1989 SC needs to run mid 12s

The exhaust can be killing it, Stock SC motors dont react well to no back pressure in my experience..And should definitely be much faster as all have said. You may be getting a good AFR but something is not right. Can you log any of this? Gearing isnt the issue for sure either. Stock SC motor at that weight would fry the tires
 
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.

If you care to read the thread you will see that I already proved myself wrong. But thanks for playing.
 
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.

Thanks Dave for the input. After reading some of the other posts, the knock sensor is going to be unhooked.

In your experience, roughly how much octane do we need to run with the knock sensor unplugged and the ACT dangling? Would 100 octane unleaded do it?
 
Looks like this Saturday night we are taking her to the track again. Nothing has changed since our last outing but we will be adding an adjustable fuel pressure regulator and cranking the fuel pressure to try and get us to the 8 to 8.5:1 AF ratio we'll need at wide open throttle to run E85. If we can get that we are going to unplug the knock sensor and dangle the ACT sensor to ambient.

We have managed to pick up the entire IRS out of a Mark VIII Lincoln and will be adding the aluminum lower arms and center section with 3.07 gears to our car. We are going to add a mini spool to the open diff before putting it in. Also, purely by accident we managed to get a set of BBK shorty headers for a 3.8L. These came on a car we are parting out. We'll be adding those over the winter when we have time to rework the exhaust.
 
Our last journey to the track didn't work out so well. We unplugged the knock sensor, dangled the ACT and jacked up the fuel pressure. I never could get the AF ratio to a comfortable reading on the gauge with the E85. I was a little spooked and didn't want to run with it lean so we switched to 104 octane unleaded. Because we had raised the fuel pressure she was pig rich at 10.5:1 and ran a string of high 14s. I finally leaned it out to around 11:1 AF on the last pass and she ran 14.30. We were out of time at that point in the day and couldn't make more passes.

January 14th is our first race this year and the plan is to get her back up to the 12:1 AF ratio that we ran last year and leave the knock and ACT sensors unplugged. We'll either be running 100 or 104 octane unlead.

New parts are:
Mark VIII control arms and a 3.07 center section with mini spool
BBK headers for a V6 Mustang
2.5" down pipe
94/95 Mass air meter
 
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After being rained/snowed out we had a somewhat successful outing to the track on the 21st. We made some progress at least.

With the new center section and control arms the car weighed 3,080 lbs with me in it and 2,870 without me in it.

Our best launch on the drag radials seemed to come at 3,500 rpm. The mini spool seemed to make the car launch straight but there was plenty of wheel hop. The 3.08s made the wheel hop worse and the 60 ft. time was a little off compared to the past. The good news is that it seemed to be much faster on the top end with the knock sensor unplugged and the ACT dangling (much as we expected). These passes are on 104 octane Sunoco unleaded race gas and I was leaning the car out with fuel pressure on each pass.

~10.5 AF ratio
60 ft 2.011
330 ft 5.967
1/8th 9.19
mph 77.00
1000 ft 11.962
1/4 14.31
mph 95.61

~11.5 AF ratio
60 ft 2.02
330 ft 5.896
1/8th 9.09
mph 77.31mph
1000 ft 11.835
1/4 14.18
mph 95.81

~12.0 AF ratio
60 ft 1.995
330 ft 5.825
1/8th 8.993
mph 77.88mph
1000 ft 11.718
1/4 14.04
mph 96.89

I attempted to make one last pass to get into the 13s but we busted the driver's side half shaft at the starting line. At the time I bought the drag radials I didn't know how bad they are for wheel hop as this is my first time drag racing an IRS equipped car. Our next step is to replace all of the control arm bushings and go to a full slick.

I am also wondering what breathing improvments I need to make to be able to shift the car at a higher rpm. She is running out of steam at 5,000 rpm right now. I am not sure if that is because of valve springs or a lack of flow. The 94/95 mass air meter seemed to help at least a little bit in this regard.
 
The power band with stock heads drops off after 5k rpm. You're probably going to need to up the boost quite a bit to get 12's on the stock long block. A cam & spring swap might help though.
 
The power band with stock heads drops off after 5k rpm. You're probably going to need to up the boost quite a bit to get 12's on the stock long block. A cam & spring swap might help though.

I read some threads on this site yesterday and arrived at that same conclusion. I do like the idea of a camshaft and spring swap because the stock cam seems extremely small. I put some thought into buying an off the shelf cam but they seem very expensive and from what I read here the gains seem unimpressive.
 
From what most on the site say, these engines like higher lift. I think most of those guys have modified heads though. Not sure how high of lift the stock heads can actually use, you'd have to ask Dave Dalke.
 
The engine is a stock 94/95 with the exception of the mustang headers and the exhaust being cut off. It doesn't even have a different pulley on it yet.
 
Took her to an eighth mile track. Ran on VP 109 octane unleaded.

