OK i have a 355 making 600 h.p. or so the builder says and the best I have gotten at the track is 11.82 @ 115. I have been reading on here some times and sure does seem like i should be going alot faster than what i am. the builder say in a 3500 pound car i should be running 10's. Mine weighs 330 with me in it. I know thats in a perfect world so I was hoping for atleast mid 11's and work down to low 11's. I have a th350 with a b&m 10 inch convter, and i am changing over to a 8 ich turbo action hopefully that will help. I have a 850 D.P. super vic intake rpm heads that have work done, 13.5 compression raito, exhasut temps at end of track are around 1250-1300. I just think that it shuold be running better than it does. I was thinking about changing heads to AFR's. Oh and I found out that the rims were spinning inside the tires so I am putting screws in soon. Heres a quick list of what i have: 355 cubes compression 13.5 combustion 58.19cc 850 holley d.p. .577 int/.608 ext int duration 242/ exh dur. 262. 114.0 lobe center hooker long tubes open exhaust th 350 w/ b&m converter 9 inch w/ 4.30 gears and pro posi unit 28x11.5 M.T. et streets stock front suspesion but it is a v-6 suspension

Yeah you might want to do something about your tires spinning on the rim. We need more info on your setup, cam speck, gears, tire height, otherwise nobody is going to even take a guess at what it should be running.

What type of heads do you have and are you running any kind of exhaust?

It's possible the engine is making 600hp but you're only getting about 400 to the wheels based on 3300 pounds (assuming this is race weight, car, driver, fuel, etc) and a 11.82@115 mph run.

Without knowing more specifics about the engine, the best I can fudge the numbers with with DD2000 is to get between 500 and 550 hp and that's probably a high estimate.

Too many things can affect how well an engine runs that can never be estimated with prediction software. Even something as simple as a few degrees off on the timing can lower the engine's power down 50 hp.

What fuel are you running? 60' times? Shift and launch rpm?

The only way to know just how much power you're getting to the wheels is to put it on a chassis dyno and fine tune the engine while on the dyno.

I have the timing set at 38 degress total, but I changed the pointer after the motor had been running and its one of those adjustable ones so i jsut put the pointer in the center and set it by that. I was wanting to bump up the timing 2 degrees or so the next time i ran jsut to see if it improved and if it did then just keep going up till it didnt. I am running cam 2 blue gas. 60 ft times go from 1.6 to 1.7. I try to launch the car around 3800 and shift around 6500, again this is somehting that i wanted to play with at the track next time i went. thanks for the help so far

So in reality, you actually have no idea what the timing is set at. To properly set the timing, you'll need some sort of piston stop and a degree wheel to know exactly when the piston is at TDC. Then you can adjust the pointer for TDC.

You could be at least 10* out in either direction.

yeah that timing is an issue.... check that

and look into some better 60 foot times.. i think you should be in the high 1.5's on slicks with that stall and power

I have one of those brass TDC tools tha tscrew into the spark plug hole but not quite shure how to use it and dont want to damage anything. I have the edelbrock performer rpm heads that have had some work to them. 2.02 and 1.60 vavles. When i ran the car i didnt have any exhaust on it just the hooker 2210's, now i have 3 inch and 1 chambers

Im not a know it all but id say it isnt making quite that much power. You mentioned afr heads i wish i had a set despite not having alot of cubes with the compression you have i would recommend a bigger cam and heads. also timing and jets can do alot for you try playing with the carb a lil. just my opinion

ok so i tried setting the timing. A freind of mine set it for me before and it was set at 38 total, today i checked it with a snap on gun that I got from ebay and it was not even close to what he set it at but I know the disdribitor didn't move. I thought that it was the gun that I had casue it was an ebay item so might be fudge up. I got a crafstman light I know these are proabaly not that acutraute but hey. well I checked it with that and it was reading like 22 total, I then read the directions and yes I was doing it right. So I set it 38 total with the new crafstman and the vacum on the distruditor was alomst hitting the intake, and was running very rich now. I give up on the timing I am getting someone that i know that does race to set it up for me he says it will only be like 60 $ that is worth the headache for me. suggestions anyone, comments

As I mentioned before, with an adjustable timing mark, TDC needs to be located first before the timing can be set. If the person who is going to do your timing will make sure the timing mark is degreed to the engine's TDC then $60 for you is worth it. Once the timing pointer is accurate to the engine, adjusting the ignition timing takes no effort.

