Project VF Part VI - Naturally Aspirated Wrap Up...
Project VF Part VI - Naturally Aspirated Wrap Up...
Well we have come to the point where kicking harder in N/A form on the VF is going to take it away from a good daily street cruiser that has the same manners getting the shopping as it does belting down the black top. That doesn't mean it is to become unstreetable and drive like a busted shopping trolley...it just indicates that it is a purpose built hot rod now with it's target being high performance street rather than street strip. So what pushed it over? The niggle that told us to hit it up with some more converter and shoot for some low elevens! It had always bugged us how lame the big girl was in the 60'. We had kept ratios and converters more street than strip orientated but it was time to take the gloves off and let the little 6 litre have some revs!
Dominator Torque Converters have supported us all the way with Project VF. The unit we had been using was more of a tight 3500rpm street orientated converter. A call to Dominator and a target stall speed discussed and a hybrid converter was under construction. This would be real neat as it involved the melding of two styles of converter into one unit...old school meets lock up! Once received and bolted in a quick flash speed test was done on the road with the trans in 3rd gear manual select so as not to light the tyres the new converter 'flashed" to 4700rpm on application of full throttle. This is the true way of working the "stall" speed of a converter...sitting on the spot with foot on brake trying to see how much rpm the engine will achieve with the throttle is NOT the correct method! So how did it drive? Real well as the converter is still tight at light throttle giving a great seat of the pants experience but flashed like a skimpy shown a gold coin once the throttle was demanded. It should be appreciated at this point that the trans is still the same unit it left Holden with. The 6L80E is a mighty transmission with the correct calibration strategy...
Converted!
16/9/2015
So to the track...weather looked good so we headed down for a hit at a FAST FRIDAY race. First lap the improvement was immediate with the VF hitting straight into the 11.30s even in the heat of the arvo. The 60' improved .17 seconds! That is a huge gain and a succession of PBs followed. Would be interesting as the air cooled...
The time card below shows 11.30@119mph. They are hard to read these shopper dockets...especially when it is low on ink! So is an 11.20 on the cards?
NO unfortunately...as the air came around and the track got better we spun the little Hoosier street radial too much and lost a bunch in the 60'. What a pisser!!
So far from being disappointed we were bouyed that right there was an 11.20 with good traction. We had been getting away with the small tyre for quite a while and the bigger flash on the converter pushed it over the edge. So time to strap a bigger tyre on and shoot again. We moved to a 295x45x17. Unfortunately this was going to pull the rear ratio back some but I was quietly confident that the looser converter and better traction would be on our side and some good laps would come...but 11.20s?
Retyred!
23/10/15
Back to the track for another attack on the startline! The old Hoosier was fitted for the first run of the day and a baseline 11.33 was established. Jack her up and tyres changed. No we didn't do it in under 10 minutes so no Bathurst pit crew here!
First run on the bigger tyre was an 11.31 so an improvement but no PB. The tyres were a little glassy and hadn't been on the track for a fair while which resulted in some wheel slip through 1st gear and a 1.63 60' which wasn't great but wasn't lame either...so we sent her away again...air was coming around so lets see...
And there is it! The 4100lb behemuth complete with spare wheel and jack in the boot went 11.27@119mph! Shit yeah. We knew it was in there! The 60' improved to a respectable 1.57 so that is showing an improvement a FULL .20 seconds out of the hole! Don't bother looking at the weather on the times slips...unfortunately the new timing set up and integration of the weather station at the "Plex isn't working and doesn't update...but the dew was coming as the humidity rose...another lap?
But the conditions beat us! She was a little slower in the 60' but still a credable 11.29 results.
So now the niggle is the loss of ratio by fitting a taller tyre....what if we were to change the rear end to help it get back the roll out of the tyre change and maybe add a bit of ratio for fun....do we have enough rpm over the finish line to allow for more rear ratio? Damn it! I said we would be happy with 11.20s out of the little 6L N/A but it seems not...Let the games continue...
It has been a while between drink when it comes to the updates of the progress of Project VF. Thanks for your patience guys...things have been hectic but we have chipped away with the big red test machine in between customers cars...so read on for the updates in one!
Finally Some Cooler Weather...
