Just not Natural for a diesel

That is awesome! Sucks you split your block though. Good luck on the rebuild, can't wait to see what this truck does next season!
 
Probably want to do some research on racing chassis setup. Flex is your enemy, a sway bar is your friend, and if you are interested in going fast the big wheelies are counterproductive. Chassis flex is completely unpredictable and makes for illhandeling and potentially dangerous race vehicles.

Although I can appreciate your considerable effort put into this, wouldn't it have been more fun to complete these runs. Do yourself a favor and find a reputable chassis shop to fix you up, or st least get you going in the right direction.

Looks like you guys are having a blast. Sorry to read about your engine. Good luck with your project.
 
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Chassis needs to be tweaked back on a frame machine then front bars added to tie into the forward portion of frame; then anti roll bar added to rear. Some flex has always made the truck just flat work well, but once its abused with to much torque and no anti roll bar it just goes to far, and at that point it does become dangerous to drive.
 
Flex is your enemy. Why would you purchase high dollar adjustable shocks, finely calibrated springs and and chassis components then knowingly have a chassis that flexes different amounts. Not trying to be mean, but I guess what you mean by a race car "working". The only reason I'm even responding again is so that the people reading this don't think a flexing chassis is an advantage. A flexing chassis is a overpowered chassis and a breaking chassis.

You want to have a chassis that is stiff enough to not flex with your power level, install a swan bar of appropriate size to combat twist to keep power even to the tires and then choose appropriate shocks and springs for the weight and power you are trying to apply. THEN you need to find some one to help you adjust it to apply that power. Big wheelies, although good for impressing your buddies, is terrible for going fast.

I wish you guys good luck with your project. Please do yourself a favor and find a source of chassis information you trust and ask them- not some buddy but someone who works full time at a reputable chassis shop.

Or are chassis setups for diesels different too and I don't understand chassis setup and fabrication because I don't have a fast diesel?
 
Flex is terrible I just have it that way to impress the girls. I mean come on, it has terrible 60's for a pro street truck and only runs 13's so what's the point other then showing off?


:poke::doh:
 
IMHO, when you are building a full bodied vehicle's chassis you want to minimize flex. It lets you use the suspension components to adjust for different conditions. That said, I have seen some vehicles just flat out work well with horribly flexing chassis. The problem is that some part of that chassis eventually is going to fatigue and fail either by cracking or permanent deformation.

I built a V8 Vega many years ago that was a real flex-o-matic. It hooked hard and pulled wheelstands, but eventually I couldn't close the damn doors without jacking up part of the chassis. It was also somewhat inconsistent, which made it tough as a bracket car. I bought another body and built a subframe beneath it and tied the factory front and rear frame structures together, and also changed the rear suspension a bit. It was a deadly consistent car, but barely skimmed the front tires off the ground. I won a couple of track championships and a division championship with that car.

My tube chassis Vega has a very rigid chassis, but I can change the rear suspension if I want it to pull giant wheelstands. Yup, those do impress the girls ;)
 
I have been wondering how long it was going to be before we saw this truck do this. Watching it in person and in videos, all i could think was Anti-Roll bar FTW...
 
I found a couple more vids from a different view.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LF3nPaimhs4&feature=related"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LF3nPaimhs4&feature=related[/ame]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAceunyI3A0&feature=related"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAceunyI3A0&feature=related[/ame]
 
I think it would hook on wet shop floor with 19.5's
 
Hooking is one thing....it's the other 1319' that counts.
I hope you get it settled down Bean...cause that thing is gonna hurt you if you dont.
 
I keep hearing the same things over and over and I do appriciate the advise but heres the whole story.

I bought the truck as a rollin chassis, got a late start on this years racing and have slowly increased teh hp to get a feel for it with our power plant and trans combo. At 950hp it was a little squirrly but manageable. Our next hp jump was 300hp. Looking back I should not have tried that much at once but was just trying to get a really good 1/8th mile run before the end of the season. Problem was it way overpowered the chassis and as you could see was not a real safe ride, reason I was running alone down the track cause I had a feelin it may get like that and I didnt want to endanger anyone else. My main goal was to hit 5.xx's, I knew it would pop the wheels as an added bonus (didnt figure on that much) and I knew that would draw a bunch of attention along with a 5.xx number.

I didnt get the 5.xx number I really was after so that really pissed me off but look at the attention that video has brought to diesel racing already. I know big wheel stands are not the way to win races but a big heavy diesel doing wheel stands, who the heck has seen something like that before? Videos like that will bring more spectators to see diesels then just plain ole "fast as hell". Its not like I am out there to win races for money, I would be bankrupt trying to do that I am a sled puller not a racer. This truck is an advertising tool for my company and also for my sponsors.

Now that we know what will happen with that amount of hp we are going to make the proper adjustments to the chassis to hold the power but hopefully not lose the holeshot ability it already has. I would really hate to stiffen this chassis up completly and then just kill what it had the ability to do. Maby thats what it needs but my gut tells me if I do that then it will no longer be sperate from the crowd.
 
Yep. I remember the last thing you said on the way out of the driveway, you wanted to also try and do crazy wheelies and wanted a picture to post of the under carriage for advertising, Lol. Congrat's on besting even my best wheelie's, I prob. got them higher and carryed them further [out past the 60'] but I dont remember ever bringing them back up in the next gear, lol!! Just do like we talked about by staighting it back out once again and go ahead and add a rear anti roll and see how it responds to that. Have fun and be safe.

I still know of no other 4500# full frame trucks that 60' in the 1.30's let alone the low 30's that I ran; Beaner is also now making more power than I did so e.t.'s will follow suite soon as he can hold it on the track for a full pass. Goes to show you though that my Ol' 12v was making pretty good steam also, to run teens with a non lock up convertor.
 
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