It Runs!

After three weeks of thrashing "Project Street Legal Stocker" is finally running! This Sunday it will make its first pass with the new mill (fingers crossed). Unfortunately, I ran over my budget which meant I had to cut back on a few key items (ie. exhaust and fuel regulator). This will cut 2-3 tenths of ET as the factory exhaust and fuel settings are conservative. I can cheat the fuel system into enriching the fuel mixture with a resistor in place of the coolant temperature setting. However, you can't find a way for the motor to breath through the factory exhaust. Oh well, I'll keep buying those 6/49 tickets just in case :) Regardless, my goal of running class this year will have to wait.

When taking apart the old motor I was shocked to find out how much timing chain stretch was present. I had replaced the timing chain in the old motor with a high performance chain from a local dealer less than 20,000km ago. Anyhow, that chain stretched enough to create 3/4's of an inch of play in the chain. When I set the distributor in the new motor with the identical timing settings as used in the past it had moved from 10 advanced to 12 degrees retarded - that is 22 degrees of cam timing and a pile of torque that could never have been found before. My next post will be after the SIR race on Sunday July 26th. I'm hoping for 13.90's.