Restomod Racing

To go after the 12 second time slip, I installed a Compcam 290 HR cam, Twisted Wedge heads and a Victor Jr. intake in place of my 13 second setup. I hated driving with the 4.11 gears so I decided on installing an AOD trans. I rebuilt a used AOD out of a 83 Cougar using a TCI rebuild kit along with a few extra goodies that I got from GER. I used a 10” 3000 rpm lock up torque converter from GER. Just an FYI, GER stuff isn’t best, my torque converter expired shortly after I got it. I did my test and tuning using my Vericom 200 (very old, fore runner to the G-Tech). I ran a best of 8.3 sec @ 94.4 mph in the 1/8 mile. The mph is accurate but is higher than would see at the drag strip. They use a distance vs time method of calculating the mph vs the strip which uses an average.

My one and only run made at a track with this combination was a 13.23 sec. @ 106.12 mph at LACR (Density Altitude was 3800 ft). At sea level the time would have been a 12.80 @ 109.39 mph, but I use observed times over corrected times. You know, what you see is what you get. Back to the story, on that run, my front tires decided to separate. So that was it for the night, I packed up and went home. I later realized that I was around 9 jet sizes too large. A few weeks later I got this strange call. The guy informed me that I had the car that his father had owned. He wanted to buy it back. So, I agreed and went out looking for a replacement Stang. I searched for a few weeks and I found a 65 Fastback a few miles from me. I liked what I saw and bought it (1997). I proceed to transfer all the parts in preparation for the sale of the coupe. Well, suddenly he decided that he didn’t want to spend the money for it after all. OK, now I’m stuck with both cars. So, I decided to go ahead and complete the transplant since I’ve always preferred the fastback. I figured that I would give up some 200 lbs by going this route, but such are sacrfices for the fastback. I figured that I should run close to the 13.2 seconds with the new Stang. In addition, I replaced the rear 8” rear with a Granda 9”/disk brake rear.

Since I had the AOD, I installed a set of used 4:57 gears I had laying around. Other than that, the basic power train was the same as the coupe. Would you believe that the first time out I ran a 14.2 sec. @ 98 mph? Talk about surpised! I was expecting to be close to the 13.2 second run I made with the coupe. I realized I had a lot of problems to sort out and it would be a long journey . One of my first changes was to go back to 4:11 gears.

After a number of other changes I was ready to hit back to the track. On 10-8-99, she ran her best time ever. I ran a 13.076 sec @ 105.501 mph at LACR. The density altitude that day was 4647 ft above sea level. I ran in street trim and through 4 mufflers (I like my car as quiet as possible). The following is a list of my set up (items in red are the changes).

357W
750 DP Holley
Victor Jr Intake
TW heads
10.5:1 Compression
Stock Block
Keith Black Sil-O-Lite Hypereutectic Pistons
CompCams 290HR cam
1 3/4″ full length Hooker headers
Modified AOD
2600-3000 stall lock up torque converter
Homemade 3” X pipe to Hooker Maximum Flow Mufflers to2 ½” tail pipe with Walker Bullet Racing Mufflers(Total of 4 mufflers)
4.11 gears
620 front springs
1″ front sway bar / 3/4″ rear sway bar
Front CEE 90/10 shocks
Rear KYB shocks
SSM Lift Bar
McCreary Road Star 285×15 tires

She really needs to go on a diet as she tips the scales at 3120 lbs without driver. I’m limited to what I can do since I won’t cut her up. My goal is to run low 12’s at LACR. I have been plagued by a top end surge since the day I installed the power train into this car since I didn’t have the miss when it was in the coupe. I feel that the correcting the miss plus some good 60 ft times should help me meet my goal. Currently my best 60 ft time is 1.93 sec. If I can get it down to around 1.6 sec, I should be able to achieve a low 12. I should have enough power to do the job as she was dyno’d at 339 rwhp at 6000 rpm (density altitude 2100 ft) on a Clayton dyno, so its just a matter of time.

