Winston Wolf

Hey Winston, which AFR heads are those? Eliminator Race Heads, 210cc runner, 75 cc chamber, 2.08/1.60 1.550"diam springs I think the RPM may be holding you back just a hair, but not too horribly. I do think a Vic Jr. would be nice like mentioned above. I may try an RPM Air Gap..? Is there any possibility of valve float or bounce on the closing side? That would kill you at a certain rpm as well. To me it did sound like it was missing at the top of the runs. I was really surprised, but I honestly think it was floating. I changed out the dist cap and rotor when I did this stuff because I thought I may have ignition problems. I really am having a tough time believing it's a valve spring/cam issue. These are some BMFing springs and it's a solid roller cam. I would be tempted to go up to 36 degrees as well, since you have aluminum heads, but I'd hesitate to go higher because you do have some decent compression there. Really, I don't think the compression is an issue with the big chambers. I went from 63 to 75, that drops it around a point and a half... I will be trying this at the strip I'm not a fan of the edelbrock carbs, but I'm pretty much uneducatedly biassed there! Never used one, I just like my Holley style carbs. What were your cam specs at 0.050"? •Advertised Duration (Int/Exh): 279/285 •Duration @ .050 (Int/Exh): 249/255 •Gross Valve Lift (Int/Exh): .585/.600 •LSA/ICL: 110/106 •Valve Lash (Int/Exh): 016/016 •RPM Range: 2800-7200

an interesting read in regards to stall converters on the dyno.... Truth about stall converters and the dyno I'm just going to the track and settle this.

Indeed, I appreciate the comments. It helps everybody learn. I think the number one thing is I need to get it out to the track and see how fast it's running. There will be no need or point to change anything if it is running at that 11.50 mark. Unless I have a revalation and figure out a problem, I think I'll try it on the stip first. Then change the intake, see what that does, then the headers after that if I'm still not where it needs to be. Changing all this stuff at one time isn't good practice, that I know.

It's a regular Performer RPM. Do agree that there are better race carbs out there, but I have that 800 AVS leaned out a bunch from stock settings and it still likes to run on the rich side. It should certainly be good for 500 HP. I'm sure the intake is an issue, how much of one I don't know yet. I'm almost thinking that getting the air out is my problem, I don't know how much differance 1 7/8 headers would make???? We couldn't play with the timing because of the blown thermostat gasket, but I can do that on the track where it really matters. I did lower the compression from 11.95 to 10.45, so I can expect a 3-5% loss in HP there.

Yes, you can feel the extra torque on the street. I'm certain I'll run better E.T's But I am concerned about the drop off after 6300. This s.o.b should be running out up to 7k in my opinion. I am now thinking I probably have 2 issues after the big heads and cam, my standard Performer RPM intake and my small 1 5/8" headers. I think they are choking it off on the top end. I can easily try a 1" spacer on the track to see if I pick up anything by opening up the plenum, but the headers is a different story. Time to do some research....

Well, made it into the dyno today. Looks like I have some more work to do... Here's a couple pics of the car, then I'll get into the results. First run was horrible. I have no idea what is going on. Here it is against a run last year. Made MUCH LESS. RunFile 003 is from last year, RunFile 001 is today I was shocked to say the least. Checked timing, 34 deg, jetting was dead nuts. No idea what the issue is. Next run we locked the converter in 3rd. Then 3rd run it was locked and I leaned it out one stage. See below. As you guys know I did change out my converter from the Bowtieoverdrives 2400 stall to the Precision Industries 3500 stall. Last year I did not lock the converter during pulls. I think there may be an issue with my converter???? Here is a comparison to last year's setup vs the new heads, cam, carb and converter. I was expecting a lot more and am a bit disappointed at how the power curve still drops off after 6300, even with this solid roller cam. We had to cut the runs short today. I blew the themostat gasket and it was spraying water on the last run. See vid below I'm looking to you guys for any suggestions and opinions. I'm stumped at this point.

pm'd

Took the car out and put some miles on it. It does have more power. I can't stop the tires from spinning until 3rd gear now. (I'm talking going 30 in 2nd and flooring it and it spins; not from a dead stop) Sounds pretty mean while driving the car. Looks like my B&M lock up unit burned out though. I'll have to get a new one of those.... The new converter lockup is like a 5th gear. It hits hard just like a shift when it engages. Jetting looks to be pretty good, about what it was with the other setup. Seems to be leaking oil out the rear of the pan. I decided to try a 1 pc rubber gasket, I guess it didn't work like I had hoped... Here is a video of it running.

