Big Red Stock Bottom End King World Record Pass

KStromberg

Vortech kicked in yo
I loaded up Big Red onto the trailer and went to Great Lakes Dragaway yesterday with my buddy in the quest for 10s. Lots of variables today but we figured them all out and the magic happened.

First, on the new dyno tune when I was making test hits on the street little did I know that not only my 1-2 shift but my 2-3 shift as well was hitting the limiter due to traction issues and NOT the tune. We had pushed my rev limiter out to 7100 rpm to try to correct the issue and it was still happening so the final tweak my tuner pulled my shift pounts back. Well, once I made my first pass on a prepped track it immediately shifted at 6200 rpms so now the car was short-shifting out of first! :eek-large: At that point I immediately realized that I should have left the shift points where they were before and I would be fine. For the rest of the day I manually shifted the car to get about 6900rpms on the 1-2 and 2-3.

For the first hour and a half the car was running in the 11.4-11.5 range. I was quickly losing hope and was baffled as to why the car was running slower now than last October. Meanwhile, another fellow Mark8 enthusiast was on his way to see me run and decided to bring his to run. He has a Gen2 with a Novi Centrifugal on meth injection.

Here is where everything changed. :cool:
We got into discussing IATs and he was telling me how his are around 70-80 degrees after a full pass. All of a sudden the 140 degree IATs that I saw on the dyno didn't sound so good. So Big Red still has the meth injection on it but it has been sitting inactive due to a bad relay that was discovered earlier. My buddy looks at me and says we should get the meth resurrected again and see how it runs. So we took out the bad relay and stole the one for my horn and hooked it up. :laugh:

First pass after we hooked up the meth for some odd reason I lost my composure and completely blew the tires off out of the hole with a 1.82 short time but noticed I still ran an 11.4 but now my mph was up in both the 1/8 and the 1/4 by about 2mph. We are onto something here! With my 60s all averaging in the low 1.5s I decided to make another pass to get my 1.5 60 back and see where the ET was. Bam! 11.122@121.35mph

BUT we weren't stopping there. Now I noticed that since the meth is now active the car has gone a full point rich so after consulting with my surgeon over the phone decided to dial back 3 psi on the fuel pressure regulator. This brought my AF ratios from 11.2 to just about 11.5 on the wideband next pass. Bam! 11.017@122.18 mph. I didn't want to mess with fuel pressure any further so we decided to leave it and give some cool down time.

Next pass proved to be very similar with an 11.060@121.73 mph. Does this car really want 10s?!!!

With LITERALLY 10 minutes left of track time I went out for one last and final pass expecting to go home with an "oh so close" result. I did a John Force burnout and footbraked to 4000 rpm and let her go. 10.980@122.56 mph. YESSSSS!!!

To add to the excitement my tuner is going to pull some fuel and add possibly 1 more degree or 2 if it wants it now that the meth is running again and the car should go deeper.

Ladies and gentleman, feast your eyes on the first stock bottom end Mark VIII to hit 10s!! :cool:

https://youtu.be/BSKtLUNJ0OY

 
Last edited by a moderator:

tixer

Lincoln Evangelist
Congratulations, Kirk!!!

What a great run.

You know, you could take out that neon ballast and save a couple pounds.. (I kid, I kid..)
 

driller

El Presidente
First, congrats on achieving 10's! :thumbsup:

Were you able to footbrake to 4000 rpms? :err-what?:

How much boost is that at launch? :confused:

Did you happen to datalog any runs?

What's your thought on the converter change?

It sounded like the converter must've been locked right at the shift as there didn't seem to be any rpm change after the shift?

As far as the meth goes, just remember "live by the sword, die by the sword". If you start tuning A/F and spark with the meth, you risk running lean and detonating should anything ever happen with the meth injection. Cooler IAT's is where the benefit is. Even at 140* IAT, the PCM isn't pulling any timing. Just my $0.02.

One more question...

Was that a video of a video? :laugh:
 

KStromberg

Vortech kicked in yo
Great Lakes Dragaway on Union Grove Wisconsin?
Yessir!

First, congrats on achieving 10's! :thumbsup:

Were you able to footbrake to 4000 rpms? :err-what?:

How much boost is that at launch? :confused:

Did you happen to datalog any runs?

What's your thought on the converter change?

It sounded like the converter must've been locked right at the shift as there didn't seem to be any rpm change after the shift?

As far as the meth goes, just remember "live by the sword, die by the sword". If you start tuning A/F and spark with the meth, you risk running lean and detonating should anything ever happen with the meth injection. Cooler IAT's is where the benefit is. Even at 140* IAT, the PCM isn't pulling any timing. Just my $0.02.

One more question...

Was that a video of a video? :laugh:
Yes it is a video of a video. My buddy recorded the pass on his phone because mine was dead. 140 degree IATs were seen on the dyno put that is pulling in one gear. At the track I think they were probably higher but I don't have any datalogs to verify. My tuner had my tune set up to trickle in more timing as IATs drop. Since I forced probably a 60ish degree drop in IATs once we activated the meth it is pretty clear I picked up hp while I was at the track and probably making even more hp than I saw on the dyno.

I would have to probably look back and try to analyze some videos to find out what the boost is at 4k rpms but I do recall that is the spot where the car just starts coming out of vacuum. I recall it was about 1psi or so at 4k rpms. If that is the case, then it had a conservative 15ish hp more on the launch since it was now leaving on a pound. This very much was the whole concept behind John Mihovetz suggestion to me via telephone to give the car more stall. I distinctly remember him saying if I loosen up the converter further not only will it footbrake much harder but it will be at higher boost upon the gear changes due to less fallback on the tachometer and it is all about maintaining a more linear pattern with the boost to increase my overall average utilized hp going down the track.

