ok this was in the wrong section so some of you will have seen it before. Bought a Stage 1 about a month ago now and fitted 9" rears with 275x50x15 ET Street SS radials Out to my local (90 mins away) dragstrip, Willowbank Raceway, nice full concrete track. https://www.willowbankraceway.com.au/ a few facts, this aint a drag car, gotta cover all the bases like my last car 1971 Ford Falcon 351 4V Shaker, 4 speed manual toploader, 3.25 9" LSD rear end, (best 14.1@101, 14.4@98mph all night, street tyres) ran this car for 6 years many times at the strip, did 30,000 miles in 6 years driving, sold to buy Buick ;-) Buick Skylark '71 GS 455 Stock converter (and staying that way) Zero experience with driving this car down 1/4 Zero experience with ET Streets. Zero exp. driving an automatic. First 2 attempts the car broke traction shortly after leaving the line. (31psi in rears!) Nervous as #&*¥! After the first 2 tractionless attempts I came up for a third attempt and after a burnout (which I didnt do on the first 2 passes) the starter stopped me for dropping green coolant. Sent me back to start of staging lanes to fix it. Overflow container lid had separated and was dumping coolant, we fixed it by draining it and washing everything down with my drinking water. Dropped rear pressures to 21psi and then had a full hours wait to get back to front of staging lanes so many cars on the night...... Ate a burger (hadnt eaten all day) Staged held on brake car at idle, punched the throttle in Low, got into 2nd at around 4000 according to my passenger, then I shifted into 3rd at 5000 ...ran 14.8@91mph waited an hour for next run. Held on brake at 1500rpm and left the line better on last orange , think I shifted at around 5000 each time, column shift, difficult to see watch tach and drive at same time....14.5@94mph Ill post slips in a sec, gotta use phone for that. Anyway I sorta expected better but given the circumstances it was ok, nothing broken or bent, and roughly same ET as my old car just down on terminal speed. Can only get better. 'OK fellas, Please hit me with some tips on getting her down the 1320 quicker and faster consistently.
You have anti-quick gear ratio first of all, I'm betting 2:73- 3:08. How many miles on the engine and trans? Install gears, 2500 converter and your mid-low 13's already. Engine re-fresh, cam and small amount of head work and you're in the 12's. GLTY
Recurve the distributor there is a good power timing thread on here. You wont change the converter. What is the rear gear ratio? What about adding traction bars. I would say cam and exhaust but the converter part holds that back. I'm sure others might have other tricks.
#1 - don't just start throwing parts at it . maximize what you have , stock parts are surprisingly sturdy and efficient . - make sure your carb/ignition setup/tune is correct and make small adjustments , one at a time , and keep track of results . same with starting line technique , shift rpm , tire pressure etc . - then , basic upgrades - exhaust restriction , air inlet improvements etc . - then , bigger buck stuff , trans mod's , rear gears etc . - every step may require going back to make adjustments etc to maximize results .
Yeah Im with you on this. My post states Im not wanting to make a dragster , my car has to cover all the bases.. dont wanna be revving its guts out with 4.11s on the street. Doesnt my sig. say what Im running? Yes it does, just checked, rear gears are aircon.. 3.42 and theyre staying. As is the converter. Soon as my oldschool tuner finishes moving his workshop hes gonna recurve the dissy for me and check out the rest of the car and opimise everything. Im used to running a stickshift. With stock converter how many revs can I safely hold with the brakes on the startline? Shifting at 5000 is ok? I was sorta thinking Id run a mid to high 13 approaching 110mph? Once I get properly tuned/ recurved and a bit of startline experience in this car.
