GT 1/4 slips (14 second run)

[PT Eric]

When he speeds by you and cuts you off in a race of egotistical rage, just place your turn signal on, make a left or right turn and pretend you did not even see him nor care to know he exists. It's one thing to have a friendly race with two people who are ready and willing, it's another to be so selfish as to intentionally cut someone off in the process, someone who was not even interested in racing. That's my take.

[bstockum]

Nice run Gary C !

Welcome to the 14 sec club!

I have now drivin 4 GT's and the one silver one, I had for a weekend, was by farrrrrr the fastest one yet. Two of the others were quite lack-luster in performance. ???

Wonder why there is so much differance in the way the GTs perform?

Good job Gary C, ... Bob


http://www.bstockum.com

[hyracer]

Gary,
Thanks for posting the website on the tranny/engine mounts. I was a little surprised on how much they were though...they sure don't give them away. I can also read your timeslips now , don't know if you re-posted them but they are much clearer. You had an outstanding 60 ft. on your 14 second run , that's why you probably hit the high 14 second mark.
Just got my boost gage in the mail yesterday and hope the controller comes in today...it will give me some fun things to do this weekend!
I agree with Bob Stockum...some GT's may perform better. I've noticed even on mine that some days it feels likes its pulling harder during WOT and some days its not. I've also noticed it seems to pull harder before it reaches full operating temperature. If you look at your temp gage , mine will pull harder when the needle is on the mark just below the normal operating temperature. I'm thinking of finding a thermostat that opens about 20 degrees cooler than what the factory T-stat is rated for. On other cars some chip MFG's will recommend a lower temp T-stat when installing one of their chips. The idea being you can run more timing advance with a cooler fuel charge and still stay out of detonation.
Deen

[PT Eric]

Hyracer, sounds like your GT also is running great. If you are looking for a cooler thermostat, I just had one installed by PT-Tuning. It is made by Whipple for their supercharged kits and it works very well. There is absolutely a visible difference in operating temperatiure when looking at the needle. You may want to contact PT-Tuning to see what they offer you. Good luck.

[Gary C]

Thanks for the comments.
And Bob, thanks for the welcome into the 14 second club. It's a good feeling breaking into even high 14's 100% stock.
As for the pricing on the mounts, yes they are expensive, but I guess that's to be expected with such a low volume of them, compared to the oh 90 dollars I paid for solid mounts on my Mustang 5.0 just due to the sheer volume of them production/companies producing them wise. *shrug* I look at it as the price you pay to be different... ok not really, Sure i was upset that I had to pay 250 bucks with shipping, but hey, having broken mounts in cars before, I'd rather help elmiate the wheel hop issue, and really firm up that drivetrain. The motor was REALLY rocking when we dynoed it... talk about a LOT of movement.

As far as GT's performing different I will also agree with that one. I drove another one at my dealership, and that one seemed to pull a LOT harder than mine through redline. They however said they will reflash my ECU next time i bring it in...

on another note, yesterday, I pulled my spark plugs and checked the gaping, and i found they were gaped at .050! I did regap the plugs down to .035 and THAT made a decent difference in itself. *Shrug* just something to think about...

edit: oh yeah hyracer, I *did* adjust the contrast/brightness to make them easier to read, i was surfing on somebody else's computer who doesn't have the contrast levels seriously jacked on the monitor and discovered how *hard* they really were to read. Sorry about that once again. I'll try to remember that for next time.

[wagonmaster]

I've found that if you use less than 93 octane fuel, the power levels really drop. My dealer filled our GT up when we picked it up and I couldn't figure out the difference until I asked the next day what gas he put in it. It was 87 octane!!! The computer was retarding the timing a TON! We filled it with 93 and problem solved!
Still, we noticed that some days the car just doesn't seem to pull very hard while others it's just fine. I have often wondered what a 180* thermostat would do for it. It worked great on our Mustangs and our Corvette!
Sometime I just wonder!
Joe

[bstockum]

Hey!

... on that temperature thing!?!! .... If that turns out to be true, ... how about one of you electrical wizzz types, make up a gaget to change the voltage output from the temp sensor, to fool the computer into thinking the engine is cooler than it really is. I'm sure there is a threshold where it would give a code if you went too far. So make it adjustable, so it can be set with a volt meter and be able to turn it off for emissions testing and regular driving.

Just a thought.

Bob

[achr]

Congratulatins Gary. Excellent run, especially with the seats in and your 60 foot time was certainly better than mine. What is the altitude at that track and do you remember the temperature?

Like so many others here, I too have felt that sometimes my Turbo PT is running strong and other times it feels pretty lame. However, one of those times when it FELT weak was the night I ran 15.13 @ 93.55 mph at the track so I figured I was just getting used to it. I launched pretty much at idle and had a slow 2.36 sixty foot time.

In my DC-II, the biggest "seat of the pants" dropoff was right after I topped up with Sunoco 94 gold. The car felt really flat after that, almost like my normally aspirated 5 speed PT. I also ran a tank of 87 Octane through it and the power appeared to drop off somewhat although it ran O.K. and got virtually the same mileage. I'll probably use regular if I'm just cruising on a long trip as the computer seems to prevent the engine from hurting itself. However, best performance indeed appears to be with 91 Octane as recommended by Chrysler. Gee, imagine that.

[Gary C]

altitude is 830 feet IIRC, and the temp was a not so great for traction range of 40 degrees towards the end of the night and the last runs, to a somewhat better 60 degree temp. GREAT for the cool air as the turbo loves it, but the tires just span and span especially at 40 psi. heh.
next time (another week or so) I'll give it a go with the rear seats pulled, and drop the front pressure into the mid 20's and see how it fares. Then it's off to boost controller and 3" turbo back exhaust land!
As far as performance, I've noticed that with mine too, but it also depends a lot on the ambient air temp. On warmer days she actually *feels* like it's pulling harder than on cool days, but yet on some cold days it's VERY strong, where the next day it won't be.
On a random note, thanks to the *wizards* at DC I haven't been able to get a data logger hooked up to this yet, to see what it's doing with the ignition side of things, as well as other such parameters I'd LOVE to be able to log and post findings on. *Shrug* hopefully soon though I'll have a logger that works, and be able to report back on stock as well as what happens when you add a bit more boost to the mix, just to see if it's reacting like the subaru's does in that it will severely retard timing... *Shrug*