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

[64nailhead]

Put a tow loop on it too.View attachment 236008

What are your thought on putting jounce bars back in? They are added weight, of course, but is they any real strength in them? Or are they going to affect handling?

I’m still up in the air about the sway bar. That’s another 15+ lbs I can eliminate.

And thanks - I’ll add a tow hook

 

[bracketchev1221]

What are your thought on putting jounce bars back in? They are added weight, of course, but is they any real strength in them? Or are they going to affect handling?

I’m still up in the air about the sway bar. That’s another 15+ lbs I can eliminate.

And thanks - I’ll add a tow hook

My opinion for a drag car is chassis stiffnesss is good. And suspension travel is good for a small tire car. So that means add the stiffener bars, remove the front sway bar.

 

[64nailhead]

My weight reduction efforts are complete. I still have to get an alignment and set the pinion angle. Before this last pic was taken I was adjusting the ARB preload, which I'm quite sure it's why my side to side weights are a bit wonky.

Before :




After :



211 lbs .

Changes included the following :
iron 4.8 to aluminum 5.3
Blazer splindles to TRZ spindles
Blazer hubs and brakes to Wilwood hubs and brakes
Power steering to manual steering
Factory springs to Afco coilovers
Factory upper arms to TRZ uppers
Removed sway bar
Lower Intercooler mount from steel to aluminum (both fabricated)


All of the additional weight items were in the rear - I added a shock tower brace, a second prefilter and fuel lines for filter. Also, there is another 5-6 gallons of ethanol in the tank from the original weight.

I was pleasantly surprised to see it be under 3500lbs. And this should definitely help tracks times. I want to give a very special thanks to a member here Jdam who supplied me with the lion's share of the front end components.

 

[Supercharged111]

Did you take a dump between before and after as well?

 

[64nailhead]

Did you take a dump between before and after as well?

That’s not including my fat *ss. But I’m sure I managed a brown trout or two release between start and finish.
🤪🤪

 

[64nailhead]

One of my winter upgrades went to crap. I bought a 7qt Summit pan made for drag racing. It has trap doors, anti climb deflector in the rear. All was going admirably until wasn’t. One of the knocks on this pan is that it can leak between the steel and aluminum block for the oil filter adapter. It didn’t leak initially, but after approx 3-4 hours of run time it it started leaking. And it started leaking profusely in the suspect area.

I got relatively pissed and made an impulse buy of the proper aluminum Moroso drag pan. Fortunately the race scheduled for last weekend was cancelled (weather), but I should have the new pan with the turbo drain tig’d in by the this weekend.

Next race is scheduled for the last Saturday of the month. Hopefully will be on the dyno this coming weekend to confirm that the tune is good for 800-900 base HP. And then turn it up from there.

 

[melloelky]

🔥🔥

 

[64nailhead]

I was able to get the pan swap completed Friday nite, and headed off to the dyno Saturday. We were using an air regulator hooked to shop air to regulate dome pressure. I’ll say my 0-200 psi regulator was not extremely precise in the in the 10-25psi range. I was hoping to make 800 in the 17-20 psi range and then see what it would do upto 25 psi.

It made low 700’s on 12 psi . So in an attempt to jump the dome pressure a little, unsuccessfully I’ll mention, it made 910 at 20-21psi. So we skipped directly over all of the 800’s haha. We cleaned up and tweaked the fuel and timing. We made a couple more pulls and I stopped at 968 at 23-24 psi.



Of course ALOT of pressure was exerted by my friends to not stop so close to 4 digits (in my 50’s and still have peer pressure 🤣). I had to remember the goal of 800-900 at low boost, consider that this is April with a full season ahead of us, and I have no wants for dyno glory haha.

We did have one casualty of the day



One of my shocks let go from the twisting I guess 🤷‍♂️. It did cause a minor panic until I realized what it was. And we had a good laugh about it. The dyno owner posted pics on FB that we killed a shock!

 

[Supercharged111]

Dyno is where I discovered that my radiator overflow bottle was leaking, but that Dyno is in the ground so we didn't notice until after I pulled off. Amazing the things you find wringing its neck while stationary. Oh, and also this.

 

[64nailhead]

Dyno is where I discovered that my radiator overflow bottle was leaking, but that Dyno is in the ground so we didn't notice until after I pulled off. Amazing the things you find wringing its neck while stationary. Oh, and also this.

View attachment 238162

Haha. Not chicken, but you made me laugh. My friends that were there gave me the same talk. I’m a firm believer that tuning the car at the track is REAL. Dyno numbers are just that - numbers only. 2-3 second pulls from high gear starting above 5k is not the same as track tuning for an 8-9 second run. It’s a baseline that will be close. I’ll guarantee it needs more fuel at the track and will take more timing.

They spent 10 minutes trying to get me to keep going. I almost succumbed, but I didn’t 😜😜