2speed lenco drive vs 3speed lenco drive

Hi Guys.
I have a bracket Funny car 511 kb 3 speed lenco crower pedel clutch 4.29 diff running 6.5@205mpa.
Looking at changing to a lenco drive for more consistance (This is a bracket car) not trying for better et or mpa.
I know a guy that has a 2 speed lenco drive for sale 1.73 first gear.
Will this work with my deal or should I use a 3 speed ?? (Remember this is a bracket car)
What type/Brand of convertor & size/stall should I use??

 

Problem is a 1.73 with a tight converter will tug harder in the shift than a 1.56 with a clutch. 18% compound gear set; high x 44%; low gear= 1.70 3 speed.

 

Personally... I would say ,talk with Mick or Larry Snyder first but in my opinion I would say go for it ! I think the two speed would work good due to the fact that this is a bracket car.
It seems to me the car would work good just like it is but if it is too violent you can always change the first gear ratio in the lencodrive or the gear in the rear and the two speed should be more consistent.

Buy the way ,I would also check with Snyder ,and find out if you can put a cooler on it first
I know that my lencdrive builds a lot of heat and we cool the converter between rounds with a shop vac. On a car with not much time between rounds your going to have to do something about cooling.

But: thats just my opinion.

 

I run an RED with a smaller engine. Its a glide with a 1.76 low,4.30 rear and 33inch tall tires. The converter was around 5500 stall. I started shifting really early by rpm. Im not so sure the car was even moving yet. I went from doing 8.60s shifting at 6000 to 8.903 shifting at like 4800. The car would repeat within .006 ALL DAY LONG. A couple years ago there was a guy using a high gear only glide and was pretty consistent too. Havent heard anything out of him for a long time tho. Im told a 2 spd will always be more consistent than a 3 spd. Id be using a Lencodrive if I had the extra space to do it. Currently my rear end is just "this much" too close to the back of the motor.

 

just my opinion here... but i think this is comparing apples and oranges

pig you said 'RED/smaller engine'

quick cut said 'F/C and 511kb' (which i'm gonna assume* on this board is a blown alky deal??)

it's been my experience (125" blown converter cars) that the kinda set-up 'quick cut' is talking about is gonna want to do a couple things if it's blended with the set-up pig is talking about:
1)eat a 5500 stall converter for breakfast
2)be wild/unpredictable/inconsistent at the hit (either be shaking/smoking/jumping... or any combination)

i may be way off here but this has been what i have run into... i just know the dragsters i've helped on were way more tolerant to overall first gear ratio than a F/C or F/A deal which has a smaller 'happy window'

pig i do think with the right set-up there is some truth to your hi-gear-only statements

*disclaimer: here's my out

 

We ran the B&M "experimental" High Gear Only power glide in an alky injected dragster. First time out won a Super Chevy Show event! The thing freaked everyone out. Left like a slug, then hang on! Could hook on grease but HEAT killed it!!

 

My vote would be the 2-speed, ideally with 1.56 1st, although the 1.73 can work with a 4.10 or better yet 3.89 rear gear. Blown 375 made a good point about keeping the L'drive cool in a bracket environment, seems like mine had ports for cooler lines, can't remember for sure, we usually had 60+minutes with a heads-up group, squirrel cage blower always did the trick, but quicker turnarounds could be a problem.

 

The compound gear set in my first post might have reliability issues, so I take that back. 1.25 x 1.38 = 1.725 If you go with a 2 speed just make sure there's enough fuel in it when you shift.
Why not find a clutch setup that works though the day without much maintenance.
We use to run these and hardly ever even look in there at it. http://www.haysclutches.com/pdf/Racing_Clutches.pdf

 

my thoughts would be put a magnet on the clutch pedal and wire it like a trans brake switch even through a delay box if you are the die hard bracket racer it will be cheaper than a lenco drive unit and just cool the clutch between rounds as im sure you know it hard to compete with the automatic cars with transbrakes and delay boxes but with the magnet it will help you get consistant on the tree just like the auotmatic cars

ps you can also shift it air and rpm selinod and a controller and get more consistant

 

Lenco Drive

Thanks to all that replied sounds like a lower first gear would be better.
I forgot to mention this is a tad violent 2.15 first 1.38 second gear to 1.
& 1471 Roots blower, changed to 36 inchs to carm it down a bit.
sounds like I should call Mick or Larry Snyders.

 

dont you mean a taller first gear like a 1.98 or 1.89 first gear that will calm it down

 

Yikes....
I bet it is with that 1st gear. The 36" would probably work with your buddy's 1.73 2-speed with the 4.29's, guess it depends on how good of a deal you can get it for. I know Snyder only sells the 'drive with either 1.73's or 1.56's, don't know why other gearsets wouldn't work, it's supposed to be the CS-2 gearset. Mine was a 1.56 w/4.10, was extremely consistent in a blown RED, mid 4.20's in 1/8th, wish I still had it.

 

Wasnt there somebody that sold an air cylinder release clutch for bracket racers years back? It seems that you could adjust the leak down so you werent just dumping the clutch.

 

A buddy of mine made one for a bracket car several years back using a large Bimba cylinder and a MAC valve, I've got the pieces in my shop somewhere. He had it installed on something like a Hayes 2-disk in front of a clutch-flite. He kept busting the sprags in the flite but if I remember right the clutch deal itself worked pretty well. He activated it just like a trans-brake with the button sending the 12v to the MAC valve to air the cylinder. I'll get some part# tonight and maybe Will can tell me why I can't post pictures.

 

Know we've kind of gotten off-topic but here is the info if anyones interested. There wasn't a part number on the Bimba cylinder but it measured 1.825 outside diameter by 6.25 body length, the pushrod was 1/2" diameter and had 2" of travel. The MAC valve had two model numbers, the solenoid part was 111B-591BAAA and the air-valve side was 55B-12-PI-111CA.