[BGMONROE]

Help on total setup rearend and transmission and suspension need some help from exp. techs on total setup HELP GUYS!!!!!!!!

[dinger]

You're going to have to be more specific. Are you working with a stock set up, a 4 link, what type of trans, engine, tires, rear end, gear ratios, what are your expectations? We have some pretty sharp racing kind of guys but you have to explain a few things first.

[joelster]

How fast do you want to go? That is the question you need to address. Once you know how fast you want to go, you can mold the entire car around that.

[zildjian4life218]

Is it t-top? I have heard these are bad candidates due to all the chassis flex. Are you gonna be trailoring it there and no road driving or street/strip.

x2 on joelster. There are certain et and mph standards that most tracks and racing societies categorize your car to have certain safety requirements. Find out what track/classes you plan on running in and get a rule book and read it from to back. You will learn so many stupid little things that you would have over looked and not realized before.

I am in the middle of a turbo s10 drag vehicle right now and reading that book was the best thing I could have done. The guy before me had it all setup for drag racing but there have been many many things I found that wouldn't allow it to pass tech at other tracks that I want to go to. I think my local track was selling the rule book for like $10.

Whats the fastest car you have driven before? A lot of people that I know have driven 13-14 second cars and all want to go 9s but don't realize how much even a 10-11 second car is.

[my87Z]

^^^^all good questions

i race a 87' camaro that i have running 11.10-11.20 in the 1/4mi. these cars have a great weight distribution and are rather areodynamic, many are not fond of them but they do make for a good drag, or street/strip car.

they also have some draw backs as well; the uni body, location of the factory torque arms, and biggest of all the factory 7.5" 10bolt rearends. on my first set up i was running about 500hp and 490tq, i had rebuilt the rearend with the guts of a 7.625" 10bolt from a 90' camaro (they are a bit stronger) and a set of 4.10's, i had M/T drag radials on it, it had all been together about 3 weeks (i hadn't raced it yet) when from a stop sign i gave it about 1/3-1/2 throttle and i turned the c-clips, carrier, and ring and pinion into soup. after that i bought a complete 82-92' F-body 12bolt from Moser.

what is you goal?

[joelster]

My take on it is that I see TONS of people go about building a car without a set goal in mind and then they end up buying parts twice. Most guys build the engine first and then piece together the rest of the car, but they end up tearing into the engine the following year because the car won't run the numbers.

I'll give you an example of the PROPER way to do it. Let's say you want to run a 10.90 in the 1/4 for a bracket class. That would equal around a 7.00 in the 1/8th and puts you at the top of a "Pro" or "Mod" class. A 10.90 car will typically trap around 123-124mph. So you want to gear your car to almost hit redline at 124mph. You have to account for converter slippage too. With typical converter slippage (8%) a car with a 26" tire and 4.10's will go 123/4 at 7k rpm. If you go too mellow on the cam and it won't rev to 7k (which most people do), you simply won't hit the number unless the car has a ton of cubes and is geared lower. I'm assuming typical 355-383's here and a 3500lb raceweight. A high rpm screamer of a 355 will usually crap all over a torquey 383 at the track. The more rpm the better when you are racing at the track.

I left out a lot of small variables but you get the idea about gearing your car for a particular ET goal. Those numbers don't lie.

[FmrStrtracer]

Whats your budget? An honest estimate here will determine everything else.

[obe1racing]

i dont know what the other guy's plans are but i am doing the same type of car. for the help out there i am putting a 427 on alcohol 750 double pumpl with a turbo 350 and a ford 9 inch with 3.0 gears. all we have around here is a 1/8 mi strip so am thinking that low and second is all i will use makes a 7.56 off the line and 4.56 second and final
the car is a 84 camaro hard top and will have the rails welded underneath and 8 point cage 25-28 dia tires... am plenty open for opinions ideas changes suggestions

bring them on will check back daily

thanks
the old man

[68NovaSS]

At a glance, not near enough gear, you should be in the high 4's at least, not enough carb. I'm a 1/4 not an eighth mile racer, but I'm sure there are plenty here to help with more specifics. What's your converter stall?

[obe1racing]

the final gear was 4.56 and stall is 2200-2500 and will turn 5500-6000 in the 1/8th the engine is on alcohol and 12.5 comp

[1932bantam]

with a 3.0 gear is going to be a slug running 1/8 you'll like at least 4.56

[obe1racing]

yes i agree however the second gear in a turbo 350 times the 3.0 gear makes it a 4.56 final and its only 660 feet

[68NovaSS]

Originally Posted by obe1racing

.... with a turbo 350 and a ford 9 inch with 3.0 gears. all we have around here is a 1/8 mi strip so am thinking that low and second is all i will use makes a 7.56 off the line and 4.56 second and final

You say here it's a 9" with 3.0 gears. Are they 3.0:1 or 4.56:1? And what's the 7.56 number?

Are you talking about gear reduction math in each gear?

If you're only going to use 2 gears, why not use a PG and the right gears? Otherwise, there's no benefit to having a T-350 trans, not to mention the weight penalty.

[68NovaSS]

Originally Posted by obe1racing

yes i agree however the second gear in a turbo 350 times the 3.0 gear makes it a 4.56 final and its only 660 feet

Yes, but that's a heavy car, think about your 60 foot times. IIRC, most 1/8 mile cars are using 4:88 to 5:13 rear gears, regardless of what trans they run.

[1Gary]

Build more engine/combo than you think your going to need to run the number.The first 60'/330' times are key along with R/T's.For us(not a brag) there are only two times we run the car(s) out the back door.Once in spring for test and tune and once while demo'ing the car to a buyer.We do run a glide in both cars and the secondary car is a 10.90 car.
At a Empire national we ran 9.04,9.06,9.01,and 9.90 with a 4.0 light.LOL-man you should have heard the grumbling everytime we pulled into the staging lanes.
I suggest you shop rollers.There are deals out there that are strut front ends,4 links with the good brakes,chassis's and roll cages that are still in cert.Typically you can buy that cheaper than build your own.And a added benefit of the history of the car's time slips.Then build a engine combo to run under the number.
We have run anything in 400 OEM's from 406's to 434's.Never bought a aftermarket block for any of that kind of car.Not a brag again,but we certainly have won more than our fair share of races over 40 yrs of 9.90 cars.Is it better to be lucky than good??.Yep,it sure is.But I got to believe our race program has had something to do with it too.