The Guys Take Daytonastein and the IROC to the Track

September 22nd, 2004

The Event:

It was a pleasant Wednesday morning. Mike and Ed had both escaped from the salt mines for a little mid-week engine roaring, tire roasting excitement. Both were eager to get to the track. The venue was Muncie Dragway and they were going to a private event. One of Mike's long time buddies and his coworkers from GE in Ft. Wayne had rented out the track from 10 - 3. This was what they were calling "Drag Day II", the second time they rented out the track. There were 52 people on the guest list although it didn't feel like there were near that many in attendance. 10:00 - 1:30 was open racing... just get in line. 1:30 - 3:00 was bracket racing.

Mike rose early and met Ed at his place just before 8am. By the time he got there, Ed had Daytonastein loaded onto the tow dolly and the Voyager was set to start another long haul. They caravanned to the strip, a little over an hour away, unloaded, and then contemplated what to do next. Once the safety meeting was over, the fun began. Looking around at the cars of the other participants, it was clear that Mopars were not common at this event. With the exception of Daytonastein and Mike's IROC, there was one old school Mopar and a fairly new looking Dodge Dakota. Aside from that, it was a slew of Camaros, Mustangs, and Corvettes along with a couple BMWs, a couple motorcycles, and a few other miscellaneous vehicles. The most unexpected vehicle was probably the Honda Civic Hybrid which was the only Honda and the only Hybrid in attendance.

The Cars:

Daytonastein - Daytonastein to date had not been tested, had not yet gotten an alignment, and really had not been driven for any distance worth speaking of since the early blowing of a halfshaft. With the exception of the turbo setup itself (and the wide array of parts from which the car is built) the car has zero performance mods. Restrictive tail pipe & muffler from the old 2.5, unported plenum, standard 46mm TB, etc. etc. etc. Thus, no one really knew what to expect. The wastegate had been set to open as low as it would go, and this was being viewed as a good day to do some tuning. The fuel supply was composed of a simple set of 26# injectors and a single cold start injector on a pressure switch, again set to fire at low pressure. The A/F would be monitored via a DMM and the runs recorded using Ed's scan tool.

While waiting around, a number of people took a look under the hood of Daytonastein. It seemed that the conglomeration of brightly colored yellow hoses, mismatched spark plug wires, and shiny brass fittings caught the eye of the unsuspecting and solicited a quick, "WTF?!?" One guy in particular took a lot of interest and chatted with the guys awhile about the setup. It's probably safe to say that everyone else's mods came from nice expensive aftermarket kits and that Mike and Ed were the only "mad scientists" there. ...but here at Kelly Mulhern Performance, we wear the DIY, home brewed, mad scientist persona like a badge of honor. That is after all, what we're all about. A Little Insanity + Some Confidence + Some Experimentation = Innovation.

IROC - The IROC had just recently received a new experimental set of ported heads from Ed back over Labor Day weekend. During that point and the next few weeks, Mike was sick and didn't have much energy to work on the car. Reassembly after the addition of the heads encountered a number of unrelated problems so Mike didn't actually get the car running properly until the night of Monday the 20th ...2 days before the event. The car didn't even leave his driveway until Tuesday and then perhaps 10 miles were put on the car locally. In the week preceding the event, it because increasingly unlikely that the IROC was going to be in attendance, meaning that Mike would have been driving EJ's (Ed's 5yr old son's) race car - '87 Shadow 2.5L, intercooled, turbo, A520 5-sp. In the end though, with the car finally running and not many miles on the new heads, Mike said, "ah.. what the hell" and decided to go for it.

On the way to Ed's, a 3hr drive, Mike gained some confidence by not hearing any bad noises but thought that the car felt a little sluggish. Regardless, he stopped on the rural road right before Ed's and practiced a few burn outs while keeping an eye on the A/F ratio to see what it would do. A later check of the timing at the track revealed that it was set at about 5 degrees... as opposed to the stock 12. Mike and Ed quickly advanced it to 15 (Mike filled up with premium in anticipation of this) and the car seemed a bit happier. So at that point, the IROC was set up with all the "typical" mods, the ported heads, and the header prototype.

