well finally got it to the track to see how it runs, foot braking to 2000rpm, a little tire spin off the line, pulls good to about 3500-4000rpm then falls on its face, back off then hit it again and starts to go then falls on face again, stay off for about 2-3 sec, hit it again and pulls real hard to 5000rpm but then have to back off because i'm thru the traps. made 8 runs with pretty much the same results. had a guy that runs a 11sec. 455 GS walk over to the fence and have a listen when i made a solo run and he says i'm running out of fuel. the car- 1976 skylark with a rebuilt 350 and th400 out of a 68 lasabre, (it has about 4000mi now) engine and trans only had about 35000 on it when i bought it but had been sitting since 85. stock rods, polished crank, 10-1 advertised comp. hyper pistons, comp 260 cam with matching springs chain and gears,stock valve train, heads and block decked just enough to smooth them out, T/A headers, stage 1 intake and hei dist. power timed from Larry's link on here, 32deg. all in at 2250, q-jet from Ken at everyday, 8.5 rear with 3.23 posi with help from Monzaz
I didn't realize ABQ was still running a dragstrip. Over 10 years ago, when visiting, a guy I knew let me make a run in his 93 Mustang Cobra. It was weird how slow it went, since I was used to running a 5.0 Mustang at sea level. Is it still out in the area of the gravel pits? I also remember that there were a lot of potholes in the area beyond the traps. This was tough, since they were running at night at the time.
Nothing like a 1/4 mile pass to reveal short comings in the fuel system. You need to check the entire system from the pick up in the tank all the way to the carburetor. Look at ALL the rubber hose and steel line. Look for cracked porous rubber line and/or pinched steel line. If the pump is old, replace it, preferably with something better. Drop the tank and look for a clogged pick up sock. Running at WOT and having the car nose over as it runs out of fuel means it is going dangerously lean and that is not good at all. I would not have run the car like that 8 times. Get it sorted out before you go to the track again.
Replace any old rubber fuel lines. They are 40 years old and dry rotted. Then get some kind a fuel psi gauge. Pump may be low in first place.
yes, it's out in the sticks by the airport, been there since 61. elev about 6000ft. decent little track, no pot holes. heard it was owned by Yearwood Performance. $20 to test and tune, on site race fuel. they can really pack em in when they run the funny cars, jet cars, nostalgic, door slammers and outlaws. big street car shootout july 30th with a couple of Street Outlaw drivers putting on a show ( chuck and tina). will start with dropping the tank and inspecting and replacing all rubber fuel lines, get a larger inline filter, if that does'nt cure the problem find a way to temp. route lines to a pressure gauge sitting on the cowl.
Be careful with running out of fuel. I had the same thing happen to me. That was my first thought of what was happening to you. I ended up melting #7 piston and rebuilt my shortblock. And I had coated my combustion chamber with aluminum so I had to get that cleaned up. I ended up completely replacing the stock fuel system with 1/2" starting with a RobbMc pickup, 1/2" fuel line to a JW fuel pump and 1/2" all the way up to the carb. I still haven't finished it totally but hope to by the end of this summer. Good luck.
X2 The BS ends when the tires hit the ground(not saying the OP was BS'ing about anything). Just that when you actually take a car to the track all the problems come bubbling up. Seat of the pants dynos don't count at the track. Something obvious, how much gas in the tank? Less than half could have been a problem. A correctly operating stock 5/16 factory setup should be able to get a car into the 13's and an added electric pusher pump should get it into the 12's. The same system in 3/8" can easily do 11's. You could check to see how the fuel is flowing out of the fuel pump by disconnecting the fitting from the carb and run a hose to a container and just see if it pumps out strongly when the car is running. The car should run a minute or close with no fuel line hooked up. If it is just trickling out you have a problem somewhere. Even better if you can accurately measure how much flows out after 30 seconds. I'm not familiar how much should come out with a stock fuel pump at idle but it would give you an idea. That problem sounds like it is so bad you should actually be able to recreate it on the street. There's also the possibility of a clogged breather line to the gas tank. Check that by removing the gas cap after running it for a while or right after it has the problem. Remove the gas cap and if you hear a big whoosh as the cap comes off the breather is blocked. That is not unusual when all the emissions line are blocked. At one mile high I'd say your setup could run mid 15's and if it dips into the 14's it is a real runner. That actually means there is less "pressure" on your fuel system to deliver a certain amount of fuel. If your engine makes less power at a higher elevation it uses/needs less fuel. When you get it running right get rid of the converter if it is a factory unit. That is positively killing you. A generic 12" 2800+ stall will do the trick because at that elevation the power you are making won't get you close to 2800 at launch.
