Been toying around with the idea of attempting to push my car into the 10s to satisfy a personal goal of mine of running 10s with a stock bottom end, stock ported heads, stock intake manifold, stock computer, stock rear, non-gutted LT1. The kinda deal where I pop the hood and it looks pretty factory but the thing runs it’s *** of and confuses people.

It’s been years since I ran the car so I took it to the track recently and ran best of 11.65 at 116 mph with a 1.58 60’ (+1000 DA). That’s with most bolt-ons (factory ram air, 58mm tb, long tubes, x-pipe), LE2 heads (undesirable 561 castings), 224/230 cam, PT4000 converter, 3.73s, some suspension stuff, and factory WS6 wheels on 275/40R17 Nitto NT05Rs. My personal best of all time is an 11.47 at 119 (I forget DA but want to say +500ish). I forget my race weight off hand but car is lighter than usual being that it has crank windows, manual locks, cloth, no cruise or TCS, etc.

I’ve got my work cut out for me but here’s what I’m thinking I could do without going too wild:

1. Swap 561 LE2s for 374 or 643 casting LE2s (8-10hp gain per Lloyd)
2. Swap 224/230 .570s lift 107 lsa cam for something in the low 230s intake duration range (10-15hp gain)
3. Add an EWP
4. Swap stock wheels for lightweight drag wheels and tires
5. Remove some weight (front bumper support, ABS, back seat, rear seat belts, t-top holders, install lightweight k-member, etc. – figure 100 pound reduction)
6. Run the car in the fall at Cecil or Atco in negative DA

Here’s additional things I’ve been toying with but am not sold on doing yet:

1. Swap 1-3/4” long tubes for 1-7/8”
2. Swap 58mm tb out for a monoblade
3. Swap my 3.73 gears out for 4.10s

I think the plan is to start by taking the car pretty much as-is to Cecil this November to see what it will do in negative DA (shooting for -1000 to -2000) to see how much of a difference an alleged fast track and the DA makes. I’ll probably pull a few pounds out of the car ahead of time by removing the front bumper support, back seats, etc. so I’m really hoping to be in the 11.30s before spending any money. If I can do that, I think the changes I’m pondering could potentially be enough to eclipse a 10.99 pass in ideal conditions.

What do you think - waste of time and money or is this something achievable? Have any suggestions or ideas?

Update 11/30/19: New PB of 11.37 at 120 w/ 1.65 60' spinning. Fought traction issues the whole day.

 

Before considering a gear swap you need to figure out where your shift points will be with whatever cam you are running. The last thing you want is to be going down the track past your power peak.

 

I would say going from 3.73's to 4.10's with already having a 4000 stall you will see zero gains there.

How high do you spin the car?

I think just a converter restall to a 4400 and a little bigger cam will get you just about there in good air.

 

I believe my shift points are set to 6,400. As of right now, I'm only crossing the 1/4 mile at around 5,700 in 3rd while my motor peaks at 6,200. I've done the math and 4.10s should work well both with my cam now and the cam I'm envisioning. I don't mind spinning the stock shortblock to high 6000s, motor has 24k miles and I've taken meticulous care of it so I'm willing to risk it and I'm ok with the potential repurcussions. What's holding me back from swapping gears is 1. more money being put into my 10 bolt and 2. smaller pinion so I'd like to see where I get with my 3.73s before I touch the rear but it's an opportunity area I feel.

 

I think you will be hard pressed for 10s NA on a streetable setup with close to stock curb weight.

 

I weighed the car at the track so I'll have to check the numbers when I get home. Weight reduction so far includes removal of front sway bar, air conditioning, spare tire & jack, and emissions junk. Dumped x-pipe dropped a fair amount of weight as well. I def need to lighten the car further if I have a chance in hell I just don't want to ruin it.

 

What's up buddy. Enjoyed reading your plan. Sounds like an awesome car already. I believe your plan is awesome. And you can achieve your goal. Sometimes it works out pretty easy & sometimes it's a bitch to get where you want as I'm sure you know. I have faith in you brother.

 

Can't wait brotha!! I hope you hit your goal!! I wanna hit 9's, it's always been my goal to make my heap run a single digits. I have some plans in mind and I'll end up a solid roller 357 on some spray. I have a lot of work to do! So yeah man, I'm pulling for ya!

 

Oh to have negative DA... I think it will be there if not very close.

