The story about me and my Syclone

[Syclone0044]

I tend to keep a low profile so I haven't posted a whole lot of info about my truck on the board in the past, but now that winter is almost done I will share some info about me and my ride. I could write a novel, but this is a condensed verison. :D

I have a 91 GMC Syclone. It's pretty much a turbocharged 4.3 V6 all wheel drive Sonoma with blackout appearance and ground effects. I have wanted one of these trucks since they came out when I heard about them in my dad's glossy dealer brochures. There was a cover story on a 1990 Car and Driver magazine I'd heard about that really sealed the deal for me - they pitted the 91 Syclone against the Ferrari 348ts and the Syclone edged it out in the quarter mile. "A pickup truck that can smoke a Ferrari 0-60!" That was the coolest thing in my young mind at the time.

Fast forward to 2001 and I was working full time and out of school and it occurred to me that I might actually be able to afford one of these rare trucks (2995 produced for only a single year.) I found a nice one with low miles and test drove it. I never drove anything fast before (not even a 15 second car.) I didn't have any friends with fast cars and basically flat out - 0 experience whatsoever. I test drove it and loaded the turbo against the brakes from a standstill and let 'er rip; it felt pretty cool to me but a little scary the first time behind the wheel of some decent HP.

Everything seemed good so I came back and bought it the next week. I showed some of my friends and they thought it was pretty cool and suggested I take it to the drag strip, which I had only heard about on those stupid "Sunday Sunday Sunday!" commercials on the radio. I tried reading the Syclone/Typhoon websites to do "all the right things" to take care of my new pride & joy so I wouldn't break it, and hoped to tune it up to run as fast as possible. The magazines said it should run 13.4-13.8 @ 96-98 MPH and I expected no less. I made it to GLD on May 8, 2001 and ran a number of runs and the best was disappointingly 14.22 @ 94.81. No matter what I tried it could not go faster that day. I researched and learned I wasn't getting full boost, and I wanted to fix it.

But I didn't know jack sh!t about cars and engines. I didn't even know how to change oil and I didn't want to learn. None of my friends were into cars when I grew up and my Dad didn't really work on cars and modifying them is about the last thing he'd ever think of doing. The more I read about these unusual limited edition trucks, the more I realized I would have to learn this all myself if I wanted to get anything done. There was lots of horror stories about guys taking their Syclones/Typhoons to the dealer and getting the wrong N/A 4.3 spark plugs installed and detonating their weak factory motors to pieces, numerous piston failures, incorrect replacement motors and trannies etc. etc. I basically read up on the internet as much as I could and found some car friends online and asked them how to change oil. The more I worked on my truck the more I realized cars are mostly just turning wrenches and taking things apart and putting things together with your hands the way they look like they go together. I was surprised there were connectors under the hood that you can pop apart with just your fingers. I assumed you had to be a mechanic to do anything on a car. (Looking back I really was about as naive as you can possibly get!)

My beginner skills improved and I was doing things like changing air filters and removing & reinstalling wheels. One of my online car-advice tuner friends said I absolutely had to get a laptop diagnostic "scan tool" to tell what was wrong with my truck. He said if I can record my truck's parameters and email the file to him, he can help me over the internet and advise me what to do. This was something I could handle - I have worked on computers for a living since I was 16. After a few months I was able to procure a laptop and the cable and boy did that software open my eyes! I found out my factory electronic boost controller was not even hooked up and I was getting minimum base boost with ultra slow spoolup. I plugged it in and carefully tested the truck and Holy Smokes did it wake up! I knew better than to floor the gas just yet, because it felt like the boost would go to 30 Pounds if I kept going! But man I knew I struck gold and discovered the performance I was missing all along.

