I've never been one of the people to ask how fast my car will run but I'm kinda curious to get some opinions. I also need to find out if there is anything safety wise I need before I go since I've never ran this car yet on the track.

Motor is a 350 .040" over 10.5:1 compression
Solid roller setup 236 @.050" .550 lift 110 LSA
Comp Cam Pro Magnum 1.52 ratio rocker arms
Out of the box Canfield 195cc heads (flow similar #'s to AFR 195's)
Torker II intake
650 Mighty Demon carb that is basically out of the box

T56 trans

Ford 9" rear with detroit locker and 3.50 gears

Eibach Sportline springs (car is actually being built for turns)

Custom torque arm setup that is 8" shorter than a stock Spohn crossmember mounted arm

Boxed stock lower control arms and I will have relocation brackets before I go

Exhaust is Dougs longtubes to 2.5" true dual with X pipe to Moroso Spiral flows

Tires will hopefully be my brothers 295/50/15's but if not then they will be the s###y 235/55's that are on the car now.

Thats all I can think of now that could effect my times. I have a driveshaft safety loop already. I dont know what else I would need. I dont think the track I'm going to go to checks that stuff all that much though.

 

mid 12's. The only other safety item you would need is a certified helmet. I can't remeber off hand which snell it is,

 

12.80s, if you're going to the track, put on slicks....skip the larger street tires. That intake is a restriction as well, toss a vic jr on the motor. Could have gone a lot bigger on the gearing with a 6 speed trans and still kept driveability as well. No reason not to run 4.10s or similar with that .5 overdrive in the 6 speed.

 

I do plan on getting a Performer RPM airgap. As for the gearing, I litteraly just put the 6 speed in. I am going to get 4.10's in the near future.

 

Mid/low 13's, I ran that same intake for a very very short time and it was a huge restriction. Vic Jr made a world of difference.

 

with a solid roller cam I'd go vic jr IMO, obviously you plan on spinning it above 4k often which is where the single plane should take over the rpm intake

 

Did the change from the Torker 2 to the Vic Jr. make the difference that got you into the 11's?

The only reason I have the Torker 2 is becuase when I went to buy a manifold I was looking for something that would fit under a stock hood. From what I could tell (this was about 5 years ago) my choices were a Edelbrock Performer or a Torker 2. I figured the Torker 2 was better for my motor than a regular performer. I really do want to get this intake off though. Just looking at it, it doesnt look like it would work all that great.

The main reason I was thinking about the Performer RPM airgap is because this car is 99% street car. Not a daily driver by any means, but it will only see a track every now and then. Probably less than 4 times a year. I've read a bunch of reviews of people switching between a Vic Jr. and the air gap and most people seemed happier with the air gap for a car that sees more street than track. And it still seems to be ok at 6500.

 

if you didn't want all out performance you'd be running a hydraulic roller cam that the dual plane would be fine for. Obviously you built it for higher rpm running so the vic jr would make more power up top without a doubt and if you ever add nitrous would not have distribution issues that a dual plane will have.

 

Oh I defiently am building this car for all out performance. I just want to make sure that with a Vic Jr. its not going to be anoyingly slugish just driving easy around town. I regulary see these intakes on Craigslist for about $100 so I may try one soon. I'll have to figure something out with the hood though, but I'd have to do that with the air gap anyways.

Out of curiousity, how bad do these Torker 2's really flow? I'm not trying to talk myself into keeping it, I want something different. Just wondering how much of a difference on a motor like mine it will make swaping it out.

 

Single plane Intake and slicks for sure. I doubt you will get into the 12's on any kind of street tire. 26" slicks will help the gear problem out some until you can change gears. Good Luck.

 

You think if I swap the intake and get slicks plus get the 4.10's in the back plus some basic suspension, that a low 12 maybe high 11 is possible?

I was going to set the car up for handling, but I am thinking about doing a drag setup just because I can go race that any week I want.

 

while you're at it, ( and i know you just built your exhaust) drop those moroso spirals off at the dump...put a set of bullets on it. they're worth a tenth or so. .15 on my car.

 

good idea

i think your combo will run upper 11's with the proper intake/gearing/traction, and decent air.

