Heartland Park is the start. I was kidding. I actually bought a trailer to bring my car here and will trailer to Topeka. Hopefully work will cooperate and the car will be ready. It needs a couple things including a cert sticker and I will need a comp license to be able to turn up the wick too much.

 

If you wanna make a road trip Shaun, I'll help you with the tune
We can make a few passes, or throw it on the dyno and make it perfect.

 

Now you know I'm taking you up on that!

Got the interior done and the exhaust completed. I can't believe how quiet it is, at least at idle. Should be driving it around next weekend. I'm out of town for the week so I won't be able to work on it at all until Friday afternoon.

 

Anything to report? I am headed out to work on my F150/Explorer 8.8 project. I ended up going with Moser stuff because they seemed to be more helpful with 8.8 tech. I plan on getting on pics of the process and posting it on my build page.

 

Yeah I have the exhaust complete out to the tails. It's really quiet. I'm surprised by it. I'm still working on the idle tune right now. I've narrowed it down to a bad idle valve. Gonna clean it today to see if it helps. If not, I'll have to pony up the $60 to grab a new one.

 

Ended up doing a lot more work than I thought this weekend. Turns out the idle valve was fine. I spliced in a flyback diode into the IAC wiring, but that didn't help. Rob (huafist) and I looked at the board and confirmed the PWM idle circuit was wired correctly. It was so now we're stumped. I will leave it unhooked until we get it figured out.

Took the first ride in it this evening. Went real easy since the tune is still pretty rough. Didn't get out of vacuum or first gear for that matter. Just cruised the neighborhood to be sure all the critical items were addressed; like brakes, leakage, etc. I'll roll into it a little more this week once I get a chance to check the log and tweak accordingly. The front end needs an alignment before I go much further. All in all I'm pleased so far.

 

Got the emissions exhaust fabbed up (with cats) and installed this weekend. Did a few other touch ups here and there. Decided to create an emissions tune and leaned out the idle and cruise a little more and retarded the timing quite a bit. Idles between 14.0 - 14.7 with timing between 10.6* - 11.3*. I need to turn up the thermostat on the fan so it kicks on at about 195 versus 180. It idles in the high 170s as it sits. Hopefully those changes and a bottle of HEET will get me passed the sniffer.

Took it out for a lengthy cruise after I got everything together to allow VE Analyzier Live do it's thing. Got into boost for the first time and man o man was it sweet. In 2nd gear, rolling into the throttle somewhat aggressively, the tires broke loose. Pretty sure I wasn't at 50% throttle either.

I still have a couple of minor issues to hammer out, but I'm certain I'll make it to the track soon.

 

Finally have something worth updating about. I ran the car through emissions testing back on 8/30 and failed HC's 258 actual - 220 allowed. Changed up my tune a little bit, ran 10* locked timing, 87 octane and 1 bottle of Iso-HEET (red). Car passed with 0.0 on CO and 212 on HC's. Keep in mind, this is with an F303 cam and 83# injectors and no EGR or smog pump. I run a single 3.5" DP to dual 3" exhaust with 2 cats out to 3" tailpipes. I can finally drive it legally. Very happy about that.

Had a chance to take it out on a back road and play a little. Rob (haufist) helped me identify some noise issues and did it ever help. Combo hits 5psi pretty quick and holds it at 4psi. Once I get more confident in the tune, I'll tune the boost up. To this point, I haven't found enough road to test WOT safety.

 

just curious, what were the symtoms of your noise issues? and how did you fix them?

 

I had detonation that I couldn't track down at a TPS/Load area where detonation shouldn't be an issue. Took a datalog and noticed right away that anytime I rolled on the throttle and got about/above 35-40% TPS and MAP to about 75-80 the car would start to ping. My timing was set conservatively at 28* (I think) and the WBO2 gauge read 13.7-14.1 as I commanded via the table. However, the log showed RPM (8500), DutyCycle (40s) and PW spykes during these times. At this point I didn't have the Noise filter turned on in MS2. I shipped the MSQ and datalog to Rob and he confirmed it as noise. Turned the noise filter on and drove it around for a few minutes. Started getting back in the throttle and it was gone. It seemed like it had to learn the noise patterns because it didn't cure completely until the second or third pull. But then again, I was running VE Live at the time too. It may have applied a tweak that it couldn't do before because of the noise.