Here is a shot of the new converter and thicker flywheel A different material for the distributor gear is needed with some of the roller cams. This is called "Everwear", basically a nitrided gear so it doesn't wear out on the billet steel camshaft. You can also see the Mallory breakerless iginition I run. I like things to look stock, this is the original distributor that I have modified. You can see the carboning of the rotor, I replaced both the rotor and cap. Here we are right before initial startup. After a small break in run time, and adjusting the timing, all seems well. With a roller cam you don't really need to break them in like a flat tappet. It sounded like I may have already blown a header gasket, so today I will swap that out and hot set the valves. I did notice that it now pulls much more vacuum at idle, 12" at 1000 vs 9-10 with the flat cam. It does seem to idle smoother also, with the old 292 magnum cam it would shutter and lope like a race car. I have dyno time scheduled for Thursday, so I will be able to overlay old vs new and see just what kind of results my efforts were worth......

Engine is back in. Installed a .035 thicker flywheel from Huges. I was getting some very slight rounding of the torque converter mounting holes in the stock flywheel. This engine uses a 350 balancer and flywheel. I don't really care for the external balancing of factory 400's, so when I put in the steel crank years back, I used an internally balanced one. (along with a Fluidamper balancer as you can see) Had to do some modifying of the trans pan. With the new lock up tube I now need to run a AC Delco filter for a 700-R4. The cheap chinese ones you get at Autozone or Oreily will actually cavitate when you get into the big HP stuff. Problem is that the filter uses a bigger neck and is alot thicker. I needed to grind off the posts in my Huges deep pan and use a different oring setup to seal in the filter. That slowed tonights progress a bit.

Thats a G 10 70 block. July 10th, 1970...... Not too many of these 4 bolts beauties left.

Thanks for the comment, you are partially right on the lash. One thing people often overlook is the fact that aluminum expands at a rate greater than iron. With this aluminum headed engine, the heads will expand more than the pushrods and rest of the valvetrain. This increases the distance from rocker tip to cam lobe more than in an all iron setup (when hot)To adjust for this you need to subtract from the hot lash setting when setting them cold. All this is out the window with Hydraulic Lifters of course. Here are a couple pages that explain it better than I can..... Cold Lash on Speedtalk Crane Cams Lash Setting.

Also, Here is a picture of why I needed to pull the pump out of the transmission. I am using a lockup converter with heavy duty clutches so I can lock at full throttle. The lockup works by dumping pressure that engages the clutch. The tube I drilled and added connects the port that is drained to the inlet of the pump. This will allow a suction to evacuate the oil quickly and give me rapid lockup once I hit the switch. I also removed the check valve from the input shift to help a harder clutch engagement.

Well, Back at it tonight... Here is my fuel pushrod. Brass tipped because of the billet camshaft. I am also going to run a special Lunati gear on my distributor. Fresh coat of ceramic paint on the headers. Here's how to double check valvetrain geometry. First mark the valve tip with a sharpie Install lifters, pushrods, and rocker arms. Adjust to zero lash, then rotate the engine. Then you can see the witness marks on the valves. Note how they are centered on the valve tip. I would have liked a little tighter pattern (narrower) but this is as good as it gets with my setup. Still, perfectly acceptable. Below you can see how to adjust the valves. This cam calls for a .016 lash setting hot. Since I am setting these cold for innitial startup, I set them at .012" which should be just about right. I will readjust them hot once the engine is back in the car. High flow thermostat, 160 deg is what I like to run in a 400 SBC. This one also has bypass holes so there is alway some coolant able to flow. Here you can see the new Edelbrock high volume water pump. Engine is masked and ready for paint. Painted up. I like the sleeper look, so I painted everything to look stock. Should be ready to pop back into the car Friday night.

It should look like this: You may also want to get this to prevent seal blow-outs. The pumps can only take a couple seal installs before they won't hold it in just by the seal/pump friction fit. Read this for converter position, you may need shims. I did. The best way to be absolutely certain that the converter is fully indexed into the front pump is to place the transmission/converter assembly up against the back of the engine. The bolt lugs on the converter should not be touching the flex plate. There should be a gap between the flex plate and the converter bolt lugs. With the transmission bolted to the engine, this gap should be approximately 3/16” but no more than ¼”. (If the gap is larger than ¼”, precision shims must be installed to obtain the proper gap before the converter bolts are installed.). Before installing the bolts into the converter lugs you will need to slide the converter forward to the flex plate. If a gap doesn’t exist, the converter isn’t indexed into the pump properly. To get it to index into the pump, you need to continue turning the converter, at the same time, applying slightly inward pressure until it fully engages. Another easy way to check when using a full size converter is to try and slide your fingers between the converter and the pump housing. If you can, the converter isn’t fully engaged. This test doesn’t apply to the smaller v-6 or small diameter high stall converters.

I am using retrofit solid rollers, Lunati pn 72403 Comp cams Ultra Pro Magnum 1.52 roller rockers, pn 1604-16 I think the odd pushrod length is from 2 factors: block was decked, but not to zero. Valves are a bit longer than normal, AFR uses either +.050 or +.100, I don't remember. But the installed height of the springs is 1.950" with the big 1.59" diam for the solid roller. I use an adjustable pushrod to check the length, pattern is dead nuts centered with a nice pattern on the valve.

Here is a shot of the crank scraper. It is used to "scrape" the oil off the crankshaft as it spins around. This can add a few HP. Heads on and torqued down. Next step is to check for proper pushrod length. I ended up with 8.050 pushrods. These had to be ordered, so I will be at a stopping point for a couple days. That's ok, as it gives me time to do the transmission mods and get some of the pullys and brakets cleaned up with a fresh coat of paint. More to come.....

I decided to take some pictures while I do a head and cam swap on my 400. Hopefully this will help some of the guys with less experience gain a bit of insight. This could possibly be done with the engine in the car, but I also needed to do some work on my transmission pump and torque converter, so it is easiest to pull the engine in my situation. I don't have a lift, so it's up on the jack stands for me.... Starting disassembly, remove shroud, fan, etc, unhook everything. Engine teardown. Trick Twisted Wedge heads and Performer RPM intake off. Pistons exposed. This engine was gone through last year, .040 over Mahle piston kit connected to 6" Eagle Rods and a forged Eagle Crank. I really like the Mahle stuff, as the pistons are light and uses tight rings. You can pick up 7-10 HP using these pistons. I didn't need to do anything with the pistons/crank at this time, so it makes for a fairly quick update. The cam was removed and the new cam installed. The new cam is a solid roller Lunati model. My cam is a standard base circle, so I needed to pay special attention to cam/rod clearance. If there had been interference, I would have needed to change to a small base circle cam, which is usually a special order item. Fortunately I didn't have any issues with the Eagle rods. Here is the cam in, timing chain on and cover. Degreeing a camshaft is a must for any performance setup. I found that the cam was off by 4-1/2 degrees (retarded) when installed with the dots aligned. I changed out from a gear drive to a chain drive, mostly because of 2 things. The old Pete Jackson drive I had in the car has bushings for changing the cam timing. I must have lost the bushings and they pretty much can't be found anymore, this would limit me to only 1 position for cam timing. Probably not an option. 2ndly, I wanted something that would allow me to change the cam timing without engine disassembly. In come Cloyes with their Hex-Adjust roller timing set and the Quick Button cover. Could I have used the Pete Jackson gear setup with my new roller cam? Yes, it has a cam button (which is needed for any roller cam), but I was nervous using the stock cover, as the stamped steel is a bit too flexible for my liking. Plus the Cloyes uses a bearing against the block instead of a bushing, which I like. A flat tappet cam holds cam into the engine because of a taper cut into the lobes. Not the case on a roller. That is why you need a cam button. This cover has the button built in and it is adjustable from the outside. With a standard cover, you need to install and uninstall the cover to check the clearances, somewhat of a pain. Here are the heads, notice the 400 steam holes that had to be drilled... Checking the valve to piston clearance. To do this you place some playdough or clay ontop of the piston, install the heads (cam must be degreed in first), lifters, pushrods, and rockers. Set them to zero lash. Always use a solid lifter to check this, as the hydraulics will compress as you turn over the engine. Mine is solid to begin with, so not worries for me. The valves make indentations in the clay, which you can then measure to get your clearance. I usually do this without the head gasket on. My gasket has a .038 compressed thickness, so I can just add this in. With the 2.08/1.60 valves and .600 lift cam, I had plenty of clearance using these Mahle -5cc relief pistons. Here is a shot of the crank scraper. It is used to "scrape" the oil off the crankshaft as it spins around. This can add a few HP. Heads on and torqued down. Next step is to check for proper pushrod length. I ended up with 8.050 pushrods. These had to be ordered, so I will be at a stopping point for a couple days. That's ok, as it gives me time to do the transmission mods and get some of the pullys and brakets cleaned up with a fresh coat of paint. More to come.....

