alright fellas it looks like no racing for me on saturday or anytime soon..... the last time we ran the car we pulled a plug from each bank and took a quick look at em to make sure all was well. car wasn't missing as far as we knew so we figured all was well.....

well today on advice of my electrical guy we decided to do a compression test... we pulled the #2 plug and immediately we were like "OH ****".. The grounding strap was completely burned off the plug and the plug was fouled bad with oil.... I had idled the car in the garage a few times since that day and with the plug not firing it just washed the plug down with fuel and oil... it looked bad....

a compression test revealed that we are down another 20 psi from what #2 tested last time which was like two months ago. #2 was 185 and all the others were 205 back then... now it's down to 160 psi and the others are 205.... so that hole is having a serious oil control problem and if I had ran the car on saturday unknowingly it would have DEFINITELY melted down that cylinder probably BAD. So finding it early was a good deal for me. Now I can just replace the piston and reassemble the motor and we should be good to go.... but the pistons are custom ordered and I believe they have to be ordered in sets of 4 at about 500 bucks for 4..... so it's gonna be a bit b4 i can get the motor out and reassembled...... we're gonna hit it hard in 2010 with some minor changes to make it faster.... a cam sync to run sequential injection, individual cyl timing/fueling, and possibly a SuperVic with a 2 stage dry fogger instead of the plate we're running now.....

All in all i'm not at all mad at it..... The 9.06 makes it the 3rd fastest actively running LT1 in the world right now and in the top 5 all time so I can't be at ALL disappointed.... and I had an 8 in the bag when i shut her down last time out too so i'm not mad in the least...

So pour out some liquor for my #2 piston this weekend cause she's a dead homie...

 

Ahh that sucks dude. Good luck with the repair.

 

I only drink beer but will throw in a few extra for the lose of your #2 piston. It's the least I can do. Like you mentioned though, it's best you found it now before more damage was done. Heres to next year and you moving higher up on the fastest list.

 

Heck ya, your one of the fastest LT1 guys around! Once that cylinder issue is sorted im sure you'll be back at it

 

That's too bad to hear that man, definately glad you figured out what was up before you ran though. I'm sure it'l be out stronger than ever next year

 

sucks, but good you found it this way and most likely saved yourself a lot of money

 

That's the nature of the beast..you'll get it fixed. That's what winter time is for.

 

I feared the worst when I read the title, but looks like you caught it on time to prevent some serious damage.

 

Make sure you pull a little more timing out this time around!

 

it definately happens when you start leaning on any engine with n2o, escpeacially if you lean it out or have a little too much timing but your tuneup is really close. After you replace the piston you will have a goodbaseline. Take some pics once you get the heads off. later Clint

 

Yeah we definitely got lucky that we caught it before we did something dumb. I'm kinda mad at myself that I didn't check it earlier and pull all the plugs and look at them after we ran a pretty big shot. It didn't run lean enough to completely kill the piston so that's good. The piston is still holding 160psi of compression but the others are 200-205.... So if we run it again and oil gets in there under a lot of spray it'll probably torch the piston BAD. and I don't want to have to replace the block, rod, and head in case it blows bad.... so i'm glad all it looks like it'll be now is 4 pistons (4 is the minimum for a custom piston)....

So I'm hoping it won't be all that bad.... It just sucks cause this saturday the DA was expected to be -1000 at the time we were going to be running..... 62 degrees outside temperature. IF the track cooperated the car definitely would have been going into the 8's....

 

That sux, but atleast you will probably save yourself a lot of money!

 

Do it pro mod style... pop off the head and oil pan, get out the acid, get the aluminum off the cylinder wall and give it a quick hone, wash it out, change the piston and rings, and throw it back together! Easy.

 

hell i could pull the motor out put it on an engine stand, pull the oil pan and pull the rod and piston out from the bottom with the head still attached..... quick hone the cylinder wall with a drill and bead hone, blow everything out of the combustion chamber, slap it back together and i'm good..... at least from what I think..... sucks I can't order one piston though. gotta order 4 but then i'll have 3 backups left over i guess...

 

The piston won't come out of the bottom. The webbing for the mains is in the way. The crank is also in the way. You wouldn't be able to hone it half way right like that anyhow. You would either be missing the top of the bore of beating the crap out of your cylinder head with the top of the stones (probably both). You couldn't just blow it out either, it needs to actually be washed with brake cleaner, soap and water, etc.

 

I don't drink but I'll pour some kool aid for the poor piston! Seriously though this would be a good time to do a refreshing then it'll be good as new.

 

It probably is still like new, just needs a piston and rings.

 

yeah you're right i wasn't thinking about the crank and whether or not it would come out the bottom but you're very right....

yeah it does def need a piston but i think we're going to address some limitations that we've been facing now that we've "walked the walk" for the last year and a half chasing the record....

I don't have the ability to run sequential injection cause I don't have a cam sync. I also don't have the ability to run individual cylinder timing due to the cam sync issue... My XFI has the ability to do both is we have a cam sync. So we're going to put that in the distributor while we have the motor out....

I'm also contemplating a switch to a 2 stage dry fogger instead of the plate that i'm running now..... 350+ hp is marginal at best for distribution through my plate with the intake we're running... it's doable but I tihnk this plate was made for a slightly taller intake with wider runners..... if we do that we're going to swap to a Super Victor instead of the Victor EFI we have right now..... i figure since it's already setup for LT1 heads I could EASILY part out this intake for a good chunk of change.....

I think with those few changes the car will pick up some good power and the direct port will allow us to trim certain cylinders to suit what the car is doing on the bottle.....

 

Backups are NEVER a bad idea for a nitrous motor. As I think you might have learned here.

 

damit that sucks ***........i wanted to se a 8.79 out of that car......