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We all know they exsist. We all know that they are inevitable. Then WHY are new car bugs such a pain, and still come so unexpected?

Maybe I should have expected them, or maybe I should have known better, but somehow, just as I think I’m done and ready to go, something sets me back. This weekend was no exception. After the disappointment of missing the Orlando race due to a starter mis-alignment problem, I was happy that the fix wasn’t nearly as expensive nor as complicated as I originally feared. Fixed and ready to go by Thursday of this past week, I was very excited to have Dennis Lugo (Excessive Engineering) coming up on Saturday to help me get the car dialed in and tuned. As he was traveling up to Phenix City from Orlando, I decided to meet him at the track to have the car unloaded out of the school bus (yes, the SCHOOL BUS. Don’t ask, the trailer was INOP) and situated before he arrived around 3pm. Now, earlier during the week the car would start when cold, but would not re-start after some heat was in the motor, or would crank but not stay running when warm. Figuring that it was in the start-up programming, I assumed that it was one of the issues that could be resolved once Dennis arrived. So, I started the car up at Phenix City and drove (as in cruised) the car down the track to get used to the Bruno. After stopping briefly at the top end, the car would not go back into high gear on the return road trip. Back in the pits, Dan looked at me skeptical as to why, thinking I had forgotten to eat my Wheaties again. Wrong, one snatch against the shifter, and it snapped the base of the shifter in two places. Something was wrong with high gear. Dan went back to the shop to weld together the shifter mounting assembly, adding a strengthening plate to the back and we re-installed the shifter. By this point, Dennis is almost to Phenix City, so I finished bolting up the wheelie bars until he arrived.

As soon as Dennis gets there, we plug up the computer and get to work. Cranked it up (with some fuel injected into the throttle body elbow, blower-style) warms up, and Dennis begins his magic. For those that are not aware, Dennis can tune nearly every system out there, he has been tuning since the early days of DFI, and has already been using the Big Stuff 3 system (the system on the T-Bird) since last year. After a few minutes, we shut down the car to make some changes in the program. When to crank it up again, and… NOTHING. Squirted fuel in the motor, it started for a few seconds and then cut off. “Yep, that is what it was doing. And then we can’t make it start again.” I told him. So, we started troubleshooting. Ignition firing? Check. Enough fuel at start up? Double Check. Timing right? Check. Firing order correct? Check. All cylinders firing? Check. We pulled the plugs and replaced the blackened plugs with fresh ones. Still nothing. Dennis changed the map. Nothing. Start up maps. Nothing. Every imaginable component. Nope, nada, nothing. I have never in my years of knowing Dennis, seen him stumped like this…. and I’m worried.

By now, its getting dark, and the test session is over. So, we loaded the bird back into the bus, and headed to the shop. After a bite to eat, Dennis, Josh and I continued to try and diagnose the problem. Dennis continued with the map. Finally we pull the plugs again. #1 is soaked with fuel, while the rest are dry. Dennis determines that the #1 fuel injector must be stuck. By this time, its 12 am. So we wake up Walt to get the number to the owner of the only set of 160# injectors we know of in town. Thankfully, Kelvin makes a call, and we are on our way to Smith Station, AL to a set of brand new injectors.

Back at the shop, Dennis replaces the injector in question, and I hit the starter button again. Vrooom! Started up clean, but all of a sudden I look up to see the intake valley ON FIRE. We rush around trying to throw water on it before resorting to the powder fire extinguisher to put it out. One puff, and the fire is out, but now we have a wonderful powdery mess to clean up. Apparently, when we left to get the injector, I forgot to plug back in the #3 spark plug wire. It arc’d and ignited the fuel in the intake valley. Big whoops on my part. luckily nothing was damaged in the fire. So, at 1 am, we open the bay doors, push the car out, and wash all of the powder out of the engine compartment. After drying everything out, and making sure everything was plugged up correctly, we tried again. It fired, ran for a few minutes, and then quit again. Hmmmm. Checked the plug, and it was not soaked as it was last time. We figured now that the injectors were running correctly, we’d have to rework the map to keep it running smoothly, since we had been trying to compensate in the map for the bad injector. Seeing how it was almost 2 am, we called it a night.

This morning, we started off bright and early again. Got to the shop around 8am, and got back to work. We were ready to set the timing, and adjusted the crank trigger again (after some adjustments last night). But the car started acting up. Now, it wouldn’t crank at all. A few more hours of trying, and finally Dennis started unplugging injectors. Sure enough, with 2 injectors unplugged, the car started right up. He switched injectors, and unplugged another 2. Fired again. So it wasn’t related to a single bad injector, it was something within the computer. Dennis determined that there was an injector driver problem within the box, and with that our day was done.

