A Day at the Races

[Kevin - Blown 95 TA]

The Good: (leave blank)

The Bad: Well, my day at the track was nothing short of craptacular. My buddies all got turned away for not having slicks or drag radials on a supposed T&T day... Who ever heard of that???

It was a whopping $40 to get in today for some odd reason

best ET - 12.003 & best 60 - 1.81 - couldn't buy an 11
best mph - 119, and not in the same run.


The Ugly: All not as good as my sig. Then blew a head gasket on the last of 4 runs and got delivered home uncerimoniously on a flatbed - $63. The ole blowby problem looks worse. Worst of all, there's no booze in the house and I'm too tired to go get any.

Non-Related-But-Worth-Mentioning: I DID get to see two different mustangs do near vertical wheelstands, one of which crashed down onto the barrier and got taken away on a hook.

[Kevin - Blown 95 TA]

Heres a photo from my car in the staging lanes (attachement)

[Joe 1320]

Sorry broh..... I've had days like that and they bite.

[Kevin - Blown 95 TA]

Thanks Joe, but it's more a simple matter of my poor stock shortblock not really being up to the demands of the power adder as so many guys have found out before me. I might have detonated even with the water injection, or the boost compression was just too much for the gasket. I am very interested to take it apart and finally figure out why I seemed to have one cyl not making good compression, although it wasn't apparent when I had the heads off last time. I have another shortblock which I will have built, now sooner than I planned - but I had planned it all along, anyway. I also overheated heads a few times by forgetting to put the fuse for the water pump back in after a reprogram, so that stressed the gaskets, I'm sure.

Maybe I will go out to the garage today and the F-Body elves will have fixed it for me

[Joe 1320]

Maybe I will go out to the garage today and the F-Body elves will have fixed it for me

Hahaha.... I've wished for that before!

[fastTa]

Days like that really just get under your skin. I feel ya. I guess better a gasket than something broke.

Have you dyno'ed your car recently Kev? I was just curious what you are putting down.

[Kevin - Blown 95 TA]

Days like that really just get under your skin. I feel ya. I guess better a gasket than something broke.

Have you dyno'ed your car recently Kev? I was just curious what you are putting down.

My own fault, probably shouldn't have gone racing with that one cyl not up to par and causing the blowby - my engine was not really healthy, but the test runs had it running like a banshee. I never dyno'd it - maybe after I get a good shortblock in there, whenever that is. Right now, I got antifreeze in my oil, etc, and I don't just want to fix the gasket since there's something wrong in the engine, too, so I'm going to fix it right - it's just going to take me a while - it's hard to do in an apartment garage where I have no room. It'll probably be late summer before it's done. Thanx Guys.

[thomas]

Sorry to hear that man.

[Kevin - Blown 95 TA]

Sorry to hear that man.

Thanks - no biggie. I aleady have another block cause I knew this was coming sooner or later. The head gasket blowing just made it worse to work on and more urgent, since the car is unusable. I could fix it temporarily with $100 worth of gaskets (assuming there's no major damage), but it would still have the blowby prob, so might as well do it right.

[Steel2686]

Sorry to hear about your day. We've all had 'em. When it rains....

At least you are going to do it right. This is completely cliche, but it could be a blessing in disguise. I'm interested in hearing how it turns out. Keep us posted.

[Joe 1320]

so might as well do it right.

As I always say, better to do it right instead of twice. Are you going with a 4 bolt Vette block? I think Scoggin-Dickey had a deal going on 4 bolt Vette shortblocks.........

[Kevin - Blown 95 TA]

Joe - Probably splayed caps which is why I bought a 2-bolt block. Forged slugs & crank, H-beam rods, balanced. Maybe a 383, but unsure about that right now. I'll look at the S.D. special, though - thanks for the tip - I think they quit sending me flyers since I never bought anything from them.

If I buy a shortblock already done, i would be up & running a lot sooner next spring then if I build one. I'll have to see what deals are out there.