Well, the the good.... the results are in, after all my hard work and money i spent on the car i got her to the track and ran a best ever 11.7 @ 116 mph. and that was spinning the tires prety much through 1st gear. Then, The Bad..... on the very 1st run i forgot to take off the stupid air filter gasket that i thought was the coolest thing ever when i got it with my new carb and half of it got stuck in the butterfly of one of the barrels in the carb. i got half of it out, but the other half is either somewhere in the motor, in the oil filter or hopefully shot out of the exhaust. And, the Worser..... the car wouldn't start for my 2nd run because it got hot and just didnt want to go, so after waiting about 15 minutes it finally started and i made my 2nd run hardly got traction through 2nd gear and still ran a 11.9. but at the end of the run it stalled out and i cant get it running again. im hoping that it the battery is just dead from trying to crank an overloaded starter and nothing serious with the gasket problem.
Hope you figure that starting problem out. The soft paper gasket probably didn't hurt anything. I love your car, I had a '75 Skylark with a dead V-6, metallic blue in color, that I wanted to stick a 455 in. I lived in town then, and didn't have much money in those days, and the city cited me with a non-functional vehicle hassle, and I gave it to a friend. He took the front subframe out and put it in a '55 Chevy truck project and junked the rest! I always regretted letting that one go. It had the small poverty hubcaps and vinyl bench seats, a real sleeper... RB
thanks rodney, i hate to think about how many of these future classics wound up as a soda can. GOOD NEWS! i charged up the car all night with a trickle charger and it started right up. now i got to figure why it won't start when hot. i know that the timing is correct because i set it up at the dyno shop. i think i need to re-rout the battery cable that comes from the trunk.
What gasket are you referring to? A cover for the carb or a gasket that seals the air cleaner bottom to your carb? You may want to change the oil if you think something got sucked in just as a precaution. Just a thought. Jon
You need at least 2 gauge but preferebly 0 gauge. Also a good idea to solder the connections as well.
Chris is right. Large gauge for both plus and negative cables. You may also want to remote mount the starter solenoid (uses a Ford type solenoid). Painless wiring has a kit if I remember. The stock solenoid may be getting heat soaked from the header heat. One of the smaller aftermarket starters may be an idea too. Jamie on this board sells them. I ran welding cable for battery leads and ran grounds from the battery to chassis, to frame, and from engine to frame and to chassis. Better to have more grounds than not enough.
Here's Summit's Kit: http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?autofilter=1&part=SUM-G1750&N=700+115&autoview=sku Here's the Painless Kit: http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?autofilter=1&part=PRF-30203&N=700+115&autoview=sku They also have a PDF of the instructions for each on the site. What's interesting is they both talk about mounting the solenoid in the engine bay. To me, it seems smarter to put it in the trunk area. That way you only have a short distance of positive cable under power when not starting it (the length from the battery to the solenoid). That just seems like a smarter way to go about it.
Hey Dan, congrats on the good stuff :TU: Can you give a few details about your set up? Engine and rear? Were you running street tires o those passes?
19skylark68, it's a little paper gasket that seals the air cleaner to the top of the carb. chris, i have what i believe is 0 guage and it is all 1 piece so there is no soldering. WE1, i have a mini high torque starter with a ground going directly to the frame in the trunk and one in the engine compartment. meltdown, its a 455 stage 2 heads (level 2 porting by gessler), 1050 proform carb, TA sp1 intake, TA'S "gibson" cam, JE 11:1 pistons, TH400 with 3200 stall speed converter, Chevy 10 bolt 8.5 rear with 373's. one thing im wondering about...i have an engine shut off switch mounted in the trunk. i have regular battery cables (not 0 guage) going from the battery to the switch which is only about 3-4 feet long.
Put the solenoid un the trunk as mentioned above and get the thick wire and your starting and changing problems will be solved.
We installed an ignition cut out on my car (along with all the other mods suggested above) this allows me to get the engine spinning before I put the fire to it. Works like goat lips Say goodbye to broken flywheels, damaged starters, etc.
Hey Danny How you been??? You shoulda never moved from the Island,that sucker would be in the LOW 11's easily:3gears: With a trunk mounted battery you have to Definately make sure ALL your Grounds are good. Physically remove them and make SURE there clean and tight. A bad ground wire from the trunk mounted bat. in my Skylark drove me nuts for a few months after I instaled it. I like to use www.M.A.D. enterprises.com for most electical items!:Comp:
HEY KEN! yea i sometimes wish i never moved. but things are good here. i stoped by your house last time i was in NY, but you weren't home. I heard that you were sick and i've been prayin for you and your wife.
well, i have taken the advice of board members. now i have a different problem. i installed the remote soladoid and started my car, it starts right up BUT when i rev it up the starter re-engages (i think that that's what is happening) im getting a high pitched squeal that seems to be coming from the flexplate. when it idels, it runs fine, but when i rev it to about 15-2000 rpm's it squeals. What i have done to try to remedy the problem so far is, replaced the solanoid, checks all my connections, add an engine ground, removed my ignition wire while running to see if it was getting fantom power. I think that it has something to do with my MSD box, but i cant figure out what. my ignition system.... MSD distributor, MSD 6A box, MSD blaster coil, battery in the trunk, remote shut off switch in trunk, push button starter, remote solanoid installed oin the trunk.
You seem to have it right just make sure that NO other wire is hooked up to the battery cable going to the starter.Cause it sounds like you might be getting feed back voltage from you alt.( the 1500-2000 rpm) as all wiring should be hooked up in front of the relay.
Dan, what are you running under the rear for traction control? In your avatar, is that a set of slapper bars or something else under the rear springs? What are you running for tires and rear shocks?
luv455, the directions say to connect the cable going to the starter, the fusable link, and accessory wires together on the same side of the solanoid (i also have my MSD wire connected to it). Ramkat2, yes those are slapper bars in that picture, but i have long done away with those, i now have the slide-a-link bars made by competition engineering.
What size and type of tires were you running at the strip? street tires, drag radials, or slicks? It's going to take a real sticky tire to hook with the horsepower you must be running with the stage 2.
Good to hear you made it out to the track Dan. Hopefully I'll be able to get my car out a few times when I return home next week. Where did you end up running? PIR?
ramkat2, i dont hook at all even with big drag radials, slide-a-link bars and i lightend front-end. but then again i am a very inexperienced drag racer and im sure if someone who knew how to race would do a hek of a lot better. whammo... yea i went to PIR. it was a perfect night for racing too.