Off to the races

[1BAD68]

After 5 years owning this Charger I'm finally taking it to the track for the first time.
Hopefully nothing breaks because its a 50 mile trip and its also my ride home.
I plan on getting some in car video of my 3 runs, wish me luck.

[1BAD68]

any tips for a newbie at the track?

[lisiecki1]

take an air compressor and play with rear tire pressures for hook up and overfill the fronts a little, don't wait for the green to launch, launch when you see the last yellow (unless you're on a pro tree)

[noff57]

I am with lisiecki1 about air pressure. You running slicks or street tires? GOOD LUCK 

[pullrock]

Good Luck!  I am a newbie (drag racing) and have been trying to make it to the track myself! 

Eric
68 Charger R/T

[68X426]

Same here, I have yet to make it to the track after having tried all last year. Distance, timing, work, parts break, life gets in the way. Sure hope to make it this summer. Post your experiences and I'll post mine when I get there.

[Finn]

Good luck! 

[Duran75]

Good luck buddy!!!  Remenber to add air to the tires, before you leave the track

[Darkman]

Good luck at the track!

Just promise me one thing, the next time you decide to use your car as a coffe table, use a coaster 

[jc_is_the_man]

Any chance you have any more pics of your car?

I love the flat black

[1BAD68]

Well my car made it back in one piece but only was able to make 2 runs.
It was high school drags and the test and tune's hardly got any track time so by the time I made a second run, I had to leave.
Oh well, my Charger did ok for its first time, major tire slippage and slow reaction time gave me a 14.8185/90.3 mph and second run was 14.4513/94.23
But it as fun.

[pullrock]

Nice work!

[Ghoste]

It's addictive isn't it? 

[adauto]

At WIR... cool, haven't been up there in a long time.

[MoparManJim]

Well my car made it back in one piece but only was able to make 2 runs.
It was high school drags and the test and tune's hardly got any track time so by the time I made a second run, I had to leave.
Oh well, my Charger did ok for its first time, major tire slippage and slow reaction time gave me a 14.8185/90.3 mph and second run was 14.4513/94.23
But it as fun.

man, that charger just setting there looks to be out in front of the other cars park there? Man that looks down right sweet with the charger setting there. 

[greenpigs]

  It's a fairly mild 318 if I remember right, not bad at all.


Did you get to weigh the car?

I don't have my Moroso speed calculator on me but will guess 14 flat is possible if you get it to hook up.

[89MOPAR]

  Nice !  Glad to see members taking their cars to the track.

  Reaction time is totally seperate from your 1/4 mile time.   Difference in wheelspin, etc probably caused the difference in your two times.
  1/4 mile time is from when you "break" the lights until you cross the 1/4 mile lights.   You could sit at the X-mas tree and eat a 5 course meal after the green light illuminates, then hit the gas and go down the track, and it would still be a 14 second run,  not a 5 minute and 14 second run.

  Where you are worried about reaction time is during bracket racing eliminations, bad reaction time there will put you in the losers column.

[0X01B8]

  It's a fairly mild 318 if I remember right, not bad at all.


Did you get to weigh the car?

I don't have my Moroso speed calculator on me but will guess 14 flat is possible if you get it to hook up.

you can try this:

1/4 Mile ET, HP, and MPH Visual Calculator

it's potentially close to accurate for some.

[1BAD68]

  It's a fairly mild 318 if I remember right, not bad at all.

Actually its stroked to 390ci.
After seeing that ET/hp calculator I'm pretty disappointed, 245hp a the flywheel?
I didn't weigh the car but I'm guessing around 3750lbs?
Here's what the time slip say's;

reaction - .4384
60ft - 2.1290
330ft - 6.0060
ET@ 594ft - 8.6664
1/8 ET - 9.2631
1/8mph - 75.41
1000' ET - 12.0727
1000'mph - 86.98
1/4 ET - 14.4513
1/4 mph - 94.23

[greenpigs]

   I think a SB would weigh less than 3750 unless thats with you included. Preaty sure you use the overall weight of car + you for calculations.

How did the plugs look? I see you are running a Eldelbrock carb, what size is it? Also what is the total timing? lastly what gear is in the rear?

I will try and help you get this thing into the 13's but I'm still learning myself. Its nap time for me but I will look and see if I can find your specs on the 390. Perhaps others can chime in with ideas.

