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Good work, you’re putting your swap efforts to good use.
Thank you. I can't express how happy I am with it. It's so much fun to drive. I really appreciate your help and time with the Holley black heart headers and the rear cross member. And for just logging in to talk to the consumers and forum members. They are quality pieces. They fit like a glove. I recommend them to everyone doing a swap or thinking about doing one. I couldn't go anywhere with my old swap headers without dragging them over something!!! I called them "self-adjusting" headers. Those days are over thanks to you.
Upgrade to newer version of the SPC lower control arm Big difference It uses bolt in spring seats and shims to change ride height with conventional spring. Or one shim for spreading it the load of a coil over. The original arm has the same feature but there shims drop into a cup. The newer arms also have two holes to mount the sway bar. Older arm with a sex bolt to attach the bump stop Fastener won't go through the new arms. I'm having some trouble finding some to buy online. I could modify these but I still need two for the other arms. Bump stop with hardware
My uncle recently had his 68 GTO resto-modded, he bought the car new when he got out of school. It was street driven and then (my cousin) drag raced (it) for many years but stored it outside so it was getting pretty rough.
He went with a crate 383 chevy rather than a Pontiac motor so it could 'keep up with the new stuff' - supposedly 500+hp but IDK
My friend (that did the restoration for my uncle) has the same style goat (unsure the exact year) that he built to bracket race and daily drive unless there is salt on the roads. He went with a Pontiac 421, unported iron heads, ati blow thru s/c & carb, th350, 9". Target ET was 11.50 or slower (no cage required), ended up needing to short shift/throttle stop it to keep it below 11.50. I watched him accidentally run an 11.20 @ 12x mph with 3.00s in the rear on 28" tall rubber.
Thanks those sound like awesome cars. Do you have any pictures?. My car is a jack of all trades and master of none. The setup would need to change to get a better 1/4 Mike time. The best I've ran was 13.02 on 110* day on Street tires. It has a 12 in it. Maybe with the sticky tires I have now it could do it. Or a drag radial. 60ft time is the most difficult part trying to keep it from spinning. The nearest track was under water most of last year. And the next two tracks are both 2hrs away. But I'd still like to go again.
I definitely need to update this and since it's quarantine time everywhere why not. I'm still working because I'm "essential."
I got the upgraded arms installed. I had quite a journey on the last project. I ripped one of the frame bolts for he factory sway bar out. So I started looking for something stronger and with double the rate of my old bar. I bought a ABC Performance "prototype" splined sway bar. What I mean by that was it was still in development stages because it wasn't mass produced yet. This caused some trouble because the bar, arms, hardware were still in development. They had trouble finding spined arms that would one work and two strong enough and three allow you to bend them into required shape. Also changed bushing material from derlin to a bronze oilite bushing. Which was a good decision because of less deflection and it's self lubercating, and harder. all of these things changed prices so did not know pricing until it was ready. I waited for this bar to be shipped for almost 10months. When it did come and I started mocking things up I noticed it had no end links. Everyone uses different control arms so no way to know for sure it would work. But what he sent did work. Basically two heim joints on a turn buckle that I installed into my lower control arm bracket for my old heavy duty end links.
When I got to the install I tacked the brackets and tube to the frame and installed the bushings, bar and arms and noticed they hit the frame as they traveled up and down. I broke the tacks off and with it still assembled I moved it over so when the bar rotated it didn't hit the frame on either side and I still had room to put a socket on the pitman arm nut. Tacked it again. Removed everything and fully welded it in. Which distorts the tube. So luckily he included a flapper wheel to smooth out the tube and then install the bronze bushing with a little interference fit which distorts the bronze so flapper wheel again until the splined bar slides through. I painted the tube and bracket and arms. then installed the bushings, splined bar, locks to keep the bar centered and the arms and links. The arms have 5 holes for adjustable and I set it on the stiffest setting. The lighter holes for tuning and road course we're some more roll on longer corners is better. It really changed the car. And I hope will make it faster but I wasn't able to compete in any events with it last year and so far all the events are getting canceled this year. But on a small round about. The tail doesn't hang out with throttle use and I can easily maintain 1G around the round about.
Thanks those sound like awesome cars. Do you have any pictures?. My car is a jack of all trades and master of none. The setup would need to change to get a better 1/4 Mike time. The best I've ran was 13.02 on 110* day on Street tires. It has a 12 in it. Maybe with the sticky tires I have now it could do it. Or a drag radial. 60ft time is the most difficult part trying to keep it from spinning. The nearest track was under water most of last year. And the next two tracks are both 2hrs away. But I'd still like to go again.
I use these inexpensive tires for the dragstrip: http://www.americanracertires.com/st...68&view=detail
They're bias ply & DOT legal - I have had to argue with tech over them since they're not radials. the senior inspector called them a 'sportsman' tire and allowed it. 30+ years ago these tires were everywhere under the name McCreary.
I run them tubeless on (the rear of) my '95 buick roadmaster, to and from the strip.
I would trust them down to about 1.60 60' times
didn't notice what tire you have now (haven't read entire thread yet)
edit: looked at some of your dragstrip vids.
Are you getting a lot of spin on launch? I'm not hearing any squeal in the videos but some tires don't make much noise.
Last edited by dirtybob; 03-29-2020 at 12:40 PM.
Reason: question
Those look alot like Hoosier dirt track modified tires. They are very sticky on pavement.
i ran the drags with nitro nt05 tires. I'm the videos I didn't launch with any throttle because off idle starts caused lots of wheel spin. The nittos are a very hard compound and are hard to heat up enough to get sticky. Maybe with a much longer burnout they might of hooked better.
