calming the car down on the starting line

[hotrod316]

converter?   

[afaulk]

I have a home built chassis. Its 185", 4.30 gear, 1.69 low in trans, 33x10.5w, 370" Blown SBC, about 900 hp. 9", 5500 converter. We made a couple of test hits on the new chassis last fall and the car wanted to go right. This spring we made about 4 more test hits figuring out what it wanted. First I added 40 lbs to the nose (battery and fuel tank are up front also). Car was still going right at the hit. I raised the bar from 3" to 4.5" and added another 40 lbs to the nose. (the bar is about 66") the last three passes have been 4.90, and 4.80 with 1.09 sixty ft  and 4.75 with 1.08 sixty ft, leaving off idle and shifting at 6200. Oh and 7 psi in the slicks.      It sounds like your car is doing the same as mine did before adding the weight. Dont be afraid to add a weight bar. You've got to keep the front end down and you've got to get it up on the tire. Good luck! PS. Not sure how much faster I want to go...…..

[hemidakota]

Hemi Dakota, I had 7.5 lbs in them. I would have tried adding a pound or 2 but had forgot the air tank at home

The Dragster I have worked on and driven for years is a 185" mild steel fed. 565 bbc injected alky. We had to run 5 to 5.5 psi in the slicks with bar at about 2" to make it work and yes 33 x 10.5 m/t slicks. I am no pro but the higher pressures on a well prepped track killed us every time FWIW. 6200 converter also. It would 1.13 to 1.15 in 60'.

[crider]

Ok. Seems like some good suggestions here to try. Weather permitting I'm going to try to take it back to the track Friday night and play around with the timing and air pressure. I think I might try a lower launch rpm at some point too. If this doesn't work, who is a good source for a weight bar for the front axle?

[fuel749]

You could check with the guy that built your car if you're in need of a weight bar

[wideopen231]

Good luck and lets us know how it goes,straight hopefully.Well mostly straight,got have some reason for all the added weight in seat to be riding along.LOL

[masracingtd1167]

A couple of things you should check are the roll out of your tires ! No more than half an inch ! Have you checked your wheelie bar to see if it is straight ! The car should go straight even if the front wheels are in the air !Hope this helps you !

[dusterdave173]

We went through a spell where car would go left, maybe go right etc  Rollout was perfect wheelie bar centered But we discovered that the holes for wheelie bar adjustment pin were too sloppy--This tiny amount of slop allowed the wheel to tilt ever so slightly when it hit the pavement so sometimes straight sometimes right or left---the amount of slop in the entire setup was so small but when we precision re-drilled the holes and added a washer here or there --got the wheelie bar dead rigid it solved our issues 
We also never center it from the tires--we always pull wheel and go from edge of brake rotor or axle flange and make it dead on centered

Low launch RPM helped our car out a ton as well

[wideopen231]

So what happened with car?

[crider]

I made it out to the track last night, Car was still not going straight but at least it was predictable. It was carrying the front wheels and drifting to the right. Kept working with the tire pressure and wheelie bar and it was getting better. Last pass something crapped out in the ignition, and it lost a lot of power but it went straight. Not sure if I finally had it lined out or if it due to the loss of hp though. Guess I'll give it another shot in a week or two 

[Curly1]

I made it out to the track last night, Car was still not going straight but at least it was predictable. It was carrying the front wheels and drifting to the right. Kept working with the tire pressure and wheelie bar and it was getting better. Last pass something crapped out in the ignition, and it lost a lot of power but it went straight. Not sure if I finally had it lined out or if it due to the loss of hp though. Guess I'll give it another shot in a week or two

So are you putting more air in right rear?

[crider]

Yes. It seemed to be helping until the MSD box went

[JrFuel Hayden]

I agree, add at least 20 lbs to the nose, because the front is slaming up, hitting the WB and unloading the slicks. If you set the WB around 1 1/2-2" a flxable WB should more gently push the fron down. But you may discover you need to add more weight to the nose. That's all about the engine location, you could run less nose weight if you motor was out 46" +. Back in the day TF cars ran the motors out 36" BUT that was before VHT, and they smoked the tires, ie before slipper clutches. The trick JrFuel cars are running 48-52" out now in order to keep the tires spinning some, so they don't dead-hook and puul the motor down below your HP rpm range.
We run our JF powerglide with a 1.68 1'st gear to hit the tires softer, plus the trans ratio is closer to the 1 to 1 of hi gear.
The other thing that has helped us on traction is we run a looser converter, [ now 8500-8700, but my next one will be 8900-9000] it hits the tires softer, and allows the engine to get up to the HP rpm.
A good goal for picking the stall is 1000-1500 below your shift point, but best is to send a dyno run to your converter guys , I highely recomment A-1, they have a lot of FED experience and customers. Again JF rules limit us to 12" wide tires, we run 33 & 31 tall tires. we have tried 33x10.5x15 MT tires too running 7+ pressure, mostly because the MT have stiffer sidewalls designed for 10.5 door cars but our best ET's have been with the Goodyear 31x12x15, at around 5 1/2 to 6 lbs.
BTW Hayden wheels are now dealers for Goodyear and M&H slicks.
I hope this helps

[wideopen231]

Curious as to why the 10.5 tire? While I understand motor is not a balls to the wall combo,it still should have butt load of TQ and good hp. Not saying wrong( because I know nothing about tuning FED) just wondering why not more tire.  Does not seem to hurting your hooking car up now that I asked question.LOL

[Paul New]

Curious as to why the 10.5 tire? While I understand motor is not a balls to the wall combo,it still should have butt load of TQ and good hp. Not saying wrong( because I know nothing about tuning FED) just wondering why not more tire.  Does not seem to hurting your hooking car up now that I asked question.LOL

Are you talking about Jon’s car or the original post?  If it Jon’s his car is an all out heads up class car!