455 on dirt

[jener]

I am running a 70 455 in my dirt track car. I am wanting to upgrade the cam and oil pump. does anyone have any suggestiongs?

On a side note, I just want to say. WOW !!

Last saturday was my first race with the 455, and it was awesome. I am having trouble with the car pushing through the corners. On the straghtaways , noone can compete with me. i was running in 3rd , until i lost a wheel. If anyone can help with the handling of the car, that would be great.

any help would be appreciated

[bob k. mando]

I am running a 70 455 in my dirt track car.

nice, very nice.

who lost their mind and okayed you for a BBB? tell us the track and class, this i have to see.



I am wanting to upgrade the cam and oil pump. does anyone have any suggestiongs?

most of the major cam companies carry BBB cams and can recommend a grind for you. www.TAPerformance.com and www.PostonBuick.com are the major Buick specialty shops and they stock all kinds of grinds and could also give you some ideas.

do NOT purchase a HV/HP pump, they are really hard on the nose of the cam. you can shim the pressure relief to get more than 100lbs out of the stock pump. just make sure the housing isn't excessivelly worn.




I am having trouble with the car pushing through the corners ... If anyone can help with the handling of the car, that would be great.

nowhere near enough information except for the obvious smart *** comment:
"you're pushing, on dirt, with a Big Block Buick? what'd you do, forget where the gas pedal is?"

if you can't get that car slideways in the corner ( like you need to be on dirt ) with the throttle then you have a huge setup problem.

questions you need to answer:
1. what class
2. how 'stock' does your suspension have to be ( jacking bolts, aftermarket springs, camber, etc ). take as much camber on the RF as the track will let you get away with
3. individual weights on all 4 corners of the car. use the track scales if you have to. they should give you a cross weight, left side percent and front percent as well although i can calc all of those if you get me the corner weights
4. did you ever set your toe? you should have between 1/8" and 1/4" of toe out with more toe for a track with tighter corners.
5. what size rear sway bar, if any, do you have?

get me those answers in this thread and shoot me your ph # in a pm and i'll try to get back to you.

[bob k. mando]

forgot, you need to either tell me your stagger, front and rear or give me all of your tire circumferences.

[jener]

I race at a track in lewistown montana. check out www.automotoxross.com , I run in the stock class. Basically, you can run any car, any engine, as long as you run an 1 1/2 in restricter in your exhaust.
the only rules regarding suspension is the it cant be long travel & you can only run 2 shocks per corner
I couldnt give any weights of the car, i dont believe there are any scales aroung here and the track doesnt use them.
I honestly forgot to set the toe on the car. This last race was my first race with the 455. all the other engines never developed the speed this engine does.
As of right now I dont have a sway bar.

I have a set of jack springs that i could put in the car. A 1200 and a 900. would this be a good idea ?

How do I set up the front camber? left side in-right side out, or vice versa?

The back end gets loose at high speed. I did get a chance to add weight for the problem at the last race, and it seemed to help. Is weight the only cure for this?

what do you mean by stagger? And how does it help you set up the car?

thanks for you help
jener

[bob k. mando]

hah! this looks like a damn blast! it sucks that you're so far out in the boonies.
http://www.automotoxross.com/pictures.htm

this does, however, point up how important it is that you give us detailed info about what you're doing. i was operating under the assumption that you where circle tracking. now that i've seen what you're doing i'm no longer surprised that you lost a wheel.


I couldnt give any weights of the car, i dont believe there are any scales aroung here and the track doesnt use them.

yeah, some of the stuff i was asking you would bias the car to turn left. scales would still be useful for you, but your track is unlikely to have any rules about left side or or front percentage weight because you don't want to bias the car side to side.

most any circle track in your area should have a set of scales in the tech shed. ask around. you'll want as close to 50% on the rear axle as you can get. try to get 50% L to R with you in the car. other than that, don't worry about it too much.



I honestly forgot to set the toe on the car.

normally i don't recommend more than 1/8" to 1/4" toe out. but you're turning a lot tighter than a circle track guy. i'd go with a 1/4" minimum and maybe experiment with a little more.



I have a set of jack springs that i could put in the car. A 1200 and a 900. would this be a good idea ?

stiffer springs in the front will aggravate a push. and you'd want the same springs on both sides.



How do I set up the front camber? left side in-right side out, or vice versa?

the top of both front tires should be leaned into the car. i believe the technical term is "negative" camber for both front tires. add as many shims to your upper control arm bolts as you can put on while still leaving enough threads for the whole nut to get onto. try that and then try removing 5 shims or so and see how it compares.



what do you mean by stagger?

stagger is one of those things that is useless to you. circle track guys will put taller tires on the R side of the car which biases the car to the L. stagger is the difference in height.



As of right now I dont have a sway bar.

sway bars function by removing effective suspension travel and transferring weight to the outside corner of the car. for what you're doing, i think i'd be trying to take off the front sway bar, not adding the rear one.

of course, if you try it and it works i'm not going to argue.





This last race was my first race with the 455. all the other engines never developed the speed this engine does.

a BBB only weighs about 40lbs more than a SBC in stock cast iron trim. if you can deal with 40lbs you should have an extremely significant advantage in torque.




The back end gets loose at high speed. I did get a chance to add weight for the problem at the last race, and it seemed to help. Is weight the only cure for this?

if you add weight, put it over the rear axle. do not put it in the trunk. weight behind the rear axle will aggravate your push.

the best solution would be to take the weight out and control it with the throttle. make sure the throttle cable is linked to the carb in the hole furthest from the pivot. this will cause you to use more foot pedal travel, giving you more 'feel'.