When I raced my Ram, I ran a 15.64 and my buddy ran a 15.40 that night with his Chevy 1500 regular cab short bed. He was running 15.36 last week. He has a K&N CAI and a Magnaflow muffler. I called him out last week. I told him that I am racing my truck in the November 30th race and I plan on running quicker than him. He said there was no way and that he was going to do a tune up. His truck has run a 15.01 before and his K&N is currently caked with dirt! His tune up might actually get him a couple tenths.

Here is the minimum that I will do. Is it enough?

Remove tailgate, spare, and jack.
Drop fuel level from 1/2 to 1/4.
Pump up the front tires.
Add 4.64k ohm or bigger resistor to air temp sense.
Install K&N 77 CAI that I just got for FREE once I get an Amsoil filter.

It looks like my Ranger will be sold after today, so I might actually have to money to also put a custom Magnaflow cat back exhaust on using a 21" muffler. I was also toying with the idea of having them improve the Y-pipe which looks EXTREMELY restrictive.

I am thinking about going with a 180 thermostat.

If that stuff doesn't do it, then I will have to buy the Predator before I go back out. I would like to get it first, but I kind of want to see what gains I get from the other mods. I guess I could always run the stock tune and then run the Predator tune on the 2nd pass.

Hopefully the Predator will get some good reviews and the wife will let me get one!

I am hoping that all these mods with the tuner would put it in the 14's.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: need-a-cage,

..even though the gains are minimal,I would replace the y-pipe with a Flowmaster y or,have a local shop make you one(I think the flow master y would be cheaper),it depends if you want to keep it as low-buck as possible. I would also remove the front swaybar for weight distribution. Also,the other trick for wheel hop issues is to put a spring clamp(basically a flat u-bolt) on the overload spring. This would be in the front section of the overload. Some Kragens/autozones/pepboys/o'reilly's have these clamps for around $10 each. if you want,later on today/tomorrow I could post up pictures from my installation.

I know I saw a universal Y in the Summit catalog that I could have the local shop install. I just need to make sure it doesn't make it fail the visual CA Smog. It should be fine if they only mess with it after the cats.

It seems like it should help a lot. My truck is an 06 and has the extra muffler in front of the huge one, which made them run the Y from the driver's side under the tranny instead of behind it. They flatten the pipe as it goes under the tranny for clearance. It also looks horrible the way the two pipes are just crushed together.

If it is only a tenth though then it is probably not worth the hassle. I need to see how much they will charge to do it.

I couldn't tell you that it is a proven tenth(maybe others have?)for the y pipe. I was told that there would be a 4-6hp gain,but,my 04's exhaust layout is different than your 06 being-2 cats with pipes going to the y on the passenger side with (originally one muffler and one resonator at the end). When I had my flowmaster y put in,I also had larger pipes from the cats back put in(2 2 1/2" pipes into a 3 inch collector)and JBA cat 4ward headers(kind of a mid-length design) before I re-ran it at the track. So,bottom line-I can't give you real-world before and afters(hp -wise and et-wise).It definitely wouldn't hurt though....

i know you want to buy a diablo when they come out,but if you want to beat your buddy now pick up a superchips and kick his ass.

Diablo or Superchips, new y-pipe & cat-back exhaust (or at least replace the stock muffler), 180 t-stat, and an e-fan (Viper, Mark VIII). You'll smoke him.

Also, see if you can score a set of the stock aluminum 17" wheels and tires. You'll save about 40 lbs of rotating weight off each corner.

Also, see if you can score a set of the stock aluminum 17" wheels and tires. You'll save about 40 lbs of rotating weight off each corner.[/QUOTE]
thereduced wheel diameter will also be like getting lower rear end gears and help your acceleration.

I think you can get into the 14's no problem. Have you had your truck weighed?

I ran 15.4 100% stock as is from the dealer including my tool box with all kinds of crap in it and it weighed 5200 lbs with a full tank of gas. I went back the next week with no tailgate, no spare, no tool box, no muffler and 1/4 tank of gas and ran 14.81.

You can do it!

