The Silver Buick's well Silver Buick!

[squirrel]

He's been having some fun...AC died early, crank sensor wheel got loose, dash computer is not communicating, etc. But the car is running ok and going reasonably fast.

He did make it back to St Louis tonight.

[Deaf Bob]

That is cool!
Hope his wife is enjoying herself..
Hope both Squirrel and Rndall do well! And breakdown free!

[silver_bullet]

glad to hear that you guys made it back to St. Louie! Looking for final results...

[langleylad]

I don't know if anybody else noticed but on Youtube in one of the Drag Week updates there was a clip of the Buick with trailer

[TheSilverBuick]

I don't think my pictures will be as iconic as Squirrel's but lets see if I an remember the early part of the week, and the middle and end for that matter

Since my wife, who hadn't been on a road trip like this before, was coming with me, I planned on driving the flatter I-80 northern route out, and return on the more mountainous I-70 southern route. That way we'd get to see slightly different scenery going out and back. The outcome was flat lands and corn in the north and mountains and wheat in the south


Had a little bit of excitement crossing Wyoming, where like Utah the highway speed limit is 80mph, when the engine suddenly shut off while I was passing an 18-wheeler and three cars behind me! Unlike some other GM driving folks I did not wreck the car after it shut off, but simply coasted to the widest part of the shoulder I could find. Which having vehicles zing by at 80mph does get your attention. After a short round of trouble shooting with a test light I found the fuel pump relay died, and of course I didn't bring a spare.. so I temporarily hotwired it from the near-by fuse panel. The second picture is of the next rest area, and then the following town got a new relay (plus a spare) and was back in business.




The car and trailer look unusually small in this picture in Evanston, WY.


Some of the excitement started to build in Nebraska when we started seeing other cars that were clearly going to Drag Week..


The rest of the drive out was uneventful and it was fun seeing more and more Drag Weeker's show up.






Then Sunday's tech line was on the circle track. Following Doc in the SeeRed Camaro in.






From HotRod's website:

[TheSilverBuick]

A test and tune was happening Sunday night, and my car was having a very strange issue where at 4,550 rpm the EFI system would drop to zero rpm, effectively cutting fuel and spark, then pick it back up around 3,800rpm. It didn't make any funny noises, just off, then back on. Chased my tail for over an hour messing with wires, checking connections, but everything seemed to be in order. It was like a rev limiter, except when megasquirt sets the rev-limiter it still keeps track of the engine rpm, not drop to zero. I went so far as to even change the crank sensor that had been on the car since 2011, but it didn't help. Time was running out to make a test pass, so I opted to put on the drag radials and at least see how the car handled the burn out and off the line, setting the shift lights up to shift at 4,200rpm, but sure enough I hit the "mystery" limit in first gear anyways.

In line for the test run. Day before the real passes and my engine won't rev above 4,500



Then waking up for day 1! The games begin! Oh, but wait I still can't get the damn thing to rev over 4,500, but off to the track anyways.


Then I found the problem! Figuring it might be a signal noise issue (though all the signals looked clean..) I went looking for the MegaSquirt's noise filtering options and it appears I put some junk numbers in there when sitting on my couch a month earlier and accidentally loaded them in, d'oh! Turned off the noise filtering and zing, right to six grand without issue. I did a happy dance and rushed off to the staging lanes.


Ran a disappointing 13.148 at 107mph, which was essentially unchanged from 2012. BUT I at least made a pass and got a clean data log of it. Going back to the datalog, it looked like I was running an uber fat 10.0 air fuel ratio the whole run, so I had some tuning to do.


So the wife and I decided to get some lunch at the Subway across the street from the track before hitting the road and I took this picture of Lutz's cars. One promod Camaro and one turbo V8 honda.


Then off to the check points.




From Hotrod:





Made it to the hotel fairly uneventfully and the car was still purring along.

[TheSilverBuick]

Then the week starts to become a blurrrr. Surprisingly I did not take any photo's at at Lucas Oil Raceway in Indianapolis But I did pull quite a bit of fuel out of tune and the engine sounded happier and I was rewarded with a nice 12.634 at 110mph, which was a new personal best. I forgot to mention, that they were scaling the car after every run at all but one track and the car with me in it landed between 3,840 and 3,850 lbs each time. The fuel level was usually around a 1/2 tank.



Saw this on the way to one of the check points and thought "These guys have done this before"


Checkpoints 1 and 2.




Did have a bit of a concern sitting in stop and go traffic going around Chicago. The car was running a lot warmer than it has in a long long time. It was hanging out right around 207ºF for 30 to 40 minutes, with me saying, "If it gets to 210ºF, I'll pull over to let it cool off." but it never did. And as soon as traffic picked back up to at least 30mph the temps dropped back to the normal 187ºF. So at the next checkpoint I checked the fan clutch and it does seem to be running a bit loose, so I'll probably replace it before next summer as I've sat in similar traffic when it was 115ºF out in Las Vegas and the car didn't go over 200ºF, and likewise in 2013 when I had the A/C on in Denver traffic when it was 103ºF out and it sat at 195ºF.

