273-2 performance (or lack there of) question

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67CudaBob said:
4spd - would you mind sharing if you went with an original 273 4-barrel manifold or if you went aftermarket?
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Original 4 bbl manifold as that what Dads cuda came with. BUT we have looked at LD4B's which are aluminum Edelbrock aftermarket for the 273 4bbl. It works for 66 and up 273's the 65's have different head shape so they get the D4B(I believe). I will post a link later of Dads "S" thread
 
altitude may be your only problem. i would not worry or mess with this car til i got it home. years ago i was out in denver in a '71 duster with a good running 318. at that altitude it was an absolute dog. it took a mile to get up to 60 mph.
 
After you get it home, and do a prilimary check, one cause could be the feul tank sock being clogged.
But I think elevation is the reason.
 
i had the same problem with a friends 69,273 motor, and i would have won a race with my 225 slant 6, so we rebuilt the 2bbl,and just going through the carb made a world of difference and then we found the vaccume advance wasnt working and dropped in a new distributor and now its a screamer
 
Bone stock my 2-bbl 273, a-904 did 115mph(indicated) easily in the mountains behind Albuquerque, over 5000' altitude. Could have gone faster.
I discovered later the heat riser was rusted shut!
Fuel tank vent perhaps?
 
Richard Sweet said:
67CudaBob,
So what's the rest of the story? Do you still have it?
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I do still own it. After the car got here, I stopped by a local Mopar shop with it, and the guy knew in seconds that is was the wrong linkage setup, and that was keeping me from wide open throttle. I ended up swapping on an LD4B manifold and an Edelbrock 600 carb and played with the timing a bit and the combination of those things woke the car up considerably.
 
67CudaBob said:
Thanks to both of you - I was starting to panic a little thinking I blew it buying this car without diving in deeper while I was there. When I wanted the car, I could convince myself it was something simple - and then when I bought it, I started thinking, "what if it is something serious..." Damn mind games.......

Side note, in the folder full of receipts they gave me, I found the invoice when they bought the car in 1977 for $650!! They had it 36 years - you don't see that too much anymore.
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My mom bought a 66 Chevelle in 1977 for like $750. I think that was pretty cheap for back then. I remember V-8 cars going for cheap because of the second gas crunch in the late 70's. Nobody wanted them, you could buy a 68 Charger for dirt cheap back then. Ever see what they are going for now? Anyhow, that 273 oughtta lay rubber for a city block or two even with a 2 bbl carb.
 
67CudaBob said:
The folks I am buying the car from have owned it for 36 years, and they tell me they have never had it over 65 MPH, and rarely, if ever, have it on the freeway. They do not feel there has been any change over time as to the performance of the car. They were told about 10,000 miles ago that they had a couple cylinders test low, and they had the motor completely rebuilt at that time - and bored .030 over. Since then the carb was then rebuilt and rejetted and most recently a stiffer return spring intalled. All of these things are pointers, but according to them the performance has not changed before or after all of this. Then again, this is a retiring couple who have never had performance on their agenda for this car - it was a light duty occassional cruiser.

My initial gut says throttle hinderance of some sort, as I never felt like I got any RPM's, and the pedal was so stiff to depress - but I will check out all of your suggestions until I figure it out.
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Sounds like the kind of people who think flooring it will break the engine. Not knocking them but it is irritating lol. I'm confused on the stiffer return spring too, why?? It's not a blown big-block with 600 HP...

Going from sea level to 5280' (official elevation of Denver) will reduce power in an N/A engine by a whopping 23-25%. That's why everyone in CO runs turbos to make up for the loss in air density, and why they crap on pretty much anything N/A even if it's got lots of cubes and compression. Damn Subarus (and Audis) are like a virus around here, turbo + AWD = "obviously the best car you could possibly get for Colorado driving" ughhh... I can't wait to drive my '88 Chrysler 5th Ave in the snow and have people wonder how I'm not dead driving an old RWD car in the CO winter.
 
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