Well, off to the races!!

by moneypit73 Tue Aug 04, 2009 2:27 am

yeppers.time to put it where the sun dont shine.milan dragway. aug 5th, 2009. takin the old beast to the track, FINALLY! got a good tune on her, jackin the timing up an throwing some of the GOOD in the tank. Twisted Evil

last time i went she ran a 15.20 sputtering at 4000 rpm an flat as heck through third gear. now were in a little better shape.hoping for some solid 14 sec passes!!! got some ricer boys goin too, so hopin to put a spankin on some of em!! all let you guys know what happens. later

by jonny o Tue Aug 04, 2009 10:03 am

Best of luck man... Get the big beast rollin!
Where's your converter spike at? That was one of the best adjustments I made for the strip being that our heavy A$$ cars are hard to get moving.
Don't break anything you can't fix, and remember, there's always a second up for grabs without the front bumper!

by BlackChevelleSS Tue Aug 04, 2009 10:51 am

jonny what you running now? time wise.

by moneypit73 Tue Aug 04, 2009 12:45 pm

converter is pretty tight, but to the wood flat outta the hole, she hits at 2800 strong. not a lot of wheelspin on the street, so prob none at the track.

by jonny o Tue Aug 04, 2009 1:37 pm

Last time I ran was with the baby carb and tiny tires. Had to leave at 1200 cause I would spin on the line if I tried to put it on the converter. Would run out of air at 6k. That got me to 14.1

Hoping the tires and carb will get me on the way to a 13.8 if if I don't have 15 gallons of gas in it.

by 74Malibu383 Tue Aug 04, 2009 1:38 pm

I wish it wasn't 114 out here in AZ. I'd be at the races myself. I can't wait to see what it does with the ProCharger.

by jonny o Tue Aug 04, 2009 1:40 pm

Speedworld runs a lot of night races... Tell Victoria I said Hi.

by BlackChevelleSS Tue Aug 04, 2009 8:58 pm

Im having traction issues as well. I figured youd be running faster than that tho. You do bracket races then?

Last time I went to the track (about a month ago) my best pass was 12.39@ 110 but thats rolling into the throttle with drag radials (couldnt get them to hook either, but they are old)

Good luck at the races you guys.

74Malibu383
We had a completely stock 89 TPI 350 Iroc-Z with a procharger. It ran low 13s high 12s with 2.77 gears and auto trans. that was 10psi and running pig rich with 30# injectors and stock tune. My brother has the procharger now (P1SC) and is installing it on his 91 Z28 that has an AFR aluminum headed 383 with a holley stealth ram. Hes planning on running the 10# pulleys as well but he has 3.73 gears and no traction. I cant wait to see that thing at the track.

by 74Malibu383 Wed Aug 05, 2009 11:45 am

Last time I went out, over a year ago, I ran a 12.35 @117 on the bottle. I was spraying 150 shot, but retarded it quite a bit due to the lack of time I had to get it tuned in. I'm guessing the D1SC ProCharger added 200-250HP to my 383, so I'm hoping for mid 11's without hitting the button.

I had my car on the dyno a couple months ago and came back with 515HP and 500TQ at the rear wheels. The guy said I could turn the BTM back down to 0 degrees with race fuel and pick up another 25HP. Just waiting for it to cool down a bit and I'll be back out there.

FYI - I had traction problems too till I lowered the car and got those rear trailing arms parallel to the ground. Now it hooks like crazy! We all know HP doesn't mean JACK if you can't put it to the ground.

by jonny o Wed Aug 05, 2009 2:37 pm

Well... Mine is a .40 over 350 man.
I'm squeaking about all I can out of the thing with the stock bottom end. Once I get the thing to breath above 6k (where the cam and heads want to go) I should break something down below and have the opportunity to build a screamer.

by moneypit73 Thu Aug 06, 2009 12:18 am

wow. what a crappy day at the track. car ran horrible, caught on fire, an died on the way home. carb is SCREWED UP. i dunno. weird. ran great last nite! just ran flat in sec an third. poppin out the exhaust. felt like it was missing in the upper rpms. fuel pressure was stable. played with the timing. got great vac per inch. 18.5 at three grand. left real nice, barked in sec, an bblllaaaa. im bummed, big time.went the wong way somewhere. back to the lab, i guess. but,a bad day at the track, is better than most, so ill take it an try some more!!

by The Dude Thu Aug 06, 2009 12:49 am

That sucks man. I hope your next venture out is better. How bad was the fire?

All seriousness aside, it sounds like you are running a Holley, LOL. Shoulda had a Carter or E'brock.
Holley = constantly sticking floats, blowing out power valves, always adjusting jets, etc. etc. Too failure prone for me.

by jonny o Thu Aug 06, 2009 12:54 am

If I remember correctly, most of what you have been messing with is fuel, right?

Got a piece of teflon in the filter, clogging things up? Runs great on what's in the bowls, but once that's gone it's done...

Double check your timing.

SOmething as simple as a loose spark plug wire can cause that... Once the g's pull the wires back you lose a cylinder?

Best of luck man. If it caught on finr and you still drove it home... that's a great thing.

by BlackChevelleSS Thu Aug 06, 2009 10:52 am

Im with jonny, something is killing fuel or fuel pressure at the top end. Ive been having the same problem. my stock 3/8ths line isnt big enough and at the top of second i fell the motor lay over and fuel pressure starts dropping. I removed all my filters except the screen wire inside the pump and it helped me get down the track but I can still feel it lay over when fuel pressure drops.

