chuckash

I finally got around to making an adjustment on the linkage - which it apparantly needed. At anything below about 60, it will kick down and really get up and go. Next thing you know, its chirping into third and at about 75 mph. All this in drive. But above 60, won't kick down. What fun, though. I was grinning from ear to ear after the first drive after the adjustment. Charlie

Basically, my setup is a th350 with a B&M shift kit and a stock converter. The rear has 3.73 gears, the motor is a warmed over 400 sb. The question I'm asking is while cruising down the road at about 60 mph, with the motor turning about 2600 or 2800 rpm, should the transmission kick down if I floor it or not? I'm pretty sure that I have my linkage adjusted correctly so that the cable is pulled out at WOT, but it doesn't seem to go into "passing gear" under these circumstances. It will kick down if I'm doing about 45 and punch it, but not at around 60. Any thoughts? Charlie

It isn't complicated at all or require special parts. In addition to what was already mentioned, change the filter and pan gasket while you're in there. And, be prepared to get transmission fluid all down your arms unless the trans is already pulled from the vehicle. I used the B&M basic kit, and it has worked really well. Under hard enough acceleration, it will continue to spin the tires into 2nd (not just chirp) and will chirp 3rd. Pretty cool from an automatic, this is one of those projects that puts a grin on your face once done. Charlie

I've got the B&M basic kit in a th350, with a sb400 up front. Under light throttle, it doesn't hit the tires very hard, part throttle it chirps them. If I hold it in first, mash the pedal to break em loose, then shift to second - it just keeps spinning! Sometimes, will even chirp 2-3 shift. The first time I experienced wheelspin (not just a chirp) in a 1-2 shift with an automatic was in my brother in laws 78 Lil Red Express. Thought that was pretty cool at the time, had to have some for myself! With enough motor, almost anything is possible. Go for it, it only makes future improvements that much better.

That conversion looks like a nice setup. Unless I missed something the kit costs about $2700 and doesn't include other necessary items like a bellhousing, flywheel, clutch, pressure plate, throw out bearing, pedals, or linkages (or cable. Those things alone are going to add another $500 or so to the conversion. I can always dream, though.

While I dont mean any dis-respect to the knowledge of this board, your best selection will come from contacting one of the converter manufactures tech lines and explaining your setup and usage with them. Pick any one you like, they do this every day and have the in depth knowledge of the subject. While changing the rear will certainly wake up the car, I'm not sure that changing a rear is any easier than changing a converter. That is, unless you are changing the entire rear assembly and not just the gears. Even then you are still into bleeding brakes, a job that I personally despise. Changing gears requires special knowledge and tools to set up properly on a 10 bolt or 12 bolt. Remember too that the looser converter will make more heat for the transmission and an aux cooler may also be required.

I run 3.73 with a th350 trans and love it. Sometimes overdrive would be nice, but since I just cruise around it doesn't much matter to me. I don't know what motor or mods you have, but 1200 cfm of carb is an awful lot of carb for anything but an all out race motor. I suspect that you picked up some acceleration when disconnecting the second carb because it likes having less carb, not because of the timing of the events. Just my 2 cents.

My experience is similar to that of those above. The local Chevy dealer barely knew what I was talking about with a gear change. I ended up having mine corrected by the transmission shop when the tranny was rebuilt. He knew exactly what to do to get my speedo reading accurately again. I went from 2.73 to 3.73.

Not to start a Mustang discussion here, but: I was at the drag strip several years back talking to a guy who had an 87 or 88 hatchback that had been converted to T-tops. In those years, a t-top was available. However, the person that did the conversion did not stiffen up the body to compensate for the loss of the structure in the roof. This car, which wasn't really worked over, would twist so bad coming off the line that you could see it from the grandstands. Are our Monte's built tougher, sure. Full frame and all has to be stronger than a Unibody. But, the roof integrity is still a vital part of the overall picture.

My 70 with a sb 400 and th350 had that collar on it originally. After a very bad wheel hop experience and failed front universal, that driveshaft got replaced with a spare that I had off a 72. The 72 driveshaft did not have the collar. No problems with vibration before or after the swap. I seem to remember somebody telling me that it was a Saganaw driveshaft. Anybody else ever heard that one?