Track Date: 11-7-97
I live in the San Fernando Valley, which is north of Los Angeles (Calif.) and the nearest track to me is 60+ miles away in Palmdale, California. Los Angeles County Raceway (LACR) is located around 2700 ft above sea level. I made a couple of changes to my set up from what was listed on the main page. I switched from the Performer RPM to a Victor Jr. in order to reduce some of my bottom end power and place it on the top end. I kept the 850 Holley DP with a Carb Shop Speed Block since that was the only carb I had worth using. Since I swapped out my 8” rear to a 9” Granada with disc brakes rear, I installed a set of Zoom 4:57 gears, which is all that I had that would fit the 9” rear.

RESULTS: 14.2 seconds @ 98 mph

This poor performance was largely due to me shutting down early. My shift light came on around the 900 ft. mark, so I backed off the throttle enough to make the light go off. My shift point is set at 6200 rpm so I am surprised that I could pull that kind of rpm at the top end. I also noticed that the car would lay down after each shift. This is largely due to the lock up torque converter. On top of all this, there is a miss that comes in around 5000 rpm. I thought that I had too much gear, which is causing me to over rev through the top end. Maybe it is a mistake changing from the Performer RPM to the Victor Jr. which would have given me more torque for the lock up trans. I believe that the miss is due to the stock distributor or some kind of wiring problems. Strange, I never had these problems with the coupe. So why now that the engine is in this car?

Track Date: 11-21-97
I’ve decided that I will have to switch to 4:11 gears to keep from over revving my engine. So, with only a gear change I was off to LACR.

RESULTS: 13.96 @ 100 mph

Well, my shift light came on again, but this time it was closer to the 1100 ft mark. I shut down once again. No real improvement. Now the question is what’s wrong. There is no way that I am spinning my engine high enough to turn on the shift light. I would have to be going 120 mph. I still have the miss too.

12-10-97 I decided to replaced my Jacobs Omni Pak with a MSD 6AL - Blaster 2 coil in an attempt to eliminate the miss. I also advanced my cam from 1degree advance to 5 degrees advance to increase my bottom end torque and eliminate the lay down after each shift. I installed an old Holley 3310 I had laying around to determine if it was over carbureted. I put the Carb Shop Speed Blocks on this carb because it makes it easy to change jets. I am using 72/76 jets. Can you believe this!? As I was wiping my windshield, I happened to look at the back of my shift light. What did I see? I have the shift light set for a 6 cylinder. Duh! That’s the reason my shift light kept coming on! More than that, it also means that I wasn’t shifting at 6200 rpm, but more like 4700 rpm! That could explain the sudden lay down after each shift.

Track Date: 12-14-97
Now its time to get back to the track to see it there are any improvements.

RESULTS:Â Â 13.80 @ 102.8

Things are looking up as evident by the increase in my mph. Good, no shift light problems and the lay down is gone. The only problem is that the miss is now coming in around 3000 rpm. Something that I had done, the engine didn’t like.

12-16-97 I replaced the Cap/ Rotor and I installed a set of MSD Super Conductor 8.5 Plug Wires.

12-31-97 I decided to replace the Valve springs with Comp Cams 987 for insurance that valve float is not the problem.

1-25-98 In order to eliminate the carb as the problem, I replaced the 3310 with a Holley 750 DP. I did not install the speed blocks.

3-11-98 To help my 60 ft times, I installed a set of CEE 90/10 Front Shocks.

3-21-98Â My old 4 core radiator started to leak so I installed a Griffin Aluminum radiator.
I found that the mechanical advance was too much in my stock distributor, so I set it to a maximum of 10 degrees by placing a rubber O-ring on the limiter post.

Track Date: 5-29-98
Now it was time to go back to LACR.

RESULTS:Â Â Â Â 13.955 @ 101.545
14.134 @ 102.691

Now my engine is starting to falter at 5000 rpm and full on miss at 5500 rpm. At least the miss is not at 3000 rpm anymore. Based on the mph, I’m still doing ok. Imagine what I could do if the engine ran good. I figure its time to get back to basics. I will perform a leak down test.

4-21-98 I performed a cylinder Leak Down test. These are the results.
Cyl % leak Color of plug

1 3.5 % Tan/Red Dark
2 5 % Red/Rust
3 3 % Red/Rust
4 6 % Red/Rust
5 9 % Rust/Tan (Leak at Rings)
6 4.5 % Dark Red/Rust
7 3% Med Red/Rust
8 1 % Black and wet (Water?)

So far all looks good except for cyl #5. All in all, the mechanical aspect looks ok. There were water vapors coming out of the left exhaust. I tighten the intake manifold to see if it would stop the water vapors – it appears to have worked. I am changing the plugs to used U-Grooves that I have laying around. Gap is set at .044”.

4-26-98 I’m going to re-curved the stock distributor. The o-ring slipped off of the advance limiter, which is causing excessive advancing again. This time I will braze the slot to make it smaller. This will reduce the advance. The mechanical advance is set to 19 crank degrees and to come in by 2500 rpm. Initial 17° -Total 36°. I re-adjusted the automatic thermostat on the electric fan to »170°.

5-9-98 Engine started running rough so I replaced the plugs and rotor. I checked the timing and noticed that the timing had changed. I re-timed the engine from the now19°/38° back to 17°/36°. I feel that I should re-read the plugs.

1 Wet black
2 Rust
3 Rust/Tan
4 Rust/Tan
5 Black/Rust
6 Tan/Rust
7 Tan/Rust
8 Tan/Black

They don’t look too good. There’s a problem here. The question is what is the cause?

5-10-98 Car was still running rough, so I re-checked the no. 1 plug. It was Black. I decided to replace the Accel distributor cap with an old one to determine if the new cap is bad. The engine runs much smoother but No. 1 plug is still black. Hmmmm

5-25-98 In spite of the old cap making my engine run better, I decided to re-installed the Accel Cap. Funny, its still running ok. I don’t know why. I’ll check the plugs in a few days to make sure everything is ok.

5-29-98 After a few days of driving, I performed another plug reading with a couple of random leak down tests.

1 Blk – Gas smell
2 Rust/Tan
3 Blk/Rust – Gas *
4 Red/Tan
5 Blk/Rust
6 Rust/Brn Dark
7 Lite Red/Tan *
8 Rust/Tan * %

Even though the random test on cylinders 5 and 8 look good, I’ll do another complete leak down test Cyl % leak Plug color

1 4 % Tan/Red Dark
2 5 % Red/Rust
3 3 % Red/Rust
4 6 % Red/Rust (Leak 5%)
5 5 % Rust/Tan (Leak at Rings)
6 5 % Dark Red/Rust
7 3% Med Red/Rust (Leak 4%)
8 4 % Black and wet (Water?)

The leak down continues to be good, but why I got a better reading on cyl #5 this time, I’m not sure. Must be the way I do the test. Since everything looks good, it must mean that the problem is in the electrical or the carb and not mechanical. Air Cleaner clearance to top of Stub Stack is 1.75”. I wonder if this could contribute to the problem?

* I notice a very sleight mushrooming on the top of center electrode.

5-31-98 I replaced the Holley Red fuel pump with a Holley Blue pump (12-802) and set the regulator to @ 7 lbs. I replaced the fuel filter (Fram G3) as a regular part of maintenance. The vacuum at idle in neutral is 14.5 # (1000 rpm) and the vacuum at idle in gear is 11.5 # (800 rpm). Not bad.