Holley are used for those who want to go fast Rago....

by The Dude Thu Aug 06, 2009 1:26 pm

BlackChevelleSS wrote:Holley are used for those who want to go fast Rago....

Fuel injection is for people that want to go faster...... lol!

Edelbrock has always been good to me as my carburetor of choice, but I'd love to find an old Carter just for coolness. I'll take losing a tenth in the quarter if it saves me on gas mileage & reliability. Even though in my seat of the pants opinion, E'brock has better performance than a 4160. Guess its more of a preference thing, but if I went with a Holley carb I might try an Avenger.

by moneypit73 Thu Aug 06, 2009 2:38 pm

its a q-jet. it wierd.fuel pressure is stable.even dropped it downto 6.5, was 7.5. set timing according to vac to inches. got 18.5 inches of vac at 3000 rpm. felt good about that decision. when we reved it to open the 4 barrels, gas was splashing out!! left GREAT out of the gate. fell FLAT in sec an never recovered through out the entire pass. all four passes were ironically within 2 tenths of each other. it was deadly consistantly SLOW. 16.80s every pass, did the same thing. its like the carb dont force the fuel. under a long pull. short shifts, like 3800-4000 feels ok. but when you stretch it to 5000 in first,barks hard in sec and BLA, lays down hard. ?????????????????????????

by 74Malibu383 Thu Aug 06, 2009 3:57 pm

Do you have an external fuel pressure gauge where you can see it? Just because it's at 6.5-7.5 in the pits doesn't mean it's still there in the top end. Might not be a bad idea to set one up for testing purposes. I wouldn't worry about the 3/8" factory hard line though, it worked fine for me before the ProCharger. I also had a Holley Blue fuel pump w/regulator. Maybe your stock (?) pump can't keep up?

I don't have much experience with Quadra Jets, but I am a fan of Holley's.
I've had a couple of Edelbrocks throughout the years, and they are inconsistent. Put the car on the gas bench to get it through emissions and it jumped all over the place. It was terrible. The day I switched to a Street Avenger was the day I stopped having problems. The HC's and CO's stopped jumping around and I was able to tune it in 1/4 of the time. I also never blew out a power valve, with the new design. The Avengers are pretty sweet.

And Rago - If you're looking for fuel mileage, buy a Prius. Last time I checked, people weren't putting 4.10+ gears in their muscle cars for mileage.

by The Dude Thu Aug 06, 2009 8:05 pm

Ouch... Harsh words. I mentioned gas mileage because my 76 is my daily driver. I have other cars if I want a race car & ignoring fuel mileage with today's prices is crazy. I've owned my fair share of 4 cylinder cars & nothing compares to the comfort experienced with driving a 4,000 lb classic. Why should I suffer driving something that doesn't put a smile on my face every morning when I fire her up for work?

In my experience, Edelbrocks are better than the two Holley carburetors I tried. One of them blew power valves on a regular basis & the other I was constantly tap tap tapping the fuel bowl. I switched over to Edelbrock because of that. I haven't had any experience with the Avenger carbs. If they truly got the power valve problem worked out, I might try them out.

by moneypit73 Thu Aug 06, 2009 11:12 pm

its got a holley blue on it. pressurewas an is soild. checked today. drove around with a gage taped to window. 6.5 strong. still very flaky when i lean on it. only shifting at 5000, so not big R,s at all. weird. back to the lab.

by BlackChevelleSS Fri Aug 07, 2009 12:35 am

Have you had the carb apart? Might make sure its good and clean and not sucking up something in the jets when the fuel starts moving good.

I wont lie, When Ive ran edeljunk carburetors you could walk out side not even hit the throttle and bump the key and boom fires off and you can walk away. My holleys Ive always had to pump the throttle once on warm days and twice on cold and then hold the throttle while it warms up for a minute. Then she will finally idle. But ive never been able to get one to perform like my Holleys. We had an edelbrock 750dp on that green 73 with the cammed 454 and it ran good but my 70 396 would blow its doors off all day. We through on a 800dp holley and that damn stock 454 impressed the SH!T out of me. It was all I had in that 396 to get it to walk away from it.

by moneypit73 Fri Aug 07, 2009 12:56 am

nope, havent taken it off the car.possible tomarrow. gonna check the dumb things, like fuel leaks, clogged filters stuff like that. not a lotta time today.

by 74Malibu383 Fri Aug 07, 2009 11:50 am

I hear you Rago, but in all seriousness, we all know that if you were truly worried about fuel mileage, you wouldn't be driving the 76 every day. As far as I'm concerned, good fuel mileage is just a bonus with these cars.

Besides, you can't tell me you don't romp on it when you get the chance. Sure kills the mileage, but it's worth it.

by moneypit73 Mon Aug 10, 2009 12:00 am

welp, got er fingered out!! fuel filter was a little plugged, an some old gas was and or were the issue. added some of the good with a splash of the better, drove it sat for a while,then went to the " testing " grounds an hammered it. back in black!!!! running like it was before, so im happy again,without breaking to the bank!! hittin the track again in sept, soooo hopeful on the 14s again!!

by jonny o Mon Aug 10, 2009 2:03 pm

Who called that Sh it?

Glad to hear you found it man... let us know how it goes!

by moneypit73 Mon Aug 10, 2009 9:08 pm

good call johnnie-o good call. rove it today for a min in this HEAT. man alive freekin hot an sticky. still a champ, so seems like its good to go.

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