New Member, my 96 GTP

[Ross96GTP]

Hey Guys,

I'm a new member currently residing in Huntington, WV , but will be moving on Wed, Dec 3rd to Mooresville, NC to attend Nascar Tech Institute. I used to be very active on some old 3.4 boards with Steve Cromer and others but took some time away for work and such.

My car is a 96 GTP. My current mod list is as follows

Performance
K&N cone set in side of a plastic air box with hoses to front air dam.
RSM ported Throttlebody.
Underdrive Crank Pully.
Borla Cat Back Exhaust with Intercooled tips.
Hollow Cat Converter.
Twin Dual Cam Coil over suspension system

No Longer installed, but did have:
Protorque 3200 rpm stall converter
transgo 1st 2nd shift kits
Granatelli LT1 MAF

Interior & Stereo
Chrome gauge bezel cover
JVC Head unit 45*4
JL audio 5 1/4 and tweeter set
Boston Acoustic 3 way 6X9's

Also have custom painted old school style stripes in metallic silver with purple pearl overlay. as seen on pics at this site.

http://webpages.marshall.edu/~scaggs3

This website is outdated and has not been updated in over 3 years, but still has some good pics.

Best 1/4mile time 15.109 at the GM gathering at Maryland Intern. Raceway. The car was rearended at 45 mph shortly there after which destroyed the exhaust. I did run several more times in the 15.2's with the severely bent exhaust until I snapped the first gear sprag at the starting line of a bracket race in Clay City, KY. At that point the stall converter and Granatelli MAF were removed and the car has not been drag raced again. I did race the car in SCCA solo 2 events for a while after that and have several 2nd and 3rd place finishes in regional events in ST/S class. I always got beat by the same Neon that was later banned for using Nitrous.

Anyway, I look forward to good discussion here and as I'm attending Nascar Tech I hope I learn enough to contribute some good info. to the site.

Ross

[Anonymous]

How come you took out the high stall converter?

[Ross96GTP]

Hehe, the stall converter was nice, but

until I snapped the first gear sprag at the starting line of a bracket race in Clay City, KY. At that point the stall converter and Granatelli MAF were removed

I had the histall converter installed when my first tranny went and I have to admit, it was a great performance mod. Not only off the line, but on interstate and cruising it kept the car closer to the powerband. However, after snapping first gear at the drag stip and the subsequent tear down, the only thing really damaged on the tranny was the sprag that held first gear. I was told this was a weak point with the tranny anyway and they wouldn't warranty the tranny for any mileage whatsoever with a modified stall converter in there and would only warranty a stock converter. Since it was my second rebuild in less than a year and 2 months at over $1600 a pop, I decided to take it out and stop drag racing.

Now if I knew how to rebuild or mod tranny's, which I will over the coming year, I wouldn't mind having another since the cost of problems will reduce when I can do my own work.

Ross

[Anonymous]

So you think the high stall is to blame for the snapped "sprag"?

[Ross96GTP]

I wouldn't say the converter "caused" it. I would say drag racing caused it to break because of the hard launch. And the high stall converter increases the amount of force applied inside the transaxle on take off, therefore adding stress on internal parts and breaking them if they aren't capable of holding it. But basically it's because they offered me no warranty with the converter and a 20,000 mile warranty if it was stock.

[Anonymous]

But basically it's because they offered me no warranty with the converter and a 20,000 mile warranty if it was stock.

That makes sense, even to me!

Maybe I'll see ya around at the autox events.