Anyone who has read anything I have ever written or been around me knows that I am very detail-oriented.“ Attention to detail” is what we called it in the Army. I think it’ s very important to keep detailed notes on time slip data, weather, track, tuneup info, etc. Many data logger programs prompt you to put this in right when you are downloading the run. When time is not a problem, I will often get my“ data entry” out of the way first. However, in between rounds when time is of the essence, I will go straight to my first checks, then go back and enter the data. Identifying a problem a few minutes earlier may be the difference in making the call or not.

First off, I look at the oil pressure to make sure it is within the appropriate range. I also look at what the oil pressure did in the shutdown area. I feel like this is often overlooked. A lot of damage occurs in the shutdown area. If your car is equipped with a pan pressure or vacuum channel, I look at that for signs of damage. This gives you a quick“ leak down” check of an engine below the deck.

In a converter car, my next checks are converter temp and converter slippage. I make sure both are within normal range. If the converter starts to slip more than normal, it could be a symptom of several dif-

ferent problems. At any rate, catching this early may give you that head start you need to make whatever changes are necessary, whether it’ s fluid or actually changing the converter. If the fluid was warmer than normal, was there a good reason why?

Same could be said with a clutch car. Is the engine rpm graph in line with the clutch and gear ratio tuneup you have in the car? If there is an anomaly, you need to get right to inspecting for a potential problem. If the clutch pack is out of the car, I will go look at the pattern on the

floaters. Is it the same as normal? Is the wear even across the floater? Are the discs chunking or coming apart?

This is where I start to transition back to looking at engine data from a tuneup standpoint. In my world using MFI, I will click on the“ CC’ s per turn” channel to make sure the lean-outs are functioning as programmed. If you do not have this math channel programmed nor do not have a flow meter, you should be able to tell by fuel pressure changes if a jet is opening or closing. I like to look at boost and intake temp to make sure they are within range. If

you are using an air throttle, it’ s not a bad idea to look at the boost at stage to make sure it’ s within range. Finally, I like to look at the timing trace, especially if the car is equipped with a timing optic to record actual timing, to make sure it’ s doing what it was told to do. My last engine-related check is glancing at the egts and the egt average at the finish line to make sure nothing looks out of the ordinary.

If you have a suspended car and monitor shock / strut travel and ride height, you will want to quickly glance at these to make sure they are within normal range as well.

I’ m not going to lie; the driveshaft graph is up there the whole time I’ m looking at these other things so it’ s on my mind. If there isn’ t a problem, it probably takes a minute to quickly go over these types of checks in the data. But if there is a problem, time is being wasted. There’ s not much use in worrying about the tuneup if the car isn’ t right. Once I feel like the car is right, I will then enter tuneup and run data.

One tip for those of you who use a SD card-style data logger: rotate two SD cards. When you take one SD card out of the data logger to go download the data, have another one there to plug into it. This prevents the chance of going and making a run with the SD card still plugged into the laptop instead of the data logger.

As with most maintenance checks on these cars, there’ s a reason why: someone, at some point, has broken something. In my experience, I have seen a problem on every one of the checks I mentioned in this column and last month’ s. Hopefully some of my experience will help some of you be proactive rather than reactive.“ We have never had a problem with that,” can often be the famous last words. DI