A 30 year journey, and a 2nd chance.

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3/9-3/12, 1995 Houston, TX Nat'l Event was re-run, I actually won a round, and then the next round (as the fuelers were warming up, both dragsters and Funny Cars, I get my green and this huge red tinged cloud of unburned Nitro fumes wafts across the track, and I drive right into it, and I am now waaaay out on the other guy (not an Emmons though), I stand on the brakes, no smoke or sliding and just go through ahead and take the stripe and break out 13 hundredths. (warm up nitro clouds are no fun in a slow car..."I love the smell of Nitromethane, but My eyes were watering in the car with the windows rolled up and the vents closed, and for sure my lil' throttle body was sucking in all it could). I actually felt it pick up a bunch and the tach shot up faster than usual, and I could feel the break out coming by half track but there was not a thing I could do until late in the run, as he was a fast car. I just carried him by just too much. He was an A or a B car, I think Blue with White Stripes an Early 70's GT500 Mustang? My mph at 660' was up over +10 from all prior runs and I was down by 6 MPH at the stripe attempting to whoa up and not give it up. The light on either side wasn't anything to write home about, but were close together .036/.037 in his favor. What a crazy race, the car is still running ok, but the cam that is in it now is coming out, because it is not as good as another for consistency (even without Nitro fumes hanging heavy in the air).

Hey, I can laugh about the season from heck as this is 2.5 decades later, it has been fun and a nightmare all at once (still living the dream). Lol.

Next up Baton Rouge, LA -Div. 4 At least the entry is already paid as Div. 4 Director transferred Ennis entry to B.R., LA (where Harvey, Jr. says Imma gonna have some Louzianna Gumbo, and we gonna suck the heads off some crawwwwdads next! And he was surprised I did.

(So far completed 3 Nat's-1 rnd win/0 Div., and I squeezed in 1 Bracket race night in N.M. runner up, 2 in TX so far quarters and semis, and it isn't paying the bills.

Last thing though for Houston... Bob Frey with NHRA Today approached me early in Houston and said to me..."Is it true you are driving your Budget Stocker on Tour?" I said yes Bob, and he asked if we could do a 20 minute segment or something, I said sure, and during some downtime, we drove off property together and down a road by a bunch of trees and they had me drive up and down the road like I was travelling back and forth between tracks for B roll footage, then they sped it up in the clip and the accompanied interview happened about the experience so far, and it was fun, the final cut was like half the entire NHRA Today Episode and my wife taped it for me at home, it was an added bit of a surprise.

Glad I am having fun, because things with the car are going to go down hill only on the racetrack though, and pretty much never gets better. That bug of (what I just found out in 2022, and confirmed in May 2023 - a full throttle instant on off, on off, vacuum leak), that all the time in 1995 seemed like it was an ECU Rev Limit feature has always been there after the finish line since a bracket race long ago in Vegas, is about to start showing up at about 5,200 RPM in each gear, or actually anytime I go pedal to the metal (full throttle), for 2 seconds or more. and it is going to drive me crazy and cost a lot of money and zero good racing results.

It also affects the bracket racing, but not as much as the class racing. And it gets progressively worse over time.

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I messed up, sry...Gainsville is next up, after a trip to Jacksonville to visit relatives, then back to Baton Rouge, LA.

On the way to Florida I start having road trip issues, do the key flop dance and read ECU Codes...My MAP Sensor is no good, find a dealership, they hook up their Diag tool and the MAP needs replacing along with the ECU. I keep my ECU core though. Back on the road, (about 3 days in Gainsville with family I had not seen in years (My uncle has a beautiful Red Cuda he has had since I was a kid, and he loves Drag Racing, so he will meet me in Gainsville for a few days later), I did not have the time to pull the converter and get it fixed in JAX at TCI, back on the road & ck into the HoJo in Gainsville Motor Hotel. I prep at the track, and another Stock Racer Bernie Cunningham approaches me and says are you really staying in a hotel/motel, yup...He says I have a motorhome, my generator, trailer and racecar, and have the empty bed over the cab, rent from me, we will split/ share the weekly grocery bills and generator gas /water costs, and food cooking together, and we will just stay at the track together and travel together if you want and we work out the details. I explain sometimes I will go off alone to other events on my schedule that are not together with his (some Div. events I was attending elsewhere and some E.T. brackets, but the Nat. Events it works out). I would just meet up with him at the next venue.

