I got to attend my 1st slant six race @ Mason Dixon last week. I had a great time, and met alot of great slant six racers, The Slant 6 guys really are a great group of guys. The Dart Ran a 14.8 @ 92 mph which I am very happy with, as it is a 3200lb car and has an overdrive transmission. I guess I'm in the same place as most other Slant Racers, I'm looking to go faster without spending a pile of money. I think with some tuning/Adjusting/more racing experience that the car will run a little faster, maybe mid 14's, but I am considering nitrous setups. I guess my question is can I spray nitrous on an engine that has 10.5 : 1 Compression Ratio? I don't mind running racing fuel if I have to, but I don't want to destroy the engine either. Any thoughts or advice by the nitrous users would be great. If it helps here is a quick rundown on the Car.

225 Slant 6
.030 overbore Cast high compression pistons
Ported/Blended Large valve head with Hardened seats
CC'd and compression ratio is apr. 10.5 : 1
re-ground Camshaft to 510 lift, 280 duration
MSD 6AL / Electronic ignition
Stock fuel pump
600 Edelbrock carburetor (factory jets currently)
Offy 4brl
4spd Overdrive Transmission
8 3/4 with 4:30 gears

Thats the basic setup, is there any nitrous options that would be OK with this? If it is possible how large is proven reliable 50-100 shot?? Also any other ideas would be great.

Thanks For the help.

Ryan

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Ryan Covalt
62 Plymouth Valiant Race Car 2170# 11.008 @ 117.65 MPH 1/4 Mile Best
72' Dart Swinger Street Car, 4 spd, 3330# 14.061 @96.58 1/4 mile Best

Ryan,

Great to meet you last weekend and great car!

CharrlieS, Slantzilla, and Doc would be the authorities on nitrous. Nitrous doesn't care about compression like a turbo or blower, but you can melt pistons with the wrong N2O tuneup. Personally, I would start with a 50-100 HP shot with a plate kit and go from there.

My guess is you can tune down to 14.5-14.7s or so with some jet and timing changes if you haven't played with those yet.

Cheers,

Lou

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Home of Slant6-powered fun machines since 1988

Now Lou, why did you have to go and tell him that!! He probably done went and ordered a nitrous kit for it. I just told him that nitrous was evil and that it would jump right out of the bottle and devour the whole car. Yep, I told him he'd probably be lucky to get out alive!!

Thanks,

Rick

That's pretty much how it is.

The hit from nitrous is every bit as addicting as the hit from the dope needle, just less damaging to the health, and legal.

A 10.5 motor will respond well. Like Lou says, start out with a 50-75 shot to learn with. Yes, there will be a learning curve. Best thing you can do is to learn the PROPER way to read plugs, by the ground strap color and the discoloration on the threads of the plug. Insulator color is meaningless.

You should be very safe with a small shot on 93. It is recommended to take out 2* of timing for each 50 horse, but that is pure bullshyt. To be safe, start out at around 20* total and work your way up. Too much timing will knock out head gaskets. To get the motor to be driveable around the pits at that low timing you will probably have to weld the slots in the advancer so you can have more initial. Unhook the vacuum advance when you spray also.

One thing you will find is that most kits are jetted fuel rich for safety. That's fine to a point, but fuel rich will kill a piston just as sure as fuel lean. It just breaks the top ring lands off instead of putting a hole through the center.

One little tip I can give you is do not just snap the throttle closed at the finish line. Drive out of it for a way to let the fuel burn off instead of filling the top ring land. Go ahead, ask me how I figured this out.

Good fuel pressure is a must. It doesn't matter if you run 5.5, 6, or 8 as long as you change your fuel jets to match. Higher fuel pressure will make it richer.

One thing you really, really need to invest in with a stick car is an RPM window switch to shut the hose off if you miss a gear. If you do not have one you will be absolutely amazed at how fast the motor will go to 7000+ on a missed gear on spray. Your motor and your exposed body parts will thank you.

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Official Cookie and Mater Tormentor.

Lou/Dennis, thanks for all the information and Advice. I would like to do what you guys said, and start slow and learn to do it right. I like driving the car on the street too much to risk blowing it up 1st thing. Do you have a plate system that you would recommend that is adjustable through that range? To start with I am going to work with adjusting the jets in the carburetor, and timing, to see how much I can get out of the engine only, but it won't be long until I try to get some more power out of it for at the strip. I guess I am going to start a nitrous shopping list. I think Dad will come around to the idea of racing a nitrous slant six, Especially after he gets to drive it at a few Races! Thanks for the Advice/Help.

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Ryan Covalt
62 Plymouth Valiant Race Car 2170# 11.008 @ 117.65 MPH 1/4 Mile Best
72' Dart Swinger Street Car, 4 spd, 3330# 14.061 @96.58 1/4 mile Best

Ryan
Dont forget to budget in your safety gear. With NOS you have to have a fire jacket at least. Others can tell you what else you may need. Also if you spray it may put you into a new speed bracket for safety equipment ie, a roll cage, helment,etc.
Just some heads up,
Frank

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Scrapple: Because a mind is a terrible thing to waste.
73 Duster - Race Car
66 Dart Wagon - DD
178" FED
82 D150
All Slant powered

You will need a fire jacket and a helmet for sure.

