how else can i get better traction on street?

[ADRENLN]

needless to say im having traction issues. i need to take steps at this point to better the situation. i know i have to step up the tire situation. so i will prob go with one of the drag radial tires most likely nitto for the street use as its a street car.

my question is how else can i get this type of hp to the ground better. im aware that some suspension stuff can help but what suspension mods exactly? i dont have anything done to the suspension yet. i understand that dropping the car will only make it worse but i have to lower it a bit.

if i do manage to get some of this power to the ground, will the stock trans hold up or will i be getting that replaced soon after. i was thinking a pro motion built stocker....or a auto.

if i were to do an auto, what is reccommended and what all has to be done to support that transaction? im a manual trans now!

Problem: no traction in first or second even if i roll into it and then floor it. no traction in the top of 3rd after 5000rpm.

help me out guys....need to use some of this power! thanks

 

[007]

Well... big fat tires ASAP, rear LCAs, some weight in the trunk (I assume you already relocated your battery back there?) and adjustable shocks. Panhard bar... sub frames maybe...

As for the auto I would love to do a complete swap for the 5 speed. I have a tranny guy who could do it also. 4R70W with shift kit and 50k miles on it.
You'll need pedal box, shifter, tranny, yolk from auto driveshaft, ecu or chip/tuner to turn on auto functions. Youll want to add a tranny cooler.

 

[Stumbaugh]

Weight transfer + Drag radials = street traction....

Honestly it really depends on what kind of money you are wanting to spend. I am a big fan of doing things right the first time, and seeing what mod's your car has done to it, I would be willing to bet you are the same way.

Subframe connectors are going to be a must no matter what. I don't know if you have them or not, but that should be the first thing you do.

For the rear, I would get the UPR double adjustable uppers, single adjustable lowers and rear coil overs. You can get away with using coil springs, but I know my car will benifit from rear coilovers one day, so I would buy them now.

Now for the front. There are 2 ways you can go about this. You can buy a tubular K member, a arms, front coilovers, drag shocks, and remove your sway bar. Or you can JUST buy drag shocks and remove your sway bar.

I would start out by buying some Strange 10 way adjustable struts and removing the sway bar. I would try that out first to see if that fits the bill. If it doesnt, then you already have the struts that will fit coilovers and the sway bar was coming off anyways. The good thing about the coilovers, you can lower it and it will still work just fine.

As for the transmission, according to a transmission specialist who has lot's of experiences with the ford transmissions, the 3650 is good to around 600rwhp. Which you are about 12rwhp away from. I would be surprised if that 10 spline input shaft survived 1 or 2 powershifts with it hooking. Take your 3650 and put a 26 spline input shaft, a good clutch and upgraded syncro's in it. I can show you a link to where people are putting OVER 800rwhp thru them with a 26 spline input shaft and upgraded syncro's.

It would really depend on what auto you wanted to put in your car. I have saw alot of guy's that make your kind of power are putting AOD's in there car's. Mainly Lentech AOD's. either way you will need the transmission, crossmember, pedal assembly, driveshaft, shifter, flexplate and transmission cooler. If you go with a 4r70w, you will have to have the wiring harness for the auto, and the PCM that's for an automatic car. Then you will have to have the PAT's dissabled in that PCM out of the automatic car.

Sorry about the book I pretty much typed up here. I am not good with keeping things short and simple.

 

[Night Shifter]

definitely get some big meets for the rear...some lca's will help you out very well too...then subframes an springs and all the other goodies everyone else already said to do

i had no traction from first to 3'rd either...now with 315's i have traction all day

 

[trinity_gt]

Suspension will do very little for you with spinning as you roll into the throttle and at the top of 3rd gear.

I think the most likely fix for that will be a tire compound switch and probably width too. DRs will probably help.

You might want some ballast (weight) in the back of the car too: a bag of sand or two placed as close to "over the axle" as you can. The additional weight will help with traction the same way a couple bags of salt in the bed can help a pickup truck in the winter. Of course you'll pay a small straight-line price for the weight but the gain from the additional traction should make up for it.

 

[sneaky98gt]

I can almost guarantee you won't be spinning the tires in 2nd with a set of 315 NT-555Rs, and probably not a lot in 1st unless you drop the clutch and shock them loose. If you do, post a video, because I want to see a car with that much power rollin some smoke.

Now I know you are in an ENTIRELY different league than me, but with a set of 275 555Rs, I can't spin them over unless I power brake it, and even then, it won't spin them in 2nd. They don't even think about spinning if I don't touch the brake. And all of this is on the street, on which they seem to perform just as good as they do on the track. You are making a lot more power than me, but a 315 is almost 2 inches wider than a 275, too. So while I wouldn't count on super low short times at the track, I would count on a decent, reliable, predictable amount of traction on the street.

I wouldn't put lots of money into the suspension until you get a halfway decent set of tires that you plan on running most of the time. When you get the tires, THEN I would start upgrading the suspension to get it to hook the way you want it to. That way, you don't spend money upgrading suspension parts to increase traction that you actually don't "need" or want anyway.

 

[HoustonGT]

I noticed a BIG change in traction with the old GT when i went with some Lakewood LCA's and Subframes. I'd say combining that with a set of Drag Radials (have fun if it ever rains ) should help significantly.

 

[ADRENLN]

thank you very much everyone for the much needed info. so i guess from what i see here and what im willing to get into, i will get the drag radials, lower control arms and subframes to start things off and see where we are at. thanks again

 

[Dark04GT]

thank you very much everyone for the much needed info. so i guess from what i see here and what im willing to get into, i will get the drag radials, lower control arms and subframes to start things off and see where we are at. thanks again

Sounds like a great plan. It is amazing you have made it this far without a single suspension upgrade and without drag radials. I like your powertrain/drivetrain setup though.

