DLN's VI Report sorta' long.................................

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pro70z28
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DLN's VI Report sorta' long.................................

Postby pro70z28 » Sun Jul 31, 2011 10:46 pm

Another DLN's is in the books. The weekend from a caah standpoint turned out much better than it look like it would earlier in the week. From a people stand point, no surprise, it was another winner. It's always a weekend we look forward to because a good time is guaranteed with the DragList group.

The first part is the pre-race thrash. Skip down below the line for race day only stuff

Jeff decided after 4 attempts at breaking my old E.T. (8.48) this WAS going to be his year. He's been setting personal best times, going in the right direction, but he needed a little boost to get him over the hump. He started early this year planning & researching. He kicked around a few options and decided Nitrous would give him the most bang (maybe a bad choice of words) for the buck. He purchased a small nitrous system round about May. I made a couple brackets, but Jeff did all the install. (translate that to read, if it goes boom it's your deal) :oops: . About 3 weeks ago he finally gathered the last of the parts & got it running. He put a super soft tune in it just to see if it was operational. We took it out on the road, I watched the laptop & Jeff drove. Everything worked great, with the light tune H.P. gain was minimal, but he got the information he was looking for.
We headed to 66 for T&T, got the slicks on, headers uncapped, pulled to the line & .................... no purge. :oops: Got back to the pits & found the low pressure switch was bad. We called it a day. When we got home & the caah cooled down Jeff tried the purge & all was fine again. :oops: :oops: . Jeff decided to drive it to work a few days because it didn't seem to be running right. One day Jeff calls & said it stalled about a mile from home & wouldn't restart. I pulled him home with the truck and found it would not turn over. I put a load tester on the bat. & the starter was drawing big amps. Jeff swapped out a new starter, old one had a cracked housing. The new starter did the same thing. :idea: Then the light came on & I pulled the dipstick to find it was about 2 quarts over full. That's not goota' and by now Jeff is as nervous as a cat. Only days 'til DLN's & he's dead in the water (or gas as the case may be). He took all the plugs out, drained the oil/gas. disconnected the fuel pump and dist. & spun it over. It looked like 8 garden hoses. :oops: :oops: Reconnected the fuel pump & more gas filled the engine. In the process of hooking up all the nitrous stuff he must have knocked some rust loose, or got dirt in the lines or a combination thereof. So with days to go Jeff orders a new set of injectors, better filter & an aftermarket regulator. We dumped oil down the cylinders & spun it a couple times. Let it set while waiting for the new parts. Once it was ready to fire we dumped a little more oil down the holes, filled it with fresh oil & filter & spun it over 'til it had oil pressure. Livened up the fuel pump & dist. & turned the key. Fired right up & we let it just idle for a few minutes. The lifters made a little noise but not too bad, went away as soon as fresh oil started pumping through them. With all the oil it ran but not good (insert Jeff's nerves again). Once it was up to operating temp. Jeff shut it off & drained the oil & refilled it with a fresh batch. The next day (Wednesday) Jeff drove it to work. When he got home he said it wouldn't idle. (nerves at an all time high now). I told him most likely the plugs didn't like all that raw gas & oil they have had to endure. I told him I'd run to Winner's Circle Thursday morning, while he was at work, & pick up a new set (colder nitrous set not found locally). At the same time I picked up that spare fuel pressure switch for the nitrous Justin Case. One final oil change for good measure & we loaded up the caah & packed the truck. Cheryl drove Jeff to work so we could pick him up after work & head for Iowa. That saved us about an hour of drive time since his work is on the way. We took off about 8pm & got to the hotel around 12:30am Friday. Friday morning after a short night I was up first so I drove to the caah wash & washed all the bugs off from our night drive. Then I ran down to Arnold Motor Supply & picked up a couple O2 sensors figuring they probably didn't like the Oil/Gas bath Ann E. Moore than the plugs did. By the time I got back Jeff was up so we backed the caah off the trailer & got the plugs changed. (Not an easy task on a 95 camaro). I really think drilling holes in the wheel wells is in order. The plugs & O2 sensors did the trick & the caah was back to running like it should.
We spent Friday runnin' around with the early crowd. (I'm sure that story will surface in other reports). :mrgreen:

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O.K. this is where the actual race report starts.


