9/26/07 Update:
Despite months of work and the excellent help and support of great sponsors and friends, once and done was the result at WoS '07. With the new T67 turbo Mile High Talon ran 25mph faster at the 1st mile than ever before. Unfortunately, just past the 1 the boost started fluctuating, which I thought was due to a boost leak during the run. Afterward I found that I'd cracked the #4 piston and chipped pieces off both exhaust valves in that hole. With no spares on hand to replace the broken parts we were all done for the season after that first run. But considering the engine had 283,000+ miles and three seasons worth of Bonneville runs on it, not surprisingly it finally died an overdue death.
Now in the process of building a 6-bolt 4G63 engine to replace the old 7-bolt 4G63 engine(referring to the # of bolts which attach the flywheel to the crankshaft. Later 7-bolt engines are more prone to crankwalk than the earlier 6-bolt series); and the UPS guy is dropping new parts off on a daily basis. I've got a donated 6-bolt block in the machine shop being magnafluxed and bored 20-over to fit 20-over forged Ross pistons w/Ross rings, Eagle H-beam forged rods, a magnafluxed & polished factory forged crankshaft, and a stack of new parts sitting in the garage incl.: a balance shaft removal kit, oil pump housing and gears, water pump, timing belt, an HKS 1.6mm metal head gasket, and ARP head studs, an ACT forged 6-bolt flywheel, a 1st-gen intake manifold port-matched to a ported and polished head with SS valves and a set of Crower 280 cams, and am switching from the early 2nd-gen cam angle sensor to a 1st-gen CAS with an RRE harness for that swap. The 1600cc injectors are on the way back from RC Engineering after cleaning and flow-testing. The block machining should be completed in about a week, so we'll be assembling the new engine within the next two weeks. The goal is to end up with a strong reliable engine that makes 450HP+ at 20-25# of boost rather than tuning all-out to make 550-600HP at 30-35# of boost like several of my drag racing friends are doing with similar set-ups. Also will be swapping a 25%-over TRE 5th gear into the transaxle this Fall/Winter. Then, with the addition of more rollcage, Halon, a chute, window tabs, etc. next Spring and Summer we'll hopefully pass tech for BGT or PS class racing for next season.
Special "THANKS" to our 2007 sponsors for their generous financial support: Mile High Honda/Mitsubishi/Acura (
www.milehighimports.com),
www.9secondracing.com, On-Track Performance, Bob's Volvo Service, and
www.thecarpetstudio.com; and to Stephen Johnson for all the wrenching and coming with as our Crew Chief, to Jason Martinez for all your shop time and tools getting the 7-bolt ACT forged flywheel and CV boots installed, and to Hal Landry for rebuilding the throttle body in record time!!
More updates and an occasional photo to be posted as the build progresses.
James