Take a buddy out with you on a practice long stretch of pavement and accelerate from a stop as you would at the drags. Leave the transmission in Drive. Your buddy can note at what rpm the 1st to 2nd shift occurs at WOT, then 2nd to 3rd. Stock Buick 455s make more torque than horsepower, so short-shifting at 4400 rpm from 1st to 2nd will benefit you. Low mph at the end of the 1/4 is more of an indicator of a low-compression motor, provided you get full traction. Leaving it in Drive will bring on consistency. You might not acquire better than low-14s in the 1/4 in its present stock form. Nando.
Why the reluctance to change converter?? Without a converter upgrade you will be cam limited which will obviously limit everything else you can accomplish. Even great flowing heads needs a cam that will hold the valves open long enough to make use of the airflow. You can maybe tune your way to some mid 13's but that will be where it stops without opening it and your options up
Thanks everyone, as I say at the start Im not building a dragster. Its gotta cover all bases. And I got better things to do then remove and replace a TH400. Im not building a drag car. Some here get my drift. Some never will. I appreciate advice but please read what Im saying. Im not building a drag car. My bike cuts 12s easy and is far more fun.
Thx Nando Ill give that a try. Already done it a few times before I went out and it short shifts to second if left in drive Once the dissy is done as well as the rest Ill be quicker. It was my first time in a strange car. Gotta go ride my motorcycle and get off this internet. Engines only broken in 4000 miles so comps probs on the low side. Its TA cam, TS heads. Should be 1970 spec, itll get bettterer if only with practice. Im off for a ride.
But you asked how to make it quicker,... sounds like you've made your made up that we are all illiterate and in capable of understanding your superior thought process so have at it chief, not sure what your idea of a "dragster" is but alot of us Buick guys run 11's at full weight with AC, stereos, etc etc been done a thousand times...
Converters are not fun to change, and your really not there yet.. Basics is what you need.. what's the timing set at? How does the carb respond?.. what secondary metering rods are in the Q-jet? You should be able to get it into the high 13's with good hook. Then when you get it all dialed in, and want to really turn some heads, call me for a converter.. I will send you one that you won't even know is there, until you nail it. No race car stuff.. This is a unit that dozens and dozens of guys on here drive every day, or every weekend on the street, and love it. It will be worth half a second, or more. It will be worth the effort. But for now, concentrate on the basics.. first, let's do a compression test, to see if your trying to flog an old dead horse. JW
Thanks Jim, ...Ill keep you in the loop mate. May have another crack on Friday night now I have a few basics to work on. Thanks to those that offered help, I know Ill run better next time. And once shes sorted Ill be posting at least a 13.9 Thats a promise.
Over and above all the talk about converters, timing, carbs, driving technique, etc., 94 MPH indicates that you are way down on horsepower for the combo you have. If your car is running true '70 compression and is healthy otherwise, you should be turning over 100 MPH. So, you are down at least 70 or 80 horsepower. I'd start with a leak-down test on every cylinder followed by a look at your timing using Larry's thread. You may find that you really have a 325 horsepower motor instead of a 400 HP motor to begin with.
You could be right you know, I just compared my best timeslip from my Ford GT which ran 14.122@100.63 Its 1/8 is 9.15@76mph so it gained almost a full 25mph in last half which is what an unblown car should. The GS 1/8 is 9.29@74.80mph so it only gained 19mph in last half. The Buick certainly feels torquier than my old Ford 351C 4V 4-speed. But the second half of track is where the horsepower comes into play. Timing,and ensuring full throttle, has gotta improve it a bit ,but 5mph in the top end.... dunno .. With only 4000 miles on the engine since rebuild the comp could still be coming up? I know my Ford needed lots of hard miles on is new engine to get the comp up to spec for 4V closed chamber heads. Found out tonight that this Fridays test n tune precedes the Qld. Drag champs the next day so therel be extra cars there getting practice runs is so Ill give it a miss, and its so friggin cold out there this time of year that I reckon Ill put it off. Thatll give me time to get it to Terry to get sorted timing and tune wise. Sensible thing to do. And Ill have everything possible in my favour. Our club also has the track booked after the postponement to Sept 29 which is a long time to wait...too long in my books so Ill try and get out there ASAP after everythings checked. At least I got a baseline starting point , something I didnt have before. Oh just put my hand in my pocket and bought the rights to my Dragphotos pix so here we go without those watermarks. First the Buick then my Ford GT I sold to buy the GS, also my '65 Valiant, and my ladys '74 Chrysler CJ with an Aussie 265 Hemi 6 under the hood . Maybe I shoulda kept the Ford! I knew that car inside out....
Looking at your picture I just realized you had a passenger on your runs. If he's a 200 pounder that's about .2 and 2 MPH in the quarter.
yeah add in the two factory rear wheels in the trunk, and a trolley jack, oil, water, and 12 volt mini compressor....a bit of ballast on board. oh plus we had eaten burgers and coke by then!
To answer your compression Q, no your compression isn't going to get better with age. So, given that your compression test comes up good, All -around tune-up, good gas and a converter will put you in easily 13.50 @ 105 MPH.....(without all the ballast)
Said he has a rebuilt engine, so if he has "chrome molly" rings, those take longer to break in than "molly" rings. The old school chrome molly rings use to take hundreds of miles or more to break in to max compression back in the day. Odds are if in the engine was built here that it has regular molly rings that break in as fast as the cam. But not sure what they have downunder for rings and what's popular there, so he may get more compression out of it with some more miles if they still use chrome molly ring down there?
I don't even thing you can buy chrome rings anymore.. More likely it was done with the cheapo plain iron rings, and those will take time to seat fully. Performance rings, that have a ductile top ring that is plasma moly coated, break in about the third pull on the dyno.. and are what everyone should be using.
