I won't use the word "carb tuning" cause it'll just start trouble again.. but I will say that almost any carb can be recalibrated to perform on almost any engine. Big carb small engine and lotsa gear.. or small carb big engine with way tall gears. Carbs are very forgiving devices from an airflow standpoint and the specific calibration is what really makes them work well on any particular application. It's nearly all in the tuning.. errr.. calibration. As for this car?.. well.. I'll just add to the broken record. Nice numbers for the combo being used but this thing will be slippin' and slidin' trying to hook up a 3,000 stall speed. Not saying you're gonna blow the tires off it.. just that the suspension will have to start earning its keep. With your engine/gear combo, I'd even consider pushing it up to between 3,200-3,500 rpm. Still grab hold of the trans clutches perfectly fine at light throttle angles on the street. People think high stall converters take off revving like race cars but anything under 3,500 stall speed is basically just like taking off from a high idle while cruising around. Trans will start to creep against the brakes at around 1,100-1,200 rpm. Civil enough character for daily driving yet still wicked enough for weekend playtime in my book.
I don't have any traction issues on the street now with 255/60/15 Cooper Cobra radials or at the track with the 26 x 10 x 15 MT ET Street tires. I know once I put a stall in it I will definitely be an isssue on the street tires and could be at the track with the bias ply tires. My son has a good friend that might be swaping out his practically brand new 3,200 stall soon and I would be able to get a very good deal on it. As far as the carb is concerned it was setup by a good friend of mine that is very good with Holley's. It has very good throttle response and street manners and performs smoothly at the track too. I have been happy with it so far.
Z28,if you put a stall in it you will have to put traction bars on or you are going to tear something apart.I have no experience with cal tracs on the street,some on here say they are not that great for the street(noisy).Get a set of Lakewood slapper bars that have the plate welded on the bottom of them that the u bolts & shocks bolt to.Then tighten the front u bolts that go over the spring until there is about an 1/8 in between the rubber snubber & the bottom of the spring & you should be good to go.People don`t like them but you may also have to use extended shackles to help your pinyon angle,most of the time you only have to drop one hole from stock location which does not hurt anything.
I imagine his reference to the carb was in response to my post. I probably could have worded what I said better. The carb I was running really needed attention but at the time I was pretty ignorant in the ways of fuel delivery as well as that finicky timing thing, when I ran that whale of a car to an 11.88 I had six degrees total timing! Stupid mechanical advance was stuck and all I ever checked wash the initial and that was long enough to get it to where it would actually crank.
Personally,I would rather have a carb a little on the big side & just jet it down,most engs can always use a little xtra air flow.
Yep. The big falacy is based on stock cylinder heads airflow and rpm capability of yesteryear. The newer parts.. especially newest gen cylinder heads and even camshaft technology.. blows those older combos right out of the water. The newer combos flow more mass everywhere in the rpm range they run in. Even a healthy little 302 that's been treated well with decent factory parts and a little extra porting work can swallow much more than a 650. Then add some AFR heads and decent cam?.. well then a 750 ain't as big as it used to be. Ever look at an individual runner manifold? Or a 4bbl style throttle body on even some of the lower powered EFI conversion kits? They ain't what anybody calls little when it comes to raw cfm capability. It's all in the fuel calibration.. not in the cfm rating. Also why a street tunnel ram can kick ass with 2 carbs if you know how to calibrate/fuel them properly.
The Edelbrock Performer 1.90 heads on my car have been heavily ported (as in hogged out) and polished. I figure that is another reason the car is a little sluggish on the bottom end. I bought the heads used and got a very good deal on them. They were in very good shape and my son knew the guy that did the work on them and was selling them.
The main reason I liked the Eddys on my old 383 was because they made me an underdog by most standards. Never really minded that they were also paper thin/sleeved and running offset intake rockers when they made 563 at the flywheel. Then stayed over 500 with a little Comp Cams 282 hydro roller. It's aluminum. If somethings mucking up the airflow capability.. you don't need to replace it.. just remove the restrictions.
As you & I know Rob,back in the day,a tunnel ram with 2 holley 660 center squirters was the bomb.I`ve seen that set up on soooooo many nasty small blks turning some very fast times.There used to be a Monza run by the Sessoms brothers in my area back in the 80s with that set up.Turned that small blk 12,000 rpms,car went 8 sec with a 278 cu in mtr & a clutchless 5 spd.Impressive,would`nt you say.
Biggest problem with most slapper bars are that they are generic and people assume they will be okay for their car when in fact they are too short and do not reach the front spring eye like they are suppose to. Cal Tracs on the street when adjusted for the track create a very harsh ride
