Where do I begin???

[FlyByU]

Well I was a little busy with my car over the winter....

My Arrington 426 was an off the shelf n/a 426 with looser ring gaps as the only custom bit. Pushed that puppy pretty hard getting solid 9's out of it late last year and netting the Gen III Hemi Nitrous record with a 9.69. I was warned several times that I really was doing WAY more than that motor was designed for and I was pushing my luck. Well I dont have a lot of luck so I wanted to do it right while I had some time over the winter. I also wanted to get my rollbar upgraded to a 10 point along with getting the rest of the car up to snuff NHRA safety wise for sub 10 second ET's. I made up a laundry list of stuff I wanted to get done and contacted the good old boys over at Arrington about them doing it for me. Budget was discussed and they were able to meet my numbers, of course the budget was blown out of the water as I added crap to the build while they had it

I dropped the car off in Feb and picked it up in April, 2 weeks before VMP. The build came out great, 10 point cage with net and painted came out slick and was NHRA ceritified while they had it. Trans blanket installed, 15 inch wheel conversion with new bogarts and slicks mounted, super duper long wheel studs added, clearancing for new 29.5 inch tall slicks done, new flex plate, new mac daddy high compression 426 with one off pistons and steel top rings, some minor weight reduction and tuned. AJ warned me the idle wasnt quite ready but I needed my ride for some TLC at home prior to VMP and I wanted to run it locally atleast once prior to the event. I went down and picked it up and made the marathon trip back home in one day. AJ came and picked it up the next day and finished up the tune with 3 or 4 hours of his attention netting about a 50hp gain over my previous motor. The cam is the same big ass FRI cam I had before and isnt any friendlier in this motor, lol. Part throttle manners are pretty darn good after AJ finished it up and no issues at all for track use.

After bringing it home for a few days and giving it some much needed TLC, I was ready to run the car but N/A was all we had planned at this point. I took it to ETown for some shake down runs and the car ran great. Ran 11.0 one after another, car was performing great in my opinion but Aj felt like it was off compared to what it was making on the dyno. My afr wire was a casualties during the cage install so AJ put together one for me while I was running my car. Got one good log and went home after a long day of hanging with the ETown crew. Went home undefeated by the way, lol.

AJ looked at the log and saw some things he needed to tweak which in his opinion was holding the car back at ETown. I wasnt overly concerned as my car is a nitrous car and my N/A numbers arent really important to me. Well from my previous experience with nitrous and tuning it with Nitro Dave, we wanted the N/A tune as close to perfect as possible before we ever touched a big shot of nitrous. The minor adjustments got the tune where it needed to be.

So now what? Ive learned more than once that tuning a big shot of nitrous is best done on the track and best done by an expert. I know just enough to get myself in trouble and didnt want to hurt my new beast of a motor regardless of how well its built. Here is where it starts to make sense why I am posting this in the Nitrous Outlet section............ Called up our main man Nitro Dave, hey bud got a new motor thats nitrous specific, wanna fly out to VA before our next event and tune it? About 3 seconds pass, sure Dan, what are the dates. HOLY CRAP, I might actually get this puppy done and ready for battle prior to the VMP event. I was able to get in on a VMP track rental the day before the event which was perfect for what Dave and I needed to do. Dave gave me a list of stuff I had to do to my nitrous setup prior to the tuning day and he started mailing me boxes, lol.

At Dave's request, I converted my setup to run twin bottles, added a badass twin bottle heater bracket, redid my purge, got a hot bath bottle heater, picked up 15 gallons of VP N02 fuel and redid all my purge and heater wiring. Took me a few days to get it all done, just in the nick of time. Dave was flying in Wednesday night to Richmond so after a quick trip through Martinsville, I picked up Dave hours before our big tune day.

WELL ****, RAIN RAIN RAIN RAIN and more F'N RAIN. The whole Thursday was a rain out. Damn it, our whole plan was out the window. Not one single nitrous pass and the event is tomorrow, lol. It may not sound like a big deal but when your goal is to run a shot big enough to run mid 9's or better, its a killer. Our tune was going to start from scratch since the build was totally different than my previous. Well we had some stuff we had to get done anyway so we dropped the car/trailer off at the track and ran around town a bit and picked up what we needed along with filling up my empty 4 bottles of nitrous. Those plus the 3 55lbs cylinders I brought should be enough to cover us for the next day, lmfao. Okay I knew I was going to do some refills for others but I had no problem thinking Id use it all myself We had fun that night, everyone started rolling into town and the beer started to flow, life is good.

We were one of the first at the track the next day for the event. Thankfully RobAGD came into town and agreed to run the gate for me and most of the other busy work things during the event so I could focus more on my car. Huge help there but really, Dave was ready to rock with or without me, lol. He had all the plugs out, new ones gapped, fuel system flowed, notes taken, jets out, new jets in, fuel in, bottles in and all that before I got back from helping Rob out a little. Oh boy, its game on I think, Dave is on a mission with our limited time. Well as most of you know, our early arrival and super duper preparedness did little to get the ball rolling since the track wasnt ready for us until about 1030.

Fast forward and Dave wants me to do one motor run to see where we are at. First and only N/A pass of the day nets me a 10.94, new PB and all we needed to see. N/A tune is were we want it. AJ had given us 4 different tunes with different timing to make it a little easier on us and would make it where we wouldnt need him during the day, he had his own things to worry about . Dave wanted to start with the 300 shot and we pretty much knew we wouldnt have time to get to the 400 shot before eliminations. Heck, we wanted to dial in the trans brake/two step as well, no damn time. Stupid rain and the late start and oil down didnt help either.

