67greengt
08-05-2006, 01:01 AM
Hello,
Just got back from a bit of a road trip. Went away for a couple days to a buddy's cabin and took the car for a rip.
Here are the changes from last year:
Randalls power rack and pinion (with his pump)
Custom FPA headers
Hydraulic clutch
TKO600 w/ .64 overdrive
Custom driveshaft
Swapped out the 4.11 locker and replaced it with a 3.5 strange tru trac diff
Holley 4150 750cfm Street HP with mechanical secondaries
Complete custom stereo in trunk with cd/mp3 player in the glove box
Comments/Thoughts
The trip was just over 100 miles long, so not encredibly long but enough to get a good feel for all the changes.
Headers
Great fit, and seems to breath even better, now have 1-3/4" primaries.. car is noticeably louder at any given rpm. Bottom end power seems a little better.
Steering
Had a bit of an issue with the steering intermediate shaft running into one of the header tubes, so I ended up lowering the rack about 1/4" to clear the steering shaft. To my surprise I didn't notice any bump steer issues after lowering the rack. The front end alignment still needs some tweaking, but this is my fault. When I took the car into the alignment shop I had no driveshaft in the car so he couldn't take it for a test drive.. Will be going back shortly. I think the steering shaft might still be hitting the header at full lock to lock?? Making some odd noises? Seems to have good feel at all speeds. Can't really give a 100% review on it yet because the front end isn't quite right yet...
Hydraulic clutch
This was a real PITA to get to work. I copied the jmc kit exactly and for w/e reason with my setup I couldn't get enough travel out of the slave to fully disengage the clutch. I was getting about 1-1/8" travel at best. I swapped out the CNC slave for a replacement slave with a 3/4" bore to match the master and am now getting about 1-1/2" of travel. To my surprise this wasn't enough either. I had to pre load the t/o bearing about 1/4" of inch to get it to work. This is how I've been driving it lately but have since got a bigger 7/8" master that will hopefully solve my problems. It looks like I need about 1-3/4" to fully disengage the clutch and give me some freeplay in the bearing. Because of the way the clutch is now it seems to be slipping...
Tranny
This has got to be the biggest and most noticeable change. Before I had a 4speed close ratio toploader with 4.11 gears. I couldn't take it anywhere reved too high! I did intend to race the car longer thus the reason for this setup, but after breaking many parts and tossing the racing idea I soon realized that this current gear ratio setup was not a good one for the street. The 5 speed not only shifts way shorter, smoother and crisper and the gear ratios seem to fit the motor perfectly. In 5th gear at 2000rpm I'm doing 70mph... Mileage wise, I went from about 4mpg to 15 on that trip.. I'd still like to bring that up a little bit but it's a great starting point!
Custom driveshaft
Being that I put in the tko I had to shorten my existing driveshaft. Well I had two options to either shorten the old or get a new one made up. I ended up having one made so that if I ever decide to go back to stock I can just grab the old one.. also with the new driveshaft it's 3" tube with spicer 1350 joints, something I probably should have had when I was racing lol
Strange Tru Trac
After that racing thing I decided that the locker had to go, it wasn't very practicle with manual steering and all around street use so I swapped it out for a worm gear driven strange tru trac. I told the guy at strange that it was for a street car that I want to handle really well and still be able to make straight line use out of the motor. He said this worm gear setup is the strongest and there's no clutches to wear out... only downfall is that they are a little noiser that the averarge posi unit. The car is quite load anyways and so I thought this was a no brainer. It is a little noisy but I'm not sure if its the gear setup or the posi.. more miles will determine possibly.
Gear ratio
Obviously the 4.11's wern't very practicle for any type of highway driving so I put in some richmond 3.5's. Matched with the tko600 I think it's like coming off the line with 4.05's.. so it's quite comparable. Top end is quite insane with the 3.5's and .64 overdrive. I got the car up to 100mph cruisin at about 3000rpm!!
Holley 4150 street hp
I used to run a 750 that was re worked and bench flowed to flow 850 and while at full throttle it took it all with no bogging, however around town it would soak the rings, causing sealing issues..
With the 750 it seems to be a better balance but I still think it may be a tad rich... This is where I'm hoping to get some more mileage... I know that you make more power generally when the motor is towards the lean side but I also know that its far safer to run a little rich... I think I'll start going jetting down one step at a time. I had some o2 bungs welded into both exhaust collectors, specifically for getting a/f ratios.
Stereo
I've always loved listening to good music a little on the loud side, and now with the 5speed and lower operating rpms I can actually appreciate the sound quality that the system puts out..
Future plans
Well I was going to get some 18's and get a coil over suspension but I think I've spent way too much on the car lately and am going to drive the car as much as I can and get some use out of it.. something I haven't done so well in the last few years. I will be swapping out the master for the bigger one here soon and then maybe play with the jetting a bit... other than that its good to go. Hopefully another road trip is in store shortly
Thanks and hope you liked the reviews
Tom
Just got back from a bit of a road trip. Went away for a couple days to a buddy's cabin and took the car for a rip.