Is his truck stock with the exception of the muffler and intake?

I can't believe you dropped that much! Mine was bone stock with I believe a half a tank and kids safety seats in the back. I will drop the weight for sure. I have not weighed it yet.

The 17's would help for sure because this thing is so high geared. It shifts to 3rd at 80mph too close to the finish line.

I just sold my Ranger yesterday, so I think that I will just break down and get the Diablo. I do want to wait a couple weeks and see how everyone likes them. I need to do exhaust first. I want to be able to hear my Hemi! I hated the way the stock tail pipe looked with the resonator hanging way down, so I already removed that. I cut the pipe where it went over the rearend and spun it 180 degrees so now it is a turndown. I doubt that will help performance any though. I need to get rid of that HUGE muffler.

I am sure by learning how to launch it a little better and shedding the weight I could do quite a bit better, but I am just going to have to use my 15.64 as my baseline because I am ready to start modifying!

Steve is going down!!! Yes, his truck is all stock besides the muffler and CAI. He also removes his headlight which actually works like a ram air on that thing. I told him that was cheating! He also has about 2000 passes on that truck!

Damn, I'm surprised that Chevy is as quick as it is.

Do you have a limited slip in your truck? If you do then I would try to find someone to swap 17" rims and tires with for the weekend so you can lower that final ratio. With my 17"s and stock tires I was only getting about 3 or 4 MPH into 3rd gear. I can do about 85 in second. If I had 3.92s and 17" rims it would be a lot quicker and probably lighter.

Also experiment with launches. Some people say not to power brake it and some say do. I found the best for me was to stall it up to about 1800-2200 and then dump the brake and floor the gas. Even with a stock lsd and stock tires my truck hooked great and took off.

I stalled it around 1400 on the first pass and it took off a little soft and had no traction issues. I decided to stall it as high as I could and it started spinning before the tree was activated. I had to let off and then stall it back up but I was all screwed up on that one. It still took off spinning. The 3rd run I think I stalled it somewhere around 1600 and that was my only run that went better than 2.3 in the 60ft. I tried to stall it up a little higher but it took too long for the starter to activate the tree and I don't think the truck liked being stalled so high for so long. I think it might work best to wait for the first amber to set the stall speed so it is not cooking for so long. The problem with that is it only gives you 1 second to set the stall speed and then launch on the 3rd amber. I started doing that with the Explorer and it seemed to launch better, but my reaction times went up.

If Steve and I are just going for ET then I don't care about my light. However, if we get lined up next to each other I need to get a good reaction so I can cross the line first. He is very consistent and gets great lights. He made it to the final 9 times this season! I think that is better than 30%.

I am sure my reactions will improve with a tuner if it helps the truck jump off the line quicker.

I would love to get gears or just get a set of 17's to see what it would do with better gearing, but I just can't invest that much time into this thing just for the drag strip. I have done so much recently to the Mustang that the wife has pretty much had it. I can't get her pissed off at my new truck now too!

Every mod I do has to stay on the truck to improve every day driving, not just improve the 1/4 mile time. Other than removing some weight! I do need to get some step bars so the kids can get in easier, but I won't put them on until after Steve and I race. I hope the weather is good on the 30th. I am not sure when the next race is.

I always start stalling when I see both lanes are fully staged. If the yellows don't come on quickly, I let back off and start stalling again when they come back on. It only takes 1 light to get stalled to about 1200.

I say you drill him on the tree and hope that 300 lbs youll shave off will save your ass. If he runs 15.0 and you run 15.6 you have A LOT to catch up so you better tree him good!

His average lights are .030, so I can't do much better than that!

I just have to make the Hemi quicker!

I forgot, I will also be switching to synthetic oil. I only have 2300 miles on it, but I will change the oil before the end of the month and make the switch. That might be worth a little.

Make sure you tell us how it ends!

After I switched to synthetics my truck felt smoother but I can't say I noticed a performance difference. The guy at the local NAPA has a 10 second daily driver mustang and he said he gained 3 mpg by switching to royal purple bumping him from 15 to 18 mpg.

Good luck on your race