We ran the National Open at Sacramento Raceway this weekend. new weather station, new oil pump, new alignment woohoo, this should be fun. Another way long race weekend for sure. Friday T&T was a joke, 30 mph winds and a new weather station, plus a starter, who was I think trying to throw the lite to test his reaction times. He threw me the lite twice as soon as I got the second bulb lit. Of course the racer in me is letting go of the button as soon as I see yellow, forget that I have not even got the converter yet, oh well. Different tree every pass, .500 full, .400 pro, .500 pro...Blah Blah Blah. Anyway on the last pass Friday night we had a previously placed vacuum fitting break off of the valley plate, weld was just not real good and vibrated loose on our last pass. So had to tear the intake and valley plate off to have the kid take it home and weld it up...Grrrrr. So about 10:30pm we get it back on and everyone around us was asleep so did not fire it til the next morning. Also had a strange issue on the last pass where the car picked up .10 in the 60', hmmmm. Only good news was I finally got a 160mph(wind aided of course ,crosstail) pass out of my heap. So I can scratch that off the to do list...

Saturday morning we fire the car, ruh roh...Got no vacuum, and a little oil leak. Seems when welding up the plate, in the haste to get it done it got a little hot and warped. We tried to seal it as best we could the previous evning but apparently not good enough. Sooo off goes the intake again. We find the issue and get it handled. Fire it up, vroom, vroom, vroom....Apparently the intake gasket did not like coming on and off, so off comes the intake again. We get it all sealed up with silicone, hate the stuff but we did not have a spare gasket with us, and my heads are a bit unique. Fire it up and better but now no vacuum So I fire it up again and my son hears a little ticking sound, come to find out in our haste to get it done we had twisted the vac pick up baffle taking it on and off and it was not exactly centered and was hitting a rocker, which broke the o-ring so no vacuum Anyway get all that settled and made three qualifying passes. First shot was a 10.902 at 159 and change, woohoo we are #1, next round we got bumped to #2 by a 10.900, but we managed a 10.895. Round three, let go of the button, think man shouldn't the car be moving...Hmmmmm...Well it finally does and rewards me with a .200 lite, a 60' that was .10 quick and the car went 10.80. Houston we seem to have a problem. Once again mysteriously the car picks up .010 in the 60' Not sure what is causing it. I was beginning to think I have a converter issue but it sure is random, but it did do it both times after three passes. Maybe a heat thing But I am not about to let it stop me, nor am I going to pull the tranny and put in another converter.

Anyway on to today. We get one time/qualifying shot. I pull up do my thing and go .005- and run a 10.905. Woohoo we look like we know what we are doing, sort of. So next up is round one. We were laddered for some reason based on qualifying and I get a guy I have lined up against twice in qualifying. I go .011 and run 10.909, round one out of the way, whew. Round two I get a local guy who I probably owe soemthing to. He seems to redlight against me always, also I seem to have some issue whenever I race him and have a poor showing. Well lady luck here we come. He went .015 red...Me well remember that mysterious picking up in the 60' and having a horrid reaction time, well guess what it happened again. I was .206 and the car went 10.77 picking up .13 in the 60', but thanks to his generosity I am still alive. We figured we were done. Although we had not run the car after the last two incindents of picking up in the 60'. They were both on the last pass of the day, and frankly this one should have been too. Well that issue did not arise again and we motored away. To wrap up this really long story I went out in the Semis to the eventual winner. I just took to much stripe, I dont like giving it away, my .883 to his .887 and I scrubbed off 13mph. he was .011 on the tree to my .005. I did also manage to get my first ever 10.900 on a bye run, with a .001 lite, go figure Oh well I guess third place is ok.

So anyone have any thoughts on my mysteriouos 60' issue. It did it three times, each on the third pass of the day. It was pretty consistent about it .10-13 is what it picked up and the reaction times were .200-.206. All my other lites this weekend were fine. Any ideas???

Are you monitoring trans temp at all?

Sounds like a semi successful outing.

I'm gonna say you better send your delay box in!!!

Sounds like you had a good time, even if you had to work for it.
Congrats on the 160 blast.


Tim

First off thanks guys. I was thinking about this last night, go figure. Am beginning to think it may be an electrical or stop issue. I just cannot wrap my head around the converter being a problem the way it is doing it. At first I was sure it was given what it did, just not sure now. Do they make a delay box tester? Have to race in Fontana in a couple of weeks.

Yes we monitor trans temp, heck we watch everything Figured it would really show once we were going rounds, but it did not. That is one of the things that has me thinking it may be elsewhere.

electric or co2 throttle stop? disc or inline? do you monitor voltage?

So your engine likes sitting on the chip and blowing the cobwebs out .

I will guess to big of accelerator pump shot and your car goes fat for a bit and then cleans up when its on the main jet.

Does it do that on a sportsman tree ?

Just throwing stuff at the wall and seeing what sticks.

do you have a t-stop delay box timer combo?if so instead of testing it I would replace It! sounds like a bad box to me.

Dedenbear box??

I go on the stop immediately, so yes before 60'. The #1 timer is set at .000. Been this way for a couple of years. It is an stop, Dedenbear 4 blade variety. The box is a Mega 450. Have an alternator and voltage is good, usually 13+-.

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So your engine likes sitting on the chip and blowing the cobwebs out .

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that's what i was thinking, maybe two separate problems

This is a new issue...Have not had this problem before and have not runa Sportsman tree since Vegas..I will have to look at my logbook but I seem to think my reaction times were eratic there too...hmmm maybe the box?? Is there a way to test it?

there are units available to test delay boxes but they're probably a couple hundred bucks anyhow. i think most manufactures will test them cheap if not free but i've never had to send one back. if you're really suspecting the box i'd get a known good box off someone and try it. worst thing is seems like you're dealing with an intermittent problem which is your worst nightmare, hard to trouble shoot something if it's not doing it all the time.

electric stop??
why come on a 000? I would at least get out of the beams first.
Not saying it won't work but I could see some inconsistancy issues if you don't get all the way up on the chip it launches and ts comes on.

didn't notice he's on the stop right away. i thought is was best to launch the car first then go on the stop?

Sorry air stop. Caar is very consistent as is. Carry .075 about in the box and usually am in the 005-015 area. Car ran 10.902, 10.909, 10.905, and 10.900 in eliminations except the one incident and the semis where I lost and was carrying. The car has always been very consistent this way. I am on the stop for 4.78-4.90 seconds this way in usual air here, 1000-2000 DA's. FWIW it takes about a 400' DA change to change the car .001 with Q16.

I would suggest trying turning the stop on @ .150 out...

Rickster

Rick we have tried the stop everywhere, trust me. From .000 to 1.00. With anything over about .050 it is very inconsistent and dependent on track conditions to run the number consistently. Weusually dont get the best times on track in S/ST usually first or second out. Unless the track is great I will spin the tires a bit and the added time in the stop makes the car harder to dial. Trust me we tried. When you get in the 5+ second range on the stop it is hard to stay consistent and keep the down power RPM manageable, at least for me.

Guys the car works, or was working great with this set up. But obviously something has changed, intermittently. I can dial the car to run the number no issue, unless this problem comes up. Appreciate the advice but if I do have a box/stop issue adding numbers to the first number is only gonna make it worse. I dont need any more momentum than I get already. I carry plenty of numbers in the delay and plenty in the stop now.