Another long race weekend..

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.

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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.

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Al, do you go on to the stop before the 60'... if
so it could be the throttle stop doing it