davidathans
Well-known member
When i had my latest engine built back in October of 2004 i was shooting for 400 Engine Horsepower and a quartermile e.t. in the 12's.
As time went on i eventually made 384HP AT THE WHEELS and went as quick as 11.989 @ 111.79mph on just the motor.
When the competition (Joe De Los Santos) broke my 11.989 and challenged me to a race, i pulled a rabbit out of my hat and added a power adder, N20.
The kit had different jets for 100HP, 150HP, 175HP, 200HP, 250HP.
I was going to go with just the 100HP gain, but we put in the 150HP jets...
The day before the race on the chassis dyno the car put down 379HP and 361ft.-lbs. torque at the tires...and those numbers went up to 478HP and 457ft.-lbs. torque at the tires with the tune running lean ( air to fuel ratios of: 14.0-14.4 NA & 12.5-12.7 w/N20).
On Dec 6, 2008 at Autoclub Dragway in Fontana, i ran a 11.085 e.t. while having to back on and off the gas because i was running a 4.11 gear and a 26" tire and could only spin to 6700rpm...finished in the quarter at 110.14mph when i was at 100.68 at the 8th mile beating a modified 07 Shelby GT-500 (11.539 @ 120.25).
I broke some parts: Cracked my Gear Case in my rear end and the auburn limited slip differential was coming apart.
In 2009, i put in a nodular iron gear case, beefier pinion support and yoke, went to a Detroit Locker Differential and a 3.70 gear ratio down from a 4.11.
Then i had the carburetor re-jetted and tuned to handle the lean issue.
Had it on the chassis dyno on July 1st 2009 and it made 352HP and 296ft.-lbs torque at the tires. HP was down from 379 and torque was way down from 361 (gear ratio change and running rich instead of lean). With the Nitrous it made 469HP and 404ft.-lbs torque at the tires running so rich that it was below a 10.0:1 air fuel ratio (off the scale of the wide band air fuel meter).
Ran it like that on July 18th at Autoclub Dragway in Fontana...
Naturally Aspirated quartermile e.t. and speed were down with the 3.70 gear ratio to 12.434 @ 108.81mph.
However, with the Nitrous...i set my current bests with 11.042 e.t. and 124.08mph.
On the drive home from the track, i heard some noise coming from my axles and my MSD 6AL Ignition Box overheated (it was about 110 degrees in the San Fernando Valley and i had been driving for an hour when i hit traffic).
Towed the car home and began taking it apart...Re-wired the car, removed the windshield wipers and motor and brackets, removed the Heater core (that had been bypassed anyways), removed the A/C blower motor, and removed the last of the A/C components (switches, vents, and ducts), and took out the carpet. Took about 100 pounds off the car.
got it back on the road and had the noisy axles checked....Despite being Ford 9" 31 spline axles...the splines were starting to twist. Had them replaced with Moser 31 spline axles $420.
Then my car started flooding and stalling out. Pulled apart the carburetor and my secondary fuel bowl was flaking apart on the inside! Bad casting, bought a new one and re-tuned the carburetor.
I had a fuel pressure regulator put in, the combination of my electric pump and my mechanical pump was putting about 8psi to the carb and the fuel solenoid. When we reduced that to 6.5psi we put it on the chassis dyno again on 10/28/09....for the last time...
The car was tuned spot on...made 362HP and 298ft.-lbs torque at the tires (air fuel 12.7-13.3).
So we proceeded to run it with the Nitrous...
The tires broke loose on the dyno rollers!!
The air fuel graph showed 11.0-11.3...right where the nitrous kit recommended...didnt get an accurate horsepower and torque graph because of the tire slip though.
At this point it didnt occur to me HOW MUCH MORE HORSEPOWER WAS BEING MADE to have the tires LAY A PATCH ON THE ROLLERS...
So we ran it....one....last....time...
This time we had two people sitting in the trunk to put weight over the rear tires...
When we tromped on it, it was clear the motor stopped making HP and we got out of it right away...then i walked to the front of the car and Coolant was shooting out from where the timing cover mates up with the front of the block....catastrophic failure...
When we looked at the dyno results it showed 520RWHP!! About 40 more wheel HP than i ever made before, just by tuning it right on.
We pulled out the distributor and looked down into the block and could see it was broken inside.
I towed the car home, where i began the tear down....
The block is split in half....
This motor lasted 5 years and had 130 Races under its belt.
