Rear Mounts Specifically The Uppers ?

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Postby rustorbust » Sun Oct 14, 2007 3:29 am

I ran the car as is till just about a month ago and it stayed right around the 6.70 range that it was running. But in the last month I have put together a new motor and actually got it in the car today. The new motor is another 400 but I have got away from the cast stuff. The block has been hard blocked, I got away from the mechanical water pump and put a dedenbear pump on it, It has a Lunati crank, manley rods, srp pistons, afr heads and a 650" lunati roller cam. Im hoping for the car to go as fast on the motor as it did on the nitrous with the old motor. Im gonna try and start it tomorrow. There is a race next friday night im gonna try and take it to. As for the suspension I havent changed alot. I did fab up some tubular adjustable upper control arms (ill try to find the pictures of them). And I have been reading the posts of megavega under the project section and im planning on doing a rear subframe like he has with his car but sticking with the stock suspension. Im not sure what the fastest stock suspension vega is but with the new motor when I get it all dialed in ill start tuning it with the nitrous and I want to try and get the car to run in the 5's in the 1/8 with 8.5" tires and stock suspension.
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Postby BigTruckDriver » Mon Oct 15, 2007 12:08 am

SWEEEET!!!! Keep us updated and pics pleeeaaase. Have you looked at the high stress areas? I see that it will be very difficult to use a 10" under the fender well and keep the shock mount and control arm mount in its stock location.
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Postby rustorbust » Mon Oct 15, 2007 1:41 am

I have been keeping a close eye on the control arm mounting points and havnt seen anything happen yet or anything moving but im sure in due time it will happen. I bought all the material today to do the rear subframe stuff today and I think I will be able to do it all in a weekend, so ill run the car a little then go ahead and do it. I cant find the pics on the computer so ill get under it tomorrow and take some pictures.
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Postby BigTruckDriver » Wed Oct 31, 2007 9:53 pm

Rustorbust , whats happening ? I think the last I heard you fired the new engine up and were supposed to be hitting the track. Any updates?
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Postby rustorbust » Thu Nov 01, 2007 2:21 am

Yea, I ran the car two weeks ago. It did alright for the first night out with the new motor but I ran into some problems. I was able to make 6 passes. Right off the trailer it went a 7.009 at 99 and it went backwards from there the whole night. In between passes I was checking the spark plugs and it kept showing signs of detonation and the plugs were bleach white all night long. I kept going up in jet sizes after every pass and no matter what I just coulndt seem to give it enough fuel. ( I dont think I had good enough fuel in it also, so I bought some c12 this week that Im gonna try) So.... I was running a 850 holley and I went ahead and bought this trick 950 4150 series holley that has suppose to been massaged to flow over 1000cfm, as of tonight I have it on the car and there is another race this friday night. With the new gas and new carb im hoping for big numbers. I was able to muster up a 1.52 60ft on the motor though which was the best I have done on the motor. The new motor runs good though, when we put the motor together this time we went ahead and hard blocked the block and I was kinda worried about it and temp but with the new dedenbear pump I never saw the temp go over 150 all night. (The new dedenbear remote water pump free'd up alot of space too, they are pricey but I would recomend them to anyone) Ill let you know what happens with it this friday night.

Image
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Postby BigTruckDriver » Thu Nov 01, 2007 11:40 am

Sounds good and looks very good also. I am sure its going to take awhile to get everything tuned. I am not expert but the carb may be a little big. Also IMO the engine temp can come up more also. How does the car feel to you now with the new engine? I would love to see some photos and maybe a video. Nice engine shot, thats what I have to look forward to in mine. Man its tight in there. I have 2129 hooker headers and plan on stuffing a 383 sbc but am leaning towards a 406 sbc.
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Postby rustorbust » Thu Nov 01, 2007 12:43 pm

I think it should be able to handle it. It should be able to take quite a bit, its 13.5 to 1 and it has the bigger afr heads and it has a 650 lift cam. I was just about to stick a little dominator on it that a friend of mine was going to let me borrow. The cooler I have kept the motor the faster it has always ran, but then again this is a different motor. I have a mount on the roll cage for the camera so Ill take it down with me friday night. And yes it is deffinently tight in there.
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Postby BigTruckDriver » Sun Nov 11, 2007 2:55 am