So, the computer has been sent back and the injectors sent off to be cleaned. It’ll be next week or so before we try again. At least we figured out one of the problems. GOTTA LOVE NEW CAR BUGS!

Made it back from Orlando in one piece, tired as all get out, but tan as only the Florida sun can do. As usual, the World Street Nationals were ever the impressive show that it always is. Being from Orlando originally, I get somewhat complacent about its significance… the size, the speeds, and the straight up competition. 400 cars competing to get into a 32 car field in 4 of the fastest run-whatcha-brung classes. Race Rock was a little lame this year, but with the turnout and the people crowding the streets (wait, yes, that includes me) its probably a little understandable that they forbid burnouts. ::groans::

The class that I would have entered in Orlando was Pro Street: full tube chassis cars, any power adder-any cubic inch, weighing in around 2700 lbs. Annette Summer took the pole with a stout 6.40 pass and posted top mph of 227 during the weekend. That’s sporty on a track that’s considered tricky because of the hot/humid/rainy climate in Orlando. The bump to the 32 car field ended up being in the 7.0 range I believe. Pretty quick… but definately feasible with my car, which is hopeful for next year.

So back at the shop this evening, we have the time to re-evaluate the starter/flywheel problem. Turns out that the starter was not fully engaging the flywheel at all… (thanks Mike Herring and Mr. Moody for the dead on troubleshoot) So Chris took the starter gear off and replaced it, and then machined material off the starter to get it closer to the flywheel and fully engaging against the teeth. Spun the motor over and flipped the ignition, and VROOOM! Started right up. I of course feel a little silly about not checking for that to begin with, but at least its fixed and running and ready to get tuned/tested in Phenix City this weekend.

We also took a minute to weigh the car… with a cast filled block, fiberglass front end, the lenco/bruno, the intercooler, and considering it is a steel roof/quarters car, we were SHOCKED when we found that it came in under the minimum for FFW… 2550. That’s WITH me in it. And the distribtion front to rear is good too. So, I lost that $50 bet. Dan ate Red Lobster tonight because I had guessed it to be 2600-2700 lbs. Oh well, I believe I owed him that at least for sure.

So tomorrow, I’ll reassemble the trans tunnel sheetmetal and finish off the little details that were left behind in the thrashing of last week. Phenix City has an open Pro Mod race on Sunday that I just found out is a 16 car field, and not the typical quick 8 format. Possibility of me sneaking into the back of that field…

Did I mention that my racecar is running?!? heh… reality has not yet sunk in.

WAAAHOOOO!

Well, after 2 long weeks of work, we finally got the car started and running… only to be defeated by the typical new car problems and lack of time for testing. After getting it started Tuesday night in the shop, we finally called it a night and got back up at it Wednesday morning to finish putting the final touches on the car. Parachutes needed to be packed, the windshield needed to go back in place, the sheetmetal around the Lenco needed to be fastened… nothing too severe. I stayed up until 2 am working through the engine management program, thinking I had a closer grasp on the motor. But when we unloaded the car at Phenix City to get in some much needed passes on the car, it went down hill from there.

The mechanical fuel pump had lost its prime, so we spent about 20 minutes trying to get it running. The timing was off, and once it finally lit, it wouldn’t stay running. The starter kept kicking back, and each time it did, it ground against the flexplate. John Gullett helped me finally get it running and keep it running, and set the timing correctly. It was idling great and sounded much better. When we shut it off, everything looked okay. But the next time we went to crank it, the flexplate/starter had so much wear that they would not engage, and the test session was over before it began. Although I could have replacement parts by Friday, I could not risk taking such an untested car to Orlando and try to run it through the quarter mile completely untested.

On the bright side, the car is finally together and running. We have a private test session scheduled next weekend to get the bugs sorted out, and can possibly enter the Pro Modified open race in Phenix City the following Sunday.

On the down side, I was really looking forward to debuting the car in my hometown of Orlando in front of my family and friends. I’m still headed down there, but it will be another few months before I’ll have another race in Orlando with my car. (March 2006 FFW) That was the real let down of the news, along with the fact that we all worked so hard for the last few weeks to get the car there, to have something this silly set us back. I won’t be discouraged though, and will use the extra time to really get the car sorted out before the next race… an ORSCA Pro Modified event at Commerce in November.

After a grueling last few weeks, we cranked the T-Bird last night! Everything so far seems okay. Got a lot of buttoning up to do today before we head to the track to test, but the motor sounds wicked!

I cannot explain how excited I am to have it running and how grateful I am to everyone who has helped me to get it together.

Thanks to everyone!

