My car ran 8.3 in 1/8 mile with 28x9.5x15 and 3.90 gears, wasted street tires. I had to launch slowly to avoid tire spin. Engine is 1970 455 with stage 1 heads ta290-94h cam, 850 speed demon original intake manifold and headers and th400 manual valve body. Could i do better with another gear/tire combination.
Welcome aboard! Regarding tires, absolutely yes they will help, because without traction there's not much way to know how your current gearing is helping or hurting et and mph. Take care of traction issues before you change other parts of the combination. Devon
Thank you i will take care of that tire spin first. Car can be seen on you tube as (buick 455 engine in a 300).buicks rule.
Need more information about your set up to help you get a lower ET. Sure better tire will help. Work on weight transfer also.
And your 60'and mph on that pass.. We might be able to tell you how much faster you can go with justa tire change..
My car is a 1966 chevy 300 deluxe weight 3,150. Buick 455 engine 040.over ,10.5 comp. With hypereutectic pistons. Rod bearings .010 main .020, stage 1 heads ported runners. Cam ta290-94h lift 476 int. 486 exh. Duration 226 int. 235 exh. Ta stage 1 valve springs stock rockers. Speed demon 850 double pumper on a stock intake manifold. Poston headers 1 3/4 primaries with 2 1/2 dual exhaust. Th400 with manual valve body (very hard shifts).2,800 boss hog tourque converter. 3.90 gear gm 8.5. 60' WAS 2.02 MPH 78
First, welcome to V8Buick.com. That's an interesing car/engine combination. I love it. What was your mph?
No question that your 60ft is slow but I've seen worse. Tires should help shave .2 or more off of that. 78 is about 5mph or more lower than it should be for an 8.3. I used to run around 81-82 in the 8.40-8.50 range with an iron head small block in a 3,800lb car. Seems like a big block should be pulling harder at the top end. You are probably between a rock and a hard place with the 3.90 gears. Are you using 1st and 2nd only or are you going into 3rd? When I had a 3.73 in mine I used only 1st and 2nd and was going past my peak and it wasn't making any more power, but going into 3rd always resulted in a slower time. And then :idea2: Why not go to a 4.10 so I can use 3rd? The result of that was I was getting into 3rd but only getting 1/2 way through it and not getting deep into my power band. Oddly, nothing changed with my times. Same 60ft, same ET, same mph but I was hitting the tires harder and it was more of a challenge to hook it up. Again, good tires will help that. What rpm are you hitting in the traps? With the torque of a BBB, you might be happier with a 3.73 or possibly a little lower (numerically), but first, get some good tires and see where you're at.
The Regal weighs in about the same as your car. I have less engine but running a 500 gear and 29.5 x 11.5 slicks. She is going 1.5's 60' , 7.2 @ 90 in the 1/8. You need better tires and practice leaving the line. Nothing beats a good set of stickys!
That is going to be a challange with that set up. Better tires will help, but you are going to need to work on weight transfer. What springs and shocks do you have installed?
Best advice is to get some sticky tires, that will make one part of your launching more consistent, it will be easier to tune the chassis from there. 7's at 80mph appears possible for you. Very cool! I was trapping 87-88mph to beak into the 7's, touch more weight on my end though!
Since last time at track (8.3) my son and me have made cowl induction hood funtional , installed qa1 anti hop bars , removed front sway bar (just for track) , tune carb. Linkage to open blades 100 % it was only opening about 85% last time. Car has the bottom of the line gabriel shocks and stock 1966 coil springs. I have to shift into third gear because it reaches 5200rpm at second , then third dosent seem to help much reaching end of track at aprox. 3700rpm. The anti hop bars made a big change to the car, in plants rear tires to the ground real hard you can se shift points marked on road and the body wants to yank off front shocks, all this with crappy tires still. Havent tested at track because of body work. Hope this helps a bit more.
I have to agree with everyone else. Save some money and get some good tires on there. All the chassis work will aid traction but you always need that little bit of traction off the line to get the chassis to work. If you have to backpedal off the line it is almost all for naught. Not to say what you've done so far won't help. From my experience traction on the street doesn't mean traction at the track. Not to mention it is no fun when you have to worry about feathering the throttle to get it to hook while you opponent is pulling away from you. That 8.3 is right there close to breaking into the 12's. I'm figuring that your actual race weight is 3350 so that is a big help for performance. That cam should pull strong to 5500 and that is where you should be shifting at. This may be a case of less gear may make you faster. Something like a 3.31 should allow you to pull through the 1/8th in second gear around 5500 rpm at 85 mph but that is thinking ahead. Either that and after you get some traction go for some 4.56's. I think you should be doing around 81 mph for your ET, at least. With your poor traction you are actually doing the opposite of what normally happens, slow ET but high MPH. Your ET is OUTSTANDING for the MPH. You should figure on around 85 mph when everything is working right and obviously a lower ET. The only major mechanical thing I don't like is that stock intake with a 850 DP on it. Even with a correct adapter it has to be a restriction going from a big square bore carb to a spread bore intake. If it is not a 4-hole adapter then there is even reversion going on. What adapter are you using to bolt the carb on? I'd get a B4B intake on there if you are not going to change gears at all because you will always be going through the traps at lower rpm where the B4B can help performance compared to a single plane intake. That extra throttle opening you found may help the MPH some. Was the cam degreed in? Is the dist recurve/timing all set up nice? As was said earlier get some tires on there and then get the carb mounted up to something good.
Ok, The engines timing was mostly set up, as per info, from right here on the forum. We degreed the cam with a 4* adv. Ignition setup is 14* at 1200rpm topping off with 35* at @3000rpm, and vac. adv. limited to 9* (44*total) ...It's the happiest I've ever seen it! ...Um... Greetings to all! so here's a quick little backstory to BOPGMCARS (my brothers) 455. I pulled it from a friends totally rotted out 1970 Riviera, in the early 1980's, and stuck it in my 1973, 318, Dodge Challenger! (yea, we love putting big Buicks anywhere they'll fit!... plus, nice/affordable Buicks are hard to find around here!) A few people were miffed, others loved it, but no one could argue that it became a real mean bully around town! In the 1990's I took it out and gave it to my brother (BOPGM...) and he put it in his 1987 Z28 and spent a lot of street time shutting down 5.0 Mustangs which were used to pounding on Camaros. He sold the Camaro but kept the 455 stored till now, that it's all refreshed in the 66 Chevelle300Deluxe. Just a wee bit wiser now (but still fun loving) we're putting an honest effort into really dialing it in. Which prompted him/us to come over and be schooled, if you will, by all the experienced people here! Really thanks a mil. for all your input! :TU:
Well its been over a year and finally got slicks. Raced 1/8 mile with slicks and ran a best of 8.04 at 84mph and 1.8 60 foot. Went down the track five times three 8.1 and two 8.0 a little disappointed I was expecting to dip into the sevens. 5500shift points. Car feels a little sluggish off the line.ray:
1.8 60' is not bad. How much air did you have in the tires? Any spin off the line? Bogging when you launch? You may want to try a 2 step limiter and launch at WOT.
Hi briz . 28/10.5/15 tires had 12 lbs. no tire spin and its not a bog but more like slow to rev up in first . chirps from first to second hard . The two stage sounds very interesting thanks.
