<VV> Drag Race

[tony.underwood at cox.net]

---- "David B. Neale" <david.neale3 at ntlworld.com> wrote: 
> "Funny how people forget that GM TESTED the Vair PG by WOT / drop in 
> gear 100 times....
> 
> Funny how no one reads the small print in descriptions of Billy Bruce's 
> LAUNCH technique:
> 
> He has a Line Loc on the Front brakes... he spools the turbo up to 
> approx. 6 psi boost...and only has Kelvar Clutch material as a mod..."
> 
> GM did indeed throw the Powerglide transmission into drive at wide open throttle 100 times to test for durability .... but surely that 'merely' tested the transmission's mechanical strength, whereas holding the car on the brakes, in drive, at wide open throttle will cause a very rapid rise in temperature in the torque converter.  That, presumably, is going to do little for durability.


   David makes a good point here.   Dropping a PG into gear even at WOT isn't as rough on it as holding it with brakes while you firewall the throttle via "linelock" and just sit there letting it cook.     

I know it's a bit off-tangent, but some of the more muscular SS dragrace cars with larger engines and automatics torked up at the lights will experience radical temperature increases in very short order, such as comments about how a "linelocked" Chrysler Torqueflite behind a SS 426 Hemi engine will endure a 200 degree temp increase in about 5 seconds.   That's in a transmission with a BIG pan and a serious external cooler.      

An old dragrace  buddy whose current car (glass body Daytona running a B-1 440 on alky and a Powerglide) says he can sit there at the lights in gear and tached up waiting on the green to drop and watch the transmission temp gauge climb during the few seconds he waits for the tree.    

A 'Vair PG is tough enough for most things but it's still a scaled down version of the standard Powerglide and a tweaked 'Vair engine is plenty strong enough to overheat a PG in relatively short order if you linelock it enough.    Remember that the regular 'Vair PG has a less than spectacular cooler... if you can call it that  
  
Like anything else, treat a PG kindly and don't ask more of it than it can deliver...   

...unless of course you enjoy stripping a cooked PG and smelling that aroma.    

tony..