New best 1/4 Friday night

Went to Darlington Friday night for test and tune. After having issues at Rockingham last month. I wanted to see if I had a decent setup to keep the front down and go faster.
My first pass off the trailer was an 8.74 @ 156.4 mph w/ a 1.35 sixty foot. A personal best 1/4 mile ET for me! The front only came up about a 8-12" and carried them out nicely. Not exactly sure what tripped the 60' beam.
The car felt soft down low to me on the 1st run, so I decided to bring the nitrous in a little quicker for the 2nd run. Instead of a .4 sec delay and a 1.4 sec ramp, I shortened it to a .2 sec delay and 1.1 sec ramp. This resulted in a big wheelstand. It came down nice and smooth after I pedaled it and it ran 8.94 @ 155.5 mph w/ a 1.45 sixty foot on the back tires.
So for the 3rd pass I lengthened the ramp back out to 1.45 sec, same .2 sec delay. This resulted in another big wheelstand, but got the oil pan on the way back down. No other damage thankfully.

I have some ideas on what to do next and I may have been thinking about it all wrong. Going to talk it over w/ people who have been faster and know more than me, lol.
I have been quicker in the 1/8 mile than what it ran on the 8.74 pass, so I know it has more in it. Stopping this sled (3800 lbs) from 156 mph was interesting. It did OK, but not something I want to do much of. This car really needs a lot of updates (parachute, brakes, chassis, etc.) if I continue this route, but it isn't as much of a problem running 1/8 mile only.
The front shocks are DA Vikings and are set fully tight on rebound.

Here's a pic from the 2nd run. Somewhere over 100' out. It came down around 200' out or so. There are videos on Facebook that a friend got of all 3 runs, but I don't know how to link them here (I'm at work).
The last pics are the damage from the 3rd run's landing. The 440 source fab'd pan help up pretty well I thought.

https://russlerii.com/

Should be your next purchase...

Nice runs! Are you running biased slicks or radials?

Wow, I remember when this was just a 10 second 'Cuda!

Awesome work .
Just wondering what rear gear and controller are you using ? I have an old(ish), NOS (Holley) 2 stage controller with a little screen. I haven't used it yet as we were looking to do some upgrades before fitting the N2O (9" and TH400 type box) along with the 655 but it looks like it should do the job. We're hoping to go mid 8's with it all scienced out but who knows

HMMMMM , less first gear in the trans??

move some weight forward?

SOunds great, congrats on a bad a$$ street car

Nice work! Thanks for the update.

As far as stopping the wheelstands my vote is for revalving or replacing the front shocks.

I had my AFCO 3850s revalved a couple years ago after I put mine on the bumper, and made a milodon pan into a low profile just like you did, and I can literally lock the front end down to zero movement.

nice pass , that is a big wheel stand ..

Jerico...yessir, it's on the to do list.

TheOtherDodge...thanks! I'm on 295-65 radials.

GY3...that was an expensive 2 seconds, lol.

Tig...3.54 gear and a Leash progressive.

n20mstr...there are a few things I'm considering changing and trying. I'll get a plan together soon. Have a lot going on this summer, so I'm not in a hurry to get back to the track. Sometime in the fall probably.

HardcoreB...

moparacer...When I bought these shocks I don't think Viking offered their "crusader" valving for their front shocks. I asked about it. Apparently now they do have stiffer valving for the fronts they sell. I need to give them a call. This last week was the first time getting a good pass w/ the shocks fully tight.

bigdad...thanks. Hopefully it won't happen again, lol.

That’s high, time for some wheelie bars.

Congrats, you now have a blueprint for what you want the car to do with that PB. Go back and work from there. I sure done appear you need all that pitch rotation to go fast and I think your results show that. MOve some weight, tie doen the front and get better shocks up front, and keep chipping away

Those videos sure got my attention...that car is more badass than ever.

Bad ass brother, 1.35 was surely with the back tires.

Does that thing ever blow the tires off at the hit ? It looks like it always goes up, I am sure you have checked the weight bias, and as far as wheelie bars my guess is the way it leaves now it would hit the bars hard and unload it. Doug

My old duster used to do big wheelies, it had a 6” dragster pan with draglink hole and kick out.
I added a small skid plate to the bottom of the K frame that hung just below the pan. It collected
a lot of rubber but never dented the pan. I also added limiters to help keep the nose down.
Went 1.25 60 ft but only 8.94 at 150… You’re making some steam. Nice car !

Chip awesome on the new PB, bummer on the pan.

I did'nt realise you went to a 3.54, when did you ditch the 4.10s, when you went on the bottle ?

Just wondering what RPM you're leaving at and what the rear shock setting are?

Gots to find another way to keep your front end down, the nitrous controller/ tune seemed to help but other than that and the shock settings (which I'm sure you've played with) what else can you try changing .....Cal Trac bars for IC changes, wheelie bars ?

Something else?

