[67_C-30]

Originally Posted by Critter

The biggest thing that guys overlook in a conversation/thread like this is tuning. You can have the best parts on earth but if an engine isn't tuned you might only be making 75% of what it could. Air/fuel ratio, timing along with timing advance curve, jets, etc all play a vital roll in getting everything out of your engine. For instance I had a very nice 1970 Mach 1 mustang come by a few weeks ago. The car ran smooth down the road but was gutless. I spent a couple hours adjusting the carburetor and timing and it went from 180 rear wheel hp to 265 hp. The motor was brand new, carb was brand new, everything freshly assembled by a custom builder but they had just bolted the parts together and called it good.

Critter makes a great point, and the numbers are giving you are based in being tuned properly. There's a lot of engines out there with the carb and timing off that are making way less than the person could ever imagine. A lot of these engines are seemingly running OK, and the person has no clue how far off it really is. We've went to the track before helping some people tune their cars simply with some timing tape, timing light, a dist re-curve kit, and a Holley strip (jet) kit and get the car running more than a half a second faster by just getting the total timing dialed in and jetted properly.