Went to the Drag Strip

[Chris28]

I went to a local drag strip last weekend, cracked ring lands and all! I was just on 6 psi of boost, my best time was 14.2 @ 104 mph. My trap speeds were really high, I should have been in the 13's but my subframe bushings are shot so I had some crazy wheel hop going on. My 60' times are horrible because of that. I pick up a whole lot of speed in the back 1/8th, I was 4 mph slower than my friend's supra when we passed the 1/8th mark but by the 1/4th mark we were both within 3 hundredths of a second to each other. I'd scan my slip, but my scanner sucks, so here's the breakdown:

R/T - .453
60' - 2.307
330 - 6.27
1/8 - 9.402
MPH - 81.18
1000 - 12.078
1/4 - 14.271
MPH - 103.85

That was my best run, my reaction time was a little better on a few runs but the whole tree thing still weirds me out. My 60' could have been better, I think my next modification will be solid subframe bushings. Other than that I'm pretty happy with how the day went, nothing broke and engine is still holding up, that's good haha.

[trackslut240]

i'd say thats pretty good for a broken ring land motor...
when i had the na ka motor with one broken ring land on number 4 coz of over "nossing" it, i did notice that my top end was better...never figured out why?

havent been to a drag strip... i am scared that light up tree will hypnotize me... and i wont go when it tells me to go...lol

[Chris28]

Haha yeah, it does pull pretty hard up top. Maybe once I swap in my new engine I'll lose some top end Shouldn't matter though, I'm going from an s14 KA to an s13 KA so hopefully the camshaft difference should mean better acceleration?

Either way it was a lot of fun. The tree goes so fast, it's ridiculous. I tried to get staged first each time so I could actually rev to like 3k and prepare to launch. The guy doing the lights was so quick that if I staged second, by the time I got situated and ready to go the light was already green. It's quite the adrenaline rush haha.

[biggie]

Not bad.

Need to see what mine would do now. Last and only time I went was 1/8th mile at 10.2, NA, open diff, 215 tires (spinning quite a lot).

[Chris28]

Next time the school club goes I'll let you know, it was 20 bucks for as many runs as you want. It was the Rockingham strip, about an hour away from Raleigh.

I just discovered a massive boost leak, my compressor outlet bolts backed out 1/4", I don't know how it was still even making boost. 6 psi is a lot more fun now, I bet it would have been a lot quicker at the strip too.

[Razi]

If I remember correctly, you have subframe collars right?
I was hoping collars fixed my wheelhopping problem, guess not.

I was thinking about doing solid bushings with rubber washers, some company sells them but the name escapes me now.

[spooled240]

not bad for a broken motor and low boost, what is confusing about the tree? you just have the 4 lights up top when both cars are staged on the lines then its 3 lights and GREEN! It's more of a timing thing that you'll just get used to. I dropped the clutch on the third yellow which got my best r/t down to .01 or something lol

[WDRacing]

More slipping of the clutch is required to get your 60' time down. I rev to about 5k and slip the clutch out. I don't "leap" off the the line like some, but I am able to control wheel spin a lot more. This is especially important to people with a smallish turbo since you're in boost almost immediately. I've always had a turbo that is considered to big by most, so the slip creates lots of load on the motor which creates boost relatively quickly without having to rev the piss out of it and drop the clutch.

If you're dropping the clutch you'll definitely get wheel hop and spin. I used to practice launching on the street all the time until I knew what was the best rpm/slip combo that let whatever tires I had at the time to keep the most traction.

Also, I'm pretty sure the 240 picks up speed at the top end because of the gear ratio's. 1st and 2nd are short gears so you're shifting quickly, where 3rd and 4th are longer.

I can't believe you popped your damn motor so quickly Chris, have you thought about just popping the pan off and swapping in a used stock rod/piston combo? When I was on Okinawa I used to pop the #5 and #6 pistons in my RB. I got tired of swapping motors all the time, so I would just drop the pan, pull the head, remove the cracked slug, use a cylinder hone on a drill with some WD40 and run it in/out of the cylinder for like 5 minutes, install a used rod/piston combo and put everything back together. Sometimes that cylinder will be down on compression, but nothing like running with a cracked ring land.