[greenpigs]

Ok I found your running a 600 CFM carb....that sounds small for a 390 cube motor. What model number is your Edelbrock as one is calibrated leaner than another. I think the 1406 is a little richer. Also you have 3.55 and a sure grip which is middle of the park which you know, but not really an issue. It's not like the 2.73 dog leg rear you had. Not sure of your budget but a used 750 Holley might be a good idea or at least get a tuning kit for your current carb.
So your running a performer intake as well, a Performer RPM air gap might be a better choice. Or get a phenolic 1/2 inch 4 hole spacer for the current intake & carb as many have issues with heat soak. The summit turbos are ok but I have been saying go with the Dyno Max ultra flo's.  The thrush magnum glasspacks flow about 500 CFM and the summit turbos are 325 CFM and the ultra flo's are 1000 cfm.
Have you checked for a 100% open throttle yet? What does your torque converter stall at?

[Jon Smith]

That calculator looks a bit dodgy to me

no way are you only losing 20 or so horsepower through the drivetrain

[Axels73Charger]

Looks like fun! Nice Charger!

[d/ur/t]

  It's a fairly mild 318 if I remember right, not bad at all.

Actually its stroked to 390ci.
After seeing that ET/hp calculator I'm pretty disappointed, 245hp a the flywheel?
I didn't weigh the car but I'm guessing around 3750lbs?
Here's what the time slip say's;

reaction - .4384
60ft - 2.1290
330ft - 6.0060
ET@ 594ft - 8.6664
1/8 ET - 9.2631
1/8mph - 75.41
1000' ET - 12.0727
1000'mph - 86.98
1/4 ET - 14.4513
1/4 mph - 94.23

Sounds like fun you just beat me the first time I went

60ft 2.2
14.52
@96Mph

[d/ur/t]

Here's the car I couldn't get the pics small enough for one post.

Biggest thing I found {since} was limiting wheel spin buy pressing the loud pedal very slowly comming out the hole. My time was good for any easy 13 {aparently} even though I was running tallish gears and running heavey duty 122 borgwarner 4 speed with crossply razorblades.{14x 205 65} tyres.

good luck

[1BAD68]

Ok I found your running a 600 CFM carb....that sounds small for a 390 cube motor. What model number is your Edelbrock as one is calibrated leaner than another. I think the 1406 is a little richer. Also you have 3.55 and a sure grip which is middle of the park which you know, but not really an issue. It's not like the 2.73 dog leg rear you had. Not sure of your budget but a used 750 Holley might be a good idea or at least get a tuning kit for your current carb.
So your running a performer intake as well, a Performer RPM air gap might be a better choice. Or get a phenolic 1/2 inch 4 hole spacer for the current intake & carb as many have issues with heat soak. The summit turbos are ok but I have been saying go with the Dyno Max ultra flo's.  The thrush magnum glasspacks flow about 500 CFM and the summit turbos are 325 CFM and the ultra flo's are 1000 cfm.
Have you checked for a 100% open throttle yet? What does your torque converter stall at?
[/quote]

Ok I checked for 100% opening of the throttle and found it was just short of opening all the way, is that a significant difference?
My torque convertor is somewhere around 2100/2500 stall, I'm not positive.
Also I was running 87 Unleaded, would 93 make a difference?
This Friday is RSD, so I will be there but I cant change out any parts at the moment, just trying to get the best time from what I have right now.
Here's an in car video...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuPTrsazFCQ

[greenpigs]

Sounds fine to me and I don't think running better gas will matter unless your experiencing knock.

What RPM did you shift at?

[1BAD68]

I'm shifting at 5500

[d/ur/t]

Sounds fine to me and I don't think running better gas will matter unless your experiencing knock.

What RPM did you shift at?

Better gas will help with your et's {engine HP} may only be a tenth or two but that could mean the differnece between a 14 and a 13.99.Also with the better gas will allow more timing but don't advance the timing unless you can recognise pre ignition {knock} and if you do recognise it back the timeing off in very small amounts untill it goes away.

Further are you allowed to drop the exhaust a mate tried for years to get into the 13's but listened to all the BS about this exhaust and that exhaust trying to convince him nearly a year to drop the exhaust {he had 3 into two flanges so it was easy as} not only did he run his first 13 he ran a 13.68 he has now lowered that to 13.52.

cheers

[d/ur/t]

I'm shifting at 5500

you need to change just north of where your engine is pulling the hardest {what cam are you running how does the engine feel} if it's a stock or only a small grind your best torque figures may be in the mid to high 4000's so try changing with either the seat of your pants or your cam grind in mind.At least do some runs with this in mind.

check the video of a mates little bigblock {408} bear in mind the engine cost over 20k and ran 10.88 first time out."O" yea

http://s159.photobucket.com/albums/t146/kwe38/?action=view&current=Picture081.flv

[1BAD68]

Its still pulling strong at 5500 but I shift anyway just to be on the safe side.
Maybe I'll try different shift points and see what happens.
Anyone know what a safe max. rpm shift point would be?

