Hello, i am planning on making my car (an olds vista cruiser) in to a little street/strip toy, with more focus on the straigth forward stuff then on corners and other usless crap that they make you deal with on the street. For the moment all i have is sort of a blank pice of paper, i can mostley do what ever i want. I have new stock springs in the back and some tempest springs to go up front when i take the time to put them in. I also have new stock type shocks up front. the rear shocks are some old hi-jackers that are going to be replaced with something. The powerplant is an mildley modified 350 connected to a th400. 2400stall converter is going in there in the near future as well. So, on a budget off a student, where do i put my money the wisest? Rear suspension upgrades, stock type swaybar, anti rollbar, slicks, loosening up the front end or what do you sugest? I also want to be able to plant well on the street, as some nighttime racing migth take place:Brow: .
If you are on the budget of a student, the best advice is to save that money until you get out of school. That car is really heavy and it will take a lot of engine work and perhaps an engine change to make it fast. This will take money that you do not have today. But you will have the money once you move into the working world.
Ok, lets rephrase this, i am not a student, what i ment was this is a project that i have chosen to put on a fairly tight budget (well, thats what i call "budget of a student" anyway) I do work as a car mechanic, and have acces to a nice workshop and a lot of friends who can help with fabricating things. I also have some experience with fiberglass fabrication, so i se this as a challange. I am also well awere that i never ever will be the fastest, as long as i stick with this heavy peice of machinery, but i am just fine with that. As long as i can put some ricers in the rearwiew mirror, i am having a blast driving it. The car is also getting some healty wheigt lost for this season, with less seats and some heavy stuff geting thrown in the garbage.
you could always make the swap to a big buick, stick the TA aluminum 455 in there, theres some huge weight loss, not to mention youll be into 11's in no time with the right converter, combo and gear
Yes, i guess the best way to upgrade my cars chassis is to change brand, or engine. Or is it? I explained what car i have in the first post, and asked for input on the suspension/chassies, so if the answers could focus on that i would be more than greatfull. The reason for me being here on this board, even tho i drive an olds, is that i find the "racecar chassies tech" part to be a very god one, as far as i could tell.
The main thing you have to do is make sure that you use the power that your engine has to the fullest. which means you need to get it to the ground. So yeah the first this is to make both rear wheels plant together. Put an anit roll bar on. If you have access or the ability to fabricat or install a good bar, check out the wolfe anit roll bar. if you can buy it that would be great or if you can get the idea that they have and build one yourself. I would then make sure that you had a posi rearend. if you have those two your off to a good start. then move up your drive line. check out a converter. maybe some bolt on engine mods. ken
The olds 350 is a great smallblock, the bore and stroke are just right for making a higher rpm motor, and they do make good power. I would if you can afford it, take that 350 olds into your local machine shop and have them build you a nice little street strip motor, it's not hard to get 350 hp out of an olds 350, what I'd suggest is that for the heavy wagon you get some rather low rearend gears, and make sure it's got a healthy posi, gears like 3.73 and 4.10 would be good for your application, I would even go with a 2800 converter or 3000, still totally streetable, i've ridden in a 400 hp beaumont with 3200 stall and theres no problem cruising it on the highway. With a stout high compression olds 350 and low gears and converter it should be a pretty potent street strip combination. A guy I know had a decent olds 350 built for his 72 cutlass, it was around 350 hp, 2500 stall, only a 3.08 rear gear and he was just smacking up the local 5 liter mustang populace downtown till he sold it, he beat a stock 5L with a bolt on supercharger with it. http://www.youtube.com/user/coopsie442#p/u/28/onhGsXJuf4g
Ok, slowley progressing here, and now i wonder if any of you guys have pictures of "rear frame braces" mounted in place? Read about them, seen them in adverts and so on, but never mounted (or, i may have, but never knew what i saw) And if somone have notes of how long they are, that also would be handy. Would acctually be interesting to se the rear wheel suspension of some street/strip cars, wich based there setup on the stock system rear braces or not. :kodak:
Here is a picture of what mine is. I have taken out the airbag, because I put in the drag sway bar. Everything is adjustable and made of chrome moly.
How about Olds 350 with 390-400 HP applied efficiently to the rear wheels and a hole shot from hell on the street!!! Use Edelbrock cam kit #7112 , with 9.5 compression, RPM manifold, Headers, 750-800 carb, some portwork on the heads and make right at 400horsepower. See the Eddy catalog. Anti-swaybar (axle to frame only, like the HR bar) will reduce the need for a whole bunch of suspension add-on stuff. Bars on control arms aren't worth a crap. Front springs like Moog 5230 Olds 6 cyl. and cheap gas shocks will bring the front up on launch. Cut a half or whole coil off to lower if needed (no torch). Get UMI or Edelbrock adjustable uppers and set pinion at minus 2 degrees vs the eng-trans angle (NOT THE DRIVESHAFT!..common big mistake). Adjust the RIGHT side upper arm to remove left or right pull when launching off the line. Let the left upper arm hold your pinion angle always. Get good sticky tires and posi. 26" MT ET street... Trishield 9.5 converter with 3300-3500 stall (Jim Weise,who owns this website). There is sooo much in this choice.....talk to Jim. Ignition, keep it simple and stock appearing with about 20 degrees mechanical spread. Thats 14 initial advance and 34 MAX by 2500-3500 rpm. Limit ported vacuum advance to 10 degrees. Get a good carb (Cliiff Ruggles Q-jet will freek them out and run like Hell). Jet it to run at 32-34 degrees absolute max timming. Do not set timming higher just to run with a rich carb and destroy your engine. Get a Robbmc or Jim Weise mechanical fuel pump. May need 1/2' line, check tank vents for good air flow, no sock on pickup line, highflow filter before the pump. For 400 HP, get 500HP worth of fuel! or a detonated engine. Keep the engine cool (180) even if you have to get an aluminum radiator. "Suprise yourself and your friends when you finish this project. )
Also read this: http://www.v8buick.com/showthread.php?t=73629&highlight=braces These braces are inexpensive but should be a priority.
My advice is to work on suspension a little bit at a time. On these old cars they have a bunch of old stock stuff that is way worn out. You need to do this in order: good brakes good steering all new bushings Then look up all the tricks for cheap suspension. If it was me I would look for the biggest sway bars I can find for that big old beast. Look for all of the tricks for beefing the frame (the rear control arm braces can be home made and work good.) Box the control arms. Tune the heck out of what you have and then plan for the next steps. Keep you eyes open for a running 455 Olds. I have seen them for only a couple of hunderd bucks.
" Use Edelbrock cam kit #7112 " Ok, so the season for us swedes are coming to an end, and so its time to start spending some money on these projects again to make the next summer more interesting. I have now discussed this cam kit with some people around here, and some of them claim that you need to change pushrods or rockerarms to use this cam kit, while others claim that there is no need to do so. Any that have any experience, even tho we are talking about the wrong brand of cars here?ou:
You can get buy with original parts if you do no milling of the block or heads. However, for performace use, lifter preload is very important whether you mill or not. My friend installed some adjustable push rods only, and set them at 3/4 turn. They are working just fine. Edelbrock advises adjustable rocker arms, new studs, & new pushrods, but they are more costly and usually not needed for cams limited at about 1/2" lift or less.
I wouldn't waste too much time on hooking up, the wagons get great traction for launches pretty much stock (with a posi and wide tires) unlike your regular A body sedan/coupe. Mine has always hooked up without problems on a warmed over 455. Focus on making power and weight loss.
