January 2006
I receive the new short-block and install it in
the Talon so that I can finally get this car back on the road. I plan on doing a hard break-in for this motor with 50-90%
3rd gear runs. We fire her up and there are no leak at all. FINALLY we get this thing back on the road like it
suppose to be. The car is a beast. We are estimating right around 500 WHP at 28 psi by the way it feels compared to JR’s
500HP EVO.
UPDATE!
After 50 miles, I’m back to absolutely nothing.
We have lost oil pressure and there is no oil to the top part of the motor. At first startup we had 40 psi oil pressure. Now
we only have 8 psi at idle. RRE used a new oil pump when rebuilding this block.
After pulling out the oil pan, we notice all four
oil squirter are sitting in the pan. No oil would make it up the head if the squirters were missing. The crank is toast. The
rod bearing are gone. #3 Rod is blue with heat marks. The only good news is that the new turbo was not damaged and all components
of the head were not damaged. Now I’m back to square one again. I have to wait for ANOTHER shortblock. It will be the
4th time the head and block was reinstalled in this motor.
February 2006
Rob from Road Race Engineering Engine
Building Service actually drove to my house and picked up my car for repairs. He also let me know that he would return the
Talon to me. Talk about customer service. How many shops do you know that will do that? I guess that's the least he could
do after 2 blown shortblocks. It's also a great excuse to come to Las Vegas.
March 2006
I'm
still waiting for Rob at RRE to finish working on the Talon. I've been waiting since Super Bowl Sunday. I rather
have him get it right than rush this and fuck it up again.
April 2006
Now it's getting pretty ridiculous.
I know my car is getting bumped out of line to be finished, because I am not there in California to push him. It's hard to
motivate someone who is not getting paid to finish the job for the 3rd time, but I paid a ton of money the 1st time round.
Since my car is not an everyday driver, I just take it in the ass by sitting and waiting for this DSM to be running.
How does Rob expect this to be my everyday
driver if it's down for 7 months??
April 18, 2006:
The DSM is back to life now. I want
Rob to drive this thing around LA before he comes to Vegas to drop it off. I can't wait to get some new datalogs with
the GT35R.
April 23, 2006
I have my first datalogs in 7 months.
The tune is completely off, but after around 2 hours, I have all the AFR's and timing curve in line for mid throttle. I will
need to get all of this 91 octane out of the tank so that I can do some WOT tuning. I'm getting knock at the 5000 RPM
range, but the 100 unleaded should cure that.
April 26, 2006
Wednesday Night Street Wars at the
Las Vegas Strip. I just installed the manual boost controller, so I really don't know where the boost is set at. The first
run of the night is a great baseline. The MBC was actually set way too loose, therefore I only ran 20 psi on the run. 12.22
@ 118 MPH. Clean pass with no knock, so it's time to turn up the boost.
2nd run : The boost is set at 25 psi
and all 4 tire pressure at 20psi. I cut a good 1.672 60ft. I shift to 4th gear with a lot of track still left. Then
the intercooler pipe blows off the silicone coupler and I just tap the brakes at the end. I grab the timeslip and I ended
up running 11.385 @ 113MPH. If that pipe would have held up, it could have been a high 10 sec pass.
The pipe that blew off was just below
the turbo. I need to get this pipe beaded so the hose clamp has something to grab on to. I am able to get the pipe reattatched
and make another pass. This time I have boost set at 27 psi. This time the launch is not as good and the Talon goes 11.355
@ 126 MPH. The pipe held up this run
I try to make one last pass at 30 psi.
I had another decent 60ft time at 1.73 sec. I know the launches are in the 1.7s when my windshield wiper go off. The car is
hauling ass and it drifting left and right. The 2-3 shift rips the rear view mirror off the windshield. I wish I had a cockpit
camera. At the top of 3rd the pipe blows off again, so the run is over. I cruise in for a 12.5 @ 80 MPH.
I'm very satisfied with the result,
especially since this was just a tuning session for me. Next track night, I will start at 30psi and hopefully everything will
hold up.
May 2006
I am using this time wisely,
knowing that Summertime is coming and I will not be able to tune freely with the 110F heat. I have the street tune set at
29 PSI, with no knock! I love the torque this motor creates. 2nd gear spins all 4 tires through redline. It is the end of
the month now and the car has not been giving me any headaches at all.
I do notice that after 27 PSI, I am
beginning to see a bit a coolant escape into the overflow again. I take off the valve cover and retorque the head. I find
out that the two center studs had only 60ftlb of torque on them. I retorque all the studs in steps all the way up to 100.
I take her out for a 30 PSI 3rd gear
run, and no more coolant pushing. That was a relief to see, and it was a serious power gain. I guess I was losing some of
the boost to the cooling system. I was able to spin all the tires now in 3rd gear. Sick!!
June 2006
June 2nd -Track Night:
The month of May was so trouble free
that I almost forgot that I was driving a DSM. But the next track night seem to remind me all at once. I arrive at the track
and fill a couple gallons of leaded 112 octane fuel. I pop the hood and try to increase boost a few PSI to 31. All hell breaks
loose under the hood by just adding a tiny bit more boost.
1st pass : I launch at 5250RPM and
catch a 1.73 60ft., but then I notice that the boost is only at 20PSI in 3rd and 4th gear. I get the timeslip back and see
a 11.92 @ 117 MPH. This is way down and obviously from the boost level. I figure that I must have accidentally turned the
MBC the wrong way. It was 10PM and dark, so that could have been my mistake. I screw the MBC almost full tension on the spring.
2nd Pass : Same launch and same
low boost level. Now I'm pissed. I've wasted 2 runs and I still haven't even boosted past 21 PSI. I pop the hood and find
the intake line to the PCV has blown off. This is where I was losing all my boost to. It seems that this line has been barely
holding on all through the month of May at 29 PSI, but when I bump up the boost just a tiny bit, it completely flies off.
I steal a hose clamp from my overflow and secure it to the PCV line. Time to try again.
3rd Pass: 1st and 2nd gear are monsters.
I see the boost gauge fly past 30 PSI. When I throw it in 3rd the boost drops to 20 PSI again!! I lose the boost again.
I pull over after the run and expect that PCV line to be blown off again. To my amazement, the hose clamp seemed to work perfectly
as the line is still intact. I examine a bit more to find that the line going to the blowoff valve, flew off this time. I
have to steal another hose from my extra overflow tank and secure this one also. All these BS boost source lines held perfectly
fine for an entire month, but now blowoff when I'm at the track
4th Pass : Everything should be perfect
now for a 10 second pass. With all the lines secured, I take off and notice that the boost gauge is flying past 30 PSI. The
dial actual passes 30 and almost wants to swing completely back to the vacuum side of the gauge. The motor overboosted this
time, because I had played with the MBC in the 1st two runs, that I had no idea where it was currently set. I let off
the throttle and cruise in for another low 12.
This time on the return road, I see
the coolant gauge start to fly passed the middle. I also notice that my cooling fans are no longer working. For some reason,
my fans that have been working for 2 years now, decide to take a dump while I'm 25 miles away from home at the drag strip.
I notice the 30AMP fuse is blown that powers my SPAL's fans. I only have spare 20's and I figure it should be good enough.
Nope! One after, another fail. Now I think there must be a short from the exhaust heat near the fans. I'm scared to jump the
fuse line to power the fans because of a possible short. So now I have to drive the car home with no fans and a huge FMIC
blocking all the airflow. Heater full blast became my friend for the next 25 miles.
June 7th
The Talon was back on the track,
but this time all the hoses are clamped down tight. Best run of the night was 11.32 @ 129.5 MPH. The track was not
prepped correctly after the rain storm we had. I also had fuel delivery problems after 30 PSI. It seems the Walbro 255HP
is not able to keep up with the fuel demands after 500 HP. I will have to place an additional Bosch Inline
pump and some -6 fuel lines to the rail. The PLX wideband shows the AFR's leaning up the higher I go up the RPM curve.
I saw AFR's as high as the low 13's near redline.
June 9th
I ended up getting a spur of the moment
dyno sesssion at Doug's Dyno in Henderson.
