Well, first of all I'd like to thank the rest of the committee for everything that was done. I think a lot of undue credit is being slung my way - this was FAR from a solo effort. There were a few snags here and there, coupla time delays that we couldn't help, some heat/humidity that we could have done without...but overall i think everyone had a great time, and i'm very happy to have been a part of the planning.
Unfortunately for me, i was so exhausted the entire weekend, that i don't think i really go to sit and chat with anyone for more than a couple minutes. Anyone that i didn't get to talk to, or was seemingly ignoring - i assure you that i was just busy w/ NATS on the brain, and couldn't make myself slow down at times.
MY thanks go to:
As for my truck...
Most of you probably know that i'd just put a new (nats '06 raffle) transmission into the truck, and had about 20mi's on it before starting the 660mi journey down to BG. The truck had all of 206mi on the build when i left my house. I haven't had time to go through the truck and retorque everything...which bit me in the butt. As soon as i picked my truck up from the tranny shop, anytime i hit boost there was a horrid metal on metal clanking sound. I thought it was the flexplate tapping the starter gear, becuase you heard/felt it at your feet.
So i took the truck over to a machine shop and crawled under it, the starter gear looked unscathed, but my flexplate looked bent as hell. Little did i know that such a thing as a mushroom shaped flexplate existed. But still, i was using a torque convertor meant for a v6, on a v8, which has a different length snout - so the machine shop spaced out my flexplate and machined down the nose of the convertor all day friday while i was busy with registration and the corvette museum. This was comical to me since i was happy to finally have a Typhoon at a NATS...yet my truck still wasn't actually at the event. :lol:
Then my truck showed up at the museum, i take it for a quick test drive...and the sound is still occuring - great. The work done was still needed, but it didn't fix my problem. Oh well, i wasn't going to show up at NATS after talking smack and NOT race. :rotf: So i made a quick pass w/ the ty filled w/ crap, and ran a 13.4 or something. Hmm...i knew it wasn't pulling hard since playing on the highway on the caravan down i couldn't even keep up with Raist's srt8 jeep. I removed all the stuff from the Ty and made another pass to a blistering 13.2 i think. Yup, running horrible. Couldn't go faster than a 2.06 60', wasn't running/sounding right...and i could here the laughter from the stands.
So my races vs. jeff all i really cared about was winning the tree since i knew there was no way in hell i was gonna win. Cut a .112 r/t, which i thought was good given my seat time in the truck. Get the truck back to the hotel after dinner, and was talking to the tuner guy - Dave Henninger (great and friendly guy btw) and we (me and gerber) pop the hood to show him what he's workin with - and Gerber noticed that my wastegate is barely attached! The 2 bolts on the pressure side were completely missing...and one of the out side was extremely loose - thus my rattle! The gate is on a flex pipe, and was slapping against the downpipe under boost. Harmon to the rescue w/ a standard bolt box w/ lock washers...and while i found/installed those Gerber went through and tightened up everything else that'd backed itself loose. I also noticed that the nut holding the diaphram on inside my passenger wastegate was just sitting there and Gerber also took the gate apart and fixed that (he'd mentioned that had happened to him once, so maybe everyone should check those from time to time).
So by this point it's 8pm on Saturday, and at 9pm we're starting the raffle/award ceremony...what better time to start tuning?!?! :lol: So me and Dave Henninger went for a long cruise working on driveability and a little boost tune. Sure enough, holding 6psi, spooling WAY quicker, and best of all no rattle! So now the truck is running considerably better, but the track is long since over - oh well...story of my life.
Oh yea, did i mention that my tranny program (4l80e) was on the fritz. This too was fixed - Big Stuff 3 somehow though i had 50.5" diameter tires - super swamper typhoon! So the mph was reading just about double on BS3 than actual travelled - throwing off all my shifts. So Frank (Autoaddictions) worked with Henninger while i ran to the awards to try to get my truck a little more driveable ready since i have another 660mi trip in the morning.
Unfortunately for me, i was so exhausted the entire weekend, that i don't think i really go to sit and chat with anyone for more than a couple minutes. Anyone that i didn't get to talk to, or was seemingly ignoring - i assure you that i was just busy w/ NATS on the brain, and couldn't make myself slow down at times.
