I am trying to motivate myself to finish waxing the car. I also want to modify the window net to make it easier to put up when I am in the car, with no help. I am going to remove the muffler inserts from the collectors. I think they may be costing me some horsepower.

The last thing I am going to do is try some VP Racing Fuel. All I need for my engine is C-14 since I only have 13.5:1 compression ratio. In the past, I have seen a decrease in ET when I switched back to VP. With a best ever ET of 9.12 sec., I only need a little help, 0.13 sec., to get into the eights (then I can go back to the less expensive fuel).

I have been playing with some computer simulation software during the holidays. One is a dyno simulation and the other is a drag simulation. The two programs will allow you to put your simulated engine, which is custom built to match the specs. of my 555 BBC engine, into a simulated body and chassis that has all the dimensions of my Camaro. I can even put the specs. of my exact cam, straight from Comp Cams cam files, into the engine simulator. Head flow data can be entered if you have it or you can just tell it the type heads that you have. Different types of headers and intakes can be selected. You must be honest and not lie to the program for best results on your base engine.

I get instant recalculation when I change components or specifications. There are time slips for 1/4 mile and 1/8 mile drags. You also get horsepower and torque curves compared to your baseline engine. You can also figure out the best shift points. There are more tables and engine information than I know what to do with. You get all the dyno sheet information for each combination. The instruction book for each program is over 100 pages each.

These programs are addictive! I have spent a lot of time during the past two weeks working on different engine combinations and “what-ifs”.

According to the Drag Sim, I should be running 8.78 sec. in my current configuration. Somewhere I am losing 0.34 sec.! My current horsepower is just under 800.

The program says, if I go back to my old cam (removed in Oct. 2009) I would gain 49 more horsepower. The program assumes everything is working at 100%, which is most likely not the case for my car and engine.

January 1, 2010 – Happy New Year!