 

Leave the heads, I’m sure they flow fine if Lloyd ported them to LE 2 specs. I’d go with the bigger cam, port your intake, do the weight reduction and EWP, drag tire set up and suspension work...and dial it in. That should get you there. Leave exhaust and TB

 

MIR and Cecil are two of the best tracks in the nation, IMO.

 

Lets not forget Atco

 

Great track, but I ******* hate Jersey so it's out by default!

 

Just checked my record and the car weighed 3310# with a half tank of gas last time at the track so ~3475# raceweight. I can probably shave another 100 pounds off that which should help but it won't be a super light car. I figure I can also yank the belt and the air filter for a couple passes and see if that gains me anything also.

And yeah Jersey sucks, I cringe everytime my wife wants to go to the shore. Haven't been to Atco in years cause the drivers and jug handles everywhere lol. Looking forward to trying out Cecil.

 

Update: Finally got back to the track. Drove way down to Cecil and got 10 passes in today. Bad news is that I battled traction issues the entire day. I either spun right off the hit or I spun through the 60 foot marker on every single pass. No matter what tire pressure and front shock settings I tried, I couldn't get the car to dead hook. My 60 foots ranged from 1.65 - 2.59 when I usually cut mid 1.5s. The good news is that I've gotten closer to my goal. I spun my way to a new PB of 11.37 at 120 w/ 1.65 60'. DA was ~ -870. I'm pretty happy since I figure that's a solid 11.2x pass if I had dead hooked. Best mph of the day was 120.4 which I did three times, I'm happy with that for an automatic car. So far I haven't spent any money or done anything to the setup of the car, all I've done since last time out is removal of the front bumper support, rear seat, and swapped the radio out for a factory radio delete plate. Weather really does make all the difference.

 

Clean car and very impressive.

 

Those last .3-4 tenths are going to be tough. If I were in your shoes, I would get a bigger cam with tune, light weight wheels, drag brakes, and a custom converter matched to your setup for all out 60ft and quarter mile. This should get you 122-123mph in the quarter and 10.9's in similar DA. You will need a 1.4x 60ft to get into the 10's with a 122mph so you will need to dial in the suspension (which is tough when you have -DA as traction is not easy when the DA is so good). I do not think the 4.11's would help with a 3.06 first gear of the 4l60e unless you go to a 28" tall tire.

 

Knock some more weight out of it, Stealthy! What were you on for tires? Looks like stock wheels and maybe a drag radial? I kinda feel like getting the car to cut consistent 60' times right now is the key. Do you think it was the track or the car that made it so inconsistent? I’d love to see what it will do with more gear like you intend to do but with the 60’ being all over the place I’m almost afraid that more will make it worse.
Damn man, get some more weight out, (big n Littles with a 28 on the back) make it 60, give it some more gear and I think you’ll be within the skin on your teeth of it!

 

Congrats that's a great running Lt1, im hopping to run simular time's with my build with a bit more cam, stock TB & maybe not as good heads so I'll see...but Imo I would get a set of drag wheels run a good 28/26" DR or slick I prefer 28's, you will loose 60-100lbs depending on wheels gain a better 60' & top end do a little more weight reduction & do a tad more tunning possibly raise the shift points/rev limit see what happens & go from there, im pretty sure you will be in the 10's or so close you could almost touch it!!!

 

Thanks for the input so far, I appreciate it. A change of cam is #1 on my list of priorities. I just dug up my cam card yesterday and my cam has a 38 degre IVC and a 43 degree EVO which are definitely not in line with what I'm trying to achieve. I'm currently trying to figure out the ideal valve events to essentially get a boost of power from 5,000+, have the power peak around 6,400, have it hang on well after peak and keep overlap about the same as to not hinder drivability since this is primarily a street cruiser. I need to do some DCR calcs to really determine an appropriate IVC but preliminarily speaking I'm thinking a 230/238 on a 111+2. That's a 44 IVC, 6 IVO, 52 EVO, 6 EVC. I just realized those valve events are pretty similar to that of the cc306 just with less EVO. Nothing set it stone yet so open to thoughts.



Tire wise I run 275/40R17 Nitto NT05Rs on the my stock WS6 wheels. The car is incredibly consistent so this past outing is outside the norm for me. My usual go to tire psi and front shock rebound setting didn't work at all. I had to stiffen the front shock rebound a couple clicks and drop the tire pressure a lot just so I wouldn't fishtail through the 60 foot marker. They kept re-prepping the launch area over and over. Being my first time there I'm not sure what their prep is usually like so I'm not too sure what to blame. I definitely think more sidewall would be beneficial so drag wheels are on the list.