I drove my car for the first time down the road about 100 feet and i was so excited. It had open headers since the exhaust wasnt done and it sounded real good. I didn't step on it hard cause the brakes weren't workin too well. This leads to my question. My vacuum hoses are all connected correctly and i had the brakes to the floor and it was still hard to stop. One of my buddies told me the engine just needs a couple mins to build up vacuum and the other one told me i need a booster. But besides that it felt real powerful!!!! :hail:

should i hook up a vacuum booster?

 

What cam are you running? If you have a cam with a lot of overlap, you will not get a strong vacuum at idle. Your car doesn't need a few minutes to build up vacuum.

You said your break went to the floor!! Have you done anything to allow air into the system? Check you master and make sure its full.

Is your pedal excessively hard? Did the breaks function fine before your swap? Does the pedal fell soft and spongy?

 

the brakes worked fine before the swap... but maybe it could have been also because the carb hasn't been tuned yet? I just had to drive it down the street from the exhaust shop to another shop so. But the brakes weren't hard to press, just felt like they weren't doing much. Kinda spongy.

 

Sounds like you got air in the system some how. I suppose having an out of tune engine will cause break issues, but mostly it would be due to a lack of sufficient vacuum.

 

so once it gets tuned and i still have the same problem what do i do?

 

after you tune it and if it still is hard to stop then try bleeding the lines to get any air out of the brake lines. Then if that doesn't work make sure when you are driving you leave a lot of room between you and the person ahead of you!!

 

Low vacuum will cause the brakes to be real hard..like non-power...there is a valve on the master cylinder( Vacuum assist )that may need to be replaced...do the brakes go to the floor slowly or real fast? If the brakes worked before the swap and you didnt remove any lines or molest the master cylinder...replace the valve and I bet it will solve your probem I believe its called a "boost valve" I had the same problem, and this was the fix.

 

follow the vacuum line to the canister..the valve is here

 

oh ok i see what your sayin, yeah they arent hard and feel normal but they just dont work well. I bet it is the valve, thanks guys! :lala: