McRat,
If you are worried about how hard the shifts are without a converter, just let off the gas for a second before shifting. Sort of like shifting a manual but no need for a clutch. The unit that we run, has overrunning first and second gear so when we do let off, it's no big deal. It feels like we just pushed the clutch in.
I used to run a Turbo Clutch in my 68 Chevelle drag car. I did not like it as first gear ratio was just wrong and the car would sort of fall on it's face. The new clutch technologies would have fixed this problem but that was over twenty years ago. It would be absolutely fine in a LSR car and you would not need a push vehicle.
I would think that you would want as many gears as possible as you are slightly limited to usable rpm range with a diesel. I betting you gave this a lot of thought already though.
Rob
BTW, I've been a big fan of Casper for years now.
Thanks! Yes, it would be pushing the limits of the RPM band, but it should make it. Won't really know until we try it though. While a dyno graph says it's OK, sometimes they don't jive with the real world.
Casper has had rough life.
(infomercial - )
For those that don't know, a short bio on our truck (if you get bored easy, skip to next post
):
It was purchased new in Las Vegas in 05, driven to LACR dragstrip, and ran 16.4? and dyno'd at 255 rwhp stock.
3 weeks after purchase, it ran ~12.24 @ 111 with the stock engine, turbo and fuel system.
It has raced in Texas, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, and California, in dragrace, sledpull, dyno challenge, fuel economy, trailer-drags (dragracing with a 10,000lb trailer), and LSR competitions. It is still under warranty (riiiggghhtt), and the last payment was made a couple months ago. It is still street driven occasionally, and is licensed and insured. Both Kat and I race the truck.
It's best ET has been 10.59 @ 129 at Fontana with Kat driving, highest HP has been 916 rwhp at 3800rpm, weighs 6420lb at the dragstrip, 7100lb at LSR events, and 8,000lb at sledpull events. We have both a 403ci engine (stock disp) and a 441.5ci (stroker engine) for the truck. It gets 23mpg highway.
Kat and I own Quality Inspection, an inspection and reverse engineering lab in Corona, CA that I founded in 1993. We have 6 employees including ourselves. I do tuning and hotrod sales for Duramaxes as a side business to help support our racing, under the name of McRat Racing. Robert Miller is our crew chief and best Duramax mechanic in the west. He works at M.K. Smith Chevrolet. Tom (9) and Allison (11) are usually at the track with us as is "Kodiak" Johnny helping with the truck.
There are several shops that have helped us keep racing the truck over the years: Pacific Performance, Inglewood Transmission, EFILive, SoCal Diesel, Garrett, Carrillo, Gale Banks, Mahle, Wicked Diesel, Mitch Fabrications.
The next challenge for Casper is going to be to run a 9 second quarter mile after we run El Mirage next weekend.
And now, back to our regular programming...
