Ran it last nite and im a lil dissappointed....now w/pics and video

thunderkid84

Registered User
heading to the track in a few. so based on my member pg mods what do you think i will run ?

i'll be back with lots of pics and some video.
 
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I cant guess but I am anxious to know what you end up with. Your car has the exact same mods as mine except I have 42's and 3:27 gears. Good Luck! If mine doesn't net a low to mid 13 when I take it, I'm going to burn it to the ground.
 
here's the story

On a last minute decision, we went up to darlington last nite. weather wasn't cooperating again so i only got 3 runs in in 4 hours.

my first run started off good but right after the 60' mark i lost alot of power and couldn't drive it the rest of the way down the track. it basically limped to the end. turns out i blew the coupler right off my top intercooler tube. time was 18.76 but with a 2.14 60'.

i was able to get a worm clamp from some cool chevy guys out there. he said, "don't think cuz it came from a chevy trailer that it's gonna make that ford any faster !" I had to laugh...

so on the second run nothing blew off this time. i shifted either at or right below 5000. i was seeing as much as 17psi tho. time ended up being 14.9@94 mph with a 2.17.

third run was literally right after the second cuz they were closing the staging lanes. this time i could tell i got off the line alot slower. shifted at about 5300 this time and again saw as much as 17 psi. Time was 14.8@96 mph with a crap 2.3 60'.

so, needless to say im pretty dissappointed in the car. i understand that its a 5sp and this was my first time EVER racing a manual SC. but i'm no beginner to drag racing itself and i think even with my sh**ty driving it should be able to turn out low 14's.

tell me what you guys think...........
 
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With the mods you have, you should be running a lot faster. Hows your shifting? Is it tuned correctly?

Jerry
 
well, it just sounds disappointing after all the work, but im sure you will figure it out, it probably is the tune, i would think dave might have a problem unless he had the car there to work on as opposed to just creating a chip based on the info you feed him.
 
With the mods you have, you should be running a lot faster. Hows your shifting? Is it tuned correctly?

Jerry

how was my shifting as in...slow ? fast ? i shifted as fast as i can shift the notchy M5R2. don't think it was too slow.

my tune is just a mail order chip from dave. no dyno time or anything.
 
It sounds like you have some problem since you are almost a second slower than me and I have an auto with less work done to it. Who ported your heads? Do you have a cam? The cam might be holding you back right now. Also it does depend on how your tune is and what kind of temps your IC is getting you down to. 17 psi is a lot of boost so you might be pulling a lot of timing.
 
It sounds like you have some problem since you are almost a second slower than me and I have an auto with less work done to it. Who ported your heads? Do you have a cam? The cam might be holding you back right now. Also it does depend on how your tune is and what kind of temps your IC is getting you down to. 17 psi is a lot of boost so you might be pulling a lot of timing.

i ported my heads. basically just a port match with some bowl work on intake side. exhaust was just bowl work and taking out the short side radius. And then P & P both sides followed by a valve job.

Having an 89 5sp i have the "pretty good for a stock cam" cam. i know my cam is kinda the choking point in my "high power motor".

how can i know if 17psi is too much ?
 
17psi isn't too much with new head gaskets like you have, especially not through that big FMIC. With a cam in my car it makes 18psi through a stock intercooler and I have no problems other than pulled timing, the car still moves pretty good though. With those times it seems like something has to be up with the car.
We have pretty much the same mods as when I ran a 14.3 except you have ported heads and an exhaust and I had a cam and the stock exhaust with just a resonator delete. My car also broke during that run.
 
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I've been racing my SC for years and I would consider myself experienced with racing a 5-speed. Your 60' times are what's killing your et's. On street tires, don't expect anything better than 2.0's.

With that being said, don't expect to run killer times. A low to mid 14 sec pass is pretty much all you're going to get out of it consitantly with what you have into it. A 96mph pass should yield roughly a 14.1. Getting more practice and better 60' times will get you into low 14's, but I wouldn't expect anything more than that.
 
These cars hate heat, so, If you drove it up there and then hot lapped it, I'm not surprised you are disappointed, plus these heads don't respond to normal work on the short side radius of the exhaust ports according to the experts around here...I would advise getting it on the dyno and make sure the tune is right. Dave can work miracles with these cars but each one is an individual so while the chip is, I'm sure, close enough to drive the car safely it may not be optimal for racing it....................Dan
 
I've been racing my SC for years and I would consider myself experienced with racing a 5-speed. Your 60' times are what's killing your et's. On street tires, don't expect anything better than 2.0's.

when i pulled the first two 2.1 60' i was like, "wow, thats pretty good". i didnt really detect alot, if any, wheelspin off the line.

am i shifting at too low an RPM ?
 
....am i shifting at too low an RPM ?

That's hard to tell, as it all depends on your motor, drivetrain, wheel size and personal preference.

I usually launch at 4k, and shift around 5500. I'm running 3.27's with 26" tall slicks. I typically get around a 1.67-1.78 60' time.

Play around with shifting and see how the car responds. Cam, heads and exhaust variations can move the powerband around. I use a two-axis accelerometer to measure my g-force and I can log when accel becomes minimal.

Wheel's up;)

1018DSC_3111.jpg
 
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how can i know if 17psi is too much ?

It's not as much about too much boost as it is about too hot of intake temperatures. 17 psi isn't too much if your intercooler is capable of cooling it down. I don't have any experience with front mount intercoolers to know how good they can cool. The best way, IMO, is to install a quarterhorse so you can datalog things like timing and air charge temperature as you race so you can tell what is really going on. But you could just as easily have Dave tune it for you and you wouldn't have to worry about datalogging on your own. it just depends which way you want to go. But you may be smart to have someone else drive your car first before you do anything to find out if you really have anything wrong.
 
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