i have an 85 t/a that had a 305 till i put in an older 350. it has edelbrock 600 cfm carb, and headers. the 700r4 was also rebuilt with a stiffer 2nd gear and a vette servo. i have no clue what size torque converter was used but i do know from about 1st to 2nd acceleration sux! its better than my 305 but not by much at all. it wont even spin the tires. the rear end is a 10 bolt but i dont know if its posi, sometimes i think it spins both tires and sometimes it only spins one. i know i need to get my rear end fluid changed so would this cause it? adn what about the torque converter? what should it be? does it matter that it was all built for the 305 first? thanks alot

 

We need to know A LOT more info about this engine. What kind of heads, cam, intake, etc. Is the carb in tune? Is the timing set? If you don't know the specs on the engine, do you know what it is out of and if it is factory?

Woohoo!!! 1000 posts!!!!

 

did you reuse the factory dist if so you need to find an older vacuum adv. type and that should solve your problem.

 

its all stock except it has my 305 intake manifold, edlebock carb, and headers. its out of a 79 3/4 ton truck and i think we did re-use the distrubutor. timing is perfect and the carb is tuned perfect. it runs great its just i have no acceleration in 1st and not much more in 2nd, and it bogs at like half throttle in 1st and 2nd. would changing distributors fix it? if so what distributor do u reccomend? thanks

 

If it's the whole 70 whatever truck motor, distributor included, then it's one of those terrific 170 HP wonders, with the 882 heads that Desktop Dyno says will make 400 HP (hahahaha) and that glorious 929 cam and dished pistons. It's no wonder it's not fast. Nothing else matters; that motor is simply a pig, as it sits. About the only things that are good about it are the block (4-bolt) and maybe the crank and rods, which might be a steel one and O rods.

I don't know what you expect or what you're willing to do or how much you're ready to spend on it; but if you want some kind of performance, socking an entire one of that kind of motor off into your car is not the way to get it.

 

The stock distibutor that came with your car is computer controlled if you used it that is you problem because without the stock carbe in the loop the computer goes into limp mode and pull the timing way back. What you need is an older HEI wuth a vacuum advance on it and that should take care of the problem. The one that was in the truck motor should work just fine.

 

im not sure if this distrubtor is computer controlled because the guy who had my car before me did alot of engine work to it and when he put on the edelbrock on the old 305 he removed all the emissions junk and he removed the computer. im not sure what the stock cc distributor looks like but mine has a black cab, 2 plug in things on the drivers side of it, and a silver vaccume thing on the passenger that goes to my carb. adn as for the engine i dont know much about it other that it was rebuilt, and it has 4.11 heads. i have no clue if they rebiult it with the dishtop pistons or what but it is a big improvement over my old 305, it runs great and it pretty fast with the ecception of when u accelerate softly and it hits about 1600-2000 rpm. and i have the 305 distributor, intake manifold, headers, and that edelbrock carb on it. im thinkin it could be the edelbrock because iv heard some horror stories about them.

 

Just something that happened to me once, I swapped an engine for a bigger version and it felt a lot slower than I'd expected...but I had been driving a much higher powered car while mine was having the engine transplant. I was used to the excessive power and had too high an expectation of what mine would be like. Just a thought really....

Si

 

i just wanted something with more toque and more reliable than my 305. although it was probably the strongest 305 iv ever riddin in. but i didnt expect much more but actually it is alot better than my 305 so i am pretty pleased. and if i can save up some money this summer i plan on either porting the 305 heads and throwing them on or buyin some good used ones along with installing a better cam. but as for right now i just want to get that hesitation out of 1st - 2nd. i think its either my torque converted or the edelbrock i have on it. but if you think its the distributor then it will be a good excuse to get an msd distributor.

 

in that earlier post i put 411 heads, i meant 441 heads.

 

There's your answer.

You have truck heads, basically. Your motor is going to run like a tractor as long as those are on there. They are low-compression, small-port, high-velocity, low-RPM optimized.

 

Does the dist have a silver canister on it if not that is definately your problem.

 

Sounds like he has HEI to me....Kinda hard to run a 600 edelbrock on a 305 without it...

What RB is saying is, even with the best tuning...with those heads , performance will be minnimal...The Bog may very well be in the head casting....
The first to second gear drop in the 700r4 is well known among racers...That is why a lot of guys run a Th350, th400 ....better 1-2 ratio...
Another possibility would be tuning/rebuilding the carb...My 600 on the 327 had a stumble just off Idle, that I could never get rid of completely....

 

I know he has an hei what I am trying to figure out is if it is the stock somputer controlled hei which without the carb goes into limp mode and just flat out sucks or if he has an older non comp hei with a vacuum adv.