Unfortunately, we attempted lockup again and it really appears as if this converter is just simply not going to hold lockup. When I made my first couple passes on the lockup tune it would lockup in 3rd gear and about a half-second later just let go again. Since it wan't holding, all that was doing for me was pulling my boost back for a split second and slowing me down. It immediately mph'd quicker on the next pass with a slightly quicker ET on the unlocked tune so we left it unlocked for the remainder of the day.

For the sake of consistency I just picked a number on my tach and decided that with the looser converter that was going to be the number 4. LOL. It indeed even to my surprise held on the brakes all the way to 4 and honestly felt like I could have given it even slightly more, but again. Simplicity. The big number 4 or else messing around on the countdown trying to hit the hashmarks between the big numbers. I footbraked at that and the 60s were monster so I kept it the same.

I really think you should consider a very loose converter like me especially since it seems that your 5.3 setup makes power very high. Sustaining high rpms and more footbrake is a double whammy thank you mammy.



On a side note, we have verified she got a sliver of air. :laugh:

received_1495874283822451.jpg
 

KStromberg

Vortech kicked in yo
Nice job Kirk! Any plans to go again this year?
I had the wild idea of having my tuner tweak the fuel tables now that Big Red is a meth-head again and seeing if it would take another degree or two of timing and running it at the last Test Day at Rock Falls this weekend to push her deeper and then I saw that it is going to be an Indian summer this weekend. So no thanks. Lol. The air this weekend won't be as good as it was this last Sunday. No point in going back and running the same time or slower.

Plus I think my blower seal has finally crapped the bed. It was pissing all over my engine at the track this last Sunday. :laugh:
 

KStromberg

Vortech kicked in yo
This guy. Nuts. :big-grin:
I like to party. And a certain someone has been pushing my buttons to go faster. It will be interesting to see what he has up his sleeve now but I am the first to go 10s ever so he lost there....forever. Somebody is going to need bigger jets and another spare set of axles. And I also intend on going even faster.
 

tonybrooklyn

New member
I like to party. And a certain someone has been pushing my buttons to go faster. It will be interesting to see what he has up his sleeve now but I am the first to go 10s ever so he lost there....forever. Somebody is going to need bigger jets and another spare set of axles. And I also intend on going even faster.
Tremendous achievement on a stock bottom end and it stayed together for multiple passes. Testament as to how well these Mod Motors are made. Don't back peddle now you have the right mindset Go for it!
Best of Luck!
 

KStromberg

Vortech kicked in yo
I have a wild idea for next year. Same boost, but wastegated. I gotta do some research and see if I will have belt slip on a 6-rib setup if I pulley way down. I got a few more weight ideas as well. I think I can get it to go 10.50s

Either wastegated or I might just say screw it and put the 3.33 on it which should produce 15 psi.

The wastegate setup is gonna make the boost come on much more like a PD blower and significantly raise torque sooner in the curve and overall. My concern with a pulley down wastegate setup is smacking the axles so hard they no longer hold on.

But let's be real. There is probably a lot of things inside my engine that are playing a game of tug-o-war. LOL
 
Last edited:

driller

El Presidente
I have a wild idea for next year. Same boost, but wastegated. I gotta do some research and see if I will have belt slip on a 6-rib setup if I pulley way down. I got a few more weight ideas as well. I think I can get it to go 10.50s

Either wastegated or I might just say screw it and put the 3.33 on it which should produce 15 psi.

The wastegate setup is gonna make the boost come on much more like a PD blower and significantly raise torque sooner in the curve and overall. My concern with a pulley down wastegate setup is smacking the axles so hard they no longer hold on.

But let's be real. There is probably a lot of things inside my engine that are playing a game of tug-o-war. LOL
I mentioned this years ago to Mike Schultz when he was modifying The Mark.

In theory it bring more overall power across the entire power band. You would need to look at the boost curve on the dynochart. If it were me, I would start with less boost and and inch your way back up to near current peak boost level.
 

driller

El Presidente
Unfortunately, we attempted lockup again and it really appears as if this converter is just simply not going to hold lockup. When I made my first couple passes on the lockup tune it would lockup in 3rd gear and about a half-second later just let go again. Since it wan't holding, all that was doing for me was pulling my boost back for a split second and slowing me down. It immediately mph'd quicker on the next pass with a slightly quicker ET on the unlocked tune so we left it unlocked for the remainder of the day.
I believe not being able to lock up the converter is costing you in ET but it may actually be saving you as well since engine load is going to be somewhat less.

I was advised once not to even worry about lock-up and just run an open converter. How well that works depends on gearing, tire size and top end rpms. For now, I'm running a lock-up converter but you have convinced me to loosen it up more. :wink:
 

KStromberg

Vortech kicked in yo
Driller,

What is your stall rated at now? I couldn't believe how much more footbrake I got. Also after looking at my 11.12 pass video again, this thing is closer to about a 6700 rpm fallback on the gear shifts compared to 6000 it was at next year. 700 rpms deeper in the boost. No wonder.....

Does your car make power all the way to 7000 rpms? They cut mine at 6800 on the dyno but it was STILL PULLING. I bet I was around 480rwhp at the track shifting at darn near 7k.

I think it will be all positive results for you. Let me know how that works out. #allthestall
 

mlschultz

Boost King
Congratulations, Kirk! Awesome job! :thumbsup: For some reference, my nephew went for the stock engine title in his manual trans 2v 4.6 Mustang a few years back. He made it to 526 whp / 5xx tq using a single 62 when the oil pump failed. He replaced it with a built teksid. Good luck!
 
Top