i have the typical bolt-ons.. longtubes, exhaust, cai, 160 t-stat, tune, and stock 3.23 gears. i ran i 9.0 in 1/8th the other night and that was with it spinning shifting to 2nd gear (A4) had to let out and get back in it. Is there anything else i can do to run faster w/o tearing into the motor just yet?

 

suspension work
drag radials
stall converter
gears

these will make a BIG difference

 

is going from stock 3.23 to 3.73 gonna make a big difference? i have gotten mixed responses. i know i need drag radials bad. idk where to start with suspension stuff..

 

It will make a big difference but I would do the converter first. THAT will make a huge difference.

 

These guys have pretty much nailed it on the head. Depending on your budget, how much you want to spend, who is going to be doing the work, and how much ride comfort you are willing to lose, I would say start with the drag radials, LCA's (lower control arms) with the relocation brackets and a set of SFC's (sub-frame connecters). Then move on to the tq converter and the gears. If you are looking to squeeze every .10th out of your car, I believe the gears will help out with your E.T.'s. But then again all of this is just my opinion.
Also, some people claim that by taking the end links off of their front sway bar has helped out their times. I have never personally done this.

 

End link removal, as well as removing the weight of the sway bar, does help.

I'd go SFC, converter and gears. The car will pick up a ton.

 

drag racing with a front sway bar is like ice skating with tennis shoes. You can do it, but its not near as effective.

Your weight will transfer SO much better w/ the front unhooked or removed completely.

 

My car dropped a solid .3 in the 1/4 going from 3.23's to 3.73's.

 

I tend to disagree with the sway bar thing... especially is you are going to put a STB of SFC on the car, they all do the same basic thing as a front sway bar. I have COMPLETELY removed the front sway bar from my car, not just end links, and my car always 60's better with my sway bar attached.

 

thanks guys for all the help!! my budget is very tight and i can only do things piece by piece. i daily drive it so thats why i really didn't want to get into heavy motor work. i just want to be able to drive it to the track now and then and drive it home. i will look into the gears and suspension first since they seem to be my best least expensive options right now.

i want to have the heads ported later on and freshen up the block and run a small-medium cam. but that will be much later on..

 

this is the list. but I would do gears before stall, because of slipping more with stock gears


think about this: what is my major problem now? not getting the power to the ground

so what is it going to take to hook up the power you have. drag radials might( if it doesn't wheel hop) but the suspension most likely will at this power level

if you do the gears or stall first your spinning problem will get worse
I did suspension first then gears, stall and drag radials..

 

I did my suspension which was swaybars and shocks/struts, gears I went from 2.73s to 3.42s. My car was a daily driver so I didnt want to go 3.73s, and a tune from pcm4less at the same time. It was like night and day. I think the gears and a higher stall with some suspension should be good for almost a second in the 1/4 mile