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The Shop Truck

1971 Chevy C20 with a custom flat bed.
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I did a compression check on that cylinder and shoved a bore scope in. Compression was good and I couldn't see anything wrong in the cylinder. What I thought was weird was that the other 7 plugs looked fine, no melting whatsoever, but that one was just gone. I did 2 hits with the nitrous (because I forgot to datalog the first :doah:), it was probably only running on the nitrous for a total of 6-8 seconds (I'd have to look at the logs to confirm).

With that said,
1757868916579.png
The Shop Truck is officially an 11 second truck now!:saweet:

After inspecting the engine, we discussed options. We put the colder plugs in (8's), pulled 6 more degrees of timing out, and put the 250hp jets in. To be safe I programmed the nitrous to come on progressive over 1/2 second, run for 5.5 seconds then taper off over the 7th second.

First Run:
60' - 1.792 - Still slower than the old engine with the small tires and 4.1 gears
330' - 4.994 - New PB!
1/8 - [email protected] - New PB!
1/4 - [email protected] - New PB ET!

We pulled a plug and there was some melting on the ground straps again. 6 of 8 plugs had melted to some degree, but nothing as bad as the one from the other day. Unfortunately the #9 and 10 plugs I ordered won't be here until Monday, but I did have another set of 8's and my nitrous jets. We swapped the plugs and put the 200hp jets in. We still left it with the same programming on the nitrous (other than reducing the fuel) and modified the shift points a bit.

Second Run:
60' - 1.849
330' - 4.959
1/8 - [email protected] - New PB trap speed!
1/4 - [email protected] - New PB ET!

It took us 1.5 hours to turn the truck around between the first and second run and the air got quite a bit better apparently (I need to start tracking that). It went quicker and faster with less nitrous. We pulled 4 of 8 plugs and they looked good. If I had 9's I would have put them in, but we decided to run again. This time we let the nitrous flow for 9 seconds tapering off to 10 seconds.

Third Run:
60' - 1.868
330' - 5.003
1/8 - [email protected] - New PB trap speed!
1/4 - [email protected] - New PB ET and trap speed!

We only had about 40 minutes left before they shut down the lanes. We quickly pulled the 4 plugs that we didn't pull last time and they still looked good. I programmed the nitrous to run the full track, but we probably should have swapped the bottle but didn't because we were in a hurry.

Final Run:
60' - 1.838
330' - 4.995
1/8 - [email protected]
1/4 - [email protected] - New PB ET and trap speed!

The 3rd race was pretty epic against a turbo pig nose Chevy truck. I blasted out in front and he passed me right at the end when my nitrous shut off. I need to edit and post the videos (I'll probably do that when I'm done posting this).

Next Friday is the normal Run what Ya Brung event. I'll probably show up there with a 250 shot and #10 plugs installed. I want to get as close to that 11.5 that I'm allowed to run.
 
ktmoutfront said:
Looks like fun. When does Amber run it?
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She's working up the courage. She's never done a burnout before and is nervous about it, she wants to do one of the Radford Racing Schools so she can learn skid control, burnouts and all that. She wants to drive it, but isn't ready yet.

It's extremely simple to run and doesn't even try to break the tires loose. I've walked her through the process several times, if I can find somewhere to teach her how to do burnouts, I may get her to run the truck for a track night.

We learned a lot about the engine and nitrous last night, I'm looking forward to next Friday when we turn it up a bit more. Eventually I think I want to be on 300 or 350 jets and just shut the nitrous down somewhere between 330' and 660' while still running an 11.5something. That way I can run it a little longer or a little shorter depending on track conditions and even add a scramble button if I want. That would be a good jet size to run a 10 if I'm ever at an event where they'll allow it.
 
Only one way to learn, get out and do it. But I do see her point. It’s like wheeling, seat time.
 
Babaganoosh said:
Only one way to learn, get out and do it. But I do see her point. It’s like wheeling, seat time.
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Even in the offroad rigs she prefers to ride. I think I can get her to drive the shop truck though, it would be great to see the smile on her face after she ran an 11.
I think it's a 14 second truck without the nitrous, which means I could ride shotgun and we wouldn't need helmets. Once we get the tuning dialed in we may do that, I just don't want to buy 2 tech cards for one night. That way I could ride with her a few times until she's comfortable, then we could turn on the nitrous and let her run it at a 13 second, 12 second and 11 second tune.
 
r3dd0g said:
Even in the offroad rigs she prefers to ride. I think I can get her to drive the shop truck though, it would be great to see the smile on her face after she ran an 11.
I think it's a 14 second truck without the nitrous, which means I could ride shotgun and we wouldn't need helmets. Once we get the tuning dialed in we may do that, I just don't want to buy 2 tech cards for one night. That way I could ride with her a few times until she's comfortable, then we could turn on the nitrous and let her run it at a 13 second, 12 second and 11 second tune.
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I heard she leads a mean powder puff run in Moab.
 
I did this with Eileen on a test and tune day. I had her drive just like on the street. Then stepped her up each time. Then hooked the secondaries up. Spun the tires going into second and startled her as it went sideways a bit. She corrected and drove it out. She was done at that point.

Seat time.
 
I prepped the truck for Friday today. I finally pulled the plugs that ran for 3 passes with the 200hp jets in, they still look good and can be used if I ever run that small of jets again.
Here's what they first set of #8 plugs looked like after one run with the 250hp jets.
IMG_20250917_151501231.jpg

2 were fine, 4 were slightly melted like the one on the bottom and 2 were a bit more melty like the one on the top. None of them exploded like the one I trashed on the test run, I'm still not sure what caused that.

I'll probably just do one or 2 passes with the 250 jets and jump up to the 300 jets on Friday. I've got the #9 plugs in there now with an additional 2° of timing pulled (12° total) and I'll be taking the #10 plugs to the track in case I need them.
 
I couldn't stand the zip tied coil packs and the LQ4 ones would have required custom length spark plug wires, so the obvious answer is aftermarket (stock style) coils. I also have the Ton's plug wires on now too which keeps the ceramic boots off the headers now.
IMG_20250918_150006869.jpg


I'm registered for tomorrow nights drag racing, however there is a chance it will get rained out.
 
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Those are nice plug wires, I'm thinking about swapping mine out although they are still good and not causing any issues they were used when I got them.
 
Babaganoosh said:
Those are nice plug wires, I'm thinking about swapping mine out although they are still good and not causing any issues they were used when I got them.
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I'll see how they hold up, I'm pulling plugs multiple times a night when I go to the track. The Summit ones I had on there (my spares now) also had the ceramic boots and seemed to be put together pretty well.
 
Why would the LQ4 ones require custom wires?
It looks like the ones you got would fit mine :dunno:
 
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