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I got in 2 passes tonight before the weather rolled in and couldn't be happier with the new engine.
First pass I ran spring pressure which was 8 psi and went 6.31 @ 109, 9.84 @ 139.82 leaving on 6psi . In comparison my 5.3 on spring only went 10.55 @ 129. Second pass I added 8 on top of the gate and only ran it 1/8 mile to see what the IATs got up to with the added boost. It went 5.90 @ 112 leaving on 6psi and averaged 13.5psi although I did let out 5.3 seconds into the run which scrubbed some MPH. On my 8.79 pass with the 5.3 engine I went 5.60 @ 124 at close to 24psi.
IAT's got up to 227 on the second run at the 1/8 mile. Based on that if I had run it out it would have gotten into the mid 230's by the top end and I was hoping to see those kind of numbers at 15 or 16 psi. With it getting hotter out it's only going to get worse. This engine is better all around over my junkyard engine so it should take more abuse but I don't want to melt it down for no reason. Intercooler and bigger turbo are a good 6 months away.
At the last minute I went out tonight and made 3 more passes, 2 were aborted runs but on one pass I went 5.83 @ 119.33 with a 1.32 60 foot. Same boost as the night before 13.5 but I left on 9.5. With the old 5.3 it took 21 psi to go 5.827 @ 120.00, 9.07 @ 151. So 7.5 less lbs of boost to go just as fast.
Problem is the IAT's are hitting mid 230's and I'm going to be a bit more conservative with this engine over my junkyard engine. I'm going to look at meth injection kits as a band aid to get me through the summer so I can put a little more boost into it.
Making some progress little by little. A few weeks back I bumped up the launch boost to 12 and kept the boost the same going down the track (13.5-14 psi) and got down to a 5.62 @ 122. That's right around an 8.80-8.81 so I'm right there with my previous best at 14psi. Here is a video of that pass.
Since then I ordered a Holley water/methanol kit and got it on the car last week. Crappy pic but you can see the tank and pump mounted up front in the stock battery location and the single 1000cc nozzle mounted in the outlet of the turbo about 10" away from the air intake temp sensor.
I tested it out last Wednesday and fought a handful of issues, which resulted in one pass with the kit on. I was using a 50/50 mix and had a pretty quick ramp from 1-3% on the transbrake up to 10% while going down the track. Right from the hit the IAT's got up to 185* then dipped down to 170* for most of the pass and right at the traps they got to 175*. In comparison to my last 1/8 mile pass I was seeing 240* about 800' out. So at the 1/8 mile I was down 70* on the intake temps. Unfortunately my crank bolt at some point and time decided to exit my vehicle and the balancer backed off the snout about 1000' out and misted the entire engine with oil. It put on one hell of a smoke show and thankfully the balancer didn't come all the way off and the oil didn't get under my tires.
Tomorrow I'll try again with a little more W/M while I'm on the 2 step and try 12% down the track and see how that affects the IAT's. Then I'll start adding more boost. I will only have so much room to go though as I'm just about out of gear and need to switch to 3.08's.
One things for sure this car has been a learning process for me. I replaced the seal and put everything back together but then the balancer was wobbling. I didn't know what to make of it so I retorqued the crank bolt and same problem. I pulled the balancer and checked the crank with a dial indicator and it had about .0015 of movement to it, which is what it had when I assembled. Then I noticed a piece of metal sticking out from behind the seal. I pulled the front end apart and found out that when I pressed the new seal in the lip of the timing cover broke off in a perfect ring. It was sitting on the snout of the crank when I installed the balancer and that piece got pinched in there. I took the pieces out and put it all back together and no more wobble...imagine that. Very strange how the cover broke I didn't press that seal in hard by any means.
Awesome thread... read it cover to cover over the past couple of days. I picked up a '94 a month ago as a learning project and plan a 5.3/glide set-up (a2w boost next year hopefully). Will probably be a dog NA. :/ I am another a big proponent of buying things once. Also, I had a question on your rear suspension... what springs/shocks combo do you have? I think I remember you were waiting on converting to a CO set-up in the rear... I've been really impressed with how fast you are going without that. Awesome car, love the color!
I was going to switch to a coil over but decided to just stick to the stock springs cut and I replaced my strange adjustables with a set of Viking double adjustable crusader shocks. Thanks.
This car has always been extremely smooth launching. Especially with what you have in the rear. Thats exactly how it should be. Cant wait to see how quick you can go with this thing.
If the weather holds out we'll start to see tonight just how fast it will be or at least what my next limitation is. The W/M is dialed in and I plan on trying 16psi first pass and going up from there. I'm just about out of gear so I may just end up running 1/8 mile beyond 16psi (have 3.08's ready to go in). I have a feeling my injectors will be maxed out by the end of the night and I'll be pushing the converter beyond what it was set up for.
Was pretty busy at the track and only got in 3 runs. First on 16lbs went 8.85 @ 152, second on 17lbs went 8.75 @ 154.49 (new best) and last pass I tried 19lbs but spun.
Another trying night at the track. The 3.08's are in and as expected the converter loosened up a bit so the 60 foot was soft. I only managed a 1.32 and went 8.76 @ 157.23 in the heat of the day (new best MPH). I tried leaving on more power to get the 60 foot back and the car just spun and on the last pass my converter bolts got loose so I packed it up.
I did get some good data on the water/meth set up. It seems the consensus has been that over 10% vs fuel flow (on an e85 non-intercooled) starts to loose power. On my car I didn't see any kind of MPH drop by going from 12% to 11% but I did see my IATs go up 8-10* at the same boost level. I need to try 13% next time out but I'm also on the verge of maxing out the single 1000cc nozzle. If I stop seeing gains or start to loose power another nozzle wouldn't help (as some have suggested to me). I could also try something other than a 50/50 water/methanol mix like trying E98 or E85. Based on my reading most of the cooling comes from water not the methanol so I don't know that using fuel would even help with that. The passes I made last night were on 19lbs and my cycle duty is at 90% so I'll be maxed before I hit 21lbs. Another thing I tried last night was I bumped my timing from 16 to 16.5* and my IAT's dropped anywhere from 8-12*. I'd like to run that test again at night though as my first pass was at 7pm with the sun out and my second was at 8pm when it was dark and temps had dropped a good 5* or so.
Very interesting with the timing dropping IATs. I dont think Ive actually read of someone monitoring that specifically. What did the mph do from 16* to 16.5*?
04-17-2015, 10:49 PM