I'll make the next part a Long Story Short - I spent about 6 months banging my head against the wall trying every one of a million fixes to this faulty wastegate circuit problem I had, and nothing fixed it, it ended up being something nobody ever heard of - a wire that tested for connectivity, did not connect to ground, illuminated a Test-Light per the service manual, yet somehow failed to send the proper signal to the solenoid under boost. I ran a wire from my ECM out the window, under the hood to the boost solenoid and EUREKA! Problem solved! Now when I nailed it the boost came on much faster and held in the 14-15 PSI factory boost range.

I eagerly took it to the track on November 4th 2001, and ran a best time of 13.36 @ 98 MPH with a 1.81 60'! Now this was getting faster than the truck was even supposed to be! I was so addicted to the speed and going faster, I wanted to see what else I could do. I started playing with the "free mods" and spent some more time dialing it in. It had some really annoying problems still that were costing me performance but I continued with what I could. On May 22nd 2002 I got it down to a 13.03 @ 102.8 with a 1.78 60'! Now that was nearly unheard of, in fact I don't know if anyone had ever run that fast in a Syclone with a stock chip (and obviously stock drivetrain). I felt like I might have set a record but I wanted to go further and try for 12.9s! There were lots of guys spending a lot of money on chips and intercoolers and turbos and stuff trying to run 12s and boy would it be cool if I could do it just using my tuning and research!

On June 8, 2002 I got it down to a 13.01 @ 101.51 with an amazing 1.687 60' on Sears $89 all season radial tires! (My folks raised me to avoid spending money on unecessary things and to try to get deals when you do.) Try as I might I could not best that time and only went slower. I had a persistent knock-retard problem costing a lot of timing advance (on a truck that only runs 14* total advance at WOT a few degrees is quite a bit), as well as that boost control still acting screwy and never quite solid. Going down the track it would fluctuate from 12-15 PSI and I knew if I could get solid 15 PSI I could break the 12.9s but never found a way to fix it. Eventually I moved on to start the performance mods. I got a chip and expected the advertised results "3-4 tenths faster on the same gas, better boost control, 16 programs in one!". Needless to say to anyone who has modified their car with aftermarket parts - it was a total disappointment. I knew it felt slower immediately from the get go and a reluctant trip to the track confirmed it - Best I could get was 13.402 @ 97.85 on July 11, 2002.

I spent a ton of time working on those problems that I'll spare the readers, but I knew the truck ran best with the stock chip so I put that in for preparation for the 2002 Syclone/Typhoon Nationals drag races. I knew I was fast and I wanted to enter the Stock class and see if anyone could beat me. Unfortunately the other racers had something else in mind, they knew of my times and someone decided that I had secretly installed aftermarket cylinder heads that were responsible for giving my novice truck the numbers it was running after only a year or so of owning it. This seemed proposterous given the fact I had a factory unopened motor, not to mention my lacking skill level for doing a cylinder head swap! I raced the truck anyway and eventually an angry mob formed and someone complained to the officials and I got removed from the Stock Class and was placed in the Modified class. I was pitted against an NHRA AT/SA (?) Syclone. I beat him off the tree and beat his 60' time but it was the best I could do. He ran 11.7 and I ran somewhere in the 13s. There's a long story behind that but the conclusion is that a year or two later everyone was able to confirm that I did in fact have factory head castings and a lot of guys who had called me a cheat and caused me a lot of grief, had their tails between their legs and apologized to me individually. (Some never did... :flipoff2: )

(continued)

[Syclone0044]

After that I started to learn the potential of experimenting with high octane fuel and turning up the boost via aftermarket chips. I found a Turbo Buick recipe for running Sherwin Williams paint thinner (Xylene) in the gas tank for cheap 100 octane unleaded. All told I've probably run 100 gallons of it thru my truck! It worked well and man did that give some power. I quickly broke into the 12s and ran a best of 12.75 @ 103 with a 1.75 60' on Sept. 3rd, 2002.

