Burnouts: couple questions

How bad is it for your car?

Should a stock lt1 equiped caprice be able to spin tires just flooring it on dry pavement?(without breaks applied)

How fast can you guys get your stock caprices (at a standstill) to go in a burnout on the speedo? I get about 11km/h nowadays (about 6mph) and is that allright or should i be able to get it higher?



by the way 94 lt1 open dif

How bad is it for your car?

Should a stock lt1 equiped caprice be able to spin tires just flooring it on dry pavement?(without breaks applied)

How fast can you guys get your stock caprices (at a standstill) to go in a burnout on the speedo? I get about 11km/h nowadays (about 6mph) and is that allright or should i be able to get it higher?



by the way 94 lt1 open dif

I have an 88 with a carbureted 350/5.7 that has numbers close to an LT1 and 3.08 gears with an open diff, and it's just a simple matter of giving the car a little more juice than it needs to get started, in order to get it to burn out. It's funny, but this is the first car I've owned that can do any sort of dry pavement burn and it does it with little prompting. I've never paid attention to the speedo so I can't tell you that (I make it a policy to avoid burnouts whenever possible, not always easy to do on the hot summer Arizona pavement), but I will tell you the wheels stop spinning when the transmission shifts into 3rd. I have hit over 3,000 RPM during a burnout, however. 3,000 RPM is something like 30-35MPH in first, 45-50 in second.

Now, burnouts can lead to broken U-joints, bent axles, twisted axles, twisted driveshafts, and transmission death. That sort of thing. It can also lead to a huge fine and possible jail if you get a cop in a bad mood (if you're on public streets when you do it).

Its kinda funny, but cool at the same time to see these cars doing burnouts or drifting cause they werent designed for it, unlike a camaro iroc-z, trans am, corvette or something like that (those are fun cars to burnout in!). I've done brakestands a few times on mine but i hate doing it too much cause if i screw something up i sure dont have the $$ to fix it right now, my weak little 305 cant really do much stuff like that anyway.

Should a stock lt1 equiped caprice be able to spin tires just flooring it on dry pavement?(without breaks applied)
I would think so... my 305 used to be able to do it effortlessly... only one wheel though. It really shows though if you d it a lot. The tranyn will start to go and engine will slowly lose power form being beat on all the time. There were some real nut kids I used to go to school with the really beat the crap out of thier cars. It was like 10 years, 100,000 miles of drivetrain wear in only one year, 10,000 miles.

heres a video i made a few months back of a good brakestand burnout before paint and the flowmasters of my car: http://youtube.com/watch?v=CzIIw1lbXiI

yep. my 305 is a one wheel peal as they call it. i'm sort of glad this car doesn't allow for much fun in that sense. i'd hate to be going through hundereds of $$ in tires and transmission parts. plus my car is in such pristine condition it pains me to do such a thing.

With a properly/maintenance'd running LT1, you may or may not be able to spin the tires.

Depends on tires, surface, if the car is cold/warm, etc.

I wouldnt feel to bad about not being able too :)

It mostly depends on how wide your tires are, how 'sticky' the compound is, the condition of your shocks, how 'slippery' the surface is and how much weight is in the trunk (more appropriately, how much is on the rear axle).

--

I used to be able to do the 'one-wheel peel' in a 1974 Vega with a TH250 and an engine that couldn't push the car over a 6% grade. A little water goes a long way!

well wet parking lots are my friend for burnouts.
once in highschool, i remember doing a burnout on freshly "re-finished" parking lot on a rainy day.

you know the stuff.
they basically paint the old asphalt to make it look new.
well i found out that it gets REALLY slippery in the rain, and did 3 complete spins once.
the first one was unintentional. i was leaving an after school event, and nobody was around, so i gunned it and it broke loose.
i gave it some opposite lock, but halfway through correcting the oversteer, i decided to ride out the spin.
after the first spin, i was having too much fun and kept it going until i dried up the pavement or warmed up the tires or something, but it stopped spinning after about 3 spins.

that was fun.



another time, the same parking lot flooded in winter and froze over.
there was about 1" of ice covering the ENTIRE parking lot.
yeah.
no explanations necessary.

this is a nice caprice. i think its a 94 with LT1

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1644988516965655112&q=rj%27s+caprice&total=2&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0

i hate though when im at a red light and its wet out, if i step on the gas a little too hard ill hear the back wheels spinning

Ah yeah I hate that... that one wheel peel thing for yah. There was the one intersection where I live, down in the village. Always tough to get out because of the traffic. In the rain... forget about it. I tried a few time only to have the wheel spin and the car creep forward. I had ta stop and back up real quick and wait for another chance. Of course at the time I was riding on burnout-made drag slicks. But even with good tires, these cars aren't all that great in the rain or snow when it comes to taking off.

Nice videos by the way. One of the main reasons why I ask this is to get a sorta standard for a caprice with an lt1 when it comes to power (roughly), to figure out how far behind i am from normal.