I have Bridgestone RE-71R which is a very sticky autocross and track use tire
Those look alot like Hoosier dirt track modified tires
yes, they are a lot like them.
The compound is the key (stay away from the 'spec' tires). Before drag radials were available, lots of 10-12 sec street driven cars used McCreary.
I've never seen anyone have much luck with autocross type tires at the dragstrip, and the 'spec racer' dirt tires are just as bad. Best to look for a treadwear rating of zero for dragstrip use.
FWIW a little spin at launch is ok (sometimes easier said than done). A couple of squeaks from the tires won't hurt (and may help) ETs. I could 1 wheel peel my fwd regal to 2.15 60' on all season radials - after a buttload of practice.
Also looked like you drove into the staging lights deeper than needed to light the second bulb in at least one of those vids. That can vary 60' and ET because you're taking a shorter run at the starting line.
There are larger events I'd like to do someday that require the cars to do multiple events on the same tires. Drag racing, road course, autocross, speed stop. Your not able to change to a drag radial before the drag race. I don't do enough drag racing to require the use of drag tires. Also those videos were the first 1/4 Mile passes the car and I have ever done. I ran 1/8th mile about 4 times with 15" tires without the cam.
Finally got to autocross with my new front sway bar. It's completely changed the car so I used this session to re learn tire pressure settings and experiment with rear shock settings. In the past I added camber shims in to get to -2* camber for autocross. I opted to not do that this round with the stiffer front sway bar in theory the cars not rolling over as far and shouldn't need additional camber. The car is much more responsive and capable. I was holding onto 3rd place and on the last lap I was beat by 0.2 seconds. Still tricky getting power down mid corner. As long as I was smooth it worked ok but being aggressive made the tires spin.
I'm going to do a review on ring brothers hood hinges I bought some very reasonable with memorial day sale discount and looking forward to putting them on and making it easier to close and stay even with the fenders.
Winter is coming... A big project is getting closer. I want to gusset the frame this winter. Very certain I'm going to use Hellwig fx kit. I already purchased a new body mount frame washer repair kit. Will definitely need that. I'm also going to fix some floor pan problem areas.
I can't decide on a few things. I want to convert to front ridetech shocks but A body shocks with the stud top mount are not ideal. Adding a double sheer upper mount would help strengthen the upper mount location of the frame and reduce side loading of the shock. I am leaning towards the speedtech chicane kit. ABC performance makes one and umi makes one that ties into the upper control arm mount. Global west does also. Umi and global west require longer shocks which cost about the same as shorter shocks.
Speaking of Im frustrated with the same suspension gimck. "Long travel" advertising bs. Same in off-road machines. Long travel just means a longer bodied shock. The A body has very short shock travel. Even shorter when lowered. Mounting a longer shock body or longer shaft travel it that
still only moves the shock shaft the same distance. Not truly more or longer travel. The wheel movement is the same unless the suspension geometry is changed travel is the same. In off-road they claim the extra fluid help keep the shocks from fading with added extra cooling. Unless someone wanted to go through the trouble and expense of doing something like ridetech instinct electric self tuning shocks which are physically longer to occupy the electronics. I can't bring myself to even price those shocks. Normal coil over shocks are high enough. Which is why I may not do them this winter with the other under taking but having body of the frame would make it very easy.
The front suspension works very well in my car. But comparing to other A bodies my springs are softer and my front shocks are non adjustable. Possibly leaving more performance on the table but on the other hand creating more frustration trial and error tuning the shocks for autocross conditions and street use.
I'm going to install solid body mounts. Speedtech sells anodized mounts and ABC sells three versions natural aluminum, black anodized and hard coat anodized basically a military grade coat immune to galvanized corrosion that forms from disimilar metals.
Photo dump and big winter upgrade. Been planning on this for some time now. Just when I thought I had all the parts. I'm ordering something I need every day. I'm going to install solid body mounts and Hellwig frame fx gusset kit. The frame body mounts have some issues but luckily I already bought a frame washer kit. The body is also going to get a new trunk floor and there's a body mount brace I need to patch. And while it's apart you might as well.... New fuel tank. This one is a chamfered tanks inc baffled tank. Slightly smaller than my Impala tank but I can have a flat trunk floor (new truck floor) and more room behind the rear axle (hint at possible future mods) I was originally doing that so the tank didn't rub the axle anymore and have room for tail pipes again. But I might change the whole thing and put a 3 link and pan hard bar in instead of tailpipes. Because racecar. I've spent the last few weeks borrowing a welder, buying a Amazon plasma cutter, and borrowing a sand blaster and went through 2 bags already. Still not done. But it should speed up the welding and plasma cutting.
New tank needs new fuel lines still need to order that stuff. I bought all new brake lines but that will take some time. I'm bending them myself. The front lines will be identical to factory but the gusset frame will need different route. And the rear axle lines I never cared for. And i want to move the rear brake proportioning valve up to the master cylinder area.
I also have chicane mounts I need to cut install and convert my front coil overs from stud mount to eye mount.
The two rt660 tires I bought of marketplace might of been jumping ahead a little bit.
I changed it my BTR valve springs with new ones for maintenance and changed to tool steel retainers. I installed a trap door sump tray from improved racing and a new fbody windage tray. Because I never had one before.
05-19-2019, 07:09 AM