Hope this helps.

 

Finally got to tune the top end a little bit on Saturday night. I went out to the interstate and hammered on it from 2nd to about 4500rpm in 3rd. The gate held 6psi on the dot according to the gauge. My afr was a little fat at 11.3 - 11.8 and timing ranged between 14* - 15*. I'm keeping things conservative until I get my VE table dialed in.

Now the bad. The 6psi run was fine except I had the electronic boost control set to 10psi. There's my first issue. But even worse, I noticed my voltage tanks from 13.8 to 11.2v anytime I pull passed 2700rpm. I'm pretty sure my alternator is shot. I'll pick another one up today (at $150 )

I'm hoping to make it to the track this weekend. At this point there's no reason why I shouldn't make unless the weather turns to crap.

Here's an updated pic of the motor.

 

Looking good,how about a few more pics of the car.

 

The car's interior is still torn apart at the moment. I haven't committed to a locate for my MegaSquirt box and the fuse panel. I have a few things left to do before I can throw it together completely. Also, the exterior is shot. The top is wasted and the paint is garbage. Believe me, this car is nothing to look at right now.

On the up side, I am taking it to the track this Friday for test and tune. Hopefully I'll get some good seat time and dial in my tune a little better on the top end.

 

Good luck tomorrow, hope to see some solid numbers!

 

I may get mine out next Friday. Are you going to the hill?

 

Loved reading the whole thread today! Made my lunch break even more enjoyable

 

Thanks Chris!

Brian - I'm headed to Buffalo Valley. My father-in-law is as excited as I am to see it run. Let me know when you get back into town. We can head to whatever track is good for you. Hopefully I'll have the tune close enough to hang with you.

Thanks maverick75. Happy to be of service.

 

Well, for the first time out since last year and only the 2nd time with this car, I think it went pretty well. I loaded up the slicks, floor jack, tool box and misc. gear in the car and drove 45 minutes to the track. Changed to slicks, beat on it for 10 - 15 passes, changed back to street tires, loaded everything back up and drove home without the slightest hiccup. Considering I broke on the 4th pass last year, that was an accomplishment on it's own.

Now to the good stuff. My 1st - 4th passes were not all out passes. I wanted to see how it was going to react. I logged the 3rd through 8th passes and got some good data before both batteries for my laptop crapped out.

"Off the trailer" so to speak, it ran 8.32 @ 85.xx. Most of the night was me trying to get use to the car. Prior to the one outing I had last year, I haven't been to the drag strip since 1998. Needless to say I'm rusty.

Here's what I ended up with by the time they closed the track... and yes I was the last car there:

Reaction = .7819 (not a concern right now)
60' = 1.8491 (best of the night was 1.77xx)
330' = No time
594' = 7.4122
1/8 = 7.922
MPH = 88.23

The tune is set conservative with WOT timing @ 14.8* and the gauge showed 11.8 - 12.1 while running a whopping 4-5psi on the gate. I have the rev limiter to 5800rpm.

Most of the time I found myself NOT putting the peddle to the floor, shifting early, holding the launch control button after launch or banging off the rev limiter in 1st and 2nd gears. Again, just getting use to the car. I think its got a lot left in it. I just need to get more seat time. I'm going back next Friday. I may turn the boost up just a tad so I can tune that area of my VE Table.

I'm pleased with the car so far. I just need to work on the driver.

 

I think that is great! Get your sea legs back with the car and you will be rolling

Can't wait to 15lbs of boost on that 80mm :vid:

 

At first I was thinking this isn't that good, since I have seen a Dodge Neon with the same times with just a stage 3 kit, and slicks, but then I noticed you weren't flooring it, and boost was only at 4 to 5psi. I too would like to see what it runs at 15 or more for that matter. Good deal not breaking anything. Thats my biggest fear of finishing and going out to run it at the track for the first time.