• Dan Parker for putting up with my “stuck out bottom lip” and all the sleep he has sacrificed here lately to make it happen!
• Mr. Moody for putting that motor together for me~ he’s truly a genius and the nicest guy on the planet!
• Bill George for lending me his Lenco and being such a great and inspirational guy! His work ethic and determination is unmatched!
• Dennis Lugo for letting me run up his cell phone bill and explaining things to me *perfectly* like only he can! I get it! THANKS! And for knowing how much of a PITA I can be and talking some much needed sense into me at times!
• Rick Head at Innovative Turbo for always being supportive of me and being a great friend!
• Jonathan Granada for all the help and all the great work he has put in on the car. It looks great and its greatly appreciated!
• John Gullett for being such a team player! (I sorta cut in line to get my motor back before he did..hehe)
• Big Josh
• Little Josh
• Biscuit Bunkley
• Kevin Kennington
• Ray Sanchez
• Cristi Caraway
• Ant Prater
• Chris Parker

and to anyone else that I may have forgotten with the lack of sleep affecting my head!

We are headed to the track today for testing, and I’m not sure how much time I’ll have to post any updates. Keep your fingers crossed for me and I’ll see ya in Orlando!

Final assembly has begun! The motor is between the frame rails, and all the final assembly is underway!

The Orlando World Street Finals are 2 weekends away, and approaching quickly. Look for the car to make its debut at the Race Rock cruise on Thursday night, October 13th. If you haven’t attended before, its an event you don’t want to miss. 2000+ horsepower racecars cruising down International Drive in the center of Orlando. The streets are blocked off and lined with people, and the drivers like to put on a show!

Then its onto Orlando Speed World Dragstrip for the World Street Finals in Pro Street. If you are attending the event, please stop by and say hi!

Its been a long time dream of mine looking forward to the day that I could pull “levers” in my very own race car. Not your standard stick shift, or liberty rowing mechanism, but the wild and exotic “levers” of a Lenco transmission. I started off driving an AOD equipped 3 speed automatic, before performance necessitated the switch to the ::YAWN:: 2 speed powerglide transmission I ran in drag radial for the past few years. Moving to Pro, I knew that a clutch was out of the question in terms of budget, but I was very eager to switch to my “Lenco/Clutch training wheels”…. a 3 speed BRUNO/Lenco combination with my tried and true Neal Chance Converter. The sale of my powerglide last year funded the Bruno, my bolt-together converter was changed for the twin/BBF upgrade, and I can’t thank Bill George enough for the CS1 Lenco he put together for me. Now, being that this has been my dream for eons it seems, you can imagine how long I’ve looked forward to the day I could sit in my driver seat and pull levers and make turbo noises. (Yes really. Anyone who knows me can easily make that visual.)

So imagine: I finally get the Bruno/Lenco in the car, and take place in my seat, hand on the transbrake ready to launch in my maiden fantasy lever pull. My hand on the steering wheel, I revv’d her up and let go of the transbrake button, winding her through low gear, reach up to yank the first lever somewhere around 7000 imaginary RPMS and….

“EEEEEEEE-UUUUUGGGGGGHH.”

Nothing.

I try again, this time straining with all my might…. still, NOTHING. I sit up out of the seat to throw my body weight back against it, knowing that this isn’t a feasible method of shifting, and yanked back on the lever again…

NOPE, NADA, NOTHING… REJECTED.

By now, the guys–all standing around the car to share in my first Lenco moment– are laughing hysterically. My Lenco fantasy has by now come crashing down… my every dream crushed into the utmost state of denial. I looked up at the guys, who seeing my frustration, only begin to laugh HARDER. I’ve known that Lenco levers aren’t the easiest thing in the world to pull, but surely there is a logical explanation to all this. I mean, it doesn’t need THAT much tower pressure, does it? The only thing I can muster:

“You’re joking, right?!?”

I’m not sure if that was as much a question as it was a plead for some form of salvage to my dream’s peril. The obligatory onslaught of women’s place-in-the-kitchen comments ensued, along with a handful of my favorite, [cue thick GAWWWRGAAAA accent] “This is grooown folks stuff right herrre” comments. Once they were out of breath from laughing, Dan reaches in the car and tries to pull it into gear. KLUNK. Damn him, the showoff. In my defense, it wasn’t so easy for him either. So another round of laughter at my expense, and Dan concludes that maybe THAT much tower pressure IS a bit excessive. He remanuevers the levers around a bit, and adjusts the pressure, and has me try again. I reach up and pull, and was ELATED when my KLUNK came right on cue. Somehow, it had lost its full effect, so after a few more half-hearted pulls, I got back to work. I guess I need to drag my butt back to the gym and start stacking up on my Wheaties again. BUMMER.