ok so i should be finishing up my 350 engine swap pretty soonand was wondering if it would be worth bringing it to get dyno tuned, its edelbrock carb, performer intake, voodoo cam (.468/.489), ported and polished 416 heads, full exhaust. what would they even do besides screw with the carb? I'm unfamiliar with these cars chips too and what you can change and adjust through them.

 

There's not as much you can play with, in a carb setup. Plus, it takes ALOT longer to do certain things, because you have to take it apart and change out little pieces, which of course, you have to have the neccessary array of ON HAND, so you can swap them out in the first place. Without spare parts, you can do very little.

Jetting and other carb calibration, and the distributor curve, is about it.

"Worth it" is in the eye of the beholder. OTOH, how much you might gain, would depend on how far from optimum it is now. Which is OFTEN substantial. Just getting rid of the inferior carb and putting a good one on it instead, might be a REAL surprise.

Your setup isn't controlled by any "chip", so that at least won't be an issue.

 

ya thats what I thought about the computer stuff, almost everything is mechanical which makes it easier... do you think that the edelbrock 650 is a good carb for my setup? I hear dyno's cost quite a bit... do you know how much they usually are for a tune?

 

Quite the opposite.

It takes a second or 2 to type a new value into a table; but 10 minutes to change jets.

There's no "standard cost"; individual people own them, and charge whatever they feel like other people are willing to pay. But, a typical price is around $75 for 3 pulls (not enough for tuning, usually), or $150/hr (the better way to go). Figure on it taking a couple of hours.

Note that they charge BY THE HOUR; and since you have an all-mechanical system, which is difficult and time-consuming to work on, you WILL be paying the dyno hourly rate while doing other things, like changing jets. The smartest thing you can do, is to come to the dyno PREPARED: have a COMPLETE NEW set of springs and weights for your distributor with you, have a COMPLETE assortment of jets, springs, power valves, gaskets, and so forth, for your carb; adjust the valves beforehand, so that you don't "discover" right in the middle of a $150/hr session that you have to stop down for a half hour at $150/hr and adjust them; bring EVERY tool that fits EVERY part of the car anywhere neaar the carb and the dist, including screwdrivers, nut drivers, sockets, wrenches for the fuel lines, pliers, etc., so you don't find yourself paying $150/hr to watch somebody scrambling around trying to find a Phillips screwdriver; make sure your cooling system is up to the task (it's NO FUN to pay people $150/hr to mop up your spewing coolant, while you wait for your motor to cool back down at $150/hr, so you can change out a hose or something, at $150/hr); make sure it's full of gas, so you don't find yourself walking down the street with a gas can in your hand, at $150/hr; basically, ANYTHING you can do to make sure every minute your car spends strapped to that dyno is as productive as possible, is worth whatever it costs.

Not really.... I'm not a big fan of those things myself. Which is not AT ALL the same as saying, rip it off, and replace it; only, IMO it's really strictly a street stock carb, and you're leaving power and performance on the table by using that. The car will go faster with a Holley, guaranteed. Plus, Holleys FIT the car better, like, the fuel line arrangement isn't near as much of a hack, as those Carters are. I've NEVER seen one that I really liked how that had to be run. But like I said, that's a LONG WAY from telling you to get rid of it and buy another. It's a reasonable size, a bit on the smallish side maybe, but OK. If it's what you've got, work with it and make it as good as it can be, and it won't be that much worse than a Holley. One good thing about it, is that it's VERY EASY to work on; and, you can get Edelbrock's "trick kit" or whatever they call it, that has all the calibration parts that you'll need for your dyno trip, all in one simple package. Buy that kit and bring it with you.

There are few things that are as useful as a chassis dyno session. When you get done, not only will you know that you've got the motor's power output maximized; but also, you'll have the mixture set right, so the gas mileage will be as decent as it can be (can pay for the session all by itself, over a few months), and you'll know what RPMs the motor makes power at, so you'll know what gears and converter you SHOULD be running, when to shift, and all that.

 

ya so i am really thinking about going somewhere to get this done... i will get a carb jet kit, dist weights and springs... anything else? are there any good places near southern nh?