Looseunits 1983 5efte KP60

[Looseunit]

So i've been incredibly slack at updating this, but have been busy with the car.  The meet last year told me stuff that i already knew.  Suspension was far too hard and I needed seat time.  I made the decision to do things properly with the rear shocks first time so I spent my money on a set of QA1 double adjustable coilovers with spherical bearings top and bottom, and also some 12" 110lb springs to go with them.

 

 

Putting them in wasnt super hard, had to drill out the bottom mount to 1/2" and had to ditch the tophat and weld on some brackets for the bearing as below.

 

 

 

I had to add some 5mm spacers as the tires were very close to the spring platform.

 

Next was the front.  The brakes had a bit of a wobble when i had it at the strip last year and i decided that they were still far too big for drag racing so I bought another set of front struts and the stock brake setup and started over with the front suspension.  I decided to go 110lb in the front as well as in a drag car its really just holding the front up and the more weight transfer to the rear the better, so i ended up with the same as the rear, 12" 110lb springs.  I bought a coilover sleeve kit and put together a pretty simple setup with a bit of pipe sleeved over the strut and plug welded in place for the threaded sleeve to sit on.  I reconditioned the stock calipers and put it all back together.  I forgot how crazy tiny the stock brakes are but I only have to stop once, plus I saved quite a bit of weight.

 

 

A few driveway launches confirmed that it had made a huge difference to the setup, the front was lifting up as I had hoped and it had heaps more grip on the drive way as it had previously.

 

Off to the first meet of the season I went, first run was a pretty soft run but felt pretty good except it was till pulling to the right a bit as it had at the last meet, brakes worked fine.  Gave it a bit more on the next run off the line and it went straight down to a 12.2.  Still pulling to the right so went and asked a couple of the on to it guys what they thought and they suggested preloading the right rear spring more to counteract the body twisting up on the launch. I wound the platform up 10mm and went out for another run which was much straighter and ran a 12.04@119mph.  i wound another 5mm into the platform and next run was 12.03 and the car felt like it went pretty much dead straight.  Played with the damper settings on the shocks for the next run and went 11.88@119.  Needless to say I was stoked to be in the 11's so quickly!

 

 

 

 

Discussion - http://oldschool.co....983-5efte-kp60/

[Looseunit]

So i'm really slack at updating this.  I basically just raced this all season, didn't really make any changes other than subtle suspension tweaks.  On the very last meet when the air was quite a bit colder that it had been it seemed to pick up power and grip and i was very suprised for the times top drop quite a bit eventually doing a 11.34@121mph.  I was also a bit slack at pressing play on my camera, best in car I got was of a 11.69, I pulled this off facebook so quality is average but I couldnt be bothered going searching for the original file.

 

 

So the issues I faced over the offseason were the fact that the body had not liked all the abuse, mainly around the triangulated top link mounts of the body, cracks etc had started to appear and I wasnt really that suprised to be honest.  So I set about welding up the seams around that area and also welding in some plates above the link mounts and running a brace each side from the roll cage down to the plates.  This should hopefully stop the area around there flexing, I also added some welds to the mounts underneath the car just in case.

Other problem was in the pics below, the car squats hard on the right rear side and picks up in the front left meaning its always hitting the left rear tire harder, to compensate i wound the right rear coilover up heaps which got the car going straight but theres definately still improvements to be had.

 

 

 

So to stop that happening, and to also stop the car ever going around a corner ever again i ordered one of these http://www.jegs.com/p/JEGS-Performance-Products/JEGS-Drag-Race-Anti-Roll-Bars/3125600/10002/-1 a drag specific solid sway bar.  These seem to be standard equipment in any decently setup drag car and in theory will stop any twist in the body and hopefully if setup right will improve 60 fts.  Ive pretty much finished putting it in, it was an absolute mission to fit due to the lack of space and it wasnt the funnest of jobs but you get the gist of whats going on with it in the pics.

 

 

 

Ive also bought some convo pro 15x4 and some mickey thompson front runners as Ive also bought some 24.5x8 Mickey thompson ET Drag for the rear.  The plan is to drill the rims for bead screws to stop them spinning on the rim as the radials were moving a little bit on the rim last season.  Thats a job thats still yet to be done and im not really looking forward to it as it will be fiddly.

 

 

Finally ive just had it on the dyno yesterday, Ive made the switch to E85 and also changed the turbo to a newer tech Turbonetics TNX30/52 which I sourced through Barry.  Along with a billet compressor wheel it also has a V band exhaust housing which is just a hundred time better than the nissan flanged housing that was on it.  Was hoping for more power and better spool and it did not disappoint.  Old setup went 280hp on 18 psi and the turbo was clearly not happy running out of puff at 7k rpm.  New turbo and e85 combo yesterday made 297hp at 14 psi! and 345hp on the final power run at 20 psi, its also on boost around 500rpm sooner so is a massive improvement.  If it can hook up and stay together on the high boost setting it will be rather rapid, should make for an interesting drive thats for sure.

Red line is the old setup.