TedH

Well folks, I talked about it for over a year but I've finally put my money where my mouth is and dropped about $1680+ on the 700R4 'kit' from Bow Tie Overdrives (1800-2200 stall torque converter included; Consolidated Freight included). Add to that my diff rebuild/refit with 3.55's ($500), a fresh set of VB&P sleeved rear calipers, shortened/balanced drive shaft and fresh rebuilt half shafts from Van Steel and we are talking in the neighborhood of $2500.

Zowee! :eek:

Now the big question, with the 700R4, I'm assuming I have two exhaust options (asking here). I can either butcher my exhaust pipes to go around the 700R4 where the left pipe crosses over and combines with the right or I can install a 74-79 exhaust system. Questions:

1. If I go with the 74-79 (off-road true duals) system, can I install the 2.5" pipes without replacing /altering my exhaust manifolds? I'm assuming I can re-use my Dynomax Super turbo's with elbow connectors from my '80 exhaust system.

2. If I go the 74-79 (off-road true duals) system route, what do you feel about chambered exhaust systems ($299 from Mid-America)? This really looks tempting...

I went to a dyno day on 8/25 and discovered my rear wheel hp is no more than 167 :U (do you wonder why I tore into the car on Sunday?). The smog heads eeked out a max hp at 3800rpm and the rpm/torque steadily declined from there. The shop is Tune Tech in Tarpon Springs, Fl. The shop owner says the smog heads (882s) are choking the engine. Should they do it so early in the power band? I was really surprised about the 3800rpm max numbers and was hoping for power into the 4's and low 5's. Makes me want to give serious consideration to the Trick Flow 23 degree heads from Summit.

One final thing, the secondary metering rods appear to be too lean since air-fuel ratio went from a high of 13.6 to a low of 13.1 (13.1 at WOT). The manager says 13.1 is way too lean for WOT and wants to richen the secondaries a bit as well as dial in my advance curve (to address that low peak hp/torque point of 3800rpm). He thinks that will waken the engine up a little but the heads and gears must change.

Did I mention I'm also going with a set of 3.55's with a blueprint of my NEW service replacement differential unit? Can't wait to get that car back on the dyno!!! Shop in Clearwater doing the differential is Allan's Gear Works. Quote I received is $250 to blueprint the new unit (bearings $50 more) and add the 3.55's for 150-200 (that is the price of the Dana44/Spicer gears). That is an unbelievable price in my opinion.

Get this, they say they do Van Steel's diff rebuilds! Looks like Van Steel 'marks the job up just a little bit...' :mad

Drive shaft shorten/balance/refresh will be handled by Performance Shaft Technology, also of Clearwater once I receive the 700R4 and compare lengths to the TH350 that is coming out.

Responses and advice welcome! :seeya

[Modified by TedH, 2:34 AM 8/28/2001]


[Modified by TedH, 2:35 AM 8/28/2001]


[Modified by TedH, 2:56 AM 8/28/2001]

Shark Racer

Blah blah, blah... no one cares!!!!!
Just kidding.
I assume you're talking the 74-79 dual exhaust system, I am not sure if they will fit around the 700R4 or not. I would reccommend a dual exhaust system designed for an 82. 75-79 exhaust will not fit because they are 2-1-2, built to factory spec, and factory spec obviously interferes. I'm going to get my dual pipes done custom, with dual cats. I would reccomend you go the same way as well, but you don't have to if you don't want to. I personally do not like chambered exhaust much, and try the 700R4 out before you go nutty with the exhaust. I reccommend doing the cheap fix exhaust first. The 700R4 has a bit more exhaust resonance because of the load in overdrive.
When/if you change heads, make sure to swap the camshaft as well because there's no point in opening up high rev power for a cam that's designed for low RPM. Get a comp cams XE262 or better. 268 if you want to go "***** out". Actually, 268 isn't totally ***** out, but it's about the top of what I'd reccommend for a tolerable street machine.
167 hp... that really isn't that bad, dude. About 210 hp at the flywheel. Better than stock. With the heads and cam, you should easily add another 100 rwhp, though.
-Steve

Nomad78SA

Ted,
I'm with you. On the exhaust I went with sidepipes for the look I like on a vette. You will be pleased with your upgrades no doubt.
Neil in Tenn