Winston Wolf

As is sits right now, I run a large line off the back of the carb to the brake booster. I have a T in that line that goes to the distributor and my vacuum gauge. I use the small port on the front of the carb to go to my PVC valve. The brake boosters have a check valve in them, so once they build up vac there isn't really any draw. I do not have a vacuum line to the transmission. On this new intake I am planning to drill and tap a port in the rear top of the plenum to run to the brake booster. I will then run the PCV with the large port at rear of the carb and probably use the small port at the front for the advance and vacuum gauge. I don't think I will be able to fit a spacer anymore. The plan is to use a thick open Edelbrock gasket, I believe they are .320 ish thick.

Sounds like you are getting things running now Cubanito2. I thought you only needed 85,000 for those GTR's, but I suppose with tax...

bummer dude.

I managed to find a Edelbrock 2925 Super Victor locally off a circle track car that had been ported by a engine builder here in MN. A new 2925 ported intake from one of the big name porters is just under $1000. I managed to score this one for less than a quarter of that. I am going to try this intake to hopefully pick up 20+ hp at the top end. I feel my HP curve is staying way too flat. It stays dead flat from 5000 to 6200 and then starts to drop. I'm hoping to extend the range up to around 65-6600 and pick up that extra power. Some people have been seen 30+ hp pickups with these ported Super Victors. I'm hoping coming from the dual plane I will too. From what I have researched, you need to really open up the top of the plenum and cut back the runner extensions to allow the middle runners a bit more room so they don't feed off each other. Below are a few pics of the intake as it sits now. They did a decent job, and the hard part (enlarging the plenum) is done. I still have some smoothing and rounding to do on the runner extensions, and, as you can see, the runners (especially the roofs) will need some work to match up to the heads. The first pic is what they look like as-cast. That gives you an idea of just how much has already been taken off.

That's correct. You might be surprised at this new cam. Both Marco Rubio and I are looking forward to the results.

Better hurry. My Super Victor showed up, so a little more work and I'll be back in business. Track opens back up in 6 months... and I need something to shoot for.

But how much does that Chevelle weigh? According to David Vizards book on building horsepower. 11:1 to 10:1 should give you a horsepower reduction of 1.5% of total power output, so not a ton. I realize it can be multiplied depending on cam design, but say it was even 5%, that would be only 25 HP. Do your ET deduction for the weight, and the 1-2 tenths from the compression and where does that put you? Is the intake port matched? Spacers? Shift RPMs? I'm not a fan, but did you try without an aircleaner? Lots of stuff to play with yet that is free.

I just went and measured it. With a 4" air cleaner it is less than 2 inches over the carb top. If it doesn't fit with that, I'd be surprised.

Get the L88 vette air cleaner base I have and don't cut the hood. They are 50 bucks. I promise you can't patch that hood back together for 50 bucks.....

Maybe also try and shrink the timing curve or lock out the distributor. That would help on the idle vac issue due to backing down the total timing. You probably have advance springs sitting around the shop anyways. And I know what your saying about more power. You can pick up a couple tenths with tuning, but a whole second is a bunch.

Which "seems" counter productive to king solomons theory. That's why I wanted to bring it up. Sometimes we need to think outside the box. Thanks for that input Dave. I know you want Andy to hit his number just as bad as I do.

The head manufacturer will tell you what gasket to use. Look on their website or instructions that came with the heads.

I had a long discussion with Crazey Dave's hero Patrick from Prosystems on this very subject. I questioned his choice on the valve in my carb. He puts a 6.5 power valve in the HP's no matter the idle vacuum. The reason for this is a better hole shot and off the line performance. The carb gets more gas, quicker, as soon as you crack the throttle. It made sense once I really sat down and thought about it. With the higher vacuum PV, that minute part of a second as the vacuum is dropping can be the difference between a happy transition and a sad one. Something to think about....? I'm running the 6.5 and it works for my setup. Ask the dudes that have a Prosystems and see what PV theirs came with.... If you want, I can send you some A/F charts of mine so you can see what happens when I stab it. If it launches great, why change it? One change at a time please.

Explain why this is odd please. Thank you.

