Building a 7sec 87GN Drag-n-Drive car with V6 Stage 1 heads!

[turbobuick]

LOL. I was wondering how you could lift the body with back bars in. Of course now I see they weren't welded.

I thought they were going to be a bigger PIA than they were. Even with the bars welded in I can still raise the body 5-6 inches. We had to lower the body to fit them and tack then try to raise it again to weld the top side. When we went to weld them to the frame/crossmember we had to get creative with ratchet straps and transmission jacks to suck the frame back up. When Ray went to weld the underside of the bars after the body was back down he ended up lighting the headliner on fire! I am now waiting on a new one and will have to raise the body one more time to put that in.

 

[BEATAV8]

Wow! It's looking awesome! Beautiful work!

 

[turbobuick]

And its done!

That wasn't easy and if someone asked me how to do it again I would tell them to cut the floor out and remove the body. Tig welding is hard enough as it is and everything is difficult when doing it inside a car. We ran into a oh Shit moment figuring out how to weld the outside of the secondary door bars. After raising the car we got the bar inside the hole for the door wiring. How Ray got two hands and tig torch in there to weld it is still beyond me.

While the cage is done there is still a ton of fab work needed. I started laying out the rear bars.

 

[outatime86]

Beautiful!!!

 

[turbobuick]

It has been awhile since the last post. We went like hell to get the chassis done but then life and work happened and the car kind of went on the back burner in March. We also hit a series of set backs with the build that kind of derailed things for a little while. None of them are things we can't fix pretty easily but it was a series of them that kind of took the wind out of our sails so to speak. When Feb rolled around we took a break and still went down to Sick week to watch the start in Orlando and it was really cool. There we a few TRs there but I can't wait to show up with a GN with a V6 that runs well and not one that is an LS swap.

When we got back from Orlando we started tackling some of the stuff on the list. First I had to get the final drivers position and figure out what we needed to do for pedals throttle cable etc. Which meant I needed to put the motor in the chassis. I had finished the motor build in January. It was a big job and have countless hours into getting it together. My machinist helped make the front drive set up and crank trigger. Since Danny Bee belt drive are made out of unobtanium I decided to modify a S2 front cover to work with a belt drive oil pump. I was concerned about using a factory cam sensor so I had Glenn at MadRacing make a MSD one out of a BB Chrysler unit. I also made a 12-1 crank trigger with the Holley hall effect mag pickup. We used a bunch of mix matched parts from Innovators West and modified the shit out of everything to make it work. We also took a set of Champion VC and welded/machined them with custom mounts for the Holley Coils.

I had figured I would need to re-invent everything but it ended up I was able to space the brake pedal bracket and extend the MC pushrod. We then made a custom mount for the factory throttle pedal and modified it to work with the Lokar cable. It all worked out pretty well. We also cut and fit the steering column and welded up the shaft and U-joints which I got from Trick Chassis.

Next we started in on the headers and mounting the turbo. We made a custom mount for the turbo and then completely redid the passenger side from the collector forward. These headers were custom built for the car back in 2009 and fit in the stock location with the crossover under the oil pan. I was pretty happy with how they came out and like everything else it was a lot of work.

After we finished the cage we still had to come up with a window net and the one I bought from ART with buckles for latches was just all wrong. I settled on the one from Tim McAmis which is super simple and fast to operate if you need to make a quick exit. Like all their stuff it was top notch, he also makes some pretty good build videos on youtube.
The first pic is the ART piece with the buckles. There was no way to mount it without the buckles being in the way and whacking you in the head every time you got out of the car.

The one from McAmis has a spring loaded release you just pull and the entire net falls out. Plus it just fit better and I was really happy with how it turned out.

After we got the window net done we decided to put the body back together and all of a sudden it was starting to actually look like a car again. Plus putting that front clip back on freed up an entire spot in the garage which was nice.

Next up the set backs!

 

[turbobuick]

This has been a long road but we are in the final stretches and set to leave on the 18th for Orlando to start testing for Sick Week which begins Sunday Jan 28th. We will be at the Cadillac Attack on the 26-7th too.

