Stinkeye Challenger build....

[Jack_Toepfer]

Damn Marc...
@zhc seems to think he has the transmission tuning down to a science, and I tend to believe him. Maybe give him a shot before ripping it out? You wouldn't be the first person to run 8s on a stock transmission and plenty of people have done better than 9.6 - so the transmission is capable.
I'd like to see it rip with a T400 as much as the next guy, but you have so much potential in the car right now.

 

[WhipCat]

Marc, I read above where you mentioned the oil issue with the spacer plates.

I had already brought this topic up last year in my build thread.

The thitek heads have holes drillled to fit the 6.4 castings as well. The additional holes don’t allow proper seating with the gasket. In addition, this was happening without the spacer plates, we were just boosting the car hard and it was hot. We got seepage from that. I mentioned how we plugged the holes as well to eliminate issue.

That was a pain in the butt, but a leaky dyno session figured it all out.

 

[WhipCat]

Marc, I tend to agree with jack. You are non stop with the mods. I would recommend at least racing it in its current state for a few months. Your car will never be done lmao

 

[Marc W]

Marc, I read above where you mentioned the oil issue with the spacer plates.

I had already brought this topic up last year in my build thread.

The thitek heads have holes drillled to fit the 6.4 castings as well. The additional holes don’t allow proper seating with the gasket. In addition, this was happening without the spacer plates, we were just boosting the car hard and it was hot. We got seepage from that. I mentioned how we plugged the holes as well to eliminate issue.

That was a pain in the butt, but a leaky dyno session figured it all out.

Thanks Phil. I guess before I started with the build I just wasn’t paying attention to stuff that didn’t apply to what I was doing at the moment. I didn’t log the details pertaining to that at the time, so I had to repeat it. It’s taken care of now. I plugged the holes and removed the spacers. No oil now. As far as the trans/tcm tuning goes..... I’ve talked to Z and yes he is working the tcm tuning magic with good results. Here’s the thing..... I can eliminate the whole trans tuning issue altogether with the manually shifted 400. No tuning anything except the engine. That really simplifies things from a reliability standpoint. Even with all the time and effort that goes into the dragstrip tuning..... that trans is not going to last at this level. It is going to either wear out or blow up. They are too expensive to rebuild/replace/repeat. A year or two of doing that will cost more that stepping up to a real race trans that will have a trans brake and never break. Plus... having gone to the 9” rear the ratios just suck for getting down the track with the A8. Z is running a 2.62 gear. I’m running a 3.40. Try making that work!

 

[Jack_Toepfer]

Good call. Was just trying to get you more seat time instead of shop time...
I haven't seen any T400 cars really rip though... are they around here at all?

 

[WhipCat]

Thanks Phil. I guess before I started with the build I just wasn’t paying attention to stuff that didn’t apply to what I was doing at the moment. I didn’t log the details pertaining to that at the time, so I had to repeat it. It’s taken care of now. I plugged the holes and removed the spacers. No oil now. As far as the trans/tcm tuning goes..... I’ve talked to Z and yes he is working the tcm tuning magic with good results. Here’s the thing..... I can eliminate the whole trans tuning issue altogether with the manually shifted 400. No tuning anything except the engine. That really simplifies things from a reliability standpoint. Even with all the time and effort that goes into the dragstrip tuning..... that trans is not going to last at this level. It is going to either wear out or blow up. They are too expensive to rebuild/replace/repeat. A year or two of doing that will cost more that stepping up to a real race trans that will have a trans brake and never break. Plus... having gone to the 9” rear the ratios just suck for getting down the track with the A8. Z is running a 2.62 gear. I’m running a 3.25. Try making that work!

I will say at your power level you will break trans. But you don’t have to run at full power. I was thinking just low boosting it and test and work on the car. Then get all the parts ready for th400, make sure everything is purchased and in inventory, then bring it in and do the swap all at once.

Those guys are gonna take a long while to do the 400 swap. Getting the computer to work and everything is a challenge.

 

[Marc W]

Good call. Was just trying to get you more seat time instead of shop time...
I haven't seen any T400 cars really rip though... are they around here at all?

No. What we’re talking about is very expensive and they are not desirable for a street car for a couple reasons. No overdrive being one of them. This is pretty much just a conversation about what to do for cars that want to run hard at the drag strip and have exceeded capacity of the stock trans. Rebuilding or replacing the stock trans is in the $5000 range. More if you blow it up. Do that and repeat on a regular basis is something to be avoided and one of the reasons for going in this direction. The other is tuning it to run with the gearing available with the 9” conversions. The 400 and that rear end can be made to work with each other.

