Cheapskates
In The Twelves
Do you have a Syclone or Typhoon and no money left after
buying the damn thing? Well take heart my friend, because "I feel your pain".
Much better than that, we have the secrets that every "drag lizard" knows,
but hesitates to share with you.... Also included here are low dollar mods
and suggestions for you and that truck that looks so good on you! If you
have the bucks and want to spring for the "toys" like upgraded turbos,
intercoolers, pumps, pistons and cams, more power to you, but this simple
low budget list will interest you too! If you have any of your own material
to submit under one of the categories, PLEASE DO.
gmcmike@cyberdrive.net
High Labor - Low $$ mods
Fix that gross manifold / turbo mis-match!
Have
you had your turbo off yet? My factory Syclone turbo had a port mismatch
of ½ inch at the bottom edge of the opening from the exhaust manifold
to the turbine housing. I mentioned this to a Ty racer who told me his was
just as bad. I "opened" mine up with some grinder stones on a craftsmen drill.
You must remove the turbo and then remove the exhaust housing from the turbo
to do this correctly. You'll see a clear deposit of carbon and black stuff
on the turbine housing face, where the metal should be removed. It is as
if the exhaust manifold was designed for a larger turbo....
Bell-mouth the IC & turbo inlets
We thank the Buick list for this. Pretend you are the
air that must enter the engine. Look for ridges that are exposed to the inlet
charge and remove them. The inlet to the Sy-Ty intercooler, where the big
black hose out of the turbo attaches, should be opened up a little, and flared
or bell-mouthed. What is bell mouthed? Just look at a velocity stack. That
is the opening you are trying to duplicate. I never believed the importance
of that "vel-stack" shape until one day my friend and I were playing around
with a flow bench. Were flow testing a piece of 1.5 inch pipe with a regular
square-cut off end. I had a velocity stack laying around from a Z-1 carb,
and I held it up to the end of the pipe and was amazed to watch the flow
reading on the manomometer rise by over 40 percent! Simply by making the
inlet opening into a bell shape, we increased flow by almost 50% through
the same 1.5 inch pipe. The bell shape out by the edge is important. A simple
cone won't give you the same effect. The fast Buicks make use of this on
the inlet to the turbo and the inlet to the intercooler. ET payoff for us
= 1 to 2 tenths
Dump tube anyone?
Okay! This is a pain in the butt. How bad do you want
an honest 15 hundredths of a second? You decide. To do this right, remove
the down pipe, and have a good Tig or Mig person put a pipe with a removable
cap on it, where it turns from downward to rearward. This requires some
fabrication to get a quality product. I'll get a picture of mine in here
soon. My guy in Concord, Ohio charges $100 to do it with a Tig & stainless
rod. I supplied the 2.5 inch header collector that he cut, matched &
welded to my stock down pipe. You may find it cheaper close to home or have
the stuff to do it yourself. Don't do it with an arc welder! Let me know
if you want the guy's name. The thing I noticed most with this mod, was how
much faster the boost climbs when you stab the throttle. Besides if you're
bored after a hard night of at the track, you can leave it open and make
all the whistling sounds of a hard working freight liner on the way home.
The turbo really whistles loud...
Tire pressures - LONG ... coming
soon good for a tenth
Keep things cooool
Thermostat......I was hesitant at first, but after
I put a 160 thermostat in my truck, I wanted colder yet.. I noticed that
on a crowded day at the track, when you have to wait hours between runs,
and my engine temp got down to 100 degrees or less, my truck would run a
tenth quicker than normal.. Guaranteed. This is compared to 160 degrees
after waiting only 15 minutes to run again.
IC Pump Switch & chiller fan. For
quick cool-down between rounds, connect a small fan to the front intercooler
chiller and put it on a switch that runs the IC pump along with the fan.
This works great and you don't have to handle those messy spray bottles
between rounds.... Run the fan & pump until you can lay your hand
on top of the intercooler (IC) and it actually feels at or below skin temp.
On a cold night, the IC can actually feel COLD to the touch. That's
when you can expect some killer time slips!
Convertor Lock-up Switch - This is another "how
bad do you want it" question.. There has been some concern about shortened
life span of the TC lock-up clutch as a result of "the switch". It's probably
true to some extent. I have to say that when Dave Levey, a hard core Buick
racer, told me about it reducing my 1/4 mile time by .1 to .15 seconds, I
said "no way". Well I was wrong. I tapped into the wires that go to the TOP,
OUTSIDE connectors of the ADL connector under the dash. And connected them
to a switch that shorts them together. When activated, the switch locks my
convertor in any gear but low. It also has a safety over ride that unlocks
the clutch if you apply the brakes, regardless of the position of the switch.
(See Diagram)
Lower the front to reduce wheel spin.
Being a long time drag racer, I still have a problem fully understanding
the physics at work when an all-wheel-drive truck leaves the starting line.