Here are the changes from last year:
Randalls power rack and pinion (with his pump)
Custom FPA headers
Hydraulic clutch
TKO600 w/ .64 overdrive
Custom driveshaft
Swapped out the 4.11 locker and replaced it with a 3.5 strange tru trac diff
Holley 4150 750cfm Street HP with mechanical secondaries
Complete custom stereo in trunk with cd/mp3 player in the glove box
Comments/Thoughts
The trip was just over 100 miles long, so not encredibly long but enough to get a good feel for all the changes.
Headers
Great fit, and seems to breath even better, now have 1-3/4" primaries.. car is noticeably louder at any given rpm. Bottom end power seems a little better.
Steering
Had a bit of an issue with the steering intermediate shaft running into one of the header tubes, so I ended up lowering the rack about 1/4" to clear the steering shaft. To my surprise I didn't notice any bump steer issues after lowering the rack. The front end alignment still needs some tweaking, but this is my fault. When I took the car into the alignment shop I had no driveshaft in the car so he couldn't take it for a test drive.. Will be going back shortly. I think the steering shaft might still be hitting the header at full lock to lock?? Making some odd noises? Seems to have good feel at all speeds. Can't really give a 100% review on it yet because the front end isn't quite right yet...
Hydraulic clutch
This was a real PITA to get to work. I copied the jmc kit exactly and for w/e reason with my setup I couldn't get enough travel out of the slave to fully disengage the clutch. I was getting about 1-1/8" travel at best. I swapped out the CNC slave for a replacement slave with a 3/4" bore to match the master and am now getting about 1-1/2" of travel. To my surprise this wasn't enough either. I had to pre load the t/o bearing about 1/4" of inch to get it to work. This is how I've been driving it lately but have since got a bigger 7/8" master that will hopefully solve my problems. It looks like I need about 1-3/4" to fully disengage the clutch and give me some freeplay in the bearing. Because of the way the clutch is now it seems to be slipping...
Tranny
This has got to be the biggest and most noticeable change. Before I had a 4speed close ratio toploader with 4.11 gears. I couldn't take it anywhere reved too high! I did intend to race the car longer thus the reason for this setup, but after breaking many parts and tossing the racing idea I soon realized that this current gear ratio setup was not a good one for the street. The 5 speed not only shifts way shorter, smoother and crisper and the gear ratios seem to fit the motor perfectly. In 5th gear at 2000rpm I'm doing 70mph... Mileage wise, I went from about 4mpg to 15 on that trip.. I'd still like to bring that up a little bit but it's a great starting point!
Custom driveshaft
Being that I put in the tko I had to shorten my existing driveshaft. Well I had two options to either shorten the old or get a new one made up. I ended up having one made so that if I ever decide to go back to stock I can just grab the old one.. also with the new driveshaft it's 3" tube with spicer 1350 joints, something I probably should have had when I was racing lol
Strange Tru Trac
After that racing thing I decided that the locker had to go, it wasn't very practicle with manual steering and all around street use so I swapped it out for a worm gear driven strange tru trac. I told the guy at strange that it was for a street car that I want to handle really well and still be able to make straight line use out of the motor. He said this worm gear setup is the strongest and there's no clutches to wear out... only downfall is that they are a little noiser that the averarge posi unit. The car is quite load anyways and so I thought this was a no brainer. It is a little noisy but I'm not sure if its the gear setup or the posi.. more miles will determine possibly.
Gear ratio
Obviously the 4.11's wern't very practicle for any type of highway driving so I put in some richmond 3.5's. Matched with the tko600 I think it's like coming off the line with 4.05's.. so it's quite comparable. Top end is quite insane with the 3.5's and .64 overdrive. I got the car up to 100mph cruisin at about 3000rpm!!
Holley 4150 street hp
I used to run a 750 that was re worked and bench flowed to flow 850 and while at full throttle it took it all with no bogging, however around town it would soak the rings, causing sealing issues..
With the 750 it seems to be a better balance but I still think it may be a tad rich... This is where I'm hoping to get some more mileage... I know that you make more power generally when the motor is towards the lean side but I also know that its far safer to run a little rich... I think I'll start going jetting down one step at a time. I had some o2 bungs welded into both exhaust collectors, specifically for getting a/f ratios.
Stereo
I've always loved listening to good music a little on the loud side, and now with the 5speed and lower operating rpms I can actually appreciate the sound quality that the system puts out..
Future plans
Well I was going to get some 18's and get a coil over suspension but I think I've spent way too much on the car lately and am going to drive the car as much as I can and get some use out of it.. something I haven't done so well in the last few years. I will be swapping out the master for the bigger one here soon and then maybe play with the jetting a bit... other than that its good to go. Hopefully another road trip is in store shortly
Thanks and hope you liked the reviews
Tom