My question pertains to building boost at the starting line in a drag racing situation.

I have found that the ALS routine for a manual transmission is all over the internet. ALS with the use of an automatic transmission is no where.

I'm interested in exploring ALS routines for building boost at the line in a drag racing situation with an automatic transmission. I've talked to some fellas that claim it is much different than the routine used with a manual transmission. I'm told that instead of retarding timing, you advance it to 45 to 50 btdc, at torque converter stall. I'm also told that instead of throwing extra fuel at it, you shoot for a much more conservative power mixture. Some say 12.5-13.5:1. Others have used 14.0:1 with great success.

I'm burning pure methanol too, so I'm not sure how that plays into it also. I haven't tried the above suggested routine yet. I wanted to get some input from others first.

I also have the help of port injected nitrous paired with methanol to help spool the turbo, but this turbo is BIG and I need all the tuning tricks in the book to get this monster spinning. As the thread grows I'll share some interesting tuning notes and observations I've experienced using the nitrous/methanol mix. Those notes may have to play in with any other ALS tuning trickery that comes up.

I have heard the same about advancing timing and running a little lean for a auto.

A little background on my setup which might make it clear why I'm searching for an ALS routine that may be waiting to be discovered.

I'm running a 224 cid BUICK V6 with Stage I style heads. Stage I is based on the production head. There are no stock parts on this engine build. It is all aftermarket and custom. The exhaust headers are custom equal length, stepped, long tube tuned headers with merge style collectors feeding into a T6 split turbine housing driving a 91mm compressor wheel. It's a big turbo.

I'm trying to make a Neal Chance 10" torque converter work with this combination. It's been a challenge. I recently changed the stator which did give me a little more stall. The present stall with the new stator is 2780 rpm at WOT, no boost, no nitrous.

I use a port injected nitrous system that is paired with methanol to help increase the T/C stall speed and add extra exhaust energy to get the turbo spooling quicker. The present nitrous hp level based on the jet sizing is 305 hp. The real world hp figure for this jetting depends a lot on the strength of the overall mixture. Leaner netting more hp and rich netting much less hp. The combination of nitrous with methanol makes for a very cold combination and is actually too cold to net the book hp rating according to the jet sizes. With the right mixture strength, the 300 shot is more like 200, and a mixture that is too rich, but not rich enough to cause missing will yield only 50 hp. Mixture control is very important with a nitrous/methanol mix. I've read that others have found that there is a limit on how high you can go on the nitrous/methanol level per cylinder due to the fact that as the shot size goes up it just starts quenching the compression and combustion temperatures too much. They feel that the limit per cylinder is a 25 hp shot.

I don't have a number for a new stall speed on the nitrous yet. The past stall speed before the stator change was 2440 rpm. On the nitrous with that T/C setup the stall was around 3700 rpm.

This turbo, even with the nitrous, doesn't like to spool much before 3800 rpm. Once the rpm reaches 4000-4100 rpm and 2-3 psi boost pressure things start to happen pretty quick. RPM and MAP rise is pretty straight line from that point on.

I know there are some obvious answers to my problem.
Just use a smaller turbo.
Use a higher stall T/C.

Those are obvious answers. But, answers with compromises.
The engine airflow runs through the middle of the efficiency map on this 91mm and the exhaust back pressure to intake boost pressure ratio is very favorable for the camshaft specs I'm using. The pressure ratio running .85-.95:1.
A higher stall T/C will generally mean less efficiency on the top end, missing out on some mph.

BREAKING NEWS!!!

I have discovered a new turbo anti-lag system for automatics with the use of a nitrous/methanol mix. So far, I've only done testing on the car lift in the shop. I'll be doing more testing next time I can get the car to the track. It is a very smooth anti-lag system.

Details up to this point can be found here:
www.turbobuick.com / forums / alcohol-nitrous-propane-tech / Advancement of Fuel Delivery? - page 22

In short, a nitrous/methanol mix, when used with a methanol burning engine, above a 25 hp shot per cylinder is considered to be too cold for proper combustion and depending on the mixture strength can cause a loss of 1/3 to 2/3 of the rated shot hp level.
What I've come across is a situation where I'm running a 51 hp shot per cylinder on the very rich side and it does seem to cause a loss of hp rating, but with the right tuneup settings, the mixture of nitrous/methanol that makes it through the cylinder unburned and into the exhaust system can be lit off and used to quickly spool the turbo. There's no bang or pop, just a very quick, smooth rise in the rate of rpm and map climb. It also causes the O2 to read a perfect burn 14.64:1 (my O2 is calibrated to read out gasoline numbers), even though the fuel map is on the rich max power side (5.0:1) and the nitrous/methanol mix is on the rich limit side.

I'm using an automatic transmission.