N8Miller

alright, im taking the camaro to the track on friday to see what she will do. does anyone know of any quick "free" mods that i can do to make a bit of xtra HP? if anyone can think of anything or has some tips, let me know
thanks everyone

BretD 88GTA

Pull the air filter out. This is a good trick to gain a little extra hp. provided the track you're at doesn't have a lot of dust and dirt blowing around.

Sitting Bull

That doesn't work, as the very recent Car Craft and Hot Rod magazine columns have proven with dyno testing. If you have at least a 10x2 inch filter, or somewhere close, you will be making the maximum power the engine is capable of--even for a big block.

Mark A Shields

Well, did dynos involve the car moving, cause most dynos don't and this won't allow for airflow. So driving the car would make a difference.

Sitting Bull

I don't think so Mark, but it may have some affect. They are also finding that the good old cowl induction (rear facing) scoops are the ones that flow the most air at speed.

This all seems rather backwards, eh?

Still, physics is a most interesting area of study just because of all the amzing ways things turn out to be!

blk91z28

Also I think the air filters actully help more air get into the motor by cutting down on turbulence

vic_V8

lock up the torque converter, (no more hp, but good for 1-2 tenths)

blk91z28

its not horsepower but lower the rear tire pressure to about 22 psi,give or take a little

gtabadboy

This is easy... Got anything in the trunk?? TAKE IT OUT.
Dont laugh, i left a 100 pound speaker system in my trunk. LOL

brodyscamaro

dropping the front sway bar may not give you any power but will help wieght transfer off the line

87transam5.7tpi

you don't want to lower your tire pressure if they are street tires. you should over inflate them by about 5 pounds. because street tires are known for "caving in" so with more pressure you'll hook up better. it works for me. and also do everything ot save weight

PonchoTA

Several other guys that I know that race a lot will bring several bags of ice in a cooler, and keep the intake iced until just before the race, denser, cooler air/fuel charge.

Also, spraying down the radiator before a run seems to accomplish a bit as well, it helps with one guys consistency (he runs 12.2's all day long!!) street tires, mufflers, etc.!

hth!

blk91z28

ive been told that before but my 60 ft times were lower when I had lower tire pressure in my tires(street tires),try both and see what works best for you.

LeftTurn1LE

Most Dyno's I've seen have a huge fan in front of the car to help simulate this airflow.

I don't think running a car w/o an air filter is ever a good idea, there is always going to be microscopic particles in the air.

ohyeahjay

Just to continue on with taking out the stuff in the trunk, don't forget the back seats and even the passenger seat, i believe its one tenth for every 100 lbs.

CHRISMAN2000

iTrader: (1)

Don't for the love of g0d don't take out your air filters.
Try taking out the baffles though.

DSaylor

On my car, taking out the air filters(tpi) never made a bit of difference.

Maybe I'm an extreme case, but icing down my intake for about 1/2 hour before each run has made about a 3/10 difference on a 75* day.

And with no suspension mods other than lower control arms last year, taking off the front swaybar and running the tires at 35lbs(every car is different as far as the correct tire pressure) I was getting 1.9 - 2.0 60 ft times on a mid 13 second timeslip.

Another thing I wish I would have learned earlier is that even on a mild 14 second car, slicks are a good investment. I never realized how much traction I was losing till I saw it on video.

erictheviking

Take a dump and cut your hair,should be worth 1 nanosecond.

N8Miller

your retarded!

erictheviking

Seems like * NO CAR *and no sense of humour,lighten up man
.

anesthes

iTrader: (12)

Last year on the N/A motor we got 2 tenths witht he filter out.. We tried it a million times each way, it was consistantly worth 2 tenths. Of course, the motor had breathing trouble to begin with (maf) so this could be why.

omnipotentgoku

iTrader: (1)

Taking a dump always seems to put some "pep" in my step afterwards. Seems logical that it would work at the track. Something you might try, get some extremely cheap cans of compressed air ( the non flamable type!!) , after your runs, turn the can up side down and spray, essentially its liquid nitrogen and would theoretically work faster than Ice could.

Akshay

Taking out the air filter increases backfire.

Try taking out the Cat. and anything after that (mufflers, exhaust tips). Or maybe, take out the exhaust pipe that attaches to the exhaust manifold. This way you'll have a true dual exhaust thing going. I've hear that separating the exhaust manifold adds about 10 horses alone.

