garrell.770

My 52,000 mile 03 SSS has a Volant cai, ported throttle body , LSXrt intake, Comp Cams kit W/lifters&pushrods, BBK headers, Doug's Headers electric cutouts, an Edge converter is being designed for my truck right now and should be shîpped in a weekł, an HP tuneup, 5 piece black billet grille, smoked covers for all lights, tono , billet 6.0 badges at the front corner of each front fender with a red hockey stripe starting at each badge going up and turning back dying off to a sharp point in the center of each back door, painted the bow tie in the center of the stock wheels the same color of red as the hockey stripe. The truck is driven around town every couple of weeks, drag raced about four times a year and what it does best is landspeed raced two trips per year on the Ohio Mile and makes about three to four runs at each event on a standing mile on an airport runway and is the holder of six landspeed records. Car No. Two is a 98 C5 Corvette with long tube headers, X pipe with no cats, ported throttle body, dual horn Volant cai and a HP tuneup, runs in the mid 13'S and gets twenty six MPG and it Is black as my truck. Car No. Three is a 69 RS, SS, Čamaro Indy Pace Car convertible that has had one repaint and always garaged, rust free, original ralley wheels. $5,000.00 would get it ready to win any show. Car No. Four my Dailey driver 1997 a Formula Firebird with the Bandit ll appearance package, extensive Hotchkis suspension up grades, Arizona Speed and Marine throttle body, Mass Air Flow Sensor, Long Tube headers, new stainless high performance exhaust system. The car has 72,000 miles and is flawless inside and out with original paint and interior and sometime next spring I will have to try it on the dragstrip and Maybe try some auto cross with it.

Good, I came here trying to figure out what went wrong on my last trip landspeed racing. Dollars usually equal horsepower and HP equals speed. When the truck ran flawlessly never missing and with my seat of the pants dyno I could tell that it was running faster than ever through first gear then it felt like a parachute came out through the rest of the run you couldn't help but know that the power was there but wasn't getting to the ground. I came here to learn something and I have certainly have done that. I had thought that up to now that if you put in a cam that wouldn't behave at a traffic light you called Summit and ordered a 2500-3000 stall converter from Summit. I know now there is a lot more to it than that and maybe picked up a few friends while I was at it. I bet there aren't too many of you that knows anyone that bought a new 69 Z/28 or a 427 SS Impala from the factory, owned two original 409 Impalas or was close friends with one of the top Nascar owners and was an honorary crew member for twelve years. The way I made money to have the best looking, fastest car in town when I was 17 years old was by hauling moonshine whiskey, true story. Oh, in my early twenties I drove a drag car for a Dodge/Plymouth Dealership and I still race right up until today. The only thing that has slowed me up is a heart attack, six strokes and Parkinson's Desease.name="canadianVRss" post="939897" timestamp="1389853423"]Good stuff there ^^^ I agree cam isn't bad. TQ maker for sure. No need for a huge cam, they're just hard on stuff.

I haven't done anything to cause anyone to be mad have I? I just like to go fast and always have, back in the day it would cost six months pay to get a small block Chevy to make as much HP as my truck has right now and it would have been so radical you couldn't have driven it on the street.

I knew that and forgot, thanks.

I will have one in about ten days then get in installed, I need to call Monday and schedule the installation. Is there a breakin schedule or can I go straight to my stretch of county road with no houses and no traffic during the day for few test runs?

I spent about one hour late yesterday afternoon with Andre' the owner of Edge Performance Torque Converters. I had called about noon and all the technitions were busy and was told that someone would call back shortly. I called back at 6:00 PM EDT and when the receptionist checked and saw my message from earlier she evidently told the owner and he took my call. I told him about the loss of MPH after the cam and intake change. He wanted all of the specs on the cam, rear gearing on the truck and what gear and the ratio when I crossed the line. He also wanted to know if the primary use of the truck would be running standing miles and I explained that I probably would only go back one or two more times to get even for lack of a better term and then to the dragstrip four or five times per year and then boulevard cruising every couple of weeks. After answer more questions, height of tires and the gear ratio in third gear etc. his opinion for what I was doing that first the LSXrt intake was an excellent choice and a little more cam would be helpful but with the right torque converter, His, that I could reach a happy medium. He suggested that I still have the truck tuned to shift at 6,200 RPM and he would design a converter that I would notice no difference in starting off but at WOT it would leap off the line with lots of torque and as you say I would only see the RPM'S drop to no less than 5,000 on the 1-2 and 2-3 shifts which would put me across the line at close to 6,000 RPM'S. He wanted to no if I new the RPM I was at when I crossed the line at 135+ or - which was 5,600-5,700. He said to make a note on the warranty of his name and the number he called back on and if five years from now I had a problem with the converter to call him and the warranty would still be good but also if I made any additional modifications that the converter he would design would not work. He made a believer out of me, what does everybody think and Oh yeah the converter would wind up being 2,800 to 3,000 stall speed?

