On the 'mildly' Cheap SS Monte Carlo chasing a 9.0___

[64nailhead]

Bought a Circle D 258mm billet converter after talking to Pete Nichols at CDS. Should be good to 1200hp at my race weight - time will tell. He says it will work to 8.70-8.80 at 3800lbs. Pulling the trans to have it checked.

Should be good in a couple of weeks.

 

[Texas82GP]

Bought a Circle D 258mm billet converter after talking to Pete Nichols at CDS. Should be good to 1200hp at my race weight - time will tell. He says it will work to 8.70-8.80 at 3800lbs. Pulling the trans to have it checked.

Should be good in a couple of weeks.

I don't think you will be disappointed with Circle D. They are about 15 minutes away from where I work. Really nice people. Three and a half years ago when I exchanged their converter for the 4L65E for one for the 4L85E, they were nice enough to give me a tour of the facility. Nice place with nice equipment. It was impressive. The parking lot was full of hot rods. It was as it should be. I love my Circle D converter in my truck. It too is a 258mm billet unit. Mine is single disc lockup though. I'm guessing you went beefier than that. Edit: mine is 3600-3700 stall. What is yours?

 

[81cutlass]

Awesome to hear the intercooler is doin it's thing! Going from 220 IAT to 72 is amazing.

Interesting that the turbo went out, that's the one that did 2 drag weeks correct?

Do you think the converter broke due to power, broke due to age/wear, or it's fine and you just make so much more power that you are beyond it's working ablity?

 

[64nailhead]

I don't think you will be disappointed with Circle D. They are about 15 minutes away from where I work. Really nice people. Three and a half years ago when I exchanged their converter for the 4L65E for one for the 4L85E, they were nice enough to give me a tour of the facility. Nice place with nice equipment. It was impressive. The parking lot was full of hot rods. It was as it should be. I love my Circle D converter in my truck. It too is a 258mm billet unit. Mine is single disc lockup though. I'm guessing you went beefier than that. Edit: mine is 3600-3700 stall. What is yours?

I’ve been emailing Pete Nichols for the past two months. He took the time to look at my logs and listen to me and said that he would leave it alone until something went wrong. Basically, he didn’t try to sell me on his product because he believed mine was working. I told myself at that point that he’s honest and I’m buying my next converter from. It also helps that he is highly recommended by everyone that has a Circle D converter.

Another side to this was he asked me if I wanted to something that I could ‘grow into’, so I listened. A 2400hp capable unit - then he hit me with the $2200 price tag - I’m sure he could hear me choking. The 1200+ 8.7-8.8 capable unit looked ALOT better at that point. I’m going to find out - I told him to put all the stall into it he could as I need 3800 minimum and 4100 isn’t too much. It’s supposed to be a 258mm Pro Billet single disc. It won’t lock up at full tilt, and he recommended against that for what I’m doing. I explained that at 10-11% slip I have another 800rpms before I need a gear change - he said it would be great (I hope so). I’m not going to have time to test it much until I try to abuse the heck out of it.


Awesome to hear the intercooler is doin it's thing! Going from 220 IAT to 72 is amazing.

Interesting that the turbo went out, that's the one that did 2 drag weeks correct?

Do you think the converter broke due to power, broke due to age/wear, or it's fine and you just make so much more power that you are beyond it's working ablity?

I think my converter has been giving up for a bit. The popular consensus is that I should be running my current best ET and trap speed at 24-25psi, but I’m at 32. Basically I’m not getting much HP per lb of boost.

This weekend’s session proved that. I was making 25-30hp per lb of boost upto 18 (780hp). When I put it to 26psi it made another 40 hp for that 8psi. Two runs later my wheel speed started falling off a cliff along with the HP number. But the same as the last session, the fuel consumption was indicating a bunch more power, but it wasn’t getting out to the wheels. I have to say that motor is screaming. It’s the happiest it’s ever been - the turbo has tons more left based on backpressure and pre IC temp. And I still have the timing in the tank. I think between another 8 psi, 5 degrees and .5-1.0 points of AFR I have another 300 hp left in it. Just need to creep up on it Hopefully in February I can practice my ‘creeping’ skills 😉

 

[64nailhead]

I told my wife to come and check out my rear end.



It didn’t work.

 

[GroceryGetter83]

What are those marks in the ring gear?

 

[64nailhead]

What are those marks in the ring gear?

Battle scars haha.

Caused by movement I believe. They are cosmetic, nothing sharp, cracked or dug into. The pinion bearings have signs of badness. I’m changing them and resetting it up.

I dug through my notes and found it was .010 backlash, but that’s gotten a little looser. The carrier bearings look like new though. I’m thinking when the driveshaft was hitting the tunnel (before the ARB install) it wasn’t doing the pinion bearings any favors. I believe the crush sleeve got crushed a little farther. The rotational torque before tore it apart was not much - less than 10 in/lbs.

I’m not disappointed with it though. It’s stuck together pretty well so far.

 

[Supercharged111]

What are those marks in the ring gear?

 

[64nailhead]

View attachment 214502

What’s the worst that could happen?

 

[64nailhead]

Battled with the rear setup. Been here before, but I’ll say that used gears do not follow the usual setup diagrams for ‘adjustments needed’

After adjusting my backlash to .010 my pattern was the one with the red X next to it. Instructions are definitely wrong for used gears - I proved it……again. After 3 pinion adjustments with a setup bearing and 3 adjustments to backlash, I remembered a previous build with used gears from several years ago. Total of 6 times in and out with pinion to change the pinion shim, and 8-10 backlash adjustments it’s good finally - THANK god. Started out as a quick job at 10am - ummm - done by the crack of 6pm (smh).


Got this done last night :

I’ve had the net since last year, and it’s not required by NHRA for my speed, but Sick Week rules said I have to have it. It’s supposed to mount ‘inside’ of the cage for a 7.50 cert, but ….the top is not. I’m confident it will work.

Onto the last chore until the torque converter and axles show up- engine diaper. I liked what came with this from Summit :

I never knew that someone else could be responsible for damaging my car when a part is installed. Isn’t this somewhat odd?