It seems like I never have time to work on the car any more and when I do it’s usually only for an hour or so at a time. So I’ve been saving up some updates for a while now.

First of all I finally bolted in my modified bottle brackets after looking at them sitting on the bench for quite a while. I’m real happy with how they work. A single socket and ratchet is all it takes to change the bottle now and the bottle goes in and out with no hassle. The only thing I’m not happy with is that I bolted the front bracket in a little crooked. I made the holes in the trunk pan large enough to give me some adjustability specifically so I could get them straight but without a helper on the top side of the car when I bolted them in.......it’s gonna take a couple trys.



I got some small parts from Summit early last week so one of the first things I did when they arrived was to finish plumbing my fuel solenoid to the regulator. I used a 3/8npt to -4 fitting and an 8.5inch -4 line. This pic was taken today when the fuel pressure gauge line was disconnected from the opposite side of the regulator.



Another trinket in my Summit order was a WOT switch bracket. This thing was probably not necessary as I could have fabbed something myself but I just wanted a simple, no hassle bolt-on way to set up my WOT switch. Well……all’s well that ends well but this thing definitely didn’t just bolt on. It’s for a specifically for a 4150 Holley main body and since mine is a 4150 HP I already knew I'd have to tap the holes to bolt it on......no sweat. But the aftermarket secondary linkage on my Pro Systems carb wouldn’t clear the bracket without me first grinding down the spacers on the back of it. Then I had to significantly shorten the rear idle speed screw and spring so the screw would be short enough to engage the switch arm rather than just hit the top of the switch body and keep the seconaries from opening. None of this was really a big deal to do, but by the time I was done dicking around I could have probably fabbed my own bracket or used the one that came with the kit.



Today I pulled the hood off the car and worked on mounting the nitrous pressure gauge next to the fuel pressure gauge under the cowl. This was pretty easy since I had already done it once before. I’ll spare you the details and just show a pic of the aluminum braces I made for the underside of the hood and then the finished position of the gauges.




Since the hood was off I figured it would be a great time to plumb the business end of the purge valve. This was another simple job that really just consisted of bending up the tube and drilling a hole in the firewall to route it through. From there the tube routes up through the cowl drain grate. That should be good for now. I may have to adjust the tube's position though after I've tried it out.



After the purge was done I started to route the main nitrous feed line. I started up front and got it routed through the firewall grommet and into the car. From there it will be routed under the door sill plate and ultimately route into the trunk with the bottle. None of the routing will be terribly photo worthy so I may not have many pics of that. Once that job is complete I can start the tedious work of wiring it all up.

 

Well planned setup! Looks so clean, you can tell you have put some thought into it. That sucks about the WOT switch. Go figure something doesn't quite fit like it should.

Off topic but how are you evacuating crankcase pressures? I see the two breathers in the valve covers but no PCV. Just curious.

 

Thanks Tony. Sometimes I think I put too much thought into this stuff. Thats one of the reasons I'm moving so slow and the biggest reason I'm dreading the wiring part of this job. I've got a diagram of how I want to wire it functionally, but what's killing me is how to do it neatly. I can't stand spaghetti wire messes but sometimes it's unavoidable I guess.

The two breathers are it for now. They seem to work just fine but I'm considering using a vacuum pump in the future. I could hook up a conventional PCV system but I don't like the potential of injesting oil mist into my intake/combustion chambers. That stuff kills octain and it really makes me nervous with nitrous.

Here is the vacuum pump I've checked out before. Price is the main reason I don't have one yet but I guess I'll have to bite the bullet if I get into ring seal issues on the spray.

http://www.gzmotorsports.com/SVPK-LS...-pump-kit.html

 

I had the same issues with my W.O.T switch. I bought the switch from Quick Fuel made by them for there carb. I had to tap the carb body, too. No problem. But the rear idle screw also hit it. I shortened the spacers between the plate and the body and spaced out the micro switch to match the screw.

 

Quite a few drag racers around here use the exhaust to pull the crankcase pressures out. Some sort of check valve tied into the headers. Seems to work and it is on the cheap.

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/mi...0/media/images

 

Yeah I'm sure I would have had less (or no) problems if my carb was a box stock Holley HP. But since only the main body is Holley HP and the linkage is not......I assume that's why it didn't work without modification. I guess such is life when you're dealing with custom parts on a custom car......stuff isn't gonna just bolt together.

 

Thanks for the idea Tony. I've heard mixed reviews on those. I think the key with making them work is getting them installed at just the right angle to allow the exhaust to properly pull (scavenge) air through them and create a slight vacuum effect. The guys I've heard of that haven't had luck probably were a little off on their installation angle.

My real concern with those though is the potential to draw oil into my exhaust system; not quite as bad as drawing it into the intake, but not much better either. It's probably not a big deal with open headers on a race car since you'd just be (potentially) blowing a fine mist of oil on the underside of the car that would probably never reach the rear tires during a pass. But on a car like mine that runs a full exhaust all the time.....I'd be worried. Best case scenario....it would smoke a little out the pipes and make the motor appear to be burning oil. Worst case scenario.....oil pools up in the exhaust and causes a fire.

