Ok guys, I'm going out to the drag strip this weekend. If all goes well, I'll do my first ever 1/4 mile at the strip. I'm going to an all-Chevy show....over like 39,000 people are expected to show..this is huge. Now, my question is.... I want to get the best quarter mile time possible. Should I leave it in Drive and let her run like that? Or should I put it in 1, shift it through 2 and into Drive? Also, any launch tips? I want to get as best a launch as I can. If I'm able, before the race I want to pop my idle screw cap and mark the screw and metal above it with a dot of white-out or something, and then raise my idle speed because I idle pretty low..the engine shakes and shimmies. My tach is defective, so I don't know how low my idle is...but the shaking makes me think it's too low. Would you recommend fiddling with my idle? Naturally, I'd reset it after the run. Any other tips? Quick and safe things I can do right before the race to gain any drop of speed I can? Thanks guys, and wish me luck! If I am able to run, I'll post the results.

Oh, by the way...I'm removing as much weight as I can..but I have a spare tire and jack above my drive-tire. Should I leave those on for the extra traction, or would it be better to take them out and save a little weight?

 

Lower pressure a little(25 PSI). Shift manually. 1-2-D. SHIFT AT 4500+. while staging waiting for the light "power up" semi power brake, stage to 2600 RPMS... light goes release brake and have fun....

 

Yeah, I've heard about the semi-power brake thing..but I have no idea what RPMs I will launch at because of the broken tach thing. All I can do is guess. Now, my brakes partially suck...will they hold me still at that high RPMs without melting my tires down?

 

You want to rev untill you feel the car raise a little. After that hold that RPM and brake pressure.

And another thing drive around the water pit...

 

Alright..thanks.. And yeah, the last thing I want on brand new radial tires at the strip is water. I replaced both rears last week....they've got sooo much tread on them, so I shouldn't have any traction problems.

 

No Prob...

 

Hey..when you said to lower pressure a bit, are you talking about my oil pressure? On a cold engine, I get like a little over 40 psi...but on a warm engine, I get between 20 and 35, it's very erratic.

 

Uh no TIRE pressure.

 

Ohhhhh, duh. Only the rears or all 4? Just the rears I would assume..

 

If anything RAISE the fronts to get them sitting higher(sitting higher means less frictional drag on the road/strip). Thats why dragsters have skinny front tires. LOWER the rear PSI so they sit lower and have more "grab"...

This is one of those things that coulda been handled in IM...LOL Thats why I put my IM up there on the board...

 

Right....gotcha. I'll steal the tire pressure gauge and mini-electric pump out of my dad's car. The thing is wicked slow but it'll add another 20 or so PSI before it starts to overheat. $5 at Big Lots..gotta love it. Thanks for the tips man. Hopefully I'll be able to report back a high 16!

Ha ha...good point. Well, I think I'm all out of questions. You all out of tips? BTW..running without an air filter for the race only....worth it? I figure one 17 second run (wait..gotta be optimistic) one 16 second run can't dirty my throttle body up that bad...

 

I really would not go over 40 PSi on the front. Just FYI...

 

Yeah...my tires recommend 30-40 psi I think... Maybe 35-40.

 

Once off the track take them to 30-32(street driving). ON the track(racing) have them at 40 maybe 42.

 

Sounds good. Oh, hey, look up a few posts back...I added another question to one you quoted off of.

 

how about removing all excesss equipment? mabie free up some weight?

 

I'm not gonna go overboard but I'm pulling all my trash out and the crap out of my trunk. So now, 2 questions for you guys that have been over-looked. Air filter or no? And leave the jack and spare over my drive-tire for added traction, or take it off for lightness? Decisions, decisions...

 

Do you lose traction now? If you don't, you could remove the jack/tire and see if you lose traction.

Glad to hear you've got a mini air compressor already! Now you can experiment with rear pressure. See what other guys with f-bodies are running in their rear tires. In fact, if you can bring a buddy for "pit crew", have him take his own car, and leave your spare/jack/air compressor in his car.

Leave the air filter on; there's so much small crap on the track you don't want to suck in (mainly little pieces of rubber from tires). Think about giving it a new air filter if you've got an old one in there.

