Heckeng

Springs could be binding, piston to valve clearance could be bad. They could just be old crappy pushrods that they threw in there--maybe they didn't even get bent while in your engine--hopefully.

I think that cam could pull that high in a 350, small cube with that duration should make power that high. Whether your heads will allow it to pull that high is another question though. Also, you will be putting your rods, bolts, and pistons to the test revving them that high in my opinion. I think your converter will be ok, but not optimum. I bet that cam really starts coming on around 3k.

I call BS on this one.

Do you have a trans temp gauge on it? Mine will feel slow until the tranny fluid gets up to temp as well as the engine temp. Tranny seems to take twice as long for me, I don't run through the radiator cooler, I just have an external B&M cooler. If you have the transmission lines running through the radiator, it will help out in cold weather because it will actually warm up the trans and fluid. Is it pinging or anything like that? Cold weather will want more fuel, so if you don't have enough fuel, it could be running lean and if it is too lean it will lose power and detonate.

Yup, those oil pans won't work on Chevelles and Caminos. They DO work on Montes though. I think This is the kit you need or you can go with a Moroso or Milodon pan and pickup. I know some other people on the site have use nicer oil pans than the stock one as well. Royce and Dave will hopefully chime in.

I have a 454 with a puny 450hp or so, and 3" exhaust with flowmaster 50 series mufflers and I picked up 0.10 by running open headers. I think you will pick up significantly at that power level and using 2.5" exhaust.

The difference is which end is longer. On I beams, the middle web is longer than the end cross sections, on H beams, the end cross beams are longer than the middle web. I've heard both that I beams are stronger, and H beams are stronger. I don't really think it matters as long as whichever ones you use are made for your power level. H's look cooler to me for what that is worth!

I'm with Saney Davey too.

I have Moroso's on mine and they were perfect out of the box.

I'm surprised by so many people against solid. I'll be using solid if I ever get mine running again. The transmission case breakage issue is from using solid motor AND transmission mounts--when the frame flexes from torque, with all solid mounts the bell housing is the weak point and it cracks. If you use a stock tranny mount that cures the issue. I have heard from lots of people that the solid mounts really don't shake the car much if any more than rubber mounts! Plus, they are so much easier to install and reach the bolts!

Awesome Dave. It looks like you have BOTH cars tuned pretty nicely now, the tires on Reds are just about in the air on that photo!

I'm jealous. What is the rest of the build?

Getting excited yet?

Yes and yes

One other thing that you may have solved by turning it, I have had TCs with and without drain plugs, and on one of them it stuck out the back of the TC so that it would only bolt up flush in one position. I also bent my flywheel and had it off ballance like this. Any chance of that? Hopefully you have it all under control now regardless!

Is the trans acting right? Do you have engine braking?

I'm not getting what you are saying Bill. How can you tell if the converter is shaking?

Lots of people think it is ridiculous to adjust lifters with the engine running, but it sure does make it easy, and it doesn't take long at all, and you can't mess it up by turning the crank too far or not far enough. I've read that aluminum heads will expand about 5 or 6 thousandths, which on a big block would be almost 1/8 turn.

The two different types of vacuum ports available basically do the opposite things. One is ported to the venturi of the carb which would be low vacuum at idle but the higher the engine was revving, the higher the vacuum would get. That is NOT the one you want. The other vacuum port, and the one you want to use, is open to the intake plenum, which will give you high vacuum when the throttle blades are closed, but vacuum will go down as you start to lay into the carb. This is the one you want because the more you open the throttle blades, the higher the load on the engine, and the less advance you want. Your idle should get much better on the port that is open to the manifold. This should increase your mileage too.

There is a difference between dual springs and a single spring with a damper though. Dual springs are used when lift is higher than a single spring can comfortably be made to handle, or when the ramp rate is aggressive enough that more spring pressure is needed to keep the lifter on the cam. I don't think the damper really does much as far as adding spring pressure, but like Mark was discussing, their job is to keep harmonics from forming. Since his cam is a flat tappet cam, you don't want to arbitrarily run too high of spring pressure because you will wipe the lobe off. If it were a roller, I would expect a double spring for sure, but I would guess the builder had this reasoning in mind. As long as the springs were rated for the ramp rate and lift of that cam, even if they were single, they would be the right choice in my opinion. I am guessing that this was just bad luck. Or, maybe the builder had some extra springs laying around that he used and they weren't the right springs to use with this cam. Do you have any idea on the part number for the springs?

Nice. I'm surprised the plungers sprung back like that. 14 years is a long time to be compressed! Congrats on the resurrection!

If your advance was a problem, your rod bearings and pistons would more than likely be what gave out first.

Mariano, I think that is completely fine. When there is no load on an engine, you want more timing. This is how you get good fuel mileage. Some engines like up to 54 degrees w/vacuum advance all in even. It sounds like a lot but most people don't use vacuum so they never talk in terms of also using vac advance. For performance, you don't need vac advance because when you floor it, you lose all of your vacuum advance anyway, so under load, you go back down to 35 degrees advance. Your setup seems to be about perfect actually. Your engine may want a degree or two more or less at different points, but you should definitely be in the ball park! I'm not sure how ignition timing would destroy valve springs either. Ask them how that happens next time you talk to them. You can not force a valve shut by poor combustion timing, and you can't force it open from bad timing without having a massive backfire through the carb which you are not experiencing either. Your springs may just need a check-up. How old are they? Are they sized appropriately for the cam? Are they near coil bind? Or maybe it was just bad luck on that one spring. Here is a really good thread about this from the chevelle site: Ignition 101

How about 3.55, and a good tranny cooler? That is what I did but my cam is a little smaller than yours. I have a gauge on my tranny temp and I keep it around 170 degrees just with a B&M stacked plate cooler. My converter is an ATI 3000 rpm stall but is on the tight side which helps with the heat deal.

Seems like she's running pretty good Winston. Nice job.