97 Silverado RCSB 1/4 mile

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fast450ridr

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Raced my pickup at Mo-Kan Dragway this past weekend.

My previous best in this truck was 16.02 in the summer heat a few years ago. I've had a goal of running 15.99 or faster since then, but haven't had a chance to get back to the track. To help achieve this goal, I welded the open diff to gain traction, and did some minor weight loss with a roll pan and removing the spare tire.

Mt first pass Saturday was against a big block powered Pontiac Lemans. Being my first race in years, and not being able to hear myself think next to his nasty, open header big block, I got excited and smashed the pedal to the floor, resulting in some nasty wheel hop and tire spin. I ran a 17.50something at 75 mph this pass.

The next pass was against a 70's c10 with a badass sounding small block. I was focused on leaving smoothly this pass, and left the starting line drama free, cruising to my fastest pass of the day, the 15.19 at 90 shown on the time slip below.

My third pass was against a rust bucket Vega that broke his read u joint and showered me in bearings. I aborted this pass in fear his driveshaft would fly off his car and cause an accident.

My final pass of the day was against a fourth gen trans am that ran well, and I backed up my 15.19 pass with a 15.28 also at 90 mph.

I believe I'll be going to Mo-Kan again this weekend, and will have a set of drag radials on the truck with the hopes of a more aggressive launch and maybe a 14.xx 1/4 mile et. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Details on the truck are as follows:

~175k miles
Stock 5.7 vortec
Stock intake
magnaflow muffler dumped before the axle
Rebuilt 4L60 trans with transgo shift kit and minor pressure mods
Stock replacement torque converter
3.42 gears with welded diff
225/70-15 tires all around

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fast450ridr

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I made it back to the track the following weekend with some 255/60-15 et street r radials in hopes of running a faster et.

The weather was significantly warmer that day with density altitude of 3000+ feet all day vs <1500 feet the previous weekend. My goal of 14.99 or faster wasn't in the cards that day. My fastest pass was a 15.37 @ 87 mph against the mustang pictured below. Almost a full 3 mph slower than the previous weekend. This truck seems to be sensitive to warmer weather.

The 60 foot time was a solid tenth of a second faster with the sticky tires, so that was a good improvement.

I was a little bummed about going slower after the addition of the new drag radials, so I dug into the density altitude data for each race day and used the drag times da correction calculator to see if there was any improvement to be seen. The calculator said my fastest pass on 3/20 would have been 14.98 at 91 mph at sea level, and the fastest pass on 3/27 would have been 14.75 at 91 mph at sea level. I'm not one to take these calculators as gospel or claim that I ran a time I didn't, but it's nice to see some form of improvement after spending the money on new racing tires, however hard it is to find the improvement.

The addition of sticky tires added enough stress to my poorly welded differential to break it, somehow. I drove it home with no trouble, but my previously welded diff is once again an open differential. I plan to replace it with a truetrac or quick performance 9 inch in the near future, depending on what I decide to do with the truck long term.

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1ton-o-fun

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When you see the last yellow bulb, GO!
Try that a couple of times. Reaction times are the difference in a lot of races.
Nice truck.
 

618 Syndicate

You won't...
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When you see the last yellow bulb, GO!
Try that a couple of times. Reaction times are the difference in a lot of races.
Nice truck.
He left better than the other lane in both timeslips he posted.....
What rpm are you leaving at? Are you loading up the drivetrain before you leave? Glad you're having fun with it!
 

fast450ridr

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Nice truck! Why do you have a toolbox in the bed?

This truck was my daily in high school, college, and the beginning of my career before it became a toy a couple years ago. The toolbox was used to haul tire changing/emergency tools and various hand tools during that time. It stays pretty empty now other than a jack, four way, and jumper cables that I carry on long trips.
 

fast450ridr

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He left better than the other lane in both timeslips he posted.....
What rpm are you leaving at? Are you loading up the drivetrain before you leave? Glad you're having fun with it!

I've tried flashing the converter from idle, foot braking to 1500 or so rpm, and foot braking as high as my stock converter will go. Foot braking as high as it will go does a bit better, but not a big difference.
 
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