This is the Ron's Fuel Injection pump and mounting kit. It actually fit. Thanks guys. I had all the normal fears about fuel injection. Will it start hard, how do you tune it for different weather, how do you set the idle, does it “milk” the oil? I opted for the standard Primer system. This option consisted of a 1-quart plastic fuel jug, fittings, small 12V electric fuel pump, fuel line with proper fittings, and a nozzle to mount under the Terminator. |
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I went one step further and, since I had a 150 HP nitrous plate lying around from a few years back, I decided to use it instead of the single nozzle. I hooked the fuel line to the nitrous plate on the nitrous fitting. The reason I used the nitrous fitting is the spray out of that tube comes out at about a 30-degree angle towards both sides of the intake. The fuel tube sprays straight down. I installed the smallest nitrous jet in the tube, screwed the hose on, and it sprayed out eight small streams into the intake.
The gas primer system works perfect to get it started without any excess cranking of the engine. I installed a momentary switch to power the pump and solenoid that came in the kit. That way you can’t forget and leave the primer running. I simply hold it down for a three or four count and spin the motor over with the ignition off. Then I hit the primer for about a two count, spin the motor and flip the ignition. It has never even thought about kicking back or backfiring. The first start of the day may require you to hit the primer a couple times to keep it running, but once it pulls the alcohol in you are set.
Warming the engine up is an easy deal with the Terminator as well. The instructions James gave me work like a charm. Once it’s running, start pulling the fuel shut-off cable out slowly. Pull it out until the engine starts to barely speed up. Once it gets a little heat in it you can pull it out a little more. What you are doing is leaning the fuel injection out to its leanest point that will keep it running. It builds heat as fast or faster than a gas engine and no extra alcohol is getting into the engine. It takes us about 1 gallon of alcohol to go from stone cold engine to 180 degrees.
The rest of the race day we hit the gas primer for a couple seconds, spin the engine and flip the ignition, and it has started every time. Driving up to staging and while in staging we run the system as lean as we can so it will warm up fast and use minimal fuel. A couple weeks ago when we went 15 rounds on Sunday we used 17 gallons of methanol and that included two warm-up cycles. At $2.50 a gallon it is costing us a lot less than 114 octane race gas would. To see if fuel injection is right for you go to killerrons.com and contact James Monroe.
One more thing: Project 4-Link ran 7.58 on the quarter mile and 4.76 on the eighth mile, faster than when it had a tunnel ram on it. I know we are at least 2/10ths quicker than we were with the single alcohol carburetor and we used the exact same intake manifold, converter, tire, etc.
The other change we made over the winter months is an obvious one if you have followed Project 4-Link. We went RED (paint, that is). I had to do it. My old Dart was red with red wheels and I wanted a different look for 2007. The powder-coated wheels turned out nice and are a lot easier to clean up. The body needed fresh paint as six years was leaving its mark. I almost walked past it a couple times in staging but I am getting used to it now.
We ended up with water in the oil pan at the end of the 15 runs and the left head is off right now. When we leaked the engine, number one was letting air into the cooling system so we knew the head gasket wasn’t sealed. After disassembly the Flatout copper head gasket looks perfect. We checked the deck surface and it is dead flat, the cylinder head is flat so we are a bit lost. I called Indy Cylinder Heads and Russ said to take a close look at the O-rings on the head. I did and he was right in thinking one might be damaged. At one point in moving them around this winter I must have hit one of the wire rings and it was dented flat with the head. That caused a spot for the compression to get out to the water jacket and that is all she wrote. New O-ring wires installed and we have run it for three weeks since with no problems EXCEPT for a mystery water leak.
Somehow we are losing about one quart of water every eight to 10 runs. It’s not in the oil and not in the overflow. We checked the radiator cap, inspected everything I could think of, but can’t find it. Here is my plan. Get some Moroso Ceramic Sealer and see if it can find it and seal it. It could be a pinhole in an exhaust port and the liquid is getting burned off a little at a time. Since all I run is straight water anyway all I have to do is drain a couple quarts off after I warm it up, mix the Moroso Ceramic Sealer in with water and add it to the engine. After I get that done I just run the engine up to about 190 with the water pump running to circulate the sealer. After it cools down enough to safely remove the radiator cap I can completely drain the system and let it sit for a couple of days. Next Friday I will flush the system and fill it with clean water and go racing. I’ll let you know what I find out next month.
Until them I hope you enjoy the updates on “Back-2-Basics III” dragster and the “Project 540-E85 Engine” stories we are doing. Have a great July and I hope you turn on some win-lights.