13.2 @ 110mph

[[ion] C2]

And now I'll tell you something that makes that time/MPH way more impressive. (Well, for one, guy next to me went 12.0 @ 110MPH but whatever)

What Happened
I got to the track when it opened. Decided to do my first run on the tires I drove in on, and not open the exhaust yet, just to see how it does. It spun off the line quite a bit, and then the head gasket blew 3 seconds after launching. I was stranded at the track for 5 hours until I was able to get someone with a tow dolly to take my car home. Shit sucked..

I didn't notice til I was most of the way down the track, and at that point I just kept my foot in it. It was a total fog behind me. They had to clean up the track for a while, woops. Car died once I got into the low RPMs. Two spark plugs (2 & 3) had their ground straps half gone, disintegrated. Those cylinders are the ones that filled up with coolant.



Here's a screen grab of the datalog, too. So much knock from the leakage..



Why it Happened
I never expected my head gasket fix from last time to work, but it did, for a pretty damn long time considering what its been through. The head had some severe scoring around the cylinder area, from where the old MLS gasket somehow etched into the metal. I neglected to machine the head, and simply hand cleaned stuff up, put a very light coat of copper spray on the new gasket, and put everything back together. Dumb, I know.

However, it held up strong. Seemingly perfect. Until last Friday, when I decided to be a total dumbass and only 30 seconds after starting the car from full cold, to do two short wide-open throttle bursts to show my co-worker what the exhaust sounded like. Shortly thereafter, my coolant temp was unnaturally high. I immediately thought I destroyed the headgasket. Apparently my initial assumption was correct. I made a small leak that formed into a huge one today. It wasn't just the water pump that was going.. I just filled it up on coolant after noticing it was low/empty and just drove lightly all week, observing some odd behavior of the coolant temperature though..

So it finally let loose. Car still pulled pretty damn good, I was highly impressed with how well it ran considering what the hell was going on with it down the track. The car was going down the track pretty rough but I just kept it floored.. and still hit 110MPH.

What's Next
No more racing for me until I obtain a second car. I am thoroughly satisfied with its obvious ability to go deep into the 12s assuming I don't destroy the head gasket during the run, lol.

I'll be using all-new ARP head studs this time, new Cometic gasket with a light-medium amount of copper spray, and the head will be machined to a mirror surface. I'll also be replacing the water pump.

This time I do it, it won't leak.