25/2/16
So we left off with a PB of 11.278 after fitting a looser converter and larger Hoosier street radial tyre back in October. The issue with trying to hit the start line hard and get the heavy weight VF moving through first was consistency....or really the lack of once the street radials were past their effectiveness...they worked...but not every lap. So we decided to source some 17" race wheels for PVF and fit it up with front runners and a dedicated drag slick. Being at 28.5" we were going to be losing some start line ratio as we had started to with the larger street radials. So out with the diff and another couple of points of gear ratio added. Why aren't I putting here what we moved to? This is a journal of what we have done with total tranparency...not a blueprint! But hey a tip? We don't want it having to shift into 5th gear in the top half of the track...every shift cost time! As you can see in the photo above, it is a sexy beast with its race shoes on!
So to the track yet again...Wednesday night surface so lets see how we go...
PB straight up! Not a msssive step up in the form of a .001 improvement but a PB none the less.
Backed it up with identical ET next lap...but the 60' is getting worse. Why? Wednesday Night track...
Air is getting better...can we improve further if it sticks?
Naah...the track is gone and wheel spin is the only thing that is going to happen tonight...change the street tyres back on and drive her home. Damn! But there is always another day...
FAST Series
16/4/16
Weather forecast looking great after another bout of hot days, we entered PVF into the local Sportsman Racing Series. The FAST Series is a great innovative formula set up by the Motorplex giving hobbie racers a chance to have a shot at racing without all the hustle and bustle of a full National Open meeting. OZEFI is the class PVF runs in. It is made up of Aussie EFI vehicles. It provides PVF a lot of track time on a prepared surface rather than a left over Wednesday night track.
Weather on the night of the race though didn't come through...humidity and density altitude were some of the worst we have ran the car in. But oh well...we are here doing laps. Lets see where it goes.
First round of eliminations...Shane gets a let off....Redlight win handed PVF the next round.
Driver wins this one...stout reaction time and the consistency of PVF brings us a win. Into the next round. The air is tragic so we are never going to run any decent times. It has become about the race now...how far can we go??
Hey we got a bye...lets try and do something different with staging the car....
Lesson learnt last lap...wheel spin was the result of that epic attempt so ummm lets just go back to what we know. As you can see from the times on the sheets, there is no funky cool down going on here. We are going rounds. Check tyre pressure and back to the line. This is where you learn the consistency of your calibration. Tune is good in this one...she pops out a PB on a hot run! 16 years of logging these GM EFI vehicles down the track, we have gathered an awesome amount of data that our customers benefit from in every tune we do. PVF wins this one...Shane has a snooze! Semi final win!
So into the final we went...racing a frequent FAST series racer...it is on!
We WON!! Happy days! Or so you would think...check out Mr Happy! Breakout wins don't count he reckons...You can see how steamy the air was via the halos. No power in burning water.
Just a little close up of the prize. We went there to run some laps but won the race. Great fun.
Project VF meets Alcoholics Anonymous
11/5/16
Fast running out of season and the weather finally coming around with cooler days, we decided to get PVF up and about with a change of diet. It is ultra fashionable in recent times to want to run your car on E85. We at SQP aren't real fans as all alcohol fuels come with maintainance...most of which users won't do. Lets face it...GM made the dipstick handle yellow so these guys can find it and check the oil occasionally... There are many draw backs with alky fuels with oil life, fuel system componet life, corrosion issues and relatively low km per tank of fuel just a few. But the fashion is to soldier on regardless. We have seen claims of up to 5/10th of a second over the 1/4 mile. Yeah right! And Santa brings the Christmas presents too after he slides down the chimney hey?? Hahaha! Now as with methanol, the major advantage of E85 is the width of the tuning window...you don't have to be on the tip of the pin to find the best power. The charge cooling effect when they change state from a liquid to a gas and high octane rating of these fuels has long been associated with a "supercharging effect" by racers since the 60s. Add this to the oxygenating chemistry of alcohol. This generally was proven to be a good increase in torque through the rpm range. Many back to backs have been done of the years that I have hot rodded and tuned and they always showed the same. Nothing new there....but to a new generation of racers and E85 being on a bowser...the following has been huge. Forced induction cars that are running close to detonation with higher boost levels and dynamic compression ratios benefit most. E85 is a formula of the same type of alcohol you get in booze mixed with a 15% hydrocarbon blend. Basically it is moonshine with a dash of petrol! In the USA it is made from corn in the same manner that 'Shine is. Here in Australia it is a product of sugar cane not much dissimilar to Bundy!! Without turning this into a tech write up on E85...we thought it was time to explore where a tank of it would take us.