MY thanks go to:
- my g/f Jen - allowing me to ignore her the entire weekend and not doghousing me for it :lol:
- Morgan - the trophies were sick! All the legwork for those shirts sure paid off too!
- Jim Minton - the local Sy owner that helped us out very much
- Mike from the Machine Shop - working on my truck seemingly all day Friday so that i could more safely drive/race...for practically no cost...amazing.
- Gerber - finding/solving my real problem - stupid disappearing bolts
- Harmon - having a bunch of bolts to replace said missing bolts
- whoever it was that had a spare wastegate gasket - THANK YOU!
- Jeff Scott - sabotaging my truck / stealing wastegate bolts...is winning really THAT important??
- my parents - showing up even though i warned them i'd have 0 time to spend with them
- water balloon toting kids - i guess when i said "attack the parents" i shoulda said "attack the parents that don't have cameras" :rotf:
- everyone for attending and pushing the attendance numbers through the roof!!
As for my truck...
Most of you probably know that i'd just put a new (nats '06 raffle) transmission into the truck, and had about 20mi's on it before starting the 660mi journey down to BG. The truck had all of 206mi on the build when i left my house. I haven't had time to go through the truck and retorque everything...which bit me in the butt. As soon as i picked my truck up from the tranny shop, anytime i hit boost there was a horrid metal on metal clanking sound. I thought it was the flexplate tapping the starter gear, becuase you heard/felt it at your feet.
So i took the truck over to a machine shop and crawled under it, the starter gear looked unscathed, but my flexplate looked bent as hell. Little did i know that such a thing as a mushroom shaped flexplate existed. But still, i was using a torque convertor meant for a v6, on a v8, which has a different length snout - so the machine shop spaced out my flexplate and machined down the nose of the convertor all day friday while i was busy with registration and the corvette museum. This was comical to me since i was happy to finally have a Typhoon at a NATS...yet my truck still wasn't actually at the event. :lol:
Then my truck showed up at the museum, i take it for a quick test drive...and the sound is still occuring - great. The work done was still needed, but it didn't fix my problem. Oh well, i wasn't going to show up at NATS after talking smack and NOT race. :rotf: So i made a quick pass w/ the ty filled w/ crap, and ran a 13.4 or something. Hmm...i knew it wasn't pulling hard since playing on the highway on the caravan down i couldn't even keep up with Raist's srt8 jeep. I removed all the stuff from the Ty and made another pass to a blistering 13.2 i think. Yup, running horrible. Couldn't go faster than a 2.06 60', wasn't running/sounding right...and i could here the laughter from the stands.
So my races vs. jeff all i really cared about was winning the tree since i knew there was no way in hell i was gonna win. Cut a .112 r/t, which i thought was good given my seat time in the truck. Get the truck back to the hotel after dinner, and was talking to the tuner guy - Dave Henninger (great and friendly guy btw) and we (me and gerber) pop the hood to show him what he's workin with - and Gerber noticed that my wastegate is barely attached! The 2 bolts on the pressure side were completely missing...and one of the out side was extremely loose - thus my rattle! The gate is on a flex pipe, and was slapping against the downpipe under boost. Harmon to the rescue w/ a standard bolt box w/ lock washers...and while i found/installed those Gerber went through and tightened up everything else that'd backed itself loose. I also noticed that the nut holding the diaphram on inside my passenger wastegate was just sitting there and Gerber also took the gate apart and fixed that (he'd mentioned that had happened to him once, so maybe everyone should check those from time to time).
So by this point it's 8pm on Saturday, and at 9pm we're starting the raffle/award ceremony...what better time to start tuning?!?! :lol: So me and Dave Henninger went for a long cruise working on driveability and a little boost tune. Sure enough, holding 6psi, spooling WAY quicker, and best of all no rattle! So now the truck is running considerably better, but the track is long since over - oh well...story of my life.
Oh yea, did i mention that my tranny program (4l80e) was on the fritz. This too was fixed - Big Stuff 3 somehow though i had 50.5" diameter tires - super swamper typhoon! So the mph was reading just about double on BS3 than actual travelled - throwing off all my shifts. So Frank (Autoaddictions) worked with Henninger while i ran to the awards to try to get my truck a little more driveable ready since i have another 660mi trip in the morning.
