New guy with a question

[triplenickel]

As far as milking the oil, X2 on Bean's suggestions. Definitely need to make sure your breather or evacuation system is working properly. The only time that I ever milked the oil was because the idle was way too fat!

[427sbc]

ya I ordered wideband today and inprocess of trying to find an affordable vaccum pump system for use with a mechanical water pump....I guess I should have lubed up before I started looking at those OUCH!!!!

[427sbc]

gramps you dont think the fender dumps from headman will be able to be brought back into frame to run exhaust?
Can I trouble you for a couple of pics of where yours come out so I can see?

[bigdaddy198]

I went to Ubly to test and see how the track was. Alot of guys were being whiney about Ubly but they all treated me and my boys great really like the asphalt pits and grass parking no dust bowls track was well prepped and it felt safe to me. I was really dissapointed with Lapeer but thats how it goes. I joined a points challenge but the guy running it hates Ubly and got all ticked off when I went and tested there but I race where I want. The car seems very happy on the e85 got it really running well with the Dominator just need to keep on working out my jetting I am going to plug off the power valve and run 104's squared and hope its all good. I love the way it keeps the heat down and gives you a better handle on your et's and its really great for keeping your system clean. I screen off everything and run 3 filters and have not had any issues. I hope to see you Dan I will be in Ubly over Memorial weekend think we will just camp out at the track. If your up to it come up we can have a great time. Good luck Buddy hope the truck is doing well looked good last time I seen it running. I am hoping to be around 9.80's with my tune been laying up just getting it shook out should not be a problem. Take care Dan Maybe We will see you up in Ubly.

[s10gramps]

Ok guys we just got back from the track, it was an interesting day, I learned some things and now I have to make some adjustments. The truck is running really rich so I'm going to have to jet it down probably a couple sizes and see how it likes that. I played around with temps at the line. If I try and launch it at under 170 it acts like a race gas engine that isn't warmed up, it doesn't want to take off when you nail the accelerator. When I launched at 175 or so it launched much better with 2 passes at 11.74 each. I got my 60' time down to 1.7 but it should come down to 1.6x with proper jetting. So bottom line I red lighted in the first round of the pro bracket and ran an 11.74 on an 11.74 dial (nice huh) Then I won round 1 of the sportsman bracket 11.83 on the 11.74 dial but I beat the guy bad by the mph traps and coasted from there. Then round two I didn't have the temp up high enough at the line (maybe 165) and it stumbled on the launch and I slept on the light on top of that so I didn't have a chance. I'll jet it down and be back out there next Sunday and we'll hope for better results.

[butterbean]

Good job, yes try to always to have it at 175/180 when you leave, it may climb up yo 190/195ish by the finish line but it always cools down on the way back to the pits, try not cooling in between rounds so the temp stay's up for the next round, I know its backwards from what we have always done with race gas but its the way it is now, and YES lean on it some, you want the truck to run its fastest MPH when tuning once its at its fastest MPH it will be very close on tuning, try and go on test and tune night and change some jets, I always go 2 sizes at a time on all 4 corners, then when you are close go 1 size to fine tune and do timing the same way, start at a safe point and go 2* up at a time until the MPH falls off, then back off 2 * and let it eat!!!! good luck and happy tuning!!!

[s10gramps]

As usual thanks for the great advise BB, yes yesterday I learned that keeping the temp up is a good thing and yes it's completely different from the race gas logic. As for the timing I run my distributor locked (MSD 6AL programmable so I can set a retard curve with a laptop) from idle to 2000rpm I bring the timing up 8 degrees gradually and it's all in at 2000 rpm at 36 degrees, it's what I was running and just left it as is until now. Here's my thoughts, tell me if you agree and if not what would you do differently. I want to get the jetting set correctly first and then adjust the timing if necessary. I couldn't change the jetting yesterday because I didn't have any jets big enough that would have been 2 sizes down from what's in there, I only had what I used last year from the old gas carb. My new jet kits will be here tomorrow and I'll be good to go then. Another thing I have to do is learn to read the plugs on E85 I'm attaching pics, let me know if from these pics you can tell anything, I'm pretty d**ned sure it's running quite rich, but if you can explain what I should be looking for on the plugs that would be great. Those are the #2, #4, and #1 plugs from L to R in the two pics. Thanks again BB.

[triplenickel]

Hey gramps. Kinda hard to read the plugs in those pics. There's a thread on the general board page that is 5 or 6 down that explains about reading plugs.
When you say that it doesn't want to take off, does it just fall on it's face like it has a big flat spot or does it blubber along & then clean up? Are you foot braking? What rpm are you leaving at?

[s10gramps]

It stumbles then takes off but it doesn't do it if the temp is up to 175 or better. It acts just like this motor did on race gas when it wasn't warmed up enough. I went thru the getting the accelerator pump cams and squirters set right last year on the race gas set up, but this isn't like that, like I said if I don't warm it up to 175 or better it does this, it's just part of the learning curve on the E85 I'm sure. Yes I foot brake and yesterday I was leaving at 2000rpm which is where my timing is all in at. I can leave as high as 2400 rpm. Triple did you click on the pics to enlarge them??

[triplenickel]

No, I didn't enlarge them the first look, but I did since you mentioned it. Yes, they do look a little fat. What is your fuel %?

[triplenickel]

Does your motor warm up fairly easily or do you have to run it a lot to build heat?

[s10gramps]

Well it will warm up pretty easily, I live in Michigan and yesterday it was still fairly cold so that was part of it. I don't use a thermostat, but I can bring the temp up to pretty much where I want it to say 190 pretty easy and then hold it there by turning the electric fan on. So It's going to be up to the loose nut behind the wheel to get that temp up to the right range before I stage it. As for the fuel percentage the highest I can get right now is 81% they are still bringing it up from the 70% winter blend here in Michigan. The station I get it at is real good and shows me the delivery tickets which show what percentage is delivered to them and the last load was 80%, so that's another contributing factor in the motor running fat. When Iget my new assortment of jets tomorrow I'll drop it back 2 sizes both primary and secondary and see how it likes it there.

[triplenickel]

Between the fuel % & Justus setting it up on the fat side, I would say yes, lean it out. If you're warming up quickly, then your idle may be on the lean side. You could try coming out with your idle mixture screws 1/4 turn. This will fatten the idle a little which may help the stumble. That way, if for some reason you don't quite get to your usual temp, it won't stumble. Just remember where you started so that you can go back if necessary.

[butterbean]

Tripelnickel has give you good advise too, I would also play with the timing to, you are ok where you had it set with gas but some heads don't like a lot of timing when using E fuel and alky so you may need to take a little timing out as you fine tune, like we said its a learning curve and we will help you get there, the plugs do look a little fat to me but it is really hard to read plugs when running this fuel, when its rite the plug threads will have color on them as well as the strap Blue/Goldish coloring but that will come when its fine tuned

[s10gramps]

Ok thanks for the good info guys, I'll keep working on getting it dialed in, I actually enjoy the figuring out the tuning part of this. I think the key to this as in most things is patience and make small changes, not big ones until you get it just right.