Taking the CJ-5 to the dragstrip Friday!

[scrible88]

This Friday I am taking my 1981 CJ-5 to Thunder Valley Dragstrip here in Oklahoma. It is an "open" test and tune night and I love racing so I decided I will take the Jeep and see what it can do in the quarter. I used to hang out with friends at Wichita International Raceway all the time on high school nights, etc and we would occasionally race our cars.

So here's my setup:

1981 Jeep CJ-5
AMC 360 V8
.30 over
Comp 268H cam
valve job on the heads
Comp lifters and timing set that match the cam
Edelbrock 600cfm carb
Edelbrock performer intake
TFI high voltage ignition
Tremec T176 transmission
Stock axles with stock 2.73 gears (crap I know)
33 inch tires

So what do you all think she will run? Will it be embarrassing? I'm hoping for at least mid- 16 seconds in the quarter.

Do you all have any experience with your Jeeps at the drag strip?

Am I crazy?

[tufcj]

Take it out and have fun with it! You've got a good engine setup, but your times will be slowed by your gears. Wind her up to 5000-5500, make sure your shifts are positive. I think 16s are definitely doable.

I've had my Jeep with 360/T-18, 4.27 gears and 35" tires into the high 14s.

I'm sure Fuzz401 will jump in here. He has a 401 powered CJ that I know makes low 12s, maybe into the high 11s?

Bob
tufcj

[BREK]

I agree with Bob, mid 16's sounds doable. Your gears are definately holding you up though. Put some shorter tires on the rear something between 27-30" that will compensate a little for your 300mph gears .

I once took my 97' v6 s-10 to the track and ran 16.90's all day (yes I was the slowest vehicle there), I ended up taking 4th place in the slow trophy class.

Just remember being fast doesen't win you races, being consistent does. Atleast in bracket racing it does.

[Goose]

yea find ya some tiny little tires (diameter wise ) and go racing!! drive it right and you could get into the 15's.

[scrible88]

The Jeep did better than I thought it would tonight. The only issue I had was when I set the tires at 12psi the bead separated from the rim in the staging area and I had to locate a compressor to get it up and going again.

Anyways here are the results of my best run of the night. It surprised the heck out of a bunch of people up there.

Reaction time: 0.566
60': 2.290
1/8: 9.352 @ 74.88mph
1000': 12.255

And the 1/4 in 14.741 @ 90.41mph

I'll take a picture of the timeslip tomorrow to give ya'll some concrete proof.



I'm happy! Hopefully with these 31's and better gears I'll be in the low 14's maybe even high 13's but I'm not sure. I had bad wheelspin at launch no matter how easy on the clutch I was every run I made and it broke loose shifting into 2nd gear on every pass.

There was a stock 2006 GTO at the track that made about 5 or so passes and the best it ran was a 14.81! I know they were driving it hard because they were chirping 2nd and 3rd gear. I thought the GTO's would be faster than that in stock form with a supposed 400hp and 400tq

It was a good night! Pictures will be posted in the next day or two.