'79 F250 2wd project truck

[Manimal]

Man I LOVE that '79...nice job!

 

[ford141]

So, I finally got the green truck to the track this past weekend. I had to thrash to get the truck back together in time to make it to the track, since I decided to rebuild the limited slip before I went. Since I was late to the track, I only got to make 2 passes.

First pass: Did a small burnout to clean the tires, left it in drive. When the light went green, I wacked the pedal to the floor. Big mistake, as the truck didn't move. It just sat on the line melting the rear tires off... I pedaled the throttle and finally got it to hook, but it was already in second gear, and bogged a little before it picked itself up and ran out the rest of the track. I was rewarded with a dismal 15.24@94mph.

Second pass: I hotlapped it, and got right back into line. This time I let about 10psi out of the rear tires in a futile effort to get it to hook. In the burnout box I roasted the tires to get a little heat in them, then staged. I shifted down into first for better control of gear selections. When the light turned green I *****-footed it to about half throttle in first. It still spun, but hooked up quick, so I rolled the throttle to the floor, which broke the tires loose again. When I shifted to second, it spun breifly but hooked back up, at which point it bogged hard, and started to die. I pedaled the throttle and it finally came back to life and ran out the rest of the track. I improved my 60ft time by not melting the tires at the line, but the bogging in 2nd hurt e.t. and trap speed. This time it ran 15.27@92mph.

While I'm still not positive as to why it died on the second pass, I'm pretty sure it was hot, and maybe the carb was starting to vaporlock. I also discovered that the clutch fan is not working at all, so that explains why it was so hot. It has never overheated, but it always has ran a little warm, I thought it was just the gauge all along.

I also realized how hard it is to get a longbed pickup with a torquey big block and tiny tires to hook up on a track. I'm glad I got the limited slip working because I'd probably still be sitting on the line if I hadn't. Need better tires, period. Hope to go back soon with more traction so I can finally get into the 14s.