How About a Hamburger in El Centro?

Kim decided to take Friday off so we could go to the desert for a one day banzai trip. The wind had been howling at the desert and we wanted to be the first to make tracks over the new ripples. We got up at 5 am, jumped in our clothes, and took off. We had the trailer with quads hitched up by 5:40, and were fueled up at a gas station down the road by 6 sharp.

Perfect!

Then much ass-hauling up the grades, cruise set to 85, turbo boost coming on and off in a nice rhythm...then 80 miles later, down the grade back to sea level, and onward to El Centro. We were getting close. 14 miles to El Centro the cruise tried to take the truck into boost and the engine shuddered badly. I hit the brake to shut off the cruise and rolled onto the throttle a couple times to see where the problem occured...It was at anything approaching positive pressure. We pulled over, and left the engine running while I checked things out. No "check engine" lights helped us out. Oil pressure, exhaust gas temp, coolant temp, and fuel pressure were all within normal ranges. All I could figure was some kind of misfire from a fouled plug or bad wire.

We hit the road again, cautiously trying to make our way to a local toyota stealership where at least we'd be able to get parts, if we needed them. The "check engine" light finally popped on, and I was lucky to have my code scanner and book with me. It came up error 0136, which was misfire cylinder 6.

We bought a new spark plug and a set of wires and swapped everything out. Still the same problem- sluggish and misfiring at idle and under any amount of boost.

We were starving at this point (it was 10 AM) so we popped into the local Carl's Jr after fitting Sioux with her "don't mess with me i'm a service dog" vest. We ordered hamburgers and fries and considered our options. I couldn't for the life of me figure out what the trouble was, even with my friend Jerrod on the cell phone helping me troubleshoot. He raised the dark spectre of a blown head gasket or a cracked head, but the oil level was perfect and there was no oil in the coolant or vice versa.

After lunch, since we were so close, I was tempted to head for Glamis to at least get some riding in, but at the last minute, I pulled u-turn and headed back to San Diego. The possibility of my lovely wife and our dog being stranded with a trailer full of gear was too much to risk. So we high-tailed it home, if you can high-tail while drawing vacuum.

Kim slept a good part of the way, and when we got home I pulled the plugs and did compression checks. All cylinders came within spec. Then on a message board one guy suggested that it might be a bad coil pack. I tested the #3 pack, which wastes spark to the #6 cylinder and sure enough, it was shot. Those packs are a hundred bucks apiece but I happpened to have 3 of them on the spare 3.4 I have sitting in my shop. Ten minutes of wrenching and the Toy was running stronger than ever.

I apologized to Kim and thanked her for going with me to get hamburgers in El Centro.

Now I wonder how much more power the truck might make, now that it's not missing any longer. I may have to come out of retirement for One Last Drag Race.

:)

Racing and Retiring - 2001 Tacoma

So we went to the drags last Friday with my intercooled turbo 4WD V6. It was the first time I've been able to race since I swapped my supercharger for the turbo. This is on a 1/8 mile track at Racelegal in San Diego.

My truck is pretty much a desert/Baja rig. It's an 01 SR5 extracab and has a 3-inch SAW lift and doubled-up leaf packs in the rear. Usually I have a shell on it, and a tailgate and a spare tire, but I remove all that for racing. Last night was my last time racing before replacing the shell and loading it all up again.

As a baseline, my best supercharged run was two years ago. It was:

2.323 60 foot
10.010 at 71.43. That was with a 9lb pulley and water injection and a URD 190lph/305 cc kit and a stock clutch that I smoked later that evening.

Last night was a whole different story.

I'm currently running around 13 lbs of boost with water-meth injection and a new Spec Level 3+ clutch. The motor has 64000 miles on it, and I'm now running 440 cc injectors and a 255 lph pump. I had my old worn out 265/75/16 BFG TAs on, since the back ones are pretty much worn down smooth. Not real slicks, I know, but it was the best I had. Oh, I also carried a pressurized spray bottle of water with me, and when I was 3 cars back from the line I'd jump out and spray the intercooler down. The evaporating water really helps cool the intake charge, believe it or not, and it was a cheap way to get some extra ponies.

My first run, I launched in 4wd with an open diff. The way I do it is to engage the 4wd with the pushbutton, then hold the button in at the line. Then when I launch, the pressure on the gears keeps the 4wd from disengaging, until I shift to second and then it disengages at the instant of the shift. It works pretty well, except my truck is making so much more power that when I hit second and it went into 2wd, I just pretty much sat there and spun the tires. Same thing when I hit third...more wheelspin. I chalked that one up to experience and cruised to the finish line.

I had a similar experience my second run, but this time I locked the locker, thinking that it would give me the 2wd traction I needed. No dice.

I am not the most experienced dragstrip driver, so I just decided to leave the rear diff open and run 4wd the whole way. Now I started getting results.

I creamed some chick in a hopped-up accord, it wasn't even a race. Then I went hunting for some bigger prey. A guy pulled up in a late-model Corvette and agreed to race me. We pulled to the line and according to him, (when I talked to him after the race), I got 3 car lengths up on him right off the line. Thank God for 4WD! Anyway, I beat him though it was close, and that was my best race that evening. I pulled a 2.118 60 foot time and ran 9.221 seconds at 79.36 MPH. I could feel the force of the launch, and I knew it was going to be a good one.

Quite an improvement from my supercharged best listed above, and I think pretty good for a 4x4. The corvette ran 9.44 at 80.64.

The 'vette guy tracked me down after the race, and he couldn't stop laughing while he congratulated me. It was fun to be able to say "Yeah, the motor is stock with just a turbocharger and some fuel mods." He was a really nice guy.

My next race was against a brand-new Nissan 350Z. That guy had just put a twin-turbo kit on his car, and I thought I might be able to take him because I figured he wouldn't be able to put that power to the ground. I was right, I think when he saw me jump off the line he panicked and stuck his foot in it. I beat him 9.528 to 9.744.

My last real race was against a replica AC Cobra with I-don't-know-what under the hood. I got him good off the line as well, but I ended up losing to him, 9.444 to 9.082. Those cobras are really light.

All in all a really fun evening!