1979 Malibu

[Blue_69_malibu]

It's right next to Barzini and Moe Greene's Place..............

[TireSmoker]

When I was under the car the other day, I looked at the trans mount and didn't like what I saw. The dang thing is basically hollow. There is a thin-something in the very middle, but it seems like it could easily deflect under load and cause the noises I'm hearing on a hard launch.

I picked up a new polyurethane from Autozone. There's a big Made in U.S.A on it, so that's good.

I'll test it sometime tomorrow.

[TireSmoker]

Test drive successful! No more noise under hard acceleration!

[MostMint]

That's a big plus! Must have been messing up the geometry for the driveshaft.

[Blue_69_malibu]

Can't beat an easy, cheap fix.

So...what are you doing this evening?

[TireSmoker]

Weather looks iffy and no uhaul trailer available.

I did get a quick datalog of a good pull during the test drive and the AFR readings all look really good.

Might be time to throw a little more boost at it!!

[TireSmoker]

I did a short drive/log/analyze, my 3rd round of it. It really runs well.

I bought some badges for it. My informal polling so far says to put them on the fenders. What say you?

[MostMint]

can't go wrong with either of those locations

[TireSmoker]

After a successful engine install in the Fickle Bitch 944 yesterday, Scott agreed to let me use his trailer this week.

Wednesday's weather forecast looks like rain, but will be nice and cool if it doesn't. If Wednesday is rained out, I'm going to 42 on Thursday.

[TireSmoker]

A successful test night at Dragway 42 tonight! I got 3 passes, including a new personal best. Chris decided to leave his work a little early to join me. He met me at Tiresmoke Central, where we got the car loaded onto Scott's trailer. The Tiresmoke TurboTruck pulled it with ease as we made our way though rush hour traffic at Mayfield & 271.

i had a call with Scott Clark on Wednesday, and he had me change the boost controller settings. From closed-loop targeted boost control, to directly specifying the duty-cycle on the boost control valve. (it opens and closes slower/faster to regulate boost) Long story short, I had it set to what should provide max boost on my last pass (all 100s), and I went 10.52 @ 129. Thats 3mph faster than I went at KMP, but same basic ET, even the 1/8 was the same, 6.79. The real pisser is I forgot to insert the SD card on that run, so I have no datalog. I do have the datalogs for the first two passes.

Two new issues came up. First, I need to properly vent my fuel cell. It was pushing fuel out one of the vents. I've smelled gas a few times, but was never sure where it was. It's not like it was even 1/2 full, thats the weird thing to me. Second, I have an electrical issue that reared itself right before I was going to send Scott down for pass #4. the IGN port on the factory fuse panel quit working, but the fuse isn't blown, so not sure. I had to move it over to BAT to get the car on the trailer, but then I can't shut it off from the key. I'll look at it after work.

Here's my 2nd pass, 10.65 @ 128, https://www.youtube.com/shorts/4_jK1oIOjjY

[TireSmoker]

I got back at Maliboost tonight and it was a 1 or 2 steps forward, plus a big step back.

I got the air dam from ebay and installed it tonight, along with adding some Water Wetter to the radiator. I decided to take a drive out to Mike Trimboli's house on Auburn Road, about 6-7 miles. When I got there, we saw an oil leak by the turbo and found one of the mounting bolts loose. Mounting bolts are part of the oil drain, so that made sense. When we put it up on his lift, Mike pointed out I had mounted the air dam too far back. So we fixed that too. All in all, it didn't take much time. When it was done, I took him for a quick blast up Auburn Road towards Rt. 6. I dropped him back off at his house and headed for home.

It's chilly tonight, was in the 60s when I was driving around. On the way home from Mike's, which is admittedly a lot down hill, it cooled right off to 160-170. This one is trending in the right direction, though. Need to take it out on again a hotter day.

But the real fun started when it completely died on me on Wilson Mills. I was able to coast into Heath Rd, so out of Wilson Mills traffic. It's dark out now. No electrical at all, so I go back to the battery and the terminals are too hot to touch!! I was standing there pondering, then saw some smoke coming off the battery -- turn off the main power switch, idiot!! (battery is right next to my fuel cell too!!) So there's a big short somewhere, I'll hunt that down tomorrow/this weekend.

I called Mason's for a tow. Gwen offered to bring the truck and tow-strap, but i was a little leary about doing that in the dark with no lights at all.

[MostMint]

gotta figure that one of the main cables rubbed through so hopefully easy to find.

[TireSmoker]

Turns out, it was easy to find. Not what I expected, but better. This was an easy fix.

After I hooked everything back up, I turned on main power -- headlights and Megasquirt powered up, just as they were when it quit. Started right up. Whew..

[MostMint]

Nice. If you have not done so already, this is a good excuse to check every place that cable passes through a bulkhead to look for other potential hazards.

If it was mine I would focus on making it driveable and reliable before any more time spent making it faster. Can it idle at operating temp on and 80 degree day for 15 minutes? Can it stop for gas and start up hot? These questions may be candidates for your next to do list.

[TireSmoker]

Yep, I started back at the trunk and saw nothing that concerned me too much all the way to the front.

I agree about sorting out the street stuff now. Its well into the 10s. Thats why i was on the longer drive the other night. I will go out again this weekend.

Like playing Poker Stars before a real tournament, i need to get all these bad hands out of me!!