Don't you need the ton of torque to get a 6,000 truck moving so maybe the combination wasn't so bad. I don't fault the tuner for not having a dyno to accommodate an almost 20 ft. Long AWD truck but what else do I do. There is a tuner way north of Atlanta that is very we'll known maybe even nationally but I know of several builds that they have screwed up big time and I don't think they would cut me any slack and would want to start from scratch on the tuneup. I am kind of between a rock and the proverbial hard place. You were speaking of lockup, do you think the reason the truck fell to 4,000 on the shift and never made a recovery was that the converter never locked back up?

Gotcha, Thanks so much for your help. I am not going to pay for a full tune and I really think that they should have said they were going to make a cam design change when I told them I would be using a LSXrt intake. I called the shop foreman from the track over 550 miles away after the second pass and told them how slow I was running. They wanted to know if it was windy and I told them there was a ten MPH head wind but a few months before without the cam and intake I ran almost five MPH faster with a fifteen MPH wind. The wind is recorded constantly and recorded if it becomes a cross wind over ten competition is suspended.

Okay an a Edge 3,000 stall for a 4L60E, do you buy straight from the Mfgr. Or his it available from Summit, Jegs? I am not capable to change the converter myself, is $600.00 a fair price for a quality shop to install the converter and need to go ahead and service the transmission while it is down. Is everyone running a synthetic fluid ? And maybe raise the shift points to 6500 RPM which will have to be done by the tuner I suppose

PI think the desire to drive again is one of the things that gave me the incentive to exercise my legs and my upper body for two hours everyday which I still do everyday. I developed my own silly therapy exercises to break lose frozen joints and stretch muscles. Don't know what your religion is but my testimony everyday is that had it not been for the grace of God I would not have lived. It started with a serious heart attack which I almost didn't survive. I spent several days in the ICU and when I came home I didn't talk or respond to anything and even had to have pillows stuffed around me in a wheelchair to keep from falling over. Everyone thought I was seriously ill from the heart attack until one morning I spoke and asked my Wife if she was married and where was I at. After MRI'S it was discovered that I had three strokes within a month after the heart attack. Doctors told my a Wife I would never be any better and might not even survive so the love and caring of a good family and then being rolled to my shop which I had no clue what was in it but when the lights were turned on and I saw all of the cars the only thing I said was " I want to drive again ”. Soon afterward my family started carrying me to the local high school parking lot in the evenings and weekends and I learned to drive in my SSS. Today I walk by leaning heavily on a walking stick due to Parkinson's Desease and Rheumatoid Arthritis

It will never haul anything but luggage under the tono cover no towing I have thought about removing all the hitch related components to shed a little weight. I am open for a Mfgr. And stall speed for a converter and a definite shift RPM for the transmission. Seems like everyone is okay with me using my existing ported 90 MM throttle body and an adapter with the LSXrt intake. You think it is getting enough air, what about fuel I would think it is sufficient. I am just trying to summarize everything and start getting the work done. The first Show N Go is in April and I can tell in my comparison 1/8TH mile et. and speeds if I am back where I was or better.

