Gearbox, diff and prop upgrade

Gearbox, diff and prop upgrade

Author
Discussion

DangerousDerek

Original Poster:

8,655 posts

221 months

Thursday 25th January
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I have been abusing my Chimaera on the dragstrip for many years now and somehow the drive train has taken it bar a couple diff and gearbox rebuilds, a couple of mounting bushes and brackets, various clutches and quite a few UJ's.

This week i have chatted to Roadcraft UK and decided to order a TKX gearbox with a billet flywheel, RST twin plate clutch and all the parts i need to complete the conversion. Only part they have a problem with is the concentric slave which they recommend i look to Tilton to provide.

Apart from maybe a couple thousand miles a year on the road and lots of drag racing i want to have the gears to achieve 200 mph on the Elvington mile.
To reach that goal i either need the gearing or a significant increase in the engines useable RPM range.

The gearbox i am choosing is the TCET18086 which has a wide range starting at 3.27:1 in first and 0.72:1 in 5th
With a 3.08:1 diff i can reach 200 in less than 6000 rpm
With a 3.45:1 diff t would need to reach 6660 rpm

I intend to go bigger on the diff housing and have a new propshaft made complete with beefier UJs. Has anyone had this done? Recommendations will be appreciated on this.

I have always worked on a tight budget on my car and think i have achieved quite a lot considering but now is the time to take the next step. Wish me luck and watch out for updates on the progress.

Engine evolution is a seperate subject but i also have plans for that soon enough wink

DangerousDerek

Original Poster:

8,655 posts

221 months

Friday 26th January
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Before i went turbo i used nitrous oxide as the power adder.
The engine was built to 330bhp NA then i was adding 2 stages of nitrous taking total power north of 500.
It was only when i invested in Mickey Thompson drag radials when my launches dropped deep into the 1.6's to 60 foot when i started snapping driveshafts and it took a few clutch options before finding a combo that has worked well for years now,

John Reid rebuilt my T5 and upgraded a few parts and despite wear has never actually broke.
The diff brackets and mounts have took a battering as well as the rear wishbones.

I invested in Dave Mac driveshafts and decent CV's and these are still going strong after hundreds of drag races.

With new wishbones, the new TKX box, RST clutch and an uprated diff with beefier brackets i think it should all be good with room to accept power upgrades later.
To add my car has a fully welded in roll cage which also makes a huge difference to the chassis rigidity.

I am looking forward to getting at least 1 front wheel off the ground soon smile

DangerousDerek

Original Poster:

8,655 posts

221 months

Saturday 27th January
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cliffords said:
I would think you will struggle to reach 200 mph. The power needed to get there is immense with all drag and other losses.
I know it’s nowhere near but I did 176.5 at Elvington but ran out of gearing and rpm.
That was with a 330bhp NA engine and adding about 170 bhp of nitrous oxide.
I think with 600bhp and correct gearing I could get close.

DangerousDerek

Original Poster:

8,655 posts

221 months

Saturday 27th January
quotequote all
GreenV8S said:
Are you aiming for Vmax, or standing quarter drag times? They'd need very different gearing.
Both!
My quarter mile times were hardly affected when I went from 3.45 to 3.08 years ago.
The turbo provides a lot of torque from 4000 rpm and when racing I am always above that no matter what the gearing.

DangerousDerek

Original Poster:

8,655 posts

221 months

Saturday 27th January
quotequote all
I do miss this sound…

https://youtu.be/cy32MM0P2rQ?si=1Io3KqMu4CG5h_dy

Much quieter with the turbo but I did get fed up sourcing and filling nitrous bottles