I recently upgraded the whole upper end of my motor (Heads, cam, manifold, ect.) Now I need it tuned just right. Which I can't seem to do. I have it running for the most part it is just not all there. So my question is does anybody know a decent tuner around the twin cities area that won't kill my pocket book?

 

what seems to be the issue? Perhaps we can help you with it?

lack of power? missing, stumbling, hesitation? etc.

what have you already done to try to tune it?

of course if you want help to do it yourself we also need to know the specs on the motor, type of ignotion system, carb, etc.

if you just don't want to deal with it at all yourself than I'm sure somebody may know a decent shop to refer you to.

 

I have been trying and trying to get it dialed in. I've played with the timing a ton and the idle mixtures to. I seem to have it making max vac. at idle. I have played with diffrent jets but I went back to the 70's that came with the acrb. (Holley 750 dual inlet) I have a Accel HEI ignition. Holley heads and intake. Lunati cam and lifters. Everything was put together right or so I think. It has about 35 miles on the engine since the build up. Just from around the block tests. I had a mis, I might have gotten that taken care of. Have to wait till tommorow to start it up the people living around me might not like a roaring car at 130 in the morning. Other than that there is just a lack of power. The kit is for 425 horse. So I was assuming 380-400 at the engine. It doesn't feel like that. It has a ton more than before but it is just not what I expected.

http://24.118.233.41/jebu3.html

 

a miss could be ignition, ignition wires, plugs, valves or even a fuel delievery issue....
first confirm if the miss is still there or not when you can.

what is your vacuum at idle? what's your timing set at (initial, and total with and without the vacuum advance)

is it a lack of power at all rpms, or just low rpm or just high rpm?
keep in mind, the more radical the cam typically the poorer the low rpm power will be so it may be hard to get off the line or feel like it doesn't have much power but once you bring it up into the powerband range the torgue and HP greatly increase. I have that issue onmy stock '65 L76 motor. The factory 30-30 cam is actually a poor street cam because it's really somewhat too radical for the street although it makes a nice racing cam - low-end power SUCKS and is a dog off the line but once you hit about 3200-3500 rpm it hits hard and just keeps pulling strong even way past redline of 6500. I accidently took her to 7500 once and it was still pulling hard!

if it's a case of dialing in the carb by different jetting someone else will have to chime in because I don't know squat about changing jets or how to recommend the best jets.

tomorrow when more people are awake I'm sure you will get other ideas to check into also

 

Well the new plug wires and HEI module should hopefuly do away with the mis. The plugs are also new I only ran it for 20 mins with them. It seems like after I got rid of my backfire when I'd nail it at low rpms then it was good for a whileand all the sudden I got the misfire. My timing initial is in the 12* adv. range and total is 34-36 by 2500. No vac advance, just a curve kit. Would a misfire be from to advanced or to retarded. I'm afraid that my harmonic ballancer ring has slipped seeing as how we tried pulling with a gear puller and the ring came halfways off. I got a harmonic balancer puller and then took it off the rest of the way. I then used a rubber hammer to pound it back on.

 

you say your timing is in the 12º initial and 34-36º RANGE. that doesn't sound too accurate.
also if you had problems and think your balancer slipped you need to confirm it's correct before anything else. If it's not you will never get timing correct and the car tuned correctly.

also, why no vacuum advance?? There are numerous benefits to running a vacuum advance versus not running on on a street motor; better idle characteristics, better throttle response, typically a cooler running motor, and better fuel economy.
If you just don't have a vac can installed you should install one. If you are running a non-vacuum advance distributor model you should very strongly consider swapping to different distributor to be able to run a vacuum advance.

so far, the possibility of the timing being off from a misaligned balancer ring causing the timing to be off, even if the balancer ring is properly set your mentioning timing in a "range" seems uncertain, and lack of a vacuum advance system in place are already very good possibilities for lack of power.

 

You sheared the rubber bond on your harmonic balancer and then reinstalled it? If I read this correctly I would replace the harmonic balancer with a new one before going any further.

