1981 Corolla 4 door build

Thanks. I have found out that my fuel pump has started leaking. Going to mail that off in a day or so. I also found out that the air was not very good last Friday. That air density was real high and so was the humidity. Maybe the next time out the air will be better. May be a tenth or two faster. Really need to hit the dyno and get the a/f ratio at least close. That alone should make a world of difference. Something to do on an upcoming vacation!

Not much new news to report from this past week. But I did buy a new shifter cable and a heat shield sleeve. So once I get around to installing it, it should prevent it from burning. I also got my wife to do me up a knot for my seat belt release lever. This is called a fiadore knot. I have seen it on some of our horse halters. Looks kinda neat. And it is bright so I should be able to see it at night.[URL=http://s829.photobucket.com/user/YOTA81UNDERTHEKNIFE/media/20160501_141101_zpsos4w06mq.jpg.html][/URL][URL=http://s829.photobucket.com/user/YOTA81UNDERTHEKNIFE/media/20160501_142340_zpsquure8hf.jpg.html][/URL]

How old are those belts?

Well....they're pretty old. I got them from a buddy at work. I'm not gonna say what the date codes are, because they are just that old. I should have my hand slapped for this but i didn't want any grief from the techs at the track. And as it turns out as i was gonna lift the hood, they said "I don't need to see under there." In my head, I'm thinking "you probably should" but Ok. And in reality, my big ass isn't gonna come out of this car. But new belts are in the very near future! Not to worry.

The old belts are fine for fitting things up, but you should check the price of 5 point belts at Summit, rather cheap. Safety stuff is to cheap to not have good stuff.

Cheap cars can be fun, but should still be safe. Hey if the car breaks you can still have fun another day, but if something really bad happens then it can really reduce the fun....

Stroud will recertify and/or reweb those belts cheaper than buying new ones.

http://stroudsafety.com/SeatBelts.html

I have a pair of racequip 5 pt's latch harnesses that are still in spec for another year and a half, sitting on the shelf at my shop, could be convinced to part with them if you need some.

Not to worry folks. New belts are in the works and Stroud is here local but its hard get over there across town during a lunch hour. I am just waiting for vacation time.

DEATHTRAP wrote: And as it turns out as i was gonna lift the hood, they said "I don't need to see under there." In my head, I'm thinking "you probably should" but Ok.

Ha!

Man it runs 10s. You should be incredibly proud of that.

Thank you for the props. And ,yes a 10.98 is pretty good. But I won't be satisfied with this until it is deep into the 10's. Like 10.20's or 10.1?. That's what I want. Better weather should yield a couple of tenths in that alone. Coupled with some hard nosed tuning, I should be within a tenth or two of my goal. I appreciate the encouragement but I want more. So I have heard through some grapevines about making your own traction compounds. I have heard this is the simplest recipe.[URL=http://s829.photobucket.com/user/YOTA81UNDERTHEKNIFE/media/20160508_182805_zpsk3a54whh.jpg.html][/URL] Dr.Pepper, corn syrup, and acetone. We are going to leave that one out. I don't necessarily want to break the tire compound down. I mixed it in an empty gallon jug. We (being me and my wife, loyal supporter and crew chief) will be trying this out in the next couple of days. I got pictures from the photographer that was at the track and they show the front tires up off of the ground,...just barely. So my goal for this experiment is see if I can do this on brushed concrete. Just for my own satisfaction. And she will be filming this endeavor so this may end up being used against me in a court of law.

I think id be tempted to just drink the Dr. Pepper and buy some VHT.

If the goal is low 10's then you know getting the single digits is gonna be next. I mean instead of 10.1 as goal...I think I would make that 9.999999.

Well yes you are correct crankwalk. My end goal is to get this thing into the 9's and drive it out there. And I think it will get there eventually. But for now in its current form I thing low 10's is going to be just about all its gonna do. I think I need a much looser torque converter and e85 and then things should come around. It should be enough for a good 9 second pass. We all know that no project is ever done. Once I bottom out the ET, then its time for a stroker. 408 or a 416 and 11.5:1 (still keeping street fuel in mind) and maybe a gear change and this should be an 8 second ride. "In theory"! I am pleased its a 10sec car. There is more in it and I'm going to get it out of there. I have been so burned out of build stuff and life getting in the way, that I haven't even touched it. I started it up last night for a couple of friends that came over and got gas in it a week or two ago. I'll get back at it soon.

There is a street car race tomorrow at the track and I can't wait to go. Since I don't have D.O.T. tires, I won't be running any of the street classes. But I am going to drive it out there, while trying to avoid Johnny Law. They are having 10.0, 11.0, and a factory rubber classes. I am going to try to run the 11.0 class, since the tune is close to that anyways. I'm sure I will get put out first round, so after that I will start doing some tuning. Bought a jet assortment kit and a couple of extra spark plugs. We'll see how this goes. The factory rubber races are a hoot. Unfortunately, AWD vehicles are not allowed, only RWD. Everyone has to run factory type all-season tires for this. And everyone is skating around and E.T.'s and MPH's don't match at all. Total pedal fest.

This past weekend turned out to be a blast. In passing last week, I mentioned to my grandma that I was going to go out and race my car. So she decides that she wants to go. Okay, didn't see that coming, but we will try to make it a fairly pleasant experience for her. She went about 15 years ago, but yesterday she turned 91! [URL=http://s829.photobucket.com/user/YOTA81UNDERTHEKNIFE/media/20160522_142509_zpsnd4fgblt.jpg.html][/URL] This is from her party yesterday. A friend from work brought out their golf cart and said she could ride as long as she wanted. My wife drove her around all night. Apparently, grandma was asking all kinds of questions about drag racing and all that was going on. Asking about burnouts, nitrous purges, etc. So, I was introducing a friend to her and in the middle of the conversation, she said "If you want help with it, I'll help you." "With what?" I replied. She said "With the Pssst Pssst." referring to nitrous! This completely caught me off guard. Of course we all laughed. But she is serious. I guess she figured out that if your car makes that noise, you'll go faster. But she had a blast and was still talking about it yesterday. So back the racing part of this post. I was running the 11.0 class, and the first pass I couldn't tell how fast I was going so I hit the brakes at the top end of the track. Well that wasn't what I needed to do as you can see from the time slips. Next pass ran an 11.11. Know we're getting there. Didn't mess with the tune at all and turns out I qualified #2. Sounds pretty impressive but there was only 6 of us. Got through the first round with a win and then in the semi finals I drew the fastest car. It turns out that he bracket races all the time. His car had a funny car cage! He should have been running in a different class but whatever. As I looked over the time slip, I noticed that I lost by the reaction time. That sucks. He hit the brakes at the finish line and went on the win the class with a 11.00 on his next pass. I feel good that nothing broke and I drove it home. Also, aside from the WRX that I raced in the first round, I had the smaller motor and the smallest tire! Time to do some tuning and make it faster![URL=http://s829.photobucket.com/user/YOTA81UNDERTHEKNIFE/media/20160522_121002_zpszlcw3hlr.jpg.html][/URL]

Just remembered. I didn't post a video. All of them are real grainy, but this is the best one that my wife took. This was one of the qualifying passes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yz9Z8u8QVGM

The lady at the track who takes photos, caught this this past weekend. It is now my new screen saver. Thank you Stephanie Johnson.[URL=http://s829.photobucket.com/user/YOTA81UNDERTHEKNIFE/media/IMG_559411_zpsyv0oq3yc.png.html][/URL]

Grandma getting into it is awesome. Ha!

Also the picture of the sidewalls wrinkling is classic.

the real question is....

why isn't that your avatar!!!

Well, changing avatars never cross my mind. Until now. Good call oldeskewltoy. And it chopped it way down. But that's ok. I have been hoping to get a good clear picture hiking the front tires up. Maybe next time. There will always be a next time. I have leaned out the front jets (due to black #1 spark plug) and topped off with 91 octane. Need to crank up the timing in the controller and see what happens. Won't know any real info from the seat of the pant meter, so another track day is in order. Vacation is coming up in a few weeks and plan to hit the dyno. That should yield some good information. Food for thought.

I hope my grandma gets to go again. She has been talking about it still and wants to go back. But it will have to be in the fall. Even with the golf cart, I don't think she will do well in the upcoming heat.

This whole thing, especially G-ma, is just too much win!!!!! Big smile.....

Found some time this weekend at a local dyno shop. After much anticipation, this day came back around. The last time this car rolled 286 hp and 274 ft lbs. of torque with only half throttle and the rear tires rubbing the quarter panels. Terrible! The guys strapped the car down and they calibrated the dyno at 2500 rpms, and we're off. The first pull it rolled 436 hp and 466 ft lbs. of torque! Finally, Redemption. I knew it was in there. That's much better. The fuel curve was really close, but had a dip around 5000 rpms. We weren't sure if it was a carb issue, fuel pump issue, or just the way the motor was consuming the air. I added 1 degree of timing at the 2300 rpm and 3 degrees from 5000 rpm on out. This made at big difference. That alone added 18 hp. I then found out that the wide band had come out of the exhaust so no fuel reading on that run. Then for the 3rd run I forgot to give the thumbs up, and he barely caught the full throttle and started recording during the converter flash. That made the graph have a very large spike as you can seen on the left side which is not accurate. I think the 454 hp number is a little inflated to me. I tend to believe the 436 number. With a 15% drivetrain loss that puts the motor about 500 hp even. With the 454 number @ 15% loss it should be around 525 hp. Which is what we have been figuring from the beginning. Both numbers are probably good. But I would like to visit another dyno for verification. If the numbers are close, then they are probably right. And again the air was crappy with 78% humidity and the barometric pressure was about 29. So maybe there is a little more in it. Everytime I go somewhere in this car to an event I always come away smiling! [URL=http://s829.photobucket.com/user/YOTA81UNDERTHEKNIFE/media/ben%20davis_zpszshkxedx.jpg.html][/URL]

DEATHTRAP wrote: Everytime I go somewhere in this car to an event I always come away smiling!

This is what its all about......

Not that it matters as there's virtually no way to reasonably confirm it - but I suspect with your drivetrain, parasitic losses are higher than 15%. I'd say 18-20 would be a better guess -- but we're all just guessing.

Remind us again - what displacement and what mods?

Well this is a 6 litre, stock block, stock heads, probably 9.8:1 compression, factory style hydraulic roller camshaft (239/247 @.050 .623 lift 110 lsa), carburetor, home build 1 7/8" stepped to 2" headers, 3.5 " collector, factory water pump, LS1 low mount alternator, GM carb intake, Jegs 3800-4100 stall, th350, explorer 8.8 w/ 3.73 gear, 28x8.5 slick (for now). I am leaving the line @ about 2300-2500 (I end up pushing through the brakes), and shift @7000. My friend is wanting to see how a looser converter will do for it. This converter I speak of is a PTE 5600. Slide ruling what I have and how it performs compared to what his converter is should move my launch speed into the 3k range. And I understand that this form of guessing isn't linear, but should be close. So we'll see. He also wants to try an 850 instead of the 750 that I have on it. But both of us want to go out at least one more time before I start changing stuff again. I was probably a little conservative with the drivetrain loss wasn't I? 20% is probably about where it is.

Amazing how these motors perform.....basically valve springs, cam and decent intake/exhaust -- 500+ HP out of 360ish cubes. It was never this easy back in the day!

Can't wait to get mine running.....