I forgot to add - It's been my experience that if you get that motor running well with all the factory pieces, you'll have already blown out traction....my biggest gains for the immediate future will be from chassis tuning, weight transfer, etc....
Bought the car from Engie, who is here on V8Buick. The car was original sold in Douglasville, PA, so from what I believe it has been in PA it's whole life. I think that Buick dealership is closed now though. What kind of street tires do you guys recommend for these cars? It has like all terrain tires on it right now, and it spins them to easily.... I don't want to bring it to the track just to spin the tires each pass. What are some of the best street tires for getting these cars to hookup? Yeah great point, the suspension is a very important component on lowering your ET.... I have the timing set at 14 degrees initial timing...this should be enough...or can I bump it up to 16?? I adjusted the dwell already to 30 degrees...gotta always check that first.:TU:
sweet car man ! the more i look at these cars the better they look. wish the mine was a stage 1 GS as well ( even though they didn't have a 455 stage1 in 75 anymore :ball: ) Have fun with it and let us know what it runs Regards Lennard
I like it! I never saw that one for sale. I would like to see it but I don't know when that will happen. Whatever street tires you get they will spin so just get what you think looks best. I like BF Goodrich Radial TA but not for traction I just like the looks. They are popular because they have been marketed heavily. Some people like Firehawks. Look at some pictures of 73s and see what you like. If you want traction you will need drag radials but you can't drive in the rain. 14 degrees should be enough, you may have to limit vacuum advance and mechanical advance to make sure you haven't gone too far. When I get over 10 degrees I have trouble with hot starts so I use 1 gauge battery cables.
The body panels on your car are in much better shape than on this one! Wanna do some bodywork for me?:Brow: I gotta get paint on this one though...the metal isn't perfect, but I'm not intending on making it a show car right now...I still have another project to finish first.:Smarty: And don't be afarid to throw a 455 in there....I think you might enjoy it! Eric, I plan on bringing this one out to BPG next year in Ohio if your going there. Can't wait to get my Burgandy GS455 finshed so I can park next to your Burgandy Stage 1...I still really love that color on these cars! The engine seems to pull pretty strong right now. The water pump just went on me so I'm switching that out with another one I had laying around tomorrow. Also bought all new shocks front and rear for it. The ones on the car are doing absolutly nothing. Someone installed air shocks in the back....this was done on my other 73 as well...must have been real popular back then...I'm just not a big fan of them.
I just love the 73-75 Cars. There is a 74 GS ( possibly stage 1 car)sitting in town here. cannot get a hold of the owner. Congrats on the new toy. Tim
It's been a while since I said anything about this car. The engine blew a head gasket so I rebuilt the whole top half of the engine, kept it all stock for now. Before it ran a 14.54. I took it out to the track this past Sunday and was able to run a 14.46 @ 94.35 MPH. All I did was take the air cleaner off, had 40 pounds in the front tires and 30 in the rear. Still has a 20 year + exhaust on it and one of the cylinders has a gouge in it and burns a little oil. I'm pretty happy with the time. Going to get some better tires and exhaust and have to replace the drag link. This car was also used for the experimental driveshaft loop made by Steve Caruso here on the board. I have the production one on now and it's beautiful. :TU:
What was your 60' time?? If your having wheelspin issues, try taking the hose off the vacuum advance and plug the hose, this will help with off the line with street tires. Also, we found that our 72 likes the rear air pressure down around 24lbs, give or take a couple. Have you done anything with the distributor advance springs/weights? There is a lot to be had there too. I'm assuming 3.42 gear? Keep driving it and having fun with it:TU:
Good Job! Your times are pretty consitant with mine... I actually took my 73 out to a test/tune day at Lebanon last friday for the first time, despite the fact it still doesnt run entirely right. . I havent done much to it: New tires,oil/filter, sealed the intake, rebuild a Q-Jet for it and built a distributor with an "in-car" curve....otherwise it's almost exactly as the old man stored it back in 87.. Made probably 15 runs, I ran a string of 14.4 - 14.3s at 95-96 mph, across 3 drivers. I ran the best of 14.29 @ 95.3 with a 2.13 60 ft. I didnt do any tuning at the track, but still beat both my 65 and my buddy's RAIII T/A pretty handily (but he had 101 MPH!) I'm running Cooper Trensetter 235's (Whitewalls!) with 22 lbs, and it still has the 3.42s. Didnt have any more wheelspin issues than I had with the 65, and the diff was working great. The scale was broken, but with A/C the car must weigh 4200-4300 lbs. What does yours weigh? I'm also running Steve's driveshaft loop! What a fantastic piece, and IMO priced right. So it looks like our cars are pretty consistant.....Mine is running a B4B and headers, and has a C117 cam, but really just got it running and havent played with it at all...When I return it all to stock, I only hope it runs as well as yours! Keep us posted on your progress!i
Tom, My 60' time for the 14.46 pass was 2.173 and my 1000' was 12.073. I haven't done anything with the advance and I have the dwell set to stock specs. I thnk the balancer might have spun around the rubber because there is a very slight bump in the engine and initial timing is reading 30 degrees? No way this is possible. They stopped making the Firestone Firehawk Indy 500s in the 275 size so I am either going to get the 295s or try the Cooper Cobras. This past time at the track I did not have any issues hooking up. What should I bring the RPMs up to at the line with the stock converter? I was brining the engine upto about 1700. ---------- Post added at 10:17 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:05 PM ---------- Thanks Rhett! I'm sure you can get into the high 13s with that set up for sure. The white walls are the tires that came on mine as well. I love the look of them or the raised whites with the gray wheels and the stainless steel trim rings. I wish the paint on my car looked as nice as yours! :TU: I haven't been able to weigh mine either but it has to be at least 4200. I currently have the compressor out of the car. The front bumper on these cars are 250 pounds alone! And my car has a bench seat in it as well. No other options really besides AC, Stage 1 package, and AM/FM radio. I'm sure you will be able to get your to run even better than mine when you return it to stock. I know there is more room for improvement with both these cars. I know I need to rebuild the Q-jet because I am not getting a good shot of fuel from the accelerator pump. Would be great to run both our cars side by side currently. Let me know if your ever interested! :Brow: What were you launching the car at? Also were you shifting manually? I did at about 5500 into 2nd and 5600 into 3rd. If you are going to be selling the B4B or headers after you take them off just let me know. Ill be interested.
Car looks great! I'll let you know if I get down to any of the Jersey tracks, probably will before too long. I can only launch at about 1700 too, and it's a crapshoot whether it will hook at that RPM. I did have to shift manually, otherwise it would short shift. I believe this is because the kickdown switch wont hold adjustment, I just got a new one from Stratoblue72 and havent installed it yet. I dont have a tach, but those shift points sound right for me too....it was well north of 5000, because thats where my useless temp shift light was set at. Thanks for the compliments on the paint, but the top surfaces are pretty checked and rough.... just cant see it in those pictures. I'll let you know if I decide to sell the headers and manifold, but I probably wont. I kinda like 'em, and they might just find their way back on the car someday. I did my own Q-Jet from a 76 455 core - runs great at speed, but still need to dial in the idle, goes intermittantly lean on me. Could be as simple as float setting, who knows. Cliff Ruggles has some great quality accelerator pumps and rebuild kits for sale, he's at http://www.cliffshighperformance.com/ keep in touch!
I'm sure you've seen this, if not - enjoy!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGYg5GuLqXY&list=PLCF329C68FFC46A5B Bob
Thanks Bob - I have and actually bought the DVD set just for that clip. It's beyond awesome to watch that driver drift that car around, smoke pouring out the wheelwells. And it handles great, compared to other cars in the series (69 Impala 396, 428 Mach 1, 71 Charger 440 etc..) Even funnier ( to me anyway) is the car in the video has some of the same build anomalies mine does - chrome headlight doors and 455 emblems. And it even has the 455-4 decal on the aircleaner. Yet it's clearly a Stage 1 the way it breaks loose. Another great road test on the disc is the 71 442 W-30 convertible....it really handles well too and makes great smoke
