Build Thread 1978 Fairmont. I bet somebody back home’s thinkin’…I wonder why he don’t write..?

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All this to say one of two things need to happen:

1.I keep the drag radials, and swap out the worthless 7 year old Sumitumo’s for now.
2. I sell the drag radials, And buy a complete replacement set for the street tires in the form of Nitto 555r gen 2’s..

or….I buy the Nittos, throw away the Sumitomos, and keep the DR’s anyway..
Which one is the most expensive, pain-in-the-arse option? That's the one you'll pick. :pop:

When are we going to see evidence that this car actually runs, and/or that you have these video cameras you keep bragging about?
 
Which one is the most expensive, pain-in-the-arse option? That's the one you'll pick. :pop:

When are we going to see evidence that this car actually runs, and/or that you have these video cameras you keep bragging about?
i do not brag about the video cameras….I talk about how tragic the fact is that they’ll never see the light of day..

For Christ’s sake…….at least stay on the same streaming channel….this isn’t Netflix…
 
OPTION 4: Purchase the Nittos along with a pair of rear wheels to mount the drag radials.Take the 20 min to swap them on when the Viagra kicks in,Nittos back on a few hours later.
You guys that tune into the season after six of 12 episodes have already aired…….I tell ya.
I have the drag radials mounted on a separate set of 17x11 wheels, that coincidentally happen to match the wheels already on the car…
Now why would I need to purchase another set of wheels to mount the already separately mounted drag radials on their own wheels?…….……………….….
 

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Keep the drag radials and swap them on the car when it's over 85 degrees and dry. Keep the tires you have for basic cruising and the burnout video you're about to make. By new nittos with the crowd funding site you create to replace said burnout tires. Not to mention the money you make from the YT upload.
 
Keep the drag radials and swap them on the car when it's over 85 degrees and dry. Keep the tires you have for basic cruising and the burnout video you're about to make. By new nittos with the crowd funding site you create to replace said burnout tires. Not to mention the money you make from the YT upload.

See below..


If i get time today between house things, i’m gonna put the DR’s on the car, and see if the vibration stays/changes/goes away.
The obvious problem with relying on drag radials for “traction control” is that they are weather dependent. i.e., not safe in rain. Not that I’d drive the car in rain on purpose, I’d certainly avoid that, but it becomes a double edged sword.

* If a drag radial is part of the solution, when will this car not need them?

In other words…What would be the point of driving this freakin thing, if I’m going to have to baby it around to avoid ending up in the ditch because it’s on street tires?
At the same time, How can I ever safely drive it to some far off event like this Mississippi cruise-in if there are drag radials on the car?

See what I mean Vern?

The NT 555 gen2 tire is supposed to be the happy medium, but even with a really good sticky compound, if it leans more towards being a street tire…Hello future You tube Fail.

There is another option out there though…

Electronic traction control via the MS3x…Rigging up the required sensors is well w/i my capabilities…but then there’s the tuning part…….And we all know how fond I am of dicking with that.
The other argument against that is again another double edged sword..

Why make so much power that you have to scrub a lot of it away by removing timing?
Why not just limit the freaking power at the wastegate?
And If I did that, the very next question should be..
Why didn’t I just leave the 85hp stock 3.3l turd under the hood in the first place?

* Edit….And after thinking about it using drag racing tuning philosophy…….Tune the Chassis so that the rear stays behind the car even while it’s boiling it’s tires…( if that is even viable).
 
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Monster Intake.jpg


I clicked the link to the archived thread to remember what the subframe connectors looked like and saw this. Man, I hope you have this hanging on the Monster Lair Wall. This is sweet. And the valve cover. The Monster museum display pieces!

As far as the rear kicking out, get the car on 4 corner scales. Hopefully you could play with the preload on the coil overs to even it out. I bet your cross weight is pretty far off. I'm not sure how much the monster weighs, but for HeHatesmyGuts since it weighs less than 2000lbs right now, I found some 650lb capacity on Amazonia for like $40 each. I'm not sure the front ones will hang once the car is built, but the back should still be good. I keep looking on FB for a set up of used scales.
 
Why don't you just unplug the doohickey you found disconnected 2 days ago. Then your rear end won't be stepping out anymore. :scratch:
Doohickey?
We call that ( say it with me) a Throttle…. Position…..Sensor. If it’s all the same to you, I prefer to keep it hooked up correctly, and look for a better alternative to making things work.

I can shut off the electronic boost controller..Boost will drop to 10 psi. Power will drop right along with it.
Less radically, I could change boost duty percentages on the same controller and instead of 23 psi, limit it to something like 15-16 psi instead.

And within about a week, be sick of the lackluster performance.

Im probably gonna end up putting better street tires on the car. If I can get it out today with the drag radials i’ll learn a lot.
 
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Well I made it out.

Several things to talk about..

