Drag racing advice and possible engine swap

[Hipster]

Ran around with my uncle in the mid eighties and early nineties whom campained an NHRA 9.90 Supergas car up and down the east coast. Doing it for fun is one thing. Doing it tying to be competitive is another. Even in street classes there are those who can easily outspend you in the name of being consistent. In bracket racing you're only racing yourself, I used to watch my uncle bring home trophies with my grandmothers Vw Beetle when he blew up the S/G 9,90 car. Never know when your facing a pro level driver in a street car. That's the competition.

Yes. you're going to break shyt and it's going to get expesive. It's hard to to build a drag racer that autocrosses well. They're two different animals.

 

[Erik the Awful]

I haven’t thought of autocross, I didn’t think I could do it with a giant boat anchor like the Chevy. Big guy.

Anything can autocross, so long as it's not tippy. Even if you're not competitive with others, you're always trying to find better lines to bring your own times down. Autocross is probably the best best if you want more seat time versus wrench time.

 

[Caman96]

In the meantime….

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[RDF1]

I would suggest finding a local track and go there on test n tune night.
Talk to some the guys with trucks.



Around here the drag racing community at the track will go out of their way to tell you their setup and how much money they have in it. Ive had issues at a track 3 hours from the house, walk up to a trailer and talk to the guys for a minute to see if they had a 27mm 12 point or a 1-1/16" 12 point socket so i could tighten up a ARP balancer bolt on a LS engine. One the guys got on the phone and in 5 minutes a old man pulled up in a old farm truck and told me to hop in and he took me to his shop down the road and let me go thru his tools till i found the socket i needed. Took me back to the track and told me to keep the socket. Even made sure i had jack stands to put under the car and before crawling under there.

We have taken one my customers car to the track for a race and lost first round cause of a Co2 bottle leak and didnt have any boost control nor air shifter control. One of the guys that was in semi finals had a powerglide transmission failure so we took the powerglide out of my customers car and let him borrow it and he won the race. He pulled the transmission and brought it over with 3/4 of his winnings to pay my customer for letting him borrow the transmission.. Thats the kinda guys i like to hang around at the track while tuning.

when the race has a $60,000 pot and a competitor comes around asking for a transbrake solenoid or some boost hose that has melted on their car we go out of our way to help and so will they. its a unspoken rule to help each other and if you win you reward the guy that helped you.


Years ago before turbo stuff was popular id let guys ride with me at the track in my turbo truck to get a idea what kinda fun it is. It ran 11.7s in the 1/4 with a stock 6.0, stock 4L80E, 3.42s and a turbo, id haul my buddys cars to the track on a trailer and race with them. Load them up and haul them home with the truck.



I can share a bill of a customers truck im building now. Its a 4.8L LS engine, TH400 Transmission, Twin S366 turbos, Fuel system and such.




How fast are you trying to go or what kinda goals are you looking at? Cause this can go from mild to wild very fast.
Im building a Aluminum 402ci LS engine with LS3 heads, Holley HiRam intake, Holley nitrous perimeter plate, and a 6L80E for a 1991 C1500. Should make 700-750rwhp pretty easy.

You dont have to go fast to have fun at the track, but more power is more rewarding, expensive but rewarding.

 

[Moofus02]

I've crewed a bunch of bikes circle track cars and drag cars. Bracket racing is about the driver and a consistant car. a slow car is great no traction issues. make sure it runs good with no issues. stay out of the water with street tires. Do not load the motor against the brakes, just take your foot off brake and nail the gas, this method will flash the convertor and get a better launch with low power car. Do not go chasing power until you and the car are consistant. I built cars fron junk that would run on the number round to round but my drivers reaction was all over and slow, i told him he was afraid of the red light and next pass i wanted to see a solid red by bi margin, he went out to turn it red and cut a .001 reaction from then on out he cut .001 to .004 lights with a car that ran on the dial in. dial in what the car runs so you arent breaking out and dont worry about the fast cars. ps that 4L60 is going to suck on the 1-2 shift big rpm drop but if truck is the same round to round it doesnt matter as long as the trans holds up, great sport and tons of fun.
it doesn't take tons of money, we took a comet pulled the 302 and put a good 289 in it and it ran on dial in run to run not fast but consistant and she had good reactions and would go a few rounds. his car was a $50 torino that had a 429 c6 cast iron manifolds and 2 1/4 inch duals out the back. we put a non egr factory intake on it, 1850 holly 600 vac secondary, shimmed the side gears tight in a 9 inch open carrier to act like a limited slip, 31 inch tall used slicks and 513 gears. we ran 1/8 mile track. Flashing the convertor like i sugested that car twisted up left front foot in the air right front an inch so wheels up launch ran 60 ft in 1.7 seconds with a .001 driver reaction amd ran the number, we went 3 rounds and it got loose on top end. Got it to pit and found problem we broke the frame on that rust bucket. point is have fun and dont worry about being fast consistant wins and its great friends you will meet