...was a failure $\:$$

Against a healthy sounding 5.0 of the 87-93 vintage. To my annoyance (not that it matters), he had skinnies up front and Drag radials out back.

Was prepared for a race, and when it didn't seem to materialize, I just let off a touch and the truck barked it's tires into second (most 1-2 shifts result in a little bark)...which is when he got back on it. Caught me flat footed now, but I was hoping simply standing on it would get it to downshift and it didn't. The cool thing to me was even pulling from low rpm's, it was still "a race". Given a touch more time, I'd have run him down easily...though that would require me getting up into the 90's, toward the top of second and something I'd never do on such a busy public road.

Wife just laughed and laughed...got to love her...always rooting for the other guy $\:$$

Still...this thing is too strong for the chassis. I need to rebuild the rear leaf springs so as to control the axle hop...even at 30mph, it'll light them off...which on less than perfect roads causes severe axle hop...enough to shake the truck violently enough to disconnect the speedo cable $\:\($

Now, I am down to a short "to-do" list:

1. New Torque converter. The idiot that sold this truck to me said it was a TC that should stall at around 2600-2800rpm behind a healthy engine; without a tach, I had no way to verify...as strongly as it launched stock, I thought "hmmm---perhaps". Well, now with a healthier engine that needs to idle a bit higher, you can feel it struggle against the T/C at a stop, and of course, get on it and it's not as strong as it should be up till 15-20mph...then it'll light 'em off.

2. New headers. Bought used ones, got burned. Warped flanges means no about of putzing, no form of gaskets, no rtv, etc will fix this. Gonna buy expensive ones and have a pro do it...I'm figuring out though I do pretty good at this type of work, there are guys FAR more skilled at it than me...I'm happy to pay 'em.

3. Some sort of suspension aide for axle hop. It's *cool in it's own way* to get a truck to exhibit axle hop at decent speed....but it's already tiresome and if it keeps up, will break something. Problem is, there isn't a lot out there for axles mounted under the springs, and what's out there, I'm not a big fan of in the first place. Going to see if I can get a custom set-up of cal-tracs if new/rebuilt springs dont cure it.

Having done those three things, this thing will be nearly daily driver friendly, mid 12 second truck! $\:o$