6-26 to 27-98 Install Hooker Super Comp headers (1.75” x 32” x 3”) and installed 3” cutouts to the collectors. I now ran a quick random sample check of my compression (dry). The results are:

Cyl 1 185#
Cyl 2 175#
Cyl 5 180#
Cyl 7 183#

Note: 180# = Means that 92 octane required / 220# = Means that100+ octane fuel required

6-27 to 7-16-98 This took some time to complete as you can see by the date. I started to notice white/blue smoke coming from the exhaust. I removed the heads and took them to Jim Grubb Motorsports in Valencia to replace the valve guides. They informed me that only the intakes were worn. I had them replace all with bronze guides. I port matched the headers and fly cut the pistons to accommodate the new cam I am planning to install. I didn’t need to fly cut, but I just wanted room for playing with different cams. I performed the fly cutting on the engine. It took several hours. I used an Isky valve relief fly cutting tool that I have.

Cyl 1 .148”
Cyl 2 .153”
Cyl 3 .147”
Cyl 4 .147”
Cyl 5 .146”
Cyl 6 .150”
Cyl 7 .147”
Cyl 8 .147”

Along with the new valve seals and bronze valve guides that were installed, I had a 3 angle valve job performed. I decided I wanted more cam, so I replaced the Compcam 290 HR cam (230 dur @ .050” / .544” lift) with a Compcam 304HR cam (244 dur @ .050” / .576” lift). I found that I had wear on my push rods. I realized that the push rods that PAW gave me were not the hardened ones that I ordered. I had to buy new-hardened push rods with the new cam. I also removed the stock thrust plate and install thrust plates with roller bearings. Less friction.

7-18-98 The vacuum at idle in neutral with the new cam is now 10.5 # @1200 rpm (vs 14.5 # @ 1000 rpm) and the vacuum at idle in gear is now 6.5 # @ 950 rpm (vs 11.5# @ 800 rpm). To compensate for the low vacuum, I replaced the 6.5 power valve with a 3.5 power valve. The old power valve gasket proved to be in bad shape so the new gasket may helped the engine idle.

7-19-98 I decided to try an initial timing of 16° - Total @ 35° with no vacuum advance

7-22-98 Since I had installed cutouts, I welded in a set of glass packs between the headers and the 3 chamber Flowmaster mufflers to reduce the noise level. It did very little. Now I have 4 mufflers and a loud car, but I have cut outs to compensate.

7-24-98 I figured was time to replace the old distributor. I installed a Mallory Unilite Distributor. The engine seems to run better. It now appears to me that my unilite igniter I had installed in my stock distributor was going out. I set my curve to 12° (24 crank degrees) at 3000+ rpm and the initial set @ 15° (39° total). Vacuum advance was set to max.

7-25-98 I was unable to locate a 65 amp alternator, so I had to install a 61 amp alternator in place of my old 65 amp alt. which had a lot of corrosion on battery terminal and was starting to short.
My car ran fairly cool with temperatures averaging around 195° even though the air temp was 103°. It peaked at around 205°. Bad news, the new cam has really brought out some bucking in 3rd and 4th. This is due to the lock up in 3rd and 4th gear. The air fuel mixture at idle is great so I really can’t enlarge the idle feed restrictors to compensate for the cam. I guess I’ll just have to live with the bucking.

7-30-98 I really don’t like my car loud when using the cutouts, so I welded up a set of Walker Bullet Racing Mufflers to fit the cutouts. Now I can bolt on the mufflers to the cutouts instead of running them open. Can you imagine how much my car must weigh now?

10-10-98 Off to have the car dyno’d at Thomson Performance in Van Nuys. He uses a Clayton chassis dyno. On the first pull my intake gasket popped and water blew everywhere. I had to have the intake gasket replaced in order to continue with the dyno tune. George Thomson plugged the PCV and the distributor vacuum advance. He couldn’t tune it properly with the PCV hooked up. He also felt that it will perform better with the vacuum advance disconnected. The timing was set to 12° @ 2400 rpm. According to his dyno sheet, my car dyno’d @ 339 rwhp @ 6000 rpm (density alt. 2100 ft). On the way home, my car started to over heat. Hmmmmm.

Track Date: 10-16-98
Last year I had a grudge race with a friend who owned a 65 coupe. At that time, as you know, I had my 65 coupe. That was the time I ran the 13.2 @ 106 mph to his 14.3 @ 97 mph. I had a clean run that night but I have yet to experience a clean run since. Anyways, today is his chance for revenge. I didn’t have the same car as the day we raced, but this would have to do.

