rear Width Its About 62" wide 9"Ford which is the same as stock or very close. I measured from axle to axle with the discs on. I was laying under my car by myself and thats why I say "about 62". I bought from Bob G. and it was set up to match a stock to work with the wheel setup he was running with a stock rear. :TU: Cool?
Rick, the advertised 9 converter that you mentioned is rated at 600+ ft-lbs. We have a billet race converter series that allows for 750+ ft-lbs. This converter is indestructible for the quick 8, and top sportsman classes. Our top dragster customers are very satisfied with our product also. We were the first to go 200 MPH with an automatic years ago. We were the innovators who developed the 9 converter for performance and all out racing applications successfully. I would be glad to help you attain your performance objectives.
Hmmmm... Thanks Earick Racing for your input, I'm keeping you in mind. I've got a tight 10" back from Art Carr in place of my old 9" and I wish I knew where I was at. I took it to the same track twice these past two weeks and nothing but JUNK! I didn't make one pass where it actually hooked.:af: I had a best of 5.98 and that was still smoking them off the line. There was a BIG tire Chevelle @2500 lbs running 5.70's that had a hard time hooking. The converter is definitely tighter but I won't know how tight until I get it to a half decent track. I'm worried because it "feels" like it hits pretty hard and the motor is definitely making awsome torque on nitrous between 4000-5000. With the converter more in the power instead of past it, the torque is going to be tuff to hook. We'll see. I can try retarding the cam to shift the power up but what to do without a good base line? :af: o No:
Dumb And Dumber! I took my 108 l/c cam and move it from a 108 intake c/l to a 112 intake c/l. It was already installed 4 degrees retarded and now its 8!:blast: Talk about Dumb and Dumber! Hopefully I've softened up the bottom end enough to get it to hook, but will it go faster? When I first built the car, I can't say I ever imagined running a powerglide not to mention having too much that I couldn't even manage it. Is that good or bad? It is said "make all the power you can then worry about making it stick". I just need to compile a little more info before I grind another solid roller. Roller cams aren't cheap enough to just keep trying another grind. 455's don't last forever either so it all needs to start working soon! The converter is tight but the torque is strong in this one! So may the "force be with me?" Now that the converter is not slipping past the power, I need to make the power in the right spot which means moving the power curve up. Can anyone rub there cystal ball and give me that magic formula?uzzled:
That didn't work either.:af: the motor ran realy ruff-like crap! It didn't like 112 intake centerline. The nitrous didn't seem to care, it felt as strong as ever. Just for the fact of how the motor ran, I would never leave it at the 112 CL. The lobe seperation angle of the cam would have to be at 112 for me to go with the 112 again. I'm now working on getting a Nitrous specific grind cam. Going to a 278/292 roller? Or something big on 114 L/C. To put the power in a more reasonable operating range that won't be so violent off the line.
I'm still readin', so keep the updates coming. I think I'll get more serious about maaking the juice work on my car this year since the other gremlins seem to be getting handled (knock on wood).
Not Enough Room! You wouldn't believe how much I tried to kill the bottom end to make things work. I've got the MSD Digital 7 Programmable so I can change timing curves, launch rpm, nitrous rpm engagement, make a launch retard curve, and of course suspension adjustments. It came down to where I got the nitrous mixture / timing dialed in and the midrange power went through the roof. I could have richened it up to KILL some of the power but I didn't have it in me. My best mph is 123 in the 1/8 mi so the horsepower isn't there to get a much better et than what I've been running. The cam is a "motor" cam and doesn't make the power WITH Nitrous in the right rpm range to use it. If I had a big tire car it would be different but I'm dealing with 10.5 tire car and the power has to be in the right spot to work with the rest of the combination. My new roller blank showed up today, so now all I have to do is get it ground. Right now, I'm thinking of having Scotty Guadagno (PG Performance) getting it ground for me. He works at Pat Musi Racing and has lots of experience with nitrous and big HP Buick engines. He told me that he had plenty of huge roller cams that would work great with nitrous but they all started at .750 lift and went up from there. Thats more lift than I want since I don't want to deal with the valve spring maintence and lifter bore fatigue. More to follow.................................... :stmad: :stmad: :stmad:
Converter Solution Rick, Just logged onto V8Buick for the first time and had to sign up. Went right to the nitrous converter page. I felt compelled to tell you about another little-known converter company that can help Buick racers who are making big power and torque. Pro Torque Custom Torque Converters (www.protorque.com) is building converters for the guys running the Englishtown Quick 8. The Ferrari Bros have a 3400 pound Chevelle that runs 7.52 @ 179 mph. Have run the same Pro Torque converter for two seasons and have won the championship in 2001 and 2002. Five of the top 8 cars run this same converter. Autometer dataloggers show that the converter has a 98 to 100 percent coupling efficiency down track. It's warranteed against breakage for one year and carries a 90-day money-back guarantee. I know that you don't want to buy another converter, but give Joe Rivera a call, 630 218-8700-- He might work with you. I hope this post saves other Buick racers some potential converter grief too. Len Emanuelson
Going Away I get to go away to Kuwait for a year and work on aircraft to hopefully make some good Buick money. So I wont get to make any more updates on my GS until I get back. Wish me luck. :blast:
good luck man I have been reading your posts indepth, I am sure going to miss them. Alright, make us proud!
