How often do you change trans fluid while at the races?
 

I hear a lot of super stock racers are now taking the time to change their ATF fluid after making qualifying runs at the races. Some racers are even being spoted dropping the pan more than once! That's good maintenance which should be good for long term reliability of these expensive transmissions. Glad to see some of these young racers still don't mind getting their fingernails dirty.

I DONT UNDERSTAND WHY YOU WOULD HAVE TO CHANGE THE TRANS FLUID THAT OFTEN UNLESS YOU ARE CHANGING SOMETHING IN THE VALVE BODY THAT CONTROLS THE DELAY OF THE TRANS BRAKE. YOU DID SAY SUPER STOCK AND NOT STOCK. SINCE STOCKERS DON'T HAVE TRANS BRAKES WHAT ELSE COULD IT BE???


Allen Lambert

Fluid lasts much longer than that , unless subjected to extreme heat. Sounds like overkill to me.

Yes, with the cost of fuel and traveling, that's one area they could save money on! Some of these racers drop the pan to change the fluid. You would think they would get a pan with a drain plug! And some of them seem to change just a little fluid by removing the trans brake solonoid a few times each race. I guess after you drain a little out each time by removing the solonoid it ads up to the same as draining the pan all at once. I guess it's a personal preference. Glad maintenance is such a high priority!

Rocket
Are you suggesting that the odor of cod liver oil permeates the air when making these observations? This does sound unusual![:-bighat-:]

Rocketblock your stirring the pot .... But your close to being correct

Sometimes it is easier to control the transmission temperature, by changing to cool new fluid. If you can control the fluid temperature the transmission will be more consistent.

ss3011

With all the aluminum in my lite-weight trans, I notice a lot of metallic substance in the fluid. I change it every 15 or 20 runs, not a big deal at all.

Oh RocketBlock, watch what you get in to here. Some people might take it personal. Would be interesting to see what there qual reaction times are in comparsion to their first round. But I have heard stories of a guy droping his pan every run...and the out come was winning A LOT of rounds!

IN LAYMAN'S TERMS ARE YOU SAYING THERE'S SOME TYPE OF A ADJUSTMENT BEING MADE (DELAY) TO THE TRANS BRAKE BY DROPPING THE TRANS PAN ???

Tranny fluid temp is important to life of parts and trans..So if you don't have a trans cooler you should change tranny fluid more often.
But, first of all you should add a drain plug if you don't already have one..This will allow you to drain out 2-3 quarts at a time and slowly replace the used fluid evey 25-30 runs...
I will not coment on dropping the pan to change fluid..I really think you guys are on a FISHING Trip !!!!! Trust me the Fletcher's
Biondo's, Morehead's, etc. , don't drop or drain their tranny pans between rounds or qualifiing....They just drive their butts off....But, I do think keeping fresh fluid in your tranny has its advantages................Dave...1033/stock (RV-455)

All about recation times.

Are Delays legal in transmissions now?

a friend of mine wants a trans with a delay or slow transmission for his super stocker here in Georgia. who makes them?

money is not a issue as he wants to make sure his trans has a delay in it to compete with the others who are running the transmissions

IF MONEY IS NOT AN ISSUE I HAVE A TRANS FOR HIM. ROSSLER POWERGLIDE DEDENBEAR CASE 1.98 FIRST GEAR 40 RUNS READY TO GO CALL MICHAEL 631-433-5906

SS cars have evolved with better chassis, better slicks (radials) and better engines (lite-weight parts and more power) which allow them to leave much harder. Those areas of improvements make them faster but the item that out did the fast race parts was the LED light. Now you have cars capable of red-lighting on a consistant basis and therefore racer's find it neccessary to slow the car off the line while not slowing the race car down (with bias tires for example).
Having a method of slowing down a launch speed by making adjustments in the valve body or trans-brake solonoid should not be a problem with NHRA. After all, one function of an automatic transmission is to control fluid pressure. If anybody hasn't figured it out, some racer's have figured out how to control t-brake release times. It's just a matter of controlling fluid pressure. Good for them, I see nothing wrong with it. NHRA doesn't tell me what ring gap I need in my engine or bearing clearance, right? Just as long as the racer has to go back to the pits to make the adjustments. If radio-controlled devices are being used with the capability of making adjustments at any time, then that's bad news. And I can see how that technology is feasible (my dad has flown R/C airplanes since the mid '60's, amazing what can be controled in a confined space!).
Using this technology, it kind of makes long travel or hydraulic type t-brake buttons a non-issue to some, doesn't it? I would guess if I had ways of controlling the dump time of my t-brake, any .99 cent button (re; "spec" button) would be adequate.
My guess is I wouldn't want to be the one without the knowledge of controlling the dump speed of my t-brake and having an NHRA mandated "spec" button. Because while I was out red-lighting (often), some of my opponents would enjoy another .000 light.
Make sense?
I guess if NHRA were truly concerned about all these methods of controlling reaction times, they would eliminate t-brakes in SS along with RPM limiters. That's the only way to clean up the mess (if you believe it's even a mess). But I don't see that happening.



NHRA #7494 SS/H
1970 AMC AMX
"Best Appearing" @ NHRA '06 Pacific Sports Nationals
JeffLeeAzRealty@Qwest.net
602-418-9797

If it's an internal function of the transmission..i guess it's legal! the rules dont say anything else...

WOULD IT NOT BE A LOT EASIER JUST TO PURCHACE A BIONDO ADJUSTABLE BUTTON AND INSTALL IN THE CAR? THAT IS WHAT I DID IN MY SS CAR. SOME OF YOU GUYS WOULD SURE SAVE A LOT OF TRANS FLUID.

Allen Lambert