I did not hone the cylinder walls. The crosshatching looked perfect, so I left the stock rings in place and did not hone or bore the cylinders. There was a little buildup on the tops of the cylinders and I cleaned all that off with acetone and plastic gasket scrapers. And all the buildup that was on the pistons, I used the same method and lots of elbow grease.

 

Are you coming down for the import faceoff in late March? We're about 90% sure we'll be there. @ 2600lbs w/me, Justin seems to think there are 11s in the car. I've never driven straight before in my life. My goal is a low 13. Haha


BTW, wiseco makes the honing nylon brushes.

 

I wouldn't recommend DIY honing to anyone unless you are an experienced machinist that has a profilometer at your disposal and know exactly how to get the desired finish/roughness for the material used in your particular ring set (proper grit, speed, strokes/minute, brushes for plateau finish,etc).

 

Iam not honeing anything I just wanted to clean up the carbo build up and the top of the pistons and block I guess ill buy some actone and a gasket scraper

 

Its not a honing brush per say. It says it will clean up the bores w/o removing any material.

Scroll down to page 4
http://www.wiseco.com/PDFs/Catalogs/...etsRodsEct.pdf

 

Looks similar to a flex-hone. For simple deglazing purposes it can be okay for someone with a steady hand. But if a layperson were to actually try to completely refinish/recondition a bore, the margin for error would shrink considerable.

 

The Atlanta IFO is a tad too far for me since I'm about 6 hours east of that race track. I wasn't planning on coming. I think I'll make my first IFO when they come to Virginia which is only 2 hours from me.

If you are around 2600lbs with driver and are able to put down 280whp SAE or more, then I think on a really good weather day (density altitude) and perfect traction, it could hit 11s. But your goal of low 13s should be doable with the 250ish power level you will be tuning for.

I'm at 2710lbs with driver right now and am making 290whp uncorrected. On a decent weather day -500' DA, I'm making about 295whp. Then there are a couple tinkers I do that will easily give me an extra few hp (ram air intake, remove PS belt). With my setup the way the car sits now, I think I'm capable of hitting 11.9s.

Yeah, I didn't want to mess with my perfectly good cylinder walls with a hone brush. So I used a plastic gasket scraper that would guarantee I wouldn't scratch the surface. But I didn't have any build up on the walls themselves. The piston rings took care of that. But the parts that the rings didn't touch, I did have a little build up there.

 

I hit the track again this past weekend attempting to break the 12.22 @ 112mph record. The dyno tuning and smaller slicks really made a difference. My best run was only a 12.230 @ 116mph, but I wasn't able to hook up. I was only able to do 1.90-1.91 60 foots. I did hook up on my first pass with a personal best 1.83 (fresh track bite), but I didn't have my AFR like I wanted it and I ran a 12.3 @ 113mph. I am definitely making more HP than last time shown by the trap speeds and dyno charts. Plus, I now have the ram air intake in place and tune properly. I think if I was able to repeat that 1.83 60 foot after I got my AFR in order, I would have ran a 12.0.

Here is a video of that day. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbmz00U9Qds

I hope to make another run at the record next weekend.

 

 

Here is my latest UOA report with the German Castrol 0w30 compared to the previous report, which had 8700 miles on 10w30 Mobile 1 EP. The most recent oil (German Castol) had 4200 miles on it and the engine did over 50 dyno runs and several WOT runs every time the engine was running.

I am currently running the Amsoil 0w30 SS. I will probably change that out around 4000 miles and do another UOA. Then, I will be changing back to a 10w30. Not sure what kind though.

 

I'm at the track right now. my first pass was 12.15. I think it's got a 12.0 in it.

 

very nice!

 

OH ....

 

It turned out that my first pass was the fastest at 12.15 @ 113.8mph. I had a 1.86 60'. I think a 1.83 was possible for me tonight even with the 443' DA we had but I couldn't get the perfect traction I wanted. There is no way these 20" slicks will hold with a small nitrous shot launch, but they are decent for all motor.

Oh well, it's a new world record, again. The 11s will come one day I'm sure if I can get better conditions.

 

Badass man!
Car is running good.

It seems like the car kind of bogs off the line. Maybe a converter with a higher stall would work better. If you could get some 1.7 60's you will have 11s in the bag. Your car definitely has enough power to pull them, I think the converter is holding it back though.

 

Oh yeah, a 4K stall would be great for my setup. My car doesn't make any HP until it reaches 4000 rpm anyway. That is something I've been thinking about for quite some time now.

 

From the video it seems like it definitely comes on around 4,000rpm.
Get on that converter!

