My 1973 Comet is a stock 302/c4. 135hp I think. I am installing Hedman headers, dual exhaust and a 600cfm 4 barrel. What can I expect when I drive it for the first time after the improvements?
you should slide a cam in while your at it. that way the engine can take beter advantage of those bolt ons that let it breath a little better. but you should feel an improvment with those alone
A cam swap is pretty simple, even in your unpaved driveway If you were closer I would give you a hand.
Lol. I wimped out and bought an engine lift. However, I have pulled an replaced a C4 5-6 times in the last two days with a floorjack and a stock maverick scissor jack in 2 inches of tranny fluid with goatheads and spider webs falling on me.
Excuses, excuses... I swapped the entire engine and trans in the '72 daily driver just recently right where you see it sitting in this pic. No driveway!!
better to do it off of a paved surface anyway so you dont have to look at perment oil stain for the rest of your life
Possibly a backfire or two All kidding aside,if you pull the distributor take a little extra time putting it back in,will make the start up alot easier.
You should expect some carb and timing issues.Once you sort those out you should notice an improvement in off the line performance(more bottom end torque)You will notice it gets up to speed a bit quicker as well.Perhaps a slight improvement in fuel economy as well(or worse)depending on how much you get on it.With long tube headers and a 4bbl carb you will pick up about 12 to 20 horses and about the same amount of torque as long as the motor is still tight(little or no blowby) maybe 15 horse if its loose.Oh and yeah it will sound better.Did you know header tone makes cragar rims even more bad a#s.Good luck.
A cam swap or any of the other mods, ain't gonna do you much good with an 8 to 1 compression ratio. You need to fix that first. If you do, do a cam swap choose wisely and look at EFI grinds with wide LSA's, these will make the most of the low comp ratio.
What Intake are you installing? I made these same improvements to my 73 Grabber except no headers & I am very happy with the improvement. I used a "Professional Products" Air Gap Intake & 600 CFM Holley & no headers, just dual exhaust. This car was bone stock with 100,000 miles. It went from tired to really fun to drive. It now gets a solid 2nd gear bark when shifting. Not a race car by any means but a very satisfying improvement. Good luck.
