I have replaced the rear coil springs, shocks and put in poly bushings.
still I can spin the tires until i let off the go pedal, the engine isnt putting out more than 200 horse so its gotta be suspension??? what is next on the list to get more gripsion??? thanks

 

What shocks and what tires

 

And what springs? And have you done anything up front? What air pressure?

 

sounds like the tires are done..... If they are old and hard, they won't hook

 

moog springs, kyb gas adjust shocks and the tires about a year old remington 255/50 zr's @ 35lbs. haven't started front yet, but even so I figured it would hook up after replacement parts to the rear. the front still raises a little bit but not as bad as before new rear parts.

if I am stopped or slowly rolling and pin it it will put on a heck of a smoke show, i will be replacing all tires after finishing front end susp. and rear end internal parts so all the tires match by brand at least..

O and I thin k I now know what a 20 year old Delco shock looks like....

 

that car most likely still has the original open diff as well, that does not really help with traction. Your not going to get it to dead hook.

 

between an open diff, no name tires, and 35 psi, I'm not surprised. You are propelling a car with 1 tire that has a hard compound with a lot of tire pressure.
Just lowering the pressure is an easy adjustment that will make a big difference. That is if your goal is a good launch. Another easy and cheap trick is putting an airbag in the right rear coil spring. Do those both and you probably won't spin that one tire anymore.

 

now if I switch to a posi, which I want to, would it be wise to airbag both sides?

also never thought about lowering the air pressure in the tires... will try that.

 

You can do that, I have airbags on both sides of my drag car. The biggest gain comes from preventing the passenger side of the axle from coming up excessively. The drivers side is to even things out and also to tune how much squat you are getting on launch.
I have cut a 1.54 60 foot with them and essentially stock suspension. The biggest factor is tires though, that was done on 28x10.5 et drags.

You really don't need to worry about all that though. With a posi, decent tires, and the right tire pressure, your tbi firebird should barely be able to spin the tires. FWIW, back when I had a tbi firebird, I could spin that one tire as far as I wanted with 35 psi in it and it was a mid 15 second car at best. Lower the pressure into the 20s and see what happens.

 

I thank you all for the information, I am sure I will have a ton of questions before my Bird is done... give me 4 years and it should be complete.