rustorbust wrote:I ran the car as is till just about a month ago and it stayed right around the 6.70 range that it was running. But in the last month I have put together a new motor and actually got it in the car today. The new motor is another 400 but I have got away from the cast stuff. The block has been hard blocked, I got away from the mechanical water pump and put a dedenbear pump on it, It has a Lunati crank, manley rods, srp pistons, afr heads and a 650" lunati roller cam. Im hoping for the car to go as fast on the motor as it did on the nitrous with the old motor. Im gonna try and start it tomorrow. There is a race next friday night im gonna try and take it to. As for the suspension I havent changed alot. I did fab up some tubular adjustable upper control arms (ill try to find the pictures of them). And I have been reading the posts of megavega under the project section and im planning on doing a rear subframe like he has with his car but sticking with the stock suspension. Im not sure what the fastest stock suspension vega is but with the new motor when I get it all dialed in ill start tuning it with the nitrous and I want to try and get the car to run in the 5's in the 1/8 with 8.5" tires and stock suspension.
Rust you still think you will do 5 with the stock suspension? That would be nice. I am keeping a eye on your build. I am trying to get to mid-high 5's and its looking like a 2000 dollar rear upgrade. Keep us updated, there will be a lot of non believers!
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Postby rustorbust » Sun Nov 11, 2007 12:51 pm

If its at a track with good hook I totally think it is possible with all the stock stuff. But to do it with this motor I think it will have to be with a 200 shot of nitrous or more and I dont really know if I want to put that big of a shot on it or not. We'll see what happens down the road a little ways, a friend of mine has a 434 short block that he is going to be selling and im thinking about getting it and putting it away in the garage.
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Postby peterpan » Sat Dec 01, 2007 7:27 pm

i welded my upper mounts,tied my lower ones into my sub frame connectors,boxed my upper and lower control arms and have got a set of camaro rear springs for it

along with welding on the front if you haven't allready checked it out you can see pics of most of my work on it in my project thread
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Re: Rear Mounts Specifically The Uppers ?

Postby 70styleVega » Wed Jun 18, 2008 7:55 pm

The Upper control arm mounts seem to be the weakest part of the factory H-body 4 link suspension, for the enthusiast.

The upper and lower links themselves are effective when boxed or your can buy aftermarket ones if you need adjustability.
The lower control arm mounts can be reinforced or incorporated into the subframe connectors.

But the upper control mounts just don't look like they will take repetitive launches (with 400-450 lb-ft of torque at 3000-3500 rpm) even with Peter Pan's nice weld job.... the material still seems too thin. I have been pondering how to box or reinforce my UCA mounts with .080-.125 thick plate. This is what I've come up with so far. The plate stock can be shaped to the unibody using cardboard or thin plywood as templates. (Sorry, Peter Pan for defacing your photo.) :lol:
It may look like overkill, but torque can break stuff. What do you think? :shock:
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Re: Rear Mounts Specifically The Uppers ?

Postby rustorbust » Thu Jun 19, 2008 12:22 am

I cant beleive I havnt thought of that yet, next chance I get Im gonna jump all over that and fab up a set for myself.

James
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Re: Rear Mounts Specifically The Uppers ?

Postby gt350fme » Thu Jun 19, 2008 1:30 pm

I would agree that rear upper control arm flanges, and the lowers, need beefing up for sure, the photo shop drawings by 70stylevega would help strengthen those flanges a lot, Do beware to leave clearance for the bump stops!
I have welded around all my flanges too, anything extra in this area should help strengthen that area.
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Re: Rear Mounts Specifically The Uppers ?

Postby 70styleVega » Thu Jun 19, 2008 4:57 pm

rustorbust.... glad to see that you are still at it.
After you you git 'er done, please post photos. (My last conversion of your eighth mile ET put you at 10.60-10.65 in the quarter mile). If the brackets updates in my photo sketch work for you I should have no problem.

gt350fme.... please post photos of yours as well.... I am totally open for suggestions. I had mixed feelings on the factory four link, but this thread made me think about it more. I was also thinking that I may need to add a U-shaped clearance under the control arm (allow for movement without interference), although I'm sure that it will be stronger if that horizontal lower plate can remain uncut (straight across). I'll figure that out when I do mine.
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Re:

Postby waybad » Thu Jun 19, 2008 5:44 pm

rustorbust wrote:If its at a track with good hook I totally think it is possible with all the stock stuff. But to do it with this motor I think it will have to be with a 200 shot of nitrous or more and I dont really know if I want to put that big of a shot on it or not. We'll see what happens down the road a little ways, a friend of mine has a 434 short block that he is going to be selling and im thinking about getting it and putting it away in the garage.

Come on with the video's and updates :bang: :bang: :bang: :bang: :bang:
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