454 Nova vs Ron Jrs 400 Dart !

3

383man

Well-known member
Well we took my sons Dart to the track tonight and he raced his buddies Nova twice. And twice he had Chevy for dinner. Well he actually redlited but it was to see who was fastest. We also tried the Street Dominator intake on Ron Jrs Dart. Botom line it did not run faster but it ran good and had good solid mph at 116 both runs. I will say that I dont think the air was very good as it had just rained and my brothers car usually runs 10.70's on average days went 10.87 , 10.92 and 11.00 as it got slower every run. Damn lousy air. We also tried the shorter worn out McCreary's on the first run which are 26" tall but are worn down to about 25-1/2". And it spun on them so we put the 28" tall American racer tires back on for the second run.

First run on 25-1/2" McCreary's with the 4.30 gears was 11.77 @ 116 vs the Nova 's 11.84 @ 115.

Second run on the 28" American Racer tires was 11.72 @ 116 vs the Nova's 12.00 @ 115 as it hooked better but not great. Last time out it ran a 1.66 60ft but tonights best was 1.73 but it was the first passes on the new tires and the old McCreary's are worn out. I think in better air like the first time out when it had the 3.91's and with slicks it may have 11.50's in it. I was hoping for more but the car ran solid and we drove it the 45 miles home so it was not a bad night at all. We also took my other son Tim's SRT-4 and had a bad night blowing the power brake vacum line off and loosing boost but it did run 13.40's. But it sure is fun driving to the track and running 11's and driving home with a car that got cought in the rain and had to turn its wipers on. Here is the timeslips and a pic of the cars in the pits. My buddy got some more pics I will get later. Thanks , Ron

Oh the Dart is car # 443.

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I knew it all along. [smilie=w: :beer:

I'll bet Mr. Nova was pretty bummed loosing to a smaller engine! :D

Great job you guys are doing on that car, I'm sure it's a joy to drive. [smilie=e:
 
proof that its not always about who has more cubes [smilie=e:

would be real nice to see the weight diference between the 2
 
Nice work Ron ! Ya beat him and that's what counts. [smilie=e: I'm sure there's more in there with some tuning...you'll find it soon enough !

Just wondering: did you try an open spacer ? I'm thinking that the combo might respond to more plenum, especially if it's pulling up past 6000 rpm. Fwiw, mine responded favorably to the open spacer when it was being dynoed. Just a thought.

Congrats on the chebby whippin. [smilie=e:

Ron
 
Thanks for the replies. No Ron I forgot to pickup an open spacer as I was so busy getting ready to get off work and run right up to the track. It only has room for a 1" spacer under the hood as we have the 4 hole in her now. I want try the slicks next time and see if we can get the 60's in the low 1.60's at least as it didn't even get back in the 1.60's last night. I dont know if an open spacer will hurt the 60 ft's any ?? Course it may pick the mph up. Ron
 
great to see someones running great. lol. ron do alot of street races run without slicks on wednesday night? those street tires do make things grease & really effect the 60' time.

greg
 
383man said:
Thanks for the replies. No Ron I forgot to pickup an open spacer as I was so busy getting ready to get off work and run right up to the track. It only has room for a 1" spacer under the hood as we have the 4 hole in her now. I want try the slicks next time and see if we can get the 60's in the low 1.60's at least as it didn't even get back in the 1.60's last night. I dont know if an open spacer will hurt the 60 ft's any ?? Course it may pick the mph up. Ron
Click to expand...

I think you're right Ron the open spacer will make it a little softer on the bottom end but the way this motor rpm's it will probably mph better with the additional plenum volume. With the 557 cam the motor should be right in the fat part of it's torque curve where the converter hits. Power #'s below the stall speed are really inconsequential.

One thing that is hurting the torque is the big tube headers.....the 2in primary is probably robbing 20-30 ftlbs of torque. I know you won't be replacing them so you just have to work around it. It will be interesting to see how it responds with a nice sticky tire.....you should get your 60ft's back and then some. I'm sure the bad air had a lot to do with it. From what you said everybody's et's were off a few tenths.

Should be a lot of fun working on et reduction....there's a lot of motor there to work with. [smilie=c:

Ron
 
Greg alot of the young kids use street tires on the Wednsday and Fri nite T & T's and they dont prep the track either. We just did not get any good hook in the 2 runs Ron Jr got. I also didn't have the pinion snibber on it so we may try it with the slicks next time.

Ron I think you are right about the 2" headers but like you said thats what we happen to have so we have to work with them. If we can get the 60's back to decent times I think we will try the open spacer. Its not like its hard to change. [smilie=e: I would like to weigh this car as its a full body all steel car. I think it may be in the 3500 to 3600 lb area with the driver. We do like the feel of the Strip Dominator so it will stay on it for now. And we will just wait for some better air and try the slicks and snubber next time out. But we did finally install 3" exh today with flowmasters and it does feel like it has more low end torque. But now its loosing that sleeper sound it had with the Super Turbo mufflers and 2-1/4 pipes. Thanks for the replies , Ron
 
ron i think you should be getting 1.60 or better 60'ers. i run a 4.10 rear with 28 x 10 MT drags & pull off a consistant 1.61- 1.62 . you have more motor than i & cuda's a couple hundred pounds heavier.. so the better 60' is there for you.

greg
 
And just to rub some nice rock salt in that Chev's open wound, the Dart looks 4 times as good. [smilie=e:

Congrats on the Chev kill. Bet Jr.'s pumped.
 
Thanks Mike. This is one of my favorite recent shots of the Dart. My buddy said he got some good pics at the track last week so I hope he sends them to me soon. Ron

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