You're getting there my man.... off with the front sway bar and let some gas out of the tank and you will shake a tenth or two off. I do think you'll get to 12 flat. You are actually running pretty good 60's and ET's for 106 mph, so the car must be set up pretty well. Kudos.

Ha, yeah, I never broke anything either until I started running 11's and trapping 115+ MPH. Add a couple hundred horsepower and then come talk to me. I've never lived closer than 90 miles from a track. Most of my racing was done at tracks 3-4 hours away.

Ha, That's nothing. You should see the tens of thousands of people that trailer their bikes to Sturgis.... I can understand the trailering to the races, stuff breaks. But the events cruise-ins and shows, not so much.

I would actually be very curious to see what you could get out of a 396/402. I'm gladly going to let you fund that contest. Similar intake, cam, etc. And I'm sure if I hadn't broken every single piece of the drivetrain over the course of the summer, I would have gotten there. Poor thing spent more time tore apart than together.

Got back to get a few pulls before the end of driving season here. Some interesting info. We did 3 pulls, bang bang bang, without shutting off the car. Here were the pulls from today: Here is the before and after. I changed from a regular Performer RPM to an RPM Air-gap with a 1" open spacer. From the Edelbrock 800 AVS to a 950HP Holley, and changed the intake rockers from 1.5's to 1.6 ratio. Here is the curve showing the engine as it was last year, 292 cam, Trick Flow heads, 750 Edelbrock carb vs as the car sits now. And finally, here is the last year, vs head/cam swap to solid roller, vs Airgap, 1.6 rockers and Holley carb. I was surprised at the mid range torque gains. I found it interesting how flat the HP curve is. It seems to stick right at the 400 RWHP from 5000 to 6250. I think I have been over rev'ing the engine at the track. If I would get the gear change down to 6250, I think it would have picked up. Maybe even the 2 tenths I was looking for. The car still traps at 6500+ though, so I think going to a single plane and upping the RPM range a few hundred will pick up overall ET. You do notice on the Airgap with the spacer does up the torque peak RPM and extend the HP a couple hundred RPMs. The HP peaks at a low 5200, then drops a bit, then picks back up all the way to 6200. I'm wondering if the drop is from the spacer. I don't know. From the wrenching this summer and all the stuff I changed out, we gained 59 RWTQ/38 RWHP. This thing does have some pretty good torque for a smallblock though. probably 575+ on an engine dyno. Should be interesting to see the difference in intakes, but I'm still a bit on the fence whether I actually want to spend another almost $1000 on a ported Super Victor.....

If it was me, I would have notched out the top of that tank and hid my nitrous in the notch. Then used a hidden NOS Top Shot system.... But I think looking stock is cock. Regardless, looks good, and hope it solves your problem. Now all you need is a bunch of blue and red hose ends for the full racer effect.

I am going to stop at the dyno tomorrow afternoon to get an end of the year baseline. Last time I was on it after the cam/head change I had a miss on the top end. I want to see the difference in HP the Holley carb, 1.6 intake rockers, Airgap intake, and all the new ignition parts made against the 800 AVS and standard RPM. Plus I want to have an honest comparison before and after when I switch to a ported Super Victor intake this winter, curious to see what it does to my power curve. I will post up the sheets hopefully tomorrow night.

Look on the bright side. You didn't wreck a couple transmissions, rear end, drive shaft, exhaust or anything else. Keep tuning and hitting the track. I'm going to start working on my snowblower....

I see two issues already. With a zero decked block and 64cc chambers (is that what they are now or before they were milled?) and flat tops you will be upwards of 12:1 compression and you wanted 10.5:1 I would not mess with a stroker crank in a stock block. Too much grinding and not worth the hassle imo. How much HP are you shooting for?

Try a bigger cam that needs them. I would just leave them. Adjust your idle mixture screws with a vaccum gauge and set the idle speed correctly. As long as the butterflies are in a correct position on the transfer slot after doing that you will be fine. The holes will most likely not even be noticed.

is the converter locking on the 2nd gear shift then unlocking? i have and light tied to my tcc clutch solenoid so i can always see what it is doing electrically.