wallaby

Is the kickdown cable hooked up?

I'm not any expert, but it sounds as if you might have a band that has stopped working. Either the band itself, or the actuator. I think the gears in a TH350 are controlled by bands grabbing the drum inside the trans. When in 1st or 2nd, bands are keeping the drum from turning, and in high gear the bands are released. Then again, I could be totally wrong. That's the problem when you want to be helpful, but have no idea what you are talking about.

Yea, but the temp sender in the head can also read high because it is so close to the exhaust. It's a toss-up. I kept my original sender so my light on the dash would still work, and added a mechanical sender to the intake near the thermostat. I figure I get a good average reading there. I snooped through the self-serve wrecking yard and found a suitible coolant overflow bottle, and it even has a sender in it to turn on a dash light when coolant gets low. I know it isn't a perfect system, but it's a step in the right direction.

It's one of those chicken/egg deals. If the small end of the rod is not the end to worry about, why bush it? From the sound of it, the process doesn't make the rod stronger, doesn't reduce friction, and doesn't increase horsepower. I always thought full-floating wrist pins were the way to go because all the high-muscle chevy stuff had 'em. Is the only advantage a less catastrophic rod throwing...if it were to happen? Or is it just a miniscule bit of insurance so it doesn't?

Did we get to the part about which design is the stronger rod?

I know the T-3's were available for the 4-lamp system (smaller diameter lamps), but did they make a T-3 for the larger 2-lamp system? I'm not sure. I think the '70 Chevelle had the T-3's, but it had 4-lamp system. [ edit: I found the answer.] T-3 bulbs Check out this place. They have all kinds of goodies including OEM headlamp switches, underhood lamps, relays, power window stuff, dash cluster printed circuit boards and more. Use their online catalog. I saved this to my favorites list. Electrical parts

Edelbrock replied to my Email and said the Performer 2-0 manifold is designed to fit either type of oval cylinder head, and is ideal up to 5500rpm. I even suggested that I move up to their RPM Q-jet manifold, but the tech recommends the performer. I guess it can't hurt to try. Its just hard to tell from looking at it whether it's going to be better than my factory intake.

They do post those specs...in fine print, of course. My cylinder head intakes: 1.6 x 1.9 Edelbrock Performer:..... 1.6 x 1.7....0-5500rpm Weiand action plus:.......1.6 x 1.8....0-6500 Edelbrock RPM:.............1.6 x 1.9....1500-6500 Looking at it that way, I guess it's within realm that they were sized that way on purpose.

Heckeng, I saw an immediate difference in port size. The Performer manifold is about 2" taller than the factory manifold, and the ports are the small oval ports. I didn't even know there was a small oval port head, but I'd guess it was some late-model offering for trucks or something? Anyway, I have an inquiry in with Edelbrock to find out if they recommend that I match port sizes or go with the RPM range numbers. My factory manifold has the bigger ports that match the heads. The problem is that I like the operating range of the performer (idle to 5500), and its lower height...but the ports are considerably smaller and I can see it limit power as revs increase. The only other option is the Performer RPM Q-jet manifold. That is the only other manifold they have for the spreadbore carbs, and it has the large oval ports that match my heads...but it sits another inch taller than the performer, costs more, and has a range of 1500-6500RPM. If I knew how good/bad my original manifold would rate against these Edelbrock units, I could more easily decide. I have to pick one of the three.

And just so you know, the oil pressure sender is in the back of the engine near the distributor.

Ok, thanks. I got the Performer 2-0 (might not be what I need because it is set up for small oval port heads) and it looks about 2" taller than the factory intake. I don't know if I can get my Quadrajet and factory air cleaner under the hood. If I picked the wrong manifold and have to exchange it for the RPM type, I loose another inch of room. I guess I'll have to stack all the parts up and see if the hood clears.

Any of you have big-blocks with aftermarket intakes? I made the mistake of assuming. I don't think it's going to fit under the hood! I might be able to get an aftermarket air cleaner assy, but it would have to be 2" or less from the carb surface to top of lid. Am I measuring wrong? Anyone?

That is an interesting theory. I know with the TH400, when you manualy place the gear selector in the low gear position, there is more pressure directed to the clutches than if you were in low gear with the selector in the drive position. You don't notice any difference from the drivers' seat, but it's happening nonetheless. I don't know if the TH350 has something like that going on inside or not.

My problem isn't solved yet, but it seems better now. I took her out for a drive last weekend and noticed some stuttering just off idle. I also have idle which is generally good, but deteriorates as I try to wait out the signal lights. Baby steps I guess. I just want to be able to drive this car without having to use both feet.

...or you can install a "Speedy-sleeve" on your old yoke and make it better than new.