I have a funny video from that night - Syclone vs. Mustang (http://s95370645.onlinehome.us/syclone/files/syclone_vs_mustang_gld.mpg) If you listen to the crowd, aside from the announcer, you can hear a guy saying something like "Watch this. It's all about lighting up his rear tires. It's no good! He won't hook up!" This truck was getting to be a lot of fun!! :rolf

The world record for Fastest Stock Turbo Syclone was 12.42 @ 106 MPH (I cant recall the specific digits anymore) and the guy who held it was this 45 year old smartass old guy who particularly loved to give me a hard time on the Syclone/Typhoon messageboards that I hung out on for advice and research. He revelled all too well in the scene when I got accused of trying to cheat to win the Nationals Stock class, and he didn't take very well to my unknowledgeable newbie questions and my lack of automotive background. I kept playing with chips and mixing various concotions of high octane fuel and trying to fix that boost control problem and fixing my false knock retard. I also read about a trick to port the intercooler necks for better airflow. I certainly dont have a compressor or any air tools and it took me a while to find someone that does and had a die grinder but I carefully set to it and learned to port, and the results seemed to net some extra top end! On November 3rd, 2002, I ran 12.58 @ 105.6 with a 1.80 60'! I didnt even expect it to run so fast! Now I was really getting into some serious times for a stock Syclone with not much more than a chip, air filter, and catback exhaust!

Well I never had a lot of money to spend on this hobby, and spending $25 for 5 gallons of Paint thinner to mix into my fuel tank was getting extremely expensive every week end (sometimes two or three times). (although they did eventually give me a permanent Preferred Customer discount at the paint store :D ). I heard about Alcohol Injection and it sounded like a gimmick with wild claims of being able to make cheap 93 octane run like the expensive high octane fuels. If it worked, it would save me tons of money. But nobody was running it on a Syclone/Typhoon and a few Grand National guys were experimenting with it and it was pretty much agreed that when it worked, it was like a "poor mans race fuel" and you would suffer a 10-20% performance decrease compared to the real stuff. But it was possible to make it work as high-octane fuel. I researched the hell out of it and decided to drop $400 on the kit (the most money I ever spent on my truck at that time, the only other thing I bought over $100 was the $350 chip) and took a big gamble.

The alcohol was the hardest thing I've had to tune yet. There was no trail blazed on how to do this, and my "tune" was subpar to begin with with the messed up boost control and false knock retard. I got it working pretty well and took it to the track to confirm my home-test results. Right on! On May 13, 2003 I ran 12.54 @ 106.67 on pure 93 octane with my alcohol kit! Now I had capability to run the "big power" high boost all the time! Instead of just on weekends when I felt like dropping the extra money on the paint thinner. But you all know once you get a taste of going faster - going back to slow Just Doesn't Cut It!! I was racing the **** out of the truck and having a blast. This truck has over 3000 1/4mi runs on it (about 500 timeslips and the rest all on the street cruising around and giving people rides etc.! You wouldnt beleive my collection of laptop recordings..) I felt lucky that I managed not only to run respectable times but to keep this notoriously weak factory motor together to survive a lot of WOT!

I kept tuning and learning & researching and testing things and eventually on July 1, 2003 I got the truck to run 12.41 @ 107.3 on a 1.72 60'! BEATING that old man's record time! :headbang I was so proud, I couldnt beleive how far I had come with this truck. But I had learned a few months prior that some guy in California not on the internet, had actually run 12.28 @ 108.0 MPH in his Syclone for the true Stock Turbo record. Only 1 person could vouch for this guy's validity but most everyone in the group believed it to be true. There was no point in quitting while I was on a roll so I started to entertain thoughts of trying for his record. But it was so hard to go faster! Every time all along that I had some big trick that really felt like the "fastest" the truck has gone, I would go to the track and be met with disappointing results. Either the truck would not act "right" at the track, or it just flat out wasn't as fast as I had optimistically hoped. (I am sure a lot of people can identify with that feeling!) I would race as hard as I could and hold the gas pedal as far as possible and it was obviously not going to happen that day. I had already dropped 2 Full seconds from when I first ran the truck and it ran 14.4 @ 93, and I still hadn't added any REAL parts to the truck. How in the world would it be possible to squeeze any more out? Even my very best run of all time was 2 tenths off and that was giving it everything I had. Since I got into drag racing I learned a lot about how believing in something is a crucial step towards accomplishing it. But I also knew better than to "expect" to run the times I wanted - just because I wanted to be there.