[greenpigs]

I would pull a plug and make sure it is tan or slightly brown before spining it any higher. What is your initial timing set at? Since you can run 87 octane my guess is your not running as much timing as you could. Then running 93 will be needed like mentioned earlier. The calibration kit is 40 and the spacer is 30, plus the spacer can be used with a holley if you go that route.

[d/ur/t]

Its still pulling strong at 5500 but I shift anyway just to be on the safe side.
Maybe I'll try different shift points and see what happens.
Anyone know what a safe max. rpm shift point would be?

That's good then,a lot of people just like to rev for the heck of it.So if it is still feeling strong at that that's good. I gave my six a rev on the dyno and it was still peaking at 5750 that was with an E38 cam and dual valve springs.Also it needs to be rich enough not to lean out as mentioned above.Also you might want to think about who built it,{how strong are the valve springs} and what else done to it to rev it much harder than 5500 also how long has it been together .I mean to say it could let go at 5600 or if the rods have been resized and gone through like that it could let go at 7600.Having said that another mate of mine's broke the top out of the piston reving to 6800.His engine was making just over 340 HP at the wheels {a body} and was running in the 11's for ages then he stuck a small shot of gas up it  {ran 10's for a year or more } and it cooked the top of the piston and cracked a peice off.While that doesn't sound a lot like yours I was surprised to see how thin the crown of the piston was and it is a little bigblock {340 416 } so just be mindfull that you may have similar piston crowns and they don't look very robust.  

[1BAD68]

I would pull a plug and make sure it is tan or slightly brown before spining it any higher. What is your initial timing set at? Since you can run 87 octane my guess is your not running as much timing as you could. Then running 93 will be needed like mentioned earlier. The calibration kit is 40 and the spacer is 30, plus the spacer can be used with a holley if you go that route.

Timing is 15 at 700rpm and 35 at 2500 rpm, plugs are a nice and consistant tan.
I put 93 octane in yesterday.
I'm thinking that if I shift at 6000 it will make a significant difference.

[greenpigs]

Thats good, keep us posted and looking forward to Fridays results.

[chargergirl]

Reading through this is wonderful. Kid you just got your teeth cut on that car. You made 2 passes and she drove home. You did great! Listen to the Guru's and you will have it down for the next one. First time out your numbers are good...do what they tell ya...you'll blow the others away. Great looking sleeper!

[1BAD68]

Well this time it didn't go so well.
It was very hot and I couldn't get my car to cool down enough. 1st run started out good, I bumped the timing up a bit and shifted at 6000 but it kind of fell on its face coming out of 1st gear.
Shifting at 6000 coming out of second was good but as soon as I hit 3rd there was a pop so I let off. I still don't know what that pop was but it ran 14.9163 at 77 mph.
Second run was aborted as it stalled off the line, it fired up right away but it was too late.
I decided that maybe advancing the timing was causing the engine to run hot so I bumped it back down and made my 3rd run. It stumbled pretty bad and almost stalled again off the line but caught itself, I shifted at 5700 this time and ran a pathetic 16.00 at 94.04 mph.
I don't know what to make of it except that running so hot seemed to really effect the performance.

[greenpigs]

Sounds like vapor lock...grab a 4 hole phenolic spacer and that should help. About half an inch should do and what kind of fuel pressure do you have?

[1BAD68]

I don't know the fuel pressure, its a stock fuel pump but I need to re-do the fuel line from the pump so I'll get a inline press. gauge installed and a spacer for next time.
Probably was vapor lock, even waiting to get in the temp gauge was reading 230 and it was idleing horribly. I had a infrared thermometer and it showed the block at 198 and the upper radiator hose at 185

[b5blue]

I just read Don's (FBO) "Tuning to win" book last night, check out his sight and I would suggest getting a copy to study. Your going to get great tips and track advice that will help you dial it in for race day. 

[R2]

Have fun,,,,,,
Stuff I would think about trying,,,no particular order..........

