Raced at Englishtown on hottest day of the year

[murphster]

Well, wednesdays are pretty much the only days I can get down to the track for some runs and lately most wednesdays have been pretty poor weather, even got rained on while in the staging lanes a month ago. Yesterday was the hottest day of the year and probably the hottest day I've ever driven the T (bought it in December).

Car hasn't been running the coolest lately and I'm waiting on dual ramcharger fans and some RMI 125. I think it was around 92 degrees outside on my ride to the track. My temp readings went up over 200 to around 205 or so, without even stomping on it. I figured maybe I'd get some cool down time to help, but I wanted to put a run in fairly quick. Once I started up and waited in the staging lane temp rose back up over 200.

I have ET Streets but decided to leave the Nittos on just to see what I could do with them. Bad choice. I'm running 275/60's so I thought maybe I'd get some bite.

I'm running 100 octane with a 100 octane chip from Turbotweak I just got last week. Timing is 23* and 21* in 3rd. Running about 20lbs of boost at high fuel pressure (48psi) due to leaning out in 3rd with small injectors. Stock turbo, stock intercooler with dutt neck and stock replacement 30lb green stripe injectors.

I did 3 total runs. First run I left with 5psi and spun about 20ft before letting off enough to get traction. Second run I left with no boost but loaded up enough so I was just about building boost. Still spun and had to let off a little. Finally on the third run I left with only a little throttle and only spun a little. Best run was 13.02 at 104mph with a 2.01 60ft.

Looking at my Turbolink data afterwards, my O2 readings were good even with the high fuel pressure. Still leaning out at the end of the run to lower 700's, but not too bad. Didn't see any knock in any of the runs on my knock gauge or Turbolink.

Most of the people I talked to said they were down about .4sec and 4mph from normal due to the very hot conditions. My temp gauge said I was up to 210 degrees after staging and Turbolink agreed with 205-215 readings during the run. Intake temp was around 140 dropping to about 105 by the end of the run. Can you say heat saturation?

Full run data as follows:
R/T 0.242
60' 2.01
330 5.44
1/8 8.33 85.6mph
1/4 13.02 104.0mph

I only gained 18mph in the 1/8 to 1/4. Top end was crap due to the heat. No knock though. Probably could have turned up the boost a little more but I was scared of seeing knock in 3rd.

Considering all this, I'd say I'm pretty much where I should be. Not bad that I can almost touch 12's on my street setup with stock everything in the worst conditions at 20 lbs boost. I figure at 22 lbs boost in cool conditions I could maybe touch 12.5/12.6's on the Nittos and low 12's on slicks and some 1.6/1.7 60' times. It will take race gas and a race chip to touch 11's, but I don't know if I'll risk it with the small injectors. Most of my tuning has been on cool nights around high 60's/low70's. Heat made a huge difference and I doubt I'll go again on such a hot day.

 

[Eric Stage I]

Scott,

You should know that with the coolant temp at 210º, the chip would have automatically pulled 2-2.5º of timing to keep things safe. The coolant needs to be under 195º to get full timing. Conversely, if the coolant drops under 165º, more timing will be added. I can remove the coolant timing compensation if you want.

So, you did pretty well considering the lower timing!

Regards,
Eric

 

[murphster]

Well, that explains why I didn't see any knock. I was expecting to see knock at the end of the run in this heat and kept my eye on the knock gauge.

First thing is I want to be safe so I'm glad the coolant timing compensation is there! I'm hoping after the dual fans and coolant flush with RMI 125 that my temps will come down and I won't have to worry about it. Maybe I need to put a fan switch in also.

Now I know that my car doesn't lean out with 18.5-19º timing in 3rd. It still may with 21º though.

Now I feel better about my times and everything seems to be running great. Eric, chip is great and thanks for the info.

 

[Slow91z]

What thermostat do you have in that car, and at what temp does the fan turn on?? Does it cool down on the highway or does it get hot then also?? If it gets hot on the highway then fans won't help you, you need a thermostat or radiator. Just a thought.

