Inliners International Forums General Discussion Hi Performance A day at the track

Hi,all I wanted to post what happened when I took my 78 nova to the local 1/8 mile track.
The car:
1978 nova 2 door, stock TH350, 2.73 open rear axle. 250 I6 with a 1bbl intergrated head.
Engine all stock Except for:
3 blade clutch fan and larger water pump pulley from a pickup truck.
Distributor recurved , 16* initial, 20* mechanical all in by 3000 RPM. Vacuum limited to 16* instead of the stock 24*
Rochester Duel Jet adapted to the 1 bbl head, stock type air cleaner with lid raised about 3/4 inch using a slightly taller element. I am going to make a totally open element one!
I weigh about 250 pounds.
The results: best run 12.05 @ 58.81 Mph.
Made a total of 4 runs, on one the track aborted the run. Shifted at about 4200 rpm at the 3/4 track. I hadn’t drag raced in over 30 years so there is a learning curve for sure! I think the air cleaner held it back, maybe next time I’ll take it off and try it. The top speed matches an 1/8 mile I marked off near my house and seems close to the 73 mph I saw on the same road in a 1/4 mile. I went to the 1/8 mile track because it is the closest. I drove 200 miles to and from the track, made 4 runs, and had a half tank of gas leftover!

That's still with the factory 2.25" single exhaust manifold and the 2.25" head pipe? 2.5" tailpipe and intermediate pipe with no cat and your 2.5" muffler?

Yes. The stock 2 1/4 factory head pipe on the single outlet manifold used on a 1bbl intergrated head, then a stock 2 1/4 cat replacement pipe and exhaust pipe, hooked to a dynomax super turbo 2 1/2 in and out muffler and a 2 1/2 tail pipe exiting out the drivers side behind the tire. Jay

Looks like the little 250 was performing very good.

Thanks. I think that the 3 things that are killing the E.T. Are the air cleaner,which I am going to correct right away, the stock cam, (even a Comp Cams 240 would be a big improvement IMHO) and the 2.73 gear. Didn’t shift into second gear until 2/3 of the way down the track, maybe 3/4. Jay

Leave the element out, but keep the base and cover.