My last post from June was where we were at the end of March of this this year. We were a little burnt out at this point and got hit with a series of bumps in the road with the road none of which were not easily resolve but it was like one after another. We had worked a ton on the car up to this point so we took a little break till May when I picked it back up and started pulling stuff out to start wiring and plumbing the car.

I made a Trans cooler fan shroud and re-purposed parts I already had instead of buy a new one.

I started the plumbing with the brakes and brake lines. I got some cool new tools which made the job go a lot smoother. I also used 37* AN flare tube nuts on all the brake line fittings.

In July we moved the car back down to Ray's shop to finish the hot and cold side plumbing. We had to redo the passenger side header for the new turbo in additon to EGT bungs, new WG and a completely new downpipe.

We also modified the IC pipes with Racetronix clam shell clamps and added a blow off valve

 

[turbobuick]

We also needed to do something with the floor pans and my original idea of sectioning them and welding the bars into the floor pan was not working out. I ended up getting a pair of Goodmark rear floor pans to splice in. We also raised the rear pan a few inches in anticipation of the full exhaust we are still planning to put on the car some day.

With the majority of fab work now done it was time to really get busy with plumbing and wiring which still seems to be never ending on a car like this. I started with the fuel system, trans lines, oil lines, and also the fire suppression system which I also used AN flare tube nuts for.

I plumbed the fuel line with -10/-8 PTFE, oil lines with Braided nylon, brake lines -3 SS AN fittings and copper nickel line and -4AN Alum and alum lines for fire suppression. I used Racetronix for all the plumbing on this build and couldn't be happier with the quality, service and ease of use of the website and most of all price! I am very happy with the Racetronix parts I used on this build and highly recommend them. FYI I am 99% sure that Racetronix and Vibrant are the same product and 98% sure Fragola is too.

The wiring took a ton of time and is really easy to get lost in analysis paralysis which I did. Again I got some cool new tools but wiring is a skill like fabrication that you get better with experience and this was my first major wiring job.
Crimpin Aint Easy

In the end I have a functional wiring job with well thought out power and grounds and a sensor for everything. But still I hate it and will probably re-do it at some point. For now it will work, the mistake I made was in the lay out. I simply tried putting way to much shit is a small area. I literally tried fitting it all in the glove box and I did fit it all in there I just can't use a glove box door lol! I need to move the ECU to under the passenger seat which will fix a lot of the aesthetics I dislike about the wiring job most of which are behind the dash and hidden!.

 

[turbobuick]

I also made some cribbing blocks and finished up the suspension, squared the rearend got a base suspension plot and did a front end alignment. I also scaled the car and got a base weight for a rough guesstimate which I am thinking will be around 3350.

By the end of October we FINALLY got the motor fired and of course there are issues lol

At this point I so far behind schedule I am starting to sweat making Sick Week AGAIN! The biggest issue I have is my license is expired and without it I will not be able to run faster than 9.99. I signed up for Frank Hawley's school in Gainesville went on a road trip to Florida. It was well worth it and a great experience much more than i expected especially since I previously had my NHRA license it was just to long expired.

When I got back it time for the holiday's and a long over due family vacation we took to California where I got to stop and see long time friend and TB.com member Neal Stewart. When I got back to the car at the beginng of December it has been full throttle ever since and there was still a TON of shit left to do. Next up was the dyno, and we finally made it to the Dyno on December 19th which didnt go so well. I had some how managed to put the fuel filter in the housing backwards which is next to impossible to do and the car really shouldn't have run but it did. With the pump on low side for cruising it was fine but when we went to test the high side it literally blew the top off the pump and blew a bolt out which we found in the parking lot.

I next day shipped the pump to Aeromotive on the 20th and had it back on the 22nd with the car running. I bought the pump in Dec of 21, it was my fault I deadheaded the pump but Aeromotive not only fixed it and next day shipped it back to me they didnt charge me for it either which I didn not expect. That was over the top exceptional customer service!

Back on the dyno on Dec 26th! The dyno was a succsess, many issues whcih I am still working on by it made decent power on a conservative tune and drove on the trailer when we were done. We discovered a lot of stuff wrong and working on the changes now but should make Sick Week.

