My biggest TR scare to date

[BlackMetal]

Took my friend out on the expressway to enjoy the new alky kit. Hit it going down the on-ramp, ran like a beast, keeps pulling and pulling, zero knock. Got stuck behind a van, went to pass him and hit it again, accelerating...accelerating, BOOOOOM. Luckily I see no lower-end parts skidding down the expressway behind me.

Car's stumbling, hit the gas and it barely responds, luckily had enough momentum to climb the uphill off-ramp. Limp back to my house a few blocks away, pop the hood, find the up-pipe no longer connected to the throttle body. RELIEF.

Gooood lord, in the 2 minutes that it took to get back to my driveway, I can't even tell you all the things that ran through my head.

Haven't even turned up the boost yet, but the car is running like mad at 16lbs, enough to finally teach me why regular hose clamps are not good enough.

I'll gladly shell out the money for T-bar clamps now, considering I was worried that I'd be paying for headgaskets or a rebuild. :redface:

Hopefully nothing else went wrong when the hose blew off. After hooking it back up and finding that it ran fine, I only drove it into the garage.

 

[TWISTER]

Did the same thing a few years back. Thought all the same as you did. Man what a relief. Then I ordered the t bar clamps and hoses. Still have a set if your interested Ill look them up. PM me if you need em.

 

[Quick6'n'-K.C.]

HAHA, same thing happened to me at the track last year, BOOOOOM!

Little brake clean or gas on the ic hose and i was making a few more good passes that day!


BW

 

[8UWITH6]

I have never had that happen, honestly Glad your cars okay!

 

[at7we2]

been there...

yup, had the exact same thing happen to me right after I did some "tweaking" in my GN about a year ago. I had taken it out for a little back-road test and tune. On my way back to the house a black Viper decided he wanted to play. I figured I was out-gunned, but I thought I'd give it a go. Well...I stabbed throttle and I think at about 15-16 lbs. of boost I heard the same "BOOM" (more of a "BOOOF" actually) and I was sure I tore up some hard parts. What a relief to pop the hood and the up-pipe had blown off. Guy in the Viper was probably proud of himself though.

 

[Billdogg]

Me too. Happened at the track. I started to get over to the side, but didn't see anything leaking so I limped it to the return road and back to the pits. It was one helluva noise!

 

[86gngirl]

Did the same thing last summer. Sounds like a pop bottle with a cap on getting run over and blowing the cap off. Scared the crap out of me. Now things are fixed so it wont happen again, knock on wood.

 

[BlackMetal]

Did the same thing last summer. Sounds like a pop bottle with a cap on getting run over and blowing the cap off.

Yeah that's a good way to describe it. Funny thing is I've been chasing down a miss/backfire problem and I just changed the coil today and it ended up solving the problem. Then when I heard this POP I thought crap...the misfire is worse than ever.

 

[TT/Ameasap]

Had that happen to me few years ago. That is really scary!!

I also put the clamp screws on the throttle side of the up pipe and had the throttle stick on me! Luckly I was reving it in the driveway when it happend and shut it off quickly!! I crapped on that one!!! Lots of things run through your mind of what could have happened.

Glad it was just your hose!!

 

[jurassic five 7]

I've never had it happen to me either, with regular hoses, and regular clamps on, and 28 psi, i havent had a inlet hose or pipe blow off yet. I've been worried about it before.....maybe someday soon i will get the T-bar clamps.

 

[BlackMetal]

I'm glad I didn't need to use the bathroom at the time. I thought I screwed up big time.

 

[Buger99]

I kind of had the samething happen to my car but I wasn't driving my girlfriend was. So I get a call and the first words were I wasn't racing and the car wont start.I thought it was funny but she didn't.