Now PVF being a flex fuel car from the factory, it has a fuel pump with a capacity that will support for extra volume required to feed the beast on this lower energy fuel. Lower energy? Yep...you need more fuel burn to make the same power with this stuff. Just like eating lettuce rather than spuds! So onto the dyno PVF went and baseline runs done. Math done on injector size and a bigger injector was selected. Just for rough math we used 40% as an upgrade working that we should need 30% more fuel for the same power. Pretty much worked out to be a 60lb/hr injector as per what we use in our supercharger intalls. injectors fitted....fuel changed out...let the tuning begin. Speaking with many other EFI "tuners" is is amazing how many think that more timing is more power. Sadly that is why they believe that higher octane fuels show more power in some intances and why E85 will show gain. The resistence to burn is what octane rating really boils down to...if you need more timing in the engine, it is showing you that fuel is harder to burn. Now with the chamber design of the SQP/MAST 4.0 heads...we found it took no extra timing to burn E85 cleanly for best power than what it did BP Ultimate 98 petrol. That is how resistent to detonation that chamber design is and how efficient it is in it's burn. So where is the graph...you will have to wait! But there was a gain on the strainer...
Now not withstanding we never got to see the protential of PVF in good air with a good track with her slicks and upgraded converter/rear end ratio on petrol, we were out of time. Wednesday with good air was upon us. To the track on Corn PVF went.
First lap a great step up. A new PB! She picked up 1.6 tenths and 2.2mph from near identical air earlier in February. Showing a gain of 20hp...
Around for another lap... 11.09. Another PB. PVF is into the 11.0s!!
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. air is coming in now
Air in the basement... This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . We are making more power as the night goes on. Will we see a 10?
11.10@ 123mph...track is gone. Start line is just spinning up.
So the air was there but not the track. Racing at Wednesday Night shows always leave us vulnerable to varying track conditions which is contributed by the number of non slicked cars spinning on the startline tearing up the rubber required to have a good traction patch to leave on. But are we disappointed? Naah. 11.03 out of PVF is far away from the journey we started on two and a half years ago. The twists and turns and fun we have had along the way has been great and I hope our readers have enjoyed reading of PVF as much as we have had fun bringing it together. From the outset, we never set out be build the fastest VF. The whole Project VF has been structured to bring guys along on a journey of mods and the out come of those changes. We have busted some myths and it seems from the attacks from other shops...pissed a few off. We set out to show that we at SQP don't race dynos. We make cars fast. We structure our mods around reliability and functionality whilst trying to give the best performance for the dollar we can offer. We don't rape cylinder heads with sanding tape...we offer cylinder heads that are at the next level above the OEM. Project VF still has the same transmission in it that it left the line with back in 2013. The 6L80E trans is a mighty piece and with careful calibration, will give years of service behind highly modified combos. It is a torqued based modelled tranmission calibration...it requires good ECU calibration to get it to function well. Slurring shifts and slipping trans? Hmmmm.
Summarising the out come of the E85 change out...it is safe to say that we got a gain of 20hp at the track looking at what we picked up in ET and MPH and basing it back on what we have seen all the way with power increases. Was there 5/10th? Naah. Never was going to be. That is just smoke and mirrors! So to the graph...Project VF set out to explode the myths of how much power some think they are making. The industry today is governed by machines that give a power reading. These machines aren't calibrated or tested by any Government Department but are still used to sell a quantity. We at SQP have used them to show a before and after. We sell a gain. You buy 40hp say from SQP...not 450rwhp. That is just a number on a page taken from a device that can't be controlled with variables. People think they are buying HP...well they are...a gain not a peak power figure! All dyno numbers are corrected...they add or subtract a percentage depending on the atmospheric conditions. How can you sell a hot day's correction??? So PVF has shown what can be done with careful mods and controlled variables. What power was it making 9 days before the Wednesday night...running 11.0s at 123mph surely it is over 500rwhp? There are heaps of cam only cars pushing that according to the forums...
Sadly no...through an unlocked converter and Factory Redline Bridgestone tyres....462rwhp is all she shows. Near a full second quicker than many of the 480+ rwhp cars around. Go figure?? We are proud of the performance we have been able to push out of the little 6L motor! It is stout by any measure.
So where to from here? We were going to put a blower on PVF and head down that road but really all it shows is how good you are at changing blower pulleys...more boost and faster they go. No real challenge in that. So maybe it is time for some cubes...402 sounds nice sticking to the 4.0" bore 6L base. But so too does updating to a LS3 and doing Project VFII. Let's see when the rain stops. Please like us on FB say you can stay updated with where we are heading...what do you guys want to see? Drop in FACEBOOK and tell us what you would like to see. So many have come a part of Project VF that it is a community effort now. Let us know!
Back soon....
<< Project VF Part V - The VF Chronicle Continues...
Project VF Part VII - N/A All The Way! >>
