<VV> Drag Race

[James Davis]

  A 164 cuin Corvair puts out 35 hp @1,600 rpm, the approximate stall 
rpm of the torque convertor.  One hp is 9.3 btu per second.  So, 325 
btu per second.  Transmission fluid has a coefficient of heat of 
0.5.  Figuring six quarts of fluid at 1.7 lbs per quart gives about 
65 degrees F per second for the Corvair.   In other words the 
transmission gets really hot really quick when the brakes are locked 
and the gas pedal floored.
Jim Davis






At 11:35 AM 4/21/2008, tony.underwood at cox.net wrote:

>---- "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..