Scrapper- No problem. maverick5946 (John right?)- Thanks. My real concern is my 60' times though. The best I ever got on the street radials was 1.81 (although it was usually in the 1.90's) and the best I could muster with these slicks was 1.88. I thought I was probably taking too much air out, but I was so perplexed by the slow 60' times that I guess I got a bit desperate. I wish I had a bit more converter. I was afraid this one (3200)might not be enough when I put in this big 'ol camshaft.In my own defense, even with a lot of sway, I never lifted. hehehe.
Thats cool. Part of the fun is trial and error and figuring things out....you will get it! and yeah, I have been known to not lift every now-and-then whe I probably should.
I'm desperate for an 11 second timeslip before race season is over! Looks like I'm only going to have two more opportunities to run before they quit for the year. I'm not going to get my nitrous system working, because if I do I might decide to stick with it and I'd really rather just go fast on the motor. maybe I'll get back into nitrous if I decide for some reasone I need to run 10's. I wonder if 26" slick will put me where I need to be? I run a 28" slick now. I really liked the fact that slicks let me launch straight as an arrow as opposed to the street tires pitching me randomly in either direction, but since mine are so tall, I'm guessing they kept my engine below where it's making power for too long. seems completely bizarre that I wouldn't have way better 60' times on slicks than all season radials. I guess it would make sense on a 15 second car but not on one in the low 12's Anyone have any seat of the pants tricks for picking up a tenth or two? I run cold plugs, autolite 3924's at .040", A K&N filter with the x-stream top, 36 degrees total timing, 10.7:1 compression, big mechanical camshaft(255dur/.575 lift) 2.02/1.6 Performer RPM heads Holley 650 double pumper with stock jets. 4.11 spooled rear 3200 stall converter. Should I run more timing? Any suggestions are appreciated. Thanks folks!
what type pistons are you running? Is your timing locked out? How about your front tires,,,,are they skinnies? Whens the last time you had a front end alignment? What type of rear suspension? My first suggestion would be timing. I run mine locked out at 38* I have ran it a 34* and it falls on its face at the line. 2nd. rolling resistance 3rd. rolling resistance. I remember Ivy Collins looking for those last few "inkles" of time at he finally got it by getting his front end aligned.........rolling resistance. 4th. Have you tried different burnouts? are you getting the tire too hot...or maybe not hot enough? 5th. a little cheat is to stage shallow......its gives you a "running" start and will pick you up possibly a couple hundredths. It might hurt your reaction time a little, but we are in search of a 11.....not a .000 green. 6th. lose as much weight as your can.....if you have not already. 7th. Are you sure both wheels are spinning? Could your spool possible be broke? I have a lot more thoughts,,,,,and I hope I am not insulting you with these. Good luck.
i,ve got the skinnie tires on the front and my engine builder said to run the timing at 38. i also changed from a holley 650 to a holley 750hp with 74 and 79 jets, and picked up over .3. what oil are you using? i picked up a bit by changing to mobil1 synthetic (5-30). are you running a stock type fan? or a water pump belt? electric fan and electric water pump motor also frrs up some hp. only belt i use is the alternator. also what are you running for fuel? i use vp 110. that's 107 octane. my builder said to use either vp c-12 or sunoco purple. i think they're 108 octane. not cheap though. i ran a 12.14 last time at the track. temp was 111, altitude of 1325 so i'm thinking of putting the stock rear and front seats back in. have to go to bakersfield, cal in oct. the temp will be a lot cooler and the altitude there is 605. funny i've now got to worry about slowing it down.
I've heard of folks getting their front aligned at ride height under acceleration instead of at rest and THAT made a difference. not sure if you'd want to do that with a car that is street driven though. best time my son's car ever ran we went to the track with half a tank gas and a can to set next to friends truck in pits, extra weight lost. what about sunthetic gear oil? realize there's plenty of advertising hype but there is probably some truth in it. No personal experience with it though.
Hi Ray..I have a few tips 1, Ice down your intake (I use Ice in plastic freezer bags) 2,Use or make a cool can to keep the fuel cool 3, remove or disconnect your anti-sway bar 4, use a set of adjustable shocks(I use Competion Engineering...work great and very cheap) or replace just one or both shocks with a disabled shock(drilled to remove the fluid)...but be careful with that one...it could bite you 5, stage your car as shallow as possible...just let the stage light flicker on(it'll give you a running start 6, use the skinniest, tallest(a tall tire has to spin less revolutions going down the track) tire you can find on the front and loosen off you wheel bearings 7, back off your drums to zero drag(it'll stop fine but the petal will go down a lot further before doing anything...its a good idea to test them first) 8, cool down your brakes using water fron a sprayer, a bottle or a hose 9, raise the back of your hood...this will allow a place for the air to escape (aerodynamics)...also helps get cooler air to your carb 10, run as thin an oil as you can 11, make sure and check if your gas petal is opening your butterflys all the way 12, side gap your plugs...I use the same plugs as you do but cut the tip even with the electrode and gap it from there(I use a 45 gap) 13, use as big a pcv as you can 14, drain the 90w from your rear and use straight 30w(only use at the track) 15, adjust front tire pressure to 50psi...this will reduce rolling resistance 16, before you run..make sure everything electrical is off in the car 17, use a good cap & rotor(from Accel or MSD) 18, run 1 quart low on the dipstick(becareful of that one)...I know a guy who has picked up a tenth and a half by doing it...but watch your oil pressure 19, use an open spacer under the carb with a heat shield...try a 1 inch as a minumum thats about all I can come up with right now...If I think of more I will let you know. Becareful with some of them and remember that some are for the stip only and could cause problems on the street. Some of the other charactors here should have a few tricks that they can share...Hopefully
I think maybe your switch to 28in tall tires is killing your rear gear ratio. Your aggressive cam needs some help with a deeper gear. 4.56 or 4.86.(4.62 in an 8inch). 60's will improve with them as well as a 4000 minimum stall. Don't know what RPM's you are turning, but I think they should be at least 6000 to 6200 at 1/8th mile maybe a few more. Ford small blocks need to turn up above 6000 normally to get the full power band working, depending on cam etc. 1/4 mile should top out at 7000 to 7200. Must take issue on some suggestions of using ice and cool cans, tried them all and very little help except maybe on EFI cars. Also spraying water on hot brakes is a very dangerous thing to do in my book. Warped or even cracked rotors and drums are not a good thing on being able to stop. Besides that left over water dripping down on the track can lead to some tire spin and or complete out of shape runs. Same thing when doing a 6000 rpm spin out of the water box, lots of it left in the wheel wells after the burnout and will drip on the tires for less than desirable launch. The right combo of compression, cam and ign timing, gearing, stall, tires and traction enhancer(bars, cal-tracs and or ladder bars etc.) is what to shoot for. Your driving tecniques are last but not least and must be done exactly the same each run you make. Track conditions and weather will enter into all this too. I bet you will attain your goals before long, you are trying hard to get there and thats number 1 thing in your quest. Good luck as always.
Wow guys! Thanks for all the responses! John.- I aligned the car at the beginning of June. Added a degree of caster for stability and set the toe and camber to factory specs. My fronts are not skinnies unfortunately, but I do need to get more air into them. I'll pump 'em up today before I go to the track. I'll try out shallow staging tonight and see how it goes. I had a problem last time trying to stall up the converter on the foot brake. I actually pushed through the beams once My timing isn't locked out, but next season I'll have a better distributor.(duraspark right now.) Keith Black Hypers .200 dome .060 over makes for about 10.7:1 Rear is stock leaf with slappers and unfortunately long shackles.(another thing I'll be remaking this winter). the spool is definately not broken. Both wheels spin evenly Don- I'm running Castrol 5w-30 synthetic (not synthetic blend) And Kendall fully synthetic 80/90 in the rear end. Electric fan and big pulley on a flowkooler water pump. Cliff- I have some chemical ice packs that I meant to bring last time and forgot. I'll try 'em this time. I like the idea of side gapping the plugs I'll try that. already run a quart low in the crankcase (8 quart pan so it's no problem) I have to agree with Old Guy about cooling the brakes. First it is tough on the metal from a fatigue life perspective and second since I have drums all aroud, all it would do is shrink the drums a tiny bit effectively tightening them up. As far as the PCV suggestion. I'm with ya and going to make a header evacuation set up this winter that I can disconnect when I'm not at the track. My nitrous plate is currently just an expensive carb spacer since I lost interest in nitrous. I'll replace it with a phenolic unit when I get around to pulling the nitrous system off. Dave- Thanks for the encouraging words. I agree 100% about these slicks being too big for my combo. I'm after a set of 26" slicks to get my RPM back up where it needs to be. I'm also going back and forth on a bit more converter (3200 now). I'm going back at it today. going to try more pressure in the slicks and less burnout so they don't hook quite so good and maybe I can get my wheel speed back up. Thanks again for all the help folks, I'm off to get ready now. Have to do a bunch of stuff before I head down to go racing.
i agree with the comment about the height on the tire size along with the gears. i think it might be too much tire. maybe you should trade them in for a set of 26s.. at one time i settled for 27s that M&H makes with a 4.62 gear... my 60fts seem to suffer but i got a bit more top speed out of them. right now for the 1/8 mile i run 4.62 with a 26 inch tire with a 4000 stall it pulls low 1.61, 1.63 all day.. but it won't make it though the 1/4 mile. it needs 4:11 gears to make it though.. other wise i will be like Stephen cranking it to 7500 rpms. but either way changing tires are alot eaiser then swtiching gears. and for the spacer might even wanna try a phenolic 1/2 spacer.. i seen some dyno test with some nice numbers.. but then again i don't think you will notice 5 hp at the crank.
Some great info in this thread guys. I agree with most but I think going to a 26" tire will help the most. Otherwise the comment about the gears applies (and staying with the 28's). Putting it on a diet (as much as practical) would go a good ways for e.t.s (ask Ford Man). A old drag racing buddy of mine says about putting a non-essential component on a car, "If you can't throw it a quarter-mile, don't put it on there".
I agree....the easiest and cheapest speed is a diet. Loose everything you do not need to make it go..........and I guess stop too.....that might be important! I think just fixing your timing alone will make a huge improvement. You would be surprsied what 2* will do to your car.....it really wakes them up.
Well, I set the timing at 38*, shifted right at 7000, played with tire pressure a bit and the best i ran was 12.17. I'm looking for some 26's pretty hard. I'm only going once more this season and I doubt I'll have them by then, but we'll see. Gotta go to wrok now.
May want to try to "flash" the coverter.Instead of stalling it up as far as you can on the line,stall it about 1400-1800 then hit it hard on the green.Helped my 60' about a tenth.