The Runs:

Daytonastein - Ed and Mike got in 4 runs with Daytonastein. Why both? Ed did the driving. Mike monitored the A/F ratio and the boost calling it out to Ed as he watched the track. Unsure of what to expect, the guaranteed the guys would know exactly what was going on and react as quickly as possible in the event of leaning out or over boosting. The goal was simply to keep it pig rich, run 4-5 psi of boost, and gently test the car listening for anything that didn't sound good. "Gently"... yeah right.

On the very first run, Daytonastein showed that it was full of surprises. Ed hammered the gas and Mike monitored the A/F while trying to find something to hold onto. In that first run, the guys discovered that Daytonastein has some mighty fierce torque steer. Upon launch, the car started shaking... washers, spare parts, etc... rattled and rolled off the dash and the car lept forward. Ed then slammed the car into second and the car swerved under the toque steer with Ed pulling it back straight in white knuckled excitement. The A/F ratio wasn't looking good so Ed lifted up on the gas a few times. Interestingly, by the end of the run, the O2 sensor seemed to wake up. Mike was seeing some 0.85s in the first pass and which didn't seem to make much sense because the number wasn't moving during the shifts. Prior to the run, it seemed stuck at .40 and then .50. At the end of the run, the car seemed to rediscover closed loop and the oscillation made the guys decide to try again now that the O2 sensor was warm. It's likely that the first run went off before the O2 sensor had even fully warmed up and started telling us anything useful.

The second run confirmed the O2 sensor theory. During it Mike observed A/F ratios in the 0.92 to 0.96 range. Falling out of WOT during shifts, the numbers dipped as expected. Ed still lifted a few times, listening to the car, fighting the torque steer, and trying to get a feel for things.

During the third run, Ed and Mike realized that in their excitement, neither of them had been really watching the boost. Ed caught site of it during pass two and saw something between 5 and 7psi at one point. Mike agreed to watch the boost on this run and then promptly forgot as they raced down the track. Ed managed to confirm 8psi during one glance down. Mike watched as the A/F held at a rock solid 0.96. Ed let off early while the guys discussed their next pass.

For the forth pass, Mike held the DMM up to the boost gauge so that he could see both at the same time. Ed set up the scan tool to record the run. While watching the boost gauge, Mike looked on in mild shock. Daytonastein hit the 5-7 range all right. It's also passed 8. In fact, at the height of one pass, it went all the way to 12.5psi!!! The A/F ratio never even blinked. It climbed to 0.96 after the shifts and held steady. Again, Ed lifted, but both were impressed and perplexed by the high boost, the A/F ratio, and the fact that what they were seeing didn't really make much sense with the setup.

Spectators of the 4th pass apparently got a spectacular show as one of the coolant lines began leaking and created a massive steam cloud behind the car. In their intense contemplation, the guys didn't really notice this, but one onlooker assured them that that had blown the engine and had no oil left in the crankcase. Later inspection revealed that there was a small oil leak but that there was plenty of oil... The coolant itself was a little low (maybe a cup), but not anything to get excited about. A review of the recorded run proved that the A/F ratio had actually held at 0.96. Lots of head scratch then ensued.

IROC - Mike got in 5 passes on the IROC before bad things happened. Prior to this event, Mike had never been to any track in any car and had actually not even ever been a spectator at a track. So really, he had no idea what to expect nor had he practiced launches based on the light tree or anything else.

Run #1 was pretty much an excercise in panic. Mike's thoughts & actions went something like the following:

"Am I in position. A little more.... a little more. Sh$t I rolled too far foward! Gotta back up."
*Turns off car* *Puts car in Reverse* *Starts car & backs up* *puts car in first* *pulls back forward*
(can't put it in reverse with engine running)
"Ok now I'm there. Wonder when I should gun it? Ahhh!!! the lights are going down... I'm not ready. Go go go!!!"
*rattle rattle rattle* "Holy Sh$t this is rough!"
"Where did the other guy go?"
"Ok, I'm a redline... shift!!!" *screech*
"Whew... now I got it."

Run #2 was a little better, now knowing what to expect, but it wasn't good either. Mike dumped the clutch too quickly and it held. The IROC's rpms plummeted to 1500 and the car rolled forward as if driven by someone's cautious grandmother.

Run #3 was a great launch, at least compared to #1 & #2 but the trans wouldn't go into 3rd. GRIND!!!! They synchro had been going out and he had been getting some grind into 3rd with regular driving so this wasn't terribly surprising. Mike remembers noting that he was actually ahead of the other car during the first instant of the launch which kind of made his morning.

