DragStuff

Thanks guy....13 more days.....keeping an eye on the weather and now it's supposed to be 69F and cloudy.

I'm looking forward to it.

Well here's an update.

It's not ground shattering news but the main thing is, I had tons of fun and the car worked pretty good.

There were two main problems, the biggest one was the driver and the second one was the battery/ charging system.

I was getting sround 12v at the begining of the day and by the end, it was down around 10v but around the second to last or last run, the belt decided to break and it killed my car. One thing I need to change is, the front crankshaft pulley, I have an under driven pulley and was told to go back to a factory pulley to make sure I'm spinning the alternator fast enough to supply power to the system.

My 60's were terrible, I could not get the car to properly do a burnout, it just wanted to push me forward and got little smoke off the slicks. It has single piston calipers and drums on the back. I do have an adjustable proportioning valve in line and I'm thinking I may need to play with that.

Another thing I noticed was, and this may be due to the battery issue, but after I crossed the line, I'd slow it down a little and then bump it into neutral. A few times the motor would die on me???

My best time was 12.01 and my best MPH was 114. My best 60 was 1.7

I also found out the car weighs 3000lbs so now I got to get some weight off of that.

Then I noticed some wiring issues I want to address to make it easier on the ignition system during startup.

Yes I got my work cut out for me but I got to tell you, it was a blast even if I only ran 12's. What was even better was when my wife and son said, when we going back?

Ok guys, give it too me.

Good to hear you had a decent outing - remember anytime you go to the races and can load the car up and it's not broke it was a good day! Nobody expected you to set the world on fire 1st time out... Now it's time to start working out the bugs and making improvements. Glad you and family had a good time, that's what it's all about!

Thanks John, it was a great day.

The one guy that went was running 8.8's and the other car that came a long that was faster, ended up breaking a cam during the burnout, so I didn't get to see him run. He normally runs 8.2's and yes, they were both Nova's......

What I found funny was, Tony, the Nova guy that was running 8.8's, came up to me while we were checking the timing and said, I need to talk to you. My wife and I looked at him and said what's up? He said, I want your car and I'll trade you my Nova, straight up for it. He said, I'm serious. I told him I couldn't because of all the history with this car and he understood.

How do you like that.....a Nova guy wanting to give up his car for a Camaro!

It's still not too late for all you Nova guys to go buy a Camaro. It's ok, I just want to be there to say, told you so...

Glad you got some runs in Bruce.

The dying on shutdown sometimes is fuel sloshing forward and running away from the primary jets. You might see if the float level is too low.

I'm fighting the charging issue as well. I'm moving up to a higher amp alternator but may have to see if there is a larger crank pulley for my mandrel.

That's cool that the guy really appreciated your car. That always feels good. Cool too that the family is all-in, so to speak.

Well I just realized from looking at the wiring diagram I have of my system here at work and what I did wrong, 1 problem solved, a few more to go....

Thanks Craig

Way to go Bruce! It's great to hear you got it out and sounds like you had a great time. Hey test and tune is for learning about your car and yourself. For the the first time out I think you and the car did great! You now have a base line to work with. It will get faster and you will get better with it. THE FUN BEGAINS! LOL
Sounds like the family had a good time to.
Keep a log of what you change so you can track what works and what doesn't. You'll be going fast before you know it.

Good talking to you on the phone buddy. don't you just hate when the boss comes in and interrupts you phone calls...LOL

You are right, I need to keep a log. Just great another thing to add to the list! Dang Nova guys are just out to get me.

You're surrounded! LOL

Call me anytime my friend. And don't let the lack of you not have a Nova bother you. You have a very nice Camaro.

Thanks bud....you Nova guys are ok, now don't get me started on those Chevelle guys with funny painted helmets!

Bruce !!!!!!!!!!!!!! Way to go, with that sweet ride !!!! Man, you can be proud of having things hang together so well.

Man, I'm sure glad to see you having fun with that. This is what it's all about ! :)

And, like Chris said, test-n-tune is exactly that, testing and tuning. My very first ever run with mine was a 12.43 and I thought I was setting the world on fire. Man that was a hoot and I was hoarse for a week after cuz I was screaming all the way down the track

It sounds like you've done everything exactly the right way, now, just like Chris and John and others have said, be methodical and take things a step at a time. Start a log to record your times, mph, 60's, the DA if you can get it, the temp, tire pressures, anything and everything you notice.

Congrats on getting to where you're at !

Thanks Harry....I'm still on a high over this weekend and I'm working at getting things back together and up to the track again. I found out the pulley that was sold to me, was listed wrong and it is a SBC pulley and not a BBC. Oh well, what you going to do, except look for another pulley.
I rewired stuff last night so that the ignition switch didn't work too many items, which should help during startup.
We got a few more weeks of TNT left at the track I was running at and I'm going to try my best to get back up there.
What's really funny is, hearing the talk at home about "everyone" wanting to go to the track.....that is music to my ears.
Here's a warning to you all, my wife wants to drive it and trust me, she can drive. So if you see my car at your track, be scared....very scared....

Update time.....
Here is what I did, I removed the electric water pump and fan off of the ignition switch and put them on their on separate switch. I then reinforced the alternator bracket and put on a new belt.
The crankshaft pulley is 4" and my alternator pulley looks like it is 2-5/8".
Charged the battery up and it fired up a lot easier then the last previous times. This time is spun the motor very easy compared to the last time when it cranked over a few times and then fired up.
I checked the voltage at the alternator and it was around 14.5V @ 1100rpm, then back at the battery and it was 14.01v, with the water pump and fuel pump on. So I turned on the fan and it dropped to around 13.5v, so it looks like everything is back up and working.
I did notice that if the idle drops below 1000 rpm's so does the volt's, is this anything to worry about?

Nothing to worry about on the volts. That is just a function of the lower pulley being on the small side. Get it ironed out and running for now. A pulley swap to a larger one over the winter is simple. And just so you know Bruce, my Nova will be for sale after it gets repainted. My wife is dreaming about a 69 Z/28 Camaro to someday replace the Nova. She still doesn't know how much they cost.