 

[V6sleeper]

Nice work!

 

[Mr. Michael]

Great thread. Thanks for the effort put into it.

 

[BEATAV8]

Bad Ass!

 

[outatime86]

This is one bad ass thread!

 

[turbobuick]

Thanks, glad someone is reading it and enjoying it lol! Well it has been a journey since the last post

Following our first dyno outting when we literally blew the top off the fuel pump I had come to find out it was my own idiot mistake. I had somehow had the filter in the housing backwards which deadhead the pump. How it even ran was a mystery but with the pump on low side it was fine. The good news was Aeromotive went out of their way to fix the issue even though it was one I created. I think they were shocked it actually blew the bolt out of the housing and wanted the pump back. I sent the pump overnight to them on Dec 20 and it was back my car and running again by lunchtime Friday Dec 22 and we were back on the dyno on Dec 26th!

The second dyno session was long and we did get a lot done but something was missing. The motor just did not seem to be responding and the TQ converter so just completely wrong for the combo we were running and it was my theory that the motor was making more power below the point we were running it. Also, I was pretty sure we had the plugs gaped to wide for the ignition system we were running, It made 1080 with only16* of timing but 38psi of boost. I guess most would be happy with that but to me it was off, yes this is a mainline HUB dyno which is supposed to be the most accurate but if that was the case we were still not making anymore power than we did in 2009, so yeah I was disappointed.

The first thing I did was call Dusty and order a new PTC TQ converter. We are in the middle of the holidays with time running out for Sick Week but Dusty came through and I had a new Bolt together PTC by the second week of January.

I was also thrashing to finish getting the car back together. I had all the interior to put together and a mile long list I just started plugging away on. Back seat in a 6.50 cert lol!

Air shifter with a stock console

Interior lights

Seats in factory dash etc.

I also wrapped up some lose ends under the hood, I finally installed the back pressure sensor and a new vacuum pump after I accidently damaged the one on the car.

I got the car to the point it was fully assembled and sitting pretty much ready for the track. I was able to scale the car with driver and was pretty pleased with the final weights. I made a few final adjustments to the suspension plot, I had to move the UCAs location and re-checked the ARB was in neutral with a driver in the car which it wasn't. I also triple checked everything was tight and ready to go.

This was January 12th and time is becoming a real issue since we were planning to leave January 18th to go down and start testing in Florida the week before the race. We decided to make one more run on the dyno Saturday Jan 13th. On the mainline Hub dyno you can launch the car on the T-brake and pull it through all three gears which we felt was worth doing. My buddy Justin already had a day scheduled so we literally finished the car up Saturday morning loaded it and went back to the dyno. I am glad we did, the changes we made were noticeable from the start the motor revved better sounded better did everything better and it showed.

Now we're talkin'!! This was with 34psi of boost 4 less than the previous run. Still only 16 deg of timing and on the fat side with fuel The best part is there is a lot more left in it with backpressure at 1:1 and turbo outlet temps in the 260 deg range we are only starting to see what this NLX88 is capable of!! We were super excited at this point but that didn't last long!!

Next up the struggle bus!

 

[turbobuick]

On the dyno we also started tuning the 2-step and T-brake and set up a 3-step offset. The new TQ Dusty spec'ed was spot on and we were able to get to the 4k rpm chip in 2 seconds and ready to launch in 4.

We had checked the plugs while on the dyno but spot checked only a few. When we checked all 6 we found an issue with #3

WTF, we drove in on the plugs we ran on the last dyno session and put a fresh set in for this one. I had checked these plugs after the last run and left them in to drive around and cold start. We immediately thought we did something on the dyno but when I checked the #3 plug we drove in on it was the same so whatever the issue is the motor still made almost 1200hp to the tire with it so it can not be too serious??

I am running a leaded race E85 for fuel and determined that the #3 plug had oil on it. So on Sunday Jan 14th I tore into the issue starting with a leakdown and compression check which showed #3 cylinder was healthy with 93% on a cold leakdown and 175psi of cranking compression.

