It's bed time in Wendover and there's not much to report about tomorrow. Only two vehicles remain. The Studebaker's second engine was being installed as I walked to their pit (the first one was sitting on the tarp next to the car, evidently expired). They hope to have it running by noon or so. The Big Red Camaro should still be ready to run. And that's it. The Ack Attack bike is done for the event. Interesting story here.
Mike A. took about ten minutes to explain the issue that they're having. Basically - the tune up is acting goofy. Rocky's first pass used about 50% throttle, ran strong, and went 310 in 4th gear. It was his first real run in the bike since '10. But on the next pass he ran it up at about half throttle again, and when twisting the grip for more the motors just laid down as the turbos spun up. Way too lean. In the pit they looked at data and spark plugs and decided to add 20% fuel to the map. Same result -- strong until the boost climbs, then lean. At least it was better, but it was shaking with detonation so Rocky aborted the run. Added 10% more fuel and got - basically the same thing.
The motors ran great on the dyno. The engines were fine in the shop. But (big but here) after all the static tests the engines were torn down for cleaning and maintenance and the injectors were pulled out and sent to an injector shop that the team uses for cleaning. When the injectors were shipped back they were put straightaway into the engines. And this event is the first time it's been run in anger since then.
Thinking it might be the MoTeC they fiddled with it. Ian Mann, the MoTeC guy from the Speed Demon team, went over and spent a bunch of time working with them on the unit. Still found nothing to indicate any fault except the weird lean condition. The final thought is that the wrong injectors were shipped back and they're running at pretty much 100% at low or no boost, and when the boost builds -- they don't have the capacity to provide enough fuel. They visually are the same - and nothing had been done upon receipt from the shop to test them. Who thought that they might have needed a flow test? Good thing they found the hassle now - instead of at an FIM meet. This was, for them at least, a test and tune.
That's enough. We'll plan on being out there around 9 Wendover time in the morning, but don't be surprised if there's nothing going on. Maybe I'll have the time to make the fricking streaming audio wi-fi jetpack work right.
G'night.