I went to Valdosta this weekend and raced my Duster for the first time since I've had it. I lost to Charlie by half a car length in the first round of slant six eliminations on Saturday. But I ran in street class on Sunday and made it to the third round of eliminations. I dialed in at 19.52 and beat a Dart and a turbo Neon but broke out in the last run when I ran a 19.17 @ 72 MPH against a Chevrolet pickup. My Duster is completely stock except for a super six and 2 1/4 exhaust. I tried to get into the 18's all weekend but my 2.76 gears would not allow that. It would shift from second to third at the quarter mile mark @ 4500 RPM. The gears killed me so I am looking for a good rear with some 3.25s to swap in. But altogether the car ran good and strong. I had a blast racing and it was great to get together with all of the slant six racers. I got to meet Charlie, Cecil, Ron Parker, Norm, Ron Hamby, Dale Rose, and Jerry. I went down there with my buddy Mark and we are bringing his Nova (250) next year to race in the street class. Dale Rose blew an engine but put down some good runs though. Cecil went pretty far in the street class but had some carb problems that messed things up. It was hilarious when he beat an 05 Dodge Ram with a Hemi with his little Valiant. His Valiant was very consistent. Charlie did really good in the Pro class and surprised a lot of people until he ran out of giggle juice and nosed over.

_________________
82 D150-225/727
02 Dakota-3.9/5 speed
87 GMC C7000-8.2 Detroit Diesel/5+2

congratulations!

_________________
Juan Ignacio Caino

Please use e-mail button istead of PM'ing. I do log in sometimes but I'll be answering quicker thru e-mail.

Here is a pic of me at Valdosta

_________________
82 D150-225/727

02 Dakota-3.9/5 speed

87 GMC C7000-8.2 Detroit Diesel/5+2

Hey Jeb,

Lookin' good! Did you ever contact Gerald Wright at Wright Performance about setting up your 8 1/4?

You haven't seen any pictures of the GodsRods Duster at the Valdosta race floating around have you? I know it's too ugly to photograph, but I thought I'd check anyway.

It was good to meet you and congratulations again on graduation. What are your future plans? Didn't you mention UTI or another trade school?

_________________
Rob

I’m Mater
The Kentucky Poser

Hey Rob, pictures of your car are on the other page that I have provided a link to on the thread about the Valdosta race pictures. I am sending all of the pictures to Doug so he can put them in a gallery. I will PM you some of the pics of your Duster.

I haven't contacted Gerald about setting up the 8 1/4 yet. I have a broke foot know so I am not working on anything for about the next the month. I am changing out the advance governor in my distributor next. DusterIdiot says I can wake things up a bit by getting rid of that 15r governor and setting my timing at 10btdc.. He is sending me a 10r as we speak.

I really haven't decided what I am going to yet now that I am out of school. I am currently employed as a grease monkey but my parents will not let me go further in the automotive trades. I was thinking about going into that airframe maintainance program that our local technical school offers.

_________________
82 D150-225/727

02 Dakota-3.9/5 speed

87 GMC C7000-8.2 Detroit Diesel/5+2

The re-curved distributor I got from DusterIdiot was really the thing that woke up our Duster! Once we got it timed right that is!

Really the only thing performance wise that was changed from two years ago when we raced it to now was the new distributor and MSD Blaster coil. The seats, fuel cell and fuel line sure wouldn't make that big of a difference (17.30 to 15.85). We didn't make any other adjustments other than the distributor.

You'll see a difference if you follow what he tells you. Just make sure you get it timed right!

Steeper gears is always one of the first things that folks recommend to wake up performance. You'll feel it going from 2.76 to 3.25 and the 3.25 isn't at all radical, so it won't hurt you keeping it as a daily driver. It's good that you have the spare 8 1/4 to work with so the rear end can be set up while you're still driving it. If you're serious about racing it often it would probably be worth it to go ahead and have a Sure Grip put in it when you have the 3.25s installed. A Sure Grip for the 8 1/4 is quite a bit cheaper than for the 8 3/4 from what I remember. Give Gerald a call. He really took good care of us on our Duster and gave us a lot of good advice.

Aint nothin' wrong with bein' a Grease Monkey! When I was in college I had four part time jobs. I was in the Army Reserves, worked as a radio disc jockey, delivered pizzas and worked on cars at a Sears Auto center. The only conflict was always having "mechanic hands" working at the pizza place. That's why I delivered instead of making the pizzas.

The airframe maintenance program sounds good. It's still "mechanical". Have you looked into what the job market is for airframe technicians?

Let us know how your Duster (and your foot) comes along! What did you do to your foot?

_________________
Rob

I’m Mater
The Kentucky Poser

I was pulling the intake off my Chevy(tow vehicle) when it fell out of my hands and onto my foot. Now three of my toes have pins in them and I am on crutches. And the truck still ain't fixed!

_________________
82 D150-225/727

02 Dakota-3.9/5 speed

87 GMC C7000-8.2 Detroit Diesel/5+2

Toes heal.........


How's the intake?????????

_________________
Ed
64 Valiant 225 / 904 / 42:1 manual steering / 9" drum brakes

The intake was junk anyway. Had a crack in it.

_________________
82 D150-225/727

02 Dakota-3.9/5 speed

87 GMC C7000-8.2 Detroit Diesel/5+2

Ouch! Is this little mishap part of the reason for your folks not wanting you to go into the automotive trade?

My brother has a nice '76 Chevy shortbed stepside with a 350 that had a cracked intake. It drove him crazy for the longest time. It was cracked on the underside and would let raw fuel into the oil. He took the intake off several times and inspected it without seeing the hairline crack. It would apparently open up once it was torqued down. He kept thinking it was the intake gasket (which small block Chevies are infamous for leaking)

Hope you heal up quick!

_________________
Rob

I’m Mater
The Kentucky Poser

You were looking for a different rear right? Well dont be fooled .....It starts with a steeper gear, then you want a header, then hey why not an MSD? but hey while Im there an aluminum intake and small 4bbl would be great, but why stop there when you know ya wanna order that custom ground cam! My duster story started kinda like that....

Addictive to say the least! Good luck with your car (looks great BTW) -
and hope your foot heals quickly!