I just got back from the track. To put in mildly, it was a bad night. I went to the track by myself...again. This was my second time going to the track by myself. I got there later than last time, it was packed! I guess everyone wanted to take advantage of the cold weather. Yes, it was pretty cold! About 50 degrees, that's consider cold down here in Louisiana...lol. The setup was the same as last time except for a few things. Btw, before I go on, when I refer to with or without the hex nut on the BOV, it is to give you an idea the adjustment of the BOV. Of course the hex nut was on the BOV and tightened.

Different from last time:
1. ran with my 18x8 SSR GT1's running on 235/40/18 Kumho Ecsta Supra 712's. 34/F 35/R

2. front Koni's were set at full stiff.

3. tightened the belt a bit more and closed off the BOV to about 5 threads left(w/o hex nut). Driving around the streets, my car felt pretty fast with this adjustment, I even got one more psi than last time, now getting 9psi. Man, was I ever going to be shock by the result.


1st run:
What a disaster! I launched at about 1800rpms. I spun very bad out of the hole. I hit the rev limiter with the tires still spinning. It was all down hill from there. I ended up running a 16.0 because I let off shocked at what just happened. I was very upset of course. I don't know what 60' I ran, I trashed the slip in disgust.

2nd run: I opened up the BOV more to about 5 threads left(w/hex nut)allowing more air to blow out. This seem to did the trick...for this run anyway. Here's how I did:

R/T: 1.254
60': 2.308
1/8: 9.249
MPH: 80.63
1/4: 14.191
MPH: 99.03

I messed up on the launch a bit. Forgot what exact rpms I launched at, probably 1800-2000rpms. I'm suprised at the 1/4 MPH though.

3rd run: After that run, I thought whatever problem I had in the first run was fixed. Wrong! Same result as the first run. I spun badly out of the hole again. The car even went sideway a bit. Again, I hit the rev limiter...WTF? I ended up letting off again and ran a 16.179, my 60' was a 2.4, the funny thing was even though I let off, I won this race(bracket race). I thought I would lose for sure. I wanted to lose because I was so disappointed I just wanted to go home.


4th run: I was very confused at why the launch was so screwed up and why the heck did hit the rev limiter? Anyway, this run I adjusted the BOV again. Closing it down a bit this time to about 3 threads left(w/hex nut). I crossed my fingers hoping this would do it. Wrong again! Again, I spun badly out of the hole. And yes again, I hit the rev limiter. However, this time I didn't stay on the gas, I let off a bit and then hit it again. Ended up running a 15.015, 60' was a 2.6, I lost this race(bracket race again).


Someone tell me what the heck is going on! Going in, I was hoping for high 13s. Not even close! I have no idea why I did so bad. This wasn't a problem the last time when I ran the 14.167

Please help! Thanks!


Mike


Btw, to make it even worse on the way back from the track, the gas light was on meaning I was low on gas. I passed up one gas station thinking there got to another one up the road. I was wrong! Thank goodness I still had just enough gas to make it to the next gas station which was about 15 miles away. It was pretty empty, I filled up about 17 gals. Plus, I got lost a few times on the way back. Doh! A few wrong turns, taking the wrong exits, and having to go back around. Just wasn't my night.

 

2nd run looks pretty good...u'll get into the 13s sooner or later.
i was thinking that u would do better cus of the cool weather

 

The was only one positive from the night. I got to talked to a few people there that I even know. A few domestic guys, surprisly pretty cool. They even gave me props for running 14.1 even though they were obviously much, much faster than me. There was even one pretty cool guy with a 95-97 Honda Accord with a Prelude engine! He ran a 15.0, pretty good if you ask me. On the outside his car looked a bit ricey. He even admitted that his car might look ricey, but quite a few people made the mistake thinking he's just a pure riceboy with no go. I think he did the rice mod on purpose just to shock unsuspecting racers when he beat them. Very cool guy. Btw, all of them were white having no problem with talking/joking with an Asian guy with a Maxima. I think I'm the only Asian there who raced too. I even talked and hanged out with a guy who has a low 13s sec TransAm. Overall, the people there were pretty cool. I know I will go there again...once I figure out what the heck is going on with my car!

 

One more thing, I thought you couldn't hear the BOV blowing on an automatic at full throttle, only when you let off could you hear it? Anyway, on my second run, on the 1st to 2nd shift, I clearly heard the BOV going off even though my foot was slammed on the gas. It sounded pretty nice, clearly loud enough for people outside/in the crowd to hear it. Odd...

 

It is always nice when you meet people there who are cool. Some of them can really ive good tips and advise to help you out. Glad even though you went by yourself you still had a good time.