All this time I was bitten by the speed bug hard and wanted to go "real fast" and stop making these half a tenth and 1 tenth increments so slowly. Everyone else was buying turbos and camshafts and heads and converters etc. and I was tinkering with the stock stuff on the cheap. I decided on a goal of high 11s but everyone said I would need a big turbo, bigger injectors, and a high stall torque converter to do it. I found a SMOKING deal on a new turbo so I bought it and decided to tuck it away until I achieved the stock turbo record. It sat for many months (but I did spin the compressor wheel all the time haha.) My plan was to not listen to what everyone suggested, but to add 1 component at a time and evaluate the results of each one individually before adding the next component.

continued

[Syclone0044]

I kept tuning the stock turbo setup. July 17th 2003 - 12.39 @ 107!
More time analyzing and tuning. July 29th 2003 - 12.36 @ 108.60 on a 1.77 60'! An all time Stock Turbo MPH record! Now I was so close there was no way I could quit (and nobody cares about MPH records compared to ET anyway.) I kept quiet about the MPH record and focused on honing my truck's tune. The 2003 Syclone/Typhoon Nationals race was coming up very soon and I hoped to run my truck in the Stock Turbo class that year, knowing it was a good possibility I would stand strong competition for the other Stock Turbo trucks. Well I don't have any friends who would like to spend a 3 day weekend driving from Wisconsin to Kansas City in mini-truck to watch V6 mini-trucks race, so I packed all my tools and stuff in the bed of the truck (how convenient! :goof ) and headed out. I didn't make it 15 minutes from my house when the alternator pulley came loose and I lost my belt. A call for help and some tools (didn't pack a socket big enough for that pulley) and I was on my way. Unfortunately it's about a 10 hour drive and by that time it was 7 PM leaving my town. Around 3 AM somewhere in Iowa my truck was making weird noises under the hood and it didn't sound good. I checked it out at a gas station and couldn't find anything but I did notice extra dust by the alternator. Stores weren't open so I kept on (I was halfway there). At around 4:30 AM suddenly there was a bang under the hood and I lost all my accessories. A semi truck was barreling down behind me and I pulled over as quickly as I could.

This could turn into a long story itself so I'll try to keep it short. The alternator pulley came loose again and the fan blades hit the bracket and exploded sending shrapnel into my hood, through my fan shroud , and into the radiator. The alternator was trashed and I had a nice dent poking through the hood. The radiator fins were only bent but not punctured (Whew). I hitch hiked into town and waited at this guy's house for the parts stores to open. I bought an alternator and went back to the truck and it was the wrong f*king alternator! By now the Sun came up and it was beating dead hot and I was screwed and going to miss the race. I tried some ingenuity to do a field alternator pulley swap (very difficult without a vice!!) and came close but failed. Fortunately a guy on a motorcycle blew a head gasket on a cross country trip on the other side of the highway and we put our heads together. He borrowed me some bolts from his bike and we rigged up the 'wrong' alternator. Just enough to hopefully get me into town where I could get the right one, and some parts for his bike to get him on the road too. It worked and I swapped them again and helped the guy and we paid our respects and I was on my way. By this point it was about 2 PM and I had been stranded for about 10 of the longest hours of my life. But that feeling of driving away under my own power fixing it with my own skills was pretty awesome indeed - heading in the direction of the race like I might make it after all (albeit pulling an all nighter from hell!!).