 

I agree. I would go to an aftermarket balancer. Do you have a stick or automatic? If it is an automatic I would consider a higher stall converter to go with all those upgrades. Is the bottom end fresh? If not a leak down test might not be a bad idea. When a motor backfires it will sometimes blow the power valves in the carb. I had similar problems and these are some of the things that put me on the right path. The right heat range plug was also one of my mistakes.

 

I've already done a leakdown up to 60 psi. All seemed well. My carb has blow back protection on it so that should be good.after I was planning on doing a higher stall tourque converter (2000-2500) this winter along with a trans cooler and possibly a rearend. The vac advance is just capped off right now. I did have it hooked up but it seemed to want to have to much advance at idle after hooking it up.

 

If you used a gear puller and broke the outer ring loose from the
elastomer that is between the inner hub and outer ring then knocked
it back together with a rubber mallet. May be a good plan to buy a new balancer. The fluidampr street damper is all steel gel filled no outer
ring to ever slip its 6 7/8 diameter, if its the same diameter as what you
have now you may want to get one part # FLU-670100 $179.95.

 

I guess I might be getting a new h-balancer then.

 

Well, I still have a misfire. I tried playing with the distibutor without the timing light just to see if I could get it to go away but I couldn't. Could something be leaking, like the intake manifold or something?

 

It has to have something to do with the distributor. Which I don't have the money to replace. I already spent a large portion of my money on the parts. Plus this is a newer distibutor like less than a year and less than 600 miles on it. I seem to have a 3000 pound paper weight that is depressing to think about.

 

first off, umless you have a general idea of where you might be going with the timing I wouldn't recommend trying to set it without the timing light - chances are you will end up VERY off.

I'd first repalce your balancer and make sure it's indexed correctly than reset timing properly with a timing light. Reconnect your vacuum advance also!!
I'd set your timing so you are 12-14º initial timing and 36º total timing with the vacuum advance can unhooked and the vacuum line plugged. After setting the timing reconnect the vacuum advance can. withthe can hooked up, depending on what can you have you should be around 27-30º initial with vacuum advance and 50-52º total timing with vacuum advance. It would be a good idea to check to see what vacuum can you have to make sure it's the correct one. There should be a number stamped on the mounting bar.
To check for the proper can, first get the stamped number off the can, than get what your motor vacuum level is at idle - I went onto your webpage and saw your vacuum video but it was useless for reading the proper vacuum as you kept revving the motor - you want to check vacuum at a steady idle.
Also, while you have the vacuum gauge hooked up to the carb make sure your fuel mixture is correct by adjusting the mixture screws to get the highest steady vacuum reading you can at a steady idle - no revving is needed or wanted on this. If you rev the motr, give it 30 seconds or so to settle down before continuing adjusting or taking a reading. Sorry, you should actually be doing this mixture adjustemnt BEFORE taking the vacuum reading to check your advance can.
Once the fuel mixture is set and you have your vacuum reading, than whatever your vacuum level is we can use to compare against the specs of the advance can you have from the info on Lar's spec paper.

Lets get all that done first before going forward so at least we know some things are correct. This may solve your problem. If it doesn't than at least we can rule out timing and incorrectly set-up ignition as a source of the problem on continue in other areas.

BYW, I doubt your distributor is bad. it's probably just not set correctly and if the balancer is off than it's definitely set wrong.

 

Justin -your back-sounds like you didnt get things worked out.I think you had the record for posts (888) and 11,918 views.Sorry we couldnt get you straightened out-but we tried -oh how we tried !!!

 

Justin post a very close up picture of the inside of your dist cap
and a good close up of your rotor with it off the dist for a good
close up picture.

 

Ok, I got the pics, I did notice some black sooty crap under the rotor.

http://24.118.233.41/jebu5.html

 

Don't see anything wrong with the rotor tip or the tab contact
in the center. Now that you have the coil off see if you can have it checked out.

 

How would I do that? Could I do it myself?

 

Probably a long shot that anything is wrong with the coil.