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Kyle I love this build and have thoroughly enjoyed watching it. Your a true modern day hot rodder and what you've accomplished out of your garage is just awesome. Love the diff upgrade and turbo change. Can't wait to see more out of this bad boy!
Thanks for all the positivity along the way Rudy! Much appreciated!
Went to the Dyno to tune the higher RPM I could now achieve with the rocker arms. The car made 630 Rwhp, but had a strong miss/backfire/stall issue at 6400rpm consistently. Spent some time at the dyno chasing the problem (At 200$/h of dyno time, lol) but it could not be solved there. Came home and pulled up the log file to find this
The alternator manufacturer had a warning in their manual that exceeding 18,000 RPM could cause damage. Turns out they designed the alternator voltage regulator to just plain old shut off at this RPM, lol. It seems to turn back on around 20k RPM...
The stock crank pulley was looking pretty sad. The rubber had deteriorated causing the outside portion with the belt grooves to have a serious wobble. Last track day it threw the belt in the pit lane This is a PowerBond PBU1190SS25 25% underdrive crank pulley. Its advertised as 25% underdrive compared to the 7.25" LS1 pulley, but my truck engine had a 7.5" pulley. This is closer to a 33% under drive on my application
The car has a 175A after market alternator, and its working just fine at idle with the huge under drive. I've seen forum posts of 5-10hp gains from a 10% under drive, cant wait to see how much power a 33% picks up. I also feel a lot better about the power steering and other accessories spinning at reasonable RPMs with my new redline.
It seems like I've got enough power and gearing to do a 200mph+ standing mile. I looked up all the events I could find across the USA and laid out the safety equipment each requires. I've picked out a set up that should qualify me for 9.99 at the drag strip and all of the standing 1/2 or 1 mile events around.
The car weights 4050 on the dragstrip scale with 1/2 tank of gas and me (180lbs) in it. I was pretty sure the weight balance was heavily front biased with the iron block engine and heavy transmission. I built a 1 wheel scale with a go-jack and some cattle scales between the jack and its wheels. (Idea borrowed from Superfast Matt on youtube). The DIY scale is a bit off, but they should accurately represent the weight balance %ages
There is a challenge, the requirements for the mile events require (y) rated tires, and exclude my drag radials. For high speed events its suggested to run tires at no more than 85% of their weight capacity. We need a 1430lb capacity (y) rated tire that is nice and sticky on the front of the car. On the rear, weight is not an issue, just need the (y) speed rating and something sticky. The huge frontal weight limited the tires choices to 2 decent candidates. Ended up with these:
Front Tires Rear Tires
The R888Rs have a warning not to expose them to low temperatures. Its about 10F where were at, and I mentioned this issue to my wife. She suggested we keep them in the Living room to keep them warm!! Amazing!
I'm surprised by how un-even the floors are. The carpet has 3" or so of PU foam molded on to the bottom of it to take up the spaces in the sheet metal. I think I'll have to make a sub floor for my feet at the drivers seat. Gutting the interior for the race seat and cage
Ordered a pre-made cage. Due to material shortages they bumped me up to 1-3/4 x 0.134" wall - which is awesome as now I can qualify for the Texas Mile too. I'm strongly debating only installing the 6pt part of the cage, its all that is technically required of me. I'd feel safer with the full cage but it hampers street-ability, adds more weight, and will take much longer to install.
Kyle I'm lovin the progress as always!! I'm with you n sticking to the 6pt... I love driving my car on the street and a full cage quickly ruins any comfort or fun in that...
the ECTA Mile in Arkansas is coming up at the end of April, working to prep the car for this event.
Reading over the ECTA Mile Rules, looks like I need to keep the carpet and rear trim panels to compete in the "Street Car Category" Seat test fit, position is good Main hoop came in bent, one leg was about 1" forwards of the other. Tried using my wife's car to provide the counterweight to bend it straight Trying to bend the tube was lifting the car... Ended up drilling holes in the welding table for u-bolts. This held the hoops in place while I bent them straight
Main hoop fitting. Had to lean it back 1.5 degrees to get it behind my helmet The rear braces S&W provided were long enough to reach back into the trunk. I Cut holes in the rear trunk pannel and feed them through only for them to hit... everything.... I think it would work if they were inboard more, but that would involve removing the gas tank Did a quick proposal and ran it by S&W to see if they could tell me if it would meet NHRA rules. Got the "OK" from them, so we're doing it this way.. Shoulder bar. 3.5" below my shoulders. A quick test fit shows I dont meet the required belt angle (Has to be less than 20 deg down, I'm at 33 deg down). Hopefully lowering the rear of the seat, and shifting it forwards gets me in the right spot Fitting the 6x6 plate for the "D" bars. Wire harness is elevated so it hopefully doesn't melt Fitting the floor plate for the rear brace. "Heat and beat", its a pretty complex shape Drivers side rear brace in. Its at 40 deg from vertical and meets nhra specs Side view of the rear brace 2nd rear brace in. About 50% done on the cutting/fabbing side. Got the holes from my trunk mounted rear brace adventure plugged up with new steel.
Its going to be a 8 or 9 point cage with the roof hoop and around-the-dash windshield runners. There will be no passenger door bar, and I'm debating about including the drivers door bar or not. Might make it a "Swing out" door bar, and then leave it un-installed. It is not required for standing mile, and its only needed for 1/4 mile times between 8.50-9.99
Roof bar test fit with ratchet straps Rear of roof bar tacked in Test fit of a-pillar bars 2nd a-pillar bar in Thick harborfreight welding blanket to protect the dash during finish welding "D" hoop support bars cut and tacked in
Some thoughts about a roll cage kit, for anyone thinking of one. Don't do it.
The roof hoop and rear hoop are made about 2" overall smaller than they could have been, to make sure customers can fit the things in with no problem. Because the roof hoop is so narrow, my head hits it when I'm sitting in the drivers seat. With my helmet on the bar is pushing my head about 1" to the side and I cant sit up straight.
I could have offset it to the drivers side for more space, but it would be absolutely miserable for any passengers I had in the car.
The solution was to lower the seat 3/4" basically as low as it would go with out cutting the floor - and then to shift the seat 1" towards the center of the car. I would have preferred the seat up and centered, but this works. If I ever do something similar again, I'll either make a custom cage, or pay someone to do that.
11-15-21, 06:26 AM