I had 4 hours left of driving and I made to the race in time to make 1 miserable qualifying pass operating on 36 straight hours with no sleep. They only had 91 octane gas which I never used before, and it was deadly hot and I had no time to tune the truck. I ran 12.7's and got eliminated on the first pass by a truck 5 tenths slower than me, due to my horrible reaction time and 60'. But I did have a great time with all the other Syclone/Typhoon owners that weekend! And I had a hell of a story to tell when guys asked me where I was all of race day. :D

I kept tuning and my tranny started crying uncle from the countless WOT tests on back country roads. I got some metal fragments in the pan and lost the engine-braking function. But the air had gotten colder and my laptop diagnostics were showing the truck being faster than ever! I changed the tranny fluid/filter and decided the best thing to do was immediately go to the dragstrip the next day. October 15th, 2003 I went to GLD with my Syclone buddy Adam and I was dialing it in running 12.7s, 12.5, 12.4.. and then.. 12.26 @ 108.66 MPH!! A new Stock Turbo Syclone record! I was so excited and told the Sy/Ty guys about it and everyone was really cool, a lot of guys gave me props and people were asking me how I did it and can I tune their trucks and what can they do to run that fast for so little money?? I felt like I got a lot of redemption for all the crap I got when I was a total amateur asking stupid questions. I gave it 1 more shot at the track to see if 11.9s were within reach (By now I beleived they were certainly possible, for I still suffered a false knock problem and some small boost control issues. But I didnt want to spend 2 more years working on 2 tenths.) I ran 12.28 @ 108.0 and threw in the Stock Turbo towel. Time to install my first REAL mod!!

On November 9th, 2003 I finished installing the aftermarket turbo kit and all the associated crap I had to do to make it "bolt on" :rolleyes: It took me 40-50 hours. I am very slow and meticulous (perhaps the slowest). Here is the day I finished replacing the stock turbo with the aftermarket unit:

http://s95370645.onlinehome.us/syclone/files/josh_pt51_done.jpg

I fired her up and true to "Syclone aftermarket form", I was quite disappointed when I took that first test drive. It wasn't any faster on the same boost! And it was just as I suspected. I found a lot of falsehoods when it came to what I was "told" about turbocharged engines compared to what I knew and discovered doing my own research. The stock Syclone turbo wasn't "out of efficiency past 14 PSI" because I ran it to 20 PSI and set the record. And the aftermarket turbo did not "flow more air at the same boost" because it was no faster than my stock turbo at 15-19 PSI. But I setup my alcohol and cranked the boost to the stock turbo limits and beyond - and "now we're cookin with gas!" :headbang My laptop software was predicting 11.8-11.6s and it'd proven very good at predicting my drag strip times. Now hold up there - High 11s and I was still running my cheap ass 93 octane / Alcohol kit, not the $9/gallon C-16 all the "Big boys" were running and setting records with. I DIDNT have the bigger injectors I "needed" and I DIDNT have the high stall converter I "needed". I was running the stock converter that they told me wouldn't even make 0 PSI boost off the line. But I was able to set up the fuel to be lean at low boost and if I slowly and carefully applied the gas, I could get that big turbo spooled up and have enough power to spin the tires if I wanted! This combo was a hack and totally out of left field but it happened to work. I also figured out that with the extremely poor flowing heads and small camshaft in the stock motor (perhaps the smallest camshaft of any gas car I know), that I went faster at LOWER RPM, not higher. That stock converter seemed to actually help me by bringing the RPMs down slightly below 3000 in 3rd gear with the TCC locked up! And shifting no higher than 4500 (well 4600 when the tranny slipped). I also always shifted into 4th gear on every 1/4 MI run I ever did, something almost nobody does (Everyone leaves it in 3rd to wind out wayyy past the power peak of these little truck motors).