Its a Buick right? So of course I had oil leaks, one off the back of the intake I tried to fix when the trans was out and or course did not work even with using the shop vac trick. So I pulled the intake and Ahhahh! WTF is wrong with #3 intake port it is squeaky clean!!

It was squeaky clean compared to the other 5. So is it fuel or oil? To make it more confusing I was also dealing with a host of other oil control issues one being the ball bearing turbo and excessively high oil pressure with the belt drive oil pump I now have on the car so the car was a little smokey on start on occasion not all the time. So my first thought was a stuck injector. I gave them to Mike who has been helping with the Holley on the dyno. He had a cheap flow tester and ran them. Sure enough #3 was 20-30% more fuel than the other 5.

So I call Jack and Billet Atomizer and looks up these injectors, which I knew the history of since I got them from Tommy Robison. Anyway they are an older Gen 1 unit and he said he may have some parts for but has to search. He put together 2 injectors with the remaining parts he had and overnighted them to me. Again above and beyond customer service. It is now Wednesday the 17th with plans to leave the 18th. Wed evening we get the intake back on and sealed up tight along with the new injector in #3. We figure the issue is fixed. Thursday we start early wrap the car up and start packing the trailer which Ray built a trick custom wheel/tire/fuel jug mount for.

We also discovered the hitch we made for the parachute mount was way to high and we need a drop one. So we pick up some material to make a new one in Florida. The plan was to head down Thurs and OSW had testing or events going on Fri-Sat-Sun which would give us ample time to test. Since Ray and I still have jobs I got us cheap plane tickets on Spirit to fly back Monday morning and return Friday morning so we could work during the week. Sounded good at the time but Mother Nature had other plans.

This is what you get when you try to do race car shit in Ohio in January.

So out of the gate our plans were changed. The storm was pretty bad especially in the mountains of WV and Virginia which is the route I would typically take from Youngstown Ohio. By mid day Thursday it was to late to leave so we pushed it to Friday and re-routed to go down 71 and 75 to Atlanta which is an hour or two longer but would avoid some pretty serious mountains and snow storms. Plus we were no where near ready to leave on Thursday as we scrambled all day to get the car back together so we decided to finish packing Friday while waiting out the worst of the snow. At this point we still have a ton of issues we are dealing with. This thread is kind of like a build series on TV you see all the highlights and not the million other small issues that become a huge time suck.

We decide to get on the road Friday evening. The plan was to get far enough South and out of the snow, stay somewhere overnight and finish the drive on Saturday. The drive through Ohio was miserable with Columbus being really bad. We made it to the Ky/Tn boarder and it was still snowing and a whopping 5 degrees. We stayed this hotel which I almost jacked knifed the truck and trailer sliding backwards down a small ice covered hill to get out of the parking lot. I think it was close to 4am by the time we got in the room after dealing with that mess. We were back on the road at 830.

It wasn't until we reached Atlanta the next day that we saw the temps get above freezing. When we started the car to put it on the trailer it smoked pretty bad and after spending a good 10 hours discussing it was decided to stop at Summit Racing in Atlanta to pick up some parts. Convinced we had fixed the #3 issue with the new injector we figured the smoke had to be from the turbo so we decided to put the Turbosmart oil pressure regulator and Summit had all the parts we needed in stock! The inside is identical to the one in Ohio which is 45 min from my house lol!

Our friends shop is 90 minutes North of the track so instead of going there like we originally planned we decided to drive straight through to Orlando and get up early that morning and be at the track first thing for Sunday Funday TnT at OSW.

We made it!

While we made it to the track we still had some work to do, we needed to plumb the new oil pres regulator for the turbo and add make some -4an lines for it. We also found the oil in the motor was a complete milkshake, like bad. I had feared we somehow froze the thing since it was so damn cold but Ray put an entire gallon of concentrated antifreeze in before we left but he was even doubting it worked after looking at how bad the oil was. So we flushed everything out and of course this required a parts store run. This took most of the morning and by 1 we were ready to try and make our first pass with the car and this is when we discovered even more issues we have been dealing with on top of the smoking and the #3 spark plug looking like shit.

 

[Mr. Michael]

This read is as good (or better) as the stuff I watch on Motortrend TV. Keep it up.

