I still put the car in the beams same as always. BUT... after converter change and draining my front shocks, have I gone too far. I am beggining to think car is wasting too much time lifting tires instead of launching forward. I cannot get the car to cut a .5XX light to save my azz!

I do have the rear sway bar a little loose on the passenger side, would a tightening up of this help? Also... I think I am gonna put tubes in the Hoosiers as they are supposed to waste less time wrinkling and get quicker to propelling.

MY speciality USED to be HOLE SHOTS! Now it is loading car unto the trailer after 1st round! I HATE DRAG RACING!

By the way... 1.51 sixtys, so shes not lazy, it's just seems she is so violently lifting and leaving.

 

Install some drag struts in the front end. Draining your shocks is the wrong way to set up a chassis.

Also install some front end travel limiters.

Rear suspension setup? Can you change anything like pinion angle, 4-link, ladder bar, torque arm settings? If you can lower the instant center of the rear suspension, the tires won't hit as hard and the front end will stay lower.

Watch a SuperGas car launch. They run 9.90's and want as little front end rise as possible. Of course many of them use wheelie bars just to be safe.

 

I feel your pain man! I am the same way, I used to kill people at the lights, now it 's the other way around. I lightened my car up over the winter and it et's better, but my rt's have suffered. Good luck in getting everything sorted out, I think I will try staging a little deeper the next time out.

Randy

 

Okay Stephen... tell me why every Stock, Super/Stock car in the country leaves with the tires hanging BIG TIME in the air

I'm a lot closer to them than a Super Gas car, FOR SURE!

Thanx for the replyz guyz!!

HInk

 

Although there are a few Stock pulling wheelies, there aren't many on the 9" x 30" slick. Super Stock are allowed to run wheelie bars and those that do run quicker ET's by keeping the front end down lower. Super Stock are also getting very good traction with up to 14.5" x 33" tires.

There's nothing terribly wrong with pulling the wheels into the air since it adds weight transfer to a chassis that can't be adjusted better.

In your first message, you claim to have no problems pulling the wheels but have suffered in the reaction times. Chassis adjustments aren't going to fix that.

Try deep staging next time. If you pull the wheels that quickly, you'll break the beams easier. Also install some travel limiters.

 

read through this thread on someone with the same problem

http://drr.infopop.cc/6/ubb.x?a=tpc&...12&m=774606701

 

Almost every H, I and J stock auto and stick 3rd gen will carry fronts to about the tree. Go with the drag struts up front and Moroso springs, be sure to cut one full coil off before you install them to get front ht correct. Have someone video or get pics of your launch. An airbag in right rear spring with the rear sway fully tightened will help with roll. Also, get some 6 cyl rear springs and swap them from side to side, the driver side is heavier than pass so this will add preload to rt side. Set pres to 25 psi.
I also put a set of Pete-Z bars on and all this has made the car very consistant on 60's. In 15 runs between both points days Sat and Sun they were within .03, 1.48-1.51. And yes, that's on a 30 x 9 slick.
Once you get the car to react consistantly, working on your r/t's will come fairly easy.

 

what he said

 

Mostly it's trying to find where the car wants to be in the beams to get my reaction times back into normality, now that some converter/gear changes were made this spring. Maybe it's the extra 1200 rpm of stall that is the difference, maybe just takes that fraction of a second to react!

Basically just figuring out the new combo. Gonna get wife to go one weekend and take some video and go from there.

Mod313... I have done about everything you said, air bag around 27#, 6 cyl. rear springs, Drag Launch front springs uncut, its hard enough at that height, to get car on trailer.

I may end up throwing the big 1" Addcco sway bar back on the rear and see what that does depending on the video.

Stephen... thanks for the link... looks like a good site to register to!!

Like I said, Redbird hooks GREAT, 1.51 Sunday but some time is being wasted in the first 6 inches. I suspect too much/fast of rise and not enough push! Travel limiters will be looked into.

HInk Thanks gentlemen

 

That site has mostly grass roots racers. Many are running 7-10 second ranges but the bulk of the user base is 10 second and slower so they're all bracket racers. I used to be on another forum but it was more of a fan based one for the pro (top fuel, pro stock etc) racers. It didn't impress me.

I watched a video of my car launching last year. My front end rises a lot but barely pulls the wheels off the ground. Travel limiters for me would really help. The downside of watching the video was seeing how much tire spin I have. What feels like a good launch and 60' time really has a full wheel revolution before I actually start to move. That's a lot of spin. I need a bigger tire to get a better bite on the ground. If I can stop that wheel spin, I would probably lift the front wheels also.

 

Stephen,
Tire spin is why I added the Pete-Z bars. In stock, travel limiters and ladder bars are not allowed. With the adjustments the Pete-Z bars give you, the hit can be softened up to where it won't blow tires off at hit of throttle. Judging by this weekends timeslips and seeing half of Sundays showing 60' and 330' times that were identical to the thousandths I'd say the spinning problem no longer exists.

Redbird,
Def cut one coil off to lower the nose, it will help. I know getting on the trailer is hard with lowered noses but don't build the car to suit the trailer, mod the trailer to suit the car.

 

I use ramp extensions on my trailer to lessen the angle. My spoiler sits real low and hits the back of the trailer if I don't. That's also having the rear truck wheels sitting on ramps to angle the trailer backwards.

I haven't had enought time to play with ladder bar settings, pinion angle, shock settings or air bag pressure. I keep breaking engines. I found out my block was cracked on Saturday and I'm in the process of tracking down another block again.

 

MOD313... LOL, you're right... I have YET to take the trailer down the track!! Ya got me on that one!!
By the way... why does cutting a coil off the front springs help? Aren't you looking for as much 'Stored Energey' as possible? Cutting a coil would seem to dimish this affect.

By the way, tell us sumpin' about your Stocker. I once wrote to a Stock and Super/Stock forum about setting up suspensions and got NOTHING. I figure these guyz are very secretive as to what works and they sure as heck weren't gonna blab to someone they didn't know!

The reason to just open up the shocks, Stephen, was because I cannot afford to do the Q1 Drag Strut thing. If you are near as old as me, you will know this was an old drag racing trick. I tried to find some worn out front shocks but no seemed to have a pair.

Thanks guyz!

HInk

 

The Moroso drag springs adjust ride ht by cutting x number of coils. From experience with the 3rd gen's most of us who run them have found that cutting one coil drops the nose just enough. You generally will want the nose lower than the front and the rules don't allow jacking up the rear to get the "raked" effect. It will help pivot the wt when you launch with the nose dropped.
Most won't tell you exactly what to do but many will tell you the parts that will work and you need to take it from there to find the set up that works best for your car. It helps if you talk to the people at the event and explain a bit about your car and what it's doing, for the most part you'll find you will get answers to your questions and some tips on things to expect.
I run two dif motors depending on what I'm doing at which part of year. When I'm just bracket racing I run a very mild (almost tame) 400 sbc and for class I run the 305/165 carb motor combo. The bigger motor is great for getting things sorted and trying new stuff, plus it limits the number of runs on the class motor when all I'm doing is running for seat time. Only takes a couple hours to swap them so it's not a big deal.

 

One other thing that you might want to play with is front tire diameter and pressure. What is your stall and what rpm are you leaving at? I tend to ride the converter as high as I can without rolling, versus flashing it.

Good input MOD313. Have you run any IHRA races yet this year? I have only been out once this year at Farmington. I may go to Kinston this weekend if the rain ever quits!

Best Regards,

Daren