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(Not*) Mediocre 242

The fuel pump seems to have finally fixed the pressure drops. I had to fully fill up with pump gas to calibrate the level sensor, so it wasn't quite at full power, but no more fuel pressure safety cuts. I did have to tweak when the high flow stage activates, but that was easy after the first pull.

I'm still spitting a bit of coolant, so I'm going to have a new crank pulley machined now.
 
I decided to rearrange my list a little and ended up pulling the head and swapping in a new head gasket. I did a few pulls last night and it didn't spit any coolant, so I'm cautious but hopeful that my problem is fixed. I'll pull the valve cover and verify head stud torque today, but really just need to drive it more to ensure the problem is fixed. I'll also go back to a black expansion tank cap I think.

Nothing was obviously wrong with the cometic gasket I pulled out. There was some scuffing of the rubber sealing layer, but I don't think that was the issue. I think it was leaking between the layers due to lifting the head slightly or the mating surface finish not being ideal or perfectly flat, or some other reason.

I'm now using a 1mm thick cutting ring gasket from KL Racing. I was going to use an Athena one but those only come in 2mm thick and that's a little thick for how far my pistons stick out. Hopefully this gasket holds up because I don't really want to pull the engine to put fire rings in.

While I was pulling the head, I decided to test fit a KL Racing intake manifold for fitment. I was pleasantly surprised that it fit under the strut bar. It's a tight fit, and I'll have to move my catch can, but it really shouldn't be too big a job.

The plenum size is essentially the same as the Nathan intake manifold, the main difference is runner length and angle. My plan is to dyno the car with the current manifold on the car and then swap to the KL racing one and see what changes. I prefer the looks and fitment of the Nathan manifold, but if the KL racing manifold has noticeable improvements, I'll use it instead.

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I want to like the KL intake but I can't get my head around the tight corner into the first cylinder. Is there something going on inside that smooths it out a bit?
 
Ginger Ninja said:
I want to like the KL intake but I can't get my head around the tight corner into the first cylinder. Is there something going on inside that smooths it out a bit?
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It's not too bad. I am going to port my plenum and runners out a bit though. Here's the corner from the inside.

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I went to the Friday night drags at PIR last night and made some funny slips. I'm car 149X. Roll racing seems more suited for my car. Launching at 1900-2100 RPM just doesn't do it for my powerband. If I wanted to actually do decent at drag racing I'd need to get a higher stall converter. If I got a higher stall converter, I'd be spinning the tires. If I got slicks to not spin, then I'd be breaking stuff. So my car probably won't ever be good at drag racing.

However, it was really hot last night and I didn't have at least 60% ethanol in the tank so I still had a few pounds of boost in reserve. On a reasonable temperature day with full boost I'm pretty sure I could trap 130 mph as it currently sits. I'm hoping to get to a roll racing event soon.

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Karl Buchka said:
Agreed on all points. You're trapping well enough for a low 11 or high 10, so power definitely isn't the problem. Getting the short track performance puts a real hurting on your driveline.
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I may get a converter at some point for better driveability even on the street but probably not slicks because I don't want to hurt everything else.
 
@Harlard sent me this video his friend took. It really shows just how slow my "launch" is. You can also hear my tires squealing a bit while traction control tries to keep everything moving and the shift cuts.

Pretty sad to see the BMW next to me ran an 11.6 at 121 mph and I'm more than a second slower but at significantly higher trap speed.

I also need to fix my taillight.

 
I've been working on this idea for a bit and the custom parts finally showed up. This accessory drive solves some problems and adds some bling.

In the past, Mike K has tried to get ATI to make a B230 crank pulley, but they were never interested. I've always been interested in an underdrive pulley to spin the water pump slower, but all available versions are undamped which I never liked. I've also been interested in a serpentine belt conversion, but never pulled the trigger. I've heard that v belts have had some issues flying off at high RPM. I don't really like having my crank timing mark on a damped section of the crank pulley. The plan was to address all these (potential) issues.

I ended up getting the KL racing serpentine pulley kit but making my own crank pulley to work with an ATI damper. I got an ATI damper for a Ford Pinto. 2.3L Pintos apparently have the same bore and stroke B230, so it seems like a better match than a 2JZ, SR20, or any other of the dampers people have modified for use on B230s. Before I committed to a serpentine belt, my hope was initially to modify the hub that comes with the Pinto ATI damper, but the spacing and diameters weren't going to work out and it only had two v belt grooves. I ended up designing what is essentially a KL racing crank pulley that allows for an ATI damper to bolt on.

For whatever reason the KL racing alternator pulley doesn't fit directly on a Denso alternator, so I'll have to modify the alternator pulley, but I'm getting close. Soon I won't ever have to worry about my timing mark slipping on an questionable quality stock damper.

I also signed up for a roll racing event Sept 1-2 so I'm excited to see what the car can do when launching isn't critical.

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