 

[murphster]

I have a 160º thermostat and it gets cooler while going down the road. Problem was sitting in the staging lanes and watching the temp rise in the 92 degree heat. Not sure at what temp the fan turns on but yesterday is was on and not helping much.

I am also running an underdrive pulley which hurts the water pump so I expect it to run a little hotter, also combined with a large tranny cooler blocking part of the radiator.

I will try the dual fans and flushing it out first, leaving a bigger radiator as the last thing. I may also change over to distilled water for a couple months. I usually run about 185º lately in recent 70-80's degree weather. My gauge may read a little high so I may only be running high 170's to 180º, which in that weather I think would be normal with the underdrive pulley and tranny cooler. Yesterday was the first time I ever saw it go over 200º.

 

[Slow91z]

Have you removed your resistor so that the fan runs on High everytime it's on?? Otherwise it won't come on high unless the AC's on or the high temp switch is activated (which I think is like 230* or something stupid).

My car would get hot just like yours sitting still, and removing the resistor helped a bunch.

 

[murphster]

Just got my ramchargers dual fan with harness today. I believe its wired so it runs on high speed all the time.

 

[NEARING]

Did you ever try to make any passes with the "mystery chip" that was in it?

 

[murphster]

The "mystery chip" definitely runs fast. Problem was that I kept getting knock at the end of 3rd gear. Only went away when I bumped up the fuel pressure up to 50psi and lowered the boost to less than 20. I figure this happens because of a lean condition with the smaller injectors (they are 30lb green stripes, not blue tops!-found out after some research when the Thrasher chips wouldn't run right.)

With the turbotweak chip with 21* timing in 3rd, I can run 48psi fuel pressure and 20lbs of boost without knock on 100 octane. Top end pulls alot harder since there is no knock. I will probably play with this for a while and then get bigger injectors and new exhaust with a THDP. Figure that stock elbow doesn't help, along with the flowmasters. I figure 11's will be no problem with that combo, and I may upgrade the rear suspension more to get some very low 60 foots. That would be more than enough for my goals.

Also, the turbotweak chip idles a lot better and got rid of the rough driving with the high stall convertor. Car is nice and smooth.

 

[NEARING]

I think I was running around 105 octane and 20 psi with that chip and it was only around 70 deg out.

Think it was a low 1.7 60ft if I remember right.

It was a fast car for the amount of mods it had

 

[galoush]

I put a new CPT65 on my car Thur which was hot as hell and Humid , it felt dogged . Went out last night 67degs and it felt really REALLY GOOD . If my memory serves correct werent there a few years ago when they had the Mustang Vs. GNs at E town the GNs fell on their faces with 10 sec cars running 11s, 11sec cars running 12 and so on .

 

[murphster]

I'm putting in a new radiator from Nick Micale also. After my coolant flush and putting in my distilled water (before the dual fans install), the car still seemed like it was running too hot.

Got the fans in and they definitely help, but I should have been running cooler than I was so I decided to go all the way with the new radiator. Figure I should be running no more than 180 on a hot day now, we'll see.

If the weather is good, I'm hoping for some new times Wednesday. I'm debating whether I should try the Nittos one more time just to see what I can do before I put the slicks on. I'd love to cut a 1.9x and some mid-12's with the Nittos.

I'm going to try a new combo with the Turbotweak chip also, a little higher timing in 1st and 2nd and less in 3rd. I'm tuning to get 22lbs boost on 100 Octane for a whole run. If I get some knock I can either drop the boost a little, add a lb or two more fuel pressure, or add some C16 and see what happens.

 

[salvageV6]

You should be able to cut a 1.9 at Englishtown with the Nittos, it's a real track usually with great prep.

Only place so far I've been able to get a 1.9 on Nittos.

1.87 to be exact.

Gotta look into a dual fan kit for my GN also.