Let's call it weight transfer, but of a different flavor. 20 years ago, I
would have ripped out the AWD, cut up the back half, put a narrow rear, a
four link suspension and 15 inch slicks under it. But simply playing with
the height has taught me a bunch about how my truck "plants" it's feet and
launches. I know for sure that lowering the front of my Syclone 1.5 inches
reduces wheel spin and 60ft times at the track. Five hundredths of a second
reduction is the norm for me. One side effect is that it tend to wander and
follow the cracks in the road while lowered. I am very careful to count exactly
the number of turns that I loosen the torsion bar bolts, so I can tighten
them by the same amount before going home. Usually 1.5 to 2 turns works best
for the Sy. Due to differences in weight distribution, this may not benefit
Tys as much. Please let me know. If you aren't spinning the tires, this obviously
won't help you. I don't think Chris Alston has a chassis book for AWD trucks
yet. I wish he did. This is why I specified the "BIG FREAKIN WRENCH" as part
of the official tool kit. I forget the size of the socket for the t-bar bolt.
I keep mine behind the seat permanently.
The
Toolkit
Monitoring Device (important) Get a Diacom or OTC unit.
If you can't see what's happening, how do you expect to improve
it??
Big Freakin Wrench for raising & lowering torsion
bars. (See "lower that puppie")
Timing Light to add timing if no detonation is being
observed, your timeslip could benefit. Don't use your ears for this one!
Use a monitoring device that will tell you if any detonation retard is being
applied.
Drag Racing Techniques (just
read it. Then say you knew it)
Stage as SHALLOW as possible. This
is long but someone has to dissect the drag race.. Here goes.
Some people will argue with me, but for you the driver, the
most important set of lights at the track are the staged beams, or second
set of beams on the starting line.. As the driver, you
can "cheat" the timers through smart use of the the "staged" beams
"What the %***% is he talking about?" ALWAYS SHALLOW stage.
At the starting line, each lane has two light beams with
photo cells. The first beam is NOTHING MORE THAN A WARNING that the
actual starting line beam is near! After it lights, FORGET ABOUT IT
and concentrate on the next bulb. The staged light. It is the most important.
The starter (unshaven fat guy with an attitude who runs the tree)
waits for both vehicles to roll far enough forward to turn on the staged
lights, then he flips the switch and the tree cycles down to green.
TIME OUT FOR DEFINITIONS!
ROLL OUT - Term to describe
the distance from the point that your vehicle "breaks" the staged (starting
line) beam turning on the staged light, to the point (forward) that your
vehicle allows the beam to reach the photo eye again. Track employees
occasionally check the ROLL OUT of each lane with a tape measure and a disk
that they roll through the beams like a tire. I think a typical roll out-out
is around 15 inches. Let's say it is for the purpose of this explanation.
That's right! If you BARELY turn on the staged (second) bulb you are at the
beginning of the "role-out-zone". That means you can travel forward 15 inches
before the timer starts! That is referred to as a very
SHALLOW STAGE. It
is the opposite of a DEEP
STAGE. A deep stage is when you pull forward
far enough that the top bulb (prestage) actually goes out. Remember it is
the second light beam that determines you have left the line and starts the
timer.
Now for the part you won't believe. It sounds like an
algebra problem but bear with me.. My friend has a car that travels
the quarter mile in 9.75 seconds when he SHALLOW STAGES. If he DEEP STAGES,
the same car will earn a 9.90 timeslip. Anyone who has to race against
a hard index (7.90, 8.90, 9.90...etc) is VERY familiar with this principle.
It allows you to fine tune your times. With a 9.90 car, the difference between
a deep and shallow stage is 15 hundredths of a second. With slower vehicles,
it's MORE. My 10.90 Vega gave up over 2 tenths if I deep staged vs. Shallow.
It had 1.45 60ft times. I bet our trucks give up 2.5 to 3 tenths
of a second on a deep stage.. That's because the slower vehicle takes
longer to cover the first 15 inches of track at the starting line. The
bottom line is; if you are careless about how DEEP you roll into the second
beam, with a 13 second vehicle, you could be giving away one to two tenths
of a second easy! It's safe to say you could give away a little over
a tenth, just by rolling into the beams 6 inches too far. Remember,
even if you don't officially DEEP STAGE, but aren't as shallow as you could
be, the principal is always there, so SHALLOW STAGE for the best timeslip!
Where else can you pick up a tenth or two while spending no money at all?
A shallow stage (instead of a sloppy stage) will help your 60 foot time,
your 1/4 mile time, your consistency and your MPH... It's like a legal
head start. Experiment with this (after you get over the initial
fear of the guy at the starting line).
The infamous Todd Maneuver!
I cut and pasted this straight from Sean Morris' (tyndago@ix.netcom.com)
post to the list.
1. Roll straight up to the line and stage. The sooner
the better. Almost everyone else will do the burnout dance. I prefer shallow
staging so if I creep I don't red light.
2.Put the parking brake to the floor. It helps if you adjust it so it is
a little tighter than normal.
3. Put the truck in netural and rev it a couple of times.This
is to increase the vacuum in the brakes.
4. Put the truck back into Drive.
5. One foot on the brake,bring the revs up slowly against
the brakes. I can hold 15lbs of boost on the line. I try and leave at about
3-5 lbs so I don't spin the tires too much.
6. If you have too, ensure your seat is moved up so you
can release the parking brake.
7. Third yellow , Release parking brake,brake and floor
accelerater.
8. Hold on and point it in a straight line.
I have got a best 60 ft time of 1.799 on a 13.0 run in
a Typhoon. This helped a friend of mines Typhoon go from a 14.1 to
a 13.5. Don't get psyched by the other
guy . Run your own race against the clock.
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