The truck is alive and almost ready for KY..

I worked on the truck all day Saturday. I got the brakes re-plumbed correctly and re-wired the starter for use with the new LIPO batteries mounted at the firewall. I heated the oil and started it on C16. Switched over to methanol and it ran great. Ran it down on C16 and everything was clean and free from moisture.

Idles better than a new car..

Sounds great David.

What was the issue with the brake plumbing?

Chassis guy that worked on it had the rear brakes connected to the front port and the front brakes to the rear port. Also, left off the residual valve on the rear.

David Willingham wrote:Chassis guy that worked on it had the rear brakes connected to the front port and the front brakes to the rear port. Also, left off the residual valve on the rear.

mine is that way. Depending on your m/c it may not matter. Where is the m/c mounted?

Backwards under the seat. Strange and Bickel told me to change it, so I did.

David Willingham wrote:Backwards under the seat. Strange and Bickel told me to change it, so I did.

mounted low can be a problem sometimes for sure. I got a lot of different answers when i built mine and in the end the strange m/c makes no difference how its hooked up. long as it stops it don't matter!

On an OEM brake system you always want the front brakes applying first, on a drag car it's a muddy subject.

All kinda depends on who you talk to, and the application, if you want the front or rear brakes applying first/hardest. Because of m/c placement & orientation on a drag car (on firewall facing forward vs under the floor facing backward) it can sometimes be confusing as to which m/c port is the "front port" or "rear port". I just call them "port closest to pushrod" (usually acts first/has more volume on most Fords & Mopars) & "port farthest from pushrod" (usually acts second).

Some drag guys say that the rear brakes need to apply first. Their thinking is because the rear tire footprint is normally larger than the front, applying the rears first increases stopping power. And that the front brakes acting first can lock-up the skinny front runners small footprint too easily and reduce your ability to stop. Also IIRC on this site it has been mentioned that some of the turbo guys (with dual rear calipers each side) like the rear brakes applying first/hardest as well to help staging the car while spooling up the turbos.

But I'm usually of the opinion that the front brakes need to apply first/hardest (like OEM does) on most any drag car because the last thing you want to have happen on a drag car at speed is to lock-up the rear brakes and spin the car around at the finish line.

And as for the Strange Mopar style master cylinders IIRC both ports have the same pressure, but they do not have the same volume/don't act at the same time (port closest to pushrod has more volume/acts first). So in the past I usually plumbed the Strange Mopar m/c with the port closest to the pushrod going to the front brakes, and the port farthest from pushrod going to the rear brakes. Also I don't use a proportioning valve with this layout, but do use residual valve/valves depending on the height of the m/c above the calipers.

On a car that uses a 'chute every pass the "front brakes first vs rear brakes first" thing might not be as much of an issue since you're usually not jumping on the brakes super hard every pass. But I guess one way it could become a problem (when applying the rears first) in this situation is if a car's 'chute unloaded the rear slicks (from 'chute tether being mounted too low on the car) as the rear brakes were applying first making it easier to lock them up.

It's been a long row to hoe and well worth waiting for , but David you have done an outstanding job building the truck. That thing sounds sweet.

Sounds awesome David! Glad it's getting towards the end of the "to do list". I can't wait to see it make a fast pass...

congrats on getting her to purr !!!! sounds awesome David

David sound great let me know how the new battery deal works out for you.

Cant wait to see her run

Sounds great!

Question, when looking at the race pack dash, did I see the oil pressure at 200+ psi? Or are my eyes speaking a foreign language to my brain?

At that low rpm, it was 25ish. You probably seen 23.0 at that rpm and oil temp of 156. At 1500 rpm, it's usually 70-80. The left side is oil pres, fuel pres, pan vac, left O2. The right side is Battery volts, oil temp, cyl head temp, right O2. The cylinder head temp was unplugged as I moved the sensor location and the wire wouldn't reach. The dash is a Data Maxx and it flashes zero a lot. I hate it, but my EFI computer won't drive anything else unless I pay the engineer to write code to drive another brand.

