new best time...

[ryan george]

Ok, the time and the mph were great, but...I think after owning this car for 20+ years I finally blew a headgasket. Brian L has really had me itching to get to the track (I typically only go a couple times a year anymore), watching what he is doing to his nephew's car. So, cool day, last track day at Dragway 42 for the season, and no rain. I was set. Did a couple test runs over the past couple of weeks that have been really smooth. My wideband has seemed to come on a little slow lately, and was fluctuating more than usual during normal cruise, but figured it was something I'd replace over the winter (mistake #1). Tested the alkycontrol on the way of the drive. It took much longer than normal to go green, but went green (mistake #2). So I get to the track and they are running behind, so I have wait about a 1/2 hour. Finally, time to go. Car stalls 4 times, very abnormal (mistake #3), then starts and ready to go. Wideband a little slow, but comes up. Get into the staging lanes and I know I pushed the alky test but don't remember if it went green, car was bogging down so I went. Nice easy burnout Blew a new Challenger away off the line, was trying to watch the track and the scanmaster at the same time. Saw most of the way down I was getting some knock, but only look like 1.4 degrees at a glance. Next look was to look back at the competition. He was left in the dust, but I've got this big trail of smoke following me. Oh shit. Running rough once I made the turnoff. Got my slip and had my best time and mph, 11.60 @ 118.4, but knew I was done for the day. Shut it down, popped the hood, and oil everywhere on the drivers side, but no coolant in the oil in looking at the dipstick. Damn. Luckily was able to limp it home, but blowing a good bit of smoke under any load. Looked at my log and my wideband was dead the entire run. Looked at my knr and it was at 0 till I hit 106 mph, then as high as 14 degrees. Alky kit was put in last year, and I know it has < 500 miles on it, and only a couple of track passes. What a bummer.

 

[forcefed3.8's]

Congrats. MPH is looking good. How much boost?

 

[ryan george]

Thanks. 26-27 psi. Now I need to figure out what's broken and how to fix it. Kinda bummed.

 

[HUMBLE-U2]

its a learning curve you will get use to it.

 

[hiboom]

Sounds like your alternator was getting ready to take a dump thus the slow reading of the wide band and alky controller reaction and the car dyeing

 

[ryan george]

its a learning curve you will get use to it.

Thx...made it 22+ years.

Sounds like your alternator was getting ready to take a dump thus the slow reading of the wide band and alky controller reaction and the car dyeing

Hadn't thought of that, thx.

 

[Limited87]

Ryan sorry to hear you had problems. From what you explained to me at Norwalk the car was doing it sounds like it was running out of octane and to much timing in 3rd gear. Cold day like Sunday only magnified things. Message me if you need any help.

 

[ryan george]

I think Norwalk was user error. After the run, I noticed that I accidentally had the manual torque converter lockup switch turned on the entire run. I was nervous. After I got the car home I made several runs to over 100 with no knock. I was a little concerned with the narrow band O2's around 700 on my runs around home (wideband was below 11.0) so I added a little fuel thru the chip to the top end. Due to the cool temps, I was running about 2 lbs more boost than was registering on the street. Timing on top was 19.8 per my powerlogger.

This may be the time to consider upgrades (wife is saying to just do it). I've never worked inside an engine before, so I will definitely be needing help. Thx.