I'd leave the idle alone. Sounds like you need to take care of my major tuneup post! That can fix an idle. But since you're on a short time frame, you could do the following:

1. Use TB/intake cleaner to clean out your throttle body
2. Remove your distributor cap, but leave the plug wires on, and flip it over. Remove all corrosion on the inside terminals with a small file, and be careful not to sand the terminals into a funny angle.
3. Check the timing, if you have a timing gun. Advance it to 12 degrees instead of 10.
4. Pull the spark plugs individually. Clean them, and make sure they're gapped to the stock 0.045 (unless you have a gap you like to use).
5. Give your vacuum lines a visual inspection; make sure none are cracked.
6. Check your oil and trans fluid (when trans is warm and in park!) levels.
7. Remove your driver's side floormat so it doesn't prevent the pedal from getting mashed to the floor
8. Practice the brake stand on a sidestreet. If you rev up too high (with your foot on the brake), when you release the brake, your engine can bog... same thing for "too low" of an RPM.

And yeah, shift manually. The line pressure inside the trans is nearly doubled when the stick is in 1 or 2. That would give you a firmer, faster shift.

You could also go all crazy and remove your folding rear seat-back and rear seat bottoms (a 13mm socket for the seat bottoms, and then a 10mm socket for the folding seatback is all you need). If you have a subwoofer box, remove it!! And don't go down with a full tank of gas. I'd suggest a half-tank, that way you know the pump pickup is covered when you launch... and it'll help with traction.

Let us know how it goes!!

 

Well, I did a launch bringing the RPMs up, in 1, with my foot on the brake..as a test today.. It launched fine, no bog down, no tire chirps. I have more than enough traction as it stands right now...that car is heavy as hell. No subwoofers or anything extra added..it's all stock-weight. By the way..the rear shocks are new, and stiff as hell..is that good or bad? (the fronts are a little mushy, so the car has a front-down appearance) Ok, the air filter is only like a month and a half old...a K&N. Still looks brand new, except for a big black spot on it, where the air hits it. I just rotated the damned thing. And no, I don't own a timing gun..but I could easily buy one for like $40...if I had the spare 40. I'm getting a CD player and all new speakers put in the day before the event..so..kinda short. (And no, no subwoofers..biggest ones are 6x9's) Stock-type of stuff. Now, here's a dilemma. My car hangs in 1st, and in 1... Bad....my tachometer is WAY off (says I idle at around 3000)..but in Drive, with me on the pedal, it rides that sucker right up to the red before kicking over. I'd guess it shifts at around 5800, just by sound. Has that "I'm going to blow up if you don't let off that gas pedal" sound. I'm pretty sure it does that if I start in 1 and try to get it into 2 also...but I'm not quite sure. Now, I've tried riiding it up to a certain point, and letting off the gas enough to kick it over.. Sometimes it works flawlessly, but other times, it kicks into 2, but when I hit the gas again, it jumps back into 1 for a few seconds, and into 2 again. That'd kill me right there. But anyways...think I should just pedal to the floor all the way and hope she doesn't stick? One last thing.. This place is like an hour and a half away..100+ miles....a LONG drive.. I HAVE to take the car on a full tank there since I don't know my mileage. Maybe I can run it in Drive on the highway instead of Overdrive...burn off some of that excess.

Well, as usual, thanks Tom for coming to the rescue with pages and pages of tech tips that I probably won't use because I'm not knowledgeable enough yet to know where vacuum lines are, etc. Lol... Thanks.. Hopefully I'll make you guys proud.

 

You have the same intake as me. Kinda. I used to have that. Take the body of the can off. Undo the screw and remove the part with the 2 inch opening. put the filter to the base and the top back on and screw it down. it will look like an open element filter and suck in alot more air. I noticed a little gain woth that mod alone. PS put the IAT(Idle Air Temp) probe inside the bottom of the filter. have it sitting loosely inside.