Disconnect the intake tube that is attached right before the air filter. You'll get more volume of air (filtered air) into the engine.

And follow the advice of others above (take out car seat, speaker boxes, etc.)

Oh yeah, for drag racing, you may want to lower rear tire pressure by 5-10 PSI from max.

The thing about taking a dump and a hair cut was funny.
Hey who knows, it actually might work ;-)

Akshay

F-BIRD'88

Install new spark plugs. Use stock or 1 to 2 heat ranges cooler. Check total mechanical timing
at rpm should be 32 to 36* with vaccuum adv disconnected.
Fill up with high octane pump gas. Detonation will slow you down.
Bring an advance timing light and a selection of secondary metering rods and hangers. They are easy to change at the track.
Make one change at a time and see how your car reacts.
More MPH = more horsepower.
Lower et = better traction, more torque, better driving.

Steel Rain

Comedy gold.

TRAXION

I did the air filter thing on my car ....

With Air Filters: 12.24@112mph
Wihtout Filters: 12.24@112mph

It netted me nothing.

Tim

anesthes

iTrader: (12)

Nice car Tim.

Your engine bay's cleaness and organization is impressive..

-- Joe

jobryan26

Don't forget the Floor Mat mod!!!!!!!
https://www.thirdgen.org/techbb2/sho...=floor+mat+mod

Wolfpack

As sad as it is to say i've done this Mainly those damn things keep slidin up underneath the gas pedel...funny post though hehe

19WS6T/A91

14.12 with filter
14.3 without filter

i dont think it is worth the extra risk of going without the filter all to GAIN .2. the ice on the manifold works keep tire pressure to what your door says. and the weight mods.

NTChrist

I've always wanted to run down the quarter without a hood.
This would probably save a lot of weight (like 60+ lbs), and would take it off the front (where you don't really want weight when drag racing). It won't affect the aerodynamics enough, as you're probably not running over 100MPH.

My trick for finding out where the tire pressure should be is the old burnout trick.
Leave a few patches, with the tires at different pressures. Examine the marks left after, and check the width of the marks.
The wider the mark, the better your tire pressure is set. I find this is usually a few PSI (like 2 or 3) beneath what is recommended for the car. Not much, as like the guy above said, too little will cause the tire to cave in at the middle. We don't run bias-ply tires.

omnipotentgoku

iTrader: (1)

Maybe one day RK Sport will kick some love out to third gens and make a carbon fiber hood for us. I know its not likely, but man, it would be nice. Hell maybe even year one.. again.. not likely.. but it would be nice.

On another note, does anyone have the Carbon Fiber Drive shaft from http://www.tpis.com ? I've been curious about the difference it would make. Anyone know how much the driveshaft weighs initially ? Carbon fiber is light as hell, and I imagine it would make a notable difference, but I am also curious as to whether or not it would be able to survive in some of our cars....

1bad91Z

iTrader: (1)

OK, here is my $.02 :

1st - take out spare tire, jack, passenger seat, back seats, anything you can in the back part of the car.
2nd - only have enough fuel in your tank to make a few passes (gasoline weighs 8 pounds per gallon!!)
3rd - remove front sway bar
4th - hollow out bottom of air filter housing (better air flow)
5th - bypass throttle body coolant (block off throttle body coolant entance and exit, then run heater hose from intake to heater control valve)
6th - exhuast cut-out (track use only) unless you live in an area with no cops!!
7th - DO bring a cooler with a couple of bags of ice (lay a towel over upper intake plenum first then leave bags of ice on there for at least 20 minutes before you make a pass) I've lost my place in line due to melting ice water dripping on track, hence the towel.
8th - new NGK plugs and SLIGHTly advance timing
9th - can you say empty tank then add 3 gallons of 100 octane! woohoo!
10th - as you make a few passes, play with tire pressure and timing (each car is different and will respond differently to changes)

No flames please, but beleive it or not by doing all of this, this will shave upto 1/2 second off of your timeslip in the 1/4!!! We did this to a friends IROC and shaved .6 of a second (14.1's to 13.5's). Most of these mods dont cost a dime and the rest are fairly cheap! Enjoy!