 

[motorhead]

TH400 with a Gear Vendors OD unit would fix the gearing - somewhat. Alternatively a 4L80E would work too with some internal hard parts and an external controller unless you went full manual:

http://www.transgo.com/products.php?category_id=98&product_id=203

And then add this:

http://www.transgo.com/products.php?product_id=259&pageactionprev=viewpricelist&category_id=

 

[WhipCat]

TH400 with a Gear Vendors OD unit would fix the gearing - somewhat. Alternatively a 4L80E would work too with some internal hard parts and an external controller unless you went full manual:

http://www.transgo.com/products.php?category_id=98&product_id=203

And then add this:

http://www.transgo.com/products.php?product_id=259&pageactionprev=viewpricelist&category_id=

That’s some tasty stuff right there

 

[Marc W]

I will say at your power level you will break trans. But you don’t have to run at full power. I was thinking just low boosting it and test and work on the car. Then get all the parts ready for th400, make sure everything is purchased and in inventory, then bring it in and do the swap all at once.

Those guys are gonna take a long while to do the 400 swap. Getting the computer to work and everything is a challenge.

That’s some tasty stuff right there

Yeah it’s the steak and lobster menu. 😂.

 

[Jack_Toepfer]

Thought there was a 4L80E swap on the market for these as well?

 

[AlleyCat]

Well Marc. At least you did not drift left on the big end like I did and take out the cone. I almost thought you were there Friday night. There was a young guy who had the 4 speed with a chute all in white with black stripes on the hood all the way to the trunk. He was getting his pro license. They are doing a build to get 1800 to the rear. He said he was the tester for the 9 inch rear.

 

[Marc W]

Well Marc. At least you did not drift left on the big end like I did and take out the cone. I almost thought you were there Friday night. There was a young guy who had the 4 speed with a chute all in white with black stripes on the hood all the way to the trunk. He was getting his pro license. They are doing a build to get 1800 to the rear. He said he was the tester for the 9 inch rear.

I met him on Saturday. He’s the one with the T400 trans I talked to.

 

[AlleyCat]

Cool. Hopefully you got a contact as he said his trans. was working just fine.

 

[Marc W]

Some new interior shots for today. I love these seats! At 23 lbs each I can just leave both in for racing and not pay a weight penalty for being lazy

 

[AlleyCat]

Looks sharp/clean. If you are going to keep your 8 speed for a while for giggles maybe leave it in drive for that 6200 rpm shift. You just never know.

 

[Linda's Hell Cat]

Ok Ok Ok. One more set. The pro pictures are coming in from the weekend and they’re too good not to share. From here on out we’ll keep it performance related. View attachment 4737 View attachment 4738 View attachment 4739 View attachment 4740 View attachment 4741

Hey Marc I hadn't payed attention I really love the Red Race seats. For some reason I thought I remembered they were black.

And your post about a TH400 is really the way to go. I hear the ATI's are good and known to work well in our Hemi's and with those that also distribute them. Although My husband preferred Rossler Trans for a race car and is what he was going to have installed in a race car he was once having built. Except it was a TH200.

Your HC is built strong and you will probably race a lot once it's dialed so I think the Th400 it is also a safer bet too!
In the prior to the Hellcats platform I was very much all about TH400's the nag1's were a Total POS once heading for the 8's

When are you going back to the track?

Linda

Linda

 

[Marc W]

Hey Marc I hadn't payed attention I really love the Red Race seats. For some reason I thought I remembered they were black.

And your post about a TH400 is really the way to go. I hear the ATI's are good and known to work well in our Hemi's and with those that also distribute them. Although My husband preferred Rossler Trans for a race car and is what he was going to have installed in a race car he was once having built. Except it was a TH200.

Your HC is built strong and you will probably race a lot once it's dialed so I think the Th400 it is also a safer bet too!
In the prior to the Hellcats platform I was very much all about TH400's the nag1's were a Total POS once heading for the 8's

When are you going back to the track?

Linda

Linda

Thanks Linda. You didn’t remember wrong. The seats before were the black leather “street” version of these. They were adjustable. I changed to a one piece seat for safety at the more serious speeds. These are super comfortable and fit like a glove.

 

[Linda's Hell Cat]

Thanks Linda. You didn’t remember wrong. The seats before were the black leather “street” version of these. They were adjustable. I changed to a one piece seat for safety at the more serious speeds. These are super comfortable and fit like a glove.

I can tell really really nice!

Yeah no adjustable allowed.
I had the seat from my husbands Drag Pak installed in my race car and I also have a Kirky race seat.
But those Red Race seats just cant be beat.....just aweome!

Linda

 

[Sinister_cat]

Was kinda funny seeing that GT350 with the hole in his hood. Guy brought it to NFZ and didn't even know how to drive it. Learned an expensive lesson and wasted a ton of people's time.

Anyways it was a pleasure to meet you, I'm the guy that bought your injectors and offroad mids. Can't wait to see that car run when she's all done.