What are your off season upgrades?

The racing season is coming to an end for most people in Northern states. What does everyone have planned for Off Season upgrades? New goals for next year?

I just want to get my car running again. If possible, I'd like to add more to my RacePak date logging abilities. My other goal is to run the 3 race points deal at Brainerd, for the Manual Transmission class. I'm not one for points racing, but Brainerd is only 100 miles from my house, and the points racers are over long holiday weekends. We've always had fun at those events.

I also plan on cashing in on another dinner bet with HEMI Joel. One of my favorite pass times...

New wheels, I think the choice is down to these two. With the spokes done in color. Rears will now be 12". Then get the chrome on the rear bumper fixed, build 4" collectors, change the oil.
Doug

I vote for the first set Doug, but a set of Billet Specialties Dominator's would look awesome on your car, and look a little more nostalgic.

Upgrades? I suppose my whole project has been some form of upgrade or another. Haven't been making sh!t for progress lately, so taking off the last week this month to go bury myself in the garage and see how much closer to completion I can get.

No real upgrades. Just going to fix the carnage from the last outing; new gears in the Road Runner Dana 60, rear drum and planetaries in the 727, and new gears in the dragster Ford 9 inch. That will keep me busy for a week or two. Both engines are in great shape and require nothing new.

I need to shave some lbs off of the car and a few off of me. I also need to dig further into my cam swap and see if I need to go back to the old one or just move the cam around. I might make a post later with some details of both cams and the results.

The shortblock is still healthy with 4 drag weeks on the rings and rod bearings, I am not sure it has much left in the combo but It for sure has some weight to lose. Weight loss is about the only guaranteed gain we can get.

I like the top set also, those wheels are everywhere, but it is for good reason, they are nice looking wheels that are strong and light.

I'm going to try and fab up a set of my own fenderwell headers that will hopefully allow me to lower the front of the car some and not rub the tires. Going to freshen up the engine and trans as it's been a handful of years since that's been done. I have all the parts on hand, so may wait until early 2023 and see what my track is going to offer class wise to determine what kind of ET I want to achieve. I'm thinking of doing a cam swap and possibly lowering the compression some to be in a safer range to run pump gas. Other than that just give the car a good inspection and should be go in the spring.

A bigger plate capable of a 300 shot!

Also agree on the wheels- the first ones pictured look really good.

RC Comps looks great too but may look a little out of place on a NSS car.



Compression and leakdown still good on it? A loose motor is a happy motor, lol

I'm still sorting through plans for mine. Definitely putting caltracs on it this winter, and rebuilding the front suspension- my Viking shocks for the front won't fit without pulling control arms off so I'll do uca bushings and balljoints at the same time. Also think I'm pulling the hvac box, and also hoping to swap to manual steering/brakes to reduce a little bit of weight.

Debating on motor work though, original plan was just swapping heads to ported E-Streets and reusing everything else, but if I swap headers I can fit Trick Flows... and if I'm going that far, it really could use a cam swap, and then might as well pull it for a quick freshening, and then I might as well turn it into a 512 with a lighter rotating assembly.

Might do the chassis stuff this winter, and then just jet the nitrous kit up next year to see if I can get it in the 10's without changing the heads, and then keep saving cash for a TF270 headed 512.

Go threw motor and clean out any debre from broken lifter. and replace damaged cam.
check bearings ect. Also try and find were the lost 50 hp went!!!!! New trans with clean neutral .

I want to scale the car and get the I/C set correctly.

Upgrades of which car, I have three?

Gonna do what money will allow me:
https://board.moparts.org/ubbthread...83267/re-updates-w-pics.html#Post3083267

Hoping to get the wife's new engine block home from the machine shop soon for her RoadRunner. That will be priority 1 to assemble and get it back in car. Should be fun next year. 505ci with trick flow 270 heads and sniper xflow efi.

For my '63, considering finally changing to either front disks, or all the way around from the current drums all the way around. Also, have a 4150 carb ordered, so I can be legal to race with my n/ss friends in the spring. The next motor I will worry about figuring out a dual carb deal.

Heck I am still trying to get my two engines together but been trying since March. One is really close the other I think has most the parts we have been waiting on coming soon. So maybe we can go racing next year

Hopefully not much ... I didn't have a good race season ( a few rounds here and there ) as the car had a few problems : blown head gasket after 40 runs so the motor had to come out again , its back in and running good and consistent ( I was r/u on Saturday ) had the 1/4 panel fixed that was " hit and ran " while at the track and did some front end work and got an alignment all before and during the season. I still have a few pro tree index races to go before the season ends if I don't have any problems I don't plan on changing anything over the winter except maybe a header change , routine maintenance and maybe have my black glass bumpers painted silver or something more chrome looking. If funds allow I will fix my broken 408 ( needs a crank and a rocker upgrade )

My project has been ongoing, but
Finish EFI wiring mock up
mount radiator and plumb
Mount fuel pump and plumb
Disassemble and paint areas as needed,
Final assembly
CHassis Dyno
Win some rounds !!!