I recall having a similar problem. Lift up the hood, and where the fender, the firewall, and the windshield all seem to meet there is a piece of weatherstripping. This area is kind of between the hood spring and windshield. This weatherstripping was installed with metal fasteners through this area. I seem to recall having one of those holes leak at one time. Take a close look there, and let us know how you made out. Charlie

Riceracing made a recommendation to me about a holley intake to consider using on my 400 small block. It is a p/n 300-25. Is anybody running that manifold on a first gen monte right now? If so, did you have hood clearance problems? What other manifolds are you folks running, with or without hood clearance problems. Using the internet, I can probably find out manifold heights for comparison purposes. Before I spend some money on an intake, I just want to make sure that there won't be any surprises. I'm not ready to go the cowl induction route yet. Charlie

When you degree in a cam, you are basically checking that the cam timing specs. occur as advertised by the cam manufacturer with respect to the movement of the #1 piston. This is done using a piston stop, and is best done if the heads are off the vehicle. It can, however, be done with the heads on the vehicle using a littel ingenuity. This is a worthwhile effort to make sure that everything is in order. Things like a poorly ground cam, or the wrong cam in a box are the types of things you are looking to find. Advancing or retarding the cam can be done with special timing sets or offset bushings. By altering the cam timing, the torque curve is moved up or down somewhat. Hopefully RiceRacing2 will reply also, likely with more information than I could ever remember. If you are interested, I have a few articles and instructions that I could fax to you about this subject. Just let me know. Charlie

Rob, You are right on the money. Each line is 2 degrees, and you want to go toward the A for advance. You say that the spec is 4 degrees BTDC, that seems really low. If you can get a dial back timing light, you can check total advance to make sure that everything is working correctly. Total may be something like 30 degrees. One other point to mention is that if you still have a points distributor with a vacuum advance, the vacuum needs to be removed from the cannister and plugged before setting the timing. If you don't have any vacuum advance hooked up, no worries. Charlie

Don, Thanks for the input. When I replaced the cam last year, I did notice the difference in port size between the intake and the heads. This was really noticeable, in fact the difference was so much that I had to be extremely careful installing the intake for fear of an intake leak. I could still see the blue parts of the felpro gaskets at some ports! Maybe I'll give another intake a try. Since used performer intakes usually sell quickly, it wouldn't cost too much to make this change. Before I restored this car, it ran 13.60's with the 3.73 rear, Q-jet, performer intake, crappy mufflers, stock heads, and stock ignition (on some sticky tires). Since spending a small fortune on the restoration, I've been too scared to run it down the strip. Maybe some day. I just looked at the specs on that Holley 300-25. The RPM range they advertise is 4500 to 7500. Was 300-25 the part you were thinking of? I would have thought that would be way too much intake for my setup, but if you have run this successfully on the street, I would be inclined to go with experience over advertising! Charlie [This message has been edited by chuckash (edited 03-25-2002).]

Don, Thanks for the input. I'm running a setup somewhat similar to what you described in your post elsewhere, but a few differences. I'm using an Edelbrock performer intake with a 650 holley square bore. That is feeding Dart Iron Eagle 215 cc heads with 72 cc chambers, no porting. I cant remember if I gasket matched the intakes or not! The cam is an Extreme energy 268, degreed in and installed straight up. The pistons are mounted to stock 400 rods, they are Sterling hypereutetic, 10.25:1 Cr. Block bored 0.030 over, and rods/mains 0.030 under. Long, ugly story on the crank. This is all being lit up by an HEI with the MSD coil, MSD ignition module, Taylor wires, and the AC Delco high dollar plugs. What I cant decide for myself is whether the investment is worth changing the intake. Will a change make a noticeable difference, you know, seat of the pants? Or would my money be better spent on a looser converter? Not exactly sure what converter is in it now, I was told that it was about 1000 rpm looser than stock. This thing has 3.73 gears, no overdrive and mainly street duty. The carb thing also has me a bit confused. Everybody seems to want to stick on a 750, but the Holley tech line suggested something in the 650 range. Fortunately, I had a 650 sitting on the shelf, so they didn't make a sale! It is a vac. secondary carb. I guess what I really need is a driveshaft loop first, even though I dont run slicks. Charlie

Don, I forgot that the vortech heads required a specific intake. Thanks for the heads up. I still kick around which intake I should be running. Right now it has a Performer. Since I drive it pretty much exclusively on the street, I'm not sure if the extra money for another intake will be worth the investment. I want to be able to feel the difference when a modification is complete, by being sucked into the seat harder. Thanks again, Charlie

I may be interested in that RPM Air Gap intake. That would work nicely on my 400 sb with 215 cc Dart Iron Eagles. If nobody else is intersted, let me know how much. Thanks, Charlie

Before you go spending lots of cash, you need to decide what you really want to do with this vehicle. If you want to run around the freeways at 100+ mph, the best way to do that is put in an overdrive transmission and install a higher (numerically lower) gear. These two things would get you into the 140's or 150's no problem, but acceleration out of the hole will suffer with a higher gear. Since I rarely see anything above 70, I geared mine to accelerate quickly. But with 3.73 gears, my top end is likely only 110 to 115 (with a TH350 trans and 1:1 final drive ratio.) But, that isn't where I spend any time driving. The only reason the T/A could run you at those speeds is because it does have an overdrive transmission. You are probably making more HP and more torque than the T/A, and probably weigh about the same since it was a ragtop. It is really all about compromises. If you want to run those speeds and really crank up the engine, consider changing the cam to get the HP up higher in the RPM range. It is tough to have your cake and eat it too with top end power and streetable power down low. What I need to constantly remind myself is that no matter how fast I make my rides, there is always somebody out there faster.

I went the Custom Autosound route. Like an idiot, I didn't check the dash before I got the radio. I just assumed by looking at the woodgrain portion that the dash behind was still intact. Had I looked another 1/4" deeper, I would have noticed that somebody had already butchered the dash. So here I am with a butchered dash and a radio designed to fit a standard opening. The job just got more difficult. The moral of the story is to check to see if the dash has already been cut in order to make a more informed decision. I probably wouldn't have gone the Custom Autosound route had I known the damage that was already done by a previoius owner.

The 400 sb should go right in where the 350 was. The only other thing that comes to mind is the radiator. When I purchased my 70 with an original 400 sb, it had a three row radiator. I believe that the radiator was the original. If you have a two row, it would probably work fine. Cooling on the 400 is very important, as they didn't survive overheating too well from what I have heard. The front motor mounts should be interchangeable from the two motors. Good luck.

I've been told somewhere that you need 10 psi oil pressure for every 1000 rpm's. 10 psi at 2000 doesn't seem healthy at all. I know this sounds simple, but check the gauge first if you didn't already. If you only have 10 psi at 2000, then at idle you wouldn't have hardly any, and I would have expected some damage by now. Just my opinion, but I wouldn't run the motor too much until this problem was resolved.

My 70 with sb 400 has about 10.5 compression ratio, with Dart Iron Eagle 72 cc chambers, 215 cc intake volume heads, a performer intake, 650 holley vac. secondaries, HEI, and comp cams extreme energy 268, 1.6:1 roller rockers, 3.73:1 w/ auburn carrier in the rear. It idles nicely, and will fry the tires (235 60's) from a standing start. When it hits second, the tires just keep spinning. Anyway, my recommendation is to call the cam manufacturer. You mention a lopey idle, but overcamming a car will kill performance on the street. Consider the useage, is it a street car or a drag strip car? Lots of variables go into a cam, advice from other members is good, but the manufacturers have the engineering expertise to back up their recommendations based on your needs. My brother in law with his 340 Cuda actualy changed cams because the one he had was too radicle for driving on the street. It sounded awsome, pulled real good on the top end (shifting at about 7000 rpm), but had to idle at about 1100 rpm and lousy vacuum. Good luck