I took it to the track that week (days after the install) already confident I would set a new record time by a long shot. It was the fastest I had ever gotten a new mod tuned, despite being my biggest! I made 15 passes that day (http://s95370645.onlinehome.us/syclone/files/15timeslips_big.jpg) (talk about a pounding!). I spent some time dialing it in slowly and safely early on, but here is my 8th run video (http://s95370645.onlinehome.us/syclone/files/pt51_run8.mpg). 11.99 @ 112.89 with a 1.80 60'! Boy was I happy but I knew it had more. Here is my best run that day, Run Twelve (http://s95370645.onlinehome.us/syclone/files/pt51_run12.mpg). That was pretty much the end of 2003 but it tells most of the story.. the rest of it is too recent to post right now. But when I told the Sy/Ty guys about my latest runs - they thought it was just great! It's some sort of stock injector ET record and maybe (definitely) a stock converter record but none of those are really significant other than to point out how unusual of a combo I ran to get those times. (And how little I had invested.) Turns out I gained a lot of satisfaction putting my brain to the test and trying to find ways to make do with what I've got. And I learned a ton about performance engines and racing along the way.

So my style may be a bit unusual and my questions a bit out of left field but perhaps now you can understand a bit of where I am coming from. I feel like I had the deck stacked against me to learn and go fast in this truck and end up setting record times (my Stock Turbo record still stands) but the way everything turned out - I don't think I'd have it any other way.

:D

http://s95370645.onlinehome.us/syclone/files/0409phr_speed_11_z.jpg

[Heat Seeker WS6]

hell yeah Josh!! :headbang

[SlowStee]

Very interesting...I read most of it :D

Seems you have come a long way without having to spend much :)

If you dont mind me asking, what is your current setup? and best Time to date ?

I guess that makes us all cooler to have a Record breaker/Holder right here in wisconsin?? :confused :thumbsup

[Syclone0044]

I found this old favorite of mine, I am sure a handful of you guys will get a kick out of this video.
On September 11th, 2002 I raced at GLD and there was a race between a Syclone and a Camaro SS (http://s95370645.onlinehome.us/syclone/files/syclone_vs_camaross_gld.mpg)
I doubt anyone will recognize the participants though.http://www.ls1tech.com/forums/images/smilies/LS1Tech/secret.gif
http://www.greatlakesdragaway.com/gldforums/images/smilies/hehe.gif
Sorry when I found this video there was no way I could resist!!

[GTSLOW]

:)
..

[PB86MCSS]

Whew, thats a long read ;). Good story. I can relate to you on your beginnings, I was never really into cars that much besides liking certain ones as a kid and growing up and my friends/dad didn't do anything with cars or care about them particularly either. Seems the majority of car guys' dads and/or friends were big into cars to get them started. I taught myself and started at 0 with knowledge for the most part. Not an expert now but when I look back at how far I've come, I have a little pride.

Syclones are sweet, there is one in my neighborhood that just sits outside, hmm...wonder what the story is on it.

[BAD LS1]

I found this old favorite of mine, I am sure a handful of you guys will get a kick out of this video.
On September 11th, 2002 I raced at GLD and there was a race between a Syclone and a Camaro SS (http://s95370645.onlinehome.us/syclone/files/syclone_vs_camaross_gld.mpg)


Hey i recognize that car :durr

[Junky Giorgio]

i give you a lot of credit. you have a sweet cyclone... good story by the way too...

[97z2801ss]

good story man!! Nice Syclone :headbang I reconize that red car too :thumbsup

[Flight_740]

Nice! :thumbsup I should get together with you and setup my dads 93 Typhoon.

And all the GN guys say that the sy/ty's are not capable. :rolf I think you prooved that different. :thumbsup

[theavenger333]

i give you a lot of credit. you have a sweet cyclone... good story by the way too...
ouch.......

good story josh, i remember when i first met you out on highway, i dont think you'd had the truck for too long at that point.......

