First trip down the drag strip.................

deathbypsi · Post by **deathbypsi** » Mon Oct 08, 2007 7:14 pm

........in a Merkur that is! I have been drag racing for more than 19 years and today took the cake. This is my first time ever drag racing a Merkur and one line kept coming to mind today.....{a fish out of water}.

Check here for the complete details on my car.
http://forum.merkurclub.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10232

Me and 59 of my good friends rented SummitRaceway Park{Norwalk oh} today for 6hrs and had a blast! Now I have had many drag cars/trucks over the years but this Merkur was a whole new experiance for me today.

I ran the car on the stock 195-14's just to see what it would do and boy was it a joke! I was thinking I would do much better than I did but even after 13 passes the best I could muster was a 2.21 60ft time. I tried every trick in the book to get off the line clean but as soon as the turbo spooled up it was a smoke show.Even if I bogged it on purpose as soon as it recovered it would just blow the tire off. Then there was the problem of hitting my rev limiter in 1st,2nd and 3rd on just about every pass.This motor revs so fast even when I tried to short shift it I would bump the limiter for a sec. What is the rev limit on a LB2? My stock tach couldnt keep up with the motor and would only show 5k when I hit the limiter.

A/F ratios were on the rich side all day,10.2 to 11.1 area and even with dropping fuel pressure to 34 base it wouldnt lean out any more than 11.1. I didnt feel comfortable dropping any lower than that.

I found that my 3.64 gears were terrible for my combo as I would cross the line in 4th gear at 4500rpm.I bet I would be faster with 3.36 so I could hold 3rd to the end.And my homemade clutch cable bracket is a POS. I had to stomp the clutch pedal thru the carpet to get it to shift and I was so slow shifting they were calling me grandma.

So anyway...here it is. 2.21 60ft 9.51 1/8th@78mph 14.61@99.06

xr4man · Post by **xr4man** » Mon Oct 08, 2007 8:17 pm

well a merkur was never designed for drag racing. but a 14 isn't too shabby for stock tires and irs.

isn't your lb2 one that i modified?

deathbypsi · Post by **deathbypsi** » Mon Oct 08, 2007 8:32 pm

yes you did the pin swap for me. Is there a way to ditch the rev limiter???
I ran this motor to 7k in my old Ranger and it ran 13.00's with a stock t3 on it.

Frag · Post by **Frag** » Tue Oct 09, 2007 9:22 am

Seems like a pretty good stockish pass to me. Most people start out in the 15's.

ztee24 · Post by **ztee24** » Tue Nov 06, 2007 10:40 pm

That's a great time!
Congrats! I've seen worse, with more than "stock" engines.
It also depends on the driver

deathbypsi · Post by **deathbypsi** » Wed Nov 07, 2007 4:59 am

Well I went back last weekend for one more shot.I didnt get what I wanted out of it but its looking better. I put a 255 pump on and that seems to have fixed my drop off over 5500rpm,I put some new 205/60-15's on the rear and I put my FMS aluminum driveshaft in.

Car still dont hook at all,but my first pass of the day was a 14.70 @ 102mph with a 2.700 60ft time!

I let the clutch out and I swear it felt like the car didnt move for three seconds!

I only got three more runs the rest of the day and stupid me missed 3rd twice and fourth gear once.....I suc. BUT, I was able to drop the 60ft times to 2.39-2.44

on those three passes and even with me missing gears I ran 14.60's on all three passes.Best of the day was a 14.65 with a 2.40 60ft missing 4th gear. MPH was between 102 and 100 all passes.

http://www.mustangmods.com/ims/u/743/10911/204738.jpg

mark.e · Post by **mark.e** » Thu Dec 06, 2007 1:33 pm

Thats a pretty nasty trap speed for a 14.7. My best run in my Charger SRT8 was a 13.66@106 (very slow track here in Edmonton). So traction has to be your only issue because that motor is some strong to be ending with a speed like that

deathbypsi · Post by **deathbypsi** » Thu Dec 06, 2007 5:01 pm

Traction isnt even in my cars vocabulary!

I am pulling my open diff 3.64 rear out this weekend and swaping in my new 3.36 GM 10bolt Auburn diff rear along with fixing the rear camber problem. Those changes alone should pay off big time.

Using the some bench racer math that every 10th you cut off your 60ft will be double on the big end{which I have seen to be true} and using my 2.700 14.70 102mph pass as an example .....if I could get a 2.00 60ft next spring I should run some 13.30-13.40's pretty easy.

This same motor when it was in my 87 Ranger ran 13.00's at 103mph with 1.8x 60fts and with a 75 shot ran 12.50's at 111mph with slower 60ft times.