Discussion Forum - Northstar Chevelle Club

After 2018s multiple expensive breakages, we fixed the body damage, did some front suspension upgrades, and had the LS1-383 rebuilt. 

It was mid-June before the car was ready to go, but as you may remember, I didn't miss much as it rained pretty much all of May and June... You may notice the checklist of tape stuck to the windshield to avoid the previous year's catastrophes. 

We went to GoodGuys in Des Moines over the July 4th weekend, where I tried my hand at getting back into the autocross game... first time at the starting line, 0 confidence and shaking from nerves. The car performed much better than my eyes, feet, hands, and brain did all weekend, but I struggled with wrapping my head around all the new adjustability I added with front DA coilovers, and determining what was "car" and what was driver error. I was slow, but gaining confidence and having fun with a great group of friends. No breakage!

I entered the Street Machine Challenge at the Street Machine Nationals. Again, car worked well except I fought a push, but then would get really loose if I tried to adjust it out. In retrospect, I think it was too much front brake bias and/or just too much braking on entry, overloading the fronts adding too much slip-angle before the tires could start to change the direction of the car. At this point I'm starting to question whether the lack of feel in the hydroboost might be contributing to my driver errors. Picture shows loose condition. 

It made 404hp at the rear wheels at 5650rpm. Also kind of dissappointing, as I was expecting about 450hp at 6200rpm... looks like I need more cam. 

In August, Jenna and I left the kids at Grandma's house and took a long weekend road trip to Strongsville Ohio for the NOCC show, featuring 100 '69 Chevelles.

At Dragway 42, I made one dissappointing pass (wasn't expecting a dead hook, and bogged badly nearly stalling it) and was informed I had a coolant leak that turned out to be the water pump weeping at higher RPM (which apparently leaked a lot bouncing off the limiter in the burnout box). New water pump was procured at Summit Racing, and then fixed in the parking lot during the car show. 

I was actually kind of relieved when it was clear I wasn't making any more passes. I still needed this car to make it 700 miles home! 

We received a "Top 50" award of about 325 cars, and the car did make it home getting 17.5mpg running 80mph at 2100rpm

In September, we went to "LS Fest" in Bowling Green, KY. This was a cool show, and I was entered in the "Grand Champion Competition" with 3 solid days of autocross, drag racing, speed-stop, and dealing with ridiculous traffic in hot weather. Again, the car outperformed my eyes, hands, feet, and brain. I had one mechanical problem, the crank pulley would spin, which loosened the bolt, walking  the pulley forward misaligning the belts and also allowing oil past the front seal and slinging it all over under the hood. Ruined the belts, made a mess under the hood, and lost almost 3 qts. Luckily, I had 3 qts pressurized in reserve from the Accusump I installed just before going to this event. A parts-store run for the right 12-point socket and some loctite had us back in business. Still fighting the handling a bit, and still somewhat in denial that the hydroboost was masking the pedal feel too much.

Overall, I finished 26th out of 49 (30th in the autocross, 19th in drag race, 24th in speed-stop)

On the drag strip, I managed a best of 12.888 at 111.74mph

In October, I left the family home and went to Wisconsin Dells for a weekend of autocross with friends. (off-season allows use of Noah's Ark parking lot)

I finally started to just have fun, and not stress over the results... which resulted in better driving anyway.

I'm now very much convinced the hydroboost feel is the cause of much of my struggles.