Everytime I am almost complete with a post on my new I-Pad I lose it before I can send it so I got the old lap top out. Looks like it is a given that I need a new stall converter, some say 2,500 some 3,500. Is there a happy medium is there a 3,000 stall speed converter and will that do the job. Who makes the best converter and about what will the cost be? There a young man here in town that has a nice transmission shop and he is into high performance cars and owns a Z06 making over 600 RWHP. He checked my truck out and says the transmission is not slipping but he agrees that the torque converter is part of the problem. He will install a new converter for $600.00 and me furnish the converter and he will install a shift kit in the transmission at the same time for whatever the cost of the kit is. This a large four lift shop so spotless you cold eat off the floor and he was the transmission specialist for a large dealership in Atlanta. I don't have much alternative for a tuner, their speciality is Ford products and there are some really fast ones that come out of it. They have already said to bring my truck back and let them put a torque converter in it but I actually feel better using the local guy. It also sounds like almost everyone agrees that maybe I need to raise the shift points could the transmission shop do that. When I crank the truck it automatically revs to about 2,000 RPM'S then drops down to around 900. I carried it back before my last trip to Ohio and asked them to check for a vacumm leak which they did. I was told that they used quite a few of the same cams as mine in late model Camaros and Corvettes and reving up like that was a characteristic of the cam. I was also shown dyno runs on some Comaros with the same cam that produced more than 45 HP to the rear wheels. I really can't afford to pay to change cams again, I can handle a new torque converter and I can pay for a new tuneup but how much is that going to help without a dyno?

I will try again but I have tried many times before without suggest. One of effects of three strokes that I had within a month is an inability to comprehend or follow written or verbal instructions. Thanks for the info, Garrell

If it is not against any forum rules could I get someone to place a picture of my truck as an avatar with my user name. I am not able to do this but it is so neat when someone post with pictures and a list of modifications to their SSS. Garrell Patterson, Hotrodtrucker *The only way I know how to send pictures is to email them to someone Thanks

I have not wanted to put any blame on my tuner up now saying that the cam and the intake were at my suggestion, I bought the intake after months of research and was convinced that it would offer the most bang for the buck but I also told the owner and his shop manager the RPM range that I wanted to make horsepower and for them to choose a cam that would meet those requirements. I actually asked for a cam that would peak from 2,500 to 5,500 thinking that the quicker I could get into 3RD gear and recover and pulling hard when I went through the lights. You got to remember I am from the day of putting a 340 HP a Corvette a Engine into a 57 Chevy using a large limb of an Oak tree to hang the hoist from, true story many times over. I told you about being imprisioned for two years in a wheelchair because of three strokes but I didn't tell you that I also suffered 100% memory loss and have had to relearn how to do everything so you have no idea how much I am beating myself up over this. I was the hero to everyone for breaking a six year old track record in my class on the Maxton Mile and after I set two records on the Ohio Mile I was the lead off story and my situation was discussed again in the last two paragraphs in the July issue of a HotRod Magazine. You think I didn't feel foolish when family and friends started calling when I got home from my last trip all knowing that I anticipated running 138 MPH not knowing I fully expected to run over 140. I even expected to have to back off on the first two or three runs because if I ran over 140 MPH I would get one warning to not run that fast without a 8 point cage, a fire supression system and a head and neck brace. So I was going to retire from landspeeed racing and run the truck as well as my Corvette on the 1/4!mile five or six times a year. So just for my feeling of personal achievement I have got to go back one more time and at least run in the 137 MPH range which sounds like a tall order from the 130 last time but only 2MPH and change from time before last and I probably have at least 50+ more HP.

I just thought it would get me farther down the track and maybe pulling hard in second gear when I crossed the line.,The biggest problem is falling off so much in 2ND and 3RD gears. If the engine isn't missing or stumbling then it has to be a loss of transfer of power to the ground. The transmission isn't slipping so it almost has to be torque converter related and the more RPM'S you are turning when you go through the lights the faster you are going until you run out of gear! Yo N

One other thing I asked that the shift points be set at 6,200 RPM so if will help I can have them changed to 6,500.

I was allmost complete with a long reply and the thing went away but a quick recap. I have made enough passes landspeed racing and dragracing I could tell on the last outing when that when my truck left the line and quickly reached 6,200 RPM that it was on the pass that I had been looking for but when it shifted to 2ND it fell back to 4,000 RPM and it like a car with the parachute out and didn't reach 6,000 RPM and shift again until just a few hundred feet from the one mile traps. One thing I forgot to mention is there are one half mile traps and on each run,4, I was 109.XXX and never varied over a few tenths so the truck was always consistant. There are limitations but since I moved to the modified class not as many but I can't run nitrous or run a blower or turbo. I pretty much blowed my budget with the last modifications plus tires, then I did some work on my Corvette. I had planned on tires and a complete rebuild of the brakes on the RS SS 69 Indy Pace car Camaro convertible and I don't take anything out of any of our CD'S or MM accounts.,Fortunately through blind luck I made some good investments and my a Wife and I both always had good jobs and very good 401K'S because I had to retire early because of three strokes within a month that put me in a wheelchair for over two years and Doctors said I would never walk again., Today I walk very slowly with a walking stick because of Parkinson's Desease. I can put the Camaro on the back burner and use that money out of my car account on the truck. I plan on a 2500'RPM stall converter and I may have to freshen the tuneup so I would hope to get the truck back up to speed for $2,000.00 if I can zero in on what the problem is.

I know the fuel filter has probably not been changed but even with the short tubes and the cut outs open then the cam change and intake I can't understand losing around 5 MPH instead of gaining speed. Before the last mods were performed when I ran 134 and change I think the truck would have ran 138 in a mile and one half because the engine is far from being maxed out in one mile. When racing for top speed in a mile you are just waved off, reaction time is not important but getting up to speed is. I hold the break and leave at about 1,800 to 2,000 RPM'S so could using the stock converter be involved in the problem. I will go to a Show N Go in April to drag race so I wonder if I change the fuel filter and put a 2500 stall converter would I possibly see an improvement. I know I am rambling but I am throwing out thoughts as they come to me. Would the engine be getting adequate. Air using the stock ported throttle body instead of the 102 mm that the intake was designed for, I called the Mfgr. Before doing this and they said that using their adapter that it should not hurt the performance. If I could back time up two years I would have installed headers and a super charger and I have spent almost enough to have payed for it. Still open to all your suggestions and opinions and thanks for the help so far, Garrell

Found the packet with the cam info:Comp Cams part # 54-452-11 . :GM G3 XFI 266 HR15 Gross valve lift:'Intake .520, Exhaust .524 Duration @ .006 Tappet Lift, Intake 266, Exhaust .524 Specs are for cam installed @ 111.0Intake Center Line, Duration @ .050 Intake 212, Exhaust 216 Lobe Lift: Intake .3060, Exhaust .3080 Lobe Separation 115 The Valve springs and lifters were installed as part of a kit or recommendations from Comp Cams. I reused my ported 92 MM throttle body with an adapter and new fuel rails. The engine revs to about 2,000 RPM 'S when cranked but then drops back down to an idle of around 900 RPM'S. The engine never bogs, stalls or hesitates in anyway. We checked for a vacuum leak everywhere but none were found. With the headers, cutouts open, cam change and the LSXrt intake change we conservatively estimated maybe 75 flywheel horsepower. The speed shop had installed many of these same cams in late model Corvettes and Camaros which dynoed around 45 rear wheel HP. Remember I used the stock converter. The truck seems to not run as strong around locally traffic light to traffic light. This truck is a heavy weight at around 6,000 lbs. with me in it, could I have given up torque for horsepower and that is a lot of weight to get moving. I take the truck to the dragstrip about four times a year and the last time out I ran which was before the cam and intake change I ran 9.08, 9.13, 8.94 which if I remember correctly converted to around 13.90 in 1/4 mile and I don't think it will do that now. That îs all I can think of so please HELP!!!

Found the packet with the cam info:Comp Cams part # 54-452-11 . :GM G3 XFI 266 HR15 Gross valve lift:'Intake .520, Exhaust .524 Duration @ .006 Tappet Lift, Intake 266, Exhaust .524 Specs are for cam installed @ 111.0Intake Center Line, Duration @ .050 Intake 212, Exhaust 216 Lobe Lift: Intake .3060, Exhaust .3080 Lobe Separation 115 The Valve springs and lifters were installed as part of a kit or recommendations from Comp Cams. I reused my ported 92 MM throttle body with an adapter and new fuel rails. The engine revs to about 2,000 RPM 'S when cranked but then drops back down to an idle of around 900 RPM'S. The engine never bogs, stalls or hesitates in anyway. We checked for a vacuum leak everywhere but none were found. With the headers, cutouts open, cam change and the LSXrt intake change we conservatively estimated maybe 75 flywheel horsepower. The speed shop had installed many of these same cams in late model Corvettes and Camaros which dynoed around 45 rear wheel HP. Remember I used the stock converter. The truck seems to not run as strong around locally traffic light to traffic light. This truck is a heavy weight at around 6,000 lbs. with me in it, could I have given up torque for horsepower and that is a lot of weight to get moving. I take the truck to the dragstrip about four times a year and the last time out I ran which was before the cam and intake change I ran 9.08, 9.13, 8.94 which if I remember correctly converted to around 13.90 in 1/4 mile and I don't think it will do that now. That îs all I can think of so please HELP!!!

