I need more power, questions.

[dion]

So I have 2000 miles on my rebuilt, it's a 350 with .060 bore, Edelbrock Performer 600 carb and intake, RV Cam, mild performance everything pretty much, hydro valves, roller timing, forged pistons etc.. Dual Flowmasters with 2 1/4 pipes, crappy Headman headers. As it is the thing hauls ass, on the freeway I'm flying past most (safely though). When I jump on it it goes but I want more. My question is without going with a bigger engine what can I do? What about intake? Go to a Torker or air gap? My tranny is a TH350, go 400? What about rear end? I have a stock Dana60. Any thoughts would be great, thanks.

[Longhorn Man]

A TH400 would slow you down.
you looking for more off the line performance...or top end?

[ebfabman]

How about ha ha gas?

[chevypete396]

Get a set of Edelbrock heads with roller rockers to mach your intake and carb combo. They are very easy to install and fairly cheep. You will be suprised with the results you get form the roller rockers alone. depending on the heads you currently have you may see awsome power increases of 60 plus HP.

I am not a huge fan of Edelbrock but they have some smokin power packages available and I've heard nothing but good things about there heads.

[Longhorn Man]

If your wallet isn't quite that deep, a set of vortechs will boost your H/P and Torque.

[dion]

What about the stroker kits?

[mikep]

My thoughts are that going to a better flowing set of heads isnt necessary until you exhaust all the potential inherent in the set you have now. You do that with the cam. Most "RV" type cams offered by rebuilders are in the .400 lift and 200 degree at .050 duration range. Pretty mild stuff. knock it up a few degrees with a bigger cam in the .450-.490 lift range with 220-235 duration and those heads you have now will be flowing to their potential and might just possibly give you all the power you are comfortable with. Remember. Power=FUEL CONSUMPTION and what might be fun for a few minutes getting on it really sucks when you realize you spend most of your time not getting on it and getting 9-10 mpg.

[dion]

I told the guy who built my engine to put the biggest cam possible in it and he told me "yeah, you'll look real cool at a stoplight but your truck will run like sh!t" Even after I drove it I went back and told him I wanted a bigger cam, some things happend and we're not really talking right now. I'll put a bigger cam in and check on the heads, any other ideas? Thanks guys.

[slam33]

Heads will help, other than that start looking at the rear end gears and the tranny if you can get any more out of it. Maybe an adjustable modulator or a shift kit.

[Pumkin Truck]

try this tech article, seems helpful.
http://www.cortina-mk1.com/chevy.htm

[jhwkns]

You could try some 1.6 ratio rockers with the cam you're running now.

[Sinister]

maybe try advancing the cam a few degrees...
what compression ratio are you running?

[Denny]

Hi dion, Have you done anything with your distributor advance yet? A little faster advance will probably help if you haven't already done it. Also have you modified your carb any yet, some jet changes may help also.

[dion]

Hey Denny, done it. Keep em' commin guys.

[hanssolo]

1.6 roller rockers. It'll help two ways. Less friction and more lift. And they're as low as $170 a set. Plus they will move to another set of heads easily.

[Denny]

I agree with these guys, I think the 1.6 roller rockers and maybe a cam change would be your best bet. You have pretty well done all other things that help. I would try the 1.6 rollers first like they said.

[67shortie]

I did not see what heads you have right now, but I will guess the stocker 76cc 1.94/1.5's. From what I see, the cam/head combo is what is holding you back. For a heavy truck, mid range power is what you want to achieve, and an effective way to do this is to run a set of late model vortec heads and a larger, under .500 lift cam.
On the cam, stick with a hydro, around the .460-480 range and don't go over 220 degrees at .050. You will also need a new intake manifold, Edelbrock super victor has had positive results on the vortecs. This will really wake up the engine (400hp has been seen), and possiblly give you a boost in mpg, believe it or not.
The investment should not be more than 8-900 bucks with just the purchase of the new heads, manifold and new cam. Of course this is doing all of the work yourself, the cost goes up dramatically with a pro doing the parts swap.
Do a search on this forum, www.chevytalk.com and www.teamchevelle.com for more insight on cam/manifold selection.
Hope this helped.