 

Trust me, I dont like the spiral flows. The only reason they are on there now is becuase finishing the exhaust was the last thing I had to do and I didnt want the car to sit any longer (its been under construction for 4 months) just because of that. So I threw the old mufflers on just to keep it quiter.

As far as air goes, I live in Orlando so I'm barely above sea level. However, its still in the 80's at night and near 100 during the day right now and humid. I have been considering taking the open air filter off with the drop base (I know this isnt helping anything either) and using a carb hat and run tubing to where the battery normally is and mount a cone filter under the battery tray to try to not suck up the hot air under the hood. My battery is already in the trunk so I wouldnt have to move anything to do this.

 

skip the new air filter idea, best bet is a cowl hood with a pan around the carb facing rearward. I fit a vic jr and 750dp with one of those old school L88 vette air filters that are a pretty extreme drop base under a stock iroc hood on my camaro years ago FYI

 

Nope, I've changed and tweaked countless things through the years to get to where I am now. First time to the track with the 350 it was running mid 13's. Before that when I still had the torker 2 I had a g-tech run which was I think low 14's it flashed up on it's screen. The change I did to get into the 11's from 12.1X's was I upped the compression from about 9.8 to 10.5.

 

Thats a good set of heads and a decent sized cam. This combo has high 11's all over it if the intake would match the heads/cam. Could use more gear for sure, but will do ok on 3.50's for now.

 

I have a hydraulic roller with 236/242@.050 numbers. My combo is very similar to yours. I have an Air Gap with a Mighty Demon 750 (annular boosters). I would say get an Air Gap. There is not much flow difference between that and a Vic Jr. (when unported). I have 4.10 gears (and an auto). With 26" tall Hoosiers I am crossing the line at 6400RPM. I went 12.16 the other night and the DA was at 3200'...and my throttle blades were not opening all the way (found that out yesterday).

 

my Canfield headed 350 with a bigger solid flat-tappet cam has been 11.25 @ 121mph with only a 1.76 60ft.

I run a Professional Products Hurricane intake - much cheaper than a Victor Jr and works just as well (if not better). I've never run a Torker II intake but I hear nothing but bad things about them - Then again if I listened to everything I read on the internet and magazines I'd be in the 12's so give it a shot and see what it does.

and get sticky tires!

 

This is what I wanted to hear. I have been toying with the idea of trying a bigger cam eventually. I have other stuff to do first though.

I have gotten to finally do some test drives on the car since I made this thread and I have learned a few things. First, I dont need the new intake right now. I have no doubt that a Vic Jr. will make more power, but I already cant put what I have to the ground. I need to work on traction first. Even just easing into the gas and not going to the floor untill 30 mph in first results in the rear tires spinning like crazy and not stopping unitll I let off. The tach instantlly jumps from 3200 rpm to 6000 in a split second and the car starts drifting. I have been debating wether I want to have street tires on one set of wheels and full slicks on another set or just the Mickey drag radials to drive on permantely. I think I'm just going to get the 295/50/16 radials. I do such little driving on this car that the reduced tread life doesnt matter much to me. It will still be a while untill I can get them though.

I also need reloaction brackets bad. My lower control arms are pointing down at the body at about 8 degrees right now. I think the 3 inch drop the brackets give would just about make them sit flat. I'm going to actually make my own brackets and I may make one that would be a 4 inch drop from the axle. Just to give me more room to play with.

I also need the block plate that goes between the Lakewood bellhousing and the motor. I bought my bellhousing used and it didnt come with it. I now wish I had just waited and bought it. Since I'm using a hydraulic throwout bearing, the bearing sits too close to the pressure plate. This results in the clutch pedal only needing to move about 2 inches from the resting spot all the way up. The clutch does fully engage, but its annoying to drive with. The plate will move the trans (and bearing) back 1/8" so the clutch will engage/disengage later in the pedal travel.

I had a friend that did the LT4 conversion on his 95 Z28 and he only went 13.2 with major traction issues. My car pulls harder than his did. I defiently think now with good tires and the other stuff that atleast low 12's are possible.