 

Yeah, my transmission has 215K miles on it now and it's holding up fine right now. But, if I ever make any changes to my drivetrain setup, a higher stall will be added for sure. For right now, I will probably just make the best with what I have.

 

 

What's up Kevin! I was just able to run a 12.15 @ 113.9mph to better my NA record. The weather may be pretty decent this Friday night, so I may make another attempt at the 11s.

 

Got a 12.05 with bad traction! At least I know exactly what my car will run with my usual 60 foot. 11s! I'll keep trying for them.

Here's my latest video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fF1FfUwhwME

 

Nice! When do you think you'll finally be able to put down 11's?

 

I don't know if I'll be able to do it this Spring since the weather is quickly warming up. I'd like to have another night where the temperature is in the 50s, but that may not happen until the Fall.

I still have the car ready for the track. Rear skinnies are on, tools and slicks are loaded up. All I'll need to do is make sure I have some 93 octane and hit the road.

 

GL! you got it this time man! persistance pays off! you should ask them to prep one side for you so you can make a couple passes and break into 11's!!!

 

I wish they'd do that. But there were a lot of other cars there that had a much harder time getting traction.

 

haha, yeah it sounds like youve got the traction down to an art... do you play with your psi at all? that could be your fraction right there! specialy if the temps change on ya mid runs!

 

I closely monitor tire pressure after every single pass. Sometimes, I can hook up at 20psi, sometimes 16psi. It changes every time I visit the track. And sometimes there's just no hope for traction.

 

hmmm... have you tried FLY PAPER! haha, jk. sounds like traction for tenths is out of the equation... youve got everything dialed in down to the dang altitude! can you not fit any more slick under there? or has she gone on a thorough diet? theres really not much else to do sounds like!

 

what are the switches that you play with before the run, and then the one you turn on in 3rd? if you have answered before im sorry, just curious. congrats on the time

 

Yeah, the car is about as light as it can get right now. I'm hoping to piece the entire interior back together one day. It depends how well I can compete in the import heads up pro class.

I'm using a 20" slick. It's the absolute tiniest slick money can buy, which gives me pretty good gearing for the 1/4 mile. And if I can get it to dead hook, I can get a much lower 60 foot than I can with my 22" slicks that I also have. I bet if I play around with my suspension and adjust my front Konis to full stuff, I'll have better luck with these 20" slicks. This is the first time I've actually had traction issues with slicks while still All Motor.

I have a Suprastick transmissions control unit. I do my burnout locked in 1st gear in manual mode. Then after the burnout, I flip over to automatic mode which will shift at 7300rpm into 2nd and 3rd gear. I shut off my heater blower motor, which cools the engine down between runs. I shut off my cooling fans and flip up a safety cover for my torque converter lockup. Then I launch the car and go through 1st and 2nd gear. Once in 3rd, I'll lock up the TC, which is what that red light means on the dash and why you hear the engine revs lower slightly. Once I pass through the traps, I unlock the TC, kick on the heater and cooling fans, and flip back to manual mode for my transmission.

 

I did some more testing at the track last night. I ran a bunch of 12.2s all evening long. I wanted to determine if locking my rear suspension would help my 60 foots. I was unable to see any noticeable difference in my 60 foots with it locked compared to unlocked. And I really do not like the way the car rides with a locked rear suspension. Even while going down the track at over 100mph, I can feel my lightweight rear end bouncing around. I feel it's incredibly unsafe especially with the rear skinnies I'm running.

I did 4 full 1/4 mile passes with it locked and 3 without. The traction was very consistent last night. It wasn't hooking the best though. But it was consistent. If the track was hooking, I'd be able to cut a 1.85 or better.

60 foots with rear locked suspension:
1.883
1.928
1.931
1.897

60 foots without cables:
1.911
1.889
1.900

I think I remember Jime experimenting with a locked rear suspension with hard plastic boat rollers over top of the rear strut piston. He believe he didn't see any differences in 60 foots either.

For me, if I did see a slight gain, I don't think I'd still run this type of setup due to how unsafe I think it is. I'd rather spend the time and effort rigging up some type of adjustable coilovers that will allow me to adjust the firmness of the struts' compression stroke as well as rebound. My Koni's for my 92 only allow me to adjust rebound.

I hope for my next track visit to see how my 60 foots look after adjusting my front struts to 100% firm. Right now, I have them set at 60%, which is the way I originally installed them about 6 years ago.

 

That's interesting! Doesn't seem to show any improvement. Hmm...

Do you have any wheel spin at all? It doesn't look like you have any wheel spin in your videos. Do you have a way to log your vss? What I'm getting at is, imo, you can't improve your 60' if you are already hooking up (unless you have more power out of the hole).

