Villain281H

iTrader: (5)

and hopefully a story in Fastest Street Car magazine soon!

I got a NOS #05168 kit to do a story on the install and what difference it made for an article I'm doing for Fastest Street Car Magazine (paper of the PRO/NMCA series). Let me say it's a bad-*** nice wet kit, but somewhat hard to hide! With the hood closed however, you won't find any traces of it (except the arming switch).

Mounted up the M/T sportsman pros and drove her to the track last night, first 2 runs on the motor netted:

2.05 60 foot (on both runs), 13.44 @ 103.43 mph and 13.45 @ 103.35 mph. 1,000 rpm stall at the line, shifts at 5800 rpm. Same old bracket car I even nailed a .006 light followed by a .041, not bad I thought for my first runs in the car in over 2 years.

Now for the spray!

It's on a full-throttle switch, and I was advised to not go WOT on the full-throttle switch until 3,000 rpm for fear of backfire and intake destruction. With a stock stall converter and 3.23 gears, well....

First pass, arming switch on, 1,000 rpm stall on line, rolled into the throttle and hit WOT about 100 feet out. The initial hit was with a slight hesitation, then off like a rocket to:

2.166 60 foot (yes rolling to 3 grand takes time)!
12.654 @ 116.86 mph

She was pulling really hard, trans never slipped and each gear banged at 6 grand (thank god considering 115,000 miles on everything)!

After discussion with my buddy (speed shop owner), we decided to try launching at WOT with the arming switch off, count "1-onethousand" and then throw the arming switch. I was a little nervous on this call, but decided to give it a shot.

Second pass, arming switch off, 1,000 rpm stall on line, WOT launch, counted to 1, then throw arming switch (rpm was about 2300-2400 when I threw it). Same hesitation, then off she goes! Slip said:
2.052 60 foot (so not if any juice before 60 feet)
12.256 @ 117.40 mph

Not too shabby I thought! I'm planning yanking the stock 180-188 degree thermostat and modifying or replacing with a 160 degree and maybe trying again.

For the chassis dyno #s, N/A on the sportsman pro tires (soft compound so they chew a little power), 291 hp and 302 torque at the wheels.

Nitrous at 125 hp setting was 405 hp and 447 torque at the wheels.

I hope the stock bottom end stays together for a while..

Derek

TOSTO RACING

iTrader: (37)

Damn thats aweosme!!!

Checkmate

iTrader: (2)

Awesome.

bad95killer

Nice passes Derek & hopefully to see 11's next time

peace

Navy David SS

iTrader: (13)

Nice run Derek. Next thing you'll be bracket racing this car and the Nova sitting.

Put in a window switch - easy to do. It will allow you to arm before you stage, leave the way you want, and not worrying about turn the switch on. -- bottom end: 3,000 rpm; top end 5800 shut off.

David - ex-nitrous junkeeeee

gator's 99TA

iTrader: (2)

window switch and she is flyin!

Villain281H

iTrader: (5)

Funny thing is my speed shop friend said the EXACT same thing: window switch!

We'll see, as the Nova will be down for a few months for her upgrades and such come November. Maybe 11s will come with a few tweaks. The mph should make it see mid 11s all hooked up with a good converter, but I'm wanting the motor to live a little longer

Derek

Denom

iTrader: (2)

Wow, your car is making some serious power on the juice. It's got an 11 sec. pass in it for sure on drag radials.

Caveman

iTrader: (2)

I think you should bracket race the Formula , thats a good looking Blue Firebird. I do like Formulas(favorite car).

12secSS

iTrader: (30)

DAMN Derek! I was expecting to see an 11 going all out, but since it is your street car. When is it going to be out?

Navy David SS

iTrader: (13)

Derek the MPH is there. 60'.. 60'. These bottom ends are a lot stronger than people give credit to them. My stock bottom end lasted for 4 years on the spray. Up to a 200 shot. Key will be tune. Don't get in a hurry for 11's. Make sure the tune is there. Pull a couple of degrees of timing - you don't really have to with a 125 wet set-up. I ran 150 shot with my motor tune. Just watch the A/F and you'll be OK.

Good Luck

David

Villain281H

iTrader: (5)

Doubtful, I was running it on M/T Sportsman Pro tires, so the hook was there, even with a 2.05 60 foot. Just a slow car

I love the color, searched for 6 months to find one in that color. The car runs deadly consistent, and as tempting as that is, the Nova is more fun at 11 second compared to 13 seconds and is pretty consistent as well (seven runs 2 weeks ago with 60 foots variance of 8 thousandths), although the 'Bird has A/C.

Not soon I hope. I know she'll have an engine rebuild in the next year or 2 from the time/mileage, and will likely get a few "upgrades", but nothing radical as it will still be a DD. I have a set of Mac headers and y-pipe, and LS6 intake already waiting for the engine swap/work, whenever that happens...

