way bad night at the track

well made it back to the track last night as planned for some nitrous passes. it didn't turn out the way i would have liked it to. but for only the second time to the track with this combo and the first nitrous attempts last night, i feel she has a good number coming soon. just have to work out some bugs with the nitrous system and work on that driver mod. was a great time all in all, there were 5 4th gens in our group. 3 LTX's and 2 LSJAUN's. theres 8 more dates left to make some better passes and two weeks till the next one so that gives me some time to turn some wrenches on her.

man da and temp was awsome last night, by 9 the da was 500 and the temp was in the upper 60's. track prep wasn't all that good and it seemed i didn't line up in the groove very well either. need to get a good rhythm down in the burnout box and prestage, that way it comes natural to me and i'm not thinking i need to do this then this and this, lol. that will come with more seat time.

got in 5 passes this time. 1 n/a and 4 nitrous. all nitrous passes were a 150 shot. and as ATI said there conveter did its job on the nitrous as it was built for. i was pulling throught the traps @ 6600 this time instead of 5800 on just the motor. so the combo seems to be working on the nitrous, was worried i had to much gear/ to short a tire.

well right off the trialer i run up, burnout box goes good, arm nitrous and hit purge..nothing just air, hit purge a few more times, all air. shut off nitrous. 1.79 60' 11.85 @ 118.17 same as two weeks ago running n/a. get back to pits, checking nitrous and find a leak at the solenoid. alittle tape and were good to go.

second run, make sure bottle pressure is up, purge in staginging lanes. works, but notice that the plume of nitrous is not real thick or tall? burnout, arm nitrous, purge...nothing! purge a couple more times all air??? stage, all fuel, falls on its face and bam we clear up and have nitrous, pulls good, a/f @ 12.5. 2.29 60' 12.07 @ 126.02. lmao! back in the pits, check for leaks agian, none, bottle pressure is up. try to purge, all air then a light mist of nitrous real short plume. then the purge starts acting up. won't work then works???

third run i have 950 psi on the bottle ( gauge on the bottle, really need on in my view while running ) purge in the staging lanes, lots of air, then nitrous. burnout, arm, purge..nothing then the purge stops working, say fck it, gonna run it. 3rd yellow.. POP! then bam she hits..2.27 60' 11.53 @ 128.72.. was short shifting around 6400, went throught the traps @ 6600. pulled a a/f of 12.5 the whole run. not sure why i only picked up 10 mph???


fourth run, bottle pressure 950, purge screwed. decide to purge in the burnout box. start burnout, arm, feels good, deff hit. staged, third yellow she hit and spun out the hole, but def pulled. short shifted at 6400 agian. 6600 agian at the traps. a/f 12.5. 2.04 60' 11.48 @ 128.21?????? wtf? i undrstand the sixty could get me an 11.00, but only 10 mph more on a 150 shot?? by this time i'm thinking man somethings up with this bottle of nitrous? was half full when i had it filled two weeks ago. it had also sat for almost two years half full. and the kicker to thinking the bottle is the issue is my fellow 93 lt1 nitrous buddy that was there ( biggriff ) was having nitrous issuses to. we had our bottles filled at the same time by the same shop. i'm kicking myself in the *** for not weighing them to!

fifth run, bottle pressure 950, purge in the box, launch and bam hits hard and spinning bad end up abit sideways and have to let off. get her striaght and roll out, lay into her, shift into 3rd arm the nitrous and let her eat the last bit of the track. 2.30 60' 15.78 @ 104.50 lmao! was the last pass of the night, they closed the staging lanes right after i entered for this pass. drove back and straight on the trailer.


so it's time to turn some wrenches, pull some more weight out of her ( got me a couple of spot weld cutters so i can remove all those brackets in the rear, plus the door bars are coming out now that the roll bar is in ) and figure out whats up with the nitrous sytem. first thing thats gonna happen is pull the plugs and see how they look, then weigh that damn bottle and empty it into the air, and start over with a different shop to fill it.


if ya read this far i thank ya! hopefully your not thinking, damn! i wash i had that two minutes of my life back!


oh ya, copied and pasted this from ltx, seems some guys over here arn't there? so i thought i would share it with them to.

 

Love those nights out at the track. Great Weather, and things just dont seem to go right.

