What did you do with your GMT400 today...or yesterday....

[Paveltolz]

Got the Rookie pass done on Sunday. Wow, what a great experience. True, I’ve gone faster on the Autobahn but, this was so much better.
Before:

Going over procedures for starting, launching, shift points, steering, normal shut down, emergency bail out, normal extraction, start line procedures…. Lots of details. Chris Mursick is one of lead safety inspectors and knowing the regulations we have to day were written in the blood of those who’ve died in the past…yeah, pay attention. Close attention.

Aussie pall Jason buckled in and ready to make his record attempt.


Me, after the run. Now one can be light hearted.


Maggie (spousal unit) came out for the day to be a part of a long held dream.
Maggie, Jason, Chris Mursick, Mr. “Rookie No Mo” Pavel Tolz


Starter and 200 MPH Club member Ken Carlson gave me the ‘No Mo’ title. The starter has to sign your time slip before you can get your ‘Rookie” label removed and receive an SCTA Competition License.


Our good luck Sasquatch needed some repairs.

When we get up to speed we can hear him scream because the zip tie get tighter around his, er, Sasquatchies.

Our neighbors in the pits are running a nitro-methane Chevy Monza. Backfired on propane during start up and ate a starter. Almost looks like it could have been a 6.5 unit except for the extra venting.



Recall what I said about the rules being written in blood? Less than 30 minutes after my joyful time celebrating the rookie pass, long time racer Chris Raschke was killed when something went wrong on the Speed Demon car he was driving at 283 mph. He was making a test pass on the team’s attempt to surpass 500mph in a wheel driven piston engine vehicle.o
Suddenly the car was airborne, almost launched sailed a long way and then impacted. Hope sprang eternal but, there weren’t too many who thought he survived the impact.

 

[BIGR]

Got the Rookie pass done on Sunday. Wow, what a great experience. True, I’ve gone faster on the Autobahn but, this was so much better.
Before:
View attachment 95267
Going over procedures for starting, launching, shift points, steering, normal shut down, emergency bail out, normal extraction, start line procedures…. Lots of details. Chris Mursick is one of lead safety inspectors and knowing the regulations we have to day were written in the blood of those who’ve died in the past…yeah, pay attention. Close attention.

Aussie pall Jason buckled in and ready to make his record attempt.
View attachment 95266

Me, after the run. Now one can be light hearted.
View attachment 95269

Maggie (spousal unit) came out for the day to be a part of a long held dream.
Maggie, Jason, Chris Mursick, Mr. “Rookie No Mo” Pavel Tolz
View attachment 95268

Starter and 200 MPH Club member Ken Carlson gave me the ‘No Mo’ title. The starter has to sign your time slip before you can get your ‘Rookie” label removed and receive an SCTA Competition License.
View attachment 95273

Our good luck Sasquatch needed some repairs.
View attachment 95270
When we get up to speed we can hear him scream because the zip tie get tighter around his, er, Sasquatchies.

Our neighbors in the pits are running a nitro-methane Chevy Monza. Backfired on propane during start up and ate a starter. Almost looks like it could have been a 6.5 unit except for the extra venting.
View attachment 95271


Recall what I said about the rules being written in blood? Less than 30 minutes after my joyful time celebrating the rookie pass, long time racer Chris Raschke was killed when something went wrong on the Speed Demon car he was driving at 283 mph. He was making a test pass on the team’s attempt to surpass 500mph in a wheel driven piston engine vehicle.o
Suddenly the car was airborne, almost launched sailed a long way and then impacted. Hope sprang eternal but, there weren’t too many who thought he survived the impact.
View attachment 95276

So sad about Chris loosing his life, I read about that online and figured that you were there.

 

[Big T]

Got the $50 driver’s seat from salvage cleaned up. Had my wife pick up a bottle of Folex spot carpet/upholstery cleaner from HD. She went to town on the seat and just raved about how well the Folex stuff worked. I followed that up with the upholstery attachment on my Rug Doctor carpet machine and the seat is looking pretty good now. All that is left is to clean up the years of gack on the seat tracks and it will be ready to install.

Before:




During (cleaning):


After:

 

[dbrannon79]

I had ordered the liquid line that goes between the condenser and evap for my 95 but to my surprise I goofed and ordered one that was made for dual front and rear units. it was only $16, but it's not gonna work unless I can figure out how to plug off the extra line port. it also has provisions to hold the orifice tube in the middle section of the line unlike mine where it goes in the condenser. So not gonna get to replace the condenser this weekend!

I did however attempt to replace the orifice tube. I had also ordered a yellow GM orifice tube which is a 0.062 where the old one was a black 0.072 orifice. going off some recommendations I read on the GMT400 forum, they are saying the slightly smaller orifice helps.

got the system evacuated using my homemade evac system (old fridge compressor, gauges, and an old tank) I was able to save and re-use the refrigerant. swapped out the orifice tube and recharged. I did notice slightly lower pressures on the low side and a smigin higher on the high which in turn got the vent temps at 55 degrees from 60 before. that was a plus, but for what ever reason my high side pressures are rather odd.

when you first turn on the ac the high side will spike way up to a little over 350psi and then slowly settle back down (has always done this), but once the system is cooling the highest I see on the high is 225-230 with the engine RPM bumped up using the high idle switch. doesn't even climb any using my foot to hold it at 2000rpm. I am still suspecting the condenser is the issue, mainly the repair kit that was used by the PO. when I went to swap out the orifice tube, I noticed that the old one slipped right out easily and the new one almost dropped into place. Only had to push it ever so lightly for it to go in where it was supposed to. I have a suspicion that the refrigerant is able to bypass the o-ring on the orifice tube not allowing it to build a decent pressure differential between the low and high sides. I'm no expert on air conditioning systems but I do know you have to have a good pressure differential for the liquid refrigerant to turn into a gas creating the "cold". with the outside temps today at 98 degrees, I should have seen near 280 +/- psi on the high. my suspicion on this also lines up with why I seen to have to add more refrigerant that it should be taking for the system to cool! if the orifice was sealing in the tube around the o-ring and having "too much" my pressures would be so high I would be blowing something up! This truck shouldn't need 4 cans or 45ish ounces to cool!

