[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]

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]

Any suggestions??

[gjn]

I would go 90/10 and see how much that helps you hook. I run cal-tracks and called them for the initial setting. You might try that with the slide a links. Make sure you make the intial adjustments (preload) with you in the car.

[78T/A462]

Thanks for the help. I thought I would have gotten more responses. Thank you for your advise.

[gjn]

I run 12 to 12.2 @ 110 to 112 with a 60' of 1.73. I still spin the first 8 to 10 ft. I went to the rancho 9 way adjustable shocks and they helped out about .05. In addition, I installed a line lock last week and for the first time this year I was able to run consistent 60' times. Being able to heat up the tires consistently really helped out in this dept. Have you purchased the slide a links? My leaf springs are way too stiff and do not let the car squat at all. I plan to go to mono's sometime in the next year.

[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?

[78T/A462]

I have only ran the car once at the track and it ran consistent 12.30's @ 110 witha best 60ft of 1.85. I was so happy for running that time with my 400 that I didn't make ant adjustments. Et streets were at 20lbs of pressure. I hope the preload adjustment fixes the slow feeling of the car because in 2 weeks I have an R6 and a YZF600 that I have to go against. Frigin motorcycles pickin on a street car. The best they have ran is 12.2 so if I can improve just a little bit I will pull them. I also set the drag shocks at 90/10 and took the front swaybar off. MY car use to squat the whole way down the track, now with the slide a links it lifts the back of the car and plants the tires to the ground. What do you think about my prload problem GN?

[gjn]

Two things, set the preload per Comps recommendations with you or a person of similar weight in the car. You maybe OK, but my guess is the preload is way off (just like mine was when I was in the same boat). Your description of the car lifting in the back is the exact feeling I got when I made the change to the Cal-tracs. The car seems to lift instead of squat like it used too. Your tire pressure is probably to high. Do a burnout and look at the feathering of the tire. Lower tire pressure until the feathering is even across the whole tire, I picked up a good .05 to .08 when doing this.

[gjn]

Worst case scenario, set the preload with the car on the ground by yourself. You will only be slightly off until you have another person help you. Removing the front sway bar should help your 60'; if nothing else you just lost 15 lbs.

What are the specs on your 400? What gear are you running?

[78T/A462]

My 400 is a basic .030 over stock shortblock with trw pistons. Heads are ported 16's with ram air IV valves. I don't know what they flow. Edelbrock rpm intake, holley 750 vac. sec. and hedman 1 3/4 headers. The cam is a cheater cam like the super stock guys run . It is 258-264 @ .050 with .516 lift. I love the cam. Turbo 350 trans with a 10 inch 3800-4000 stall and the rear gear is a 3:42. I kept the 3:42's so I could still cruise on the highway. I drive the car very often. I also didn't make any jet changes when I ran. Not bad for a 400, huh?

[78T/A462]

Your car acted the same way, feeling slower after the cal tracs? It worries me. Shaker455 is building me a 840cfm mechanical secondary carb out of my old 780 vac. sec. carb. This mechanical secondary carb should help my 60ft's. What kind of tires are you running at the track? I run 28x12.5 et streets. What pressure do you reccomend I run?

[78T/A462]

Car weighs 3650 with me in it. I guess im asking if the preload problem is what is causing my car to feel suddenly slow now? What do you think?

[gjn]

I wouldn't get caught up in the car feeling slow until you take it to the track. The slow feeling may just be the fact that car isn't squating like it used to and the feeling during launch is different. I would be really suprised if the car was slower with the slide a links. Try to set the preload as best as possible. When I put the cal tracks on it didn't feel slower it just felt like the rear was lifting the whole car. I went to a tight 10" converter with 3,300 stall at the same time and it really woke up the combination. I also run a "highway" gear - 3.25s for the same reasons. As far as tire pressure, every car is different. I run 12 to 12.5 lbs in mine 26 x 10.5s. That is what it takes to get the best footprint. My car is really nose heavy, your car maybe different. Start out at about 16 lbs and drop in 1 lbs increments (if necessary) until you have even feathering across the tire.
I believe you will pick up with the DP too; however, I would get the combo "dialed in" from a slide a links standpoint before I made any other changes; otherwise, you won't know what cause what. I am running into this right now because I changed converters, carbs, and added cal tracks. I have to relearn my whole combo. I too run #16 heads that flow 250 at .5".

How hard are you spinning during launch at the track?

[78T/A462]

It feels like it's hooking up. But, Ive always ran 60ft's in the 2.0's so maybe that's why it feels like it's hooking up. I know there is a lot left in the car. When im driving at like 50mph, the car sounds like it's hitting a rev limiter. When I mash it it go's away. It's either to lean or to rich and that's exactly how I ran it at the track.

[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.

[78T/A462]

Are you running dished pistons along with the 16's

[gjn]

If you have access to a video camera have someone video the car during launch. Use shoe polish to make a couple of stripes on the tire the camera can see. Play it in a VCR that has slow motion and you will see if your spinning or not. I will try to take a picture of my tires to show you the footprint you should be after. What kind of burnout are you doing? Is the engine popping at 50? I would say it is a lean condition. Running rich will just foul your plugs up. When the engine is making this sound, turn the key off (obviously do this in a remote place with no traffic what so ever and plenty of room to slow down) and pull over and check the plugs. Pontaic Dude has a good tech article about reading plugs. This will tell you if you are lean or not.

[gjn]

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

[78T/A462]

That's kind of good that it is running lean like that. That's even more tuning I can pull out of it when I run the car. I know what your talking about as far as painting a stripe on the side of the tire to see if it spins or not. I will have someone recording my launched when I go. My holley 750 is jetted with 84 squarejetted. Is 86's all the way around a decent move or should I step up to 88's? Timing was at 36 total. I think I might try 34,38 and maybe 40. What kind of 60ft will I need to get running 12.35 @ 110 with a 1.85 60ft to put me in the 11.99 range? Are high 1.6's out of the queation with what I have?