Street Racing The Street Hemi
A visit to our New York Dodge Dealership, which has a well-respected Perfomance Staff was needed.
We were well received by a group of mechanics who were called 'Hemi-Heads' who knew their stuff.
They laughed at our recent Drag Strip results, and informed us that the '426 Street Hemi' is useless on
the street, unless you know how to make the proper adjustments in tuning and ignition.
Their top 'Fuel Specialist', a fellow by the name of
'Monk', immediately pulled the twin Carter AVS (625 CFM)
carbuertors off of the Intake Manifold, put them on a clean steel-bench and tore them apart like a Sea Otter ripping
apart Mussels.
As he told us, they need to be 'massaged' to make them work well on the Street, and his wide assortment of
Carter Carburetor performance parts (Jets, Metering Rods, Springs and Accelerator Pumps) gave us the
feeling that he had done this before. Like a 'Skilled Surgeon' he made the improvements and put the
AVS Carburetors back together like they were never opened.
Of course, he would not tell us his 'secrets', but he confidently told us, that everything he does, 'works to perfection',
as he bolted the 'two' gas-guzzlers back on the Aluminum High-Rise 'in-line' intake.
'Step 2', was the Ignition Timing, as our 'Street Hemi' was like an 'lumbering lug' off the line when we ran
it at the Drag Strip during accelerated timing tests.
Our 'Ignition Specialist' was an older gentleman named
'Leo', who was an old-time Drag Racer who was an
expert at dialing in Big-Block Mopars, from 383's to Max-Wedges to 426 Hemi's.
The first thing Leo did was pull the plugs and throw them in the shop trash can, and then yanked the ignition
(spark-plug) wires off and put the on the bech. The next task, was removal of the Dual-Point Distrbutor,
in which Leo boldy stated 'This is your F***ing problem'.
Instead of working on the original Distributor, Leo gave us a completely reworked brand new unit that he had wrapped up in
soft-cloth. With special springs and advance-weights, Leo said to make sure each point unit has a .017 Gap, and to check the
the gap-clearance regularly. The 'new' Champion Spark Plugs (N10Y) were then installed with a precision .035 Gap.
For Ignition Wires, Leo gave us his 'specialty set' of 8MM metallic-core wires that are a Race-appplication only set.
Then for the 'Icing-on-the-Cake', Leo took the Hemi Charger over to the Dyno-Unit, and dialed the 426 Hemi in at
14* BTDC (Stock is 12.5*) with a slight-advance, and set the Total Advance at 34* which kicks in at 2800 RPM.
'Step 3' was for 'gearing and suspension', which we were directed to
'Jimmy B'. And as 'Jimmy B' said, we can't
play with 3.23 Gears. Instead we were treated to a set 3.91 Gears which would give us our much needed launch
which would correct our previous 'off-the-line' issues.
Finishing off, 'Jimmy B' added an adjustable Pinion Snubber to the #742 Casing, which will help prevent the Rear-End
unit from twisting off the line during vicious launches and keep the driveshaft in alignment. Also, a set of Clamps
were added to the front section of the Leaf-Springs (before the axle-unit) to help transer more down-force to the
rear wheels.
The 'final addition' was a set of Goodyear F60 x 15" tires. Though they are not as good as set of 8" wide Cheater Slicks
that we had preffered, they are much better than the F70 x 15" Red-Line units that came with the 'Hemi Charger' and also
fit nicely within the large wheel-well.
Return To The Drag Strip
With the 'air-cleaner' unit lifted to allow for an unrestricted air-flow, and the vacuum-tube removed from the distributor
vacuum-advance and the timing re-set to our track specifications, we were ready to 'unleash' or recalibtated
'Street Hemi'.
Putting the 'Hemi Charger' console shifter in 'D", and adding a little force to the gas-pedal for a 2800 RPM
power-brake line launch, we left the line is a smooth steady pull while we 'punched-it-out'.
Like 'night-and-day' between our last experience, this time the 'Hemi' took off and by the time it automatically
shifted into 2nd-Gear at 4500 RPM's we knew we'd be happy.
Our result was a solid
13.49 @ 105.7 MPH
'Three' follow-up runs with the same 'Launch-and-Shift' pattern resulted in the nearly the same Elapsed Times
between
13.48 and 13.57.
The next runs were performed by 'manually shfting' the Hemi Charger, and leaving the line a little more aggressively
with a higher 3200 RPM power-brake line-launch.
Dropping the console shifer into '1', and coming off the line harder, we held on up to 4800 RPM's before hitting '2nd"
as the Hemi zoomed down the strip. We went into '3rd' at the same RPM's and zapped the Trap Lights in blurring
fashion.
Our result was an impressive
13.29 @ 107.8 MPH
We kicked the Hemi Charger back to the line 'two' more times with 'back-to-back' runs of
13.27 before the Temperature
Guage started to read levels that were close to the surface of the Sun.
Now We Have A 'Certified' Street Racing Street Hemi