Getting a glass windshield put back in the Valiant. The lexan has reached it's expiration date.

Want to put my other motor in. I keep thinking my $500 backup engine is getting tired.

Trans refresh and new converter.

It leaks down so good I borrowed another gauge to make sure mine was right lol. It has consumed some needle bearings but the only thing to ever show it was the oil pump. The mains got replaced in 2019 because they looked kind of funky like they were getting aeriated oil, well the pickup was cracked at the pump so it made sense. The rod bearings however looked fresh out of the box so they stayed.

I'm waiting on engine parts on two new motors, and motivation to finish the "new" 1965 S/P Dart so I can run some of the Northwest heads up no prep race late next year or the year after, God willing and the Creeks don't rise
I sold the 1970 Cuda S/P car in May of this year so no racing this year.
My wife's health and care are my #1 priority now

Putting in the roller cam this week with new rockers and springs.
Doing some sliders on the rear springs while the rear is out swapping the 4.10 to 3.23's
Might be putting the 5-speed back in with the low first gear so I don't miss the 4.10's
Might also clean the rats nest of wiring under the dash but that might turn into re-wiring the whole car.

Gus

Gonna wait and see if scrap prices go up!!

hoping a aftermarket front end.but everyone is 10 weeks out or more.this one guy on face book wont even talk to m,e about one.almost given up and just deal with a stock frontend

Most likely I will continue to discover more wonderful workmanship from the previous owner of my green turd, including the most recent gem... 8.5 degrees of negative pinion angle...

The way things are going, my only upgrade will be a spinal fusion

Freshen up my Road Runner motor: rings, bearings, no big changes., Build new short block for my Son's Duster: currently 357" Gen 3 Hemi with a Fogger. Been best of 5.23 @ 130mph in Limited 235 trim. Going to 427". Also, try to shed some weight out of the car, if time allows. Currently 110 lbs overweight. With more cubes and shedding some weight, it should get us in the high 4.90's /5.0 range, where the class is. Also, in the midst of getting a new 30 x 50 garage put up for SteffCo Racing & Fabrication's world headquarters.

I retired earlier this year and the plan was to do more racing, waiting for parts put paid to that but we did manage to do the last 2 meetings this last season. We have just about all the parts to rebuild our 655 motor and shoot for the bottom 9's @ 4000+lbs. Once we got a handle on that we are likely going to put a fogger kit on it. We have an old Holley / NOS 2 stage controller and a couple of 10lb bottles hanging around, we just need the solenoids, tubing, nozzles etc.
We are also moving house to be closer to the track and will be also upgrading the property with a bigger garage / workshop so we'll likely have to take time out of next season to sort that

Changing from FAST EFI to Holley .

Only thing I’d like to do is upgrade my 904…. but we’re at 84 passes and no troubles “yet”. I really don’t race enough anymore to justify upgrades. Wish I wouldn’t have sold my good 727. I’d like to throw that back in along with my one converter that put us in a consistency loop that printed time slips like no other.

I just hope to get the cuda back to the track again once before Christmas. I'm gonna go to Darlington to get a 1/4 mile timeslip out of it. The only project I'm working on is a Chevy.

Didn't you just sell the 727 a couple months ago???

Good headers to replace the small 1 5/8 headers currently on my stroker
1.6 intake rockers
Freshen 904
Adjust convertor to current combo
Fab some sort of “ guide” to help with intermittent alt belt coming off issue.

Just want to get the new (Indy -1) engine finished and in the Valiant. There is some paint/body detailing it will get. I may mock-up some Predator headers.

I've got a pretty good list...Re cert/replace most of my safety gear, Shorten header upsweeps (they hit the door opening/cables), replace bearings and races in the converter, New heim joints in the four link, body and paint repair, New tires front and rear. Not so much upgrades just stuff that needs doing.

Coronet:
Go through the motor and make sure everything is ship/shape. A little bit of trans work.

