Well, an update. I ran last Friday night. .002 red light in second round. This car is driving me crazy. Still missing bad at 6200 rpm. So, I changed the plugs and bumped the fuel pressure to 6.5 at 3500 rpm. Had no effect on the problem. So, this week I rerouted all the plug wires and the lead between the 6AL and the distributor to the driver's side of the firewall and down that side of the manifold to get it as far away from the other wires as possible. No effect. On a whim, I reset the 6AL rev limited to 9900, and bingo, now it will rev to 7000. Back to the war tomorrow and Sunday. We'll see what it does under load.
Too bad you went through all that spring lifter replacement hassle to figure it all out. After the weekend races I'd be swapping that box out for a replacement unit. MSD's quality control isn't what it used to be and you surely paid good money for a good working unit. If you bought it through summit or jegs they have excellent customer service that may supersede any MSD warranty issues you might run into. As I've said many times before.. that cam will love the extra rpm. Better match for those shorter gears too. Good luck with it.
Greg, If there's a way to do it wrong I can do it. And, to add to the misery, now I'm suffering from vertigo. I will go to the doctor on Monday to get checked out. The result of that was that I ran one practice run today and came home. And, that one was scary. Safety first. That run was 12.150/114. No rpm limit problems. And I short shifted it. Just wanted to check the rpm limit. But, that mph tells me I should be running a lower ET. I'm going to talk to my torque converter guy on Monday to see if he can get me more stall out of this converter.
Haven't run in a couple of weeks. Life keeps getting in the way. Used the time to upgrade the fuel cell and do a little paint work on the car. I'm supposed to run tonight, but I don't think I will go. Too hot. 102* today.
Just the opposite for me I keep getting in the way of life to go racing. This Saturday and Sunday at Fontana and the weather is fine. 106' on Saturday and 2 degrees less on Sunday.
Best of luck at the doctor. Wise choice to get it checked out ASAP. I'm starting to get vertigo pretty bad when I'm lying on my back working on the car or boat.
It's been a while since I was on here. I pretty much got fed up with the racing mid year , other than a couple of club races. I think I needed that break. The vertigo was caused by a viral ear infection. No cure, just live with it until the body beats it. It took about six weeks. In addition, I became frustrated with myself and the car. Best ET of the year was 11.91 on a cool day. It is irritating to win a couple of rounds and then miss third gear and lose. The last run I made for the year was in late August we were down to four cars. The starter had one car pulled to the side for a possible bye run. When the starter figure out there was an even number of cars left, he told the bye guy to choose who he wanted to run against. he looked at me (old guy) and said "that guy". He was running a late model Challenger with a 12.70ish dial-in. So, I said to myself, we'll see about that. I dialed 12.40 even though I knew I could run faster. I cut a .010 light and ran him down in second gear. All I had to do was put a fender on him and get it into third gear. But, I managed to shove it past third into neutral. Game over. When we pulled around to get our time tickets he got out and said, "what the hell happened, you had me easy?" And, that run broke the camel's back for me for the year. I drove it on the trailer and headed home. What a frustrating year. I pulled that B&M shifter out and sold it and installed another B&M. But, I didn't like it any better. Now, there's this year. A Hurst Pro-matic is going in the car. I'm going to put an alternator on it. I'm tired of trying to keep it cool and charged up between rounds. I'm going to fix the line-lock so it works. I'm going to do a couple of cosmetic things to the car. And, I'm going to be ready to race when the track opens in April. Happy New Year, everybody!
Sometimes, its best to walk away for awhile and let the negative emotion go its own way. I've enjoyed reading about your progress and look forward to some round wins in 2018! I'm ready to go back to mine after spending the last year on my Thunderbird.
Which BM shifter did yo have ? I have had the BM Mega shifter in three different cars and it is impossible to miss a shift with it, had it on 2 cars with reverse manual valve bodies and one with regular shift pattern, only issue I have has was keeping reverse backup light and neutral safety switch adjusted. I raced many years with a manual 4 speed I was real good at missing gears with it. LOL always wanted to put a vertigate shifter in it just never did
I had a B&M Pro Stick. Worked great for a while. But, got to where I had to hold the lever back tight or it would bypass third gear. I had a new StarShifter on the shelf so I put that in. I could never get it adjusted right. I also had one in my Nova. I hated it in the Nova until I took it out. I also did not like it in the Maverick. Several of the guys I race with have the the Hurst Pro-matic and like it. So, I'm going to buy one as soon as I can find $300. Back in the day I raced a '70 Mustang with a top-loader with a Competition Plus. Yes, I missed a gear occasionally. I have a used Vertigate on the shelf and it's going on the top-loader when it goes behind the 351C in the '88 Mustang. I have all the pieces to put the top-loader in the Maverick, just haven't decided to do it. The Super-Shifter class at Firebird rarely has more than eight cars in it compared to Sportsman with 35-40 cars.
The pro stick is a good'un. I think all 3 of our cars run one; mine being the oldest, bought it in I think 1992 or 1993. Same shifter, only thing different is the cable and the gate plate which was originally a 3 speed, but in the early 2000's I went to a powerglide and changed only the gate. Great shifter. Maintenance DOES have to be done on them though, the sliding, hinging, and pivoting parts all need to be cleaned and oiled from time to time or things do wear out and/or hang up potentially contributing to a missed shift. Especially with mine being 25 years old or better. The only thing about the C4 was having to hold the lever to get it into 3rd gear from 2nd on a forward pattern. I didn't care for it, but it didn't take long to teach myself to grab that thing like it was that red-headed loudmouth coworker's neck right after the 1-2 shift. You have to HOLD that lever back and don't let go until you're into high gear, then teach yourself to let go of the entire shifter and grab the steering wheel. Relax and quit thinking about it, it'll all fall together at some point after you do it a few times. When I built my old pickup (514 in a '83 F100), I put a ratchet shifter in it that everyone raved about at the time. Thought I'd like it. What a pain in the butt. I'll never use another one of any type ratchet mechanism on an automatic. Remember, there's plenty of choices out there... B&M, Hurst, turbo action, ATI, etc. Take a look at some different forums and specify 3 speed if you run a C4 in a search and see what's popular. In my experience, they all have some downside and everyone has a different opinion of each type and brand; but my own experience, I have learned to like the pro stick. Especially with only 2 speeds. Smack it into high and go on with the race. Easy peasy The winter break will do some good. The cold air and precipitation will make you want to go back to the track as soon as it warms up. Been there, done that. I'm itching a little too but the boss has decided to changed day off policy so that if I want to take off a Saturday to go to the saturday bracket or index races, I gotta take 5 consecutive days and they need 2 weeks prior notice. And I only get 2 weeks total vacation per year, so this certainly throws a wrench into the spokes.