RESULTS: 13.94 @ 97 mph

I knew my car didn’t perform well, I couldn’t get the rpm up to the 6400 rpm shift point, so I just shifted when I felt it was right. After the race and on the return road, my engine was running rough and popping. What happened now? Well, he got his revenge all right. He ran a 12.7 @ 105. He darn right kicked my butt. The density alt that night was 3458 ft, which is considered good for LACR.

10-16-98 to 10-31-98 Now that I’m home I pulled the valve covers off. Everything looked ok. I did notice that the #7 intake valve was loose, so I decided to tighten it up. Wow, that was easy! Wait a minute, why is the lock nut so much further down than the others. I checked again and noticed that the #7 intake valve is shorter that the others….What the? Shoot!, This must mean I bent the valve. Time to do another leak down to determine if any other cylinder were affected. Leak down / Compression test:

1 8% 185 lbs.
2 6% 193 lbs.
3 8% 185 lbs.
4 7% 185 lbs.

The left side head has leaking problems with the valves.

5 20% Int. Valve is leaking
6 20% Int. Valve is leaking
7 100% Gee, I wonder why?
8 40% Exh. Valve is leaking

The valve spring pressure was 120# @ 1.80” / 280# @ 1.25”, it should be 130# @ 1.80” / 320# @ 1.25”. Well, I ordered a new intake valve. After I got the valve from Summit, I installed it, replaced the valve seal and re-seated the valves that were leaking.

11-9-98 I re-curved the Unilite distributor to have 10° built in which equals 20° on the crank. I set the initial timing to 18° so I will end up with a total timing of 38°.

11-12-98 After completion of the engine I test drove the car, I started to notice that the trans revs up and then suddenly grabs….kinda feels like the brakes are on and you suddenly popped the clutch. This occurred when the trans warmed up. Possible pump problem? Let’s tear apart the trans and see. Nope, the Intermediate clutch plates, Forward clutch plates were slightly burned. Direct clutch plates burned with no lining left and steel plates burned and warped. The reverse clutch plates were in great shape. All bands were in good shape too. I called Lentech Automatics in Canada. I ordered their Street Terminator trans and torque converter. This is a non-lock up set up.

3-20-99 I installed a Edelbrock Air/Fuel meter, McCreary 285×60Dx15 Road Star, and a MSD Blaster 3 coil.

4-2-99 I finally got my trans. After looking at my car sitting around for 5 months, it was now time to install my new toy. I had to install a B&M MegaShifter to accommodate the different shifter lever on this Mustang AOD. My prior AOD was from a 83 Cougar.

4-10-99 I also decided I wanted to keep tabs on the temp of my new trans. After all, it was a big investment. I installed a B&M Trans Temp gauge. The odd thing is that they instructed you to put the sending unit in the return line from the trans cooler.

4-23-99 I had read that you can gain power without any sacrifice by installing a 2” open spacer under the carb.

7-3-99 I’ve decided to reinstall my 12” Aux fan to make sure that it will keep my temps down. I set the auto switch to 180°.

7-4-99 I feel that I’m going to need all the help I can get in the charging department. I ordered a 105 Amp conversions kit from Summit and installed it into my alternator. It sure makes a big difference!

7-10-99 I was advised by people on Corral Net that I should have my temp gauge in the pan. I called Len at Lentech and he confirmed what they had said. I removed the trans pan, I decided to make a drain/temp sending unit plug. I took a thick spacer and cut it to about 1¼” and welded it to the pan. I tapped it with a pipe threat tap. I then put the temp sending unit into it. I can also use it as a drain plug. To see a picture see Drain Plug section.