SuDZ

 

AutoMagic POWER...



hmmm not sure about the BOV thing... i thought the same thing... you would not hear it

 

looks like some good runs man, by the way what size pulley are your running to pull a 14.1? I have a 3.25" but its not on my car yet. Hopefully tonight....

 

nevermind man I just saw your homepage and I saw that you are running a 3.125" pulley which is one smaller then the one I am running. Also when did you find out that you needed the 8:1 FMU disc and does it noticably help compaired to the 6:1 disc?

 

Lol Mike, theres nothing wrong with yor car dude. Your problem is obviuos, you where just spining tires every time except on your 2nd run. I mean you can play with your hex nut all night long and it's not gonna make your kumho's stick any better. Bottom line here is that Kumho's are horrible below 60F.. when I went to the track and it was in the 30's I was all over the board. I did a 13.9-14.8(2.2-2.6 60's). I still dont know how I pulled of my launch for that 13.9 run, it was really lucky!

 

Mike I went to the track and sat there and spun just like you did. My best time was 14.0 @103MPH and 2.3 60ft. I lowered my tire pressure from 31 to 29PSI and did a small burn out and that seemed to have worked. Also when I was leaving the track I took off very fast in 1st gear coming to the conclusion that the track was freaking slippery as heck. Garbage asssss track.

 

As for all the wheelspin and hitting the rev-limiter in 1st with an auto, there could be some sort of flag in the PCM that tells it to *not* shift up to the next gear if wheelspin is detected. I'm pretty sure that ABS equipped cars have speed sensors at each wheel. If that's the case, the PCM would have detected that the fronts were spinning like a ****, and the rears weren't moving much at all. So as a safety feature, it could lock the tranny in 1st until the wheelspin subsides, and only then let it shift up.

If this makes sense to you and sounds like a realistic scenario, then try a more mild launch with less wheelspin. Modulate the throttle so that you keep yourself from hitting the limiter and don't go WOT again until you feel the tires hookup completely.

 

could it be you just need more practice launching and racing?

nice job with the 14.1, i think that shows you have the potential to be faster just need to get down a good launch and such. emax is probably right about your tires too for that weather. nice job and good luck workin out the kinks.

 

Ethan: I think you're right. The week before I ran with my stock 15" SE wheels with Bridgestone RE950's. It was also around 50-60 degrees, but I didn't have any problem hooking up with the RE950's. That's it! No more racing at the track with the 18s and the Kumho's. I'm going to order me a set of drag radials and slap on the stockers. You think if I had lower the tire pressure on the Kumho's, would it make any difference? I doubt it huh? I think the Kumho's are good enough for the streets, but not for the track.



Steve: thanks for the info, yes it does make sense. Thank you Professor Steve.


SuDZ: yeah, it was very cool to meet those people. Domestics were everywhere, only a few imports. I guess if you have a fast, good looking car, people will give you the props for it, doesn't matter if it's an import or not. I think they were more impressed because I was the only four door "family" car that was out there. Also, I guess my car being pretty clean looking helped, if my car was riced out, it might be a different story...hehe.



There were quite a few automagic cars out there last night. I felt kind of "at home"...lol. A few low 13s to mid 12s automagic TransAm. However, there were only a total of four imports including myself: a Civic SI that ran 15.6, a 95-97 Accord 5spd with H22 engine that ran 15.0, an older model Integra that ran somewhere in the 15s, and myself.

The highlight of the night was a very powerful Camaro that launched way too hard. The Camaro did a wheelie, a very big wheelie to be exact. The Camaro's rearend hit the ground and when it landed...BOOM! Oil and parts everywhere. It was a big mess. I didn't see it, but it must have been a wheelie that was pretty rare because even the fastest domestics out there were shocked by it. We had to wait over an hour to race again.


nymjayjay: the 8:1 FMU disc was already in the FMU when I bought the SC. I thought about switching to the 6:1 disc and a two step colder spark plugs, but that's kind of risky. So I'm going to just stick with the 8:1 and one step colder plugs. Even though I have the 3.125 pulley, I'm not getting the full boost I suppose to get. I'm getting 8, maybe 9psi only. I think I should be more around 10psi, but I'm thinking the leaky Greddy BOV might have something to do with that. Oh well, got to put up with it for now.


Jepht20: well, this was my first night racing with the 18s and Kumho's, so I had to relearn how to launch with them. When I raced with my stock wheels and the Bridgestone's, each time after the race I would write down on the slip what rpms I launched at. Then the next run, I would either launch at a higher or lower rpms and go from there. It is very helpful to do that. I don't think I will race with the 18s and Kumho's again though.