 

Dude..that's genius.. Never thought about that. Question...does that air sensor come out easy? Looks like it's screwed in..and will it go back in without problems? By the way..I was looking at some open element filters, considering removing the can and puttig the filter straight to the tube..but that sensor bugged me. So I wanted to see how important it was. Unplugged it. Car started and idled just fine..but when I hit the gas...oh ***.. It ran like a 4 cylinder on a bad day. I'd guess my 0-60 without that sensor had another 5 seconds added. But anyways...if I can get that sensor out without any problems, and back in, I'll do that because that car needs every bit of kick it can get. And that stupid can looks restrictive as hell.

 

By the way you guys..the form never came so I couldn't run. But rest assured, in the next month or so, I'm going to Orlando to get a few runs in. I'll put these tips to use. By the way.....that semi-powerbrake start works so well..I did it three times today and 2 of those 3, I squeeled...never done that before in perfectly dry weather on brand new tires. YES!!

 

Yes it just unscrews. run the wires under the filter and the sensor INSIDE the open part of the filter.

 

let us know what kind of times you turn, our strip doesn't open for about a month but i can't wait to get my car up there

 

Will do...will do.

 

Make sure you remove your floor mats.. So often they bunch up under the gas pedal and you really do not get a full WOT. I would then over inflate the front tires and lower the rear 4-8PSI. Also run with around 3 gallons of gas and remove the spare tire and jack. If you have a stereo box, yank that out. Change your oil the day you go. Car Craft did something a while back on fresh oil really might get you a 1/100th and it all adds up. Make sure your K&N’s are clean or get new air filters. My buddy ran without his and I guess it helped. I would toss new stock plugs in too.. AC Delco plugs are cheap and it never hurts to do them.


Experiment. Launch at different speeds, 2000, 2800 and so on.. Also, when you see the last YELLOW light NAIL IT. Do not wait till you see GREEN. HONEST, if you wait till you see green you will have an R/T like 1.02. Every time I hit it on the last yellow I score a .760 or better.

 

If my tach worked,I could try at different speeds. But the thing is off by a very very large degree. Soon as I tap the pedal, the tach redlines...so..all I can do is guess, and hope I'm not under/over-doing it. I need a whole new gauge cluster...the tach is busted and my speedometer sticks...it might be off too, I have yet to test it I tried putting a junkyard cluster from a 91 RS in, but as soon as we hooked it up, every gauge went full to the right....so...no luck there. Still looking. Today I'm going to do the air filter thing that camaro hunter suggested and see how that works...sounds like a smart idea to me. Air flow from all angles instead of just that little snorkel from the can. Does the IAT pick up properly just laying in the bottom of the filter though?

 

yes it reads just fine
i did the same setup as Ur about to do w/ Ur intake
its a pure genius idea and Y GM didnt do that if the first place i dunno

 

You can take out the middle part of your breather??? mine's only 2 pieces... is a 3 pice one from later models?

I turned my lid upside down though, allows for more airflow (like an open element, still filters air, and sounds cool at WOT. Unfortunately, it doesn't like running in the cold while warming up


Which sensors are you talking about. Are they those things the vaccum lines run to. What do they do??

 

My can has just one sensor..goofy spark plug-looking thing. That's the Idle Air Temperature sensor.. That's the only hook-up to my can. Then there's the other miniature plastic can right next to it that I'm GUESSING is my Mass Air Flow crap..has a bunch of tubes and a purge thing on it.

 

I finally took the air canister out today and slipped the sensor under the filter. The wire was BARELY long enough. Hooked the sucker up and threw the can in my trunk. (By the way...to get that sucker out, it took a mega strong Ogre of a man I work with named Tony to do it. I ran the car a few times around the block, and then on the drive home.. All I can say is...WOW. Totally worth it. My throttle response skyrocketed! The engine sounds better in the low and mid RPMs...and honestly, when I'm on the pedal, it sounds..healthier somehow. Can't pinpoint it. Can't believe I didn't try this sooner! I swear it'll shave .5 off my 0-60..it made THAT big a difference. Although Tony doesn't recommend keeping it that way..thinks the massively increased airflow would be too much for the filter..thinks it'd start letting crap into the air and dirty up my throttle body. I don't think it will...especially not with a K&N. Any thoughts?