So I came back from Gainesville yesterday, without having run down the quarter. But before we get to that, a couple of things went down. On the way to Gainesville, I noticed that wide open throttle was causing a misfire. I thought it was the recently installed boost controller, which, I do think was part of it. So, I called an old friend who was kind enough to let me use his garage and tools. Grant and I bought a new set of plugs and installed them. Turns out, NGK heat range works backwards. So while my “new” (currently removed) plugs were a numerically lower heat range, they were instead warmer. Anyway, we pulled those and installed a new set of copper ngk plugs, “6″ heat range. I also revised the mounting of the boost solenoid. Problems all solved, I think the plugs were the main issue. Anyway, next, we put Grant’s awesome RaceLogic performance box to work and recorded a few 1/4 mile passes. Back and forth over very flat ground. Either direction yielded very similar numbers with horrible launches. Trap speeds were all 109-110. ET was 13.2-13.4, 60ft was 2.1-2.4.
This box is very nearly exactly accurate to Gainesville raceway’s times (always within a tenth, I believe). So, I’m pretty happy with those times, especially considering that a hulking Grant was always in the passenger seat. I think better times, still are possible, even at nothing beyond 7.5 psi spikes.

The following day Kpeng and I went to the Bahamas for a drive.
video HERE RUN FIREFOX AND INSTALL DIVX PLUGINS

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We made a few changes to the kicks today. From 10am to 10pm I was in the garage prepping and spraying my RS’s, and Julio came by and did his ltw5’s as well. I also mother’d up my lips and Julio went with the t/a. Here are a few pics of the projekts, and we’ll have a photoshoot up within the next week or so. I also apologize for noisy pictures… low light calls for high iso.

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I don’t think I’ll be making the trip up to gainesville this weekend. Unfortunately the weather is predicted @ 60% chance of precipitation, so it really doesn’t make sense for me to make the drive up there. Julio will be there visiting some friends, and if by chance it doesn’t rain, I’m sure he’ll be there making some passes.

In any case, we should be starting Stan’s (novare330 on e46fanatics) AA C30 install within the next few days, so we’ll have updated progress posts each night.

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I got a 7 and an 8.
So, Tyler and I went to Bithlo yesterday. He wanted to test out his new MT drag radials, and I wanted to test my new turbo. We never managed to race each other in the crudely lined, overpopulated dragstrip that is Bithlo on Wednesday nights. I’m a jumper, with the turbo at least, red lighting both my runs. My first launch was, taking it easy, with as many cars as there were there, though, I had to try, despite a horrible bog at the line: 13.95@106.99- good! Not quick enough to be hassled for helmet requirements, as I forgot mine. Second run, 13.3@107.1. For being an absolutely horrible dragstrip, I’m really happy with that second run. And the fact that I never saw anything over a 7.8psi spike.
Gainesville is coming this weekend. I’m installing the boost controller to hold 8.5psi.
Last time I did a Wed-Orlando/Sat-Gainesville drag special, I saw a 4 mph improvement, peaking 96 in Orlando and 100 in Gainesville. David experienced a similar improvement by going to Gainesville, peaking 108 at Orlando and 112 in Gainesville.

HERE IS THE VIDEO OF TYLER AND I IN ORLANDO – optimized for FIREFOX use

One of the shitty downsides of dragstrip racing is that you can’t hear the cars. Their sound is overwhelmed by the upstaging of the cars heating their tires.

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So David and I have finally lined up to see who wins on stock motors with no cam advantage. He runs alcohol, I’m running nothing right now. I also only boosted 8psi, not even my intended 8.5 as I was running on a wastegate spring. I think more power could be coaxed out of my motor with the boost controller holding 8.5. I also need to sort out my meth injection, cams, and high boost settings. Here’s the vid page, in divx and quicktime formats.
David’s car has a lethal fifth gear.

We do not condone illegal street racing, always confine it to legal race tracks like we did

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So I filled her with oil to the tune of 7 quarts. Dead in the middle of the dipstick marking, perfect! Then I ran the car a bit. Next morning I noticed a tad bit of oil on the floor, i figured splash off my underbody aluminum brace… if you guys saw the pics of it, you’d understand.

So I went to class fully confounded. Truckin’ it. 94 F150 is a really reliable vehicle, even if 1st, 3rd, and 5th hit the dash and the other gears rest on the bench.

When I came back, I did a test my buddy, Frankie came up with. We figured that the oil was coming from one of two places, one more likely than the other. Either the turbo feed line was squirting upward. Or I was boosting the crankcase. Frankie’s simple trick: pull a coil, if there’s oil around the plug, it’s certainly not the turbo feed line. He was completely right. there was a little bit of oil pooled in there. So it had to be the pcv system. We found no faults in our install. So we conceded what the problem must be, the crank case breather I replaced a little under a year ago. I really don’t want to pull the manifold again. Don’t flame, I know it isn’t necessary to pull the manifold, I just don’t have faith I’m capable of such maneuver.

So I sprayed a bit of deep creep into the crank case breather. It seems fine now. No oil spray.

Tonight, I was running around, checking my oil situation, boosting and checking, boosting and checking… so forth. So, I hop off the main roads where I’m scarying people. I’m rippin’ it loud down a back road around 2am. And a sherriff was hiding out. No ticket just a warning after a promise that my muffler appointment was to come in the morning. And the argument that the speed bumps helped me boost at low speed- somehow he bought that. Same road I take in the vid numbered “6″.

I mosey on home. And David tries to coerce me into a a race at the bahamian inter gulf-carribean raceway. I can’t turn this kind of shit down, it’s not in me. So, to keep noise in check, I installed the included catalytic converter, despite my displeasure in the idea of it. At the time I had a 45degree turn to aim the exhaust away from the fuel lines. It does quiet it down, a lot. And I installed one of the two underbody braces. It rested on the brace, making hella-noise, but no worries, it was well quieter than the nothing setup. About halfway to the bahamian raceway, My cat slips out of its hose clamp, it’s also supported at the rear, I guess just one doesn’t cut it, no matter how tight it is. We limp back home at low rpm to preserve fuel lines. No lift without clutch, no sweet turbo backfire. And there it sits. I say, a success, free of damage or tickets or further law-related complications.

Though we didn’t get the vids you wanted to see, we did get some footage from David’s car, of my car. But my cam is with him, he’ll post it up when it’s up.

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So I was fortunate enough to get a set of the upcoming nt05 street tires from Nitto. They’re set as nitto’s new top of the line street tire, built for auto-x and road course. With a treadwear of 200 and AA traction, I’m hoping for performance up there with the ps2, so-3, star-spec, etc. They were just mounted on my car, 235f and 255r, 17″ of course for my RSs. The compound seems to be extremely soft, and the pattern is pretty cool looking. Since I was previously running a 245 ps2 rear setup, I had to raise my car about an inch to prevent rubbing, but I don’t really mind because I can now turn in hard anywhere and not worry about rubbing, or scraping my exhaust on speed bumps and such. Pics will be hosted later, and I’ll be sure to update along the way about how they’re performing!

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