7-30-99 I wanted to make more room between my radiator and the engine. I cut up my trans cross member and welded it back together so that I could now move my engine back ½”. This worked great! I have more clearance between the engine and radiator. Now its time to borrow from today’s modern Mustangs, so I reworked my radiator support and installed a 3 core 80/93 Mustang radiator from Pep Boys. This made a difference in cooling. It works a little better than the Griffin aluminum radiator. It improved by about 10 degrees.

8-12-99 The McCreary’s are so big that they are rubbing on my fender well. The question is how to remedy this. I removed the stock rubber snubbers from the frame and made some extensions (See Technical pages for details). Now the rear housing will hit the snubbers before the tires will rub. The only draw back is that there is only about a ½” of travel before the differential housing bottoms against the snubbers. Talk about a rough ride. Uuugh!

8-21-99 I didn’t like the noise level of the current 4 muffler set up (3 chamber Flowmasters + Dynomax Bullet racing mufflers) and I wanted to get rid of the cut outs, so I decided to built myself a 3” X-Pipe exhaust system. I needed mufflers that would reduce sound and still flow gangbusters. I went with 3” in/out Hooker Maximum Flow mufflers and am planning on using 2½” tail pipes that extends to the rear of the car. The exhaust will exit through the GT Trumpet openings via Meg tips . After completion I did some dBA testing. I set the dBA meter 25’ directly behind the car. Here are the results:

Idle - 67dBA
2200 rpm - 87 dBA
Inside - 75 dBA ( at idle)
Cruise speed - 81dBA (45/50 mph)
mild acceleration - 85+ dBA (drone 83/86 dBA at 1900 rpm to 2100 rpm)

8-25-99 The temp today was 103°+, I drove the car around town and the engine temp peaked at 195° but averaged around 187°. The trans temp was 165°.

8-28-99 The car still wasn’t quiet enough for me, so I installed the 2½” in/out Walker Bullet Racing mufflers in the tail pipe (See a picture in the Technical page). I used the same criteria of placing the dBA meter 25’ directly behind the car. The new dBA readings are:

idle – 66 dBA,
2200 rpm – 78 dBA.

As you can see, this made quite a difference at 2200 rpm. Now there is a very slight drone around 1500 rpm to 1800 rpm, but not the loud obnoxious drone that I had from 1900 to 2100 rpm. I wonder how 4 mufflers will affect performance? While testing the noise level, I noticed that my engine temp = 190° / Trans temp = 175° and the temp today was 103°.

9-2 to 9-4-99 I made the decision that I would install my nitrous system. I have a very old NOS Power shot. I installed it along with a Jacobs Nitrous Master Mind, 3 Stage Rev Limiter (6800, 4000, 2000) and a 1“ open spacer in place of the 2” open spacer. The nitrous plate and 1” open spacer would equal 1½”. That’s a ½” shorter than I want, but it will have to do.

Track Date: 9-17-99
It’s been almost a year since the fateful day that I was handed my butt on a platter. Now it is time to go back to the track for some testing. I decided I would not use the nitrous until I can get my car to run low 12’s naturally aspirated.

RESULTS: 13.590 @ 102.990 (density alt: 5012 ft)

RESULTS: 13.560 @ 103.354 (density alt: 5073 ft)

Now where getting somewhere. I’ve knocked off .38 seconds off my time. I figure that the transmission has helped, but it is hard to what degree since I don’t have a good run with the worn out trans. My 60 ft times were the same as usual as I ran a 2.0 sec 60 ft. Unfortunately I still have the miss at high RPM (Before each shift and on top end). Still can’t figure it out. On the first pass I ran 71/78 jets in my Carb Shop Speed Blocks and my son told me that he saw a lot of black smoke so I changed to 69/76 jets on the second run. As you can see, it did help, but my car backfired through the exhaust on this run. So, the changes made since last time out were transmission, exhaust system, valve springs and carb spacer. The others I doubt would have affected my performance. But the last time out is an invalid run since I bent the valve. So if we compare the performance with the run from

5-29-98, you can see that there was large difference in et (13.955 sec) a sleight improvement in mph (102.69 mph). So, lets look at this again, I made the following additional changes. I replaced the valve guides, changed the cam and replaced the distributor. The improvement could have been anyone of these things or a combination. I know that I have yet to reach the full potential of this combination.

