hey Gary H ar e those the A-460 heads?!?!?!

 

I should post a hemi head pic......jk

 

No, they're the FRPP/Kaase SCJ's. Had them ported by Scotty J. at http://www.reincarnation-automotive.com/index.html A460's are made by blue thunder.

 

I just gotta say that i think Superdavid has more than proven himself in many posts throughout time.and no one should tweak when someone else shares an opinion

 

As usual, there is a ton of fail in here.. I bet some of you wondered why I left.. Got tired of having to correct the same misleading info time and again.

Ok even with an aluminum 390 up front and a C6 trans, you wont be getting much in the way of weight transfer to the rear tires. If its actually an iron 390 then it gets worse. Anyway, a simple slapper bar wont help much, if at all. It isnt changing anything other than preventing the front half of the spring from wrapping up, springing back, and making wheel hop.

What you need is something that changes the instant center along with the ability to lift the front end easier, and plant the rear tires by lifting the rear of the car. Squatting the rear is actually lifting the rear end and tires off the ground. Cal-tracs will do that, ladder bars will do that, slapper bars will not do that. The instant center is the point the rear end is trying to lift the car from. On a four link rear its where the upper and lower control arms would intersect if they were long enough to reach that point. You have leaf spings under there, and they will work, but you need to make them work.

If your car is lifted in the rear, such as airshocks will do, you wont get it to hook unless you put another FE block in the trunk, and then maybe. If it squats instead of lifts the rear, you wont get it to hook. Its not real complicated but it does take some effort to understand how to make a leaf spring car leave and not spin the tires for half the track.

On a 235 15 tire you would be hard pressed to hook 275 rwhp with that much weight up front. With a regular old street radial type tire, it would be a smoke show with a stock suspension.

If you want it to hook, and you actually race it rather than have it sit in the garage while you talk about how bad it is (some people do that you know) then you need to get to know Chris Alstons Chassis Works. Also HOTROD magazine and CarCraft magazine have had articles on leaf spring cars. Sure they may have been Novas or some crap, but all the same basic stuff still aplies. Do some research on their websites.

Lift the front easily and quickly, plant the rear, and put a sticky tire under it. You can listen to the guys who have high 13 second rides if you want. I dont mind at all. If you would rather cut a 1.5 or quicker 60ft time, they wont be able to help you much. Someone who has been racing for 20 years and can hook 520+ ftlbs at the rear tires and cut 1.4s with a 295 BFG drag radial should be able to help you more.. dont ya think?

 

Traction is also a function of money. Traction devices only work for those who can afford them, and if I had the money, I'd 4-link my car, and prolly eventually will. CE's Slide-A-Links work quite well for a leaf spring setup, I see quite a few guys that are pulling pretty good short times with them, and never met anyone with a complaint about them either(not yet at least). Slapper bars do help a little bit, and are better than nothing, but are also considerably cheaper than anything else, the old "you get what you pay for." With slapper bars and 40 year old leaf springs I managed to get a 235/15 street radial to hook over 300rwhp, with 40psi of tire pressure too(I like to run on the track exactly as I drive it on the street). Granted, that's leaving at a bit under 2,500rpm, and 2.1x 60's are far from glamerous, but then again, it is a street car and not a race car.