[TheSilverBuick]

On day 3, my wife was feeling fairly wore out from the previous day's heat and fairly long drive, so figuring I had been leaving the tracks by 11am, and check out was noon, I let her sleep in and figured I'd pick her up after I ran, but that wasn't in the cards that day.

Day 3 at Union Grove started like any other day, got there, unhooked the trailer and got in line. I however forgot to lower the tire pressure, so the drag radials were aired up to around 35psi, d'oh! Made the first pass and just hazed the tires pretty bad off the line with a terrible 2.3 60ft. So still wanting to make the early class car time allotment, I drove straight back to the staging lanes. I borrowed a tire pressure gauge from a fellow racer, but ended up airing the tires down to around 18psi, which it seems to like 20-21psi, but time was to short to go get my compressor.

The car seemed to launch much better this time, ran decently down track but at the end, after I let off and was slowing down the engine stumbled and shut off. Then Drag Week drama started. I coast on to the return road, which is a single lane with grass on either side and decide to roll off on to the grass to see if it'll start back up or troubleshoot. It cranks, I have rpm, but it won't light off. The fuel pump wasn't coming on with the key, okay simple issue, a loose connector at the fuel pump, etc. I find an offending connection, get the fuel pump to pressure up the system, but the car won't light off. Every now and again a cough, but really just cranking. Hmm. Soooo I'm thinking, okay, they'll get the ATV and tow me back to the pit area, but apparently it became a big issue, that if I get towed from the return road to the pit I would be disqualified because I had my car towed..... Keith Turk came down and told me that had I left my car blocking the return I could be towed because I'd be holding up the race, etc. I disagreed as the tow wasn't progressing me from track to track and we are not leaving the venue, but whatever, okay I got a lift back to the pit and back to get my laptop and a few tools to further troubleshoot my issue.

It didn't take me long to figure out why the engine wasn't lighting off, I did a crank and cam sensor trigger log while cranking, and the cam sensor always picks up 30º before the missing tooth on the crank, and now it was like 100º off In my mind, the only way for this to happen is if the timing set broke, or chain jumped several teeth or the distributor gear broke. All not so pleasant thoughts. Meanwhile, it's approaching noon and my soon to be unhappy wife will be getting kicked out of the hotel room with our luggage. D'oh! Then a pair of saints arrived. Ed and Bob Malle. Ed just ran and stopped to see what was up, and we decided that towing my trailer to the car should be legal as neither of us could recall any rule saying a trailer couldn't be moved to assist a dragweeker. Heck, my 1-7/8 hitch didn't even fit on their 2" ball, but Bob and I road on the tongue and hauled the trailer out and then they helped push the car across the road to the shade of near by tree. These guys were AWESOME, THEN Bob drove their car and got my wife and luggage and brought them to me at the end of the return road! They were just saving my day!

I couldn't ask for a better place to work on the car though. It definitely beat working on the asphalt in the pit. Shade, cool grass, slight breeze, heaven! Keith came back by and grumbled about having my trailer brought to me but didn't say it was outside the rules. Its really kind of a downer about the "spirit" of helping fellow racers being called out, its not like I pre-planned any of this help.


Meanwhile I had a spare timing set, spare distributor gear and gaskets in the trailer so figured I'd better get to work. First thing I did was pop the distributor cap off and crank the engine, and the distributor turned, so it likely wasn't the distributor gear. Next up was to bring it around to TDC and pull the distributor to look down at the timing chain set. As I was doing this I noticed something funny...That shiny spot between the trigger wheel and pulley shouldn't be there...


Ah ha! Another happy dance, the trigger wheel simply came loose. There were 4 pins that held it in place, they'd been there since 2011 and were definitely there two days before I left for Drag Week when I checked on them, but they were all gone now. So I removed the accessory belts and pulled the balancer off and took this video. Yeah, that'll do it.

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e313/TheSilverBuick/Drag%20Week%202015/th_VID_20150916_122048288_zpsfbuazadt.mp4

So I lined the holes back up and stuck cotter pins in from the inside of the pulley. Centripetal motion will keep them in place, and I opened them up on the other side. The car started right up like a new car. WIN! And Bob and my wife showed up right as I was getting ready to hook the trailer back up for perfect timing




Got my time slip and it was a sad 13.105 at 109mph, BUT I was up and running still!

This was a little bar stand at the track, and the wife was clearly happy at this point


This was the shortest drive of the week and the check point rather simple. Getting to the hotel rather early this time around allowed me to go hang out with other Drag Weeker's some. Mike Crow showed up and when Mark Sussino (Ponti-Carlo) went to check his valve lash this guy what hanging out. So Mark, when's the last time you checked lash and your spark plugs?

[TheSilverBuick]

Day 4, Cordova. The weather was looking pretty grim that morning. We were slower leaving the hotel than I'd have liked to have been, and the track was 20 minutes away. By the time I got there the pit area was pretty full, but I found a spot and felt like I was racing the weather. Got the trailer unhooked, tires aired down and beat feet to the staging lanes. Going back to some tuning, after Indianapolis, I pulled some fuel out of the top end and got the AFR's to around 11.5, and didn't want to make any tuning adjustments based on the Union Grove runs because I wasn't sure if I'd be chasing a timing issue or not. I also finally put a timing light on the car to check the timing after yesterday's work and it was spot on the number commanded.

The clouds were grey and threatening. Folks were saying it was raining really good about 20 miles west of us.






My 60ft was a bit slower, but it was back in the 12's again so I was happy. The AFR's were still right around 12.


Instead of airing up the drag radials this time and hitting the road, I opted to stick my regular street tires back on the car, and glad I did. I've driven in the rain with the drag radials before without issue, but not with a trailer. By the time we got to the only checkpoint on this drive there was lightning and thunder all around and the rain was coming down in sheets.


It was right after this photo was taken that my digital dash display went out. 2 years of service and of course it quits on Drag Week. The only real pertinent data the dash shows me for normal driving is coolant temperature. I have an separate oil pressure and voltage gauge, and I wasn't worried about over heating, and if it started to I can typically see it in the oil pressure plus the engine is programmed to idle up at 200ºF. An hour or two after we had cleared the rain, I pulled into a gas station and really troubleshooted it, including taking half the dash apart to see if the screen came unplugged. Unfortunately it seems the USB ports on my car computer have quit processing data. The USB wifi stick plugged into it as well isn't broadcasting the wifi signal it normally does. It lights up, but not working. The dash display is USB connected. So I continued on without it and was very happy to make it back to the hotel in Collinsville.




The picture with our room number, lol.

[TheSilverBuick]

Day 5, back at Gateway. The day was ridiculously humid, which made the heat feel way worse than it actually was. Since we got there early and the sun was cooking us I put up the awning we'd been carrying around all week.


I got in line fairly early hoping to try and get a second pass in before the Street Eliminator time allotment, but ended up only making one and going again later in the evening.


Think I could take him?


Knocked out another 12 second ET and picked up some mph. Still was running about 12:1 AFR's, so I took some more fuel out of it after this pass.


For the later session, my AFR's were right around the 13:1 I was shooting for and I was rewarded with my fastest and quickest pass to end the week. So I was pretty happy over all.


Ending the week not as quick as I'd hoped to be going into the week, but steadily picked up some mph. My week average was 12.846 at 110.054mph and I was happy to at least average in the 12's. I have lots of work to do on improving my launching and shifting techniques.

[TheSilverBuick]

The wife and I decided to take Saturday off from driving and head over the St. Louis for a small bit of sight seeing. Stopping by the Arch and going to the top.


Found the Skylark parked along a dirt road after none of the paid parking areas would let me bring the trailer in...


Heading out Sunday I decided I'd drive until I couldn't drive much further. Chasing the setting sun into Colorado.


For the longer drive I set my laptop up on the rear floor board to run the dash display. I had done this for the last day of racing, but tucked it under the passenger seat. The screen layout isn't as refined as I had it with the car computer, but it is functional. This is idling in first gear uphill in the traffic going up to Eisenhower tunnel outside Denver.


Stupidly enough I seemed to of had vaporloc issues going up the hill. The lift pump would stop pumping, which would soon dry out the surge tank and the engine would quit. The first time it did it, I was caught by surprise. The next two times I was watching the ammeters I have on the pumps and I could see the lift pump ammeter needle start wobbling, so I knew I only had a few minutes before the surge tank would run dry so I was able to completely pull off the road before the engine would stall. After I got to the backside of the summit I didn't have any more issues. I topped the tank off (it was at a 1/2 tank, 10 gallons) at the first town just in case, but didn't have any more issues with it the rest of the drive.


Finally made it back home yesterday at 1:30am pacific time, which was 2:30am mountain and 3:30am central. I was pretty tired, but glad to be home.


Round trip was 4,321 miles, burning just over 300 gallons of gas for a 14.3 mpg average (including the drag strip passes). 80mph legal speed limits and towing a trailer were not helping me out, not to mention the mountains of Nevada, Utah, Wyoming and Colorado.


Then today, back to work.

[GH]

Randal, my wife says your wife must have a name. You keep writing "the wife". Don't forget to send me back the relay board. 6228 N. Farm Road 125, Springfield,MO 65803

[TheSilverBuick]

Can do Gary! The only time I spent in the barn yesterday was unhooking the trailer.

[squirrel]

great report! It was good to finally meet Gala. you're smarter than me, you write the name of the towns where you buy gas, on your log book. I have to guess.

congrats on the mid 12 second run! doing good

[STINEY]

Cool adventure! Thanks for the "ride-a-long".