Thats where you just gotta look on the bright side, Motor isnt blown up, you hit 128mph, 11.5 best. Your car didnt burn down. Personally dealing with nitrous id be way worried if it had a leak and not even run the system lol.

All in all not bad tho man. Could still be running 12's

Thats how racin goes sometimes. Can feel like a waste of tires money and time haha.

BTW, are you running a head/cam car or does it have a built bottom end?

 

yes, LE2's, intake and cam. professionally built bottom end. i know she's gonna see some 10's before the season is over, just need to work on a few things.

 

It sounds like you need to do some suspension work. Get the suspension dialed in and it will run 10's all day. Sounds like the converter is hitting hard as hell on the spray, just like it should. What is your pinion angle set at? Even with stock suspension and those Mickey Thompsons I would figure it to 60' better than what it's doing.

 

have it set at -2 degrees, rear shocks at 50/50 and fronts on first click. 15 psi in the mickeys. would have played with the psi and shock settings if the nitrous would have been working right. man the converter felt great. she was pulling hard forsure.

i weighed the bottle today, it only had 3.5lbs of nitrous in it. seems hard to belive i used 6.5lbs on 4 half *** nitrous runs on a 150 shot. when i opened the valve to empty it, there was alot of air in it. where i had it filled at they use a pump system, so maybe something wasnt right with the fill??? belive me you i will always weigh my bottles from here on out!!! gonna use a differnt shop this time to fill the bottle. looking to head back on the 15th for some more runs..

 

Good luck with it, sounds like the car should be able to hook up. Are you getting the tires hot enough? Are you doing a 2nd gear burnout? Maybe the track was just really that bad. Again, keep us updated!

 

thanks, ill let ya know in two weeks how it goes, 2nd to 3rd burnout gets them pretty smokey, really thinking about going a little further to a better track, they normally have better prep on friday nights. i did find that the purge noid relay went bad, so i have that issue fixed.

 

Do you have the bottle mounted correctly? They get mounted a specific way so that the tube inside the bottle is always at the very bottom.

128mph is SOLID mid 10's all day long with a set of slicks and some aggressive shifting.

 

i was at the track at richmond friday, saw your car run ,looks good, pretty impressive mph 118 for all motor,iv'e got a 94 trans am that i will hopefully have ready by next friday hoping for high 11's , has run a best of 12.3 at 113 cam only,have since ported the heads,so we will se how it does,good luck getting the nitrous issue worked out, look forward to seeing you at the track on the 15th, ryan

 

i belive it is? although it is sideways instead of front to rear... i was short shifting to see how the gear and tire combo was gonna work, next time out i'm gonna try running up to 6600. aslong as she launching right, lol!







thanks man, come hang with us on the 15th, always glad to hang with another lt1 t/a. there were three of us there friday. not bad mph for a little ole 355 with some le2's with a new purge noid relay installed and a fresh bottle fill i think she'll be ready. looking forward to seeing your car there!

chris

 

That's what I said, if he can sixty the car mid 10's are not a problem.

 

yep i agree too, if it won't hook on the 15th i'm gonna travel alittle further to vmp the following friday, which normally has better track prep on a friday night.

 

see you on the 15th, hopefully if you run any all motor passes we can race each other,that would be a close race, my car, like yours doesn't 60 ft for much my best is a 1.86 60 ft due to my small 2500 b&m stall, next season i plan on getting a 3600 stall and hope for mid 11's and the some juice get ino the 10's.

 

cool, its a deal i'll race ya on just motor. see ya there dude..it may just be me, sounds like my goober friends are backing out lol!

 

Your burnouts were spot on from the ones I watch, I agree with you, the track on friday nights are crap, and the street tire dont help it much. You have the MPH, but I just think your nitrous was the issue.

I am not backing out on the 15th, you know what my issues are with my car, and it being my DD still, I just need it to last till after I get back from my deployment, and im stuck solid in the 12.7s, so no need to beat on it till I get more mods in it.

I wish you luck on the 3rd set of runs, saying is 3rd times a charm, and if it dosent work this time, do like Frank said you mite do, at the end of the track hit the left turn signal and let it eat, lol!

Ill be looking forward to the bashings after the 15th.