Under Performers

[hysteric]

Was reading an old post from Joe Sherman and he stated that it was amazing how there were so many under performers at the track.

So my question is since so many guys build their own motors where do you think they miss it?

[rustbucket79]

In their car

[GARY C]

Yes... Combination, Combination, Combination... the progressive nitrous controller really exposed how less hp and better managed hp can run much faster than just all out hp in a nitrous combo.

Regardless of power adder or NA the entire combo has to be in order.

[cv67]

Could be so many things..most common (guilty too) is overcamming.

[FC-Pilot]

Overcamming, too big a cylinder head and poor tuning. I would say that is for the engine side. I have been guilty of a bad vehicle package combo a time or two.

Paul

[paulzig]

To me it seems like it means not making the most of the power that you have...

People always ask which cam/heads/intake for power or what to change on the engine when they are running a 2500 stall and 3.0 gearing.. There is money for cams, fancy CNC heads, ported intakes but never any left over for a 5500 stall and 4.11 gear

[340king]

The block prep is where a lot of people miss the mark. Between that and part selection, they leave 30 to 40 hp on the table. Ring/piston selection is where many of them miss it.

[PRH]

In their car

That’s what I see a lot.

There’s the piece you take off the dyno as one part of the combo....... then everything else is “the car”.

I’ll also add that when the problem is mostly the car...... it’s usually/often a lot harder to fix than finding a little more power.

[steve316]

I have went from 4.80's to 5.00's with more power till I got converter & gearing correct. This is not uncommon but often over looked.

[ClassAct]

As pauzig said, converter and gear are the biggest misses out there. Has been since I started driving in 1979. That's 40 years. Converter and gear.

[RevTheory]

I've seen a lot of what is similar to tolerance stacking over the years. You know, "I got a custom cam recommendation but this one is really pretty close and is on sale at Summit." "I probably should've gone with 1.65 rockers but I had these on the shelf." "I'd planned on a solid 11:1 compression but the shop didn't want to remove more than .010 from the deck and the Fel-Pro gaskets that came in the set aren't really that much thicker than the Cometics I was going to run." "The shop did a "performance 3-angle valve job" and didn't think there was any need to have it done by a professional head porter", etc.

The list of subtle compromises begins at the air filter and ends at the exhaust tip and add up to quite a bit.

[6.50camaro]

Seeking advice from the internet and listening to the wrong people ( other under achievers) . Dan

[BOOT]

I've always seen a lot of good parts posted combos and then when I read the ET time, I think how can they be as slow as my junk with such great parts. Tuning, the car/combo as a whole. Details, combo and tuning. Also cam as mentioned or some other really missmatched part, for example I can find plenty of huge used cams atm but nothing reasonable. LOL even had a guy I know run one of those cams with his budget combo cause it was cheap but he can't figure out why it doesn't work as well as his last smaller cam cause yah know bigger is better!

[BOOT]

Seeking advice from the internet and listening to the wrong people ( other under achievers) . Dan

The internet can be a double edge sword, you gotta use what makes sense not what you want to hear. 95% of what I know I learned online! Same with advice from people, listen to it all but use what applies to your situation. I like to classify the post above as missinfomation, the type that discourages people from trying their selves and just pay me to do it for you cause I know what I'm doing. Please don't take this as a personal attack, I just don't like to see this type of response on a SHARING information platform.

[Newold1]

Devil is always in the details! It does not take much in the details of a total car, powertrain and driver to leave performance way of the mark!

It only works well when you get all the details right!