[Nix]

Excellent story man, you have a really sweet ride too. Iam pretty sure that Ive seen you on hwy, it was last year and if my memory serves me correctly you tried to race me. :thumbsup We never did though cause I didnt like the way your truck sounded I could hear the turbo and it sounded meaner than a mother#$@%^*, and I was rite you would have stomped my as$ in to the pavement! :chair: Keep working on her and tuning her man!!!

[xsbc63x]

damn man u musta done good in english class

[sidewayzbimmer]

Awsome truck. I've seen it at oscars once last year. The only one i have ever seen. Its cool to see how far you have come along. I'd like to check that thing out next time at oscars. Still a work in progress or are you satisfied? Prolly a stupid question because nobody is ever satisfied when it comes to speed! :rock:
bryan

[SSmike1]

holy cow josh
do you have any fingers left?
thats way to much typing,(dialog), for a guy.
:wooo
yes, you have done a FANTASTIC JOB
learning how to wrench & tune.
I am VERY impressed with your abilities.

you definately are Engineering Material,
and would be FANTASTIC on a NASCAR or F1 team.
:thumbsup

JOSH, will you be at RA this April, 16th 17th?

I'll be there!


PS, was that Tommy you raced at the Strip, Video Link?

:banana

[BAD LS1]

Mike, heres the link, this was back in teh days of bolt ons for me... long time ago, i di get a wink from the red eye though :rolf

http://s95370645.onlinehome.us/syclone/files/syclone_vs_camaross_gld.mpg

[pOrk]

Cool story, thanks for the write up :thumbsup I love Syclones no doubt. Ever post on s10forum? Theres a few SYTY guys on there as well

[SSmike1]

Hey Tom,

i figured that was you, and i saw the red winky.

i thought, man, that Black Cyclone was really scaring him!!!!!!!
:wow

Must be them Black cars. :rolf

Josh has come a long ways with that truck, aina-hey? :confused


Mike, heres the link, this was back in teh days of bolt ons for me... long time ago, i di get a wink from the red eye though :rolf

http://s95370645.onlinehome.us/syclone/files/syclone_vs_camaross_gld.mpg

[Syclone0044]

Hey thanks everyone for your comments! I appreciate you reading my long-winded novel :goof


And all the GN guys say that the sy/ty's are not capable. :rolf I think you prooved that different. :thumbsup
Yeah I don't think the GN guys tend to give the Sy/Tys a lot of respect but I think it's mostly due to there being 25,000 Turbo Regals and only 3000 Syclones and 4500 Typhoons. So the Turbo Regal stuff has been around since 86 (or 84 hot air I guess) and its like a Mustang 5.0 - plenty of time to refine the parts and lots of people to find what works and doesn't work. Not a lot of people try to go fast in a Syclone or Typhoon. I'm sure it would be a thousand times harder to get the record for something like Fastest N/A Stock Mustang than to do the things I have done. But as for the GN, I think it's honestly a better engineered setup than the Turbo 4.3L, they spent many years refining that setup in auto racing, it has a stout factory bottom end and distributorless ignition. The Syclone motor is half cool new technology, and half old 4.3 junk. They only made it 1 year, and when it didn't sell well they packaged the parts inventory they had and made the Typhoon for 2 years and that didn't sell well either and it recieved no improvements/refinements.


Still a work in progress or are you satisfied? Prolly a stupid question because nobody is ever satisfied when it comes to speed! Definitely still a work in progress. I found that cars tend to work best when the combo is fully matched. On this truck the combo was matched pretty welll from the factory. The stock heads/cam powerband, the stock converter, the stock turbo size etc. all worked well. When I got it to run 12.2s that was some of the most fun I had. If you hit it just right in 2nd gear, it would lay grey stripes on the road from a 25mph roll! Once I put the bigger turbo on it lost a lot of that responsiveness and I worked around it but the bigger turbo really wants a higher stall torque converter which tends to only work out when you also raise the RPM of the engine so the combo really wouldn't be matched again until you do all that plus heads and cam. Once I get to that point I can settle a bit and enjoy it for while.