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Friday the nitrous bottle sat in a cooler in the back of Jeff's caah. Friday was a very hot day & the cooler just didn't have the intended R-value. At the end of the day Jeff checked the bottle & it was in the red zone. So, Jeff packed it in ice to bring it down. Well, needless to say Saturday morning the bottle was now too cold. We let the sun shine on it and by the first T&T the pressure was where it should be. A bottle warmer is on the list but that's not in the budget just yet. Jeff not wanting to hurt anything since this is all new territory for him put a very soft tune in the computer. No juice in low & just a low percentage in the following gears on a 50 shot. Oh, & the low pressure switch gave up again, so Jeff & I swapped in the new unit, problem solved. The caah has been running 9 second 1/8 times with an occasional dip into the 8.80 range. Last year I got an 8.67 on a fluke run, but on average it is a 9 second 1/8 mile car. The 6 speed manual it has in it is just not a fast shift set up, fun to drive but just not a race deal. I keep trying to talk him into an automatic but he is married to the stick for now. I guess I can't blame him as I said it is a blast to run through the gears.
Well I digress, back to racing. Jeff pulled through the water box, dumped the clutch and fried the Hydes. That was the best burnout I've seen that caah do. He pulls to the line, light goes green and he's off. Clicks off an 8.57. Personal best for the caah & for Jeff. That's pretty cool, I head back to the pits to see if he can be talked into stepping it up a little. By the time I get there he's got the laptop hooked up, he's dumping 80% in every gear ramped up to 100% & throwing 100 shot pills in the solenoid lines and dropping air pressure in the slicks. In 1 lap he went from conservative cruiser to mad scientist. lol
It paid off, next lap he does his tire warmup, pulls to the line drops the hammer & clicks off a new personal best of 8.25, blowing away my old record by .23. It was sure cool to see all his work pay off. I think the nitrous hook is set, (your right Rapid, "until he melts some aluminum").
Next round I decided to make a lap. I think Murphy was in the passenger seat. :oops: :oops: I pull through the water box, dump the clutch & I think the only thing that smoked was the clutch. Jeff said do a 4th gear burnout, probably shouldn't have. Well, when that happened it just went all downhill from there. I hit the purge twice like Jeff instructed but ended up hitting it a couple more times cuz' it just didn't seem to be doing much. I light the bulbs, fumbling around by the time I got the line lock set the tree was already lighting the second yellow. I released the button mashed the peddle to the tune of a .7xx R/T. Looking back, I at that point I should have given up on the reaction time & concentrated on the launch. One of those 20/20 hind sight thoughts. I came off the line so hard the back end drifted toward the guard rail, no traction lead to a 2.1 60ft. At that point any chance for a good lap was out the window, I think I saw Murphy snickering at me. Later it turns out, I ran out of juice during the run & ended up with an 8.50 pass. Later that night Jeff & I compared time slips. My 8.50 was just a couple tenths of a mile slower than his 8.25, despite the ET difference . The caah normally 60 ft's around 2.00 + or- but on Jeff's record pass he had a 1.27 60 ft., that was an amazing difference. (E.T. from the launch right ZAP?)
Jeff went back for one more lap that evening, but when he purged he could see it was low on juice pressure, so he shut the nitrous off and did a normal pass, turning in a 8.9 something, it's usual pre-bottle time.

So, to make a long story short, now Jeff has a little bit of a handle on the nitrous deal, knows it has more in it, has the family record, and he knows he needs to go to the track with 2 bottles next time. Sure was a memorable weekend for Jeff & for me too. Now he has his eye on the 7's.
15th Annual DRAGLIST Nationals Sometime in 2020. Somewhere in the USA.

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Re: DLN's VI Report sorta' long.............................

Postby draglist » Sun Jul 31, 2011 11:16 pm

Great report, Gary! I have a good photo of Jeff tuning 'er up with that laptop... ahh, racing in the future. bp
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Re: DLN's VI Report sorta' long.............................

Postby Zappy » Mon Aug 01, 2011 2:30 am

Not only does does Jeff have the family record, he has the trophy to prove it. (insert pic here).

Great report, quite a week you two went thru, but WOW what results. 8) All eyes were on the scoreboard for Jeffs record attempt - we all knew the number he was shootin for - not to mention the family bragging rights - but, when he lit the board with that 8.25 all of us on the line went nuts.( Marty the party had nothin on us. ) You'ld have thought we won the winter nationals, it was a very exciting time.

And now you say he's lookin for the first "7", I love it.

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Rapid Randy Baker
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Re: DLN's VI Report sorta' long.............................

Postby Rapid Randy Baker » Mon Aug 01, 2011 9:15 am

Great report! The caaah sure looked good and sounded real tough this year. I knew your old record was in a heap o trouble. Congrats to Jeff and you both.

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[url]http://.www.rapidrandy.net[/url]

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pro70z28
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Re: DLN's VI Report sorta' long.............................

Postby pro70z28 » Mon Aug 01, 2011 5:08 pm

Jeff just told me, he found the torque arm to be bent bad enough it rubs the drive shaft when he goes over a bump. It was an Edelbrok, but I guess not HD enough. Looks like he'll be parkin' it til' he can get a heavier duty unit. :oops:
15th Annual DRAGLIST Nationals Sometime in 2020. Somewhere in the USA.

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pro70z28
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Re: DLN's VI Report sorta' long.............................

Postby pro70z28 » Mon Aug 01, 2011 7:30 pm

I told Jeff maybe we'll have to build one. He said, but I want to drive it this fall yet. (I that a jab at my fabricating speed)? :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

He found a unit built from 1.5" tube, looks much tougher than what he has now.
15th Annual DRAGLIST Nationals Sometime in 2020. Somewhere in the USA.

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pro70z28
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Re: DLN's VI Report sorta' long.............................

Postby pro70z28 » Mon Aug 01, 2011 8:36 pm

Didn't bend it just a little..................... :oops:

Image
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Re: DLN's VI Report sorta' long.............................

Postby Novel-T » Mon Aug 01, 2011 9:37 pm

Holy crap!!

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stimpy
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Re: DLN's VI Report sorta' long.............................

Postby stimpy » Mon Aug 01, 2011 11:28 pm

with the 60's he was putting down I am not suprised it bent . most of the guys on the other forum I am on use BMRs or Spohns . is the car getting air yet on the launches ??
the Groom that went Vroom At DLN IV

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Re: DLN's VI Report sorta' long.............................

Postby draglist » Tue Aug 02, 2011 7:57 pm

Wow... that's some serious horsepower abuse! bp
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