1993 Chevy ½ ton Drag truck

I’m starting this tread to document all the changes, advice and other mods that I will be doing to turn this truck into a bracket racing champion. The focus will be on engine modification and tuning. I will have a thread on another forum to document other modification, but I will keep you all up to date on any mods.

Currently this truck is a daily driver and is completely stock except, for the Eaton trac-lock in the rear and a line lock. The plan is to remove all the 4wd parts to convert to 2wd, possible 4l80 swap. Goal is to get consistent 8.90s at my local track www.baronadrags.com .

I will be logging as I make passes down the strip, and then post them here to log the changes and request advice on how best to tune.

Best ET 1/8 mile
12/11 – 10.83
Best MPH 1/8 miles

1st log Just a drive home from work. using A201_E6_v250.adx

7.90? :yikes:

Oh on 1/8th mile... man that would be one fast truck at 1/4 mile!

I should have said that i want it to stay street legal in California. Maybe in the future it will go faster but for at least the next few years it will remain a DD. i typed that wrong should have been 8.90

8.90 in 1/8mile = 13.90 in the 1/4mile.

Still fast for a full size truck!

Ever thought about a shot of nitrous?

Lower gears can make you go fast, fast but that depends on your need for highway driving.

Probably easiest way to go fast on a stock motor for drag racing is a WideBand O2 sensor and use your PE AFR table. Since it's all WOT watch your wideband and adjust PE AFR get down to 12.8 to 1 or so, wideband would be accurate, PE AFR is a guestimate off VE table, high test fuel, add spark and watch your knock sensor.

Oh and we want videos when it happens! :jfj:

Sounds like a fun goal.

How about retarding the cam, changing to numerically lowest gears possible (3.08 may be a possibility) and slapping the 4wd lever into 4 Low? In town, light to light, I've pissed off some pretty fast cars in a beat up old stock blazer by using 4 low. Open the divider between the two sides of the intake, maybe cut down the valve guides, install a set of Comp beehive LT1 springs, an Ebay factory LT1 or L31 roller cam, and some roller tipped 1.6 rockers and just keep winding 'er up until something blows. With three wheels driving you'll be one of the few guys at the drags with too much traction and at a 1/8 mile track the extra 2.72 gearing would allolw you to use all the tranny's gears. Research and a little extra work might allow something as cool as the ZF 6 speed truck trans with an AWD xfer case having low range so you've got plenty of gear, a way to relieve driveline tension, and an engine that is still close enough to stock to be street legal.

Ha! I told him to go up in gears and you told him to go down and use the transfer case! Most are 2 to 1 ratio. Brilliant! Keep the 4x4, no traction issues. Might have to chain the engine to frame to keep motor mounts in and start in second? Man that would launch!

3.08 gears and the stock transfer case puts final drive at 8.38:1. That's the type of gear ratio we used to use in the 4 cyl roundy round cars running 1/4 mile ovals. With those gears you could get a hard launch with a set of bicycle cranks driving the driveshaft. I should fire up one of my drag times calculators and see if it chokes on that final drive ratio. :)

There is two reasons for removing the 4wd one is because i don't need it. my suburban is 4wd and it will stay that way. the second and most important is weight reduction. I know i will not make the horsepower with a tbi to get the truck to the ET i want. So it will be attacked on two fronts engine/trans tuning and weight loss.I hope to get the weight down to around 3500lbs or less and make some where around 300-350hp. I hope to still be smog legal.

Strip the bed? It weighs more than the diff, driveshaft, xfer case, and 3/4 of two front axles. Local boy made a beautiful box for a Toyota truck out of 2X3's and 3/8" plywood sides. It followed the OEM contours beautifully, was lightweight, and when painted looked good from 20-25 feet away.

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Originally Posted by 1project2many

Strip the bed? It weighs more than the diff, driveshaft, xfer case, and 3/4 of two front axles. Local boy made a beautiful box for a Toyota truck out of 2X3's and 3/8" plywood sides. It followed the OEM contours beautifully, was lightweight, and when painted looked good from 20-25 feet away.

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no no no. I want this truck to look good from at least 10ft away.

lol. That's funny. You can borrow my glasses. They're only a *little* scratched. If you're lucky you'll still recognize it when you're 5 feet away. By 10 you'll be hard pressed to tell what make it is.

Besides... you'll be going so much faster at the track they won't have time to notice the bed. :)

OK i'v been looking at my log, Looks like my knock count is way high, It looks like every time i get on the throttle it knocks. I have never heard any pinging, the belts and pulleys make a lot of noise tho. when you guys get a chance to take a look quick look let me know what you think.

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Originally Posted by 1leg

There is two reasons for removing the 4wd one is because i don't need it. my suburban is 4wd and it will stay that way. the second and most important is weight reduction. I know i will not make the horsepower with a tbi to get the truck to the ET i want. So it will be attacked on two fronts engine/trans tuning and weight loss.I hope to get the weight down to around 3500lbs or less and make some where around 300-350hp. I hope to still be smog legal.

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Smog legal? What state?

You could remove bed and add fiberglass side panels like a pre runner at Baja. Taking weight of back end does not help with traction but at that HP it should not be an issue. A little wheel spin is not always a bad thing...

Nitrous!!!

Add 100 - 150 HP shot if tuned properly motor will last a long time. There's a guy with 156K on an LT1 wagon with nitrous and over 100 runs on car. Probably heavier then your truck? Watch video it has time slip in it with times your looking for!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMIb2CvK6e0

Remove bed, lock in 4, and no traction problem!

Guys spend thousands to install AWD. Here it's factory equipped and it'es being removed!! Get an Astro AWD Xfer case and use the viscous coupling. No low range but you'll have handling and traction that other trucks die for.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by 1project2many

Remove bed, lock in 4, and no traction problem!

Guys spend thousands to install AWD. Here it's factory equipped and it'es being removed!! Get an Astro AWD Xfer case and use the viscous coupling. No low range but you'll have handling and traction that other trucks die for.

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I know some of the diesel guys at our track run in 4wd so they don't spin the tires halfway down the track.

Ya. The fast diesels make so much torque around the 60' mark it's amazing. I tried catching one in my little Sunbird once and all I saw was a cloud of black smoke before the truck disappeared. Absolutely amazing the amount of torque it takes to move a 6500# truck to a 12 second trap.

Looks like i broke either the transfer case or something in the front axle, maybe a CV joint. I took the front driveshaft out and the noise went away for about a week, now its back and getting worse. So i will be pulling the front axle out and looking for a 2wd 4l80 trans or maybe a th400/th350 to swap in. The suburban is coming along with its tune so i can start getting this thing running like it should.