 

[Pronto]

Looking forward to the next episode!

 

[turbobuick]

This read is as good (or better) as the stuff I watch on Motortrend TV. Keep it up.

Thanks for the positive feedback I am glad someone is reading it and enjoying it. I like sharing the experience plus tracking the results of what we are doing.

I think Alex Taylor modded a Turbo regal on Motortrend TV and went 15s. Unfortunately at this point I'm not doing much better lol!

So picking up where I left off, we made it to Florida and at least got the car to the point of making its first pass down the track. I tested everything T-brake works, line lock engaged time to roll! I was able to do a decent burnout and staged the car, applied the T-brake stated to bring the car up and it started missing like it was on the 2-step but rpm was to low. Light changes I let go and it immediately falls on its face as it went into Safety mode due to the coolant temp being 220 degrees. The fans didn't turn on!!!

This car is a new build and has many many issues some small, some not so small like the oil in cylinder #3 intake port. I really only hit the highlights with this thread. One of the bigger issues is a weird canbus communication issue I am having the keypad switch panel and the Racepak Smartwire. In case your not familiar a Smartwire is a PDM that controls everything in the car literally It is all you relays fuses, etc in a solid state computer that is programmable which is pretty cool. The keypad is the cars switch panel and is used to power everything up and start the car, turn on fans, water pump, boost control etc. The keypad has some goofy Can bus communication issue in which it will be working fine then go into this error mode where the lights just flash red and you can get anything to work and you can't communicate with it.

We started having this issue before we left and had been working with Devin Vanderhoof on fixing it who had me overnight the dongle for the keypad to Racepak who did nothing to try and fix it in time for me to leave for Sick Week. Devin told me to show up and he would have a solution and I was supposed to meet him at the track when he got to town.

The cool thing about the Holley/Smartwire PDM is since it works on Canbus I can pull stuff from Holley to make work as output from SW and really come with anything the imagination can think of without have to re-wire a single thing. For instance If I wanted to I can make the headlights flash when the turbo hits 20# of boost all I would have to do is program it to happen.

When the keypad flamed out to make the car start and run I used the turn signal headlight switches on the column which are hardwired inputs into the SW

For the ignition I programed the SW to use the parking light switch and to start the car I used the horn button for the starter. The problem i had with the fans not turning on is that I didn't have them re-programed to work with the parking light switch and were still looking for the ignition switch which was on the keypad that was not working in the car at the time.

While this worked to run the car it was going to be an issue driving it on the street. I ended up getting a new dongle from Devin he took out his car for me. Unfortunately I still had the problem. I chased this all week and the keypad would work at times then glitch out. I ended up having it all set up to work with or without the keypad and was able to get through tech like this but it was a PIA.

While Racepak makes some nice stuff it isn't cheap and the support they offer just flat out sucks and because of this I would think twice before buying thier products again. I am actually looking at changing to an ECU Masters PDM as I still don't have a solution to the issue and I am done dealing with them.

Anyway, It was mid afternoon by the time we finished with that first attempt and the track was only running till 4pm. The #3 plug looked like shit and the car was smoking. On the way down we thought we found the smoking gun with the #3 injector but that does not appear to be the case at this point.

There was another track oil down so we decided to pack up and head to our buddy Murray's place where he has a full shop for us to work on the car. We both had plans to work that week but with getting down there 2 days late we decided to switch our flights to Tues evening which gave us all day Monday and most of the day on Tues. There was a track rental at OSW by Mickey Thompson M-Tues-Wed that Devin graciously invited us along. The plan was to go to Murray's try to sort some of this mess out and hit the track rental on Tues.

I woke up the next morning with a plan. I was convinced that the issue with #3 and why the intake port look so clean was oil and not excess fuel washing it out. We know the cylinder isn't hurt so the oil has to be getting in the intake port from either a crack or the rocker stand bolts or the sleeve in the intake port!