After snapping the axle at the last outing we made a few more modifications and she seemed to respond really well:
- Added a 75mm throttle body (thanks Supercoupe Performance!)blended the inlet to the blower
- Cut the bridge out of a 95 mass air meter housing and put the 89 electronics in the housing
- Changed the stock 95 blower pulley out for a 89 blower pulley
- Installed poly bushings in the hub ends of the rear
- Removed the full size front tires for some aluminum spares with 165 radials, should be very near 3,000 lbs with me in the car now

Observations:
- Picked up about 1 psi of boost at peak
- Interestingly enough, the engine actually ran richer than it did at the last outing, running at about 11.2 to 11.5:1 AF ratio during the pass at the same fuel pressure, I expected leaner
- I tried a 2500 launch and it responded well to it, although it is still not pulling a great 60 ft on the drag radials

Best pass was:
60 ft 1.919
330 ft 5.663
1/8th 8.73
mph 79.73mph
 
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Took it to our second event of the year. It weighs 2,985 lbs with me in it now. It is time for the 10% overdrive blower pulley, as we made several passes that were similar to the best of:

60 ft 1.98
330 ft 5.737
1/8th 8.83
mph 79.90 mph
1000 ft 11.501
1/4 13.76
mph 99.43
 
Took her to Memphis and won the Roadkill $3,000 Hooptie Challenge on July 15th. This is an event where your car has to be judged by the Roadkill hosts and found to cost less than $3,000. Then you are paired off and run a ladder style elimination on a sportsman tree.

Video is here:
https://www.facebook.com/RoadkillShow/videos/vb.170974806391119/888200464668546/?type=2&theater

The weather was brutal, with ambient temps around 90 degrees and very high humidity. We came prepared, with our usual jug of Sunoco 104 octane unleaded race gas and thankfully we did not change to the 10% pulley yet. I was able to chop down the tree on almost every pass and take down every opponent, my worst reaction time of the day was a .151. As we got near the final round we were having to hot lap and the car got a little overheated. The performance dropped a little but she never really missed a beat, as my last pass was a 14.02. We are going to check the head gaskets in any event to make sure they are ok.

Best pass:
60 ft 1.96
330 ft 5.733
1/8th 8.85
mph 79.35 mph
1000 ft 11.544
1/4 13.84
mph 97.83
 
Took her to Memphis and won the Roadkill $3,000 Hooptie Challenge on July 15th. This is an event where your car has to be judged by the Roadkill hosts and found to cost less than $3,000. Then you are paired off and run a ladder style elimination on a sportsman tree.

Video is here:
https://www.facebook.com/RoadkillShow/videos/vb.170974806391119/888200464668546/?type=2&theater

The weather was brutal, with ambient temps around 90 degrees and very high humidity. We came prepared, with our usual jug of Sunoco 104 octane unleaded race gas and thankfully we did not change to the 10% pulley yet. I was able to chop down the tree on almost every pass and take down every opponent, my worst reaction time of the day was a .151. As we got near the final round we were having to hot lap and the car got a little overheated. The performance dropped a little but she never really missed a beat, as my last pass was a 14.02. We are going to check the head gaskets in any event to make sure they are ok.

Best pass:
60 ft 1.96
330 ft 5.733
1/8th 8.85
mph 79.35 mph
1000 ft 11.544
1/4 13.84
mph 97.83

Awesome! I saw the video on FB yesterday.

I thought it was funny that the car before you was a Corvette. ;)
 
Awesome! I saw the video on FB yesterday.

I thought it was funny that the car before you was a Corvette. ;)

Yes, that corvette was a actually a pretty nice car for the age, I thought the chances were slim that they would let him in.

My car on the other hand, looks like a hooptie by design. I think one of the biggest advantages of these cars is that the casual observer doesn't understand what is going on under the hood and also doesn't understand the potential.
 
Hellllll yeah! Congrats on the win. I went and watched the roadkill zip tie drags when they were in Norwalk a couple weeks ago. The hooptie challenge was hilariously awesome to watch. Lol. Glad to see an sc making a name for itself.
 
Gotta love how Dulcich said he couldn't bet on the bread van because it was just uncool, but then when the bird went against the bread van he picked the bread van. Just goes to show - people hate Thunderbirds. IDK why. But they do.
 
Gotta love how Dulcich said he couldn't bet on the bread van because it was just uncool, but then when the bird went against the bread van he picked the bread van. Just goes to show - people hate Thunderbirds. IDK why. But they do.

I am a newcomer to the T-bird SC world but I have a two part theory as to why this is. The first is that the cars were slow from the factory. They looked fantastic but they weighed too much and suffered because of that. At the zip tie drags I bet I had five people come up to me and say "I had no idea these cars could run like this" and we all know my car is not really fast.

The second is because most people aren't smart enough to figure out what is going on under the hood. I have more people come up to the car in the pits and stare in silence than any car I have owned. Some of them just go on about their business and never figure out how the blower works. Others are smart enough to figure it out. I think the complexity there along with the perceived lack of performance causes people not to dislike the car but to be indifferent about it. In my mind it is a little bit like a rotary engine to a lot of people, they don't understand it so they don't bother to care about it and they discount it.

My perception of the car has changed, that is for sure. I bought it just to fit the bill for junkyard racing but the more I drive it the more I realize that these are great cars in a lot of ways. The handling and braking are fantastic. The stick shift tranny is the best tranny I have ever driven, it blows the T5 and tremec away when it comes to power shifting. The hydraulic clutch is miles ahead of the cable system they put in mustangs and absolutely repeatable at the line every time.

Now I am wondering if I should bother going to their event in St. Louis. My car is certainly worth less than $3K, just not sure if they will let me try for a repeat. If I do, I'll be on Sunoco E85.
 
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