i need more traction. i keep hearingabout these suspension gurus who can make an elcamino stick to the ground like glue without cutting and such; anybody in here have any idea what a man needs to do to keep 800hp and 650 ft/lbs on the ground? i already have slicks, they are the mickey street et variety.
thanks in advance!

Still have the factory four-link? Pinion angle needs to be 2-3 degrees nose down, lower control arms as close to being parallel to the ground. New control arm bushings a must! Upper control arm mounting points on the housing need to be raised in most cases, with relocating bars from such vendors as Art Morrison and Lakewood. Boxed lower control arms are a good idea, also available from same companies. Big block powered Chevelles from '66 and '67 came with frame stiffening braces that connected the front upper and lower control arm mounting points (these were bolted in). This info is mostly from a magazine article in the september 2003 issue of Chevy High Performance, check it out for more detailed info.
Additionally, since the El Caminos from the sixties (propably also the later ones, I'm not sure) were based on the station wagon chassis, their frames were fully boxed and two inches longer than the coupes, whose frames were U-shaped. Boxed frame is the way to go to minimize flexing and twisting.
For an even more radical approach to improve traction, check out the CenterDrive truck arm kit from Hotrods to Hell, www.hotrodstohell.net, I'm thinking about putting one in my '69.

i replaced the factory 4 link with the boxed versions available from hotchkis. the result is that i don't have anymore wheel hop, but i still spin the tires on the pavement more than i'd like. i'm going to call those fellas over at hotrodsto hell, let's see what they got.
thanks for the heads up!

Glad I could help. Did you check out the Hotrods to Hell page? I saw an article in another issue of Chevy High Performance (April 2004) where they installed their kit in a '71 El Camino and took it to the track. There was another mentioning of this kit in an older Car Craft but it wasn't as comprehensive. What year is your El Camino? My best friend and I raced a homebuilt slingshot dragster that had a 327, Powerglide, narrowed 9", 32" slicks and no suspension in the back, the housing was welded to the frame and I'm sure the pinion angle was 0 degrees. It never spun a tire and did best 9.20 something on nitrous in the quarter mile.

yep, i checked out the page, the stuff looks cool but i don't know crapola about suspension. this car is my first experience in automechanics and i havn't begun to deal much with the suspension yet. it's a 1972 gmc sprint with a zz502, freddy brown ford aod trans(yeah, you read that corrctly) with full manual valve body, narrowed 9" (32 spline) with detroit locker in it. the nitrous kit is just about done being installed, it's a 250 shot. ignition is msd 6btm (thinking ahead for when the blower gets here), pro billet distributer and ss blaster coil; high speed retard is controlled by a start retard module from msd. oh yeah, it's got hooker 2" primaries going into 3" collectors through flowmaster exhaust and a holley 4150 1000 hp double pumper.
that's all i can think of. i'll get with the guys in that website on monday. thanks again!

That's an awful lot of horsepower and torque for a suspension that's still pretty much the factory designed four link using aftermarket pieces. Time to consider something totally different. Like maybe an Alston setup with a narrowed rearend and tubs. I know you said you don't want to do a lot of cutting and welding, but I think that your at the point where you've overpowered what your rear suspension can take and be truly effective. Maybe adding Airlift airbags (independently adjust air pressure...more psi on passenger side) and playing with tire pressure will help a bit. Have you considered at least notching the frame rails and going with a wider wheel/tire combo? This is relatively an inexpensive modification...but, I'm not sure if it can be done on 3rd Gen Elkys (I only know about 5th Gens concerning this)...anybody with 3rd Gens done this or know about it?

u could weld a big ass steel bar or somethin to ur rearend :P

Maybe a transbrake is going to help this tire-spinning problem of yours. When you stage in at the lights, step on the brakes/activate your line-lock and raise the rpms to your favorite stall speed, it puts the suspension into a bind, the suspension is twisted to the point where it can't move anymore and when you release the brakes, the car acts like it has no suspension at all. That, in turn, shocks the tires too much and they start spinning. I'm pretty sure your car is very twisted at the staging lights (left front corner pointing up, right rear pointing down).
You are probably familiar with how a transbrake works and since it locks the transmission in 1st and reverse at the same time and not the brakes, the suspension is able to absorb some of the initial shock when you leave the lights. A transbrake is by far easier and less expensive to install than back-halving your car. From then on that initial shock can be adjusted by means of air bags inside your coil springs like theelcaminofactory suggested and experimenting with pinion angle, up or down, depending on track conditions.

i forgot to mention that i have a trans break. when i use it, the problem is amplified. also, i have no line lock ( i just found out about those recently, one will go in after finals in a few weeks). you're dead on about the left side of the car pushing down less than the right; the skid marks are more prominent on the right side by far.
i dunno. friction is equal to the product of the normal force times the mu; i can't help but think that if i could get the weight from the front to transfer more totally to the rear (best case would be a small 1" wheelie i guess) while at the same time making the rear suspension share the load evenly i would get max traction. i'm gonna look into that airbag, but i think i may have to get a suspension that binds less like was already suggested.
i'll post again after the i speak to the people at hotrods from hell.

I have experience with trans brakes and line locks, neither of which will help you hook up and increase the problem if you have poor traction now. You are going to need some drastic changes, you might be able to get the OEM 4 link to work with the modifications you made plus correcting the pinion angle, preloading the right side and bracing the lower control arms but you will need more tire than you can fit in the stock wheel wells.

You could Tub the rear end and add wider tires and you can also re-locate the spare and jack and battery to the bed just in front of the rear wheels to add weight there.

With 600 Horses its going to be very difficult to get rid of all the spin and you could never get it all out. At teh track, generally, they have a surface that is 'stickerier' (if that is a word) then any street has.

Thats a lot of ponies to try to keep pinned up. Watch the rear end and transmission. I just removed the third THM 350 that I tore up with only around 420 Lb/ft of torque. I'm braking the bell housings and in turn, frying the insides. I went with a preformance built 700R4 and I'll have to see if it holds up better.


Good Luck.

http://www.hrpartsnstuff.com/
http://www.hrpartsnstuff.com/products/rearend/swaybar.htm

I would help to know more details about you current setup.