My 78 Malibu

[Matt Ulinski]

Hi Guys,

Bought a 78 Malibu a year and a half ago. Fast foward to now, bought a 406, did a rear end swap, built the 200-r4 that was in it and took it to the track a couple of weekends ago. Ran a 12.66 at 110 spinning on street tires. Was curious to see what it weighs so I took it to a scale and it weighs 3560 with me in it. Thinking forward to the spring I plan on putting slicks on it and seeing what she will do. On a side note, the launch was not stellar, anybody have any suggestions for front springs or any other tips those who drag race may have?

 

[L67ss]

Better tires would be a start. What gears?

 

[Matt Ulinski]

Yeah, I have a set of Hoosiers that are going on, hopefully that will be all it takes. 3.42's for gears.

 

[L67ss]

Well that's a good gear set. Any thing done to rear suspension?

 

[Matt Ulinski]

The rear I bought came with South Side Lower arms, other than that nothing. Next big mod is going to be a th350 with a 8in converter, but I want to be able to hook with my current setup before putting that in. Was also 45 degrees out the day I ran with minimal prep so I could be getting ahead of myself.

 

[L67ss]

A rear sway bar would help. Still stock springs?

 

[Matt Ulinski]

Rear Springs might be out of an El Camino.

 

[L67ss]

Setup that seemed to work well for me was factory 81 park avenue springs and my cutlasses stock rear sway bar. I even hooked decent on 275/60/15s

 

[Matt Ulinski]

Cool, thank you for the info I appreciate it!

 

[L67ss]

Something I haven't tried but have seen others have good results was run 10/90 shocks on the front. Supposed to help with weight transfer