The car is running tops now on the road, lets see on the track. Gainsville, FL, my miss is now at 5,000 RPM in each gear when full throttle it leaves hard, accelerates perfectly and about 5,000 it just pops and nose dives like hitting a rev limiter, and picks back up and runs fine to top of each gear, shift and does it again...every pass! Lights are ok, but the E.T. suffers and cannot even dial it well this way. Glad no heads up races.

I try everything, putting all 3 of my avail. ECU's in 1 at a time...and it does the very same thing (only at differing RPM's consistently, 5,000 on ECU 1, 5,200 on ECU 2, and 5,300 on ECU 3.....Not consistent between ECU's though, so I think since all of them are rebuilds (as they do not make new ones as the 1984 TBI is a 1 yr only model specific ECU they just keep rebuilding and recoding and selling them...today I have a collection of 7 of them, and they all test good)...Am chasing a bug and chasing my tail, and burning dollars but, far from home, entry's are pre-paid, I am not giving up pressing forward, chasing under hood vacuum lines and wiring is not solving the issue, reading my multiple Hanes and Chilton manuals I have with me, but I do not have a full dealer Repair Manual set, and back then the dealer's only had those (I have a full set now! in 2023).

At Gainsville in the lanes at the Gators awaiting Q-3, a local fan approaches me and we get to talking about my slow sled, and he is a very nice friendly guy, and he says, while you are in town, if you need to do anything to your car, I have a dyno tuning, and repair shop about 3 miles from here downtown (and it is the slow time of year), and you are welcome to come work on your car in my shop if you have needs at all, I have 3 lifts, a roller dyno and maybe we can work out that issue you are having...yeah you could not help but notice.

And I told him I really needed to pull my converter out and send it to TCI at JAX then reinstall it, and in the meantime maybe we could together attempt to chase down this other issue that is costing me a ton of losses , but mainly all my passes are now junk except a lot of great tree practice (1 mediocre .026 light, and all the rest at Gainsville were -.004 to .006...and I can deal with all of those, but the E.T's were crazy slow just barely under the index, and 1 pass just over it.

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I accepted the offer he was so kind to give, and I told Bernie I was going to send my converter to JAX, see if could trace this issue down at the Dyno shop here in town, then head to Baton Rouge and catch up with him in Atlanta (South of), as he was going to park the motor home in a sponsor friends driveway for a while before we need to go to Commerce, GA Nat. event. (I was still having fun, and getting to know EFI, even if it was the bad side of EFI, I was gaining a lot of knowledge and experience with the car, some bad, a lot good, and I was not doing it alone as a lot of good people were attempting to help diagnose it also. Later even a Chrysler Engineer who helped design and test, then race these G Body, K car derived nightmares attempted to help, he was as dumbfounded as everyone else, to the point of actually checking my timing and then he put it up on the actual rev limiter for me to the point I thought he was going to blow that tiny 2.2 to smithereens. (that was well after I was back home in AZ months later, and down in Surprise, AZ at Speedworld)
He by hand just layed that throttle body wide open and held it there until it screamed and went bab,bab,bab,bap.

I slowly stepped away from the engine bay, and have no idea what RPM it actually reached to hit the true rev limit feature (but it did, and he said it awww it won't blow up, and smiled with a sly grin, then said it is not the ECU doing that , but dang if I know what it is, said good luck and walked away, and it was a totally different sound than the eventually found vacuum leak.