Dave is so methodical, first pass he insisted it be to the 1/8th and I was to coast down the track with the car in neutral and motor turned off. He would meet me at the end of the track on every pass to yank a plug for his super duper reading and tuning analysis, lol. We did that a couple times as he made his adjustments. Made some full runs, yanked plugs etc.. yada yada, got it dialed in pretty good. Ran 9.83 on the 300 with the limited time we had on it. I was satisfied for now but really not even close to my goal and Dave knew it. Oh well, it was eliminations time and we had to live with it.

Won my first round and lost a real close race to Mike Smiths bluebee in the 2nd round. His car wasnt up to par (trans issues), ran a 9.7 to my 9.9 but it was fun to make it interesting since I tree'd Brent who was driving by a tenth. Alright, shame I didnt have the 400 shot for that race, lol.

We worked on the car a little more and tried a trans brake pass. Spun the tires but all went well and the two step did what it was supposed to do. Dave asked me, do you want to work on the 400 shot or the trans brake, we dont have time for both. I was like 400 shot of course, lol. I was pretty tired at this point and we had the event coming to a close. I had the trophy presentation to do and I didnt think I was going to be up for more.

After some friendly prodding from Rob and a few others, I manned up and said Id stay around for the late test and tune if Dave was up for it. We werent sure when the next time Id have this opportunity. It had been 11 hours at this point and Dave said LETS DO IT. Jeez dude, you are a machine, I didnt do anything but drive and I was shot. While I was doing the trophy presentation, Dave was busy swapping out to colder plugs and yanking nitrous jets. LOL, I could see him wrenching away while I was doing my thing under the tent.

Let me mention, the new hot bath heater I picked up from Dave was the tits. Put your bottles in it while you are running your car or doing whatever, it brings the bottles up to pressure and keeps them there. Really hold the pressure well the way they are heated up from the total bath.

Anyhow, my trinity and wideband started to act up and pretty much became useless. The plugs read what they read, we trusted them at all costs. It was dark at this point and Dave had a few tag alongs as the night went on. Rob, bboy and jsja/Jason stuck around to help and watch. Was nice to have the company. The golf cart that VMP lent me was a life saver, Dave and crew came up return road like clock work as I sat there patiently in the dark with my car. I made a few passes to include a partial one etc... 3rd pass I ran 9.64 with a 1.39 60 foot. Not bad after 3 passes in the dark after 14 hours at the track. Dave was done and so were the rest of us. He yanked the plug and said he'd read it when he got home, lol.

We went to dinner, drank in the hotel parking lot and basically tried to keep from falling over. Dave was done, fried, toast. But he kept smiling, kept answering questions in the parking lot and kept shaking hands with friends. I dropped him off at the airport at 730am the next morning and off he went. We have talked several times since and the mysterious plug he took with him looked damn good he said. We will either drop a lbs of fuel or add a degree of timing next time out but its so damn close, gotta love it.

Next time out, I work on the progressive controller with the trans brake/2 step. Dumping my poopy wideband and have a dual sensor lm2 on the way. I am sick of messing with the trinity for logging, time to do it right. I cant wait to dial that in and really stretch this bad boys legs. All in all, Nitro Dave is a true friend and beyond that, he is a class act. I cant thank him enough and the price of a plane ticket is well worth his company everytime.

See you soon buddy and thanks again. I think we will have a great season with this new setup.

[USCG Charger]

Wow you guys had quite the adventure.. Dave is fully committed, and that's nice to see! If I ever decide to put the bottle on the Dart he will be who I call.

[MAGFX]

Wow Dan, you wore me out, just reading this. Even though I am clueless about N₂O, I totally enjoyed your write up. Good luck this year with your beast!

[hemituner]

Dave is nothing short of amazing. His knowledge and methods are the best of anyone I have seen. No doubt I couldn't have made rounds and the W without his help. IMO he is the ONLY person to go to for Nos and Nos Tuning!!! Nitrous outlet FTW even N/A!!!!!!
A.J.

[RobAGD]

Yea that day was crazy as hell

Got to the track at 7:30 left at 11:30pm what a rough day.

Glad to help you and Dave out as much as I could.

Dave is a machine at this and I have to say I was leery of the hot bath set up but after seeing how it work I am a fan.

You will get that 2 step and brake sorted out and you will be well into the 9's bud

-R

[FlyByU]

wow, so it was 16 hours at the track, hehe.

[BBoyPersia]

i drove home the same night!

[hemiwagn]

Great write up Dan, it made me feel like I was there; I was so damn tired after 16 min of reading it, I can only imagine 16 hrs at the track!
And btw, you are a machine too!

Hope you have a great year at the track with your reinvigorated beast.

[slideway]

What a marathon adventure! Great job all around and I look forward to seeing the sub 9.5's for you Dan!

[rtr0id]

this is a car forum if we wanted to read novels we'd go to the library


run Dan run !!

[BuilderBill]

It was a pleasure meeting Dave in person.
He is REALLY on top of his game.
Good luck at MIR!!!!
Bill

[jsjahonda(big BK]

wow, hay Dan, i would stay any time to help you in any way. You have help me for a few years, Dave is a class act, he was telling me thing about what he was look for in you spark plugs, that i never knew was there , LOL So glad to see every think got work out, see you in MIR

dan at VMP.jpg

this is Dan making a pass at 10:00 PM at VMP

[novawagonmaster]

Congrats Dan!! Your writing skillz are running strong.

Glad to hear you are getting the beast dialed in.

Can't wait to see what you bring to MIR!

[HemiSam]

Great write-up, Dan. I have the pleasure of working with Dave on a project now and I look forward to gleaning some of the knowledge you have from him during your build. I can attest to him being a class act with great products and a great team.

HemiSam

[fnkychkn]

great story, Dan. looking forward to seeing you run in Ohio.