A fuel pressure regulator and electric fuel pressure gauge, mounted in the car or a mechanical one, mounted on the hood or cowl is also a "must have". You need to be able to watch the fuel pressure during the N2O run and be able to adjust it.

I am currently running a 80 HP shot (fogger setup) on my 10.5 engine, that takes the car from a 14.40 to a 12.70... yes, using an 80 HP shot of spray takes over 1.5 seconds off the car.

If you use a plate system, get a custom "clover leaf" plate the sprays under each venturi... not the standard V-8 spray bar type plate, those spray 1/2 of the shot right onto the back wall of the manifold and runs 1 & 6 a little "fat" on mixture.

Fact is, I get good results from installing a few fogger nozzles around the carb plenum and aiming them into the A/F flow path... my "home brew" 1 bbl set-up takes 3 seconds off a 1 bbl car with a stock SL6
DD

I like a "fogger" system, as it makes the fuel distribution better. Lots of "eye candy" but much more expensive to install. Just remember the old saying, "there is no free lunch". You have to have more then one bottle, and they need to be refilled.

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Charrlie_S
65 Valiant 100 2dr post 170 turbo
66 Valiant Signet 170 nitrous
64 Valiant Signet
64 Valiant 4dr 170
64 Valiant 4dr 225

Turbo, anyone? Last I heard they were still pumping out free HP.

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10.74 @ 127.47 mph 1320 ft
6.65 @ 107.80 mph 660 ft

http://www.youtube.com/c/turbo66valiant
Follow on Instagram - turbo66valiant
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ryan.peterson.737

Turbos dont have to be refilled and they dont take crank power either.

But they are not a free lunch.. You have to get all the components and build the engine for the turbo.


Greg

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http://www.youtube.com/hyperpack

Yup, pay me now, or pay me later. I have both. Nitrous is less expensive up front. Turbo is less expensive over the long haul.

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Charrlie_S
65 Valiant 100 2dr post 170 turbo
66 Valiant Signet 170 nitrous
64 Valiant Signet
64 Valiant 4dr 170
64 Valiant 4dr 225

Yep, you guys are right. There is no free lunch. But, when you pencil it out, the turbo set-up may not be that much more than nos. Same forged pistons and such. Nitrous set up about the same as my turbo if you figure in all the extras like remote bottle opener / heater and such. Than you have multiple stages of nos and electronics to run big hp. Same fuel system, trans and rear. Maybe if you went basic to basic than the nos would be cheaper but more hp potential with the basic turbo. I guess they are very simular except one blows and the other sucks (he he). later
Ryan

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10.74 @ 127.47 mph 1320 ft
6.65 @ 107.80 mph 660 ft

http://www.youtube.com/c/turbo66valiant
Follow on Instagram - turbo66valiant
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ryan.peterson.737

Nitrous is easier if you want to stay at a lower HP level. However, the more HP you want, the harder nitrous gets to control. Turbo is easier to control the "hit" at higher HP levels, whereas nitrous is kinda like an on/off switch. Even with a good controller you still have a pretty hard hit.

Mike was always amazed that my car went 12.0's spraying off the horn button/relay. I did not even have a dead-man switch on the carb linkage.

That being said, there are limits to turbo power too where you get into needing boost controllers to stay out of parts failure.

Since I now have a fairly light/big tire car to play with, I am going to attempt designing my own nitrous combo from the ground up. It might be fast, it might be a grenade, but it will be all my own idea.

Speed costs money, how much you wanna spend?

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Official Cookie and Mater Tormentor.

More than I have..


Seems to be a lot more fabricating needed with a turbo set-up depending on how you configure your turbo- Blow through, maybe toss in an intercooler, or the deluxe fuel injection option.

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<img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3173/2992308402_5481afb26e_t.jpg">

Thanks to everyone for the nitrous tips and ideas. I guess the reason I am leaning toward nitrous on this particular engine is because of the compression ratio and cam that I already have in the car. its a .510 lift cam, and just over 10.5:1 compression, Way too much for forced induction I read. However, I do have a completely stock 85 dodge 2wd 4speed short bed pick-up, and I would like to work on a budget turbo setup for that eventually. mostly just for some more power to haul my trailer, and run once a year at the Mason Dixon Slant six race.
Doug, and Charlie I read that you run fogger setups, and Slantzilla runs a plate setup. I am looking for something to start out with that is simple, and not a huge cost up front, something that is adjustable from around 50-150hp I guess? Should I avoid a "top shot" type system? and is there a plate or fogger system you could recommend? I have been looking at different brands on the internet, and there are alot of setup's out there, I just don't want to buy something that was already proven to be a poor product. I would also like to have enough money left over to buy all the window switches/ safety switches to keep it some what safe and reliable. Thanks for all the Help and Pointers guys I appreciate it.

Ryan

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Ryan Covalt
62 Plymouth Valiant Race Car 2170# 11.008 @ 117.65 MPH 1/4 Mile Best
72' Dart Swinger Street Car, 4 spd, 3330# 14.061 @96.58 1/4 mile Best