The tune has been done by Jeremy Formato, and there's more left if we tuned it for spray only, but we left it safe for both set-ups. It's a tad rich on juice, nice 12.8 A/F on motor, timing has been pulled back a little. As you said, I'm not in a rush to make this car run major fast times as I already have one pulling funds from the wallet I know a converter would kick this thing awake from a dead sleep!

Derek

COMNBYU

Forget all of the RPM/window switches and just use a WOT switch, period. That red LT1 in my avatar had basically the same set-up as your Formy save for a 150 instead of 100. With 2.73's and DR's the car went a best of 1.63 60 with normals in the mid-high 1.6's. If you're using a WOT and not getting at least the same with a 3.23 LS car then you're not doing something right.

I say you've got 11.5's like the car sits if you can get 1.7's or better, which shouldn't be hard.

SilverGhost

iTrader: (53)

Comnbyu--that is rather ill advice, how many people have you told that to? I hope not too many. I supposed if you had a huge stall in that car and the car was at 4K before your foot was to the floor then that's a different story but Derek's car is not that case.

Derek I would most certainly put a window switch on the car, you don't want to be spraying it before 3k rpm. doing it how you did throwing the activation switch above 3K is safe for that purpose but it doesn't protect from anything going wrong up top in the shifts and the car spinning to a unpleasant rpm on spray.

congrats on the new bests though!!

COMNBYU

No, the car had NO converter. It had a cai and cat-back, that's it. And of course the 150 wet shot.

It's perfectly safe. I'm just not one of these people that buys everything that is advertised as "nessessary" when it's really not, and didn't want to spend $2,000 on a kit for things that you really don't need.

I know, this probably goes against everything you've ever been told/heard/read/sold/etc. but it's the simplest truth.

Many people I know personally have run their cars like the way I'm suggesting and I personally ran mine like that 2yrs+ with zero complications. As long as the butterflies are WOT he'll be fine. He does NOT "need" a RPM/window switch, period. Sure he can use one if he wants to play it safe beyond reason, but it's absolutely ludicris. That, and he'll be stuck in the 12's with rediculously high traps and 2.0 60's.


Of course in my 5-6yrs on auto-related BB's I usually don't get much positive feedback from these kind of statements. So don't worry, I don't expect any less from you or anyone else on here

Villain281H

iTrader: (5)

Sean,

Yeah I was a little nervous about throwing the switch below 3 grand, but seeing how the Nova doesn't have a window switch for top end rpm limit/shutoff, I can always lift but still I may throw a window switch in there if I decide to spray her in the future. Remember this was mainly for an article, so the initial testing is being done with the kit as purchased and set-up. Maybe the cooler November air will net us a high 11 second time.

COMNBYU,

I appreciate the comments, but the comment of "you're not doing something right" I think is a little harsh. No offense, I'm sure you have knowledge of cars. Considering I've been racing for 16 years, been around it longer, and my best friend owns a speed shop that builds anything from mild 350 engines to blow/nitrous big blocks in the 7-8 second range, I know a little about this stuff as well, and I'll play it safe. Maybe I'm wrong not going WOT on the spray off the launch, but considering how many good sources I have telling me that's a bad idea (and I mean besides this discussion), I'm not in a position to risk it all for a few tenths more. If more people with nitrous experience tell me the WOT on bottle is okay, then my opinion may change.

Derek

COMNBYU

I didn't mean that to sound harsh. I meant that "if" you decided to take my advice and just use the WOT switch and you couldn't get at least what I did with my LT1 car then you wouldn't be doing something right. Like you have it set up now I don't think you're doing anything "wrong", it's just the way you have it set up. It's just not gonna run to it's full potential like it is now. It's not anything that you physically are doing wrong.

I wasn't trying to force anything on you, I really don't care how you set up your car. After all, it's your car and you're going to do what you want with it, and that's cool. I was just throwing that idea out there.

It just kills me to see so many nice cars on this site with so much potential but that are set up so extremely conservative. Then you get people wondering why their ride is not running what what other peoples are, that are set up right. I'm not saying you don't understand that your car could be faster, just a lot of people. You just want to play it safe (beyond reason IMO) and that's cool.


Sorry for the ramble. GL with your car.



Jon

taner

iTrader: (6)

nice when you have such an awesome backup race car

Villain281H

iTrader: (5)

COMNBYU,

My mis-understanding then, I know boards can get touchy b/c you can't hear how comments are made. Thanks for the suggestions!

Taner,

Yep, just another car in my house now with spray! I don't think the truck will see a bottle, but you never know....

Derek

jleews6

iTrader: (2)

Back in my Mustang days I installed a kit on an AOD Mustang for a kid and told him "Dont hit it untill 3000" or you will backfire it.
Needless to say he figured it out that if he hit it right out of the hole it went quicker. He did this all season without one problem.

I can promise you that the first time I would try it I would send the throttle bodie and MAF through the hood.