It's really not as tough as some people make it out to be. I just changed the gears in mine again last week. Took about 6 hours on jackstands. When you get new gears, they are pre-measured and marked which takes out alot of the guess work. You can use the measurements off your stock stuff and most likely get it right on the 1st try. There are really only 2 magor things to it, setting the correct pinion depth with shims and setting the backlash, again with shims. Save some money and give it a shot. There are some good tutorials on the web, and the instructions from Richmond are pretty good, plus I'm sure there are plenty of us on here that have done it a bunch.

Don't stress too much on the crush sleeve and bearing tension, you can check it with an inch pound torque wrench on the pinion nut before you take it apart and get it close enough to the same preload with that torque wrench when you put it back together. If it's close, your bearings will be fine. Preload changes as the bearings wear in, so it's not brain surgery. Taking out the carrier will take a 1 hour job and turn it into a 1 day job; and to crush a new sleeve takes approx 150 ftlbs of torque, so you need a air wrench or long bar (not feasible on jack stands). Check the surface of the yolk for any burs or wear, if there is none, I wouldn't bother with the speed sleeve. Be sure to put some silicone RTV around the outside metal part of the seal where it contacts the pumpkin so you don't get leakage there.

Richmond Gear makes 3.73 gears for that 4 series carrier, so does Summit. If that price doesn't include gears, you may be better off just getting and aftermarket Eaton, Detroit Locker, or Moroso Brute Strength carrier.

I also have the Promatic 2. Before that I had the v-matic. I liked the vmatic operation better, but I changed to a 4 speed auto and they were discontinued. Keep in mind the movement of the seat if you have a bench. You will need to use some spacers or a bracket as suggested above to lift it up a bit from the carpet or it won't work properly. I think I just used a bunch of washers to level it how I wanted. You will need to trim the black cover to fit the contour of the tunnel, but it's not that bad.

I would find a junkyard or swapmeet 12 bolt rear end for an A body GM, doesn't need to be posi, take it apart yourself. Gears 175$ Bearing/install kit 123$ Moroso or Eaton differential 450-550$ You're looking at under a grand to do the whole thing. You can do it yourself, it's not as hard as people make it out to be. You need a dial indicator to check the backlash, and the rest is common tools. Take your time and check all everything. I have personally had bad luck with the Auburn rear ends, they just didn't seem to hold up. I run a Moroso in my car now, and it has worked perfectly and remained tight for many years now.

I am running a Bowtie overdrive 200-4R stage 3 with a 2800 RPM converter from them also. This is behind a 400 small block. I run a 4.10 gear. This keeps the car just like when I had the TH350 in, but with the overdrive bonus. I would put my engine up against a similar sized big block any day. Dyno'd, my setup does 375HP/388TQ at the wheels. I had a few minor setup issues with the trans install, and nothing major has gone wrong so far. I did have heat issues, and needed a large cooler in the radiator and a Huges deep aluminum pan with cooling fins. Now it runs nice and cool. I did not want to go with a 700-R4 for the reasons mentioned, driveshaft, mounting, and the low 1st gear. With my setup, I have enough torque that it would make low gear just for a quick tire spin. I had problems hooking up with 10" drag slicks and the TH350, and couldn't leave the line above 1500 RPMs on the track...didn't want to make that situation any worse.

I think you are asking for issues with a 2.73 gear and an overdrive transmission. This will help you, as I don't know your actual tire size. Tire/Gear/MPH calculator If you don't care about acceleration or how quick your car is, I would just stick with what you have. Swapping out transmissions always costs more than you plan for and it seldom works out without some minor installation issues. If you change your tranny, you should probably go to a steeper gear too, so it will start to get costly.