Guys...thanks for the feedback, I appreciated it.

 

Matt I lowered the pressure on my Kumhos and I managed a 2.24 60' in 42F air. So the lower pressure may have helped. I spun them a bit too in an attempt to warm them up a little

 

I'm running a 3.25" Pulley and I hardly ever hit above 7PSI

My best run at the track was 14.7 - But then I didn't have any kind of exhaust - I'm hoping to do much better next summer (tracks are only open 3 months of the year up here in Seattle). My Dyno runs showed +19tq and +7hp in spots with just adding a CatBack.

Also, I'm running a V1 SC - which creates about 1lb less boost than a V2.

Also, Everytime I'm spinning my wheels and shift 1-2, I hit the rev limiter. I think it's normal. I hit the rev limiter sometimes when I floor it from a roll, even without wheelspin.

I've messed with my Blitz BOV a bit. It doesn't make a pssssht sound like I've heard on a turbo, but more of a phbthbthbthb sound. (Kinda hard to explain). I have no idea if this is normal, since I'm the only SC'ed Max I know of in WA State.

I adjusted my BOV on the Dyno from Fully Open, to almost closed, to in the middle. It made 0 difference on my Dynos. I don't think on a SC, the BOV matters much in it's setting. <someone tell me I'm worng if I am>

What vacuum are you pulling?

IanS

 

There's nothing wrong with my vacuum as far as I know. All the vacuum reading is pretty normal.

The sound on the Blitz BOV you're describing is normal, that's how the Blitz sound like.


When I hit the rev limited, it seem like it didn't want to shift to the next gear. It was almost like I left it in 1st gear and forgot to shift. Problem was I had it in Drive.


7psi? Didn't you said you were getting 9psi now?


I think and hope it's just because of the Kumho tires that I couldn't get traction. I'm going to put my stockers with the Bridgestones back on tomorrow and head to the track again next Friday. I'll know for sure then.

 

I do hit 9 PSI once in awhile, but usually 7. Sometimes 8.

It's like this:

70% of the time = 7PSI
20% of the time = 8PSI
10% of the time = 9PSI

My vacuum is still never over 17Hg. I've done every test possible, up to and including a compression test - I've given up.

once I heard that the V1 creates less boost than the V2, I stopped worrying about it so much. I'll probably go down to a 3.125" Pulley soon anyway, since I have the adjustable FMU, and don't need to buy discs.

IanS

 

I took off my 18s today and put back my stock 15s on. I'm going to sell the 18s. Anyway, as I took off the wheels, I noticed there was a whole bunch of burnt tire rubber all over the fender liner. The driver side wasn't that bad, but the passenger side had strip loads of burnt tire rubber from one side of the fender liner to the other. The rear was fine, just the front had the burnt rubber. I know it wasn't from me that's for sure. Had to be from one of them big pro stock cars that did a huge burnout before my run. I'm sure other people had similar problem. Last time I didn't have this problem though. I think...I didn't check though. I tried to scrape off the burnt rubber, but there was too much, my arms got tired from all the scraping. I'm going to just get a new fender liner because both the front fender liner are in bad shape anyway. Doh!

 

yep - I got it all over the botom of the passenger door and the fender liner.


Took me 3 hours with a clay bar to get all that crud off.



IanS

 

why?

they looked good on ur car

 

Now I've only raced motorcycle at the track but I'd think you'd want to lower the tire pressure to around 20 or so. Plus you need to heat up those tires. You southern boys aren't use to cold tires.

 

Yeah, I think I'm going to lower the tire pressure the next time out. Maybe 25/F 40/R. I'm back on my stock wheels with the Bridgestone RE950s. Last time I ran with those, I didn't lower the tire pressure either. You think if I lower my tire pressure, I might be able to get a better 60' time? So far the best I could do with the RE950s was a 2.237

 

your times seem to be getting lower.. but there is no consistantcy.


If you can, just go practice your lauching techniques... then after those are close to each other then you can "tune" your car and find out what settings are suiting you best

 

lower your tire pressures to at least 15psi if you're on stocks. i've gotten some pretty good results with that. i'm surprised that 13's don't come easy even to some SC'ed people out there. kinda makes one think.

 

Bags: what do you mean by no consistency? 14.167 and now a 14.191, pretty consistent if you ask me. Just not able to getting anything better than a 14.1


VQ: 15psi??? That seem to be way too low don't you think? I'm not running drag radials or slicks. And not able to get into the 13s I think it has more to do with the auto tranny. If I had a 5spd, I'll be in the 13s easily.