 

[turbofabricator]

Those kind of situations are always FUN (after you find out it was something simple) The scariest I ever was in a TR, was when at a HIGH rate of speed, and I mean HIGH (can't say as I do NOT condone driving faster than the posted speed limit ) I stepped on the brake pedal and it did NOTHING!!! and I was heading for a sharp turning bridge. Well, the Power Master finally slowed the car to a managable speed and I went skidding all the way around the bridge (rather drifting it all the way). I got home and IMMEDIATLEY pulled the PM system and installed vacuum brakes. That was 16-17 or so years ago. I HATE Power Master brakes!!! I now use manual brakes. The best braking I have ever used on a street car.

 

[TR Custom Parts]

T-bar clamps and a little hairspray on the inside of the connectors and the hoses won't blow off. Was trial fitting some new cold air parts lately and wanted to take my up pipe off and it was actually a struggle to break it loose.

 

[GNTIM]

Mine blew off a 21 psi and dented the hood, It has a tumor now.

 

[tommynos]

Took my friend out on the expressway to enjoy the new alky kit. Hit it going down the on-ramp, ran like a beast, keeps pulling and pulling, zero knock. Got stuck behind a van, went to pass him and hit it again, accelerating...accelerating, BOOOOOM. Luckily I see no lower-end parts skidding down the expressway behind me.

Car's stumbling, hit the gas and it barely responds, luckily had enough momentum to climb the uphill off-ramp. Limp back to my house a few blocks away, pop the hood, find the up-pipe no longer connected to the throttle body. RELIEF.

Gooood lord, in the 2 minutes that it took to get back to my driveway, I can't even tell you all the things that ran through my head.

Haven't even turned up the boost yet, but the car is running like mad at 16lbs, enough to finally teach me why regular hose clamps are not good enough.

I'll gladly shell out the money for T-bar clamps now, considering I was worried that I'd be paying for headgaskets or a rebuild. :redface:

Hopefully nothing else went wrong when the hose blew off. After hooking it back up and finding that it ran fine, I only drove it into the garage.

common problem,did it to me and Julio when we took my gn out on the interstate to test out the new alky kit he put on.....scared the crap out of me,i jumped and was worried....he knew what it was,thats when you hope you have a dime.....

 

[madhat]

I did that when I was trying out a new cold air kit, luckly only a block from the house

 

[supercoupe5]

i had that happen to me on a differant turbo car when the guy that wanted to buy the engine was test driving it. figured it out and sold the engine and all was good.

 

[dvernst]

Happened to me too. the worst part is the way it runs afterwards. It makes you not want to pop the hood. Glad to hear that's all it was.

 

[RUQWKNF]

Here are my 4 scariest moments.

In all my years of racing Turbo Buicks, I've had 4 that really scared me.

1. In '97 I was out at one of our spots getting ready to run Widow Makers 87 Mustang convertible with a homemade N2O kit with no jets. At this time, the Gray car (RU) was running 11.30 ish and I had 26x10 slicks on 15x10 rims. I did my usual good VHT 100ft burn out, backed up in the tracks and everything. In retrospect, we really should not have been running that night cause it was cold and the cars were just starting to get damp with condensation. So I knew going into this one that I might have to test my driving skillz. We line up, it's a heads up race, I'm in the right lane, Mudstang is in the left. We leave together, my car hooks decently on a 6psi foot brake launch. (1st real bolt on combo, TE63-1 .63 A/R on 27psi with an Art Carr 9" 16930 3500 flash stall, 009 injectors, Lubrant race chip, external fuel pump with bigger feed and return lines, EP 214/204 cam, stock heads with valve springs, EP FM IC, 3" dp w/ external wg, 70mm plenum and t-body) Welp, I immediately start pulling away hard putting about 2 cars on him in the first 100 ft. This is when things get interesting, I'm now out of the rubber I laid down and the car is starting to spin slightly, just enough to let the right rear slick start to get in the gravel. Oh boy!!!! I had to use some driving skillz to save it on that one, and I never lifted. I wound up beating him by about 3 cars sliding all over the street. Everyone there was like, man we all knew you were going to loose it when you started spinning. Good save. I got lucky on that one. I really think RU saved me tho. No money bet, just another pride/rep race.

