolds, Ga) a friend was racing, on motor only, I took the car out for one nitrous pass. Motor ran fine, but ran into a front end shimmy/vibration, near 100 mph, so had to abort the run. I think it would have broken into the 12's, as I ran a 13,2x at a lower MPH then 1/8 mile MPH.
Found the front end problem (it was totally rebuilt before the car hit the track, initally). The alignment shop forgot to tighten the right side upper control arm adjusters.

The next race was this May at Hagerstown Md. My friend was driving and said the car wouldn't hook up. I watched the car, doing a burnout, and noticed, only one wheel spinning. The sure grip had gone away. So, again, back to running on motor only. Turning mid 14's.

Built a fresh "A" body 8 3/4 rear (we are now out of the low budget realm), and removed the 7 1/4 rear. All new brakes(everything except backing plates), bearings seals, long studs, and a 4.56 SG gear. Took the car to Knoxville Tn in Aug for an 1/8 mile race. The whole two days rained out. I don't know if this car will ever get in the 7's in the 1/8 or 12's in the 1/4. Murphy is working overtime.