Note**I know what it was now in 2023, so very hard not to call it what it was...

A huge full throttle instantaneous large vacuum leak, that causes an instant backfire or instant loss of power...my guess is it was sucking so much vacuum so fast, that it simply was blowing the plug spark out for 1 or 2 holes), all because 2 seconds into full throttle it (the ECU, was opening a stinking fuel tank vapor solenoid, and there was a cracked line back above the gas tank attached to the rollover vent line. And the cracks in the rubber line were getting worse over time.

I was absolutely going nuts and nothing I (we), did fixed the issue. We went to his Dyno Shop, I pulled the Transaxle again, boxed up the converter overnighted it to JAX, and TCI reworked it, called me to apologize (said yes, it had a pinhole in the weld...NO CHARGE), and sent it back right away overnight, 1 day it was back all fixed, I reinstalled it, worked on electrical, vacuum lines, under dash, in engine bay, just replaced anything I could think of or see, then once the transaxle was back in we strapped it to his dyno (and that was a scary thing to do, as the FWD car I was facing a concrete block wall about 3' from the front bumper and doing full pulls...4 was enough for me, it just does not feel right!

The issue was still there but a lot milder, like manageable milder, that is probably looking back because I was going down on the pedal lighter and slower than on a dragstrip and it wasn't actually going wide open the same, so the ECU did not trigger the same. at this point I was sure it was a rev limit feature in the ECU or ignition related, Coil, Distro, or Power Module, Wires, something else.

Now off to Baton Rouge to meet back up with The Emmons folks. div 4 race 2, but 1 I was withdrawn from. Car driving just great on the highway, even better than usual, and no more bread pan, & no leaks. getting even better mileage too. (Computer cars are nuts...until you find out it is a simple mechanical failure because it is fully hidden unless you drip the tank). And here we are 28 years later, and all the same electronics are still on that car and everything is fine today.

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If you have never been to the NHRA Sanctioned Dragstrip in Baton Rouge, LA...It is a sea level track wayyyy back in da swamps on a bayou. Spanish Moss hanging from all the trees, and you better pick up on the Cajun dialect really fast or ugonmissout oueverthin.

It is a great place, with some great people, not bad hook, faster paced than you would think it would be, some great food and friends to meet, and if you would even think about attempting to climb and possibly sit on those really rusted up (at least back in 1995), at one time way in the past stands you may have called 'bleachers" or seats, check you last tetanus shot date first!

At least their "grand"-stand date was long past expired.

A fun place, my lights again wer ok to good, but the same stupid issue, just missed running the number. (it was very humid and it was flat slow there, 1/8 mile and Q times).

Off To south of Atlanta to meet up w/ Bernie, and by the time I arrived he said he had been researching something for me, and we are headed to a local GA Salvage Yard to see a certain 1983 Dodge Omni (Carbed Edition), and excise some parts from it. The Mopar Electronic Spark Control Box and the harness to coil box, and back to the Hall Effect Distro. $35.00 Bucks and a few minutes later we are back and installing it on my car, and checking voltages at all the TPS, MAP, Coolant Temp Sensors, everything we can to see if there is anything that did not show up on the Chry. Dealer's diag. run.

We chisel / numeral marked via a degree wheel installed on the crank, and and then through the bellhousing timing window the converter starting at TCI's 0 mark and knowing we were at TDC all 360 degrees around that new converter, so we can see initial and Total easily with a timing light. Once around 10's wide chisel, once around 5's narrower chisel, then, all the way around in between dots, then added the numerals with steel stamps at each ten mark, Zero is Painted white.

That must be also aligned for the timing belt too, and not easy as it is on opposite side of the car, 2 person operation.

the Spark box took control of Spark and Timing functions away from the Power Module but not the ECU, and it actually runs better on the box/module, it does not jump around like when the power module controls spark., pretty much reducing the PM to operate the injector and only other minor functions, small pkg, easy 3 bolt spare replace in 3 mins...Or, i can just plug back in the stock system and switch over the + and - coil leads. And it is back on the PM in control of spark and timing. It has been on the car ever since.