When I am stopped (dry, level road, tires normal temperature or a bit cool), I cant get the tire (open differential) to spin at all, even when I stomp on the gas. Tires are winter tires, 215W and I just can't do it. I was wondering if thats the norm.

It will do decent brake stands though, that are similar to mike561's.

The caprice in beat88's video kicks my caprices ass, though I think he was partially on the brakes.

want a trick to stop the one wheel peel?
parking brake.

there is a hill where i live with a stoplight at the top and the line where you stop is still on the steep part of the hill.

when it rains in the first time in a while, it gets pretty slick with all the dripped oil and such.

my trick is to put the parking brake on halfway.
that gives the open diff a "preload" of sorts, where the torque is equal to whatever torque you have on each wheel with the brake.

just put the brake on, give it gas, and once you are going, pull the release.





thats also a good trick to try if you find yourself stuck in mud or something.
try it before you attempt "rocking" the car or any of these other stupid things people do.






johncrow:
snow tires are pretty soft compound, so you shouldnt expect them to break away easily in warm weather.
also, it depends on your gearing.
first gear in a 700r4 and 4L60E is 3.06. if your rear end is a 2.92 or 2.73 then you are at a disadvantage to those with a 3.08 or higher.
my caprice has a th350 with a 2.52 first gear and a 2.73 rear end, making it nearly impossible to break the tires free.
if i ever do break them loose, the speedo reads about 35 in first gear at half throttle

diddnt know that trick lol

Gray Goose, your reply bout da winter tires having a softer compound really helped me out, I thought it would be a little easier due to the bigger treads but since you said that it has a softer compund thus more traction, then that would make more sence. Thanks again.

I see somewhere that my caprice (not a 9c1) has 2.56 rear gears, which if true i guess doesnt help at all. Also I got a big propane tank( car has a propane conversion) inthe trunk to I dont think that helps either.

While were on the topic of high torque and being fast off the line, Has anybody removed the 1K5 Transmission lockout option thingy on thier vehicle? Not being able to shift into "L" is driving me nuts.

Also would love to try the E break thing some day but Most of the components on my E breaks messed up, brocken or missing.

Your car should not likely have 2.56 gears if it is an LT1 - you're likely to have 2.93 gears. Look at the label on the inside of the trunk lid - look for a code starting with G i.e. GU4 GU2 etc. Tell us what that code is and we'll tell you what ratio you have.

diddnt know that trick lol

lol, yeah. i never would have known that at all! pretty cool

i learned that when i was in... Mississippi. mud bog heaven.

propane conversion?
do tell.
sounds like fun.

Well it used to be a taxi and the guy put a propane conversion in it cause its cheaper, to save on overhead. Theres a switch in the left side of the dash to toggle between gas and propane. Sounds and looks cool but I havnt been able to drive the car on the road yet "legally" cause its not insured. The draw back here though that I know is it way A LOT.

hmmmmm.
if it were me, id take out the gas tank and modify the engine to rum better on propane... or just convert it back to gas

I've herd about propane for cars. gas is so expensive now, which is why its rare to see cars like ours now im guessing, ugh why cant cars just run on water haha

hmmmmm.
if it were me, id take out the gas tank and modify the engine to rum better on propane... or just convert it back to gas

Propane? Do you know how much propane costs? It's about $4/gal here in AZ. Plus, propane does not have the BTU content that gasoline does, meaning that an engine running on propane will have its economy reduced by almost a third!

Meaning, if your car gets 15MPG on gasoline, it will get 10MPG on propane, all else being equal. I'm being overly-simplistic here, but you get the point.

I have been trying to make this reply for a while now but most of the computers i go on wont open this page. Silicon I found the number you were talking about and its GU4 which I cme to learn is 3.08, thanks for the tip. Something peculiar though is that with that I also saw the G80 SPID thing in the trunk which I hear is supposed to be limited slip. Problem is, I'm sure I got an open differential. When ever I do a brake stand burnout, its always the passenger wheel which rotates, never both. Whats happening here?

And also the whole thing of propane not giving u as much milage and power from lack of btu's make sense. The idle on my caprice is set a bit high so that when I switch over to propane and have the car statinary, it doesnt stall. Ill check it out when I get the car on the road

where i am, propane is much cheaper.
i checked.
you have to be sure not to take it to lowes or somewhere like that because they charge a lot more.
typical price for "bulk" propane is $1.75/gal

where i am, propane is much cheaper.
i checked.
you have to be sure not to take it to lowes or somewhere like that because they charge a lot more.
typical price for "bulk" propane is $1.75/gal

I looked more into that. You're right, propane _as a motor fuel_ is cheaper and that price is similar to what it is here. Propane for a barbecue or whatnot is $4/gal. Remember, there's about 5 pounds to the gallon so a typical propane cylinder for a barbecue is $20 now.