I know I'm probably just paranoid and little hard-headed, but I like my plain old breathers for now. They put out just a very small amount of oil that needs occasionally wiped up, but I'm sure that could be fixed with some baffeling if it bothered me. I really don't think its from blow-by because it doesn't chuff any smoke out of the breathers at idle or free-rev rpm. Neither one of these are baffled at all so really it's amazing I don't get more oil out of them.

 

Whens the local track opening? You going to be ready? Can't wait. Give me a heads up and I will try to make it. Camera is ready!

 

how far away are you from MIR?

 

Sounds good brother! Opening weekend at MIR is March the 2nd, but I'll be out of town.......AGAIN! Thats been the story of my life lately, which is why I can't seem to get anything significant done on the car. In fact.....I'm out of town as we speak. The next test n tune is the following weekend (9 March) so that's when I'm shooting for. I THINK the car will be ready.....I just gotta stay home long enough to get it done. Here's my short list of what I've gotta do yet to be ready:

Install N20 kit
- Route main line
- Wire bottle heater
- Install new throttle cable
- Wire entire system
- Flow fuel system/set FP
- Gap/ install colder spark plugs

Have new front tires mounted

Change oil/filter

Service Transmission
- Change trans fluid/filter
- Inspect trans brake solenoid
- Replace trans brake solenoid

Change fuel filter cartridge

Change water and add Water Wetter

Service Suspension
- Lube front suspension
- Check/adjust pinion angle and bars

The list may not make perfect sense......it's just a copy of the list I've made to keep myself on track (no pun intended).

 

Just a touch over 100 miles. It's a bit of a haul but worth it for me for all the more I go to the track. They run such an organized program there and always have great track prep. I've ran on some garbage tracks before!

 

cool, im only about 20 min away from it.... would love to meet you, been following your build since you started, and the car was white..... if you come up this way, pm me a phone number. maybe get some new ideas on my 79

 

Cool....sounds good...will do. Damn....that seems like forever ago when the car was still white...LOL. Thanks for following along.

 

from this.....


to this.....


......and STILL not done...LOL.

 

I’m a little behind on my updates. Last weekend I spent a good amount of time getting the nitrous feed line routed from the engine compartment to the trunk and wiring the system. Routing the feed line involved removing about half my interior as I routed the line in through the firewall, behind the driver’s side kick panel, under the door sill, behind the inner quarter trim, and then over the top of the rear wheel well and into the trunk. Besides the solenoids….wiring the system included wiring the purge, bottle warmer, timing retard activation, and a trans brake interrupt relay so I can still leave with my right foot to the floor but the nitrous won’t activate until I come off the trans brake button. None of this stuff was really worth taking pictures of, so I just took an underhood pic once all the wiring was complete and the hood and air cleaner were back in place.



Last weekend I had enough time to test that all the solenoids were functioning properly and that the trans brake interrupt was working, but that was all I had time for. So today I also tested that the timing retard was functioning properly and set it up for my initial tune to pull 6 degrees. Next I needed to set my flowing fuel pressure to the nitrous system. To get the most accurate pressure reading I wanted to flow fuel through the actual jet I’ll be running to set the pressure. But obviously I didn’t want to dump raw fuel into my motor to do this. So I made a pretty simple tool out of a mason jar and some spare fittings that would allow me connect the fuel line from the solenoid and flow fuel though a jet and into the jar. I also had to take my fuel pressure gauge back down out of my cowl so I could see it during my testing.





I set my flowing fuel pressure at 5.5psi with the .047 fuel jet I’ll be using for my initial 100hp shot. Next I installed a .055 jet to see if I can still get away with a bigger shot at the same fuel pressure setting. Luckily I only saw about a needle’s width of drop on the gauge with the .055 jet, so I think I’ll be good to go if I increase my shot slightly at the track without adjusting the regulator. However……just for grins I also tested a .071 jet and found that the fuel pressure dropped to just a needle’s width over 5psi. I don’t plan on using that large of a fuel jet any time soon, but it was interesting to see where the fuel pressure ended up with the larger jet installed.

So anyway….things are coming together pretty well. At least I have a fully functioning nitrous kit now. My new goal date for track testing is going to be March 23rd. I still have some stuff to get done but at this point I’d say I’m in pretty good shape. I spent the rest of today working on my wife’s vehicle and I have some other stuff to take care of tomorrow so I’m pretty much done for this weekend.

 

Looking good. That thing is going to roll out once you let off that transbrake and the nitrous hits.

 

Thanks man. I hope so. I'm working with last year's slicks so that's my only concern. But I think they're still good and hopefully my suspension does its job.

 

Awesome looking car. You spent a lot of time tlc on this build

 

Sweet build! I like it a lot.

 

Thanks guys.