how much horse power does it take to drop a second to a second and a half? my rice burner friends dropped a second with 55hp shot of nitrous. but im not gonna be a ***** and run nitrous just to run a 14. well here are my future mods, i hope they will put me in the 14.0 range. right now i can run a 15.0-15.6. and thats on a stock 2 inch catback connected to headers.(check my sig for engine specs)..in a few weeks im getting a flowmaster catback, and im gonna rebuild plus do all the performance mods to my CCQJET. route some cold air to my intake, and buy a zz4 intake and gasket match the ports. Then im gonna get some 3.73 gears and posi. This is in no paticular order, more than likely ill get everything but the 3.73's done first. how much time should i drop from this??

 

Depends on how much the car weighs, how much horsepower you already have, and how fast you're already going... I believe it would take at least 3000 more horsepower for Kenny Bernstein to drop a second, but your bud's 80 HP Honda only needed 55 more to get from, what, 22 seconds to 21?

A box-stock 83 L69 car, the way they came with 190 HP (factory rated), a 5-speed and 3.73s, ran about 15.1 off the showroom floor. It takes about 250-260 crank HP to put a typical one of these cars at 14.0.

 

well the 350 i have in it has around 275-300HP at the wheels and its still running 15's with the 700-r4 in it. the car weighs around 3500 pounds, it just a 84 TA with no AC, smog, or intake manifolds. im being told to expect 15+hp from the cat back because of my mods, .5 sec with the tuned carb, around a full second with the gears, .1 sec with the cold air. according to what i am being told, ill drop about a second and a hlaf if not more.....but it sounds just to easy. before when i had the 305 with 145hp, i ran 17's.. and now with twice that i only dropped 2 seconds....i just cant stand losing to my friends imports...

 

I think the lack of an intake manifold is slowing you down... or do you mean it's just a stock manifold?

 

If you had 300 rwhp Your car would run somewhere around mid 13's, depending on rear gears. Get it tuned before you throw more parts at it.

 

My 305 ran 14s with probably 200rwhp.

 

You still have the stock ignition in the car? I recently added an accell super coil and new cap and rotor, and I swear it made a difference, seems to be worth it over the stock ignition. Maybe your stock ignition is worn out. I think mine was, some corrosion on terminals.

Open element filter will help that motor out when the under hood temp is cool, but it will seem a bit sluggish when warm. I am trying my best to work out some kind of way to seal my cowl induction.

Stock exhaust and intake manifold will hold that car back quite a bit. I dont know about you losing to ricers, but I have a very similar set-up (8.5:1 350, cam, stock heads) and was able to pull on a grand national (he was trying i heard that turbo spool and saw his behind squat) from 35-70, and backed off for fear of police, but I wouldve beat him. Only car so far that has handed me my behind was my fathers 454 camaro. I bet I only have 270 horse or so to the flywheel, there's no way you can get beat by those ricers with 270 to the wheels.

 

For 300 RWHP you would need around 360-375 crank HP. If you had that much HP, you'd be running a 13 flat or high 12s, like the faster of the LS1 cars do. If you're running mid 15s in your 3500 lb car, you have about 130-140 HP at the rear wheels.

You need a decent exhaust and maybe a decent cam. Your compression is too low for serious HP work if it is what you say. From your description it's mostly impossible to tell what you really have. What is the casting number on your heads? What pistons do you have, dished or flat-tops? What are the cam specs, or what mfr/model is it, or something? You say the block has been O-ringed; that is a very bad idea for the street, it adds nothing at any of the sort of cylinder pressures a street motor might run, and is a lng-term reliability issue in any setup because of the relative motion of the parts. Are you using the correct type of head gasket for that? If not, you probably have head gasket leaks everywhere.

If your carb works properly you won't gain much from tuning it, but if it is not working properly, all the tuning in the world won't help it.

Your intake manifold is plenty as it is. My current motor (305) does about 265 crank HP estimated from RW HP numbers, with the stock carb, intake, computer, and all emissions devices installed and operating - it passes California emissions inspection.

Find the actual shortcomings that the car and motor have, rather than throwing money at cute-looking or romantic-sounding parts that are easy to get to.

 

Maybe posting a timeslip would help too... traction might be a problem.

 

Yeah, i'd have to agree with 83LB, their ain't no way that car makes 300HP to the wheels and still runs 15's, I dont' care how bad it spins. The worst time I ever ran in my firebird back when it had stock vortecs was 13.7 @105 with a 2.5 60ft and that could NOT have been more than 250RWHP. I'd have to say compression, cam, heads, gears, then go LS1 hunting . Post a slip so we can see what you have to work with.

