We'll move on to the rest of the car now, starting with the torque convertor. I have a 10 inch Coan convertor with a 4,200 stall, its the anti-ballooning model. This means that when you hit the NOS your torque convertor doesn't expand like a balloon and destroy itself. I will likely send this convertor back to Coan, have them cut it open, flush it out, then weld it back up. All precautionary, but when you spend $700 on a convertor I'd rather spend a small chunk of change to ensure its up to snuff before shredding it like my last convertor. From there we move on to the transmission. I have a TH400 which I had a guy up near Mount Pleasant build up. I'm fairly abusive to parts and this seemed to be holding up just fine. Just in case, I have the TH350 that it replaced I could use as a back up. At first I thought I burned up that transmission, the first I had ever rebuilt. However, after removing it along with the torque convertor I realized that it was actually the torque convertor that came apart. There were all sorts of parts rattling around inside it when I limped the car home from the dragstrip. When I flushed out the tranny the fluid appeared fine, no metallic look to the fluid at all nor did it smell burnt. So for now I'll keep it as is just in case.
From there I have the driveshaft that came with the car when I bought it. I had it cut, rebalanced, and bigger u-joints installed. I will be buying a new drive shaft before getting it back on the road, possibly aluminum, if it can handle that much power. For a rear end I have a 12 bolt chevy, which I'm still undecided what I'm going to do with. I keep debating whether or not I want to switch over to a more durable but less efficient Ford 9 inch, or stick with my tried and true 12 bolt. If the 12 bolt remains, I will be upgrading to C-clip eliminators as well as either a Detroit Locker Tru-Trac or a full spool. New beefier axles will also be in store with more splines.
As for the suspension, I think I will pretty much be leaving the rear alone. I have stock leaf springs with poly bushings, KYB performance shocks, and Southside Machine lift bars. This setup was good for 1.700 60 foot times. Just to give you an idea of how fast that is, I'll put it in terms more people can relate to. I figured it up a few years ago, this setup I had went 0-60 mph in the 3 second range. Looking at my timeslips just now, in 7.5 seconds I was going 94 mph. In 11.76 I was crossing the finish line at 116 mph. 1.700 is fairly good for the tire I was running. If I were to have screwed the tires to the rim to prevent them from spinning, as well as swapped out the front shocks and springs, I probably could have cut a good .1 off that 60 ft. As a rule of thumb, for every .1 you can cut off your 60 ft time you gain about .5 seconds in your 1/4 mile time. As proof, when I had my old convertor my best 60 ft time was 1.8 seconds and 1/4 mile time was 12.3 seconds. The convertor was not loose enough to allow the engine to get up to its 3,800 rpm's for its powerband. The convertor was around a 3,000 stall and made this 500 hp engine fall on its face coming off the line. I could actually watch the rpm's spike, then drop off before rising. So the rear suspension will stay put aside from some stickier tires.
I will likely get some adjustable drag shocks for up front, though am reluctant to get different springs as I really love the current stance of the car. The sway bar will likely be dropped out, if it handles too poorly I'll just yank it when going to the track. The heavy cast iron steering box will be replaced with a light weight rack and pinion unit. After that, I'm really running out of areas to drop weight off this car. I had recorded the weight of my car in my Bracket Racing book at 3,420 lbs, so with the addition of the roll cage, then subtracting weight for aluminum heads, rack and pinion, and other stuff I should be able to get it in the 3,250-3,300 range.
As for the interior, I had purple plush house carpet in before that matched the exterior color, I will be replacing it with the same. I have Autometer Phantom gages for the Speedometer, Tach, gas, volt, oil, and water. I will likely be adding fuel and nitrous pressure as well. I removed the console replaced it with a B&M Megashifter. The door panels and dash I will likely custom make, though I haven't started thinking about that yet.
The electrical harness is all new and just a matter of reinstalling it. I already have a light weight high torque mini starter and my battery is located in the trunk to drop weight off the nose and add it where its needed for traction. I have an aluminum radiator which is the biggest I can physically fit in the car, a 4 electric fan setup keeps things cool, as does a mini cooler mounted in the grill which serves as my transmission cooler. I will also be losing the brake booster and likely going with a manual brake set up. The front will be an upgraded disc brake setup from the disc brakes it has. For the rear I will keep the drums, as they are a lighter setup and serve the purpose just fine.
From there I'm seriously running out of areas to drop weight. I have pondered a glass deck lid as well as a plexiglass rear window, though losing weight in the rear of the car is an area that many racers actually add ballist weight for better traction. For this reason I may leave my rear seat in as well, which probably comes in at around 60 lbs or so. Aside from that, thats about it. See, now that doesn't sound like so much to get done by summer does it? Until you go adding up the cost of all the parts that is. Thats what puts the damper on the whole thing.
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