Speedway makes control arms that fit this frame. Uppers are only $25 each without ball joints. Lowers are $250/pair with ball joints.

I may do the switch at some point. He's also offering to upgrade my big bore single piston calipers to a Wilwood 4 piston set for the front, so he's at least trying to work with me a little.

 

Joe, What's you email address ?

 

joefields1987@gmail.com

 

Email sent!!

 

I'd definatley scoop up the Wilwopd calipers!

 

That's some scary **** right there! Can't quite tell, is it a material or weld failure? Is checkered sending a revised part (spec'd tubing, gusseted, etc.)?

Crazy to think you need to check steering and suspension before every drive. With revised brakes, the stresses are probably going to double or triple! Be careful.

BTW - sweet ride. I did a 70 Nova back in 78. My boys recently pulled out pics of it and a 71 Cutlass I did back in 80. There gettin the urge to want to build a car!

 

I must admit sir; you have a lot of guts. No way I'd make another pass as long as it had parts installed from that supplier. If you're considering suing a company, that should tell you right there it's time to yank it all off. Your life is more important. Not to mention the life of your loved ones that might be cruising with you. Be safe man.

 

Heading to the track tonight. Hopefully it'll tech in. I'll only get 1 pass, going to make it count.

FYI, if you're doing your own alignment, get one of those bubble caster/camber gauges, made a world of difference. My alignment is done on heim joints, so it took a few hours. Alignment shop around here charges $250+ and its 3 days before you get it back. In my garage I ended up with -0.5 camber on both sides, 8.5 deg positive caster, 1/8" toe-in.

Going to try and make some test hits but I'm worried about no subframe connectors and a hard launch. On the footbrake with single piston calipers all around, it will ride the 2 step at 3500 with 8-10 PSI. I'm going to lower it to 2600 and ~2 PSI and start from there. If I can cut a 1.6 60' and a 4.1x 330', I should slide right into 9s. A 5.99 1/8th is the ultimate goal for the car, on pump gas driving home from the track. I don't see that as a lofty goal by any means considering it was first setup to run 5.60s for X235 before I decided driving it everyday was more fun.

 

Good luck buddy! It's gonna fly.

 

Couple hundred cars showed up. Waited in staging for 2 hours. Got one pass.

Couldn't get it to hook. Spun all of the way through the top of 2nd before I even made it to the 60 foot on ET Pros. Swerved in other lane and let out. Now I'm determined to go back and get booted for single digits without a cage lol. I'll have to lower first gear shift RPM from 6200 to 5000 because the track can't take anything over 14 lbs in first.

 

Sounds like it was a bit of a mess! With that much power, you're gonna need to be really close with the suspension to make it work. I wouldn't short shift it, just turn the boost down. Short shifting affects too many other things. Also, your 5.99 in the 1/8 will be WELL into the 9s. Like 9.20s or so. That's fast. Good luck and keep us posted.

 

My wastegate spring is 14 PSI, so turning it down isn't something I want to go through the effort of doing. I'll make whatever changes I need to the car to make it work the way it sits.

I can soften the rear shocks and play with tire pressure, as well as 2-step RPM. I should be able to dial it in a little better.

 

I agree with 3 Window. If you're at the top of second by the 60' that's not spinning, that's blowing the tires off the car and launch boost/chassis setup was way off. If your worried about getting booted for a full pass, you have to get a baseline to the 1/8th or at least 330 before you lay it all out. What tire pressure where you at with the Pro's?

Few other things. I found out the hard way that a cheap alignment was just that, cheap. I went through it and regular alignment shops essentially lied about what they ended up at and this explained why I never felt an improvement in steering feel. I finally ponied up the dough at a race shop and the difference was night and day on how the car felt and steered.

Finally, why no subframe connectors? I thought that was the first mod for any unibody chassis.

 

Loose extension on both front and rear. Tight compression on the rear with radials. You need to keep the tire stuck. Make sure none of the shocks top out on the launch and upset the chassis. Once it's hooked, you can start tightening down the extension rate. This is where I'd start.

 

Don't forget sometimes it's better to hit the tire harder rather than really soft I tried to foot brake my green turbo Malibu and only managed a 1.78 60' spinning at the top of first. Next pass used the 2 step and transbrake at 6psi and dead hooked 1.52 60'

 

I used the 2 step. It bogged off the line and dropped out of boost, but then when boost hit, it hit like a train and spun through 2nd. The logs show that it might have actually tried to launch in 3rd so I have a little work to do.

My tire pressure was 28 PSI on the ET Pros (drove it) and I have single adjustable shocks in the rear. They were on a higher setting because the drive home was super bouncy on the highway. I was expecting more than one pass so I was starting easy and working my way down but I only got the one pass.

Next time, I'll play with the 2 step, drop tire pressure to ~18 PSI, and lower the shock setting for a little more weight transfer. If it still spins, I'll start lowering 1st gear shift point until I figure it out.

 

Exactly! The tires need a hard hit and they need to stay hooked. Sometimes that means MORE power rather than less. Don't get hung up on weight transfer, it's more of planting the tire and keeping it there. Single adjustables usually adjust how easy the shock extends and the compression does the opposite. Sounds like you have a game plan for the next time out. Loose extension, 18-19 psi tire pressure and hit the tire hard. You'll get it.

 

Agree'd , first pass was a 1.52 leaving on 6.5psi. Second pass left on 7.5 and the front end came up way too quick and cause the rear to unload but still managed a 1.50'. I know that would of been a 1.46-1.47 maybe quicker. Going to tighten up the travel limiters and stiffen up the front. I was at 90/10 first pass and 80/20 the second but obviously it needs to rise much slower.

 

Lots of new updates.

I've gotten boost by gear working on the stock PCM for $100. I've also managed to get boost by time working but it's not on a ramp, more or less different stages activated by a timed relay.

I've had the car back on the dyno as well. Couldn't get traction. Made 713 ft-lbs lbs at 4500 RPM and it started spinning to the limiter. This was on 18 lbs. If we can get it sorted out I'll turn it up to 26 (my Deka 80s are topped out above 26) and see what it will do. I'm hoping for 850/850 through an 80e.

On the way home from the dyno, it would spin from an 80-100 roll on the highway, so I decided my street tires were done, and gave them a warriors funeral.

 

Also, my Apex billet S474 is done. It's leaking oil out of both the compressor and turbine and shaft play is excessive. Getting ahold of them for a rebuild or a replacement seems to be a dead end, so I'm wanting to replace the borg on a budget. Would really like to keep a billet wheel.