It's also possible that the roll pin that holds the distributor gear on has broken and the gear has turned slightly on the shaft. That will throw your timing out. You'll need to pull the distributor to check the roll pin. Use a small punch and drive it out. If it comes out in one piece then it's ok and you just reassemble everything and reset the timing.

If you pay someone to set your timing and the roll pin is broken, it won't take much for your timing to go out again.

Those are weird cam specs with that split and LSA. Is this a nitrous motor?

I was thinking the same thing myself also your motor will probably like the timing somewhere around 36*'s.... I can't see it liking much more then 38 even though you are running alot of compression... my .02 cents

i was wondering what distribitor everyone is running. i am thinking about getting a new one, set motor tdcx and take care of the timing problem. thanks for all the info guys its apperecatied.

I have an MSD Pro Billet and Digital 6 box.

So.........is it a nitrous build?

Just wanted to throw this out there.

I was looking at an old Car Craft last night where they installed both the Bill Mitchell 427 small block (551 hp IIRC) and the 509 Big Block (609hp IIRC) in a Nova. 3325 lb car with small block and 3500+ lb car with Big Block. Don't recall gear ratio or transmission.

Time slips were 1.59 60' and 11.76sec qtr at around 113mph I think for small block. Big Block times were 1.61 60' with 11.60sec at 115+ I think.

Assuming your car weighs the same...that is similar results at a similar builder stated 600hp level.

ok so i found out that the motor does like the bottle. so with that said does it run crapy without it? will it benefit form another cam, any suggestions on a different cam? brand name, size, part number, anything. like everyoen else it jsut watn it to run to its potential. i thought the motor did like the bottle but i just wanted to make sure. i am concerned though cause with that much power ( or atleast i think its that much ) how much can the block hold? well thanks for all the info already guys

ANYONE???

ok let me know what u guys think of this cam. i called comp cams and they told me to go with a .257 in/ .264 ext @.050, .644 int/.630 exh

If you have the heads for that big of a cam it sounds good.

If Comp suggested it, then who cares what we think about it. You did the right thing by having the cam company help you out. BTW, what LSA did they advise?

you know they didnt give me a lsa and about half hr after i got off the phone with them i thought about that i guess i will have ot wait and see what the cam card says.

Probably a 110* or tighter, I would imagine, with your engine specs.

60' seems weak. Info on my sons and my car in sig. I think you need to see 1.5x to get low 11's. What are your current 1/8th mile times?

Neither one of us is making 600 HP either.

Thinking about your posts, it may be a good idea to try a 750-780 double pump carb. Early on w/black car we picked up a tenth going from 830 to 750. Car launched harder and 60' dropped.

Slow (RED) car engine:

1994 350 block two bolt, .040" overbore block.
Stock crank, scat 4340 I-beam rods.
Speed-Pro .125" dome hypereutectic pistons w/coated skirts.
Cheap solid flat tappet circle track cam, 249/252 dur, .531/.542 lift 106 LCA.
200 cc intake runner, 50cc Comb. chamber Pro-topline heads.
Hurricane single plane intake.
750 CFM Holley DP
1-5/8" Hedman long tube headers.
1.5 Summit roller rockers.
Accel 300+ Ignition and dist.

Lauches at 3200 RPM and shifted at 6,600 RPM.

a 750 carb, yeah i'll try it i have nothing to lose, what do you think of the HP carbs?


holy crap i pulled my old distributor out to change to my new one and man the gear was all chewed up. glad i did that, wished i would have done it sooner. now i am worried about thte shavings being in the motor. hopefully i can get them out with a magnet and flush out the motor with some oil to.

how old is your converter? sometimes old converters dont get all the power to the wheels. this year i was running low 9's in the 1/8 and was frustraited cuz i new the car could do a whole lot better. later in the summer, i added a new converter (same stall speed) and a tranny brake. got down to 8.3

Bitchin', What was the original stall speed? Im in the market for a higher stall converter myself, and Im just trying to get all the imput I can. Maybe your trans brake cause the improvement? Too bad you couldnt try the car with, and without, the t-brake. Thanks.

its about 7 yrs old but car sat for about 3. it does stall right at 3500 so i know it works just thought i might benefit from a higher one which i might get later. i just picked up my trans today, but i am not sure about what to do with the motor i might pull it out and take oil pan off cause of the shavings from the gear on the distribitor. i dont want to destroy it and hell the tranny is already out anyway. i might just see how much comes out of the plug when i drain the oil. i dont know if this was over a long period of time or this just happened. so we'll see i guess