Don't forget to grab some ribs at The Salt Lick before you head out of town!

Good luck Bryan! :thumbsup:

You coming down and need me to bring you some of that jerky that Salt Lick calls ribs? ;)

We made it! 3 and a half hours, running 70-80 MPH, and here I am! I'm registered and checked into the hotel, and everything went perfectly. The car is starting to quiet down just a touch as a little carbon builds up in the exhaust, and the gear whine had moderated a little (although it is still there, it was less noticeable as I got above 75 MPH). But on the whole, an excellent drive!

The one issue I have is my gas mileage was pretty pathetic, but I'm blaming that on a rich mixture. I'm working on that today, so I'll get another shot at it on the way back.

Looking forward to a great weekend!

Love ya buddy! Glad to hear you had an uneventful trip! That's a big stress reliever...


Don't run 'er too fat and wash down the cylinder walls and ruin that ring seal! Light throttle cruise -- maybe 15ish A/F's?? What are you seeing?? And how much timing do you have dialed in at that light throttle light load cursing??

You got that right! While I have all the confidence in the world in the work that Eric and I have done, until you put her on the road and drive her, you never really know what might happen! Thankfully, everything has been great so far!

I've been slowly creeping up the AFR in the part throttle cruise states. I started around 14:1, and that was too rich (I would get out of the car smelling like fuel). For the drive up today, I was around 15:1 I believe. I've now bumped it up to 16:1, and slowly decrease it as the map sensor shows less vacuum. I've been reading the Holley forums to get a feel for what I should target, and this seems like the right range.

As for the timing, when I'm in the pure 'cruise' state, I'm running between 40 and 45* of advance. I drop that down again to the mid-30's as I get a little less vacuum. I'm running around 25* at idle, and I jump to max of 33* at WOT. Since I haven't been on a chassis dyno yet, I'm not sure where the WOT numbers should be, but I am running a knock sensor and I can monitor it in the Holley SW. I have seen it pull timing when I could hear a ping, so at a gross level at least, it's working. :)

As always, I'm open to critique if you have other thoughts. I just got back from dinner (if you ever get to TMS, you must eat at Babe's Fried Chicken!) and it seemed to like the leaner cruise conditions, although I think I heard a little lean pop when I touched the throttle. The Holley SW has all sorts of adjustments for TPS and MAP enrichment, so some experimenting with those will probably take care of it.

Oh --- I'm no tuning guru -- was really just wondering aloud as if we were having a conversation.


Personally - I hate the blanket statement "just give the motor what it wants"... REALLY -- how do I know what it wants?? LOL


Tuning EFI is a black art.... Maybe it's why I love the self tuning versions where all I have to do is set timing and pick three different A/F rations - Idle/cruise/WOT.... done....


I think transitions are the hardest part to work out.... is the A/F to lean - or do I need to add fuel via the accel fuel table (everyone calls it something), or is it timing? UGH --- so much info. I know you're good at the info part -- it's in your DNA.


I do know this --- I was so busy trying to tune every little cell perfectly -- and the "tuners" give the maps big overall blocks of info... and when I finally did that -- things got easier.

Why haven't you done a dyno with a good tuner like bringing in Mike Morris??

I'll pretend I didn't see this.....


Congratulations. What a great feeling to make a long road trip with no issues.:thumbsup:

Is tomorrow the first time you've really gotten to drive it like you stole it?

Good luck tomorrow.:cheers:

Have fun this weekend. Was thinking of going up, but plans changed. Maybe next year.

Day 1 is in the books... I'm tired, sunburned, and my feet are killing me. But it sure was a fun day. :)

I haven't driving an autocross course since 2002 when I competed at the RSE even in Bristol. Before that, I did exactly 2 events in preparation for the RSE event. So to say that I'm a novice would be a bit of an understatement. :)

With that, I got to the track about 8:15 this morning and found my spot in the auto-x pits. Apparently you have to get there much earlier to get a better spot, I'll remember that for next time. The guy parked next to me was racing his 33/34 3-window coupe, and apparently at the FW event last year, that car ran the second fastest time overall, only bested by the Summit Crusher Camaro. He was very helpful for a newbie like me. :)

We passed through inspection and went out to walk the track. They have laid out a different course here this year, apparently due to someone (I hear rumors it was Bret, but I'm not sure) blowing through the stop zone and hitting a wall. Still, it's a 65 - 75 second course, and it's a lot of fun. Even though I'm no expert, I have a pretty decent feel for the right lines to take.

I got run 1 in around 10:00. 74.5 seconds, and that puts me into 5th place in class of about 25 in the muscle car category. Fastest time in the first round was a 72.0, I think by a second driver in the Crusher car. She was quick, and as I recall, leads the class at the end of the day. I didn't hit anything, and I discovered that first gear is where I want to be most of the course.

Second run was a good improvement, as was typical across the board. 72.5 for me, 70.0 for the group leader. I was trying to watch the Pro-class drivers, how they were taking the line, and I was reminded that one particular corner sets up such that going slower will be faster. I told myself the next run I would do that. Oh, I also has an awesome 180* tire spinning entrance into the first turn during this run, which several people came over and commented on afterwards. I downshifted into that 180* turn, and when I hit the gas, I just lit 'em up. I never lifted, steered through it, and off I went. That was fun!

So run 3, I concentrated really hard on a couple of specific turns, and I was rewarded with a 70.8 second run! Unfortunately, I didn't make a full stop in the stop zone, so that time won't count. And that sucks, because it was my best run of the day and would have kept me in 5th place! I just completely locked up the tires in the stop zone and didn't modulate enough to stop the car... :(

Angry about run 3, and knowing that run 4 was likely my last, I was determined to make amends. Oops... I completely overdrove one of the 180* turns, and knocked out 2 or 3 cones. I knew I had one under the front of the car, and I contemplated backing up to get off it, but I decided what the hell, I'm already out this run, so I kept on going. I decided to try more 2nd gear through the rest of the course, and that was a mistake! WAY too much speed through the middle of the track, but I managed not to hit another cone. I came back around with my tail tucked between my legs, but at the same time, I had a blast! At least I know the limit of that corner now...

My only issue of the day, and one I'm still scratching my head about, was after run #3, we found what appears to be a puddle of oil on the pan under the front of the motor. By look and smell, it appears to be oil. But I have no clue where it came from. We looked at all of the fittings, the catch can, the power steering hoses, pump, rack, oil pan, and nothing is wet. The only thing we noticed was the boots at the end of the steering rack had slid off, but unless the rack pushed fluid out of the end seals, I don't think it could come from there. I'm baffled... I wiped everything down before run 4, and after that run and the drive to the hotel, I don't see a drop anywhere. Nothing seems to be overfilled either, so I don't know where it came from. I will be keeping a watch for this going forward.

I was able to meet several fellow Lat-G members today, and hopefully tomorrow I will get to meet a few more. I was busy talking about the car and prepping for the runs today, so I didn't get to wander around the rest of the show at all. I did get over to the Ridetech booth to weigh the car, and it is pretty darned well balanced. 52/48, and a total of 3806 pounds with me in it and a full tank of gas. That puts the car itself around 3550 or so. I need to go on a diet... :) Side to side was within 20 pounds front and rear also...

TOW did great for her first time out, I'm looking forward to doing more of these now that I have a car I can do it with again!!!