Drag Set-ups

[mazdaspeeding]

Hey there

I just posted my cracked tranny case thread earlier today. I'd link it but don't know how.

Anyways, I drag a lot, like 100 passes per season (May-Oct) up here in the great white north and I just cracked my tranny case. Whatever went wrong was probably drag related. I'm semi-fully bolted and tuned on the stock K04 making around 300whp. My question is and I'm hoping some of you fellow drag racers, especially the high HP BT guys could weigh in with their thoughts. What are your set-ups? What if anything have you done to the Tranny and LSD to strengthen in for hard launches on full slicks at the track?

I run Hoosier QTP's (26x9.5x16) on FDs on my car with a CPE RMM. I do 2nd gear burnouts in the box and FFS into 3rd and 4th. The track I frequent blows goats and is not prepped, sticky, fast or good in any respect. I figured this in combination with my relatively low powered car would leave me in the safe zone. I've never seen a thread on any forum about blown tranny's or LSD's on a 3 from dragging or any reason for that matter. I know the MS6 guys have problems with their Transfer case caps and I've seen the odd tranny failure with them but nothing for us 3's. The only drag related problems I've seen are snapped axles and busted mounts.

Anyways, please let me know what you run, what I could do to strengthen my set-up, what I should or shouldn't do at the track to prolong the life of my next tranny be it used or rebuilt. (I know don't race lol)

For the record, I miss the odd gear but I've never grinded one and otherwise take great car of the car. I don't drive it in the winter, I shift at 6k well before redline. I was running the stock tranny fluid. I had wheel hop issues in years past on street tires but after the RMM that went away and I always lifted immediately if it happened. Just trying to provide as much info as possible. I really want to keep dragging because I love it but i'm afraid to drop 2-3k into a used tranny and go back to the track with the same, apparently breakable set-up. Thanks for reading my wall of text.

[mxlplx71]

2nd gear burnout is not advised.
About all you can do is have all 3 mounts. The trans is pretty strong. the Axel's don't really break too often either.
no more 2nd gear burnouts. Launch in 1st spin alil then shift.

[mazdaspeeding]

Originally Posted by mxlplx71 2nd gear burnout is not advised. About all you can do is have all 3 mounts. The trans is pretty strong. the Axel's don't really break too often either. no more 2nd gear burnouts. Launch in 1st spin alil then shift.

Yeah I figured I would snap an axle if anything. I personally thought the 2nd gear burnouts would potentially hurt the clutch more than anything. Upon further reflection I think I wore the LSD out as opposed to straight up breaking it. 180K, 7 years, 500 passes and the last 50 on slicks with 2nd gear clutch drops eventually took their toll. I am going to disassemble the trans and find out what exactly broke and report back.

Obviously the 2nd gear clutch drops are hard on any car but please elaborate a bit on why exactly/specifically that's bad.

How would 3 mounts help beyond eliminating wheel hop (which I don't have problems with anyone with just a RMM). My bud is triple mounted and its ridiculous, I could never roll around like that.

Has anybody upgraded the LSD or trans for dragging?

[doubleflusher]

2nd gear burnouts on the QTP's are necessary.

QTPs need a lot of heat.

Check out the technique listed here Drag slick setups by Driver.

[Ramrod711]

Im running a similar slick set up and when i did a first gear burn out I only pulled a 2.0 60' where as a solid 10 second 2nd gear burnout got me a 1.8 60'

[Realgib3]

It's very likely this was caused by not having all 3 mounts and/or clutch related at well.

Second gear burnouts are pretty much a necessity to get enough heat in the tires and they haven't really caused any issues with any of the cars I know do them with big power.

[mxlplx71]

damn if you can do a burnout with slicks in 2nd, why not launch in 2nd?
i guess with slicks it has a better chance of bogging off the line. answered my own question.
still interested in others thoughts

[rodrigo]

slicks need heat , heat is created by wheel speed , 1st gear simply doesnt spin the tire fast enough to create the correct heat , so second gear 6-7 k is necessary .


launching in second is an excellent way to burn your clutch and bog the launch and learn quickly that your shouldnt have done that

a) make sure you start the burnout on wet on the inside of the edge of the puddle
b) pump brake pedal 3 times all the way down and up , hold it there until ebrake is applied
c)yank the ebrake fully and i dont mean 3/4 way i mean until its hard to even release it
d) second gear bring up to 6500 or so
e) dump clutch and modulate throttle to ensure wheelspeed stays up , if you feel the rpms start going south bring it up to 7k
f) stay for 3-5 seconds spinning once you see tire smoke above BOTH front fenders
g) release e brake and back off the throttle as you pull forward


if you start the burnout in a spot that isnt too wet or one side is and the other side isnt it will be botched, if you dont put enough hydraulic pressure and physical pressure via cable the rear tires will roll , if you dont do 2nd gear u wont have enough wheelspeed to generate the right heat and the low speed will pull u out eventually


will look like this from outside

MazdaSpeed Forums Presents: YouTube

MazdaSpeed Forums Presents: YouTube

or like this on the inside (notice the vehicle does not move fwd until the e brake is released)

MazdaSpeed Forums Presents: YouTube

MazdaSpeed Forums Presents: YouTube