 

I have a really similar setup to you (Differences: AFR eliminator heads, a little larger cam, team g intake, 750 mighty demon) and if you drive the car on the street mostly then just go with the radials they surprisingly last a good while and they grab pretty good. I am still breaking my setup in and I havent beaten on it that bad yet because I dont want to mess up the clutch but I have planked it pretty good in first and especially in second and I have never broke traction yet with a set of 275/60/15 mickey thompson street radials. I will soon see how they hook after the break in and some warming up but I definitly dont think the radials will disappoint.

 

I bought the victor jr. intake. I wound up having a BAD intake manifold gasket leak so I figured I'd might as well go ahead and upgrade the intake while I'm at it.

The bad news is that I found out I need to give my trans a few hundred miles to break in. So no track anytime soon. I've only got about 20 miles on it as of now. If it would quit raining I could drive it more. Just looking at the Torker II vs the vic jr. there has to be a huge difference in power. The runners are almost twice as big on the vic jr. A 1205 gasket on the torker II leaves almost an 1/8" gap all the way around the intake port. The vic jr. I have is gasket matched to the 1205. And the vic jr. does fit under the stock hood. Tomorrow I'll get the carb retuned and the timing set and see how it drives.

Here is a pic of the torker II and the vic jr. You can easily see how much bigger the runners are in the vic jr.

 

Looks good I think you will like it. Also maybe even a bigger carb, a 750 could work well on that setup. My buddy switched from a 650 to a 750 double pumper and picked up a decent amount on a 350hp 350, so I'd imagine abit more on a hotter motor like yours.

 

lookin' good! you'll like the upgrade i think

 

Orr89 I have thought about getting a bigger carb one day. I've been told that the mighty demon like I have usually flows more than they are rated at. But I would like to try a 750 one day.

I have a question for you guys. When I do go to the track how high do you guys think I can safely rev this thing. I have the solid roller setup with the correct springs Comp recomends installed at the correct height. The bottom end is a stock crank, forged Eagle I beam rods and the lower end forged Probe pistons. Would shifting at and trapping 6500 be too much? I'm going to try to put gears in this thing soon and I'm trying to figure out exactly what ratio to buy but I dont know how high I can rev it. I want to do it soon because if I already have to drive a few hundred easy miles on the trans, I would like to break the gears in at the same time. I'd hate to drive easy for next few months and then get gears and have to do it all over again.

 

6500 shouldn't be a problem.

 

Thats good. I think I may go with a 4.56 gear then. I plan on running either a 295/50/16 or 325/50/15 tire. Either one is about 28" tall. That will let me go up to 118 mph at 6500. I seriously doubt this motor will go faster.

 

yeah with those rods and I'm assuming ARP 8740 bolts which are usually standard on rods these days you could spin that to 6500 easily

 

I know they are ARP bolts, not a stud and nut. They are 12 point bolts. I bought and built the motor about 5 or 6 years ago. The block is also a 4 bolt main block with ARP bolts on the mains as well.

 

Drove the car a little tonight and I can tell a huge difference in the way the car takes off under light throttle. It hates it! I have to give it a good amount of gas just to get going or the car dies (although I'm not 100% ruling out carb problems right now). It also hates being under 2000 rpm. It stumbles under 2000 rpm and light throttle. Couldnt get on it as its raining. Still. I tried a little and it spun at about 45 mph.

I'm going to try to go to the track soon. Someone told me 500 easy miles on the trans to break it in but I emailed the place I bought my rebuild stuff from and they said just a few easy miles and shifts. I've done that already. I'm thinking now with the bigger single plane than I had before the new gears are going to be more important now than before.

Also, is there anything I can do to the carb to tune the primaries a little better for easy driving?

 

My transmission guy told me i could drive it like i stole it when I got my 700r4 rebuilt. I did and it was working great until being pulled for a TH400. I had about 20-25K miles on it. 1600 of which was with a 400whp + 150 shot nitrous later on 383. Seemed to hold well and had no problems. Still have it laying in my garage.

you may need to play with fuel and timing now for the low throttle rpm situations. Big difference in air flow there. I'm not familar with carbs but from what i hear they can be built to handle just about every situation so I'm sure you can dial that in.

 

that's a big cam to try to lug under 2k. Probably has a slight lean stumble at tip-in, will need bigger squirters and pump cam changes.

 

^^^exactly my thoughts. you just added a bunch of plenum volume so it probably wants a little more fuel from the accelerator circuit.