Run #4 also had its problems. Most likely, Mike caught some water from the water box while trying to go around it or someone else dragged water out to the starting line. Mike gunned it, let out the clutch, and then realized he was sitting still at 5000 rpms approaching the 2nd gear shift and not moving. Based on how sticky the track was in previous launches, water seems to be the only reasonable answer.

Run #5 was the fateful run, ending Mike & Ed's day at the track and killing the IROC's a543. In this run, Ed was riding shotgun to keep an eye on the IROC's A/F ratio, mostly out of curiosity. The launch was nothing to really talk about although at the time, Mike thought it was a great. Excited, he slammed the car into second as he approached the redline squealing the tires and continuing the run. Then at redline again, Mike missed his shift into 3rd and instead slammed the trans into 1st. Rapidly decelerating, engine screaming, Mike managed to get the car back out of 1st and into 2nd, but the damage was already done and the trans was not happy about shifting. Upon further testing in the parking lot, Mike found that it was pretty much impossible to shift into or out of any gear with the car running (lots of force, no grinding, no result) and that shifting could only be done with the motor off.

For those interested, Mike's times were as follows:

Run	1	2	3	4	5
R/T	1.212	1.076	0.749	1.049	1.094
60	2.627	2.764	2.402	2.930	2.419
330	7.049	7.218	6.738	8.180	6.797
1/8	10.659	10.809	10.622	11.950	11.396
MPH	68.450	68.980	61.670	65.720	47.590
1000	13.725	13.863	13.922	15.105	16.497
1/4	16.281	16.416	16.660	17.700	21.527
MPH	89.480	89.500	79.820	88.490	43.260

Final Thoughts:

Daytonastein - After Daytonastein's debut, KMP has now officially renamed the "quarter mile" the "2/7ths mile" due to the torque steer induced, slalom like runs. The runs themselves, didn't produce very interesting times because Ed frequently let off the gas to be safe and was continually fighting torque steer. The times themselves though were not point of this adventure so the guys were pretty happy. Despite being unaligned, not even pushing WOT through the entire run, Daytonastein still managed a 15.9@ 73mph with driver, one passenger and a full interior (including spare tire). Not bad for first outing.

Upon further review of the car, it was discovered that one of the vacuum hoses had blown off of the detlagate which allowed the boost to rise more or less uncontrolled. This explains how 12.5 psi could have been achieved.

Current speculation is that the restrictive stock 2.5L exhaust pipe and muffler created a large amount of back pressure effectively plugging up the exhaust and preventing the real power of the 12.5 psi of boost from being unleashed. Some initial fuel calculations show that Daytonastein should only have enough fuel for about 8 psi so this could explain how the ratio held at 0.96.

Hopefully after an alignment, opening up the exhaust, and getting a little more practice with the car, it will perform much better.

IROC - Mike wasn't too upset by the loss of the transmission and is excited to try again once he replaces it. Fortunately, a spare is currently sitting in his garage awaiting installation. With a cleaner shifting trans and a little more practice, his times should come down. Once the new transmission is installed, Mike will do some testing to see what the impact of the ported heads is. Assuming all goes well some significant mods are planned for later this winter and next spring.

3.0 Toughness - Mike's first assault against the 3 Liter happened in the IROC when he managed to engage the transmission in 1st from 2nd gear redline. The result is that the motor would have spun beyond 7000 rpms, over 1000 rpms beyond redline. Despite this unfortunate event, the motor held and continues to sound just fine.

Mike's day of torture testing 3 Liter engines wasn't over with over reving the IROC's engine! With the IROC being towed home, Mike got to drive Daytonastein back to Ed's place. At some point during the hour drive the coolant line to the turbo blew off. The guys didn't discover it until well after they got to Ed's and the car had cooled down. Ed reconnected the line and filled the car with coolant the following day. Daytonastein started up and drove like normal... No problems!

That said, Mike has now established that a stock Chrysler 3 Liter is a STOUT engine! It can handle over 7K RPM and cruising for an extended time with _no_ coolant! Don't try this at home folks, Mike is a trained professional! And never try it with a Ford or Chevy! :)

Ed & Mike at the track: