Hello all...new here and lookin' for a little help from some LT1 bracket racers...

Hope ya all don't mind my LT1 doesn't have a Camaro wrapped around it

Question: Have any of you had experiance with a PCM program designed for bracket racing.....
Something to minimize the occasional "suprise" run I sometimes get. Something to minimize weather effects.
Something so I don't have to carry .05 in my pocket and play the top end.

I run a lot of brackets and have lots of data and yet she still fools me now and then.

Thanks for any help,
Bob Thieda

 

I'm just learning how to bracket race. I was told that "our" computer controlled cars will tend to do a surprise run every once in a while. Overall they run pretty consistant. I noticed that wind speed\direction and cloud cover have an impact to the dial. Maybe these factors help contribute to the surprise run.

 

If you can find such a program, let me know... I have been considering the idea of swapping PCM's every round (just buy two of them), or simply rebooting between rounds.

 

Yup, same goes here.
Just takes alot of practice to know what the car is going to do and how it reacts to different weather conditions.
Especially when you start out in daylight and finish under the lights, talking about chasing your number.

The biggest key is making the car consistent each run. Like making sure you use the same tire pressure, water temperature (cool downs between runs). Also during the later runs when you don't get the cool downs that you need the car will tend to run slower but sometimes it will pickup due to the later (night runs) cooler air.. Arg!!! so many conditions and factors that can play in this.

The biggest thing to do is go out and have some fun.

 

I hear ya Ken....
I'm pretty good with the weather, have a decent station and keep good records.
I monitor eng and trans temps, keep the weight constant, etc., etc.

I do fairly well...finished 2nd in Street at Byron and 6th at RT66 in Sportsman this year.
Made close to 20 races this summer, including the IHRA Div 5 team finals I even won my share of cash

BUT...I think it could be better with a bracket tune, not fastest tune.....

Some guys on DragRaceResults forum run LT1/4s also have this suprise run problem.
One guy said he became much more consistant after replacing his rear O2s with sims.....But I can find no one to back him up.

Byran Herter, who does a lot of tuning for b-bodies says he has done some work with bracket racers.....I will talk to him more.

I may just get LT1 Edit and experiment myself......

Only have a few short months till next season.

Thanks again guys,
Bob Thieda

 

Hard to believe that it can be O2's related unless the motor is loading up during the ideling up to the line and such. The O2's are not figured at WOT.

I have always contemplated on getting a weather station just to see if that could help me out, I think it will be pretty cool to have just for the logging purpose of the DA's and your runs. I know several people that have them and they seem to be pretty good on predicting the ET.

I know I have this one program that we purposely make the car run slower for some index racing. I run in the 12.00 index when they have it at the track. Basically we short shift it. Making the 1-2 hit sooner (Like 5000rpm) basically it shift about the 60-100 ft mark. It made the car very competitive in this type of racing.

This way you still have your foot on the floor and the car is just doing the shifting for you. Just set back and enjoy the ride.

 

I have locked my BLM's at 128 to avoid the cell 15 vs 18 crap, Eliminated all of my Knock retard, and stabilized out my timing vs coolant temp table in the range that my car runs. I still get the surprise! I also use a weather station. Usually at least one run during the day will be toatlly boogered up for some reason. ET will be .040 off and MPH will be down 1 or 2. I'm certainly stumped.

It couldn't be my shifting!!!

Steve

 

Well, this isn't very incouraging so far....
I'm going to keep after this though....
I'll let ya all know if I figure something out.

Thanks,
Bob T.

 

Hey Bob, this is Karl, your impala bracket racing buddy.

This would be a good post into the PCM section. Possibly some of the programmers in there might offer up some ideas at least.

Or it would be at least interesting to see what some of the replys say.

Karl Ellwein

 

Nice running into you over here.
That's a good idea, here it is:

Programming for bracket racing?

This seems like nice forum....
Been doin' a lot of reading in the tech sections.
So far everyone seems friendly, even if the are 2-doors shy of a real car
But they sure go fast.

Later,
Bob T.

 

hehe. 2 doors short of a real race car. hehe. good one Bob.

yea, that'd be a good post over in the PCM area. I'm truly wondering what tuning tricks might help.

Karl
ps thanks for the link and for starting the thread