Chevy Nova Forum banner

Super stock racing set up

9K views 11 replies 11 participants last post by  sproosemoose 
#1 · (Edited)
Stock Eliminator racing set up

Thought I'd post a quote from Darin Morgan with a little insight to what all is involved in making a car go fast with a little quadrajet carb, "stock" heads, stock engine, and everything else that goes on in the mix. There is a great running thread discussing this over at bracket talk.

Per Darin Morgan:
"How do they run that fast? It’s not easy even once you know how! Some of these guys spend a DECADE or more running the same car and figuring it out. I have seen the same cars running with the same drivers for 30years! Every little wiggle, shimmy, bump or movement that car makes these guys can tell you from the seat of there pants. They spend all there time finessing every little detail on or in that car. At least the fastest ones do. Every single bearing, gear, ring, wrist pin and component is obsessively finessed to reduce friction, increase seal or both. Static ring tension? What static ring tension! They seal the rings dynamically in milliseconds with gas pressure just like Comp or Pro Stock guys do. If you turn one of those engines over quickly with no valve train on it will actually coast a full revolution before it stops. The guys who really know how to reduce friction and still make the engine seal up are scientists of cylinder wall and pistons ring metallurgy. Now to the cylinder heads. Oh boy, where do I start? Let’s put it this way. I stopped doing those years ago because they are so labor intensive and time consuming. I have spent over three months of porting and dyno work on one set of SS/ heads. How do you possibly come out on that? You simply can’t charge enough to do them. I have less time in a set of comp eliminator heads than I eve did in a set of SS/ heads! If you do SS/ heads you do it because you love it not because you want to make money at it. There is one set of Pontiac 455 SD heads I did in 1991 that are still in use today. They have come back over the years for updates but they are the same exact heads. It took months of labor over years of working on them to find out how to design the port in those heads so they made the most power. To say it’s not an easy task is an understatement. You must keep the same volume the port came from the factory with and manipulate the areas and air speeds to get the most dynamic cylinder fill with a given combination. That’s the best way I can describe it.

S/ and SS/ racers have my respect. A minuscule amount of people love to work that damn hard to go that fast with so little!"
 
See less See more
#3 ·
I read an article in Super Stock and Drag Illustrated year ago about a Super Stock racer he ran a 325HP 396 in a 67 Camaro. He said he had bought and tested over 100 stock cast iron intakes on his car. Basically he said every swap meet he went to he bought every one of them he saw for sale. He would try the intakes and see if the intake made any difference in power. I figured he had the BEST 325Hp GM ever cast before he was done.
 
#5 ·
Just to set the record, Super Stockers do not run a stock intake manifold. Stockers do. It does take a lot of work. The engine in my Nova, a 327-275 horse version, I have $15,000 into the motor alone. Big blocks or other brand such as FE Fords and Hemi can triple the cost of an engine. Yes you need to spend a lot of time on the flow bench and the dyno. But the engine is only a part of the equation. Finding the perfect stall speed and gear ratios are a big part of it. The stock eliminator in our case (my wife and I have 2 stockers and one super stocker)is a lot of work but I would'nt have it any other way.
 
#4 ·
them guys are truely nuts!!! but totally respect them cuz they can make something out of nothing. Mad props to those guys that can make a 10" tire car on stock suspension with a Qjet go in the 10's@115 foot brakin it, and don't use a PG to do it either.
 
#8 ·
The Malibu is a 305 and has run 11.80's at 111 mph and the Nova has run 10.90's at 119 mph. No speed secrets just attention to detail. The Malibu has a metric 200 trans with 5400 stall convertor and the Nova uses a Jerico with an Advanced Clutches dual disc. The Malibu is 3300 pounds and the Nova is 3200 pounds.
 
#9 ·
A friend of my Dad builds super stock engines. He specializes in the cylinder heads. It is crazy the amount of time and work that goes into them. The time spent welding up ports and redoing. We bought his old camaro and bracket raced it. You can tell a well set up car launching and going down the track compared to an average one. Watch one launch. The front ends come up smooth and set back down smooth with no bouncing at all. Different tire sizes, compounds, gear changes and converter changes are all normal at an event to get the speed out of the car especially for run offs.
 
#10 ·
Superstock

Hey Bob,
Nice to see a familar name on here. Yes, lots of time and work goes into stock and superstock cars. But, the results are usually worth the effort. We my father and I have been involved in stock and superstock for years. Dad since 1967 and me since I turned 16 in 1998.
Bob what is the HP rating on the 327? Also how light can you get it? I'm building a 70 to run as a 72 with the 200HP. Just trying to figure if I can get it close to min weight for F. Don't feel like having to run against Hladky at all of our local S/SS races while I'm trying to figure the car out. By the way the old white ramp truck is still plugging along.

Rick Ryan
SS/NA record holder 88 Cutlass 307
D/S Boss 351 Mustang
F-H/S 72 Nova
 
#11 ·
"Ironman" talks about getting so much performance out of a "little old quadrajet carb". Don't sell the Q-jet short. Has to be the most underrated carb out there. Might not be as sexy looking as a Holley but I'd put my Q-jet up against a 750 cfm Holley any time.
The guy that did my Q-jet (Val Hedworth) flowed it at 823 cfm. It's legal for stock class and never a single problem since I put it on four years ago. I always run it with a air cleaner.
 
#12 ·
So here is my newb question. Why aren't all engines built like this. Longevity?
if it were easy then all engines would be built that way, but it's not. it takes a lot of hours from guys who have a lot of knowledge and are very good at what they do to make this happen. you can bet it involves a lot of well kept secrets. and as stated, a lot of the best guys have been doing this since the 60's.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top