Need Some Help....

My Van is set up for S/G and S/ST, but I would like to run the 6.50 Index Class, which is popular around here.

The 6.50 Index Rules mean no throttle stops, delay boxes or timers. Since RPM Shifters are OK, that's what I plan to try.

Since my old set up was using a stop and timers, I have no good starting point. I will be starting from scratch trying to determine the RPM shift points. My first attempt was at South Georgia Motorsports Park (6.15 and a 6.17 using different shift points and chipping the motor down to 4500 off the line).



SGMP

..............60'...330'...660'....MPH..CHIP.SHIFT
1st Run 1.389 3.946 6.154 110.19 4500 6300
2ndRun 1.379 3.963 6.176 110.55 4500 5900



Gainesville was my 2nd test.


1stRun 1.597 4.462 6.759 107.42 3800 4800
2ndRun 1.586 4.457 6.760 107.04 3800 4800
3rdRun 1.413 3.987 6.194 111.02 3800 5800
4thRun 1.462 4.248 6.527 108.41 3800 5100


For a baseline, I lowered the starting line RPM Chip to 3800 and the shift point to 4800. The second pass I didn't change a thing so hopefully I would get a good baseline. Thinking it would give me a nice thousand ratio, I raised my shift point to 5800 for the 3rd pass. Then after the run I remembered I ran very similar run I had 2 weeks earlier. For the 4th run, I used 5100 as a shift point, and ran a 6.52, which is close to the target Index.




Fine tuning is now the problem because:

1. The chipped down motor at the start makes it hard to catch a 0.4 light.

2. A 100 RPM shift point may change ET almost a tenth. 100 is the smallest increment of adjustment on the RPM Box.




Possible Solutions I may try:

1. Put 4.88 gears back in to get off the line quicker.

2. Put 1.96 gearset in Glide.

3. Take some throttle out and run at 80% open.


Do you have any ideas or suggestions?


Setup: Van weighs 2700 lbs, with a DRAM built 496 low deck, making just under 700 hp, 1.76 Glide with 4.1 gears in the Dana, 14 x 32SS M/T