Hey guys,
I'm talkin to the older fellers.
How about you help out us young guys. I'm only 23 and can tune a holley in my sleep. But I know that some of you out there have some power secrets to get a few extra ponies out of a car.

I don't care if it's something like sticking 1 inch wood blocks under the hood hinge to make a poor man's cowl induction. I wanna hear it.

Some of you have well over 30 years experience with these cars and know some mean tricks. Help out the youngsters. Anything that'll make me go faster is appreciated.

Nitrous Oxide !!!

A big lead boot!!!FRED

Try putting icepacks (ice in ziplock bags) on your intake manifold to get it real cold before you race. Keep you engine off as much as possible just before you pull up into the lanes. Ever think about a cool can? (Fuel lines runs through a little can packed with ice...you can also put your cola in there to keep it cold for after the race). Might not make much of an impact on your ET but every little bit helps.

Chrome Coil Cover - guaranteed 11 bench racing MPH in quarter.
Check out recent Car-Craft issues, they have tried alot of em (like the wood blocks)
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[This message has been edited by 283v8 (edited 03-11-99).]

Contrary to popular belief...It it size that matters!!!

There are no "Silver bullets" for power (except nitrous). Unless you have an unlimited budget, power is gained a little bit at a time. Power is sapped from your engine by in a few key areas:
1) Accessories and fan: Whenever possible, underdrive your accessories (about 25% is usually acceptable for street cars) with pulleys available from Moroso or March. Whenever possible, run a clutch fan. It free-wheels when the engine is not very hot, and frees up power. Total for both, 10 to 12 hp.
2) Internal power sponges: High volume oil pumps are overrated, and can suck a stock depth oil pan dry. Use a stock pump and get back about 3 horse power, without running out of oil in the lights. If the budget allows, run roller rockers. Reduction in friction accounts for about 15 HP. Run the lightest valve springs possible (not so light as to allow valve float at Max RPM though) to keep friction at the cam to a mininum.
3) Intake air temperature and restriction: Run the largest air filter possible. A good K&N filter will gain 2-3 hp over a paper filter. A K&N stub stack is cheap and worth a horse or two. Always feed the filter housing cold air either from the cowl panel (preferred) or with twin 4" ducts from the front of the car. Worth .9% hp increase for every 10 degree drop in inlet air temperature. Block the exhaust crossover under the intake with thin stainless shim stock or get an intake gasket set that blocks the exhaust crossover. (Mr. Gasket and Felpro both offer these sets) The cool can idea previously mentioned by Doc Willis is a good idea, usually worth about 2 hp on a hot day.
The list could go on for days. All of this, of course is over and above the usual things like headers, head pocket porting, aluminum intakes and properly calibrated carbs and ignition. There is a lot more written about those than these little things. Good luck, and post a reply if you have any more specific questions.

Sean,

Thats what she said !!

I don't recommend this to anyone unless they've got money to burn and it's for dragstrip only in the final round and a heads up run when you desperately need a few hundredths. Some Stock and Super Stock racers would drain the lube from the rear end and trans (manual). This would get you to the finish line a hair quicker, but obviously there has to be some serious money up for grabs because gears and bearings don't like it. Also they sometimes don't put any more oil in the pan than necessary to maintain pressure during a run. Synthetic oil and gear lubes are a little quicker too. von

You all think this is crazy, which it is, but it works some. Did you know that Canned whipping cream stuff is charged with Nitrous Oxide. Really. Take out air filter and fill up bottom of air box on late model cars or shoot some around the rear of the air cleaner on older cars. The heat of the engine and the slight vacuum will draw out the gas. Try at own risk. I wouldn't try it for nothing, but hey it might work. Damn 30 years of hotrodding and that's all I got. anon

Now what were you really using the wipping cream for????????

Go on a diet. 20 pounds off your own body is equivalent to taking 20 pounds out of the car. Less weight=better e.t.

Never mind the diet, lop off an arm or leg, now there's some instant weight loss!

I don't remember where I heard this one.

A guy in an El Camino filled his tailgate with cement to redistribute the weight and try to get the car to hook better.

As Doc said, the ice on the intake trick will work to get a little more power, but be careful to put it in a bag like he said. One time I decided to try to get the absolute best time out of my car in a VC200 run, and one thing I did was pack ice around my intake. Only problem was, I packed it loose. At the end of the quarter, I let up but the car did not. An ice cube had wedged under the throttle linkage. After several seconds of stomping on the throttle, I got it to let up. I was rapidly running out of road at that point, I shudder to think what would have happened if I had pulled that bonehead move on a dragstrip!!

1 inch 4 hole carb spacer. My bro dynoed a 383 once and the 1 inch 4 hole spacer made 30ft lbs across the board. I have used one ever since. That is bang for the buck.