All sensors ck'd out, but we replace and calibrated a new TPS anyway, a new Coolant Temp Sensor, he dug out of his electronic box a couple of dial type potentiometers, wired 1 up, gave me a spare, and we had a dial Base parameter Rich/Lean dial that using temp voltage ranges fools the MAP into sending constant elevation type reading.

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Atlanta I was a 2nd round duck, but not as bad though the issue still existed, as it still changed little (though I went back to Atlanta the following Wednesday for a Bracket Race and instead of just adjusting it once (Rich or Lean depending on Corrected Altitude), and leaving it for days unless there were huge swings...I started out Lean on the dial in daylight hours, and as rounds progressed and the air got cooler and better I richened it a notch or number before every round...I won both the street and the combined bracket(s) that night!)


We stayed near Atlanta again same place and I went up to Rockingham, NC for a Div., and back. Then we went to Memphis, TN, then back, then same time went back to Rockingham, NC for a Nat event, stayed a full week there, then Englishtown, NJ (I won class there alone, barely by not much), after N.J. I headed home it was late May, and I needed to get this issue resolved or park the car, raced is a few times the rest of the year testing this or that (requested the combo be reviewed in Dec 1995, and Feb 6, 96' they set it back to the correct original 99HP, rather than 110HP,
the trip was expensive enough with zero inflow all outgo.
raced it a couple of times in 96 & Phoenix in 97 was last time.

2.5 decades of life got in the way a bit, kids, college, fun, and business and debt reduction. So, it stayed parked time to get it back out again...Next up the actual rest of the build and that nagging problem resolved!

But I collected during the recent rebuild project a bunch of very special parts that makes it what it is today, that were not even available, or I would never have either found, or been given access to back then, you can say perfect timing buys, others no longer had a use for them, they were hidden away and rat holed and I had a need so I asked and they parted with them for very reasonable prices, and I researched a lot!

Just 3- 1/8th mile passes are on the car right now.

Want to know how long Sunoco Purple or 110 standard lasts and how pure it is? we moved 13.5 years before I started this recent project, put a few gals of Sunoco 110 in the tank, to move it onto a trailer to the new house garage, Jan 10th, 2022, started draining the tank pumping out fine into a clear jug, no sediment, smells right, a tiny bit more red than purple, zero sediment and the injector is perfectly clean.

Heck I fired it up and heated the block to temp, before starting the teardown and disassembly (to help loosen all bolts easier), after I emptied and dropped the stock tank and drained out the last 2.5 gals, the tank had zero rust in it. Trust pure race gas I guess. As that is a lot of hot summers.

And saw that nasty little pc of 1/4" fuel vapor line all spiderweb cracked going to the vent and rollover valve. The Fuel Cell rule change allowed me to find it. (It also requires IF you add a fuel cell, you MUST remove the stock tank).

[MR DERBY CITY]

You sure have a good memory, maybe I missed it but what is your name .?

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Gary Lucier

and just was issued 7832 Stk and ET

They got real close to my old number last digit was a 9. That will work, TY NHRA.

Itching to see what it will run in the quarter now. I take good notes, details still come easy for me, names though never have. Going to Vegas on the 8th to find out. Do a little testing

It was a hard few years to forget, the best of times. And some of the worst frustrations ever, I cannot and never have been able to allow some inanimate mechanical object to defeat me, the job has always been to fix it!

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Though the car was painted a couple of times the engine bay was never empty until this 1st rebuild, so it was cleaned & done.



Engine coming out after roughing out the elect. water pump and a few other items like getting rid of that nasty stamped steel ugly valve cover.


It looked like 93K miles and 25 years of sitting.

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Bearings looked great, pistons not so much.



The fuel cell upper bulkhead.

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