Bad Day at the track

[1badTTA]

Well I made it to the track tonight and still didn't get a 12 second timeslip, the first was a 13.4 @ 107 on 15psi and 110 octane, turned up the boost about 2psi, and got most of the way through 1st and blew the hell out of the #3 headgasket. Looked at the run on DS and it had 0 KR and the first run had 1 Knock count half way through first gear @ 26mph. Any ideas why it blew other than it was damaged to begin with?

Any ways, the car is safe in the garage thanks to AAA Gold, gotta love that part.

Hunter, did I still manage to out MPH you?

 

[trading t/a]

Mine did the same thing. Unseen abuse will take it's toll over the long run. I carefully watched my knock while tuning and getting used to the car never really hitting the serious knock some guys do. Mine blew taking off from the shoulder on the highway. No boost, it just let go. From what I could see when I did the hg is that the stock hg's seem more prone to disintegrating due to the fire ring. On hp hg's the firering is contained in an outter layer of the hg just the opposite of the stockers.

Most likely it had previous detonation that sent it on it's way. The stock hg's are a relief valve, better them than the crank. I used stockers in mine. You can go with the detroits,comtec,felpro,or the stockers. Call a few buick friendly places and see what they recommend and if anyone of them stand out in the crowd.

Pete

 

[GTABurnout]

I felt sorry for you car Rick. Did you drive it home?? Someone told me you did I figured you drove out to the road for the tow truck.
I got Stuck in staging when a stupid 8 second funny car decided to run in to the Pit at the end of the track causing a hour delay. I managed a best ET of 12.9 at a07mph and a best MPH of 109 so I out mph you on my 13.0 run. I soon will be all tuned and rerady to run some mid 12's, high 11's.

If you need a hand with the car let me know.

 

[Razor]

I'd look for a bad injector or wiped cam.

The factory original headgaskets are the toughest to blow. Once you blow them once..its a downhill spiral.

I have yet to blow a HG.. my time may be coming soon...dunno..

Get your head surfaced while off the car. And the number three is usually the culprit to blow on these motors..along with wiping out the cam..If you had excessive cylinder pressure..that may of cuased the damage. 17-20 PSI is nothing for these motors..now 30 PSI is a whole other story.

We use the Felpros 9441's with great success. the head bolts will have to be replaced since the factory ones are Torque To Yield. Either ARP's or original GM's.

Knock .. detonation is one thing..but if you didnt have any..chances are you either have a bad injector or the cam got wiped..usually its the #3 exhuast lobe...and if the cam got wiped..your going to have to do an inspection to the bottom end cuase all that metal from the cam can cuase some serious do-do.

Easy check for the cam is take the valve cover off..rotate the motor and watch how much each rocker arm travels..All the intakes should travel the same amount of distance..all the exhuasts..it will be pretty clear.

HTH

Julio

 

[1badTTA]

Razor,
I am sure it is just past detonation that caused it. So far I have blown 6 Head Gaskets for varying reasons including a wiped cam, a bad coilpack, overboosting from the WG solenoid, and simply bad gas causing knock.

I have a ProPaine kit in the mail and am going to order Race Jace's steal head gasket kit and have the heads surfaced. If that doesn't stop the trend, I guess I will just start riding a bike

And I will really put all the blame on webleyaz (Chris) for Jinxing me again. The last time I was at the track, he told me about how his wastegate got stuck and he fixed it at the track, and of course mine managed to get stuck on the next run. And on my way to the track Friday I saw him and asked when he would be out at the track again, and he still hasn't fixed his blown HeadGasket so it will be a while since he is just building a new engine for it. Two passes after I talk to him I blow a headgasket. If I ever see him when I plan on racing, I will simply call AAA and have my car towed home in one piece before anything else can possibly happen!!!!!!

 

[1badTTA]

Well it is running again with the stacked steel headgaskets, just need to get the pro-pain installed. I still have a little Race Gas in the tank so I am not getting any knock at all at the moment, but should be able to turn up the wick even more with the pro-pain

 

[TTA89]

If you have blown 6 headgaskets something is wrong! No way should you blow a gasket at 17psi with 110 racegas... Not even with 30 degrees of timing.

As Julio said, look for a bad injector or something, thats just not right. If you blew it out with 110 octane then you dont have an octane problem and propane wont change that.

 

[Razor]

Originally posted by 1badTTA
And I will really put all the blame on webleyaz (Chris) for Jinxing me again. The last time I was at the track, he told me about how his wastegate got stuck and he fixed it at the track, and of course mine managed to get stuck on the next run. And on my way to the track Friday I saw him and asked when he would be out at the track again, and he still hasn't fixed his blown HeadGasket so it will be a while since he is just building a new engine for it. Two passes after I talk to him I blow a headgasket. If I ever see him when I plan on racing, I will simply call AAA and have my car towed home in one piece before anything else can possibly happen!!!!!!

Ha..should of seen me at the track last time out..my car was number 13..one guy ran against me..blew his tranny..Another TTA ran against me..never ran again..

Power of the JuJu

Congrats on getting her back up and running..keep an eye on the knock ..you'll be ok..