Gotcha. I was pretty confident it wasn't 250 but I couldn't see the ".".... I have never seen one of the Dash packs like that so I am not sure how they work / what they are supposed to look like or display.


Still sounds good though!

It sounds real good

Sounds good! Why so low on the idle?

PS. I have seen it making rounds on FB.

David,

I plumbed my dodge m/c front brakes to the port away from the push rod, and the rear to the closest port to the push rod.

I mounted an adjustable proportional valve beside the driver seat to my left in the floor pan. The first race I tried it at was Windy hollow and dang near went into the corn. I had to slide it side ways onto the return road to get stopped.

Road testing and track testing were not the same .

After I knew what to expect I started dialing in rear bias until it started sliding the rears and trying to bounce and then backed off till the fronts were locking up just before the rears.

It's been that way ever since.

Josh, last October, Chuck Ford fattened up the idle and lowered it so it would cool the engine down anytime it was idling and not try to push into the lights. After I left his shop, it never would idle lower than 1500. Saturday, I heated up the oil for 2 hours before I started it and started it on c16. After it used about half a gallon and started running out, I poured methanol in the tank. It was idling at 1600 or so with the lean out switch on, which takes out 55% of fuel up to 2000rpm.
Oil temp was 156. I flipped the switch off and it idled down like that. I don't know why it changes. Engine temp, inconsistent hat, temp changes affecting the hat, idk. I just thought it sounded cool. I will experiment with some more Friday and see what it does.

David Willingham wrote:Josh, last October, Chuck Ford fattened up the idle and lowered it so it would cool the engine down anytime it was idling and not try to push into the lights. After I left his shop, it never would idle lower than 1500. Saturday, I heated up the oil for 2 hours before I started it and started it on c16. After it used about half a gallon and started running out, I poured methanol in the tank. It was idling at 1600 or so with the lean out switch on, which takes out 55% of fuel up to 2000rpm.
Oil temp was 156. I flipped the switch off and it idled down like that. I don't know why it changes. Engine temp, inconsistent hat, temp changes affecting the hat, idk. I just thought it sounded cool. I will experiment with some more Friday and see what it does.

I agree that it sounds awesome, different for sure!

That make sense, high idle on the lean out and low idle off. Plus the fact going from C16 to M1, I'm surprised you was able to mix the fuels. Is it running closed loop?

PS. I wanted to know where you got the bell housing studs from? I was just going to order some custom length studs from ARP. (FYI, I am going to use safety wire bolts on the header's)

Josh, I have ordered bellhousing studs from Jerry Bickel, Summit, and McMaster Carr. I bought some SS 12pt bolts from McMaster-Carr a few weeks ago and they were ARP! I don't know anything about closed-loop, which I guess has something to do with OEM EFI and whether or not it's adjusting fuel based off of sensors when cold or something? The MFI system doesn't do any of that. It just uses rpm, manifold vacuum, and the fuel table. I have a fuel modifier on the events page that allows me to add or subtract fuel. When I run C16, I just take out about 80% of the fuel (methanol idle commanded A/F ratio is 2.7:1 for cooling) and hold the throttle open a little bit. I'm just experimenting and having fun. I may add a needle valve to the hat so I can adjust the idle easier. Those big butterflies flow too much air to control the idle very well on a NA deal. They are practically shut.

Hope you get the chance to bring it to U.S.60.Truck sounds like a beast.

Yes, closed loop would be the efi correcting the fuel tables it's self. Open loop is where you lock you fuel table and it won't change. A lot safer to run open loop, if you ever had a injector fail it won't try to correct its self.

2.1,,,,, I'd hate to be in you shop when that thing cranks up and idles! LoL good way to clear the staging lanes as well!! LoL

Biglucky, I will be there!