The problem I discovered with doing that level of mods, is the fun and driveability and reliability factors all start to fade away. But I have always tried hard to avoid any compromises in my truck. I hate "not" being able to do something that I got used to doing. I can still race my truck at Road America and I still drove it twice to Kansas City. I can be fast anywhere (even outside the distance of racing fuel pumps) with the alcohol and pump gas combo. I never took weight out of the truck except the spare tire and I spent a lot of money to build a 4 speed overdrive transmission rather than a 3 speed that would have been stronger but wouldn't be the same fun to drive. So my goal is to do the best I can do to make the truck a true multi purpose high performance street cruiser with no compromises. We'll have to see how it turns out. It can be really frustrating because everyone giving advice or selling/building parts wants to steer you towards 1 specific purpose at the cost of the others. Plus it's a real ***** to work on with all the AC and ABS and everything else packed into a tiny Sonoma engine bay.

SSMike, I hope to make it to Road America but it's too early to say. I'm gonna give it a 65% chance right now! :banana

[SSmike1]

Hey Josh, r u coming to RA even if ya dont drive?
or r you talking 65% chance you will drive?

so give me the stats, ( youre a typo-holic :rolf )

what percent chance r u going to drive RA this april 16-17
what percent chance r u going to just come & hang out if ya cant drive?
:banana

:thumbsup

[Yooformula]

Nice story Josh :thumbsup

[BAD LS1]

Hey Josh, r u coming to RA even if ya dont drive?
or r you talking 65% chance you will drive?

so give me the stats, ( youre a typo-holic :rolf )

what percent chance r u going to drive RA this april 16-17
what percent chance r u going to just come & hang out if ya cant drive?
:banana

:thumbsup

Not to get off topic here but... did you get a chance to pop that tranny in Mike? test it out?

[CruxGNZ]

Cool read! I give you a lot of credit doing things yourself. :thumbsup

!M!

[Corvette Jabo]

Syclones are sweet, there is one in my neighborhood that just sits outside, hmm...wonder what the story is on it.

Can you tell me wher the truck is, address?

Jabo

[Poncho]

still got the Turbo Grand Prix??? ohh ohhh talk about that next.

good read.

maybe I'll post next about my quest for a badass looking car, while going on the cheap for performance mods. :alcoholic

[fly5150]

Josh, lots of credit goes out to you. I remember when I first met you, not long after you bought your truck, way back in the day. We raced, Im not sure if it was in my Syclone or Typhoon, but I was amazed at how many questions you asked and how eager you were to learn. Sometimes I wish i had never sold my trucks.... people like you are an inspiration to us to stop pissing and moaning and just do what we do best and build a good/fast car/truck.
Cangrats
-Dave

[turbogarrett]

I have seen your truck around town a few times and heard it was running 11's, but I had no clue it runs those times with such few mods :wooo . Here I was expecting a goliath sized turbo, ported heads and a built motor etc. Got to give ya the big :thumbsup and look forward to meeting you sometime. -Garrett

[Prince Valiant]

josh already know's what I think of his truck :D

[SSmike1]

Not to get off topic here but... did you get a chance to pop that tranny in Mike? test it out?
No Sir,
i got her bolted in, but not the drive shaft, torque arm, etc...

i will get her in this friday,
and test drive her Tom.

thanks for your concern

:)

[Brian98GTP]

Josh..
..that was an Excellent story man...

I remember riding with you, TRYING to hold the laptop while we tried to tune your alky injection system on the country roads.. :thumbsup

I actually have a new place to go and tune... (about 2 miles PERFECTLY STRAIGHT in the backroads).. which Im going to right after I finish typing this... :D


Congrats on overcoming all the hardships... we all get them... but, the important thing is to LEARN from them....

Since we're both in West Bend, we should meet up and shoot the sh!t for awile...

Good luck with the new goals, whatever they may be... :)