I have a '69 Corvette that I restored from the ground up. My vette has a stock 350 w/ factory intake (forged), a 4-bbl Rochester Q-jet & factory exhaust manifold into after market side pipes (no backpressure issues).
The car is "fast" but not "scary fast", does not seem to have the power for a "300 hp" motor. Looking for insight & bolt on suggestions...Might be an ignition problem, so I am going to replace the points w/ the Pertronix Igniter II electronic upgrade, new coil, wires disti cap rotor, etc.
1. Has anyone upgraded to Pertronix & what is the result?
2. Should I replace the intake manifold w/ a higher-rise such as an Edelbrock?
3. Keep the R Q-jet, or install something else (Holley 750 dbl pump)?
4. Other suggestions to solve my powerless delema???
Thanks,
awr

 

Id say get an Edelbrock EPS manifold. Fueled by a Holley 670 street avenger. Get some Hooker Headers going to those side pipes. And Dart Iron Eagle heads. Maybe a CompCams XE-270-H cam with 1.6:1 roller tip rockers. If it's an auto add a 2,500-3,000 stall. That should proby worth about 360-375+HP.

 

It seemed like just yesterday that I was saying the same thing you are right now. Along with the ignition you are already planning on getting, the best way to boost performance is to get an intake, a cam and heads that work well together.
I understand that the Q-jet can be a very good carb for performance if it is set up properly.
A better intake would yield slight gains with your current setup.
What are your performance goals?

 

Whe you say stock 350 if you mean the original, make sure that the timing is not retarded to enable you to run on today's gas. That is what some people do to avoid pinging. What you need is a recurved distributor that limits the total rather than retarding the initial. Running retarded really kills the performance. :yesnod:


[Modified by silvervetteman, 6:56 PM 4/18/2002]

 

I would go with
1. Edelbrock performer intake.
2. Get your carb properly tuned
3. headers (i dont know what kind for your sidepipes)
4. Get your points set up properly or go to The pertronix unit
5.set your timing up for performance (about 12 initial and 36 total mechanical advance in by around 2500rpm)

That should get you some noticible gains in power.

 

According to track tests done by Car Life Magazine, a stock '69 Corvette with the base 300hp engine, automatic, 3.08 rear, ran 16.1 @ 84 mph. That's pretty dismal.

I did a mild worm-up on my '69 350 (see signature). The first thing I did was the 1 5/8" headers and 2.5" exhaust. That made a noticeable difference starting at about 2800-3000 rpm. The cam, head porting and intake were all done at the same time so I can't tell you which made the biggest difference.
These all together made a big difference in the car. While it's not as quick as a lot of the machines you'll see on the forum, it is at least now respectable.

We tested points vs. Pertronix Lobe Sensor and Ignitor II at the track. See this page for results http://www.vintageperformance.com/re...kets/track.htm
The improvements were certainly measureable but I can't say that you could feel them by the seat of your pants. Remember, we were testing a good fresh set of heavy duty points. If you replaced a worn out set of points with the electronic ignition the difference would be quite noticeable.

With a little more tweaking and a better shifter I'm confident we'll get the old Coupe into the 13s and over 100 mph. Again, this is a very mild setup and very streetable, stock idle, good gas mileage (19-20 mpg on the highway, better than when it was new). I'm very pleased with it for now ... but gee, wouldn't it be fun to knock another second off the e.t.?