1989 SC needs to run mid 12s

And the vehicle's race weight went down in the bargain FTW.

Yes, we shed a few pounds. Unfortunately the short block locked up right as I got her on the lift. I heard liquid pouring out of something and looked under the car to see the new open crankcase ventilation system. Luckily, I have another longblock I picked up for free on the stand already. We are going to swap it out in the next month or two.

We did get some pretty serious weight reduction done to the car. We completely cut out the front bumper and supports, removed the A/C, power steering, fender liners, most the dash, oil cooler lines, etc. The front feels downright springy with all that crap taken off. And you can actually work on the engine if you need to.
 
Looks like I have rounded up a whole 1995 car with complete engine so we will back in business soon. Our first race was rained out so we have more time to get this thing back together.

I am estimating that we have about 1300 lbs out of the car so far. Since these pictures were taken, I got a new plasma cutter and put it through its paces on things like the crash bars in the doors. We have also removed all of the tar sound deadener and remains of the carpet and installed a single racing seat.
 
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The car is now running with the 1995 engine in place. We ditched the factory tank which was possibly leaking and cut the rotted trunk floor out and installed a sumped five gallon fuel cell and a Summit 380 lph external fuel pump with braided lines. We also installed a 5" monster tach (because race car) and an Innovate wide band O2 sensor which we will use, temporarily, to make sure we aren't running lean. The stock dash cluster is zip tied to the remains of the wiring harness inside the car, as we are using the stock boost, oil pressure and temp gauges. We fabricated a step exhaust that uses the stock manifolds and lead pipes which go to 2 1/4" and then 2 1/2" diameter before bending under the car and ending just after the transmission crossmember with no mufflers.

The engine pulls 20" of vacuum on the stock gauge and appears to be happy at idle. It does have a slight stumble when going from idle to part throttle quickly. As of now we are using the stock fuel rails, the 1995 36 lb injectors and the stock 1989 mass air meter. We do not have the wideband fully wired yet but the car does not smell excessively rich at idle. Timing is completely stock, spout connector still plugged in, along with the octane plug. I still have the 94/95 mass air meter which I may try if the car is running rich, I am aware it only flows slightly more than the 89 meter. If we are lean, I plan on using a poor man's adjustable fuel regulator (vice grips on the return line) since we have quite a bit of spare pump capacity at our disposal.

trunk.jpg
 
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If you've pulled 1300# out you are doing REALLY well!!!

We will see when we weigh it. The only thing that can be pulled out of this car that hasn't at this point is the rear bumper. We have been using it to push the car onto the lift. We may pull the rear bumper cover off and at least cut the ends off of it and leave the middle of it in place so we can still use it to push. The car sits about 2-3 inches higher at each corner now thanks to the weight loss, it looks like a 4X4 truck. The next step is going to be lexan to replace the door windows and a change over to the Lincoln Mark VIII center section with lower control arms.

We are doing final wiring on the gauges this weekend and I will take some pics of the ride height and our finished setup to post.
 
Well we had a great time at the track this weekend, making seven total passes. We are going to need to add some power to get our 12 second time slip.

Ambient temps were in the high 70s and humidity was pretty low, it was great weather for racing. On the first pass we had a large slug of silicon that clogged the outlet on the fuel cell and caused the car to fall on its face at the line and crawl down the track. The remaining passes of the night went fairly well except for the third one where I wasn't sure I hit second gear, these 5 speeds feel a little different on the shift than a mustang's T-5. The car ran three passes consistently right at 14.35 @ 93 mph with 1.95 60 ft times and eighth mile times of around 9.10. I was happy with it given this is a stock engine in a gutted car.

The boost gauge said 12 psi peak, AF ratio was around 11.7 to 1 on the wide band with 93 octane pump gas with 10-15% ethanol. I thought that was a little rich so I splashed a little E85 into the tank and we were at 12.2:1 for the last several passes. That is a little lean in my opinion but the car neither slowed down or sped up so i made no more adjustments after that.

Car weighed 3,120 lbs with me in it and 2,910 with me out of it. Obviously my estimate of weight loss was a little ambitious but we feel there is some more ground to be gained here because we still have some things we can remove.

First order of business, I think the 2.73 gears are killing the car, as it seems like it may bog a little at launch and then spin the tires when it recovers. I think we'll be better off with 3.08s and a slightly lower launch rpm.
 
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Well we had a great time at the track this weekend, making seven total passes. We are going to need to add some power to get our 12 second time slip.


First order of business, I think the 2.73 gears are killing the car, as it seems like it may bog a little at launch and then spin the tires when it recovers. I think we'll be better off with 3.08s and a slightly lower launch rpm.

3.08's launched at 3500 should do nicely. You will trap in 3rd at 5500rpm if you timing is on.
 
3.08's launched at 3500 should do nicely. You will trap in 3rd at 5500rpm if you timing is on.

Sounds about right, we are thinking about a 28 spline aluminum center section from a Mark VIII along with the aluminum lower control arms. From what I have read they come with an open 3.07 diff, of course to me that means we plug in a mini spool..... :eek:
 
Considering that you are almost 1000# lighter than the rest of us it should be a lot quicker than that. But IDK. :confused:
 
Considering that you are almost 1000# lighter than the rest of us it should be a lot quicker than that. But IDK. :confused:

I was thinking this at the track. The car does seem to be falling off on the top end for some reason although the mph gained in the second half doesn't seem completely unreasonable. The AFR stays steady and there is no obvious evidence of detonation but the knock sensor is still hooked up and functional so that is a possibility. Could this just be because of the 2.73s and the fall off between 2 and 3rd gear?

Mechanically we are using the complete 95 longblock, the 89 mass air meter and the 89 stick shift computer. I have the 95 mass air meter and computer in my parts bin if they might work better.

Here are two of the better passes:

View attachment timeslips.pdf
 
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You can't use the 95 computer and it's not better anyway. Most likely it's on the knock sensor pretty hard. Rather than try to lean it out, put a gallon or two of race fuel in it remove the knock sensor and tape it away from the motor. You can also try removing the ACT sensor and exposing it to atmosphere rather than the engine. But make sure you have enough octane before you try this. The gears are not your problem at all.
 
You can't use the 95 computer and it's not better anyway. Most likely it's on the knock sensor pretty hard. Rather than try to lean it out, put a gallon or two of race fuel in it remove the knock sensor and tape it away from the motor. You can also try removing the ACT sensor and exposing it to atmosphere rather than the engine. But make sure you have enough octane before you try this. The gears are not your problem at all.

Well Dave is usually right when it comes to this and I'm the last person to contradict him. I am however going to second his suggestion that you add fuel and lose the knock sensor. We have found over the years that the amount of timing being pulled at the top end will kill all the power in j ust about any engine. I can't think of one of any of the quicker cars around here who still have it hooked up. Not for years now.

Also, hanging the ACT sensor out the top of the hood is an old trick.... but a good one! ;)
 
I can't think of one of any of the quicker cars around here who still have it hooked up. Not for years now.
I used to be one of the fastest and my knock sensor has been disabled, turned off through the Moates quarterhorse, for many years now.

Add a 100 wet shot of nitrous and you can gain a full second in the 1/4, I did.
 
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Looks like I have rounded up a whole 1995 car with complete engine so we will back in business soon. Our first race was rained out so we have more time to get this thing back together.

I am estimating that we have about 1300 lbs out of the car so far. Since these pictures were taken, I got a new plasma cutter and put it through its paces on things like the crash bars in the doors. We have also removed all of the tar sound deadener and remains of the carpet and installed a single racing seat.

I think your estimate of 1300LBs is a bit optimistic even if you removed all of the glass except for the front windshield AND cut the window frames off the doors after you skinned them (no glass = no reason for a window frame).

Please put it on some corner scales are prove me wrong.
 
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