 

Alright, I'll try to get those sometime during the week. For the stumble under 2000 while driving, should I try bigger jets on the primaries or a bigger power valve? I'm not expecting power under 2000, but I would like to be able to atleast cruise and not have the engine miss. Also, I'm running 15 degrees initial, 20 degrees mechanical, and 20 vacuum advance. I have the vacuum advance hooked up to manifold vacuum. This sound decent?

 

buy a book at a local bookstore on tuning holley carbs and sit down for a weekend and it'll explain how to tune difference circuits and when. Otherwise borrow one from a local library and it'll point you in the right direction. I have one called holley carburetors: tuning and performance or something like that and it was a big help in my early carb tuning days 10+ years ago.

 

never to late to try EFI

 

like that is any easier to tune without a wideband Out of the 50 or so people I know that race an EFI car, there is 2 of them total that actually tune the car themselves instead of paying a tuner/shop to figure it out. Out of my carb buddies, there is maybe 2 total that pay a shop to tune it and the rest have a better handle over their whole car and are more mechanically inclined than the checkbook racers, I mean the EFI crowd

 

Atleast with EFI you dont have to get your hands dirty Keyboard racers for the win

 

I think your car would prefer 20 initial with 15 mechanical. That may really help your low speed stumble.

 

Weather permitting, I'll try this tonight. I was thinking of trying this anyways. I know it idles kinda rough with the vacuum advance disconnected and the idle speed picks up 100 or 200 rpm with the advance on so more initial timing probably will help.

 

I only mentioned this because on my car, adding that extra 5* made a huge difference. Hopefully it will for you too. Do you have a way to limit your mechanical advance?

 

Yea. I'm running the MSD Digital E curve distributor. My total advance is already set to 35 degrees. All I have to do is pop the cap off and turn a dial to bump the initial to 20. That will leave the remainder 15 degrees as "mechanical"

Edit: This just reminded me that I have my timing all wrong. I had just hooked up vacuum advance but forgot to actually turn the distributor for the advance. For those who dont know about the digital e curve, when you first set the timing, you lock it out. Then set the total amount you want, including initial, mechanical, and vacuum. I have mine set at a total of 35 degrees, when it should be set at about 50 to include the vacuum.

 

i don't mind turning one wrench and a little fuel spilling out here and there

 

On efi cars with cams near that big on a motor of that size it is not uncommon to see upwards of 30 deg of timing at idle rpms.

You may want to try something like that where total timing seen at idle is 26-30 deg, and verify air fuel is correct by checking plugs.

So basically you almost have locked out timing. If you idle at 850 rpm lets say, and most of your cruise is 1200 and above, you should see your max 35 deg timing at that 1200. So you ramped in only 5 deg. Heck depending on the heads you can run 30-40 deg of timing in lower rpm, higher vacuum areas. My old 383 liked 35-36 and could have gone more. My buddy's 360 motor likes 40-41 deg for cruise, but then only 35 at WOT so far.

So definately try different timing values at idle and low rpms to get some pep back in it while cruising.

 

Played with the timing a little and WOW what a difference. It almost feels like my old manifold now at lower rpms. I'm going to play a little more with it tomorrow, but I can cruise at 1500 rpm with no surging or bucking now. It also takes off a million times easier.

 

I know guys that run around with locked out timing and they wonder why their gas mileage (if a performance engine can have such a thing!) is so poor. With lots of cam overlap and lower compression, your car will easily want 50* of advance or more at low speeds. This will restore torque so you don't have to floor it just to move away from a stop sign. At WOT, it makes no difference. I have never tried it personally, but I have heard of people locking out the mechanical and then still using vacuum advance. That could work out nicely. Maybe some day I will give that a try.

 

hey steve, this is the kind of explanation you need to tell people about the MAP sensor. i could see this cleaning up my idle a bunch! i think i still have my map sensor, i'll be sure to play with that once i get the th400 in the car.

to the OP, i found over two tenths by adding just 6* of timing at WOT.

 

I said it would help fuel economy and keeping the idle cleaned up in other posts, just no one cared to listen to me

 

you said it yes, it wasn't that we didn't listen, it was that we didn't understand the correlation by the way you explained it.

 

You guys use a map sensor on a carb? So you are seeing the light in EFI?