-Set of slicks or drag radials for the rear ( maybe some drag radials,,,that way they can be used on the street and strip )

-Front drag shocks (adjustable ),,,,eg summit sells some cheap 3 way adjustable,,,,that you can adjust for the street and then at the strip

-different carb,,,,are you running out of pump shot off the line with the car stumbling when you nail it ?

-check the distributor curve,,,,and see what's it doing,,,,

too bad your not local,,,,we could throw one of my carbs and distributor at it,,,,and see what it does.............





-

[greenpigs]

Update

I know you got the timing dialed in and once you take care of the heat soak are you going back to the track soon? You may want to wait till you can grab some sticky rear tires or it will be an exercise in frustration...then again what will it hurt?

It will not happen this year.... but next spring I plan on taking mine to the local track. (saving this winter for MT ET streets and a second set of 15X8 Summit Quick 8's.

[chargergirl]

Took the Belvedere out for her maiden test and tune. Was coming off the line like she was in third. Engine did great, ran without a hitch. Changing some stuff out...the boys will be playing with it this week. Believe the torque converter isn't right. Sprag broke. Everybody at the track was taking pics of her.

[1BAD68]

Update

I know you got the timing dialed in and once you take care of the heat soak are you going back to the track soon? You may want to wait till you can grab some sticky rear tires or it will be an exercise in frustration...then again what will it hurt?

It will not happen this year.... but next spring I plan on taking mine to the local track. (saving this winter for MT ET streets and a second set of 15X8 Summit Quick 8's.

Looks like Aug. 20th will be my next chance to get it to the track.
I still have a slight issue with the timing but I think that could be solved with some better gas. Also I want to add a carb spacer but not sure between the 1/2" or the 1"?
I have the 3/8" fuel line and press. gauge but haven't installed them yet, just waiting to do the carb spacer and I'm going to run the same tires, maybe if I start to get really serious about racing I would get some sticky tires but right now its probably helping to prevent any weak links in the drivetrain from breaking.

[b5blue]

Keep in mind the spacer will add intake volume and cost you some torque. Where are you at on timing?

[472 R/T SE]

Looks like Aug. 20th will be my next chance to get it to the track.
I still have a slight issue with the timing but I think that could be solved with some better gas. Also I want to add a carb spacer but not sure between the 1/2" or the 1"?
I have the 3/8" fuel line and press. gauge but haven't installed them yet, just waiting to do the carb spacer and I'm going to run the same tires, maybe if I start to get really serious about racing I would get some sticky tires but right now its probably helping to prevent any weak links in the drivetrain from breaking.

Smart thinking there.  There's more to it than just putting different tires on.  At least @ Portland International you need a drive line loop & they want to see the threads of the wheels studs.  And with any kind of torque, frame connectors are a good idea.

There's all sorts of little tricks.  I think it's just how serious you want to get.

[greenpigs]

  Sure its not as simple as tossing on some sticky tires & I think he knows that. I was saying that if he wants to find out what it is capable of some better tires and suspension tuning is going to be needed, because its going to blow the current tires off. Frame connectors are a good idea from what I have been told and that's just for stiffening things up in general, not just for drag racing. I don't know how an half inch spacer is going to affect your combo and only testing it out will show. This isn't for performance as much for it to isolate the carb from heat(which helps with power) as a bonus.

[1BAD68]

Yeah from what I read, the carb spacer's are mainly a heat soak fix with a very slight power benefit.
Some say the open spacers are good for top end power and the 4 hole spacers are good for low end torque but I'm more concerned with velocity.
As it is, I'm probably under carbed slightly so a 4 hole spacer could increase velocity to the point that the fuel/air just slams into the bottom of the intake floor, maybe?
And I dont want to lose any low end torque by adding a open spacer even though its only a slight amount. Ugh, I dunno I think I'll just try a 1/2" 4 hole just to keep the carb cooler.

Honestly, I could see myself getting some nice street/strip tires next year, racing is sort of addicting. Everyone I met at the track was super friendly and helpful the kind of people I like to be around.

[1BAD68]

Bummer, I was planning all week to go racing tonight and now its cancelled "due to the threat of severe weather"
Also due to the flooding we had this month, all drag racing will be 1/8th mile only.
They have another test and tune next friday, is it worth going if its only 1/8 mile racing?

[lisiecki1]

1/8th mile is great for dialing in suspension and working on your reaction/60 ft. times...not quite as hard on the car either because you're shutting it down at half track.....