1st Qtr. 2011 2nd Qtr. 2011 3rd Qtr. 2011. 4th Qtr. 2011
1968 Pontiac Firebird Racecar For Sale:
April 1, 2012 – Happy Birthday Jeremy!
Kevin and I took the car to State Capitol Raceway Friday night. We make two passes before encountering a flat slick. We picked up a wood screw in the right rear slick.
Before the flat, we had a lot of problems with my throttle cable and could not get the butterflies to go all the way open. Seems it has been that way for a while. We tried, but could not get it right at the track (in the dark).
On the first time trial, it ran 9.24 @ 144 MPH. One the 2nd pass, it ran 9.14 @ 144 MPH. Both of these passes did not have full throttle due to the cable problem.
One bight spot on Friday night, the new Trans-brake button (microswitch) worked perfect. Kevin cut a .006 (green) on the first time trial. I tried to get him to put in a little more time for the 2nd pass, but he wanted to leave everything the same. It was dark by the time we made the 2nd pass and he cut a -.008 (red)! I would have put in .020 in the box and we would have cut a .012 (green). Anyway, the new button works well.
After getting the flat taken care of early Saturday morning, with the help of Lacey and Barbara, I started working on the throttle cable problem. Kevin had made a new return spring location at the track, which is working well but did not solve the problem.
The cable problem seems to be a combination of cable adjustment and rear butterfly adjustment on the carburetor itself. The BG 1090 has progressive secondaries and it was real time consuming to get everything coordinated to go all the way open and come back down to the correct idle speed. After a couple of hours, a broken connecting bar, and many trial an error fittings, I finally got it right.
My engine is probably happy. That rear butterfly is really sensitive. One time I activated my Hi setting on the MSD, at 8500 RPM, on start-up! So, if the engine expires in the near future, we will all know why…
I looked at the Density Altitude last Friday night, the air was real bad. About 5 times worse than earlier in the month when we ran. We were only off .15 sec. in the 1/4 mile and .10 sec. in the 1/8 mile. With the proper carburetor adjustments, we should run quicker and hopefully a little more MPH.
March 28, 2012 – We have been working to get the house back in shape after completing the flooring in about 50% of the house. We have also had some church projects to work on. We had a great Women’s Day Service this past Sunday.
I removed the BG Carburetor from the car and put the open spacer back in place. I tried to put the Chuck Nuytten 1150 on but ran into some fitting incompatibilities. I am waiting on an “AN” fitting that should be here tomorrow. We hope to run this weekend. I’ll have a lot of jets and the other carburetor standing by. I am excited about this racing season. I feel like it is really going to be our year!
Reggie Jackson had a couple of good test runs with his dragster last Friday testing his new engine. Everything works as it was designed. His 2nd pass was a 8.00 run and due to track conditions, he got out of it twice! The new Mopar engine is stronger than the last one, which had a best of 7.90, all out.
Warren Birkett informed me that his son, Owen Birkett, driving his Buick stocker, competing in the NHRA Gatornationals earlier this year, in stock class, beat the famous Mr. Don Garlits, driving a new Duster, in the first round of eliminations.
March 20, 2012 – The wife and I celebrated the completion of our home project tonight with a big, juicy steak from Outback.
I have been looking at my data from late 2009 and early 2010, the last time the car ran solid 8 second passes(2011 was a lost year. Almost everything we did took us backward). I found the air was better (DA) and the temp. was higher than it has been for these latest runs. I want to run one more test, using a different carburetor, before I make any other changes.
I want to make some passes at different jet settings. We have already played with shift points, which netted some MPH but nothing else. There are so many variables, you can really get lost if you don’t keep records. Notice, I did not even say, “Good records”.
We have not changed our starting line RPM yet and that might be something we can play with. It might improve our 60′ times. In the past, when I change my starting line RPM, I have to compensate in the delay box to prevent a red light or from being late. Just one more thing to adjust or worry about.
March 19, 2012 – Well, I have been doing a big home project that is at the half-way point.
I did get a chance to work on the motorcycle carburetor last week. It now runs perfectly. Starts at a touch of the electric start button and rides very good.
The bike is a 2003, Yamaha TTR-90, that probably has around 50 miles, or less, on it. As a result of the low use, the carburetor was plugged up in the pilot jet. All it took was a little carb. cleaner and one wire out of a wire brush to run through it and it works like a champ. It was “For Sale”, but I think I will keep it for now.
The next few weeks at both of our local tracks is very slim picking’s for the big cars and dragsters. Jr’s and bikes are taking over, except for the test & tune and Friday night racing. Good time to get some work done or to change out some things to get ready for Nitro Jam in May.
March 12, 2012 – Big weekend at No Problem Raceway Park, March 15- 18th. We should see some excellent racing!
March 8, 2011 – I had to adjust and strengthen the support for the alternator. It was not supported on the upper left side and had caused the belt to have too much slack.
After fixing the alternator switch last week, the alternator worked perfect all weekend. We had 13vdc consistently at idle. We had no problems with the electronics and voltage.