I have more questains than answers so far. Except I'll run a 170CID Ford baby 6 with tripower,three speed with 8" rearend to help keep the weight down. What rear end ratio are you guys using? I see most are using a 3 speed put starting out in 2nd and shifting to high. I see times are in the 12's ,but what MPH and RPM are you running it through the lights at? What Front axle are you using? I was leaning toward finding an Anglia axle and spindel setup or going to a tube with anglia spindels. How much Castor are you guys running in the front axle? I had ALOT in my old front engined rail and it went STRAIGHT even hands off once when I had to pull my goggels down after an oil bath. What are you seeing as a empty weight? Thanks John
I'm running a 225 slant six, four speed truck ******, 355 gears(open) and using 2nd, 3rd and 4th gear. Front axle is Model A with roller bearing conversion. Best time so far has been a 14:41 at 96 mph, spinning the tires through 2nd. Motor is stock with 2 bbl carter and homemade headers. 10 degrees in the front end and it goes straight with no hands on the wheel. Empty weight is 1650, in other words, way too heavy.
We are running 4.11 gears 3 spd leave in 2nd, stock Model A axle, 12.97-13.10 @104-106 mph not sure on RPM, keep forgetting to look On castor, we have never measured it but we reduced it a little last year because the front wheels were shaking violently in the shutdown area- now we have no shaking and you could let go of the wheel it goes so straight. Last time we weighed our car it was 1450 lbs. Since then we have put on aluminum heads and front cover and lightened some other areas- we need to weigh again. Hope this helps, get to work on that thing! HAMB drags are right around the corner! Brad
We are running a 225 slant 6 with a 3 speed and 4.62 gears. I recently tried just a 2nd/3rd shift and it ran a 13.59@99mph 5900rpm's through the lights.
If we were running the 170 slant instead of the 225 we'd have done a lot more in the areas of weight and gears. We're already giving up torque to the larger engines so that's what's left. If the Ford 170 will handle the tach OK then that'd be the way to go. Also, the 1>2 shift seems to be problematic for some, perhaps causing'em to give up too early on first. Getting that right might be a way for us smaller engines to hang in there a bit better. 8* caster but not top end tested as yet.
Don't think our Dodge 218" flathead is gonna turn the revs of most of the other guys so we will probably be running gears in the 3.5 range. Got a early Lincoln Zephyr front axle for the car, (about 3" wider than the '40s vintage Fords) and planning on around 15deg. caster. Wont have the horsepower of the "big boys" so we are trying to make the car as light as possible. Main goal is havin' fun.
Eight to ten degrees in the front end is plenty for a car that runs one hundred mph.. Other wise you will have wheels that will "Flop Over" when you are backing up. I had that problem in my other car.. "GET ER DONE"
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