Drag Racing Discussions > Front Engine Dragsters

Power+weight+time.

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Curly1:

--- Quote from: dreracecar on January 19, 2019, 05:00:58 PM ---These days  Engine angle has zero affect unless you were way out of the park to begin with. Engine angle is the result of the relationship to how far the motor is out from the rear end to the front oil pan clearence. We are raising the front of the motor these days so that you dont tear up the diaper.  Building a new chassis right now, motors out 55" and the crank snout is 10" of the deck, I dont care what the motor angle is

--- End quote ---

That is my thinking but part of reason I am changing engine and is to keep from tearing up pan and diaper. I really think my biggest problem is too much weight up front for my combination. Thanks,

Paul New:

--- Quote from: Curly1 on January 19, 2019, 03:19:45 PM ---I would like for others in particular Jon Hayden to add front weights as I think it is critical to making these animals work. Mine was 1730 with 389 on front and simply was not hooking up. So it is back at chassis shop making a bunch of changes. We are moving weight back and changing engine angle from 2.7 down to .5 approx.

--- End quote ---

The actual weight on my car is 1795lbs with 432lbs on the nose

AF150:
Our combination: 200" FED, 365 cu. in. Blown Chrysler on alcohol. Engine level and 44" out. Weighed 1680 ready to race (1260 rear, 420 front). Ran on a 4.65 sec. 1/8th mile index. With 6-71 running 10% underdrive, we run the number @ 150mph. Same set-up ran 7.30s in 1/4 mile @ 180mph. Guess we were making around 850 hp but what was really important was tires, converter and starting line RPM. Good 60' time is
needed. Ours was around 1.10 sec.   I think 140" WB is too short for a serious FED these days considering tire,engine, trans/converter/clutch technology available now.

JrFuel Hayden:
" Simply not hooking up" is more complicated than car weight vs front end weight. Our 1435 lb car has 320 lb front end weight.
If you are running a poweglide you may have too tight of a converter , the looser the stall,  the easier it hits the tire , you might have too high a 1'st gear like 1.90-1.80, we have a 1.68 1'st gear, your engine combo could have a high torque set up,  again it will hit the tire hard, you could be hitting the wheely bar and unloading the slicks, your slicks could be too old and hard. Also rim width makes a difference, we ran 10" wide on 12" wide slick [ max for our JF class] then moved to 11" rim , then again moved to 12" rim as I changed the power
And you thought you were asking an easy question ?

Curly1:
Wow! Thanks for the responses! I hope this does not side track original post too much but here we go. I do have a powerglide with 1.80 gears. 4.30 rear gear and 6400 stall, shift at 7600 peak horsepower is 760 @ 7500 RPM. New 3074 MT tire 14 x 32 and it is not hitting wheelie bar. Same motor, tire, transmission and rear gear worked great in my 1800 Lbs 125 inch altered. In the new 225 inch dragster spins, hooks, spins. Front tires pop up maybe an inch then right back down. I think it needs to have enough power or weight moved that it can carry front wheels out a ways to keep rear tires planted. This car may work perfect with 300 more horsepower?  I started off with 389 lbs on the front and it did not work so I moved stuff around and was able to get it to 369 on the front and it seemed to help a little but not nearly enough. So now it is chassis shop again and trying some things different. Moving battery back to back of car. Making new smaller fuel cell and moving it back maybe 6 feet.  Hoping that I can get front weight down around 320 lbs much more than that would require major changes just not worth it. (Cheaper than adding 300 HP!) I am running a 5.0 1/8 mile index and the et is right but I need to make car hook consistently every time.
So here is my thinking and tell me if I am wrong. My thinking is with a 225 inch chassis (lever) it is very critical to have the power and weight right to make it work.  I am also thinking with the longer chassis it needs to be lighter up front to work right unless you have a lot of power.

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