I havent posted in awhile but i've come back to the boards now that my car is almost on the road to check out some stuff and i have questions.

one, my lo3 is a freak but im not sure how much of a freak it is, check this out.
Got into some trouble at school for leaving an eensy teensy lil black mark next to the school. this was previous to me putting in the posi so i had a lil traction problem. Oh yea the black mark was solid rubber from my 245 50 16 eagles and it was a whoppin 40 foot long, one tire but still the car consisitantly will abuse the tires into the ground and no i did not hit the brake to do this i was from stand still transfering from brake to gas in first, by the way its an r4 car.
to do this is somewhat amazing with an lo3 and my freinds with the same motor want to know what i did to it but all i've done is tune the sucker up. all we know about the car is that it has a salvage title and th timing cover has been off.
This probably could have been explained by 3.73's in the back which is what we thought it had, my dads an old hotrodder and he swore that it had 3.73's but we checked during the change from peg to posi and they were 2.73's, friggen amazing.
what i want to know, is if there is any one single mod that is out of sight that could accomplish this.
also,, coul someone fill me in on what im getting into to start datalogging and tinkering with the computer and tbi where to start on that and what kind of gains i could hope to see.
please someone help me make highschool kids realize that these cars are potent and can still kick *** against the ever so popular ricers!

 

Sounds like your car is normal. These cars love a good tune up and are usually neglected from normal maintanence which gunks them up. You could also pull a valve cover and look at the casting numbers on the head. Look at the block just aft of the distributor on the driver side. It should say 5.0 or 5.7. Someone could have done a motor swap. I doubt it though since most motor or cam swaps are not joined with proper chip burning. Check out the "new to TBI" thread at the top for a start at chip burning. There are a bunch of links there to get you started. It is pretty easy to do a mean one wheel peel with an stock LO3. It may not be the fastest thing out there but even 255 ft bls can shread a set of tires. People who are only familiar with uncle ben cars have no idea what this feels like.

By the way: Where in ohio are you?

 

north east ohio, yourself?
it is a 305, i've checked.

so uhmm, next question, why dont the tpi guys just shove a runner up their a## because i've driven a couple and they aint the same, yet WE are considered the punk motor of the pack.

 

hah yes, feel stupid now, dayton okay, do you know where medina county is, just south of clevland? we're not far from each other by,, well national standards. i've been to the AF base and all.
also feel dumb slightly for my "over estimation".

im guessing that the dude previous me changed the timing, but a cam is very possible, my car has a less then mild idle that i suppose could be the tps but i dont think so,,, what do you think?

 

There must be more to your car. A stock TPI car has much more torque than an stock LO3. Your tires must be really small, worn out or your rear shocks are shot.

 

possibly.
my goodyears are fine they were new when i got the car and i've only put 20 miles on it since, 20 hard miles but still. the shocks are possible but not probable because the car corners like mad unless you give it a lil too much gas and then well,, you just have to drive it. i think i said it but they are 245 50 16 on the expensive rims for 92 so ,, that could explain some and then again maybe my freinds trans am and the 5.7 formy i drove were both just really in th sh*tter tune wise. my freinds was the 5.0 and while we didnt race he drove mine and i his and we both agreed that after the posi i could eat him alive. different matter with the 5.7, i dunt know about it, didnt drive it much just parking lot and it def had a crapper full of torque but just felt like i was driving a big clog so maybe not such a good comparison.
i thought it had 3.73's and so did my dad and our mechanic buddy commented on how good a running 350 it was . so considering the amount of personality the car has im betting that it's just blessed.
today at the shop it was giving me a hard time sputtering and crap and missing and just pissin and moaning and then we put the hood back on post cutting it in and it was happy, stopped sputtering and crap and the door stopped creaking and it just started and purred and i laughed about it i swear it was a woman in a past life.

 

Could be a motor swap. Check the casting numbers to varify. is that 5.7 you are refering to a L98 or LT1? Both of them will work over any slightly modded 305 in stock form.

 

spinning your tires is not a good indicaton of power.

 

Case in point.... 2.8L 4x4 jimmy.

 

Just take it to the track and there will not be any if's, but's, or could be's. You might be surprised in a good or more likely bad way if your rating on being able to peel out.

 

If spinning tires is a way to tell if you have a factory freak, then damn, I must have one. Longest single mark I have measured is 67.2 ft, and that is from a dead stop. FYI, my car has a best of 16.1 @ 85.34. Case in point, being able to do a burnout will not give you an acurrate measure of power, but it is still fun to do.

 

ill try new shocks, maybe some kyb's will help

 

if you have driven an 350 thats an L98 and a 305 that's an LB9 and you dont think they have that much power your car cannot be stock! i used to have an L98 and it was insanly faster than my current L03. like said above go to a track and run it then you will know for sure.

 

Loss of traction is a sheer sign of a poor suspension setup. I roasted that Jimmy, yeah it's mine, through into 4th gear on a brake stand, yet I have to downshift to 4th on some hills on the freeway.

C'mon. Track times or bust. I bet your track times suck compared to other TBI cars BECAUSE of your lack of traction.

Of course this is just my .02, but hey what do I know... I jumped on the band wagon and got some cubes

 

Well, if you have the trans am wheels they possibly could have known a little bit about swapping stuff on 3rd gens...or gotten lucky at a junk yard. I would imagine it FEELS faster than the other cars due to the gears.

Feeling fast and being fast are two different things, and its due to torque. My gf's TBI feels like its faster than my grand am, yet my grand am is a full second faster in the 1/4. We are trying to fix that this summer.

 

like i said ill try new shocks, im not willing to buy springs lca's and a relocation kit to get the bloody hulk moving better, it has far less of a problem with traction post posi install, and, someone said something about gears, i once again state that it has 2'73's and so did the 305 tpi trans am which also had posi and a 700 r4. we both drove each others cars, and we both said mine was faster. yes i probably should take it to the track and figure out whats up but its kind of nice to not put a number on fun you know? i enjoy it cause its "fast" and because its faster then my freinds supposedly superior car and neither of us knows why but speculation fills some time, lol.

oh yea, does anyone else notice a diff with the 700 r4 between the shift from nuetral/park to O.drive and the shift to 1st? before i put in the posi the tire would spin a full two inches consisitently if i held the brake and shifted to ist at nuetral, it has a substantialy hard shift like, jar the dead shift. but just to overdrive it shifts much smoother and easier usually no squeel. i still get a good squelch from the tires and the car bears down in the front big time.

last comment, while i acknowledge from two years workin at a dragstrip that spinning the tires is not a great way to judge power i will also say that a truly weak car cannot will not spin the tires without sufficient prodding. the 40 footer i left was done on motor alone, no brake, right after a shift from park at idle. ive heard and seen people on this board and other wise with unmodded lo3's that just cannot get them moving. This is why i thought i had a damn good running car, i just wonder if anyone could think of why!

 

That is because we are always compairing them other car's that we own or friends cars that are much much faster. The same reason applies to those who think their 305 TBI is still pulling strong at 100 in stock form. It is all relative.