I had been told that a stock 302 block could only handle 500RWHP and i proved it, the hard way.
As time went on i eventually made 384HP AT THE WHEELS and went as quick as 11.989 @ 111.79mph on just the motor.
When the competition (Joe De Los Santos) broke my 11.989 and challenged me to a race, i pulled a rabbit out of my hat and added a power adder, N20.
The kit had different jets for 100HP, 150HP, 175HP, 200HP, 250HP.
I was going to go with just the 100HP gain, but we put in the 150HP jets...
The day before the race on the chassis dyno the car put down 379HP and 361ft.-lbs. torque at the tires...and those numbers went up to 478HP and 457ft.-lbs. torque at the tires with the tune running lean ( air to fuel ratios of: 14.0-14.4 NA & 12.5-12.7 w/N20).
On Dec 6, 2008 at Autoclub Dragway in Fontana, i ran a 11.085 e.t. while having to back on and off the gas because i was running a 4.11 gear and a 26" tire and could only spin to 6700rpm...finished in the quarter at 110.14mph when i was at 100.68 at the 8th mile beating a modified 07 Shelby GT-500 (11.539 @ 120.25).
I broke some parts: Cracked my Gear Case in my rear end and the auburn limited slip differential was coming apart.
In 2009, i put in a nodular iron gear case, beefier pinion support and yoke, went to a Detroit Locker Differential and a 3.70 gear ratio down from a 4.11.
Then i had the carburetor re-jetted and tuned to handle the lean issue.
Had it on the chassis dyno on July 1st 2009 and it made 352HP and 296ft.-lbs torque at the tires. HP was down from 379 and torque was way down from 361 (gear ratio change and running rich instead of lean). With the Nitrous it made 469HP and 404ft.-lbs torque at the tires running so rich that it was below a 10.0:1 air fuel ratio (off the scale of the wide band air fuel meter).
Ran it like that on July 18th at Autoclub Dragway in Fontana...
Naturally Aspirated quartermile e.t. and speed were down with the 3.70 gear ratio to 12.434 @ 108.81mph.
However, with the Nitrous...i set my current bests with 11.042 e.t. and 124.08mph.
On the drive home from the track, i heard some noise coming from my axles and my MSD 6AL Ignition Box overheated (it was about 110 degrees in the San Fernando Valley and i had been driving for an hour when i hit traffic).
Towed the car home and began taking it apart...Re-wired the car, removed the windshield wipers and motor and brackets, removed the Heater core (that had been bypassed anyways), removed the A/C blower motor, and removed the last of the A/C components (switches, vents, and ducts), and took out the carpet. Took about 100 pounds off the car.
got it back on the road and had the noisy axles checked....Despite being Ford 9" 31 spline axles...the splines were starting to twist. Had them replaced with Moser 31 spline axles $420.
Then my car started flooding and stalling out. Pulled apart the carburetor and my secondary fuel bowl was flaking apart on the inside! Bad casting, bought a new one and re-tuned the carburetor.
I had a fuel pressure regulator put in, the combination of my electric pump and my mechanical pump was putting about 8psi to the carb and the fuel solenoid. When we reduced that to 6.5psi we put it on the chassis dyno again on 10/28/09....for the last time...
The car was tuned spot on...made 362HP and 298ft.-lbs torque at the tires (air fuel 12.7-13.3).
So we proceeded to run it with the Nitrous...
The tires broke loose on the dyno rollers!!
The air fuel graph showed 11.0-11.3...right where the nitrous kit recommended...didnt get an accurate horsepower and torque graph because of the tire slip though.
At this point it didnt occur to me HOW MUCH MORE HORSEPOWER WAS BEING MADE to have the tires LAY A PATCH ON THE ROLLERS...
So we ran it....one....last....time...
This time we had two people sitting in the trunk to put weight over the rear tires...
When we tromped on it, it was clear the motor stopped making HP and we got out of it right away...then i walked to the front of the car and Coolant was shooting out from where the timing cover mates up with the front of the block....catastrophic failure...
When we looked at the dyno results it showed 520RWHP!! About 40 more wheel HP than i ever made before, just by tuning it right on.
We pulled out the distributor and looked down into the block and could see it was broken inside.
I towed the car home, where i began the tear down....
The block is split in half....
This motor lasted 5 years and had 130 Races under its belt.
I had been told that a stock 302 block could only handle 500RWHP and i proved it, the hard way.