[jlmtrout]

Have you considered a roller cam? I have a small roller cam in my 389. (.060 over 350 w/3.75 stroke) The valves jump open faster, stay open longer, and snap shut much faster than a flat tappet. They are kind of pricey, but the roller lifters do not wear the cam out. For more info, check out www.badasscars.com/techtips.html. Also, with aluminum heads, you can run higher compression on pump gas, plus save a bunch of weight . Good luck and keep on truckin'!-----Jerry

[mikep]

220 degrees or less cam and a super victor intake? little bit of a mismatch there.

You can run up to 240 degrees at .050 without losing too much low end torque with these trucks even with stocker heads. My current cam is 234 at .050 and .490 lift and I pull a REALLY BIG boat without a problem and havent really noticed any negative effects other than sucky gas mileage. Of course I have 3.54 gears so that helps a lot. If you werent happy with the cam thats currently in it try going up but dont go over 240. If thats not working then do head work but you should still be able to pull 350 HP out of relatively stock 76 cc smog heads without trying too hard.

[lukecp]

Are you running points or a HEI distributor? If you have points, i would switch to HEI right away. I have seen new HEI distributors for about $140w/coil from Accell. It will give you more power, and better MPG. A friend of mine replaced the points in his '67 283 with a HEI, and it felt like the truck had about 30 more HP.
If you really wanna go fast, you would be better off putting the money into a camaro, chevelle, or nova. You can get alot of power out of your truck, but they are about as aerodynamic as a barn door, and weight as much as the whole barn.

[lukecp]

Oh, your motor only has 2000 miles on it. I had mine rebuilt 10xxx miles ago, and it has alot more power not that it has "loosened up" a bit. At about 6000, it started to run alot better. With only 2000 miles on it, the clearences in the motor are pretty tight, and eating up some HP.

[Longhorn Man]

Originally posted by slam33
Heads will help, other than that start looking at the rear end gears and the tranny if you can get any more out of it. Maybe an adjustable modulator or a shift kit.

Every modulater that I have seen IS adjustable.
Here is what you need for your power woes...

[Jesse 67 c-10]

put a 5 speed in it, that will make it a whole lot more exciting, you get an overdrive too. probably take 2 sec off your 0-60 alone. go for a performer rpm manifold, vortechs, my 327 just rips above 3000 and is still great below that. go for a cold air intake, electric fans, k&n filter, what about a windage tray, don't those save you 20hp or so? get good ignition stuff and set the curves up right, I've seen some weld on 4-2-1 header collectors that are sposed to get 20hp on a drag engine, h-pipe in the exhaust. thats about all I can think off right now! make the engine as effecient as possible, ie air flow at your rpm range, free flowing exhaust, hot spark to burn all the mix, then you can add more fule, bigger carbs, force feeding, racing fule, etc. the average gas engine only uses about 20% of the energy available in gasoline to make mechanical energy, the rest is not burned or lost as heat. go for efficiency! Good Luck!
Jesse

[dion]

I'm running the pertronix set up but probably going HEI. I'm looking at camaros, el caminos etc...as a project. I know it's heavy and can only go so fast. Heads and cam will be next, thanks guys!

[slam33]

longhornmail, stock modulators are not adjustable. He wants some more power when he gets on it while crusing. Adjusting the shift timing would help him there. 1.6 rocker would work too but you need to figure out how much more lift and where you want it. It was common to run 1.5 on the intakes and 1.6 on the exhast on straight pattern cams. I don't see the cam specs but most new RV cams ( dual pattern) have a longer duation higher lift on the exhast side. Running 1.6 on the intake would get you closer to a straight pattern cam, but you might start to loose some torque it would be just like going up one cam size. The Pertronix kit is a good set up, I would add an MSD 6AL, rather than HEI. If you go to a stroker kit you might as well build a 402 BB instead as your going to be building a complete motor anyway and you would get more out of the BB