If you recall, I'm the one that had the grudge match with the Mach 1 (I won!). When I first posted about my quest to beat this car, I posted my car's set up. Most people agreed that my intake and exhaust were too big.

Here's the stats again:
-Full steel body except the 3.5" cowl ind. hood (3500lbs)
-15x5 and 15x8 Weld Draglites
-275x60R 15 Mickey T. ET Drag Radials
-4.10 Posi rear
-T400 with shift kit, Ratchet shifter, 3500 stall
-396 BBC (.060 over)
-Stock Oval Port Heads
-Holley 750, Torker manifold, K&N air cleaner
-Hooker Comp headers (2"pri/3.5" collectors), 3" exhaust, 2 chamber Flowmasters
-9.5.1 Forged pistons
-Poly bushings front and rear
-Cam specs:Gross Valve Lift 0.520 0.520, Duration At 0.006 Tappet Lift 280 280
-I have some Jegster Lift Bars in the garage. They'll be on by next weekend.
-MSD Digital 6 ignition
-I plan on changing out my stock body bushings for Poly bushing next month.

Here's the latest time slip:
http://www.scbd.org/phpBB2/modules/gallery/albums/Chevelle/Time_slips_001.sized.jpg

After looking at my times, am I running right were I should be? Or, are my intake and exhaust still holding me back? Keep in mind, LACR is at about 2700ft in elevation so the car would likely run down in the mid 12's at a lower elevation.

Also, I'll be installing my Cheater System next month. I plan on doing a 150 shot.

The headers arent worth a whole lot, I wish you had a Performer RPM to try on your combo, is that the old Torker that has the carb sitting at an angle? Drop your exhaust, if you can in Calif??? I like a crossover of some kind, whether its an H pipe or X pipe. I'll be trying an X pipe before long, to see if it helps, dropping the exhaust on mine just hurt my 60ft time but picked up mph.

I'd say you are doing pretty good for what you have. Even better if your sea level times drop to 12.5's. You could probably up the compression with the cam you have, maybe a thinner gasket. What thickness head gasket is on there? Several years ago people on this board went round and round about 1 3/4" vs. 2" headers. Suffice it to say that 1 3/4" seems to work real well on many of the 454's around here so you may be leaving some power on the table there with your lil' 396. How much tuning of timing and carb have you done? It seems you have done pretty good there, too, with your decent 60'. What brand converter are you running?

Rod

I forgot to meantion that I have a 3" H pipe right behind the driveshat yoke.

My brother and I believe that we could drop another .10-.20 second off with a little more tuning. That's why I'm back here asking these questions. I'm not so sure an intake and header change will do that much good for me with the '60 times I'm pulling. The big problem was supposed to be that I was giving up a lot of low end torque with my set up. Do I really need anymore low end torque? I spin my tires if I launch at anything higher than 1800rpms.

We have three trips the track worth of tunning. I have a lot of confidence in my brother's work. He works in the pits on my uncle's 7 second Nostalgia Dragster and he's one of the Carb Techs at Jett performance. It was his tuning that got my car to go from 13.001 to 12.834 in one jet change.

Keep the advice comming!

Wish I had a brother that worked for a carb shop, my brother went to Vo Tech after I did, so he knows fuel injection, my son just graduated Vo Tech and he knows more of the same....guess I'll have to call Pro Systems

You may be doing even better than you think - the last time I was at Palmdale a couple of weeks ago the DA was ~ 4,900 feet! Seriously, that is one track with wildly flucuating DA during the course of the day.

The 1-3/4 headers will help you much more than you realize. I would expect ~ 25 ft lbs torque difference below 6,000 rpm. That and a Performer RPM intake in place of the Torker (a very misnamed intake manifold, maybe anti-Torker would be better) will really make your car fly.

After that your biggest gains will be in the suspension - do not sell yourself short on being able to improve your 60' time. You'll either need to have video of your launch or a sharp eye watching how your car launches. You ideally want rear body separation and front end lift with little twist.

There is an easy 6-7 more mph in your basic setup, and low low 12's.

Thomas

I'm going to put some N2O though the motor before I make any big changes. I'd like to do some head work and the headers before I do the intake. Maybe I can find what I need at the Pomona Swapmeet. I'm going to try to make it out to California Speedway on June 18. Anyone else planning on going?