 

[Rusty67]

I think you guys are forgetting something really obvious. This car is 8 years old and there are a lot of rubber bushings back there. How many miles do you have on the car and how hard were they ?

Check the upper control arm bushings and the axle housing bushings. I am willing to bet if you have 100,000 miles or more that they are starting to be or are worn out.... especially if you drive you street car like I drive mine.

Lower control arms are a must. Get some MM arms for the lowers and maybe a new stock pair of uppers. Don't use poly bushings in the upper arm unless you weld up the torque boxes for strength.

Also, your quad shocks are provably toast. I've heard that if you get a good set of lower control arms you can ditch the quad shocks. If you get a watts link or a panhard bar you can definately ditch them.

 

[trinity_gt]

Also, your quad shocks are provably toast. I've heard that if you get a good set of lower control arms you can ditch the quad shocks. If you get a watts link or a panhard bar you can definately ditch them.

The quad shocks are there to dampen fore/aft movement of the axle which can happen because the front bushings in the LCA are so compliant (they have to be to allow the 4-link to operate without undue binding.)

These shocks play no part in the lateral location of the rear axle, something a Watts link or panhard bar addresses. The triangulation of the uppers and lowers handles that task too. A Watts or panhard can allow you do do something about the upper control arms though you still need a means to control axle wind-up and brake reaction.

 

[Rusty67]

Makes sense.

In any event, its nice to dump the quad shocks to save some weight but sadly enough the rear of these cars is where you need it.

 

[ADRENLN]

wow really great info here guys...thanks again. the car only has almost 17,000 street miles on it. its not my dd. i do believe that nothing is woren out due to time or hard driving. the engine gets all the abuse up to this point with the high boost level.

the rear/drivetrain set up is ok but for anyone out there interested, i would warn against eaton posi. i bought mine cause i thought they were the best. even researched it on multiple sites at the time. there cant be more then 5,000 miles on it and it clanks and bangs(sounds like wheels rubbing on exhaust) when im turning. after talking to some people i found some others that had the same problem and said it was the eaton. i was told to replace it with a unit that dont have clutch plates/pads whatever their called inside.

 

[Dark04GT]

Makes sense.

In any event, its nice to dump the quad shocks to save some weight but sadly enough the rear of these cars is where you need it.

Dumping the quad shocks can only give marginal weight loss, and as you pointed out - on the wrong end of the car. I like your point about the bushings (mine probably needs some new ones to tighten things up) but generally disagree with taking out the quad shocks.

 

[saxmanJJ]

Lots of good info here.

Tires: the compound is more important than the width, but wider > narrower.
You're going to need some sticky tires. I use M/T ET Street Radials. I've got full traction in 2nd gear. I'm making 415 rwhp.

LCAs: critical in keeping the car from stepping out to the side when you nail it. I've got the Maximum Motorsports Extreme Duty ones. Noisy but they do the job. Good enough to get me sub 1.7 second 60 foots.

Putting the battery in the trunk helps too (helps the front to rear weight bias be closer to 50/50).

 

[hotstang_46]

You don't "need" the lca's. Subframes and tires, you'll be fine. You're making decent power but not enough to take really drastic steps.

If you don't hit the curves I personally have had good success with the M and H drag radials...... and if you like the twisties and have them close by like I do I'd advise the NT555rII

A few other things to consider. I've done alot of learning trying to find combinations on the street for my 1000hp + vette....I'll share a few things I found out. The amount of tire pressure you run makes a bigger difference than you may think with street tires. Even say going from 25 lbs to 35 lbs will have a BIG impact. So if you haven't already try your tires right now with a little less air, It will make a difference. Additionally, something alot of people either over look is the thickness of sidewall. I noticed even adding as small as .5in in sidewall thickness made a big difference. All things even (same width, same tire pressure, same tire obviously) I ran back to back the same tire with different sidewall thickness and it made noticeable difference. And on that subject you can do two things, obviously you can stay in a 17in size, which you may have to do if you have plans to add more than you have right now or, you can run the thickest sidewall you can get away with in the 18's I'm assuming you have? Unlike my vette my stang is only making 450 at the rear so I haven't had to really figure out what the max OD one can get away with, but you may want to post to find out. If I were you I would definately consider that in your tire purchase.

You'll hook fine with that power on the street, provided your roads are kept up ok.

Good Luck....it's a nice problem to have fixed

 

[blubullett]

Since you only put 17k on your car so far I would recomend the Mickey Thompson drag radials over the Nitto's. I put 15k on each of my last two sets. At the rate you wear out tires the Mickeys will last you long enough and be much stickier.

 

[bullitt 736]

thank you very much everyone for the much needed info. so i guess from what i see here and what im willing to get into, i will get the drag radials, lower control arms and subframes to start things off and see where we are at. thanks again

Get your torque boxes welded when you get your FULL LENGTH subframes welded in.

 

[bullitt 736]

The quad shocks are there to dampen fore/aft movement of the axle which can happen because the front bushings in the LCA are so compliant (they have to be to allow the 4-link to operate without undue binding.)

And at over 500 HP, he should get the MM XD LCA's without the soft bushings he can ditch the quads.

 

[SaleenGT2001]

go with solid LCA's i blew 3 of the 4 bushings out of my UPR's in under 1500 miles. you should really look into a stickier tire than the 555R. a MTM&H or even the new Toyo Proxes TQ radials.

my car did the same thing yours is doing at the top of 3rd and the MT's took care of the problem. when the temps dropped below 60* it would blow them off in 2nd with very little throttle. you are going to need a very sticky compound to hook almost 600 HP.