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RYAN REEVES
rreeves@lightspeed.net

skunky, your story about the cement in the el camino brings this story to mind..

a friend heard this from a friend so i could be a line of BS but supposedly some guy who used to drag race his el camino had it stripped to the frame, and had special lead weights installed in the box frame rails and when he'd pull up to the burn-out area, hes sorta slam the brakes to slide the lead forward so he could do a burnout, then when he would back up he would hit the brakes and the lead would slide backward toward the axle and give the extra needed weight to hook up..

you guys tell me, i dont even know what kind of frame the el camino has even though i have one.. plus, i dont know what year this car supposedly was


mike

1bad67, I hear ya, BOY do I hear ya!!!

I know the cement tailgate works well with 78-87 ECs and hair drier 6cyl plants!(fill it half way and don't be suprised it the gate rots out soon after!)

remove the hood, loses 60+lbs and cools air intake. with new found room fab up ram air set up with a snorkel scoop and plywoood airpan. i've known guys that have dropped .3 in the 1/8mi by modifying a 4 hole spacer into a 3 hole. i went from a 55lb. flywheel to a 14lb. aluminum, way quicker acceleration and i can no longer hookup! that weight difference is probably more than going to aluminum connecting rods! i bungeed 65lbs of ballast at the rear most part of the trunk(leverage), the tires grabbed much better and there's room for more. once it's out of the paintshop there'll be more testing!!

A one inch open spacer added to a open plenum single plane intake is usually worth 10-20 hp. Royal Purple Synthetic is worth a few also. A full length deep pan with a kickout can be worth a bunch. BB66

i used to use a vapor injector on a pontiac i had, it was a trick i heard the ww2 gas engine fighters used to make more power. it was like driving on a day when there is light fog. a noticeable power gain. the rpm's went up 300 and the car ran great. maybe someone could elaborate, but i think it has to do with the density of the air or moisture in it. john

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windage trays, oil pan, and under intake, crank scrapers, 160 degree termosat, syn. oil, ceramic coat headers, gutting catalitic converters, roller rockers, moth balls in the gas,(be careful), not shot, but old front wheel bearings, dry ice in a cool can, less belts as possible, or elec. water pump. the list to go on, and on. figure if you could pick up .001 to .01 in the quarter for each trick, if you know a couple hundred off the wall tricks?

Go to a small airport early in the morning or late at night (6:30 AM or 11:00 PM) Slip the lineboy (the guy who gasses the little airplanes) a few bucks to do you a favor - At each shift change or whenever they fill up the fuel trucks, they drain a couple of gallons of 100 octane avaition fuel into a bucket to drain off any water that may have accumulated. Usally nothing. More often than not they dump the fuel. 100 Octane should provide a few 10ths in a engine that can use it. (worked wonders in my old 68 Beetle)

Check out the current issue of Muscle Car Review. Their 20 Tips article has some real good ideas.

I can atest to the water injection and avgas. At our local airport (in the late 70s anyway), you could pull up to a truck and get however much you wanted. I cut it about 6 gallons to a tankful on my 67. My friend with the L-88 Vette cut it about 1/2 and 1/2 avgas and premium. No worries about valves or detonation. I remember reading the same thing about water injection. I also recall that the water mist turning to steam essentially cooled the incoming blend. I guess this is a round about way of packing ice on the intake. I got one but was never sure I got it setup right and was concerned about clogs causing it to shoot a stream (instead of mist) of water into the engine and causing problems, so out it went.
I think it would be worth a try for hot weather driving.
John Walker

Just remembered another one. A friend had a hot 340 Duster and he was giving 2 car lengths to a guy in hopped up Falcon (I know, Falcon?). When they got everything measured off and set, my friend had me and another guy lean on his car at the trunk, palms reversed, arms locked, with our feet just off the ground. He told us to stay still and when he launched, we'd just be left standing there. Spun us around a little, but he was right, and yes he won.
John Walker

there is no replacement for displacement. I have a built 350 that just wasnt enough power for me. so I got a junkyard 454 for $750 best money I ever spent. now I can spin the tires as long as I want.(we all know thats better than a low et.) but for a quick cheap tip. the mechanical advance spings in the ditributor cap. get a kit from summit or mr. gasket and tune in your timing curve. that made a bug diffrence for me. also if your running a vacumme secondary carb. change the vac. sec. springs to make the carb dump like a double pumper. the spring kits are sold at pep boys. I recomend getting the quick change kit if doing this to a holley, its only about 7 bucks and it makes it so much easier to play with the springs to see which gives the most power.

I have used Aviation fuel before. My brother works at an airport and he runs av. gas once or twice a week. The 100 octane gas is leaded. The gas is sweet stuff...I immediately noticed my throttle responce quickened dramtically!



JusCuz