With your combo you should be mid 13s at about 100 at the slowest. Be sure the secondaries are opening fully and that the accelerator cable pulls it all the way open. Curve your distributor as per Larry’s thread, and try shifting at 5300 rpm. Play with shift points and launch rpm. (My combo is milder than yours, with manifolds and 2.93 gears and I’m running high 13s at 96). Patrick Oh-what carburetor? A properly set up qjet is a great way to go. Buicks like 800+ cfm no matter what you use.
larry on here has a good thread with timing etc instructions . that , carb set up , check compression etc should get you kinda where ya wanna go . with a stock converter I would usually just load up against the converter a little , by feel , probably 1200-1500 rpm and stage deep , late yellow , release brake/hit throttle . memory , long time ago and not a BBB .
Welcome - have your oldschool tuner read Larry's thread - lots of good info specific to Buicks and will save him time in trial and error.
I really like every drag race thread. I alway feel like I learn something. It looks like you have a solid combo. I see no reason with proper tuning why you couldn't run mid 13's. Cliff
A tuner? For a carbed old school buick?Sorry I can't help it......Please read-up, learn by trial and error, educate yourself and bond with your BBB instead of some "tuner"....god help us.........
If you're thinking 110mph you should be in the 12's. My best mph was 108.4X and I was already in the 12's with 3.08 gears with stock intake and converter. I know all my power is in the heads they are amazing, but also Everyday Performance's quadrajet don't hurt.
I think his exact phrase was "old school tuner" . if he can remember how to dwell a set of points then , yes , old school .
Yes DMC, nice to see someone actually reads whats written and not reads in what they presume. This forums actually not much different to all the other forums I'm on for all my other vehicles both 4 and 2 wheeled. My old school tuner is very old school , knows Buicks well, and knows what makes them run, downunder, things are different here (dodges a flying kangaroo!) Fuel, air, and not to mention tryna get traction driving upside down on the wrong side of the road! Try it sometime....
Yes, Ill cut n paste it to him already discussed the distibutor , Terry set up my Cleveland dissy spot on, in the ignition and carburation areas, and he knows Buicks, ...has no dyno or other high tech crap, doesnt indulge in bullshit or ego massage. People like him are few and far between these days. In every profession.
Thanks again DMC. Yeah mate Ive read a lot of Larrys writings, he knows his stuff, plus spoke with him via the telephone, Larrys a wealth of good info. Yeah , back to basics, compresion, fuel and spark,. Comps probably down cos engines only got 4000mile on it and previous drivers babied it I think. And doubt it was set up right, only had 4 degrees initial when I checked where it was at before bumping it to 9 giving total of 35. Once Terry works his magic we will be able to run more initial and tailor the curve to our conditions and fuel, which are different to yours. Same basics just with subtle differences....just look at the way our water goes down the drain and the direction of naturally occuring atmospheric vortexes, your tornados and our cyclones turn in opposite directions to each other. Might sound airy-fairy, hippy-trippy to some of you I know. Yeah DMC that makes sense I took the revs up on the brake by feel and 1500 rpm felt ok. Last orange, dunno about the deep staging but, lets get the basics happening first, yeah its only test and tune nights or "Race Ya Mates" As they call it here. We do have a couple of full on Nostalgia meets a year here at my track and I may enter if I can get consistent. Was gonna run my bored and cammed Victory at the AllBikes Challenge last year but despite running a best of 12.1@111mph my consistency just wasnt there. Maybe this year Ill have another crack. Bikes are way more fun than a car! Specially a big heavy automatic. But it is what it is, I can have fun running anything. And if its not fun then why the hell are you doing it )
If you want to "tune" your car, you need to know how to do it yourself. You are the driver. It is Your foot and Your hand that drives that car. No one can replicate that.
Runnin at Mopar Sunday coupla weeks ago. Ran 18.7 18.8 early coupla 19.1s later as temp climbed Dialed in at 18.85 (too tame) Got pinged by handicap in first round by a 318 Dodge Charger, the plump 74 model. Had a ball in the old slant 6 though. Just a worn out 225 Slant, with headers and a 350 Holley that Terry set up for me. Shes a real rubber burner on the street (and oil too) 1965 Aussie 4 door some of you may find familiar .
