Thread: Pullin a wheelie!

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ok, here's the deal. my goal with my car is to pull a wheelie. plain and simple. now i know it may seem childish or whatever to some of you. but the way i see it is, that's what these cars are all about, having fun and creating lots of power. and to me, pulling a wheelie is fun and shows the power. now i'm not talkin pullin crazy 5ft wheelies. i just wanna get the front wheels of the ground. whether it's 2 inches or 5ft. now i'm wondering what you guys think i'm gonna need. i've got a 72 nova, with a 250 straight six and 3 on the tree(for now). i'm porbly gonna go with a 454 block as starting point, although i can get my hands on a complete tri-power 427. i know the main thing is hookin up, but what kind of power do you think i'm lookin to aim for? do you think i can do this on somewhat of a budget or am i gonna need 3 thousand dollar heads, 500 dollar intake, and 700 carb, and all sorts of crazy exotic parts.

Your positive feedback will be greatly appreciated.

I had a buddy with a 2nd gen Camaro, 6cyl, 4speed. He removed the "ballast cans" from the front fenders and put some sticky tires on.

He could pull 4" on the 250 with a 4000 RPM launch!!!

I think a cheaper way to go would be to put that 6 banger in the back seat. Should pull a wheelie easy without going to all that expense.

Nice to see ya back, Ya Geezer. (Streets)

Dean

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Use a small block as big blocks weigh near twice as much, and twice as much as 500lbs is a lot of weight. I have seen many small block cars do wheelies but few street legal big blocks do them.

With a mere 120lbs of weight gain, wouldnt it make more sense to go with the big block, use aluminum intake and connecting rods, then compensate for the extra 25lbs of weight by using the gain of somewhere around 100ftlbs of torque to get the needed air? After all, you get the wheelie on launch, and you need the low end. I personally reccomend the early 70's 454 Chevy. Lots of aluminum parts available, and little smog settings. Just a thought.

Streets...I'm guessing "WET" means full of oil and water ..aye.??....Does freshly painted or left out in the rain relate to this spec ??.. Har Har...

Back in my early drag racing days a friend had '70 Nova 396/375 4 speed that he ran in B/Stock. When he got it hooked up, it would pull the front wheels. So a Big block is definitely one way to go. Since he was limited by rules to a 7" tire with tread, he really had to work the suspension. Of course drag tires have come a long way in 30 years from those cheater slicks we used to run. Since that motor was really underated about 40-50 hp, and he had it blueprinted with a cheater cam (Lift and duration match specs, but lobe profiles way different), and 2" headers, I'm sure his true horse power was above 450. He also was running 4.88 or 5.13 gears and had all the suspension tricks allowed by the rules. That is 90/10 shocks up front, 6 cylinder springs (you already have those), Lakewood J Bolt traction bars, battery in the trunk and subrframe connectors. His car ran high 11s and while the car was street legal, it wasn't really very streetable except for the occasional Saturday night jaunt with glass packs bolted on the headers.

Bottom line is, you could get your car to run like that, but it will cost you some $$$ and the challenge will be getting it to hook up. I would suggest a strong 454+ big block with a 4 speed automatic with a good low first gear and overdrive, then get a good street strip torque converter and run 4.10 gears. With the right wheels, you should be able to get a 9" tire inside the stock wheelwells. With the street strip tires available today you should be able to get it to hook well enough to pull the front tires, especially if you are on concrete instead of asphalt. But then you will start breakin' stuff.... But that's all part of the fun!

Good luck with it

Pat

a lot of torque + a lot of traction + all the safet crap needed to run in the 11s = wheelstand = lots of money

of just be like the nutcase nextdoor.... bought an old modified production 1st gen camara, built a bitchin small block and put a 5 speed in it....... 4 or 5 feet off the ground easy.

1st thing you'll need is frame ties, a cage, 9" rearend, 4 bar rear, etc, etc. takes a lot more than just horsepressure to go wheels up. That uni-body will absorb more torque than will make it to the rear wheels.

KINDA "TWISTIE", HUH???

I had a '63 Falcon that twisted so bad I kept two glass shops in business.

They each stocked two windshields at a time, just for me...

I wonder what they did with all those new windshields after I parked it shiny-side-down against the guardrail at Atmore Dragway????

i'm pretty new to the muscle car v8 thing, but i've always loved the sound, look, and power of them, i just never got my hands on anything to build up but i think i've got a good grasp of it. mostly from talkin with the guys at the shop i work at and hittin up the shows and magazines, whatever i can to learn as much as possible. anywayz, here's my plan a moderatly built up 454 (or 427 which will cost me more from the get go cuz it's with a whole car i don't need) some people keep saying built up small block but the only small block i'd put in is a 383 but i think i'd be better of with the BB, i'd like to keep it stick (muncie or T5), roll cage (possibly, or do you think it's a must), subframe connectors, caltrac traction bars or ladder bars with floaters (which to you think would work best), do you think the 10 bolt could handle it with a little work of course,posi or locker diff. (which do you think would work better), and a good set of tires and wheels. i haven't put much thought into springs and shocks, i'll worry bout that later. what do ya think?

no expert... but you'll most likely need the cage. go with a spool forget those expensive lockers or posis. if your gonna go ladder bars be ready to pay a lot of money, havin someone back half your car ain't cheap, but theres no reason why you couldn't do it with caltracs. you will still need a lot of other stuff.... 90/10 shocks, drag springs and other goodies. try goin for weld in frame connectors.... another costly pain in the ass job. dunno if the 10 bolt could hold that, might need a 12 bolt or 9 inch. your going to need tons of gear and converter as well! don't expect this to come cheap! and theres tons of other stuff... but i'm no where near an expert so i'll shut up now.

you need the cage to finish tieing the car together, along with the frame ties. Trash the 10 bolt, get a 9". or to paraphrase, "anybody can do wheelies, how high can you afford to go?"

If you want torque, buy a tall deck 427 out of a commercial truck. Throw away the old 4 ring pistons, put in a 454 crank, some long rods, and bore it to a 468 or so. That isn't a very expenive build because you can use some factory parts like cranks and possibly rods.