Stocker:
Full rewire, ignition, racepak, trans, shifter, fuel system, cooling system... time to bring it to the 21st century

Thanks,
Casey FJ

Heck that things only got 50 passes. And as you know a racepac is illegal. Besides you're already plenty faster than me.
Doug

Looking forward to see just how good a motor my mate ends up building re the 700hp 400 stroker thread on here. With some weight loss to around 3600lbs, hopefully the new 493/496 wedge motor will make a shade over the 700hp mark which should see it go from a best of 11.06@121 with the 440 to 9.90's@135 next season which would be cool and a result for him after spending mucho $$$$ on the motor, a Dana and a built converter etc.

Was probably 6mos or so….. the new owner grenaded his engine so I tried to “stimulate his economy” by buying it back. No bueno….

My next step is to perhaps try having a 904 converter set up on the loose side to try and replicate my 727 piece. My one 6200 8” would go 1.34 60 EVERYWHERE! Made the car incredibly predictable. I think I’m done with trophy timeslips

Hey now! We have about 70 on it haha. Just taking a look at it and making sure everything is good. No real changes to it. Wish I could find 200lbs to take out of the car! lol

The Racepak is legal in stock. It is going in the wagon so we can get some eyes on what's going on. Hoping to find a tenth or 2 over the winter.

Thanks,
Casey FJ

The Hefty - Wax it - cover it up and put the battery tender on it ! Oh and change the ignition out to something a little more modern - and fix my brake lights!

The other one the Challenger 1320 - Time to get stupid with it .......

I’m hoping to get to the track before the end of the season, we have 3 more weekends of Lebanon and Island is open into November, but I don’t really want to go to Island (shut down is short) and I don’t want to go in November. Last time I went in November the air was good but the track was just too cold.

I’d like to get a good time slip for my car as is before I start my winter upgrades, which is going from 440Source stealth heads with shot valve guides to some TF 270s.

Making a switch from 4.10's to 4.30's , trying to get some 60' back.

hopefully installing the new [to me] refreshed 440 in my charger.
a simple combination, slightly reworked rpm heads, 590 purple cam, eagle crank and rods, with 11:1 ross pistons.
2" TTI pipes, 3 1/2" to an x pipe, then 3" out the back.
a 4k converter and a reverse manual valve body with a brake. [although i'm not sure i'll be using it.]
with 3.91 gears and 29x12.50 hoosiers, i'm hoping this heavy thing will go low 12's at the airport drags.

Have you thought of making the low gear ratio steeper?
I did, went from stock 2.45 to a Mopar direct connection set of 2.77 low gear ratio, and my car really like it a lot
The starting line ratio has a big effect on every part of the race

Cab...actually thought about it a few months ago when i was in the transmission with the hope of increase the SLR and keep my top end mph, according to Wallace my current SLR is 10.05. And now that i m thinking about just gearing it for the 1/8 mi and keeping at that for now, who knows maybe I'll change doing the cold months .

Building a strut front end, getting rid of the transverse torsion bars, probably switching to m1, hopefully lose about 300lb or so

I made the switch from 4.10s to 4.30s in my Dart and I saw no difference but that was with my stroker motor with 502 lbs of torque because the 4.88s I had were too much with the rpms to high at the stripe. I now have my " small " 367 c.i. motor in and still run the 4.30s it could really use more gear I have 4.88s but the car is running and leaving good so the 4.30s might just stay in. A lot has to do with if the tracks around here switch to 1/8 mile from 1/4 as a lot of tracks are then the 4.88s would really be beneficial.

Might change her name

I have some very difficult decisions to make. 2 jet sizes or 4!!! Birdtracker

Try to finish last seasons upgrades.

Improve the rate, at which funds, get deposited into my racing expenses portfolio.

now that's the best upgrade ever !

No doubt! My operation has sat 95%, since 2007. I’m sick of sitting. Everything is race ready, just not enough $$. ☹️

Probably the biggest reason of several that I haven’t been in a hurry on my heads up car. I want to race weekly and can do that with my black duster. I don’t have the money to play with those sharks and it’s rough being a one man show. Thank God almost everything I need for this winter is sitting here or paid for already. Except I would like to have a spare duplicate of the converter I’m running. A few porting jobs will help start building next years racing funds.

I recently finished driving a potato harvest in a M1070. Quite the experience, and it put cash into my pocket.

Carb is coming off and sending back to Dale Cubic this month; changing fuel setup from VP Q16 fuel to applicable nitrous-friendly fuel.

Install Safecraft Fire System.

For the Challenger I would like to go to Holley EFI with twin Dominator throttle bodies from carburetors. For the Roached Runner I plan on some more performance upgrades for this is sleeper. Upping the jets sizes in both stage on the NOS also.