First plan of the afternoon after removing the rear tires, was to put a couple of lug nuts on the rear rotors, start the car, and see if the vibration I think I’m feeling was due to tire imbalance.
I start it, ( it starts really decent now that the doohickey is hooked up) and run it through the gears. I put it in 4th and get out and look to see if the driveshaft that I thought was wobbling before was still wobbling now..

looked dead steady to me.

I put the car in 5th and a clanking chatter starts happening.I put it in 6th, and the rear end sounds like it’s missing teeth on the ring gear. Back into 4th,…..gone. Not the rear end.

In a panic, I shut the thing off and google my symptoms…It seems that you’re not supposed to put the trans in 6th w/o any load on the clutch..,The T56 forum said that the clutch weights would sound like they’re having a come apart…( or something like that).

I decide to say What the fck, and put the drag radials on to see what happens. I go for a small warmup drive, and after about 10 minutes drop it in first roll up to about 20, and roll hard into the throttle.

* Sidebar commentary *
Have you ever been a passenger in a fairly fast car? As a passenger, the car seems a hell of a lot faster than the driver might feel or think because the driver is anticipating the pull.
The passenger ain’t expecting sht.

Tonight, I felt like a passenger in my own car.

There is no longer any tire spin, but the car just freakin honks….it feels very fast.

When you have lackoftractionitis, these are the cure for what ails ya.



0841D6EB-377E-404F-AD8C-9292C7DF0048.jpeg

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11.5 inches of tread, and 27.5” tall,…Squirrely
Monster is no more..Cheetah Monster has just came to town.

I didn’t really drive it that much to try and diag whether the vibration is better or not, I was too busy running 1,2,3,4’s to pay it much attention..(Besides I had to get home and get out of my pants thinking that I might have fouled myself.)

So one things for sure, I need better tires. Whether or not the Nittos are a decent alternative, I gotta do something. Cause one things for sure.. these drag radials are the definition of Hydroplane.

It’s a shame really, the freakin Sumitomos probably don’t have 5000 miles on them.
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And lastly when considering all things vibration related,….
Even though there is a flex coupling at the front of the exhaust pipe…There’s still this design challenge.
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Exhaust pulses are directly tied to the chassis through that solidly mounted crossmember.
 
I'm currently running the NT555 G2,while a great tire I'm not sure they are what you think they are.At my modest power levels they do fine under normal driving conditions with some heat in the tires but anything over my current 380rwhp it would seem grip could certainly become an issue during spirited driving.Stepping up to the NT05 would give you "some" wet traction ability,quite a bit more than your current drag radials.
I just think at your power level the NT555 while grippier than the Sumitomos,would be somewhat of a sideways move.
 
I'm currently running the NT555 G2,while a great tire I'm not sure they are what you think they are.At my modest power levels they do fine under normal driving conditions with some heat in the tires but anything over my current 380rwhp it would seem grip could certainly become an issue during spirited driving.Stepping up to the NT05 would give you "some" wet traction ability,quite a bit more than your current drag radials.
I just think at your power level the NT555 while grippier than the Sumitomos,would be somewhat of a sideways move.
I appreciate the input. I looked at the NT05, and I agree with you, it appears to be the best in-between solution over a straight drag radial. It looks like getting caught in the rain with that tire might still be a little dicey if there’s a lot of water on the road, but in comparison to the huge bald center section my current drag radials have, I think they’ll be much safer.
 
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With the drag radials on, the vibration seems like it might not be as noticeable…I think the freakin out of round wheels are the issue, but I’m not sure. The rear end noise should be the gear setup, because it goes away when you lift on the throttle, and instantly reappears when your foot is back on the throttle.

I have the stuff to redo the rear end housing and try to correct the slight misalignment that i’ve got on the driver side axle. I don’t know if I’m preloading the carrier bearing, the axle bearing, or both, but you’ve gotta beat that axle in to get it to go in. It may be the noise I’m hearing, or contributing to it I don’t know. I just know I’ve gotta fix it.
I’m gonna cut the entire tube off, LCA mounts and all, and replace about 12-15” of the axle tube. There just isn’t enough clean metal left to cut the old housing ends off, and try and re-weld the new ones back on, w/o the possibility of getting yet another misalignment. So, when the time comes to do that, I’ll re-do the axle tubes, fabricate new LCA mounts, fabricate new lower shock mounts, and redo the PH bar mount on the driver side.

I decided to go forward with the Nitto 05 rear tires only. The front tires are not part of the problem here. Only if there is a height difference will I consider replacing those. Hopefully the tires will provide a middle point between the pointless Sumitomo’s, and the potentially dangerous drag radials. A little tire spin is still welcome.

Ill probably remove the DR’s from the rims they’re on, and the Sumi’s from theirs, and hopefully find the better of two wheels to remount the Nitto’s on.

I can’t bring myself to burn the tires to death, It seems to me that I should be able to get something for them.
What I should do is freakin sell the egg shaped pieces of :poo: and tires to some rat rodder, and get me a set of Cast wheels.