Awwh, man... have a good trip. I promice when you get back my ride and I will meet you at the Fayetteville track!
More Info Am I back? NO, unfortunately not. But I do have access to a computer so I'll be poking around and maybe stiring "the Pot" a bit here and there. :moonu: Its hard staying motivated at times, especially with a Buick so I'm here to help where I can and keep myself on track. As for my Juice Motor? It is getting a cam to fit the application. The "small" 108 l/c cam is not good for large amounts of nitrous, say over 200hp in my case. It doesn't use it efficiently and makes power in the wrong areas of the power band and limits the amount the motor will take in. There is only a certain amount of power needed to launch the car and get a good 60 ft, the rest of the race is HP. Most guys running mid 9's go through the traps well past there shift points. SO...... using nitrous to get the car out of the hole and a good HP Cam to make power in the upper rpms = a faster combination. Plus I can take away a little gear in the rear and run a more efficient converter which will give more mph at the same rpm in the 1/4. Right now My converter is "hitting" around 4500-4800 on nitrous. Which is about the best I can ask for. It would be better if it would stall at 3200 on Nitrous with the setup I have right now but the conveter would be to tight work on motor- at all. the motor would probably die when I put it in gear and the motor would never be able to stall the converter up against the trans brake. It would be like putting a stock converter in a race car. I'm hoping a larger duration cam with wider/more efficient lobe centers will make everthing work! Plus I want to be able to use more Nitrous in high gear. Right now the motor wont run any faster on a 400hp than a 200hp shot. Theres 400hp worth of Nitrous there, its just either going out the exhaust pipe being over scavenged or bottling up in the intake substituting the air that should be coming through the carb. The bigger cam should keep the motor from hitting the converter SO HARD! Nitrous key is in the mixture! THat became very obvious especially at lower rpms- where it became the biggest problem. And now i'm working at making use of that power, it was just more than I was set up to deal with so now I'm changing things. I could spend $1800 dollars on a Neil Chance converter which seems to one of the best out there, but I know the cam is still going to be wrong for what I'm doing. So first the cam then I'll go back to the converter if it is still a problem. As always more to follow...:Brow:
I thought I was seeing things when I looked under my user cp and the "subscribed threads" showed Buicks4Speed as the "thread starter" and Buicks4Speed as "last post"! Hope things are going well for you. I need to get some tuning done on my ride now that the 455 is hiding inside (it does tell on itself while running :Brow: ). I've been so involved with getting the house ready for the market I've not spent any time with the car in the last month. Maybe you notice the background in my avatar, this was my only trip to the strip so far. Third run was fun (sideways past the 1/8th mile mark and had to get out of it) for the spectators. Really need to work on the suspension, and get some soft tires. The only full runs were at a really low shift point (5000 rpm's) resulting in a 13.20 at 105 and change. It was good enough to beat the Z06 in the next lane that ran a 13.32 :beer. The first (only) run with the correct shift point (~6000 rpm) resulted in a broken rocker shaft , still ran a 13.4 with a 92 mph trap (got out of it 3/4 track). There was a Chevelle there that was running 12.8, I've got my eye on him this fall :Brow:
low 12's no problem! BUT THEN WHAT? Maybe that ATI ProCharger or JUICE? I used those replacement stamp steel rockers from TA on that skylark I built Rob and had it going 11.70's in the summer heat shifting at 5800. The rocker set has been holding up great!. Maybe you need a new lucky rabbits foot? The cam was a COMP 230/244 .501/.501 112 l/c in his car. I just got rid of a good set of 28x10.5 M/T for $150. They would have worked great for you. :Brow: If I was back I could have probably gotten you a pair of good used slicks cheep. 10.5 tire racers change there tires ever couple of races with good tread on them still. I went through 3 sets just keeping up with rules.
PRO TORQUE? I looked at there web site..... not much FOR ME there. It generally dealt with stock and entry level Racing stuff around 500-600 hp and that was under there race converter section. I guess I wiil have to call to get a better idea of what they have for high HP/Nitrous applications. Its not the HP thats giving me problems it the torque and the low rpm range. Most high HP Chevys turn up to 7500rpm+ which is a big difference when it comes to converter setup. But I am not a converter guy so I just keep calling collecting info. Thanks guys for all the input! :TU:
