Okay guys i finally picked up my new intake this weekend at the swap meet. Edelbrock RPM air-gap, and i have a N.O.S. superpower shot nitrous set up sittin in my room for the past 3 yrs. i do not know what size jets are in the plate so ill be removing those and gettin a set of 75,100 & 125 jets.

now i know for nitrous you sould retard the timming 2* for every 50 hp shot. my question is how much timming should i have for the motor stock and then how do i know if im retardin or advanceing the timming? i got timming marks on my block with the stock marker. but how do i tell if im advancing its 2* or retarding it? also when i run the juice can i run a seperate fuel line from my mechanical fuel pump to the fuel seloniod but have like a electric pump on that line for the juice? or should i just run a line form the pump to the selinod?

also i got a basic stock replacement pump (borg warner) from work. should that be enuff psi for nitrous? i know i need like 6-7 psi

i wont be puttin this together for awhile yet, i need to do gears and rearend work first and then the intake and nitrous. im just gathering info before hand, also heres a little pic i made in paint to show what im takin about.

 

ill also be runnin a mix of 87 octane with 100 octane form the track. heres to pics of the intake with the nitrous plate w/ seloniods

 

last one, hope you guys can help out.

 

no one?

 

The idea of using a stock mechanical pump to feed both motor and nitrous is borderline insane even if you use another electric pump in front of it... You're asking for disaster.

No offense, we all need to learn the basic stuff somewhere, but if you dont know how to do basic tuning like setting your timing I wouldnt be playing with nitrous just yet... One slip up and your motor is dead. Ever see a nitrous backfire? Not a pretty sight. Don't get ahead of yourself. You *WILL* hurt your motor... Thats why nitrous gets a bad name: Its cheap and anyone can install it, thus making it very easy for someone who doesnt know quite what they're doing to blow their motor up.

Anyway, a typical SBC likes anywhere from 32-38 degrees total timing... It all depends on your motor. The only way to know is to get it on a dyno or get it to the track and do some testing. You retard your timing by turning the distributor clockwise, counterclockwise advances it. Your motor should not only have a mark on the balancer, it should also have a tab with lines and numbers on it connected to the timing cover. Wherever the line on the balancer meets up with the numbers on the tab, thats what the motors timing is at. At idle, depending on your motor specs, you'll probably have anywhere from 6-12* of initial timing. Now as RPM increases so does your timing. The only way to know your TOTAL timing is to either get a dial-back timing light or buy timing tape that you can put on your balancer. remember Timing thats far too retarded could be just as bad as timing thats too advanced. It has the be right! dont spray your car until you KNOW the timing is correct, your motor is in tune, and you have a REAL fuel supply. Bigger is rarely better in the car world BUT bigger fuel pumps, lines, ect are ALWAYS better especially on a power-adder motor. Overkill your fuel system!

 

Well i guess the stock fuel pump is out ofthe question. My brother has a Holley pump he had on his 86 sport coupe but he kept on gettin vapor lock with it, and it is loud when the motor is running. i wounder if i can use that pump, it suposed to be good for 6-8 psi fuel. and then maybe use my return line as the feed line for the fuel seloniod but hook a electric 6-8 psi electric pump to that line to feed the nitrous set up.

my main problem is the timming, i dont understand the whole thing about it. like you said like 32-38* and then 6-12* timming. im confused by all that. the rest i know, about havin a good fuel source to keep flowing when the nitrous is on so i dont lean out and kiss the motor good by.

id love to over kill my fuel system but i dont have the money nowor any time yet to upgrade everything. someday it will all be upgraded.

also this is the first most helpful reply ive gotten any time i ask these kinda questions about nitrous.

 

Its not fuel pressure you have to worry about, its fuel volume. I think you could get away with an electric Holley blue pump and regulator and run it to supply both motor and nitrous. If you dont have the money to invest in a proper fuel system (and ignition) simply dont spray... as I said before, you're gonna hurt your motor. Nitrous is not forgiving.

Another thing, just the looks of that plate scares me. It looks very old, I wouldnt trust those solenoids or that rusty ol' spraybar. You say they've been sitting for 3 years ...how old were they before that? Either way, they dont look healthy, your fuel system is WAY underpowered, and your ignition is likely inadequte.

I'd strongly recommend you dont use it or you're asking for trouble ...If you're dead set on it then spend the cash on the proper stuff AND find someone who knows exactly what they're doing to help you set it up. Dont ever forget that nitrous is completely unforgiving. Your slightest mistake can and will lead to buying a new motor.

 

well my ignition is pretty much all brand new, New cap,rotor module, Accel super coil, accel 300+ race wires, accel shorty header plugs. i know ill need to go a set or 2 colder on the plug.

how hard is it to convert from a mechanical fuel system to electric? also this is a daily driver (some what). i wouldnt mind running an electric pump and upgrade all the lines andwhat not since later down the road like next yr im goin to drop a 383 with holley stealth ram and a single t-61 turbo.

the guy i bought the system off of told me it was sittin for a year and then he decided to sell it and then its been sittin in my room collecting dust. and its not rusty, it looks like that but its not even surface rust.

the only thing i dont have ignition wise is a ignition box but im not so sure about buyin one of those, they look complicated as **** to install

 

Basically all the stuff you listed as ignition upgrades only cost you money. You're not making any more power or really doing much more in terms of spark. Upgraded ignition coils seem to do nearly nothing. I've never spoke to anyone that noticed any difference. My only question is how much of a difference a box really makes since the coil alone doesn't seem to do much of anything.

yeah those two sentences don't coincide too well. I'm going to do blah, blah, complicated blah, difficult BS BS but i don't think i can hook up something as tough as an ignition box. I'm guessing you really have no idea what you'll be doing to build that engine but you can sure say what it'll be easy enough.

 

actually it will be easier for me. i dont trust myself with electrical stuff mainly becuz i dont know much about it. i can buildand put together a motor or anything but when it comes to wiring things up i just dont trust myself, most of the time i get my friend to help me with wiring.

trust me next yr when i do build my motor ill have no problems excupt the wiring but i gotta start learning some where. i can do small stuff like radios and whatnot.

also i havent been in a car that has an ignition box so i dont know how big a difference it will make. also what boxes do you guys recommend that are good and have a retard feature on them? i dont know much about the ignition boxes

also im lookin for advise not bs statments "yeah those two sentences don't coincide too well. I'm going to do blah, blah, complicated blah, difficult BS BS but i don't think i can hook up something as tough as an ignition box. I'm guessing you really have no idea what you'll be doing to build that engine but you can sure say what it'll be easy enough."

 

I dunno about your views on coils... a bone stock oldschool HEI starts dying at around 4500RPM. If you have a motor thats reving to 6000-7000RPM by then your distributor is really taking a beating trying to produce a good spark. When I ran a HEI I put a recurve kit in it and started tuning. I noticed the car would nose over and even backfire sometimes around 6000RPM (shifted at about 6300RPM). No tuning would fix it I began to think it was a fuel delivery problem ...I went and bought a replacement MSD coil and module due to advice from a fellow hotrodder. Installed it and wam, problem was completely gone with no other changes. Now, I dont know if it was just something old and wrong with my HEI *or* if it was because the stock parts arent designed to operate in those high RPMs but, it worked.

Later on I upgraded to an MSD Pro-Billet, external Blaster 2 coil, and an MSD 6AL box. This made a HUGE difference in the way the car ran. It idled better, performed better all throughout the RPM range, was easier to dial in, and the plugs were MUCH harder to foul during jet/timing testing. Now, I'm not saying this in a way that Johnny Whoever with his stock Honda changes his air filter to a K&N and goes "holy crap!!! my car feels so much faster!" when in reality it probably did nothing, this ignition upgrade made an unmistakable difference in performance.

 

so which ignition box should i look into gettin soon? i heard a few bad stories and alot of good stories about the 6al boxes. anything to help me ill get it, i gotta change my plugs anyway so ill try and get about 1 step colder plug for the nitrous.