On the 'mildly' Cheap SS Monte Carlo chasing a 9.0___

[64nailhead]

Well that confirms that my idea to beef up the shock mount plates is a good idea. I’m going to need some info on the scramble button…….

The arm brackets are 3/16 and the shock mount plate is 1/8. I’m changing them to 3/16 and going to add a little more. I broke the left side at DW ‘22 and made an ‘in the field’ repair. Both times I’ve broken the left side was beating on it on the street with the rebound cranked up on the shocks on not so smooth road.

The scramble button doubles as the bump. It has to be wired into the main harness (not the dash) to use the Holley designed transbrake setup. Really quite easy once you mess with it some.

 

[GroceryGetter83]

Broke the shock mounts ;(

Did you use 14 gauge metal for these?! 🤔

 

[64nailhead]

Did you use 14 gauge metal for these?! 🤔

It looks it haha, but .125”.

 

[64nailhead]

Rear end with upgraded shock brackets is done and the rear is back in the car. Took it out for a short rip without the exhaust (only the down pipe) on. I’ve been hearing a noise that was bothering me - engine noise (ughh). So I tore the top end apart, compression and leak down - all good. Pull the rockers, check pushrods and springs - all good. Check plugs, wires - all good. Re-torque the heads (pull exhaust manifold to do it.) Put it all back together and can still hear something. 🙁 🙁 Pressure test intake and smoke test the exhaust - cracked pipe between one of the exhaust manifolds and the turbo inlet. Close inspection of the leak found I had the weld too hot next to the WG pipe - I melted some of the 2.25” pipe. This wastegate has a long 1.75” discharge pipe creating extra stress on the weld.

Repaired the weld, added a piece of reinforcing plate around the joint. Put it all back together and started it up - noise gone thank God - I was ready to pull the motor to find the noise. I’m really glad it was only an exhaust leak.

Lesson of day (for me) stop expecting the the worst and check the simple stuff. I made a new WG discharge from smaller 1.5” pipe to lessen the weight on the whole setup and my welds.


I’ve discovered, the hard way, that’s rear brakes are not from a 93-00 Explorer, but rather an Explorer Sport Trac. The upside is the rotors are 12” rather than 11” and the pads are almost twice the surface area of the Exploder rear pad. The downside, I have a brand new set of rotors for an Explorer that I re-drilled and a set of Exploder EBC Yellow Stuff pads (both non-returnable) that I can’t use.

Oh well, have to take the good with the bad I guess. If anyone needs some Explorer brakes and pads, then let me know haha.

 

[Supercharged111]

I would have never guessed the sport trac got more rear brake, you got me thinking back to your comments in my g body thread regarding 9" rear brakes.

 

[81cutlass]

You have had the Summit Pro LS forged pistons/rods for about a year now right? Have you been happy with them I take it? no bent rods lately so must be doing decent?

 

[64nailhead]

I would have never guessed the sport trac got more rear brake, you got me thinking back to your comments in my g body thread regarding 9" rear brakes.

Newer ‘02 or ‘03 upto ‘09. They use a phenolic insert in the caliper that requires a different pad mounting setup.

Ford……..Blasphemi is all I can say.

 

[64nailhead]

You have had the Summit Pro LS forged pistons/rods for about a year now right? Have you been happy with them I take it? no bent rods lately so must be doing decent?

I had them since prior to Sick Week in February so I don’t have too much time in them. They are 2618 aluminum which requires more piston to wall clearance. This means that you can’t just slap a set of standards into a stock factory bore unless the bore is worn .003-.005”.

They’ve been fine so far and I haven’t been easy on them. I have ran it at 32-34 psi and over boosted it once to 39ish psi. The tune was safe there. Like 8 degrees of timing haha (just in case 😉 )

I’ll be leaning on them HARD next month.

 

[64nailhead]

I finally, repeat finally, got the Jake’s D1 to bump when in boost - FINALLY (did I say that already?)

Hopefully this is the last tuning piece of the puzzle for me to not waste runs and be more consistent with 60’ times.

Also put on some new fronts, 205/75R15, that are 2” taller than the previous 165/80R15’s. Gets my SUV pan another 1” off the ground which I desperately needed as well.




Took it out for a short ride, and tuned the TB in a vacant parking lot because my wife is not a fan of any type of launch/TB tuning in our driveway. Good reason to go for a drive 😉

Very little left to do before MW Drags - put in new, non expired belts (thank you NHRA), put in the trans blanket and engine diaper, and mount the SSR somewhere out of sight now that it’s functioning as it should.

Onto some tow vehicle and trailer maintenance.


Almost forgot to mention, and I’ve mentioned this before, to those of you that like the feel of standing on the loud pedal……………OMC, get a turbo, supercharger, blower of some nature - WOW is all I can say 😜. It is beyond fun to drive!!!!!!

 

[64nailhead]

Summit Midwest Drags 2023 is in the books. A new PB every day - so I have no complaints.

This is the best I could do throughout the week. Saved it for the last day haha (not really - I tried like hell all week). The weather sucked for going fast - humidity through the roof and Virginia weather 90 degrees or so. I've looked over the logs too many times to recount. I'm sure that cooler weather, or some night racing would help me by a .1. But I'm still missing some ET for the amount of boost and fuel consumption that I'm seeing - I SHOULD BE FASTER AT 33PSI!

I'm sill in disbelief that this thing has more left in it. The attached videos were taken by the young lady that gave me the car (how strange is that??) She is a professional photographer for a couple of teams that run the PDRA series. She setup an in car camera as well that she still has to send me the vids from.


The problems encountered - a rear caliper got a little too hot and locked up during the 6+ hour drive on day one; I blew the FPR boost reference line off on day 3 and made it to 41 psi of boost before the boost cut shut off the motor - thank you Bosch 210's and Holley closed loop correction - never leaned out and saved the motor.