Still, propane has a much lower energy count (82,000 BTU next to gasoline @ 125,000 BTU), and in order to get equivalent horsepower, you will need to raise compression a couple of points. Economy reduces about 1/4 (the 1/3 was a bit of an exaggeration).

with a lower outut engine such as an LG4 305 the taller ratios like 2/56 and 2.73 actually break the tire loose alot easier than a deeper ratio such as 3.73 4.10 etc

its just how it works

i have opwned billions of different vehicles of alll different ratios and engines and this is what they do

my caprices always bust the right rear wheel loose at a dead stop and very easily so as long as the engine is not an old beat tired oil burning dog


the caddy oldsmobile engines do it the best though and alot of them were 2.29 ratio insane

like the 79 caddy de ville with the 425

they had a horrible axle ratio but would still burn the tire off and haul ass

low RPM torque performance for hauling ppl and cargo

great work truck engine RPM range

same principle

low rpm performance to get heavier weights moving from a stop

this is why several different engines of the same size were offered in a given vehicle make model and year

they were built differently for different applications

heres a couple b bodies ive owned:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v298/fast68/randyspastvehicles/84impala.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v298/fast68/randyspastvehicles/83caprice.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v298/fast68/randyspastvehicles/62506001.jpg

Let me see if I can come up with a good burnout video, last time I was at the track it was too cold to put water in the burnout bax but I didn't need it and the tires did need the heat. When you find rubber on the hood you know it was a GOOD burnout, that or when you can't see the car launch because the smoke is too thick.

hey randy, i see you had one of those 80s impalas, those things are getting so rare to find now, i remember my grandfather had one when i was like 2

I think someone tried to outbeat you on the long brakestands pete with this ford tempo lol http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVDHttMLY-Q

Wow.... well I guess I'll have to grab another junkyard tire and go again. I just got another burnout video and pic, only not with the Caprice this time, something a lot smaller. I can't get the video to load yet, but I do have the picture. Check it out, I'll do a burnout with anything!
http://a775.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/121/l_285996a5083391819039ee4ee3accec6.jpg

haha nice, I got a recent vid uploaded on youtube of my exhaust by the way, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kboP0SRh7j0

Also the other day i saw probably what was a 91 or 92 caprice with a vinyl top, i had never seen a bubble body caprice like that before, it diddnt even have the quarter window by the back doors.

I almost bought one of those. They're fairly common up here. Nice exhaust vid. The back lights came out good too. Oh and not to mention those stylin' flip flops.

lol thanks, yeah you can kinda hear the little tapping sound i was talking about right after i give it the first rev at 17 sec. in the video

I did notice that. It sounds like a lifter to me. Did you ever try adjusting your rocker arms just for sh*ts and grins?

not yet, i havent had the valve covers off either. how do you adjust those?

Well the easy way is to run the engine with the valve covers off, using a deep socket loosten the rocker arm until the valve is noisy, then slowly tighten until the noise goes away then add another 1/4 turn. Do that with all the rocker arms. Doing it this way, there is no sequence required.

oh ok that sounds easy, they may just need to be tightened then

So with the engine on, you can take the vavle cover off and adjust the rocker arms without worrying about a big mess? nothing needs to be drained before doing this?

At idle, after the engine is warmed up then engine doesn't normally produce enough pressure to squirt oil out of the rocker chamber. I've done it on many small block chevy's and never had an issue with that with new or old worn oil pumps.

yeah i just discovered yesterday i need new tie rod ends, they're so lose you can move them by hand, and i need new sway bar bushings. i dont even wanna know how much thats gonna put me down money-wise. geuss that explains why the steering is so loose too lol

bout $40 for the tie rod ends

http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?autofilter=1&part=SUM%2DTR%2D2019R&N=700+4294908216+4294908194+4294855923+4294925023+ 115&autoview=sku

and for the bushings, it depends on how good you want.
i have urethane, which "gives" less when you turn, making it feel firmer.
urethane is more expensive, but lasts longer.

you can completely remove the sway bar and the only thing that will happen is the car will roll a lot in turns. i doubt that is your steering problem.

Sway bar links are fairly inexpensive, and tie rods aren't too bad as GreyGoose pointed out, although $40.00 seems pretty pricey. I just priced them at Advance Auto Parts, and the cheapest ones are $18.00 and most expensive ones are $33.99.

http://www.partsamerica.com/ProductList.aspx?parttype=80&ptset=A&searchfor=Tie+Rod+End+-+Driver%2c+Outer

yeah i'd like to try and do it myself, i was told by a friend its not too expensive either, though theres some type of fork tool i need or something to remove the tie rods?

I think it's called a pickle fork. Regardless of the name, its a fork looking tool with two, heavy wedge shaped teeth and a solid steel handle to take hammer blows. The two teeth straddle the ball joint stud in the tie rod end while wedging between the tie rod and hub connector, forcing them apart. But since you're not trying to save the tie rod end, a larger ball-pine hammer to the stud will do the trick if you don't have a pickle fork available to you.

another thing too, do the front wheels need to be off the gound to do this work? cause i dont have a lift just a basic jack and stands

another thing too, do the front wheels need to be off the gound to do this work? cause i dont have a lift just a basic jack and stands


yes, thats all i had when i did mine

ok thought so