Yes, Im worried about my lack of lack of traction. That is, My car wont spin its tires even with 550 Ft. Lbs of torque.

Quick specs, check sig for rest...:
Rear end: 3.08:1 Borg warner 9-Bolt posi in good working condition.
Tranny: TH350 with 2400 Stall & a shiftkit.
Tires Stock 7.5" Street radial crap
Suspension near stock with a clamped right rear spring for pre-load launches.
Car feels fast, no bog or lag, tuned perfectly... 18 MPG and probably low 12's at the track the way it pulls. but my concern:

There is no lack of traction. From a dead stop to WOT I dont get a chirp out of my tires, even during the lightning quick 1-2 and 2-3 shifts My tires dont even squeek. I just dont get it! With over 450 Ft.Lbs at the rear wheels and sorry Street tires shouldnt these things be smoking up a storm??

The reason I ask is maybe another person has the same experience with their car, possibly a rear end / suspension problem that is seriouselly limiting my cars potential.... anyone ever hear of this?

 

k this is a old thred but i got this same problem and have been trying to find the problem for months, did u fix the problem??? what was it????? please help!

 

something isnt right...i have like 330 ft lbs and spin like a bat out of hell..

 

Your mail box is full. i tried to reply by PM but it wouldnt go through...

ANYWAYS.

First of all I need more information. engine size, cam specs, heads, intake, compresion ratio, gearing, transmission, stall, tire size, fuel octane, total spark advance, exhaust, etc etc etc...

Trying to diagnose a problem over the internet is VERY hard even WITH all the information. without it? no friggin way...

I also need to know did it suddenly happen? did it happen over time? after a cam swap? when did you notice this loss in power?

a Loss in power can be caused by ANYTHING. a plugwire arcing off your valve cover. a distributor weight getting rusted stuck and not advancing your timing. distributor nut coming loose and retarding it. secondary linkage on the carb not working right. detonation can cause a loss in power. clogged cats is a biggy,
Just about anything can ruin your engines day. even humidity.

My problem was simply a mismatch in drivetrain. I had an engine that made peak power at 6200 rpms, almost 420 horsepower.
but the drivetrain was stock stall, stock gearing. so by the time i hit my powerband, 3500-6500 rpms, i had to already be going 40-65 MPH in first gear! this meant when i went to spin the tires from a stop, i was only able to flash the converter to about 1200 rpms, which was WAY OUT of my powerband, thus no power.
The fix? 3.73 gears and 2800 stall. put me in my 3000RPM powerband RIGHT off the bat, and pulled me to 6500 rpms before i could say "WTF just happened!"

but this is probably not your problem.

 

ya sry about the pm box thing i deleted everything. well that seemsto be my biggest issue with my car i dont no all the specs. i got the car off this girl who husbant built it and he died, the engine and tranny were rebuilt and and havve about 9k on them both. what i noitis has is this>350, full rollers, pretty sure its bored, high lift cam. th350 tranny,holley contender intake, holley 750 vacumer secondarys carb. i just put in new 3.42 gears. and full cat back with a freeflow cat. oh and it has headers. but now that i think about it that might be my problem, because from a roll if i drop to 2 in the higher rpms the car flippin flysi beat a modded l98 no problem, and when i get to the top of third thats when my car feels fast. how do check what stall i have? oh also i have have 255 tires on the back. sry i dont have all the info i wish it i did. so what u think i should do next?
thanks for helping me out.

 

I think you should take Composition 101..

 

See if you can get any receipts for the motor work, or parts that were put in it.

You can quick check the flash stall of the convertor by driving at around 40 mph in high gear, and flooring it while still in 3rd gear without the tranny downshifting. Watch the tach and see what it flashes to, it should be close to what the stall speed of the convertor is.

My guess is the initial timing and/or carb aren't tuned properly.

 

right you have small tires and gears, and even with a stock stall'ed TH350 you should still have plenty of off the line power because of the gearing...

unless like gta pointed out, carb and timing are not quite right.

does it miss or stumble when you romp on it from a dead stop? does it backfire?

if you hold the break and floor the gas pedal do the tires STILL not spin at all?

check your timing, check your plugs.

Does the cam sound BIG? does it sound like a STOCK engine
blub blub blub blub

or does it go poppety pop snapple crack popety lump dee lope dee lumpy doopy?

If you have a huge cam and a huge intake (holley contender?) then you need stall AND gears.

if you hold the break and floor the gas what do the RPMS go to ?

whats your fuel economy like?

check your timing, check your plugs. and get back to me on the above questions.

 

i double checked my back tires are 255/60/sr15.
if i hold the brake and step on the gas i can spin like crazy no problem.
also i did a burn out to see at what rpm my tires start to spin and they start just before it hits 2000rpm i tryed this a couple times and all the same area.
the car normaly when i hit it to the floor dont bog, sometimes it will though.
from what mechanics tell me there is a high lift cam in there>my rpms bounce and she pulls like crazy on top end i dont really hear it comeing from the engine though.
i have had 3 diffrent mechanics adjust my timeing. maby they are doing something wrong i will have it adjusted again tomorrow to make sure what should the timeing be at. also i just put new plugs and wires in about 2 months ago. i just had the carb rebuilt about a month ago. do u want me to take out the plugs and have a look at them?
i find that once she hits 3000rpms thats when she get fast.

 

Yeah you just need gears and stall. if you daily drive it, its going to ruin your fuel economy, but the engine sounds like it needs it.


maybe somthing in the 3.42- 3.23 range for gears,

and def somthing in the 2800-3200 for stall..

that should wake it up big time.

 

i just put 3.42 gears in my car about 3 weeks ago. so u think its just the stall doing this.
oh thanks again for the help, hopefully this just might fix the problem.

 

if you have a big cam with a 2000~stall then pushing the stall to 2800-3200 is going to seriouselly wake your off the line performance up, especaially with those gears. ..

but your fuel economy is going to be around 5-7 MPG..

Just warning you!

 

thanks