Not many street cars can say they leave like this one. Not many racecars either. Tightening the front shock valving helped me. With factory Afco valving if the front rebound was anywhere but full tight it would 60ft on the rear tires. When it did that it was always a .10 slower in 60ft with the same 330. However mine has a few things going for it. 113"WB. Iron block, so it's 54.5% on the nose. And wheelie bars. With your WB (108"?) the greatest mass (eng/trans) is closer to the rear axle. Even if it is 55% or more on the nose. Swap the battery to the front if it's not already there. That's a big weight shift in itself. Then take most of the travel out of the front first to see what happens. If it stiil wheelies, tighter front shock rebound may not help much.
Doug

what you have to remember, this is a radial tire car. Radials Dead Hook , that means the car wants to pitch rotate or go forward..... this car seems to want to pitch rotate. It needs more weight on the front and less SLR , thats it. Honestly with a radial tire the travel and tight shock only helps but its not going to 100% fix this wheelie problem

THis car needs , LESS SLR, and more weight on the front. THEN he can really get agressive on the ramp and go LOW 8's or mid to low?5's in the 1/8

Powerglide , or leave in 2nd gear, (2nd gear leave will require a converter change)
Move the battery forward, move the fuel cell up front, sneak the motor forward 3/4 of an inch, lighten the rear of the car, fiberglass trunk lid, fibergalss rear bumper anything to change the weight bias will help

rickraw...I really don't want to put wheelie bars on it. Some of the classes I run don't allow them.

Al...Yes, I guess I didn't realize just how well the car worked on the first run. All I saw was the slow (according to the numbers on the slip) 60 foot and immediately wanted to improve on that.

Zippy...thankyou!

John Burdine...Thanks! I've been really wanting to see a 1.2x 60 foot. Closest I've been is a 1.300.

Rodenteliminator...It hasn't done that in a while. As long as the track isn't decent, it'll hook. Not much gear, real tight converter, and leaving on motor...it's not making much right at the hit to get things planted. Then roll the power in.

B1duster...a skid plate might prove useful, lol. I'm leery of using limiters up front even though I do have some in the trailer to try. My thinking is if it still wheelies and comes down it'll have that much less cushion and really tear stuff up. But I know it's one of those things I just have to try and see and no one can tell me what's gonna happen.

LAD 524...Yes, I switched to the 3.54s not long after going to nitrous. It was completely unmanageable w/ the 4.10s. It just killed the tires or tried to stand straight up on less nitrous.
Leaving on the transbrake at 3k rpm. Rear shocks are 8 compression, 5 rebound...out of 18. 18 being the stiffest. I admit I haven't changed the rear shock settings after I got my initial tuning done when they were new. All I've changed are the front rebound settings. Gradually getting tighter until now I'm maxed out. I should try tightening the rear rebound, but I don't want to make too many changes at once. Plus I felt the front would offer more benefit from changes.

DVW...I will contact Viking and see if they can revalve my front shocks. Might as well see if that is even an option. I will also probably be moving the battery back up front. Thanks for the oil pan help too. I should have it back together this weekend.

n20mstr...I agree the SLR is a problem. It's also something I may just have to live with. I'm not changing transmissions. I may end up putting a 2nd gear leave VB in this 727, but a 1.45 gear w/ a nearly 3800 lb car might not work too well. There's also the possibility of changing to a 3.23 rear gear if Dr Diff ever has those available. Yes, I still have a Dana and no, I'm not changing to a 9". I'm not being stubborn or being a "purist". I'm being cheap b/c I simply don't care to spend a ton of money on this car anymore. I'll work w/ what I have within reason. I have more family oriented things I'd rather spend money on.
If I had the forethought way back when, it would already have a glide and a 9" under it.

I've been to the track 5 times in the last 3 years. Last year I only went to the track once and had ignition problems that kept me from making a good pass all day. Not a lot of runs to figure it out even though I've had this setup quite a while.
I'll make some small changes and see what happens. If it doesn't go much faster, so be it.

I totally understand NO money,

In that case, move the battery up front, and whatever else you can remove from the back to get the weight bias better. Just hang 20-50lbs on the front can do a lot. I think the weight will make a big difference.

Congratulations on new best. On a Radial hit it with more sooner, try to create a little wheel speed on launch. .002 on the controller makes a difference. Not so much as to blow the tires off though.

Congratulations on the new best, I have been watching your posts and watching the videos and you have a challenge. Doug

Like n20mstr said, weight is your friend. The battery might be enough. If not it will greatly help. My Valiant does the same thing. 20# goes a long way. I know it sounds counter productive but it will go faster .

Thanks yall!
The plan is to...
1. Get the front shocks revalved.
2. Move the battery back up front.
3. Hit it harder and earlier w/ the nitrous.
4. Hope the transmission doesn't $hit the bed.

Should have the car back together this weekend. Have to weld some bungs onto the oil pan for the oil sight tube, then I can reassemble everything. The bigger and better oil pan may even free up some power.
It will likely be a few months before I get back to the track though.