Track Date: 9-24-99
Well, after last weeks promising performance, I wanted more. I removed the Carb Shop Speed Blocks and installed the stock Holley metering blocks with 70/80 jets. The reason for the change was that some one at the track last week mentioned that he had heard that the Speed Blocks don’t meter fuel as well as they should. In fact, they no longer sell them. Now that I have replaced the metering blocks, it is time to hit the track to see what improvement if any I would see.

RESULTS: 13.384 @ 103.760 (density alt: 4619 ft)

RESULTS: 13.140 @ 105.213 (density alt: 4302 ft)

Well, the metering block appears to make a big difference. Now instead of having a miss, it feels more like a high-speed surge in 3rd. I didn’t notice the 1st and 2nd miss anymore, but I did feel it took too long for the shift light to come on. The first run was right off the street. The engine was still hot. The second run was with the engine cooled down to 150 degrees plus retarding the timing by 2 degrees. The rear tire pressure was left as set for the street (25 psi). It looks like retarding the timing is the way to go. I ran my first 1.96-second 60 ft time. It appears that the changing of the metering blocks reduced my time by .42 seconds. I think I need a little help in the gearing department. I’ll try switching back to the 4:57 gears in the future to see what it does.

9-25-99 In order to find the miss, I pulled the plug wires one by one and check for continuity with an ohmmeter. The no 6-plug wire was showing intermittent open circuit. I determined that the wire had a break at the plug boot.

9-26-99 I fixed the # 6 plug wire. I replace all the plugs with a set of new Autolite 3924’s. I decided to richen the fuel mixture to help reduce the top end surge. I replaced the jets with 74/85’s. Fixing the wire and jetting up were the only changes made at this time.

Track Date: 10-8-99
Now, lets see what she’ll do.

RESULTS: 13.076 sec. @ 105.501 mph (density alt: 4647 ft)

Wow! I’m almost in the 12’s! I also ran a 1.93 60 ft time. I lowered the rear tire pressure to 19 psi this time. The engine still has the 3rd gear surge at the top end. The way I can tell when I’m on a good run is when I can shift into 3rd before the 1/8 mile mark. I’ve now lowered my et by 1.12 seconds and increased my mph by 7.5 from my maiden run with this car. Now I need to work on getting the surge out and installing the 4:57 gears.

10-14-99 I installed the 4.57 gears today.

10-22-99 I felt that maybe my lifters were pumping up and that may contribute to the surge, so I reset the valve lash to a 1/8 of a turn after zero lash. Since my engine has a surge in it, I figure maybe I’m running lean due to the power valve opening too late or not completely. I took out the 3.5 power valve in favor of a 5.5 power valve. This should make it come in sooner and completely. 1

1-6-99 I was told that a gear drive could cost about 4 to 5 hp. I decided to remove my Dynagear gear drive and installed my Cloyds Adjust A Hex timing chain set. I advanced my cam 1 degree for slack that will come in as the chain stretches.

11-3-99 I took my car to Morgan Motorsports in Reseda. He has a DynoJet. I’ve always wanted to see how my car would do on one. Well he put my car on the DynoJet. He fired up the beast and started to spin the tires. I noticed that my engine started to lug. It was like something was binding. He shut down quickly and went behind the DynoJet. After a while he came back and fired up the car again. He started to spin the tires again, it still sounded like it was lugging. He floored it, but my car just had the hardest time building any rpm. After what seemed like an eternity, he shut down. He told me that something was wrong with my trans or rear end. He said it was dragging. The computer only showed 190 rwhp. I was dying at this thought. This is much lower than the 339 rwhp I made on the Clayton dyno. Did I do something wrong when I changed to the timing chain or when I changed the rear gears? What is going on??!!! After he ran a few tests on his Dyno, he told me that it wasn’t my car but his dyno. The following week he told me that a solenoid was not allowing the brake to release. He has since fixed it, but I have not had a chance to go back.

