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No luck getting to the track this past weekend, but we did get to do a 7 and 9 psi blast to check things out. Fought a few gremlins and they are now part of history.

Ran 11.01 in Gainesville

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgKrQBHBDMw


Totally disgusted on way home 910 miles. Took it to Cecil and my boy ran his first 10...10.801 at 126.70

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p40ilDsQ2nk

The 126.70 pass was beating on the rev limiter a ton. So we pulled the 3.73:1 gears and installed a 3.27:1 set. Hope to get back to the track one of the next 2 week ends.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4b9PrUkY9tI

Snowed out last weekend and the track is closed for the season. Did get a couple hits in and the 'Bird feels much stronger with the big intercooler and less gear. Looking forward to next season.

Next goal is to make a fiberglass front bumper. I am throwing that/this out here in hopes that someone already made a mold.

Sweet build with some stellar fabrication. Glad to see the car running hard, are you running a gen 3 or 4 motor?

BadBowtie wrote:Sweet build with some stellar fabrication. Glad to see the car running hard, are you running a gen 3 or 4 motor?

Being a budget limited car, we pieced it together with parts from a few engines. The Block is a 2008 Aluminum 5.3 that have 6 spun rod bearings that we bought for $100. We used rivets to block the displacement on demand ports, and welded the valley cover oil passage shut. The crank and rods came out of a 2003 5.3 that was too rusty in the cylinder bores to use, it was $20. We sanded the rusty bores out enough to pull the pistons, then installed the rotating assembly into the Aluminum block. The cam was an LS1 cam we bought with 2 other LS cams - (3) for $20 from Maple Grove flea Market. The heads were received on trade for a 62 Corvair and the intake came from the rusted $20 truck 5.3. The pan came from a 5.7 that had 15+ cracks in the block and the pan had multiple cracks in it where a PO jacked the car up with the jack in contact with the pan. The water pump is a truck pump with the heater core line ports welded shut and the outlet modified to direct the water horizontally instead of vertically. The 4.8 that was in the car 2 weeks before the Challenge blew up, so this engine was thrown together 9 days before we hauled it to Florida.

Should have posted this a month ago....

Sounds like a real challenge, but also a lot of fun. Have you been following a lot of the sloppymechanics guides? Next up is a set of PAC1218's and a elgin/jegs/summit .585" .585 lift LS1 cam. How is the fuel system working out, i saw you made a new feed line but did you externally mount a pump or put one in tank?

BadBowtie wrote:Sounds like a real challenge, but also a lot of fun. Have you been following a lot of the sloppymechanics guides? Next up is a set of PAC1218's and a elgin/jegs/summit .585" .585 lift LS1 cam. How is the fuel system working out, i saw you made a new feed line but did you externally mount a pump or put one in tank?

We know Matt. Learned a lot by going to one of his classes.

Our cam is .496" lift. Wimpy. Cam swap is Phase 3 for this project. Intercooler (larger) and gears (3.73 to 3.27) were Phase 1. Phase 2 is the converter (needs to be tighter). Phase 3 is a cam (bigger!!!). That will not be done if we run 9s with P1 and P2.

We modified the fuel line AND de-capped the injectors.

In tank pump with 12 MM SS line. Works great. We are only seeing 62% duty cycles and no AFR issues even with the boost referenced regulator not tracking with the boost. Also, we have an Ethanol sensor to allow any form of pump gas. That took some time to get functional. Sensor was $5 at the You-Pull-It.

Thats awesome! You've got the program down thats for sure. Cant wait to see where it goes.

BadBowtie wrote:Thats awesome! You've got the program down thats for sure. Cant wait to see where it goes.

Not too sure we have much of a program down, but it has been a blast doing this as a father/son project. It started as a husband/wife project. Ultimately, my son is learning to drive a car with power and low traction. He has had to step up in that department. With 8" slicks and over 500 going to the rear tires, its a handful in first. During the 10.8 run he didn't floor it until 0.93 seconds into the run and ran 104 mph in the eighth. It is good experience, especially considering that the next project is going to have a 76MM turbo LS and weigh 400 pounds less. The Sunbird only has a 59MM.

wheels777 wrote:

BadBowtie wrote:Thats awesome! You've got the program down thats for sure. Cant wait to see where it goes.

Not too sure we have much of a program down, but it has been a blast doing this as a father/son project. It started as a husband/wife project. Ultimately, my son is learning to drive a car with power and low traction. He has had to step up in that department. With 8" slicks and over 500 going to the rear tires, its a handful in first. During the 10.8 run he didn't floor it until 0.93 seconds into the run and ran 104 mph in the eighth. It is good experience, especially considering that the next project is going to have a 76MM turbo LS and weigh 400 pounds less. The Sunbird only has a 59MM.

Between the smaller cam you're running and the smaller turbo this must light off real quick. I would venture to say the 59mm might be choking it up a bit depending on the size of the exhaust housing, but I'm sure its extremely torquey as it would come in instantly. Maybe throw the 76mm on there for "fun" . With that kind of data, what ecu are you running. I bet the look on your sons face when you told him he wasnt even in it till .93 seconds was great . While an 8" slick is narrow, I think it also comes down to the prep and how well the chassis is working off the launch, especially with the auto you should be able to cut a decent 60', even more now with the taller gears.

BadBowtie wrote:

wheels777 wrote:

BadBowtie wrote:Thats awesome! You've got the program down thats for sure. Cant wait to see where it goes.

Not too sure we have much of a program down, but it has been a blast doing this as a father/son project. It started as a husband/wife project. Ultimately, my son is learning to drive a car with power and low traction. He has had to step up in that department. With 8" slicks and over 500 going to the rear tires, its a handful in first. During the 10.8 run he didn't floor it until 0.93 seconds into the run and ran 104 mph in the eighth. It is good experience, especially considering that the next project is going to have a 76MM turbo LS and weigh 400 pounds less. The Sunbird only has a 59MM.

Between the smaller cam you're running and the smaller turbo this must light off real quick. I would venture to say the 59mm might be choking it up a bit depending on the size of the exhaust housing, but I'm sure its extremely torquey as it would come in instantly. Maybe throw the 76mm on there for "fun" . With that kind of data, what ecu are you running. I bet the look on your sons face when you told him he wasnt even in it till .93 seconds was great . While an 8" slick is narrow, I think it also comes down to the prep and how well the chassis is working off the launch, especially with the auto you should be able to cut a decent 60', even more now with the taller gears.

The prep sucked. 60' was down 0.3 on the 10 second pass. The car lifts the front end when the track is good.
It makes instant insane torque. We plan to build a boost controller to get it rolling and let it fly
The 59 MM Turbo should be good for 620 HP, we aren't there yet as the Intercooler was way too small. Exhaust side is 76MM. Precision 5976E from Craigslist for $300.
Factory ECU with HP Tuner.

We got a pleasant surprise yesterday. There's a picture of my son in the Sunbird doing a burnout in Gainesville on page 174 of the February 2018 issues ofGrassroots Motorsports.

Back to the track with a bigger turbo. 9.78 at 139.2