 

sorry bout the confussion, i have headers, so i lack the weight of the EXHAUST manifolds(i siad intake before)... well the only time i got to go to the track was on a pretty cold day, and my best run was a ............17.2. nasty tire spin, ****ty reaction time, car wasnt running right. my friend ran a 15.3, and i barely beat him on the streets. my cars gotta be between 3500-3700 pounds. i dont know any of the specs on the cam or pistons or anyof that. i didint build it. my friend had a engine built and didnt want it, so he sold it to me. whats in my sig is all i know of it, and same thing with him. its all emmisions legal crap cause i gotta pass that. How much does it cost to get it "tuned" and what all is involved? i sitll got the stock ignition cause i have been told that HEI is freaking awsome unless im running N2O. i have a dual snorkle intake with a K&N as well. the gears i got in it are 3.23's and at the time i had either 245's or 255's on the back. i ned my car to go faster!!! im ordinering a flowmaster cat back next week also. that stock cat back is choking the crap out of my car. the guy that built it told me it will put 275hp to the rear wheels easy. then i added a few things so im figuring around 300. from what you are all saying... for my car to run 15's with my setup....is pethetic

 

What 60' time? At what mph? And remember, reaction time isn't added on to your time, unless you were bracket racing or something.

Do you remember what RPM you were in at the end of the track?

There are ET and horsepower calculators out there if you search on google.

 

na i dont remember any of that stuff,, i was so mad after the run that i just took the time slip, read the time, and threw it right in the garbage.i want to look into having it tuned, but i dont know who to call.. my exhaust is holding me back, but it cant be that much can it?

 

btw, reaction time isn't added on at all to your E.T.
whether you are bracket racing, or heads up.

 

hey, that's not nessecerally true, about the tire spin not makeing you run in the 15's I ran in the 15's @ 120 Mph 'cause I spun the tires the entire legnth of the track . My engine (out of the car, and only with headders) did a 506 hp dyno pull I haven't dynoed it in the car yet but I gusstamate that it is in the 425-450 rwhp range (don't flame me at that guesstamate) oh by the way if it matters I'm running stock size P215/65R15 firestone firehawk tires on stock 15X7 rims, I don't want to go to a better tire yet 'cause if I get any better traction I'll twist the car up, so I'm waiting 'till I get subframe connectors

 

well i called the guy that i got the engine from and was tlaking to him bout it. i told him what i was told for rwhp, and he siad "na thats at the crank".. the guy that built it told me 275rwhp. i just foound out that the heads are "194"(i have no idea waht that is or waht it means!) they have only had a 3 angle valve job. the heads that were supposed to come on it were bad or something, so they gave me these. the cam is a step up from stock for emissions also. i thought i had a better engine then i did but still if its got 275 at the crank then thats 245 at the wheels, plus headers and exhaust so it be 260ish?still it should be better ET's then 15's. i was tlakin to some guys about a differant intake other than the performer, and they told me it would be a waste of time and money to change it.....ohh and when i was racing,, i spun off the line, and my friends siad that i sat there for atleast 4 seconds before i let off,, then i hit it again and did the same. this was on **** street tires to,, iv got little better tires now, but they are bigger so it cuts my gear down.

 

the 1986 Trans Am came with a 190hp LB9(?) Stock Running time was a low 16.. If you ran 14's in a stock 305

 

so are my times bunk, or are they not to bad for what iv got?

 

it depends, are you spinning tires allot or is it just accelerating slow, what is your speed at the end of the quater?, that is a better indictation of HP than e.t's, e.t's are a good indictation of how well your car is putting it's power to the pavement, look at me for example I had my engine dynoed before I put in my car and it was rated at 506hp @ 5500 rpm's but I only run low 15's but I run them at 120+ mph wich means the HP is there I'm just not putting it to the pavement verry well (it probely has something to due with the fact I have stock 15X7 rims and stock size P215/65R15 firestone firehawk tires, I'm only an A1C and don't mack enough money to put anything elts on)

 

i dont have my time slips anymore so i couldnt tell you. i need to get a new windshield before i go back to the track. then ill post my slip.

 

You talking to me? I've seen stock 305s in the 14s with a t5 trans. But no, mine was definitely not stock.

fattie,
You got lied to man. 300rwhp can be good for 12s with decent traction. If you had 275 at the crank, that should easily be good for 14s unless you lost it all through a broken trans and suspension or something.

Why would you spin for 4 seconds after you've started racing?

 

well when i was at the track, it was my first time ever there. i can race on the street and i tried the same strategy. but i went up in intstant smoke, then i let off and hit it again, same thing and this continued basicly to the 1/8 mile, then i got to gun it just to relize that my car was doing something funny... and somtimes still does. in 2nd gear around 3000-3500rpms, it kinda jerks back and forth a little for a second or 2. before it was pretty bad, but then i changed my vacume lines and it got better, now its starting up again. its like it kinda bogs in 2nd gear. every other gear is fine. im still pulling 15'3s like this. im getting rid of my 2 inch cat back soon, im hoping i will hit 14.8 with the new 3 incher. the 300rwhp must have been a missunderstanding unfortunatly. ill find out when i get it dynoed.

ps....what all is involved when you get your car "tuned" by a shop?

 

I had a friend with a stock throttle-body 305 and a WC t-5 running 15.5-15.4. This was considered to be a pretty good time for the engine. I think his secret was using the TORNADO. You should buy one, or maybe two, for the twin tornado effect.

 

just ordered 4 so i can have a quad effect

 

I had an 86 LG4 5 speed, not sure what it ran stock, but with new carb and intake, I ran a 14.94 @ 91.67mph