[biggie]

Next time the school club goes I'll let you know, it was 20 bucks for as many runs as you want. It was the Rockingham strip, about an hour away from Raleigh.

I just discovered a massive boost leak, my compressor outlet bolts backed out 1/4", I don't know how it was still even making boost. 6 psi is a lot more fun now, I bet it would have been a lot quicker at the strip too.

Yeah, let me know. Hopefully I'll get time to finish breaking in my clutch soon.

[Chris28]

WD, I would do that, but this engine has overheated a few times, and I have a spare KA sitting in my garage, I might as well swap that in. I do plan on building this one up a little bit while it's out so hopefully I won't keep popping engines.

[WDRacing]

Ahh...I didn't know you had a spare. Overheating sucks, get a new rad and some electric fans. I'm using S14 AC fans and my temp never passes half with my Koyo rad. Taurus fans are like $30 from the JY, they work very well. Biggie uses the Alty fans, he says they work pretty good as well.

WD

[biggie]

I have the altima fans, but hooked up to manual switches. I never have to use them unless stuck in slow/stopped traffic. Koyo rad and no AC componets keeps it very steady. In winter my gauge never reads above 150 while moving, on a 90 deg day on the interstate it stayed at 180-185.

[Chris28]

Haha I had the Altima duals, ice formed around them and the motors burned out. I got stuck, was putting a lot of load on the engine trying to get un-stuck, and all the time my fans had burned out so I had no airflow through the rad. Only I could manage to overheat in freezing temperatures. I have a Mishimoto rad btw.

I have a stock A/C fan hard wired in right now, once I swap out this new engine I'm going back to the clutch fan/shroud setup. I'm tired of dealing with e-fans.

[trackslut240]

you would be wasting precious hp using that clutch fan, get the taurus fans or FAL. FAL might be expensive but they pull the temps down so quick you will only run them for 30 to 45 secs max. I know the controllers for efans arent the best if cheaped out on. The dif controller is hailed to be really good but its also up there in price, i am cheap, so i opted for a lit up rocker switch.

[Chris28]

If I remember correctly, you have subframe collars right?
I was hoping collars fixed my wheelhopping problem, guess not.

I was thinking about doing solid bushings with rubber washers, some company sells them but the name escapes me now.

Sorry I didn't respond to this sooner, yeah I do have inserts as well as RP Sport subframe braces, unfortunately the subframe still moves quite a bit.

you would be wasting precious hp using that clutch fan, get the taurus fans or FAL. FAL might be expensive but they pull the temps down so quick you will only run them for 30 to 45 secs max. I know the controllers for efans arent the best if cheaped out on. The dif controller is hailed to be really good but its also up there in price, i am cheap, so i opted for a lit up rocker switch.

I have a thermostatic switch that I used for a little while with the altima fans, but I'm still going to go ahead with the clutch fan setup. I have both the upper and lower fan shroud, so it should cool well and look nice. If it makes too much of a difference in horsepower then I'll swap e-fans back in, but I think I'll be fine with losing 5-10 hp for the assurance of having a fan that won't fail.

[trackslut240]

i agree on reliability of the clutch fan, even if it the fan clutch fails, it still cools the motor. if electric fans fail, then everything fails.

[spooled240]

just turn the boost up a few psi to make up for lost hp lol

[Chris28]

You know I actually never thought about the clutch fan's clutch assembly lol. I guess it's heat source is directly from the water pump's fins and metal's conductive ability, that's why the center of the water pump pulley is cut out and the clutch touches that when it's bolted on. It's like an epiphany!

I have the a/c fan hard wired in right now, so far it's kept my temps right where they should be. I'm worried about track days in 80+ degree weather and high humidity though. Even with both Altima fans my engine overheated one day, though going sideways doesn't allow for much airflow to the rad haha. I guess I'll monitor my temps and see if I really do need the clutch fan.

[WDRacing]

i agree on reliability of the clutch fan, even if it the fan clutch fails, it still cools the motor. if electric fans fail, then everything fails.

Bah....if I were to worry about everyhting that could fail I'd never do anything. What if your injector fails closed? Boom, motor is gone. An injector failing is far more probable...scary