2. In '98 I was headed over to a race spot, getting ready to race a 10 second Nova in my White '87 Limited that was running very low 11's on the street. I took the back way so I could verify my O2's and boost level as I had just turned up the boost to 30#s. Although I didn't have any money on the race, I knew I had some friends that were making some sizeable side bets. So, I'm alone, headed over to the spot, I hit it on a straight away back road, boost goes up to 30 and the car is making a move. BOOOMMMM WAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!! Ting Ting Ting..... I lift, immediately pull over and start thinking WTF? Did I just become the newest member of the DOTC club or what? No oil leaking, nothing was wrong, O2's were perfect and no knock. (.740s & zero knock) That's when I start to listen and notice that the exhaust note was very loud. So I shut it off and sure enough, the downpipe blew off of the test pipe and the test pipe was bouncing on the road when I was slowing down. So I did what any self respecting street racer would do when his reputation is on the line with a big race. I grabbed my green bottle of race gas for humans (Mt Dew of course) poured it's ice cold contents on the downpipe/testpipe to cool it off, used a rag and re-installed it. As I was struggling with the pipe, V6RACER (Jason White) comes pulling up asking me, What happened? We saw sparks. I told him what happened and we both laughed. He helped me put it back together too. Anywho, made it to the top of the hill, ready to race, The SBC Nitrous inhaling trailered so call street car '70 Nova does his pathetic burn out, and I do a John Force VHT only burn out which completely whites out the entire street. As I'm backing up, the guy chickens out and says no race, my car is overheating. I'm like whatever, take that trailer car back home. I still made a solo pass, you know, just to see how the tune was at 30#s.

3. In 2000 a friend of Todd Wynnes wanted me to take his 87 T around the block and kinda give it a quick tune with fuel pressure and a Scanmaster. He said the car was making a funny noise but to go ahead and run it to see if I can figure out what's what. So I jump in, and head around the back street straight away. He said the boost was at 18, I hammer it in 2nd, boost comes on, cars running good, pulling hard. Then all of a sudden I hear this really fast sounding fsssss fsssss fsssss ting ting ting BOOM!!!! Oh great!! I just blew up Bubbas car. He's gonna kill me. I make it back to the shop, pull the hood and immediately notice that the new MAF pipe that he just installed was too close to the alternator fan blade and under boost, it came into contact and the alternator fan blade exploded. It shot pieces of shrapnel and blade through the hood!!! To his credit and my safety, Bubba was really a nice guy about it, and I am thankful he was cool. I just knew I had blown his car up.

4. This one scared me the most. Bowling Green 2000, I'm racing in TSE class with RU, actually struggling to race is more like it. This was the first year that they allowed Stage motors in TSE, and I was the lone sole who brought a knife to a gun fight with a 109 girdled 235 motor with iron heads and a flat tappet cam. I'm on my second qualifying pass and it's getting late, the car was struggling to run 10.90s and on this pass, as I was going through the traps, I start to feel the rear end sliding away going through the beams headed for the wall. I lift and know immediately what is going on. It was as if the car was telling me what was wrong and how to avoid crashing. I lift and smash the brakes as hard as I can to get stopped. She slid around a little bit and came to a semi controlled stop.
I look back and see white smoke and smell burnt trans fluid. I limp her back to the pits and trans fluid is pouring out of my cobbled together trans cooler lines. AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! Well, I fix the lines and wipe all the trans fluid up and keep on racing. But that one really scared me the most. The trans lines leaked on to the tires at the finish line and we were in for a ride. It was a 10.96 @ 123 pass. Again, RU saved me.

Ok, sorry to ramble on, but reading this thread made all those memories come flooding back. Lessons of the day? Don't street race. (if you can help it) Don't skimp on trans cooler lines. Don't test anyone elses' car no matter how hard they try to goad you into it. And if you do decide to run on the street, don't do it on a cold night with condensation on the windows. That's a sign from above that it's time to go home. I've got more horror stories that my friends have had happen to them and their Buicks, but that's for later.
Thanks for letting me share.

Patrick