Time for an update now that winter is over.
I tackled a few things over the winter season and I hope the changes can help me cut down the timeslip a few tenths; but also without sacrificing street drives. One of the bigger changes was sending the Yank Performance torque converter back for a stall change from 3800 to 3400. The reasons I did this are discussed in previous posts/threads. While the transmission was out, I cut off some of the “ears” on the housing because they always seem to be in the way of fluid lines and electrical wiring underneath. The new converter came back refreshed and they put a new lock-up friction clutch in also. I noticed that the transmission's output shaft’s bearing had some wear happening so I replaced the bearing and seal on the tailshaft. I also discovered that one of the reasons for my inconsistent speedometer was coming from the plastic “drive” gear, because it was missing a chunk of one tooth. I got a new drive gear and re-routed the mechanical speedometer cable in a different manner and now it works perfectly (so far) for the past 40 miles.
I bought a set of double-adjustable Viking Warrior shocks for the rear end and removed my single-adjustable Koni yellow shocks. Shaun helped me source them from Midwest Chassis and steered me to use a set of transverse mounting brackets as well as a bearing instead of the lower polyurethane mount. I made sure everything was bolted up good and set the knobs in the middle of the 19 clicks of adjustment for right now. These shocks combined with the UMI drag bar should really get the car launching properly and allow me to use my drag radial tires with more psi in them.
Last week I took the car over to SJF Performance for a front end alignment and to check over driveline angles, rear suspension, etc. Steve noticed that I had a slight amount of play in the pinion bearing area. Later that night I took out the driveshaft and tightened the heck out of the pinion nut. It turned about ¾ of one turn before I couldn’t get it any tighter. I paint marked it and will check on it very often.
As for the alignment, we checked the front end thoroughly and our results showed the reason for my death-wobble issue that happens sometimes at the launch. We found that from static ride height (at -2 deg camber) then lifting the nose of the car up in the air, this swung the camber to be 2 deg positive camber. That is a total of 4 deg of change as the nose lifts.
We discussed some of the factors and decided to move the static camber from -2 deg to -1 deg for now. Steve mentioned using front end travel limiters, which eventually might be something to do, but in the meantime, I ordered a steering-damper kit from Ed Quay’s race shop to help absorb the death-wobble. Additionally, My buddy John has a set of Koni SPA-1 front struts that he might be parting ways with, so I might eventually swap out my Lakewood 90/10 struts for the single adjustable Koni SPA-1 struts. I have heard their adjustments and qualities make them great for thirdgen drag cars.
I think I developed a flat spot in the rear passenger drag radial tire over the winter because I have a bit of a bump/vibration while driving around 65-70 mph. These drag radials are almost at the end of their life and I will need a new set (or different tire) before the end of this year. The front skinnies were doing great, but I looked at the date code on them and they are now 11 years old. For the sake of safety, I bought a new pair of them, around $600 total, but oh well.
Also Fresh Valvoline VR1 20-50 oil and a Baldwin filter, some new ATF and an inline magnetic filter too, new exhaust header gaskets, greased all suspension and steering components, a fresh set of NGK BR7EF plugs. Oh, and I finally bought a modern day laptop to use related to the garage, parts, and efi tuning/datalogging. This is a Dell 15 DC15250, so whatever that means. It did do a successful EFI firmware reflash for my sniper ecu and I have got it up and running with the live tuning for a test.
I found out from a buddy Joe that my car was picked for their 2026 customer calendar. I submitted some photos after talking to them in July at the Camaro Nationals but thought that was the end of it. Anyway, cool to find out, and if you order parts from them they send a calendar; they aren't for sale on the site.
I am hoping to get to Island Dragway this upcoming weekend, probably sunday for a Test and Tune.