How to improve my qtr. mile e.t. for free?

3500.........really?
4500.........really?

 

cheat. find somebody else's time slip that's where you want to be and tell everybody it's your car........it works for golfers.........

 

not true at all a 1.9 in a fairly light vehicle is fully acheivable on street tires, i think every vehicle i have ever ran down the track has been right in that zone on street treaded tires, my 31 has 60' 1.71 on treaded dot tires, i realize its probably set up a little different, but street tires are fully capable of 1.9s
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For the benefit of those who responded to this thread a while back, and anyone else who may be interested, I thought I'd give a follow-up report.
I sifted through the good advice given here and, took some of it, spent $65 for parts, and took my car to Maple Grove last night. Best of 3 p***es was 14.25/ 97 mph.Slow by most standards but an improvement of .6 seconds and 5 mph from my first time out.
Changes made:
Bigger air filter with K&N element
New spark plugs, gapped at .040
Bumped up initial timing to 12
shifted at higher engine speed
reduced weight by 100 lbs.
I still have some room for timing advance and my biggest opportunity for improvement is to practice and work on my poor reaction time and driving skills. It's a fun process!
It would be interesting to hear the experiences of others who are new to drag racing.

 

It's great to hear you had fun. Congrats.

Just for another 2 cents from me- I think setting your timing by the total timing when the engine has revved above 2,000 or 2,500 or so is much more important than what the initial timing is. That is where your engine will be doing nearly all of it's work. Keep track of where the total timing is set when you have your best runs.

For instance- Just for argument sake, let's say your engine runs best with 36 degrees total advance. Then sometime later you may use a different curve kit, or use a different distributor with a different advance rate. With one distributor you may have to start with an initial timing of 9 degrees to get your ideal 36 degrees total at the revs you use. With a different curve kit, you may need to start with 11 degrees initial timing to get your 36 total degrees at the revs you use.
My point is to use your "best performing" total advance as your guideline to set your timing, not the "initial advance". The "initial advance" changes to something completely different the moment you hit the pedal, so it doesn't really matter nearly as much.
TOTAL advance when the car is underway is what really matters.

If you have to set one distributor at 9 deg to get your total 36, or whether you have to set a different dist at 11 deg to get your 36 total advance, it doesn't matter as much as getting your 36 degrees (or 37 or 34, whatever is best) timing where it counts- at actual operating revs, not idling revs.

Use TOTAL advance as your reference point and let initial advance fall where it may.
If you want to, you can always adjust your advance curve for the less important parts later on, but use the best-performing TOTAL advance as the reference point.

 

Improve your 1/4 mile ET for free ??? You can do what alot of other guys do ... lie !!!

And trust me ... When (not if) you get into the 13's you will be giddy !!!

 

I forgot to mention that I put in another HEI distributor, obtained from a friend and probably with a different curve from the one I had. Today I will see what my total advance is and play with that. Also, I got off the line a little better by torqueing it up just a bit, maybe 1000-1200 rpms.

 

MUCH bette! I'm guessing 60' in the 2.15-2.20 range?

A little more seat time and you can whittle the last 2 tenths away just by driving changes.

 

when tech'ed what cl*** are you/should you be in?

how are the brakes set?

backing off the adjusters some will eliminate some drag ...
makes stopping a thought process... think man! before rear ending someone in the staging lanes

how much fuel is in the tank
liquids weigh ???? cl*** , cl*** ?
---- a -----the world around

taller front tires at high pressure ..... help weight transfer and eliminate rolling resistance
looser front shocks also help ..weight transfer

weight loss plan ?

hubcaps .. off
trim rings .. off
floor mats out
head lights.. removed
battery in rear ? USE A SMALLER LIGHTER UNIT
back seat ... out
spare, jack, tools .... out
radio / speakers out
any thing easily removed .. sun visors, p*** window handle etc
use heater shut off and remove excess fluids

lighter aluminum wheels /drag tires for the strip?

aerdynamics ?
cover grill area
remove visor?
tape all seams - around windows and gaps, trunk lid etc.

cool fuel will help.... so keep spare fuel in shade and cooled with ice in a cooler

large dia. fuel line/filter makes sure you are not starving at top end

cooling down intake between rounds with ice packs !!! remove before staging

the above things EZ. mostly free.. BEFORE ANY ENGINE TUNING

a few years ago a magazine? did a story of repeated runs with a big 4 door caddy starting with a carload of people...stripping weight and appling basic ez well known tricks until it was a basic shell with a seat
amazing the et's from start to finish. 25?down to 12?


???? 1/8 or 1/4 means a different plan!!!!

 

^ In the end they had a frame and a seat, If you crack a 14.25 you should be proud, a 13 second car that can run on the street is respectable, this means you are faster than most of the guys who "claim" to run 11's.

 

Last time This time

R/T .161 .367
60' 2.407 2.344
330 6.306 6.151
1/8 9.53 9.23
MPH 75.2 79.63
1000 12.386 11.938
1/4 14.822 14.253
MPH 92.63 97.26

 

Every car has a second in it from the first p***. You ave the right idea. It will also take you time to get back at it. Looking at the 60 footers is the best advice so far.
Don

 

I bet a 373 or 389 posi and some track time would have you in the mid 13's or better.

 

You also mentioned your reaction time was a little off.....

Don't wait for the green light, when that last yellow light just comes on you better get into it. Remember is takes a person approximately .6 second to react from seeing the light to the actual reaction of depressing the gas peddal, etc....

 

This may sound stupid but a good carb. spacer can get you an extra 1-2 MPH.

 

look at it this way... you HAVE a 13 second ride. You just can't plant the power. The timeslip shows you came out of the hole a lot better this time. I'm sure adjusting shift points helped too.

Get it to hook and you are on your way. If you can cut that 60' to a 2.15 you'll be in the 13s in no time.

Keep in mind stuffing a sticky tire on there could bog you down and kill the 60' just as easy... so don't go too big on the tire. Throw a really short drag radial on it and just get it tacky and you should rock and roll.

 

Those are all great improvements, dropped a half second in ET, picked up 5 mph in the 1/4 etc... All with a similar 60ft time.

As 35pickup already stated, you'd run 13.9's if you could get the car to 60 ft better. If you were spinning like crazy, I'd consider a better set of tires for the rear. If you were dead hooking, then the car leaves real soft like you need more converter (or something). So is it spinning or coming out real soft?

My OT '06 Trailblazer SS ran 13.84@99 stock with the spare out, on a 2.1x. Took me about 15 tries to hit that, I started of at 14.8's too.

Your 1/4 mph and drop in ET make a lot of sense, it's all related. Get the car working better on the starting line to the 330 and it will probably run 13.9@99/100 mph no problem.

 

Thanks for the advice. Yesterday in checking my timing, I found that the HEI I'd used at the track was not functioning correctly, i.e. the springs and weights were messed up and I don't know what my timing really was. So I put my old one back in and set the total timing at 36. This gives me an initial timing of 18, so I'm getting 18 initial plus 18 from the distributor. My references tell me that the ideal is around 16 initial and the dist. should give 20, for the same total of 36. So I'm wondering if it makes any difference. The car starts fine , doesn't ping, seems to run well, but I won't know how it performs 'till I take it back to the track. Here's how it is now (vac disconnected):

rpms degrees adv.
750 idle 18
1000 21
1500 30
2000 34
2500 36 all in

Any thoughts or suggestions? Thanks!