What next
Thread Starter
Racer
Joined: Oct 2007
Posts: 431
Likes: 22
From: Chester Illinois
What next
what advice on an upgrade for my 81. all I have ever done to it is true duals and had some fine tuning on the elec quadrajet and advance the timing. car runs good but want a little more. want to keep original carb and change heads and cam. any quick solutions. thanks, namvet
Burning Brakes
Joined: Jun 2010
Posts: 1,165
Likes: 93
From: Bellmore NY
Changing heads and cam isnt really a quick solution kind of a situation. Come to think of it, I'd be willing to bet that I could pull a motor and put a new one in faster than I could do that job with the motor in the car. There I go being silly again.
Anyway, some key things here are this...is your car an auto or a 4 speed, what compression do you have, what rear gear, and are you ok with upgrading to an aftermarket intake and headers?
Personally, in a presumably relatively stock application, Id probably be satisfied to just change the cam, and leave the stock heads, and replace the intake and a set of headers. Your cam selection will be based on the other parameters of stick vs auto, gear, compression etc.
Anyway, some key things here are this...is your car an auto or a 4 speed, what compression do you have, what rear gear, and are you ok with upgrading to an aftermarket intake and headers?
Personally, in a presumably relatively stock application, Id probably be satisfied to just change the cam, and leave the stock heads, and replace the intake and a set of headers. Your cam selection will be based on the other parameters of stick vs auto, gear, compression etc.
Drifting
Joined: Mar 2011
Posts: 1,886
Likes: 9
Well, don't just advance the timing. Recurve it. Here's a very typical smallblock setup.
Set initial timing at about 12 to 14 engine degrees at idle. You want the mechanical advance to begin at about 1100 RPM. Then your mechanical advance should add 20 to 22 degrees. Set it up so that you have 34 to 36 degrees total advance all in by maybe 2800 RPM. You will have to play with the distributor springs and weights to do this.
Get a vacuum canister that will add maybe 14 to 15 degrees at whatever your cruise vacuum levels are. Run it full time.
Have fun.
Set initial timing at about 12 to 14 engine degrees at idle. You want the mechanical advance to begin at about 1100 RPM. Then your mechanical advance should add 20 to 22 degrees. Set it up so that you have 34 to 36 degrees total advance all in by maybe 2800 RPM. You will have to play with the distributor springs and weights to do this.
Get a vacuum canister that will add maybe 14 to 15 degrees at whatever your cruise vacuum levels are. Run it full time.
Have fun.