Something isn't right about my engine combo, and I'm trying to figure it out. I finally have my carb dialed in (dyno shop had to do that for me) and my HEI distributor has been put on a machine and performance curved. Now comes the technical stuff: when I got the car back from the dyno shop they had the timing set at 16 degree initial with 34 degree total. There is no ported vacuum port on the carburetor so the vacuum advance was left unhooked. This setup works great with big throttle loads, but at cruise it seems lifeless and the idle is crappy. She idles at an unsteady 700rpm and pulls 10-11 inches vacuum. Tailpipe fumes are terrible. . I tried turning in some advance on the distributor and the idle improves, and vacuum goes up to around 14 inches, even with the idle set at 700. Suddenly I have great throttle response and predictible idle, and no terrible fumes from the tailpipe! The problem is that the timing is so far advanced that the starter is dealing with some kickback and the engine pings pretty bad under load. It wasn't smooth at cruise rpm either. The timing light verified that my engine was idling happily with the timing set at 32 degrees initial. . My question is what is this telling me about my engine? Why would it like so much advance to run properly at lower speeds? I'm not understanding how changing the timing alters the vacuum when the engine speed is the same. I have a comp 268 cam, but it's supposed to give fair idle with a stock converter. . My solution was to set the timing back to 16 degrees initial and use manifold vacuum to the advance canister. Everbody says it isn't right that way, so I tried it last, but it seems to be the best setup for me so far. Now I have 16degrees when starting so it's friendly to my starter, 28degrees at idle when the vacuum is high so my engine is happy with the advance, and it backs off timing under load as vacuum drops so it doesn't ping. . Any thoughts, or theories? This could be some valuable clue to what's going on with my engine...if only I knew what it meant.

Ian, it sounds as if you've entered one of those projects that isn't easily resolved....and throwing money at it seems to better the odds that you'll find the problem. I went through the same process with my brakes; they work well but the pedal is real low. I think I replaced every component except the pedal itself, and I can brag that everything is new, but the gremlin with the low pedal was never found. I'm not sure what I'm trying to say here, except that replacing parts that work doesn't fix anything. My "do it myself" attitude sometimes gets in the way of logic, and I have found that sometimes my money is better spent with experts that have the equipment and knowhow. Sometimes it's a hard pill to swallow. . I'd recommend having a ring & pinion or differential shop look at your vibration problem. It couldn't hurt to get an opinion. I found lots of shops in my area by looking through the phone book. Most of them advertise in the off-road or 4x4 section. Axles don't come cheap and yours might be fine? Before you start tearing everything apart, have you listened to the assembly with a stethoscope, or even a screwdriver handle against your ear and the tip on the screwdriver on the object in question? You can hear grumblings pretty clearly and tell if one axle bearing sounds worse than the other. It might not tell you what's wrong, but it can often tell you what isn't wrong.

Well, I have to admit that the car was missing the tips. I've never tried to install new ones...are you saying that the tailpipes should be 2-1/2? I could imagine someone using a muffler with a 2-1/2 in & out, then hooking it to a 2-1/4 tailpipe, but I'n kinda surprised if the car had it's tailpipes changed sometime before I bought it (1978). I presently have 2-1/2 tailpipes on the car. Did I unwittingly upgrade to stock?

Hmmm...my '71SS had 2-1/2" inlet, with 2-1/4 outlet and the tailpipes were also 2-1/4 for everything aft of the mufflers. It's an old car so maybe the pipes had been changed in the past, but seems weird if someone decided to downsize the pipe size when replacing.

George Lines had a nice cage in his car, but I'm not sure if it an Alston piece or if he did it himself.

Your theory makes sense. If you've ever tried to pour gear oil in the winter, you know it acts a lot differently in the summer! I would imagine ATF to get thinner as it warms, but it's pretty thin to begin with so it's hard to tell. Maybe synthetic is more temperature stable? I guess you'd prefer it to be thin when it's cold instead of thick when warm. A ggod point was made about intake temperature. Fuel atomizes poorly when intakes are cold and the problem is worse at slow engine speeds. Fuel tends to stick to the inside surfaces of a cold manifold instead of staying vaporized. As for trans temp, I believe that most of the heat generated in an auto trans is from converter slipage. If your fluid is thick when cold it reduces the slippage and even further slows the warm-up period. Are you running an exterior cooler on your trans, or do you still have the radiator tank style? When the thermostat opens in the morning the hot water will help to warm the trans if you have the radiator type cooler....not such a bad design on a cold day.

Do you still have the original dipstick? The trans will have to be filled, engine started, then filled again. Then you need to select each gear including reverse and neutral with engine running to fill all the chambers and then recheck the level. The converter will fill by itself once the engine is started. The trans level is pretty important: Too full and it is bad on the trans, and too low it's bad also. Maybe you can borrow a friend's stock dipstick and set it alongside your new one (with the tube caps side-by-side)) to get your "full" line in the right place?

Don, I guess this question is aimed at you: Have you ever dealt with the headers from "Headers by Ed"? I remember their ads from way-way back in magazines and I ordered up their info-pack. There is some very compelling stuff in there and pretty much they will give you the recipie for a header (tube dia , length, and collector size)and sell you the flange plates and bends to fab them yourself. They make some in their shop, but because they are hand made they are patheticly slow to build them, and they do Chevelle but not Monte. Have you read their literature, or seen their product? Any thoughts on someone building their own header? (i'm dealing with a big-block, but the nightmare shouldn't be that different, right? I'm looking for a street header that can build torque below 6k)

I can add to the question: Is there an advantage between the big-block based engines versus small-block based engines? It sounds like money is an issue to build big small-blocks, and I guess there might be a weight difference, but if you build a big-block and a small-block of equal cubes, does one do better than the other?

Mine does the same thing. If I shift to neutral at a stop it works fine. Maybe you can either turn up your idle speed a little, or turn down your radio? The bigger alt pulley will slow down the alt. That's good for engine power, but bad for charging. If worse comes to worse, they have capacitors that you install between the battery and your amp to eliminate the flickering lights you might have at high volume/slow speeds.