I can only imagine how scary that must have been. Glad to see the new trans is working out so well. Unfortunately I don't know enough about tuning to be able to help with the air/fuel mixtures, but I hope I can learn more as you do!
Definitely too lean, especially for road course use. Want to add a bit of extra fuel for piston crown cooling and to reduce stress risers/detonation at prolonged load. I'd go mid 12's minimum. On a drag strip it'll survive leaner, but as you really saturate the piston crown on a road course, you need to be wary of crown temps and piston ring end gaps. I'd err on the side of caution air/fuel wise and stay mid 12's at minimum. May even consider a step colder plug. I'd monitor the ground strap heat indicator lines (you want the heat lines mid turn on the ground strap) to be sure you aren't overheating the plugs. Once knock sets in, you start increasing egt's, pounding the piston crown, pounding the bearings with load...all down hill.
RC000E I ended up replacing all the gaskets in the carb, power valve, and going up two jet sizes on the secondary jets. It now runs low to mid 12s on the AFR. I also retarded the timing a little bit and replaced the spark plugs. Thanks for commenting. -Adam
Yeah, that's a good move. Road course duty, it's definitely worth sacrificing a few hp/tq for a safety margin. MBT is your target...minimum timing best torque, minus a tad for a safety. I owned/operated a Land and Sea chassis dyno for a number of years, tuned EMS for nearly 10. There's a lot of bad information and a lot of tuners doing the wrong things. That industry has essentially no regulation, so true understanding is hard to find. I knew shops that blew up motors like a hobby and clapped when it happened, as if the limit was pushed and successfully found (with someone elses money). I prided myself in finding power, but doing so with a safety net for the owner. I had a lot of long term and repeat customers because of that ideology. I don't chase every last hp, unless that's what they wanted....even then, I'd make an exec decision to only go so far. I never lost a motor to tuning, or on that dyno. On your car, I'd invest (if you don't have one), in a tool to cut spark plugs. This allows you to "read" the porcelain deep at the base of the plug (where you can't see). This is where you're real wide opened throttle conditions will show, as cylinder pressure will push the evidence deep into that plug cavity. Once you feel dialed, a fresh set of plugs, a wide opened pull with immediate shut down (coast to a stop) will give you a good indication of actual combustion conditions. This will verify no knock exists at temp, even in the most subtle form. As long as you have a capable cooling system to stabilize those conditions, then you'll be good. Just tryin to help. Keep up the good work.
I can only imagine how scary that must have been. Glad to see the new trans is working out so well. Unfortunately I don't know enough about tuning to be able to help with the air/fuel mixtures, but I hope I can learn more as you do!
Definitely too lean, especially for road course use. Want to add a bit of extra fuel for piston crown cooling and to reduce stress risers/detonation at prolonged load. I'd go mid 12's minimum. On a drag strip it'll survive leaner, but as you really saturate the piston crown on a road course, you need to be wary of crown temps and piston ring end gaps. I'd err on the side of caution air/fuel wise and stay mid 12's at minimum. May even consider a step colder plug. I'd monitor the ground strap heat indicator lines (you want the heat lines mid turn on the ground strap) to be sure you aren't overheating the plugs. Once knock sets in, you start increasing egt's, pounding the piston crown, pounding the bearings with load...all down hill.
RC000E I ended up replacing all the gaskets in the carb, power valve, and going up two jet sizes on the secondary jets. It now runs low to mid 12s on the AFR. I also retarded the timing a little bit and replaced the spark plugs. Thanks for commenting. -Adam
Yeah, that's a good move. Road course duty, it's definitely worth sacrificing a few hp/tq for a safety margin. MBT is your target...minimum timing best torque, minus a tad for a safety. I owned/operated a Land and Sea chassis dyno for a number of years, tuned EMS for nearly 10. There's a lot of bad information and a lot of tuners doing the wrong things. That industry has essentially no regulation, so true understanding is hard to find. I knew shops that blew up motors like a hobby and clapped when it happened, as if the limit was pushed and successfully found (with someone elses money). I prided myself in finding power, but doing so with a safety net for the owner. I had a lot of long term and repeat customers because of that ideology. I don't chase every last hp, unless that's what they wanted....even then, I'd make an exec decision to only go so far. I never lost a motor to tuning, or on that dyno.
On your car, I'd invest (if you don't have one), in a tool to cut spark plugs. This allows you to "read" the porcelain deep at the base of the plug (where you can't see). This is where you're real wide opened throttle conditions will show, as cylinder pressure will push the evidence deep into that plug cavity. Once you feel dialed, a fresh set of plugs, a wide opened pull with immediate shut down (coast to a stop) will give you a good indication of actual combustion conditions. This will verify no knock exists at temp, even in the most subtle form. As long as you have a capable cooling system to stabilize those conditions, then you'll be good.
Just tryin to help. Keep up the good work.
Wow, 1 bolt!!! That's insane lol.
azurebluemach I actually heard one of the bolts fall out about 1/2 a mile from the shop. I pulled over and picked it up off the road. Adam