[78T/A462]

My best 60ft so far has been a 1.85 and im going to a set of competition engineering adjustable shocks on my 81 t/a. I was just curious what would be a good starting point for the adjustment. 90/10,80/20, and 60/40 for the front. The rear has the gabriel shocks. Are these 50/50 from the factory? I will also be trying out slide a links. Any suggestions for adjustments would help. Im trying to improve on a best of 12.35 @ 110 with a 1.85 60ft. Thanks

[grandville455]

You can also take off your power steering belt and pick up a tenth.

GJN....Can you really trim a tenth just by doing that?

[78T/A462]

The plugs have a bronze burn. The weather here lately has been very humid. It isn't in the carb. It is slow from launch to shift point through all the gears.

[gjn]

I don't know how much you have been to the track, but unless your really lucky or just plain good. There is alot to tune. Here is a post of my car, if you go to the bottom you can and click the link you will see how I tuned my car from a 13.65 slug to a 12.002 respectable car. I tried everything from playing with shift points, to timing, to jetting, different carbs, etc, etc, etc. I picked up a tenth here and there and so on.
http://www.pontiacstreetperformance....d455GregN.html

[gjn]

http://pontiacdude.cc/

Here is the Dude's site. Enter and run down the right side of the page and you will see the link about reading spark plugs.

[78T/A462]

The car pulls past 6000 but beings that im still running stock rods I limit my shifting at 6000. I chnged the springs in the distributor for the advance. I used the lightest spring that came with my distributor and man it made a big difference, but there still is that binding. Im going to do the preload saturday. What kind of spark plugs do you run? I have r45s delco's. I would like to try the NGK5670-8. What do you think?

[gjn]

I would be shocked if you weren't spinning really bad running with that much converter with stock suspension. Once you figure out the slide a links along with tire pressure and the 90/10's you will pick up a tenth or two in the 60'. I run the Comp 274XE, with the comp 1.52 magnum roller tipped rockers, MSD billet distributor. I was running a marine 4777 holley 650 dp that looked like it had set at the bottow of a pond for a decade or two.

[gjn]

I launch at idle and the converter will flash to 3,300. I am going to try and launch at 1,400 Friday night a couple of times to see if I pick up any in the 60. How about yourself?

[78T/A462]

I haven't tried adjustable rear shocks yet. I have the gabriel shocks in rear. These shocks are supposed to be preset to 50/50. What else do you suggest?

[gjn]

Ross -26.5cc pistons, #16 cc at 76. I have 9.4. compression.

[gjn]

I would try what he suggests and see if it helps. Try from idle and a range of RPMs too and see what works best for your car. With my old converter 2.4k stall (from idle) would onlys stall at 2k if I brought it up to the point of breaking the tires loose. With my new converter, I don't hook well enough to tell any difference.

I paid $600 for the carb. I like it; however, my exhaust 1 5/8 headers and 2.5" exhaust are limiting my RPM at 5,300. Once I jump up to 1.75 headers and 3" exhaust with x-pipe, I should pick up 200 to 300 RPMs and believe the 800 will really shine. Its really a 780 HP body with downleg booster (XC series). I really like Patric James of Pro-Systems; he is super accessable and will always call you back. Great Customer service.

If your running slicks or ET streets, I would suggest having the tire pressure to where you get the best footprint as I have stated earlier. If you do this and you are not spinning the tires at all, you can always try to raise the pressure in 1 lb increments until you start to break them loose again.

[78T/A462]

My best 60ft so far has been a 1.85 and im going to a set of competition engineering adjustable shocks on my 81 t/a. I was just curious what would be a good starting point for the adjustment. 90/10,80/20, and 60/40 for the front. The rear has the gabriel shocks. Are these 50/50 from the factory? I will also be trying out slide a links. Any suggestions for adjustments would help. Im trying to improve on a best of 12.35 @ 110 with a 1.85 60ft. Thanks

[78T/A462]

The car really doesn't feel like it's spinning at all, but Im going to get shoe polish and paint 1 stripe down the slick that way it will be easier to see if it is spinning or not. Let's here an estimate of what you think my 60ft and my et will be. At the track I will be trying an 840cfm mechanical secondary carb, 2 inch open spacer, total timing of 38 instead of 36, slide a links and lighter advance springs in the distributor. Im going to try all these things, 1 thing at a time. Guesstimates for my 400 on et's and 60 ft's?

[JoePapa]

Have you tried an adjustable drag shock on the rear? That may be helpful too if you haven't done so.

[78T/A462]

What I mean by the driveline binding up is that the preload is set to tight and the pinion angle is way off. Just talked to another friend of mine that races super stock and he had the same problem with his car binding. He was doing 1.75 60ft's. After that he set the suspension up a lot looser and got the 60ft down to a 1.61. Im hoping that adjusting the preload will fre up the car and help it run the way it did before the slide a links but with better traction now. If I can get the car to run the way it use to by loosening up the preload, I will almost guarentee an 11.99. Do you see what im talking about as far as binding? What do you think?

[78T/A462]

I have the slide a links on the car now. A friend of mine helped me install them but I was running short on time so when we set the preload we set it with the car in the air which is incorrect. The preload is suppose to be set with the car on the ground. The car now feels very slow since we installed them. Before when I woule full throttle the car at a stop, the street slicks would spin for a while and they would spin silently. Now they squeal loud as hell when they spin. Plus it feels like the driveline is having a harder time turning now. When I shift to second it hit's harder than normal. Is this because the preload is to tight?

[gjn]

I can't imagine you could get the pinion angle that far out of whack to actually cause the car to slow down. However, that is out of my realm of knowledge. But, I would be suprised if you could. When you say slow, do you mean a hesitation or slow through the whole gear? If it is a hesitation its your accelerator pump curcuit running lean. If it just feels lazy, you maybe running lean/rich. Has the air temperature gotten hotter/coulder lately? If so, this can cause your car to run rich/lean. What do your plugs look like?

[78T/A462]

Any suggestions??

[78T/A462]

The thing is also when im going around 30mph and drop first gear and get on it it feels slow then also, not just from a dead stop. On a back road today I stomped it from a stop and it spun the tires until I got off of it. Even going 50mph, dropping second gear feels like a dog now. That's why im hoping that the preload is causing this. The engine is fine but you can tell the problem is driveline related. Another friend of mine told me the same thing you did, not to worry how it runs now but to find out at the track. Would uncorrect preload cause the driveline to have problems spinning at all speeds like 30mph or 50 like it's doing now? Thanks for your help. I know im asking a lot of questions but im paranoid that my car went back to running 13.0's like before.J/k, well at least I hope it didn't.

[JoePapa]

The 50/50's are probably fine but I'm still learning in this area. I put the CE adjustable's on the back of my car and they made a difference in the way the car felt upon launch but I don't have any video of the launch since this change. I recently pulled my best 60' ever of 1.64 (since the shock upgrade). I'll be trying to get that 60' more consistently now.