I looked online to see who I can get the correct liquid line from, but no one has it local and the jungle site can't get me one for about a week! I might end up taking this one to the local Napa and see if I can find the fitting that goes in that port, then weld it shut on the end to make a plug! we shall see! the fitting is a metric M20x1.5 thread with a o-ring.

 

[Paveltolz]

Thursday was the final day on the flats. We packed up the equipment and car Wednesday afternoon and went back out to watch friends back up their record qualifying runs from the day before. Ruiz: once you beat the current class record or ‘qualify’, you have to make another run (back up) and qualify again the next morning. If you succeed on both runs, the speeds are averaged and that establishes the new record.

Our friends with modified NitroMethane burning, starter busting, mid-engine Monza backed up their run at over 191mph.

The engine’s located just under the windshield, driver sits in the back seat behind the driver seat’s normal spot and exhaust goes out the passenger door. Oh, and it is a four banger


Danny Thompson pushed the Furgeson stream liner to 411 and qualified to make a back up run Friday morning. Haven’t heard if they succeeded or not. Need to look up Gearhead Hobby’s YouTube channel and see. I noticed the Gearhead guys edited their archived live feed to remove Sunday’s wreck that killed Chris Raschke. That was good of them.

Some happy snaps:
Leaving Camp and then parked on the start line to watch the back up runs. Lots of people are intrigued by the Diesel powered K1500. Truck really needs a paint job as the initial 220 scuffing is more like Rod Stewarts ‘Maggie-May’ “The morning sun… really shows your age.”




Two ‘Lakesters’ (wheels outside the body) were parked at the start line assembly area overnight (common) so they can get on the course right after the back up runs are completed.


So, another Speed Week complete. The Ghia made 11 passes, 9 of them full pulls (we cut two short) and it survives to run again at El Mirage or Bonneville.


The trailer I rented from the Tooele Army Depot Outdoor Rec. facility worked great but, the new ‘AtlanTec’ 4K generator ran about 13 hours before kicking the bucket. I found two Honda EU2000i generators with a Parallel attachment on KSL Classified and picked them up last night. The newer Honda 2200i units that replaced these are: 11-14 hundred each, reportedly start harder, aren’t as reliable and heavier. These look brand new and were even better in person. Started on the first pull and it was a very easy pull too. Yeah, grabbed them.



With a very strong head wind and a long, 2% ish climb going out, the truck got 13.6mpg w/ 3:73 gearing and stock tires. Very hot afternoon so I had to ditch the A/C quite a few times to keep under 210. Never got above 205 and EGT’s at the worse touched 1100*. On the way home, the climb is shorter, the air temps cooler, the winds calm and the A/C never got shut down so I got 15.2mpg. I can live with that.

 

[Big T]

Thursday was the final day on the flats. We packed up the equipment and car Wednesday afternoon and went back out to watch friends back up their record qualifying runs from the day before. Ruiz: once you beat the current class record or ‘qualify’, you have to make another run (back up) and qualify again the next morning. If you succeed on both runs, the speeds are averaged and that establishes the new record.

Our friends with modified NitroMethane burning, starter busting, mid-engine Monza backed up their run at over 191mph. View attachment 95298
View attachment 95303
The engine’s located just under the windshield, driver sits in the back seat behind the driver seat’s normal spot and exhaust goes out the passenger door. Oh, and it is a four banger
View attachment 95304

Danny Thompson pushed the Furgeson stream liner to 411 and qualified to make a back up run Friday morning. Haven’t heard if they succeeded or not. Need to look up Gearhead Hobby’s YouTube channel and see. I noticed the Gearhead guys edited their archived live feed to remove Sunday’s wreck that killed Chris Raschke. That was good of them.

Some happy snaps:
Leaving Camp and then parked on the start line to watch the back up runs. Lots of people are intrigued by the Diesel powered K1500. Truck really needs a paint job as the initial 220 scuffing is more like Rod Stewarts ‘Maggie-May’ “The morning sun… really shows your age.”
View attachment 95295

View attachment 95296

Two ‘Lakesters’ (wheels outside the body) were parked at the start line assembly area overnight (common) so they can get on the course right after the back up runs are completed.View attachment 95299
View attachment 95300

So, another Speed Week complete. The Ghia made 11 passes, 9 of them full pulls (we cut two short) and it survives to run again at El Mirage or Bonneville.
View attachment 95302

The trailer I rented from the Tooele Army Depot Outdoor Rec. facility worked great but, the new ‘AtlanTec’ 4K generator ran about 13 hours before kicking the bucket. I found two Honda EU2000i generators with a Parallel attachment on KSL Classified and picked them up last night. The newer Honda 2200i units that replaced these are: 11-14 hundred each, reportedly start harder, aren’t as reliable and heavier. These look brand new and were even better in person. Started on the first pull and it was a very easy pull too. Yeah, grabbed them.

View attachment 95301

With a very strong head wind and a long, 2% ish climb going out, the truck got 13.6mpg w/ 3:73 gearing and stock tires. Very hot afternoon so I had to ditch the A/C quite a few times to keep under 210. Never got above 205 and EGT’s at the worse touched 1100*. On the way home, the climb is shorter, the air temps cooler, the winds calm and the A/C never got shut down so I got 15.2mpg. I can live with that.

View attachment 95305

15.2 mpg while towing is very good.