I have the booklet and I just about wore it out studying it now I can't find it. I am going to search everywhere in the house and shop that it can be this morning where I can post the stats. I also have my old cam in the box that the new cam came in so if you will when you are in the forum watch for the cam info.

Sorry I moved to the engine tech and went into more specifics, if you will go there and I would like any suggestions on how to get back where I was. Thanks

Let me set the situation up as short as I can. Two years ago I started running my now 52,000 mile 03 SSS on airport runways in a one mile standing start and the speeds progressed as: Sept. 2010 completely stock 3 runs around 123.5 MPH. Oct. of 2010 after a K&N CAI and tweaking with a Hypertech Tuner speeds were around 126. April 2011 1:8 to 1:00 roller rockers and Bee-Hive valve springs, ported stock throttle body, Tonno cover and a HP tuneup speeds stepped up to 133 to almost 135 MPH and during this time I broke or established three landspeed records. Last summer I got really serious and after much research I told my speed shop what I wanted. I asked for a Comp Cams kit Cam and lifters that the peak HP range would be 2,500 to 6,000 RPM, BBK Short tube headers with Doug's Headers electric cutouts. Then after much thinking and researching I added a LSXrt intake and a retune. My shop doesn't have a dyno to accommodate an all wheel drive truck. I made four runs on the Ohio, Mile last Sept. and I was hoping to maybe run 140 MPH but at least certainly 138. To my shock I ran 130.20, 130.83 etc. The truck roared off the line and seemed to pull harder than it ever had, no stumbling, popping bogging and six people came up to me and comment on how fast the truck ran and wanted to know what my speeds were. On the last run I glanced down to the tach and the truck shifted from low to second at 6,200 RPM then fell back to 4,000 RPM and was almost the speed traps before it reached 6,200 RPM'S again and shifted to 3RD gear where it fell to 4,000 RPM'S and fell flat on it 's face. I know the tuneup would be suspect but I do not have access to anyone with a dyno that would work with an all wheel drive of the length of my truck and the truck ran great. I am wondering about the torque converter which is the stock converter or even the transmission line pressure. I did ask for on the tuneup to increase the shifts by 50% which was done through the laptop and not internally. Now you can rip into me and tell me where I went wrong, Thanks

Our trucks are getting quite old now and I am sure that many have succumbed to northern roads, snow and salt while others are just plain clapped out being high performance vehicles. I was wondering what the active membership is now compared to say six years ago. Fortunately my black 03 has been hanging in suspension during the time of and for a couple of years after a serious heart attack followed within a month by three strokes which left me with 100% memory loss and put me in a wheelchair for two years. I have had and still am relearning everything including relearning how to drive in the local high school parking lot and I now walk with a walking stick which I lean on heavily due to Parkinson's Desease and Rheumatoid Arthritis. I relearned to drive in my SS Silverado. One of the accomplishments I am most proud of is that eight months after I got out of the wheelchair I set a standing one mile landspeed record on the Maxton Mile in NC. The first trip I made I Made four runs in the Production Pickup class running around 123.5 + or- The next month after a little tweaking with a Hypertech a Tuner and a K&N cai kit I bumped the speed up to around 126 MPH. Now I need to find the appropriate forum heading because after getting a little more serious I was in the 134 MPH range so I thought I would step things up even more and after spending ds ppe$4,000 to $5,000.00 more and expecting to run 138 to 140 last Sept. The performance mods were my idea after much research but to my surprise on the Ohio Mile my speeds fell to 130.00 so now I am going to seak the opinion of the experts as to where I went wrong. By the way my truck now has 52,000 miles on it and with some exterior mods it looks better than ever!