I have a huge problem with my truck running way inconsistant at the drag strip. It was the early part of this year and I got my best 9.997 @ 71. I went not long ago and the truck was only running 10.5's and 10.4's and only 68-69 mph. Is this due to the adaptive learning of the truck it seemed much quicker when I beat on it all the time then it does now that I kinda eased off in my driving.

My question to Mike T. is that how bad is the shifts on this truck in stock form, the reason I ask is that I can tell when the truck shifts then I can feel the power come back once it has shifted. I was told that the computer lowers line pressure, and retards timing during shifts. Is this true? If it is will the max tuner due away with the retarding of the timing between shifts. I know i can firm the shifts up, and that would help alot but so would keeping the timming in.

 

Just a quick question, is this a 1/8 or 1/4 mile drag strip ???? With those times and speeds, sure looks like a 1/8 mile.

FYI, I do a 17.2 at about 79 mph on a 1/4 mile strip.

Have Fun & Keep on Truckin'
Dean

 

lots of things could be at play.

something no one thinks about is the direction of the wind. on our air challenged trucks a wind going with or against you can make a difference.
air pressure in your tires. the old hot rod trick it to over infalte the front for sure and rears as much as possible before traction becomes a problem.

clean or dirty air filter.

temperature and humidity

good or bad gas.

i dont know about yours, but mine runs best after it has cooled off and the temp guage goes about 1/4 the way over, when it runs at normal temp, about half way over, it runs 2/10 th slower.

you might have staged it different also. staging deep will help with a better time.

one of the above makes a small change but al together it adds up.

i have often wondered if the lights get calibrated at the track and
it get out of wack every now and then.

or it could simply be that something isnt right with your truck. if your truck is mostly stock then 9.9 seems a little to low, especially if you have a supercrew or extended cab.

 

The reason I compared early year to recent is because the weather was damn near identacal. I braket race allot and I keep weather logs in my log book humidity was up 8% but temp was down 5deg. and I had 5mph more tail wind this time.

As for air filter I had a fram paper filter in it, and now I have a K&N. Knowing the problem of the oil from the filter getting mass air sensor I cleaned it of with carb cleaner, and run the truck again with no change in performance.

I always shallow stage what ever I race for benefit of best ET, I just flicker the stage light on, I stage the same way everytime. All weather points to being better this time out, It just seams a huge inconsistancy in the truck.

I was hoping to get Mike T. to let me know just how well the programer will clean up the shifts, I think that has something to do with it to.

 

i know what you mean - runs based on how hard you drive it- most of the time- if i drive my truck "normal" it won't brake the tires loose from a dead stop- last nite i had to be somewhere at a set time and i hammered it the whole way there- "wife like that alot!-hahah" anyways when i was at my destination- i wot it from a redlight and smoke the **** out of the tires 1st-& 2nd- never did this before- on way home ,from every redlight and stop sign- spun em at will- so i'd say yes to your theory!-phil

 

Hi Bottlefed,

Yes, there is a good deal of improvement that can be made by optimizing the various torque mgmt. parameters as well as the shift characteristics, and the Micro Tuner will take care of that pretty well.

We really should talk in some detail over the phone so I can go over a number of items about your vehicle with you, so we can hopefully get this properly diagnosed for you - as well as go over in thorough detail just exactly what the Micro Tuner will do in this regard, and also what a sharp custom tune in a traditional Superchip module can do, too. In short, we'll go over everything.

I am heading out of town in an hour, and if you give my staff a call at our number listed below, I can call you back via cell from the road (I'll be at Superchips again this next week) and go over all of this with you, OK? So please just give the shop a call & leave them your name, number, and a brief message, and I'll get back to you in a day or two, OK? Thanks!

 

will do, thanks

I will say it was back to running 10.0's tonight

but under almost perfect weather and a 5-10mph tail wind

 

What kind of truck do you have? Year, Engine, Config, ....

 

I have a reg. cab, short bed 5.4 '02

Its completly stock, the only thing from factory it has diffrent is it has a stock style K&N in it which made no diffrence at all.

 

wow- my 03 5.4 3.55 supercab 4x4 runs circles around that- grant it i have chip ,exhaust and intake but mine isn't a 2wd reg cab- something isn't right- i'd think you'd be in the 9.7's at least- guess i have a strong runnin f!

 

a regular cab 5.4 should, on a good day, go a 15.7 to 15.9 which is about a 10.0 1/8 mile. So a 10.5 = something is wrong.

my truck have a vortech, supercrew 5.4 and it ran a 15.1 with a 9.6.( no other mods) there were a couple of other 5.4 there that night and they all ran 16's, they were supercabs, so had mods other didnt and the ran from 16.2 to 16.8.

openclass a 9.7, or around a 15.2, from a 4x4 supercab is exceptional. most of the guys in the supercharger forum that are running 310 to 320 rear wheel hp (around 360 to 370 crank)with 4x4's, with custom tunning, exhaust work and larger mass-airflow meters are running 14.7. did you run that at an 1/8 track?

 

HI!... What's your elevation?

 

500-700 ft i dont know for sure but I know Ennis is 500ft.

 

thats what I'm saying BROTHERDAVE it will go out one weekend and run 9.9's then a week or 2 later it will run 10.5's then the next week maybe 10.2's and it almost always in the 60 ft. because when its running bad it will only 60ft high 2.3's low 2.4's and whe its hitting in the 9's its low 2.2's and high 2.1's, its just so inconsistant its not funny.

what finally got me to post is that it was running 10.3's in cool dry air, and I went the next weekend it was 85 w/78% humidity and was running faster then at 52 w/25% humidity. <--- something is not right. then this bast weekend it was right back in the 10.0's but it was 55 w/ low humidity.

 

I have my best timeslip in front of me.

1/8 10.028
MPH 69.54
1/4 15.714
MPH 85.21

Sep 30 10:13 AM

Elevation about 100' (?)

Stock except for a sprayed-in bedliner.