Come on Gary the only way you are going to find out if the car is Actually running any faster is to go to the track. The mph at the end will tell you if any of your changes gave you more power It can come down to .5 mph if you can make some back to back runs with a 15 minute cool down. Even the ET will not make a positive statement on whether the change helped. The ET along with the mph is the only way to tell if your change worked or not. Mostly the mph will be the telling tale if your change worked or not, you of all people should know this. The only one that will work on the street is the change of the shooters in the carb or the timing, if it still boggs you need to make a change. Yeah the seat of the pants will tell you if you went the right way if the car is way off or if the tires smoked their butt off. Then yes I would say this change made the car faster. But in the end it will take the track to find out if your change really worked or not. The only other way is to be on a dyno. If you do not change anything on the carb whether it be the jetting or the timing the car will run a different time each and every time depending on what the weather is doing. If you read my times in Demko's threads you will see the one week I ran 13.60 and one month later I ran a 13.40 I did not change a damn thing. When I went to D42 all the time one week it is a 13.50 the next week it is a 13.75. If you start playing with the jetting you can get it running faster depending on what the weather is doing. Sometimes you can't get anymore out of it. That is why my signature says 13.31 to 13.85, because that is the range it will run and it all depends on the weather. The day it runs the fastest is when you write down all the weather conditions and the carb settings. That is why you keep a log book on each run down the track with the weather conditions like I have over the past 15 years. Seat of the pants only works if the carb or the timing is way off. I have experienced this on several occasions if someone brought me their car and had me make a backyard retune and then using the Vac gauge to reset the idle jets in the carb and check the timing. If it bakes the tires out the driveway you went the right way. But to eek out that last bit of hp it is going to be the track, no if's and butt's about it. Here is one for ya. What racetrack was the only one East of the Mississippi back in 1950. It was just honored this weekend By honoring Art Arfons and Arlen Vanke and The owner of Otie's speed shop. You lived in Ohio so it should be a no brainer. And it was an NHRA sanctioned track back in the day.
This case is one of the few times I absolutely agree this problem is so gross that it should easily be recreated and corrected with testing on the street. Big gains will be found once fixed. However, I've noticed many instances on this board and others, and in the many times I've actually talked to people on the street and at various performance events about how well their car was running and how it was "faster than ever" because they thought/felt/imagined/seat of the pants/tuned it up/changed something/whatever on the street. Once they got to the track though it was a different story. Somehow the car just doesn't run like it should at the track. Reality slapped them in the face and they couldn't understand why the car just didn't perform like it did on the street. Imagination is a powerful performance tool out on the street but at the track numbers don't lie. Even a G-Tech on the street is better than nothing because you can track changes to performance. I'm sure I've done it more than once over the years where I thought I did something to make the car go faster on the street but at the track the numbers said otherwise but at least I found out. I'm not saying a good tuner can't make a better car only tuning it out on the street but I can assure you the best ones have the numbers to back it up. Hopefully the OP wants to get this fixed and back to the track to see what his car will really do.
You may want to start by taking stock fuel filter out of QJ that is the one in carb if its still in it. Put a inline filter in after the pump. also in the tank is a sock that will only flow so much fuel and if its been setting it will varnish up. I just remove them for racing. Not sure about your tank but in mine there is a pan looking thing that the pickup is in. When removing the sock make sure that the pan is moved out of way and install pickup out of the pan, pan causes the car to run out of fuel if tank is low because it can only use what is in the pan. This may be your issue??? look at all the rubber hoses and replace all that feed the fuel pump. Another thing is these cars have a vent that has a charcoal canister. They plug up causing vacuum in tank and same issue cant pull fuel out of tank. Canister is up front . just pull hose off of it and make a pass. Try this first. Dan
thanks for all the input guys! there is no filter in carb, running inline filter, charcoal canister removed running vented gas cap, 1/2 tank fuel, TCI 2500 stall "saturday night special" converter. Lots of other "life" things going on right now, first chance i get i'll drop the tank, check the sock and replace all rubber lines, like Alec said, "40 yr old lines" thanks again! keith
UPDATE! dropped the tank, sock looks varnished up, got one on order, rubber lines soft, maybe to soft, will replace all, found a kink in metal line closing it almost in half, will fix that. just want to get the most out of the combination i have now not looking to do big changes until heads come out and then will build from there ps. 40 yr old tank clean as new, car has been in northern new mexico for the entire 40yrs thanks, keith
ok, life finally let me spend time on the car, replaced sock, all rubber lines and the kink in the steel line. took it out on a somewhat deserted road from a dead stop floored it, started climbing in rpm then shifted to 2nd, oops, didnt start in first, tried 2 more times and was able to hit 5000rpm in 1st both times before i shifted to 2nd, need to find longer stretch of road that i can mark off 1/4mi on to test it all the way out. will do many more tests before going back to track. they run through oct. down here
took it out today, dead stop 1st gear, pulled good with no issues to 5300rpm, shifted to 2nd, rpm dropped to 4000, pulled to 5000 then started to falter again so i shut it down. only 1/4 tank of fuel?? try it again with more fuel in tank. keith
Improvement. Try a clean filter as it may have gotten some junk in it. I do think timing is all in abit early also. What octane are you running with those hyper Pistons. Those Pistons at .030 I think are around 9.8. Did you get matching valve springs with that cam?
thanks, i'll change the filter, 91 octane is the highest you can get unless you buy race fuel which may be my next step, mix it to get about 95 octane, yes the cam came with matching springs. the smallest change i can make with the springs in dist. is all in at about 2700