We decide to tear the rocker stands off re-seal the rocker stand bolts and we pulled the head bolt and washer off for the stud in that sleeve and filled it with RTV since it is the one under the rocker stand. After that Ray and I went to OSW to meet up with Devin to get the new dongle which "should"fix the key pad issue and we were feeling pretty good about things on the way back. Murray and Sharky were working on welding up a new hitch for the truck while we worked on the car. When we returned from OSW the hitch was done and we decided to start the car after it had a few hours to let the RTV set up. I go to start the car and its missing bad. After some more pissing with it we discover I didn't have two pushrods fully seated and in the brief minute the car ran it tore up two adjuster and broke one rocker shaft. Dumb mistake, it happens. Of course I have the spare parts to fix this.......AT HOME!

While I am super pissed at myself at this point Murray goes hey you know Champion Racing Heads is only 80 miles from here? Its about 730 in the evening at this point so I decide to call the shop and leave a message so maybe I can get someone first thing in the morning. Well RIchie answered the phone!! Not only did he have the parts we needed he was willing to meet us at the shop so Ray and I were off to Largo Florida and CRH world headquarters!

It was a cool shop and he had plenty of inventory, he was finishing up intakes getting ready to ship a bunch of CRH intakes out most of which he said were spoken for.

We got back late that evening and headed over to the shop first thing Tues morning to fix the car. It fired right up and it appeared the smoking was better and the plug even started to look better but was still getting oil on it. We decided to stay in Ocala continue to work on the car and actually get it out on the road towing the trailer. especially since the car had exactly 2 trips around my neighborhood at home which is about 1 mile total. We were flying back that evening out of Orlando and Murray had a guy coming to detail the car on Wed so he agreed to meet us Friday at OSW for the Cadillac attack and hopefully get a full pass out of the car. We put about 40 miles on the car driving it around and it really did really well

Murray's guy did a fantastic job with the detail. I can't believe the paint on the car survived the build. It had a ton of scratches in it mostly from us working on it, dragging hoses and cords in and out of it etc. We somehow aviod any major damage but it was in need a of serious paint correction. While this wasn't a full paint correction he did do a good job and took car of the bulk of the majority of it.

 

[turbobuick]

We flew back Tues evening and returned Friday morning for the Cadillac Attack. Murrary met us at the track with the car and trailer and we got there pretty early as racing did not start till noon. They had a Sick shootout class for SIck Week racers and were supposed to have 3 qualifying runs. We had some time so I decided to start tuning the bump button which we were going to need for this event. Sick week imposes a 1 sec rule on reaction times. If you go over 1 sec you get time added to your time slip, so it takes us 2 sec to the chip and 2 more to 10psi so I obviously need to start that process in the pre-stage and use the bump in option. They didn't have bump buttons or they were just coming out when I last raced so I was excited to try it out. I was on a pit road testing it and things were going well, I made 2 hits on it and then the trans line blew apart and I am lucky the car didn't catch on fire. What a mess, we drug the car back to the trailer and went to work fixing the mess.

The exhaust comes down pretty close the discharge line for the TQ conv and there is a turn down on the end of it so the heat from the TQ on the brake and the exhaust from the downpipe along with exhaust bouncing off the ground was just to much for the AN lines I used. We got creative and were able to cut the lines and shorten them and wrapped everything with DEI heat wrap and tape we sourced from Advanced Auto. We finished in time to make the final round of qualifying for the Sick Shootout and I roll up lanes and of course it was with all the top guys. The smoking is better at this point but the #3 plug still looks like crap so we just swapping it out for a clean on prior to the run. I got up to staging it went well bumped in let go and instant spin and a ton of smoke, I pedal some and the car starts to move then its like on ice so I lift and look in the rearview mirror and see all smoke. I did pull over but was at 3/4 track and I just oiled down the rest of it as the trans line blew again. We hung our heads loaded the car and went back to the room after that as the day was over.

FYI We plans of finishing this as a full exhaust over the axle with exit in stock locations, maybe even for BG this year.

The next day we thought we were done, we need new lines and high temp PTFE lines at that to make matters worse it was Saturday. Even if I ordered something for overnight we wouldn't have it till Tuesday. There are a ton of performance shops in Florida and we started calling all of them early with no luck. We decided to just loop the line and bypass the cooler for Tech day and the 1st day but without lines and a cooler we were screwed for the drive.

