In the morning, Atco had Jr. Dragsters. By the time test & tune started it was 3:00pm. The weather was great, a real nice sunny day.
My first run started the same as always. I heated up the tires, then eased up to the starting line. I didn't go crazy with the rev rpm. Released the clutch under 5k. After take off, the sign on my right showed my 60' as 1.630, my quickest ever. Holy chit, this was going to be a 12.3 run for sure. I pulled up to get my slip & my time was 12.444 with mph 107.08. That was 2/3 miles per hour slower than I normaly do Went right back for another run using my old tune map. 60' sign showed 1.632. Ok, here comes a 12.3. It was 12.456 @ 107.04. Again I lost 2/3 miles per hour. After both runs I thought I smelled something, but dismissed it as my tires or something else. WTF, I'm going to try this again. This time before crossing the finish line, smoke started coming out of my vents. I pull over, look under the hood & on the pass. side, toward the back of the engine it appeared that some oil(very little) was coming out & burning out on hesaders?/hot engine. Looked like & some guys confirmed it that maybe high engine preasure (7600rpm) cause some kind of blow by. Oil clean, no head gasket blown. No engine lights. Car runs fine. I packed up & went home. Drive was perfectly fine except a little smell was at times noticeable. Valve cover gasket? Something else? Any ideas before I go to the dealer or my tune shop. How would a small leak cause such a drop in mph? Preasure loss? I'm not that much of a mehanic

 

I'd take her to the Dealership and specify that you want to know where the oil came from and if its anything major they should repair it under warranty. Just say it started smelling funny. Good luck and keep us informed.

 

Very nice of you, considering

If it were not for the loss of almost 3 mph. I would say it's a minor problem. Very little oil loss. No loss? Maybe it's something else that's burning/melting??? Going to the dealer right away! Almost 3 mph loss = 5? 10 HP loss?????

 

Man...the way you typed this up I was expecting that 12.3....

You have the hookup at the dealerships don't you?

 

Good news, bad news

Yes I have friends. Thanks.

 

I also have bad white smoke come from the vents on my hood and a little through the AC vent and took to the dealer and found out that it was a small 3-4" hose where coolant passes through that was worn out and leaking onto my headers. Driver side right above my headers, fix cost me $187.00 white smoke hasn't been seen since.

 

I'm happy that I was able to drive 3+ hours home witout a problem. I am pissed that I was so close & everything looked just right for 12.3, then this happened.

 

My whatever is on the pass side. I did have other things happen that might explain(maybe) the mph. For some reason, my front end was hard to control. Also one run had the pass window open. Still, because the loss & smoke happend at the same time, there has to be something else. I don't thing I'm going to lose sleep over it. At least not tonight

 

Do HRs have the breather tube the goes from the bottom of the stock intake tube to the back of the valve cover like a DE?

Maybe that came off if you have one or your oil dipstick is not in all the way.

Nice 60ft times would of been 12.3 for sure the weather was perfect yesterday

 

I'm 100% sure there is a tube in the back of the engine. I didn't see/couldn't find the tube yesterday. After a couple of guys showed me where the area was of the leak, I wanted to put my street tires back on(long process & try to make it home (3+ hour drive) before it got dark.

Yes, the weather was ideal. My 60' foot also was what I needed. The problem was, I lost almost 3 mph/lost HP? that stopped me from getting into the 12.3's. Very disappointed that I could not take advantage of all those right conditions. Now it's finding & fixing the problem.

 

Sorry to hear that man but amazing times still regardless , did you check the oil if youre low or maybe even have too much of it?

 

That ^^^^^^has been an image in my head since my last oil change. Let me explain.

Usually I change my oil with only 5 quarts of oil. I believe it takes a bit more. When I checked it in the past, before racing, it always was a bit short. I was fine with that because of the preasure build up when racing. This time I went to have my oil changed by a Quick lube change type of place. I brought my own oil & a Niss. filter. I remember watching the guy topping it off. That stayed in my mind. So much that I even checked it several times before going to the track. It was a bit above requered. So I draged raced with the oil being a bit above requered instead a bit below that was requered. I couldn't stop thinking about it. Now that I read your post, I can except that maybe that extra oil + all that preasure of 7,600 rpm cause some kind of blow by, leak?

The oil (even with the loss) is super clean AND at NORMAL level.
Let's say that is/was the case, this might be stupid to a mechanic like youself but, how did it cause me to lose power????

I have a lunch date and will take the computer with me to read your answer.

Very short drive I'm back.

 

I just (4pm eastern) looked under my hood. Saw no signs of oil being spilled/burned or anything. Ater my 3rd. run, did get a lot of smoke into the cabin to the point of shutting my vents & openning up the window. I did get conformation from other people that something(we all thought it was oil) was/had burned at pass. side back/side of engine. Some debris burning? Something from my car touching the exhaust?

My mph was down 2 to 3 miles per hour. One run had (by accident) the pass. window open, also maybe because the track had not fully dried up from winter, & my skinny front tires couldn't keep my car going straight?

Monday making an appointment with Nissan dealer.

 

Thats really weird, ive seen cars with too much oil do some odd things but even if your oil level is at lets say the letter H on the dipstick it shouldnt effect performance .
Our variable cam timing system is based on oil pressure so if its an oil issue I could see how it could effect performance.
But still though I doubt in your case that too much oil could be the problem. Im curious as to what you find.

 

Thanks redline. Took it for a crazy ride on an isolated road. The car ran like a monster & no oil spill or smell So I went from people telling me maybe I blew a head gasket to nothing today

I'm going to let the dealer take a look. Something did burn, smoke & smell.

Meanwhile I'll just settle with the suffering of going 12.4 my first time at the drags this year

Did you notice that you're on the top 25 list?

 

Very highly doubt its a head gasket.
Yes it finaly got updated im number two yayy lol

 

Another thing you may need is an oil cooler and oil catch can. Am not sure if it will be a fix for what happened. But at least your doing something else great for you car. Also you started out the year great with a 12.4 LOL.

 

Thanks friend, imagine being dissapointed with starting the season with two 12.4's.

Like my other post, I found no oil or any evidence to point the cause of the smoke. Wed. I'm going to the dealer, but I don't see anything.

Also my mph was really slow. Even at the Atco meet, when my best times were 12.7's I still managed doing 108+.

Oh well, time will tell.

 

First, good to have friends.

I'm at Kingston Nissan, got ants in my pants so went into the service area. My mechanic shows me a scent freshener. I put a bunch of lavd. air fresheners under the hood, the type used in washing cloths. Those air fresheners keep rodens away from cars. I didn't want mice to start chewing on my wiring while the car was mostly winter parked. Looks like a couple of them fell down, stuck in a place where I wasn't able to spot them/remove them.

HR, the best V 6 ever made!!!!!! I'm back!!!!

As far as the loss of mph I think/hope was due to the car not able to go the 1/4 in a straight line. I believe that maybe the skinnies in the front could not hold the road due to maybe after a long winter the track just didn't get a chance to fully dry up, that plus power shifting caused it to go "all over the place". I'm sure leaving the pass. window open on one run also didn't help one of those runs.

Can't wait to continue the fun! I'm glad to see MORE people getting into "the safe & fun drag racing scene"!!!!!

 

LOL glad to hear all is well
If my 115K HR isnt leaking yours sure as hell shouldnt either