Cliff's High Performance

[Snake72]

Im sure many of you have heard of / bought carb kits from Cliff Ruggles, just wanted to let people know this guy is top notch. I finally tore my quadrajet apart with help from his book, and called the shop to order his HP rebuild kit. He answered the phone himself right away, we spoke for probably 30 mins. Cliff went through my entire engine build specs and put a kit together specifically for my combination. Specifically my cam, which is a clay smith 274 with 108 lob separation, .450 lift...he advised on timing, distributor tuning and building, getting the choppy cam to idle, and of course qjet tuning. This guy has more knowledge about small block chevy's than I've ever heard. I also had him send a bushing kit for the primary and secondary shafts. He said any issues with the rebuild or tuning to call him and he'll walk me throught it. I'll be sending him my distributor for rebuild, quoted $60 labor plus parts and 2 weeks turn around.

Kit is shipping today and will update on install/problems. Just wanted to give this guy a shout out, great to make a quick phone call and talk to the guy who wrote the book on qjets directly, plus a ton of info about timing, vacuum, tuning, etc that I wasnt expecting.

[Steeveedee]

+1 Cliff knows his stuff, no doubt about it.

[geezer#99]

Curiosity question!

What did he advise for timing?

[truckster]

Originally Posted by Steeveedee

+1 Cliff knows his stuff, no doubt about it.

And he's a really nice, decent guy.

[Snake72]

geezer, he rec'd 12-14 initial, 20 curve with vacuum/mechanical, total 34-36 like most SBC's like. Timing is new to me, hope this makes sense. He also recommended using original ported vacuum on carb and use points distributor that he will be rebuilding. I had thought running vacuum advance to full manifold vacuum would have been better but will do as he recommends

[geezer#99]

Those would be good numbers to start with but your cam likely will want more. You need to light the fire way earlier with a tight lsa like yours. Ported or manifold vac, let your motor tell you that.
Read this. It’ll give you some insight into your timing.

http://www.badasscars.com/index.cfm/...d=76/prd76.htm

What’s the elevation where you live?

[Snake72]

thanks for the article geezer, very good read. Would you recommend more initial timing then? So the mechanical advance is less to reach total timing? I'm sure between this board and Cliff I can get it timed right but I'll take all the info I can get

[geezer#99]

You need to experiment.
At the right time though.
Winter time isn’t the best time for tuning. Changing temps and humidity make it a pain.
Set it at those numbers Cliff gave you and when it warms up and stays above 50F then fine tune. It’ll run good at his numbers.
And again, what’s the elevation there in ‘resume speed Iowa’?

[Snake72]

It's about 800 feet where I'm at in "resume speed Iowa", figured there will be some trial and error with tuning, just want it close right off the bat, should be pretty good right initially with cliff building the distributor as well.

[geezer#99]

That’ll get you started.
Once it’s running if you find the need to adjust the carb idle screw too much (to get it to idle)then try manifold vac for the dizzy. That’ll speed up the idle so you can close the primary throttle enough to cover up the idle transfer slot and your mix screws will function correctly.
By the way, that was always my way of seeing if the transfer slot was covered right. If adjusting either mix screw all the way in has little effect on the idle you’ll know you need to close the primary.
Of course more initial timing will help too but manifold vac to the dizzy is quicker and easier.

I hope you weren’t offended by my term ‘resume speed Iowa’.
That ‘resume speed’ refers to any small town that you pass thru so quick that the last thing you see is the resume speed sign not even knowing there was a town there. Common on the flat lands of Alberta and Saskatchewan. Some places where only a house and a post office. LOL!

[Snake72]

Wow great info geezer, ill start with ported for distributor and if idle screws are having little effect ill move to manifold vacuum. Thanks for the advice!

No offense taken with resume speed, chuckled a little actually. I live in the country outside a small town with 1 stop sign and 1 stop light. Just the way I like it haha. Gravel roads and corn fields.