If they will fit you can always go to a taller tire to compensate for low gearing,& a taller tire will make your trap speed faster.On big power door cars,14_ 32s have been used forever.
Went to the Hangover Nats. at Richmond Va Dragway yesterday,there was a good turnout even though it was cold.Gary & his son Skeeter was there,Gary went 3 rounds,David Taylor went 1 round in his Fairlane.Including Garys car there were 3 Mavericks there turning in the 5s,a good showing for our brand.Hey Gary,remember the little Chevy Luv trk we were talking about turning 6.20s,he was tough all day,dialed a 6.18 on the window & ran 6.20 5 times straight.Made it to the final & put 6.19 on his window & lost to a dragster,which if the dragster had spun just a tiny bit,the trk. would have won,it was that close.I predict that kid with the truck is going to win some money this yr,if I were him I wouldn`t change a thing as he has a combo that works.Good luck to you & Skeeter on your builds & I`ll see you at a track somewhere later this yr.
Got my header fabrication almost complete...doing some rewiring. Hope to have it blowing smoke in couple weeks..
Should be good for a tenth or two... Hahaha.. if we were talking face to face I couldn't have even said that with a straight face. lol
Man, I'm tired of snow. This is the most snow in the Boise area since 1892. Frustrating to not get work done. But, it is finally beginning to melt.
Well, I installed the new lifters today. Haven't fired it yet. New converter will go in next week. I didn't get everything done that I wanted over the winter. We were snowed in so long I couldn't get it trailered to and from the shop. I put it in the garage last fall and planned to take it to the shop when I wanted to work on it since I don't have the space for it at the shop. So, now I've got some upgrades to do over the next month or so.
I hear ya! My car was supposed to get mini-tubbed, and a new chromoly cage installed over the winter, but my buddy who operates a chassis shop had a mild stroke and that plan got put on hold. Our local track is scheduled to open in a couple of weeks, so I need to get in gear and just get ready for the season as is.
Not to go far off topic here but when you build the Moly cage are you also shrinking the tubing size under the rule allowance to shave any additional weight? Or maybe your car is above the weight limit vs tube sizing rule to allow downsizing?
and @Jim. Hopefully those new short travel lifters finally allow the engine to rev to that cam's potential. The secondary benefit(pun intended) of the higher rev's may also be that(IMO) still slightly too large secondary pipe you fabbed up end of last year might suddenly appear to not be so large for the new combo's higher airflow potential. Almost like you grew the engine size to better match the secondaries current ID. Looking forward to seeing it pick up a few tenths or more and exceeding your original expectations.
I agree Greg. Hopefully the combo of new lifters and more stall in TC will give me cascading benefits of more power at both ends of the track and take a couple of tenths off my ET. And, if I can get 6500 out of it and reduce TC slippage I might be able to go to a shorter gear. There should be less rpm drop between gears and more time in the power band. The torque peak is at 5500 according to the dyno. The old 3200 stall put me over 2000 rpm below torque peak every time I shifted. As a side note with the heads off I took a look at the piston tops. No evidence of valve contact with the pistons. Tops of the pistons had a bit of black soot as did the combustion chambers that I think is the result of firing it up occasionally and not getting the engine warmed up.
Well, the lifters and torque converter are in. Going to the track on Sunday. Crossing my fingers hoping for better ETs.
What a great day racing. Clear blue sky and DA at 1600 in the morning and 2000 in the afternoon with a track elevation of 2700'. I got four runs in: ET, mph, 60', RT 12.114, 112.49, 1.842, .031. Launched off idle. 11.955, 113.60, 1.732, .097. Launched at 2000. 12.053, 113.88, 1.800, .032. Launched at 2000. 11.911, 114.76, 1.731, .088. Launched at 3000. This new torque converter seems to like being stalled rather than flashed. It however does not stall at the advertised 4800,more like 3500. So, my 60' times are only marginally better than last year. However, it is much tighter on the top end. I was going through the lights at 5700, rather than 6200 with the old converter. And, the new short-throw lifters will let it rev to 6500. I had my shift light at 5700 and it was usually completing the shift at 6000. So, I now have about 700-800 rpm to play with on the top end. I'm thinking I need to step to 4.11 gears from the 3.89s I have now. All four runs were faster than my best last year of 12.21/111. Some of that was because of the good air I'm sure. What do you guys think?
Unfortunately, converters seem to almost always be advertised as looser than they usually are. But, seem like your moving forward. Congratulations. If you step up to the 4.11 gear it will tighten that converter even more. If you could get the 60' to be more consistent you'd be doing great.