My buddy Justin was on the road to OSW and looking stuff up for us and found us a local shop in Orlando JDM Express. They were right down the road and had everything we needed in stock to fix the car. These guys were awesome and even helped us assemble the lines at their shop. We were able to get the car back together but missed the 1st run for the Sick week class. Since I didn't have a pass on the car at this point and not in the any shape to do a shootout with the likes of Jeff Lutz, Steve Morris, Devin, and gang I decided to switch to TnT and wait for the next round. Well it never came, there were multiple oil downs on the track and by 830 that evening we just called it. We had to be at the track 1st thing to change the car over and get ready for the tech inspection which can take all day if you don't get in line early. We still don't have a pass on the car yet and have spent 5 days in Florida working on it with 3 days at the track!

Next up SIck Week with a completely untested car! This will go well lol!

 

[mrtris]

thanks for the read

 

[Peacock]

We flew back Tues evening and returned Friday morning for the Cadillac Attack. Murrary met us at the track with the car and trailer and we got there pretty early as racing did not start till noon. They had a Sick shootout class for SIck Week racers and were supposed to have 3 qualifying runs. We had some time so I decided to start tuning the bump button which we were going to need for this event. Sick week imposes a 1 sec rule on reaction times. If you go over 1 sec you get time added to your time slip, so it takes us 2 sec to the chip and 2 more to 10psi so I obviously need to start that process in the pre-stage and use the bump in option. They didn't have bump buttons or they were just coming out when I last raced so I was excited to try it out. I was on a pit road testing it and things were going well, I made 2 hits on it and then the trans line blew apart and I am lucky the car didn't catch on fire. What a mess, we drug the car back to the trailer and went to work fixing the mess.

The exhaust comes down pretty close the discharge line for the TQ conv and there is a turn down on the end of it so the heat from the TQ on the brake and the exhaust from the downpipe along with exhaust bouncing off the ground was just to much for the AN lines I used. We got creative and were able to cut the lines and shorten them and wrapped everything with DEI heat wrap and tape we sourced from Advanced Auto. We finished in time to make the final round of qualifying for the Sick Shootout and I roll up lanes and of course it was with all the top guys. The smoking is better at this point but the #3 plug still looks like crap so we just swapping it out for a clean on prior to the run. I got up to staging it went well bumped in let go and instant spin and a ton of smoke, I pedal some and the car starts to move then its like on ice so I lift and look in the rearview mirror and see all smoke. I did pull over but was at 3/4 track and I just oiled down the rest of it as the trans line blew again. We hung our heads loaded the car and went back to the room after that as the day was over.
View attachment 397675
FYI We plans of finishing this as a full exhaust over the axle with exit in stock locations, maybe even for BG this year.

The next day we thought we were done, we need new lines and high temp PTFE lines at that to make matters worse it was Saturday. Even if I ordered something for overnight we wouldn't have it till Tuesday. There are a ton of performance shops in Florida and we started calling all of them early with no luck. We decided to just loop the line and bypass the cooler for Tech day and the 1st day but without lines and a cooler we were screwed for the drive.

My buddy Justin was on the road to OSW and looking stuff up for us and found us a local shop in Orlando JDM Express. They were right down the road and had everything we needed in stock to fix the car. These guys were awesome and even helped us assemble the lines at their shop. We were able to get the car back together but missed the 1st run for the Sick week class. Since I didn't have a pass on the car at this point and not in the any shape to do a shootout with the likes of Jeff Lutz, Steve Morris, Devin, and gang I decided to switch to TnT and wait for the next round. Well it never came, there were multiple oil downs on the track and by 830 that evening we just called it. We had to be at the track 1st thing to change the car over and get ready for the tech inspection which can take all day if you don't get in line early. We still don't have a pass on the car yet and have spent 5 days in Florida working on it with 3 days at the track!

Next up SIck Week with a completely untested car! This will go well lol!

Hey Chris. Met you and Ray at OSW. I was across the road in the grass pits from you with my buddies in the green 4 door Nova. We ran Sick Week.

Killer build on the car!! New build blues for sure but great looking car that I’m sure will perform once the bugs are worked out.