11-27-99 Ok, now what? My engine shut off! I can’t hear my fuel pump. My gauge shows zero pressure. It turns out that my Holley Blue fuel pump went out. The magnet came unglued from the housing. I replaced the pump with another Blue pump. I repaired the old one and will use it as a back up. I noticed that my timing pointer could easily be moved around if hit by something. It was only held on by one bolt. This allowed it to move. I went out and picked up a new pointer that mounted on the driver’s side of the engine instead of the passenger’s side. It is held on by two bolts rather than one. This made it solid and prevented any movement. I found that the old pointer was actually off by around 4 degrees. It had moved since I originally installed it. It was adding 4 degrees advance to my total timing. That means I was running around 42 degrees of total advance instead of the 38 that I thought. I have found in the past that this combo liked around 36 to 38 total degrees advance. Also, I run 92 octane-unleaded gas, so I feel that this may have been the cause of my miss/surge for the last couple of years. I can’t wait for my next date with the track.

12-10-99Â I installed a smaller crank pulley to help gain some power. It caused some charging problems so I had to make a new alternator pulley to remedy the problem. See the Technical page to see the details

Track Date: 1-9-00
After all the changes that I made, I finally got a chance to go to the track to see what she would do. The air was good today. Then density altitude was 4267 ft. It was warming up as the day went along. There were a lot of cars here today. I had to wait an hour to make my run. I drove around the water box as I always do. This time I aired down my tire to 18 psi. I did a dry hop and the tire hooked great. I staged the car and launched at ¾ throttle and then about 20 ft out I floored her. She was pulling hard. The 1 / 2 shift completely caught me off guard. It hit so hard that I actually hit my head on the roof. When I shifted into 3rd, the car felt lazy as usual, then suddenly it started to pull hard again. I was looking for the time/mph display board but only could see the pole that it was mounted on. I usually raced at night and didn’t notice anything around me. Today it was mid day so I guess I was doing a little sight seeing. I noticed that the time/display board was right on the finish line. While looking I for some reason took my foot off the throttle. As I turned to look straight ahead, I realized that the finish line was still about 15 feet in front of me. I was kinda upset that I so dumb and shut down too soon. When I drove up to the timing booth, the guy looked at my car, then looked at the time slip. He turned the ticket over and handed it to me. You should have seen my face when I saw 14.261 @ 97.370. I couldn’t believe shutting down would slow me down that much. Gee, If I was that slow, I wonder what that late model Camaro did that was racing me. He was way behind me. I then flipped the time slip over to see and to my surprise, there was a 12.736 @ 107.573 (NHRA conversion is 12.35 @ 110.80 mph). I couldn’t believe it; I got my 12 second run. Next step is to hit my low 12 second goal. It’s time to do my homework. I have to maximize the efficiency of each part if I’m going to achieve my goal? I know it’s going to be a combination of traction and power.

RESULTS: 12.736 @ 107.573 (density alt: 4267 ft)

In an attempt to maximize my engine, I tried installing a solid roller lifter in place of my hydraulic roller lifter. Remember, this is a solid roller lifter on a hydraulic roller lifer cam. This is a tricky way of pulling more rpm out of the hydraulic cam. You use a .002” to .004” gap. To my surprise I lost 10 psi of oil pressure. I ignored it and took my car for a drive. I started hearing a squeaking noise from under my valve covers. I removed the valve covers and to my surprise I burned one of my rocker arms. As it turns out, the solid roller lifter was designed as a retrofit model and can not be used with a retrofit cam. The lifter drops too low in the lifter bore, which causes oil to leak. This kept oil from reaching the rocker arms towards the front of the engine. The choices I have is to use a standard base circle cam or to re install my hydraulic lifters.

MISSION HAS BEEN ACCOMPLISHED. NOW FOR THE 11’S, OR EVEN THE 10’S.

Check out “Quest for 11’s” for my performance updates.