One of these days I'll make some passes with out my limiting straps to see if there's a difference with my car. Both of my passes, I spun my slicks with the straps.

Going down the track with the rear locked doesn't feel unsafe to me. I'm also not running skinnies in the rear. Is your track not very smooth?

I thought about making some GC style coilovers and having my koni's re-valved for fwd drag racing. I can't seem to justify spending the time and money because my limiting straps serve the same purpose. They both are designed to eliminate or reduce weight transfer.

 

Did you have limiting straps on the front?

 

I'm not saying that locking the rear doesn't help. I'm just saying that it doesn't help on my particular 3rd gen which has been lightened. I am spinning out of the hole. If I dead hook, I can expect 1.82-1.85 60 foots. I have done that a couple times. So with my tests, it's a consistent spin out of the hole.

Now if I sprayed nitrous and launched with a lot more power, locking the rear may help me get those 1.6s instead of 1.7s. So, the more power you are making on the launch, the more of a difference you may see. For instance, I am already very close to the best traction I can hope for. If I was spraying on the launch and still only getting 1.8s and 1.9s, then something needs to be changed.

The track that I tested these on is VERY bumpy. In fact, all the tracks I've raced at have various dips and bumps. Some are worse than others. There is one track that I refuse to race in a certain lane due to, what I think is, an unsafe dip at the 1000' mark. Unless you are racing at LVMS, MIR, PBIR, etc, then expect bumps and dips. And sometimes, you may need a different suspension setup for one track versus another.

If I went with a good set of coilovers, I'd still have some kind of shock absorber to help smooth things out on the launch. You want a little bit of a suspension. Otherwise, you'd see every pro FWD drag car without springs and struts. I feel the best setup for traction is a good set of coilovers not a fully locked suspension.

I do not have the front locked down right now. I did when I was spraying the VE. I definitely saw an improvement by preventing the front end from rising. Also, I don't know if I'll see an improvement with my NA Maxima since I'm already so close to dead hooking out of the hole.

When I start spraying this VQ35, you can throw ALL my tests completely out the window and I'll have to start over. Again, please do not take my tests as an 'end all discussion' test result. Every car is different. You have to find out what works for your car. And you can only do that by hitting the track every week while tinkering.

 

I know you aren't saying it doesn't help. It makes sense that you are spinning just ever so slightly. It would be nice to see a mph vs. time data log. It makes it easy to spot small amounts wheel spin. My first pass, I didn't think I spun at all until I noticed the slight spike in mph in 1st gear. I have a feeling I'll be using my progressive controller next time I'm at the track.

That's exactly what I was thinking.

I could definitely see a locked rear feeling unsafe on a bumpy track. The track that I go to is very smooth.

IIRC, a lot of pro fwd drag cars have solid rear suspension. I could be wrong though.

A good set of coilovers is definitely more ideal than limiting straps, but I just can't see it making enough of a difference for me to justify it. I'm also not planning on going in faster than very high 11's or low 12's.

I know it's not an "end all discussion" and I know every car is different.

I'm going to try to make it to every test and tune this season, but it's tough to get many passes in because it's very crowded. You're lucky to have tracks that are open as often as yours are.

I can't wait to see you spray that thing. It's going to incredible!

When do you think you'll spray it?

 

Yeah, the particular track that I tinker at is wide open early in the night. For the first hour, I am able to hot lap and never have to wait in line. I can get about 5-7 passes in one hour. After the crowd shows, I can get one pass in every 15-20 minutes. Still not bad at all.

I probably won't spray it until next Winter. I may not even spray. I'm not sure right now.

 

Lucky!

My car was ready to run at 11am and the track closed at 5pm. I was only able to make 2 passes. Supposedly, it was quite a bit busier than usual.

DO IT!

 

I see no reason to have a suspension setup in the rear on a track car. You want absolutely no weight transfer. That's why pro fwd cars run wheelie bars. Those things have no weight transfer at all. Watch a video of one it is sick!

 

Most tracks are not perfectly flat. Even the best tracks in the nation have subtle bumps and dips. If you have a go cart frame going down the track, the tires tend to break lose when you hit a bump, especially with no front suspension.

I will experiment more with a locked rear suspension when I start spraying out of the hole and traction becomes more of an issue. I won't ever do wheelie bars though.

I hope to remove my front struts this week and adjust my Konis to full stiffness to see if I can tell a difference with my traction. It sucks that I have to remove the entire strut just to make a small adjustment.

 

I definitely agree with having a front suspension setup. A rear setup on the other hand could be in place if you want. Just make sure that it is as stiff as possible.

Wheelie bars on a maxima would be awesome! You should do it.