I feel like I could write a book about the past 1-2 weeks, but I’ll try and sum it up in a few paragraphs.

I’ll start with a few weeks back when Darin came up and we first tuned the car after the cracked block. The car made 1393 on boost, and 1478 on spray on the dyno. At the track we couldn’t get it to come up on the 2-step and it was extra lazy. So, we gave up at the track and came back and leaked down the cylinders, and 5 was showing 100% leak down. Unknowingly, this motor had a pre-existing head issue from the last motor failure. I visually inspected the head and it looked fine. But what I couldn't see was 4 slightly bent exhaust valves and two burnt seats, so the motor wasn’t really in great shape. A mistake on my end, and a learning experience for me.

Two days later i pulled the head off the car and drove it over to Dave @ Headgames in New Jersey. He did an amazing job fixing what was wrong and got the head back to me 2 days later! The car was back on the dyno the day after I got the head back. Darin remote tuned it, but the 1100cc + 1650cc are maxed out on boost. It made 1471 on BOOST ONLY, but I need to upgrade the 1100cc injectors so i would have twelve 1650cc to keep up. My car really needs spray to work properly at the track, so Darin turned the boost down and did a spray tune to allow the fuel system to keep up, it made 1538 spinning on the dyno, so those numbers aren’t really accurate… But I don’t care about numbers, I care about having a safe tune for the track, and getting that ET. So I took the car to the track.

That same day after the dyno I went to Pittsburgh Raceway park to try and make some test hits. The track was really good on the first pass and it bogged me coming out. The slipper valve seemed to not be working very well… It seemed like I was just dropping the clutch, rather than releasing slowly… So that wasn’t helping. I let out after ⅛ mile and ran a 9.x something. There was a giant oil down and it took the track 3 hours to cleanup, so the track got cold, and the next pass I lit up the tires and again let out cause the car was all over the place. So no dice! Seemed like nothing was going right!

Fast forward 2 days to Sunday IFO in Columbus, the first pass was a near death experience. The car spun on the line but went straight for the rest of the track, but at the top of the track I hit something and the car went completely sideways with no notice, I jerked the wheel and pulled the chute and was able to somehow not hit the wall. Someone was watching over me here, it was the scariest thing I have ever experienced. I was shook. I was scared to run the car again, afraid that it possibly was something my car caused. But after looking over everything and seeing no oil under the car, and Darin looking over the log and seeing no issues, I decided it had to be something the car before me put down.

The next pass the car lit up the tires, but somehow it still cut a 1.41 sixty foot and I ran a 8.31 @ 181. A new personal best, and put me at the #1 qualifier. However, Darin looked at the logs and boost was not holding back up top. Duty cycle was almost zero but it still made 45psi, and the injector size is touch and go with that kind of boost + spray.

 

I made it through the rounds and ended up in the Finals vs. Aaron and his auto 1g dsm. He had been running 8.5x all day so I knew I had to be good on the tree. However, with this slipper valve not letting me just drop the clutch on green I had to go back to my old ways trying to time the light and slip the clutch at the same time… This is not an easy task, think of the forces at play when this car leaves and trying to “slowly” release that pedal at the same time… So I tried to time the light and went .2 seconds early, red lit but still made a full pass 8.38 @ 180

 

So overall the past two weeks have been crazy, but IFO Ohio was the highlight, I doubled my 8.3x passes, so I now have 4 under my belt. The car will go faster, I just to fix about 4 things.

The current issues.
1. Can’t get the JMS Powermax to make the pump run at 18V, most I can get it 16.5volts. I will be calling them today to talk to techs

2. Need to upgrade the FIC 1100cc injectors to FIC 1650cc
3. Need to figure out why boost control is not working properly in 3rd & 4th, Darin had duty cycle and near zero and it was still making 40+ lbs in 4th. I checked the 46mm gates/lines with compressed air, they are opening and closing properly.
4. Figure out why the slipper valve isn’t working. Either needs bled, or my thought is maybe I need to go to a thicker shim plate in the Tilton. It’s acting like it needs a thicker shim.

Here is the video:

 

I have to thank everyone who has helped me. Darin Dichiara, for everything he has done so far. For coming up and tuning first, then remote tuning after the head was fixed, then track tuning remotely multiple times over the past week. Thanks to Dave @ Headgames for fixing this head in such short time! Thanks to Don @ Accelerated for building this 3liter motor so quickly. Thanks to Jay @ Pro-Jay.net for the bad ass intake manifold. Thanks to Nick Warner for helping me all day IFO Columbus. Thanks Bob Himes for helping me in the garage when I need it. Thanks to Rob Rhodes for helping me get the nitrogen in these shocks back to proper pressure, thanks to Neal Young for the alignment. Thanks to Rob Courtney for rebuilding my stock trans and Justin Cassol for helping me at the track. And last but not least thank God for keeping me safe.