Help! All show , no go!
Thread Starter
2nd Gear
Joined: Aug 2004
Posts: 2
Likes: 0
Help! All show , no go!
I am the proud owner of a beautifully restored white 1980 coupe.
The interior and body are absolutly perfect, it's only flaw, however,is that stuborn little stock 350 engine! This car is literally all show , no go ! After many disscussions with friends and mechanics, I have choosed the following plan to gain more horsepower: Aluminum heads,Eidelbrock air intake( is it possible to find one to fit under stock hood?) carb, and headers. Am I doing the right thing? Should I go fuel injected instead? Please advise!
The interior and body are absolutly perfect, it's only flaw, however,is that stuborn little stock 350 engine! This car is literally all show , no go ! After many disscussions with friends and mechanics, I have choosed the following plan to gain more horsepower: Aluminum heads,Eidelbrock air intake( is it possible to find one to fit under stock hood?) carb, and headers. Am I doing the right thing? Should I go fuel injected instead? Please advise!
Advanced
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 84
Likes: 0
From: Riockwall Texas
If you want a reliable, trouble free driver, use FI. It is infinitly tunable and will automatically compensate for various conditions. You still need the heads, headers and cam to make power.
Before you start, plan the upgrade. Since you want to drive the car, beware of huge cams that kill the vacuum and thereby your power brake vacuum source. Use a mild street cam, a set of iron Vortec heads or Dart or TFS aluminum ones. Keep the valves at 1.94/1.6 for better throttle response. Size the header runner length for the desired RPM range (I assume 1500 to 5500), leaning toward the torque enhancing length. Size the FI for the airflow potential of the engine. Fortunately, with FI an over size can be compensated for with tuning, where a carb would be much less forgiving.
The results you want depend on the advance planning. There are many instances of individuals "hopping up" their engines and finding that performance actually decreased.
All of the parts must act together. No one part will provide the upgrade you desire.
Good Luck with your project.
Before you start, plan the upgrade. Since you want to drive the car, beware of huge cams that kill the vacuum and thereby your power brake vacuum source. Use a mild street cam, a set of iron Vortec heads or Dart or TFS aluminum ones. Keep the valves at 1.94/1.6 for better throttle response. Size the header runner length for the desired RPM range (I assume 1500 to 5500), leaning toward the torque enhancing length. Size the FI for the airflow potential of the engine. Fortunately, with FI an over size can be compensated for with tuning, where a carb would be much less forgiving.
The results you want depend on the advance planning. There are many instances of individuals "hopping up" their engines and finding that performance actually decreased.
All of the parts must act together. No one part will provide the upgrade you desire.
Good Luck with your project.
Le Mans Master
Joined: Mar 2004
Posts: 7,470
Likes: 1,491
From: Little Rock AR
I have an 80 and here is what I would do in your shoes:
1 - Loose the CAT if possible. If not, replace it with a newer high flow design. Biggest block to power on the car.
2 - Heads are the best mod after that. The heads will always be a power limiter if not replaced. The stock ones are fragile anyway. Careful selection with cam and rear end gearing choice will be a big benefit.
3 - Cam swap is required. Pick the cam and heads together as a team and you will be rewarded.
If you like the Edelbrock Performer heads, you could go with the Edelbrock "Performer" cam but avoid the "Performer RPM" cam as it is realy for higher RPM and has a fairly sharp peak at the top end. I am sure there are better choices. The base "Performer" setup is pretty much a no brainer. I think you could even keep the stock aluminum intake setup and still run strong. I know I would keep the stock intake. The ignition will need a recurve if you pull the EGR off so keep that in mind.
These are the easy biggies but the sky is the limit after that.
Good Luck!
-Mark.
1 - Loose the CAT if possible. If not, replace it with a newer high flow design. Biggest block to power on the car.
2 - Heads are the best mod after that. The heads will always be a power limiter if not replaced. The stock ones are fragile anyway. Careful selection with cam and rear end gearing choice will be a big benefit.
3 - Cam swap is required. Pick the cam and heads together as a team and you will be rewarded.
If you like the Edelbrock Performer heads, you could go with the Edelbrock "Performer" cam but avoid the "Performer RPM" cam as it is realy for higher RPM and has a fairly sharp peak at the top end. I am sure there are better choices. The base "Performer" setup is pretty much a no brainer. I think you could even keep the stock aluminum intake setup and still run strong. I know I would keep the stock intake. The ignition will need a recurve if you pull the EGR off so keep that in mind.
These are the easy biggies but the sky is the limit after that.
Good Luck!
-Mark.
