How to Prepare a Car Engine to Drag Race

Heading to the drag strip? Many of us do on a month-to-month basis and this is considered a great American past time that dates all the way back to the surfacing of illegal moonshining. There are a few ways to get your car at peak performance before the drag race.

Instructions

    • 1

      Make sure you get your engine tuned before the race. First, especially if you are racing an older model car, you may want to get your engine tuned properly before you decide to go out and race. Before racing, you should replace your spark plugs and spark plug wires (you may even consider getting the highest grade possible for your vehicle). It is recommended that you tune your car so that when race day comes, your chances of winning the race are a little better than those who haven't tuned their engines.

    • 2

      Have your engine rebuilt if necessary. Next, in some of the muscle cars built for drag racing such as the vintage Pontiac Fire Bird or the vintage Ford Mustang, these cars sometimes need certain parts replaced in the engines before they can race or even drive efficiently. Parts such lifters, pistons and gaskets wear out over time and require the engine to be taken apart and rebuilt to fix or replace these parts. If you know of anything that may be wrong with your car before race day, do not try to race it until the problem is taken care of (or you might make the problem worse and you may have to spend more money than you originally planned).

    • 3

      Make certain your cooling system is working properly. After (or before if you prefer) you tune your engine and rebuild certain parts (if needed), you need to check your engine cooling system is working properly. Temperatures under your hood can reach that of 210 degrees or more. Your radiator is responsible for keeping your engine cool especially during extreme activities such as racing or off road driving. It is recommended that your engine cooling system is properly cared for before you start racing your beauty to avoid overheating of the engine and possible engine damage during racing.

    • 4

      Add aftermarket speed options to your car. Finally, you have fixed up your little baby and gotten all the require parts fixed or replaced; however, your car just doesn't seem super enough to you. If you want your car to be faster than all the rest or fast enough to hang with all the other race participants, it is recommended that you look into aftermarket options like extra turbo and intake materials so that your car can easily pick up speed and be drag-race ready.