Day at the track
 

Yesterday was the first day the GTX went to a track with us. After a lot of erratic times, we got the car into the 15's. (I think 15.8). Problems arised while there.
At 5000 rpm, the car shut down. When the rpms dropped, the engine came back. After that run, the static timing was advanced to 20 degrees. The vacuum advanced then disconnected and plugged. The car ran a lot better, and that gave us the 15 second time.
Then, we tried the timing back down to the 10 degrees advanced, and it died again.
Does this sound like an ignition issue?
The distributor is BELIEVED to be a later one (72 or newer), since the car was converted to electronic ignition. Maybe the weights are different in the earlier distributors?
The car should be quicker than the 15's.
Any thoughts?

The track is very humbling. I have found that myself. 15's are not bad. I think a high 14 with that much car and I would be dancing!

i feel that the car can be in the 14's easily
i am going to go through the distributor
something might be wrong with it

i will also check all the wires to make sure that they are working correctly

do those symptoms sound ignition based to you guys?

were you able to get to a higher rpm after the distributer stuff?

A stock 440 should run atleast a high 13/low 14.

You may be running out of fuel. It's possible its not getting enough, OR you may be getting too much.

Also, try swapping out the ignition box with another one that you KNOW it good. May also be a problem.

after the static timing was avdanced to around 20 degrees, the engine was able to rev higher (i mean make it to 5000+rpm)
the shift point at max would only be 5500

is the vac. advance hook to direct or ported vac? at idle, how many inches of vac do you have at the distributor?


ps the shutting down almost sounds like you have a rev limiter in there.

the car didnt shut down after the static timing was heavily advanced
the vac. advance is ported
i believe that i have 20 at idle (i think)

Hahahahahahaha..............hahahahahaha.......... ..Not laughing at you but at the amount of Vacuum. To me (and I have a lumpy cam) that is huge. My car only has 3 inches at idle. Yours may well be that high but mine is stupid low. It is extremely hard to tune a car with as little vacuum as I have. The metering rods wont work right, mixture screws don't respond, I would love to have that much.

yes, that seems like a lot of vac at idle. you did disconnect the vac and plug the line when checking the basic timing at idle, right?

oh so very true that is!

I think now would be a great time to uprade some things...... like the ignition to a MP or MSD setup. Just my .02

it is the best time but first you need to get consistent times.

yes

looked at the distributor today
found out the problems
as the vacuum advance came on, it was pulling the pick up into the relucter
this is why the engine shut down, then came back on as the rpms fell
also, i have a worn shaft
it moves enough that the eye can see it when you try to move it

here is one pic from the day at the track:
http://i250.photobucket.com/albums/g...rackedited.jpg