:lala:

WaynesRS

I belive that . It all adds up . I have been looking for a good post like this on here . I knew there were some free mods . But I often wondered , do they really work . Nice to see someone posting some times from them . Thanx

1bad91Z

iTrader: (1)

To Wayne -

No problemo! There's also a few other things you can do to shave a couple hundred pounds off of the car. However, that all depends if the car is a daily driver or a track only car!




Mike

erictheviking

Air con-junked.
smog equipment-junked.
padding under carpet-junked.
cast iron inlet manifold and exhaust manifold-junked.
spare tyre and jack removed.
8-point cage,subframe connecters,tower brace added.
Back to where I started-DOH!!!

trans87

Those aren't that good. They are weak and tend to crack if you are pulling some power. When I was at the drag strip a couple cars running 12s and 13s cracked their carbon fiber hood. Fiberglass is a lot more sturdier but heavier than carbon fiber but are lighter than our steel hoods.

AGRESSIVE RACER

I lower my tire pressure on my Goodyear's and get a 1.8 60 ft. Also do the Ram-Air mod, but do it right. The best way to get your best time is to let your car sit for about 2-3 hours to cool down completely and ice your plennum in the stagging lanes. Believe me it helps. That is how I ran my best time.

fbodyking

Howbout getting a turbo motor out of a TTA and throw that in your car, you will beat mostly anything on the track at that point.

5 litre eater

If you have hydraulic lifters and feel like resetting the valve you can have about 20 free horsepower.Basically what you want to do is bottom out your lifters.Tighten the rocker nut to the point the valve is on the verge of opening (while it's closed) but make sure it's still seated, repeat fifteen times.Might take you and hour or two but it's free.

N8Miller

thanks everyone im so glad that there are so many ways to pick up some extra power. if anyone has anymore---please let me know----thanks again

N8Miller

hey guys---how about timing??? anyone increased theirs before a run down the track?

lankchevy_350

not quite free but u can relocate ur battery to your trunk for weight transfur or whatever its called.

kolby

TheLG4Whore

set timing,put water in spare tire(Ballast),hop up and down in your seat like in go karting under acceleration,loosen rear brakes if drums are there,over inflate front tires(Less resistance),if you have IROC take out foglights and make a PCV tubing and duct tape ram air(Read about it in Car Craft I believe),get Muriatic or hydrocloric acid and pour onto body panels(It works),take off accesories,take off your hood like they did back in the gasser 50's days,**** it take out your windshield,have someone push your car off the line(Extra power).
Now you may think some of these are bogus but I assure you only the removal ones are stupid.
OHH and do some kind of quarter mile *** dance thing.

CHRISMAN2000

iTrader: (1)

I know my quarter mile dance put my grand prix 2.8L into the 9's.

ChillPhatCat

I've taken the smog pump and windsheild washer reservoir out (didn't work anyhow)... saved a good 20 lbs. Took off my spoiler for 20 lbs more and better aerodynamics. Get some good tires and take out the spare at the track. I've knocked 80 lbs off by then... Aluminum heads will save about 40 lbs and a fiberglass hood is probably good for 50.

And you don't need to completely remove swaybar, just disconnect an end link... of course it's a good 25 lbs so you could take it out to save more weight... if you're not into road racing or Auto-X you could take it out permanently... I did it for a week and the ride was perfectly controlable and considerably smoother as an added bonus!

Anyhow it all ads up as someone else pionted out...

N8Miller

guys, thanks for all of your replys...but i have an update. Last friday, we went to the track. for the first 4 runs, the IROC had 3 runs of 14.2 @ 98mph (all about the same) and one run of 14.1 @ 98mph.
Well, for the last run of the night, we did the following: iced the intake for about an hour, increased timing, lowered rear tire pressure, took out passenger seat and rears and pushed the car to the starting line. The result------13.75 @103 mph!!!!!! With all of these little tricks, the car dropped 4 tenths and picked up 5mph. This made my cousin more than happy to finally enter the 100mph club that he so determinately desired to be in (especially after i hit earlier in the day)
I just wanted to give a BIG thanks :hail:to everyone for lending all the info they could and helping us make the IROC a 13 second car

anesthes

iTrader: (12)

E/t's are all about gearing + weight, but your MPH shows some pretty good hp..

Good job.

-- Joe

irocet305

In an 1/8th mile right

CHRISMAN2000

iTrader: (1)

LOL ya right