Don Terrill’s Speed-Talk

What part of Central Oregon? I live in Redmond and have used the Napa machine shop in Bend on 27th. They are good but don't be in any hurry. Loren often likes to do more than you need to but is very thorough and they have some very good equipment and know how to use it. I've actually been using Sout...

I spent last season dialing in a tunnel ram on my sbc and from that experience I would say your shift rpm is probably a bit high for that cam and size engine. I run a 3.8 stroke, 14:1, 414 with a 276/284@.050” with 2 qft 950’s and not seeing much ET difference shifting at 7500 or 8000 so I shift at ...

Thanks Brian, I ended up 8.004@163 dragging the brakes so not to brake out, 165 all out. Just missed a 7 second time slip. I could've gone up 2 jets and got it but didn't have the jets at the time and it ran that number repeatedly. In the 1/8 on the last weekend it ran a string of 5.03's at 135. The...

Once i figured out what main jets my motor wanted (on my t-ram the carbs wanted to be a couple jets richer than the factory single carb jetting) i would check the data logging after each pass and note the shape of the fuel ratio curve. I then changed the HSAB to try and flatten the curve. My car ke...

I never got a chance to wire up the O2 sensor or measure to see if the wire will reach the gauge in the dash, may need the longer harness. I'm sure there is more gain in it by fine tuning with the o2 sensor though.

Well, after a season of tuning and racing I have come to the conclusion that the tunnel ram is indeed more consistent AND faster, which was expected, than my single 4 setup. After trying different shift, launch, timing and jetting changes there are several things I noticed throughout the season whic...

I use it for all the other gauges to replay a visual of what happened on the run. I haven't tried it with an afr gauge, it may not work very well. I have seen the same gauge on you tube though. I'll have to look and see if I can use the grid with that afr unit.

DO NOT TRY AND WATCH A AFR GAGE WHILE YOU MAKE A PASS !!! I nearly hit the wall once at 135 mph. Thats when i got the gage with data logging. Brian Thanks Brian, good laugh on that one! Thanks for sharing your experience with this stuff. I can't hardly remember to watch the gauges on a pass so I wa...

PRH, thanks for that, I'll look into it. This being the 7070 victor ram I would think it would pull clean to 8k at least given the rest of the components, but every engine being it's own animal you never know. Still a bit of tuning so I'll keep at it and see where I end up by end of the season.

Well I finally got this to the track, not what I was expecting. What were you expecting ? Randy I was expecting an increase in MPH and maybe similar 60', not a slower mph and more consistent 60'. The intent of this endeavor was to determine if my combo would be more consistent with the tunnel ram a...

Back at my home track last weekend and suspecting my valve springs may be an issue I lowered the shift to 7200 and ended up running pretty much the same as last year on. After the first time run on Sunday I found the tunnel ram top just snug to the lower piece and one bolt had fell out. The first ti...

Well I finally got this to the track, not what I was expecting. On Saturday it made nice clean runs from A-B and the 60' were on average a bit more consistent which was nice but the MPH was on average a 3 slower and consistency was no better than with the single four. I gained MPH when I lowered my ...

That 7300 rpm was not a goal, that was with the strip dominator intake and 950 carb. It didn't make much difference if I shifted at 7600 or 7300 so just stuck with 7300. I'll probably start at 7600 with the victor ram and move up from there to find the sweet spot. Got to wait till all this snow goes...

Thanks for the info wheels! While I don't expect that kind of improvement it's good to hear that's possible. Hopefully this month we'll get to the track and see what we can do. One thing that is noticeable is the improved throttle response! Can't wait to get to the track.

Thank you, unfortunately I won’t have before and after results and the only dyno near me is a chassis dyno but should be able to get me a baseline. The time slip will be my primary indicator of results as that is what will tell me what I’m after.