Thanks for asking, Keith, but when it comes to racing on the salt, I'm a
black hole of information. I actually thought that the surface would be
a lot like Daytona Beach - hot, dry, and fairly loose. So I would use my
air compressor to remove any remaining salt on the car when I got home
to Ohio. And before hand, I would paint the exposed metal and seal all
the cracks to facilitate the process. Of course, I knew the salt would
blow around a little, so some might get inside the car. But how much of
a problem could a few grains of salt cause? Pause, while the laughing
dies down. . . .
Racing on the salt is a blast and we picked up a few ideas that could
help us if we ever get a chance to do this again. Some one on the list
said that the way to prepare your ride for the salt is to shrink wrap
it. Now I know why! We won't be so worried about the fuel mixture (lean
can be bad) and the timing as our set up for Maxton seemed safe enough
to begin with. Surprisingly, our loss of "altitude horsepower" was some
what minimized by what appeared to be less "thin air " resistance. We
went as fast as we think we would have at Maxton with a little more
room. Aero changes, though not as critical at sub 170mph passes, were
not as effective as expected. Headlight and grill plates along with a
full belly pan really didn't seem to make the difference we anticipated.
Perhaps, the air dam and low stance of our car canceled some of the
advantage of a smoother shape.
Endurance is another issue that we want to take a look at next time. We
only ran 6 times so engine durability was not a problem. But we can see
the possibility of problems developing with a more aggressive schedule.
Hence, we will try to reduce value train stress, back off a little on
rpm's at full song, consider a slight ignition retard at top end, maybe
run a thermostat to keep the temp more consistent, and revamp our vacuum
pump system.
Incidentally, the vacuum pump had no noticeable effect on engine
performance at Bonneville. So we disconnected it. Engine oil pressure
increased from 75 to 90 psi at 8500 rpm immediately, and the car went
just as fast. Then again, small engines just may not respond as well to
crank case evacuation systems as their big brothers do. Does this mean
that our rings are doing their job? (What's a leak down gauge?) Or that
the pump "eats up" any horse power gains realized? Oh well, we'll
probably change the bypass on the pump to pull about 5 lbs or so and try
again.
Although detonation did not seem to be a problem, we'll probably create
one by running a little "hotter" gas and more ignition timing and see
what happens. Last of all, we could ignore all of this and let it rip.
See, we don't know what we are doing.
Don McMeekin
Car #1183
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