To Much Cam?

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Once you give that combo a decent stall converter and a 4.10 or better gear ratio, that car is gonna fly.
 
I agree that a 268 cam will bring your dynamic comp ratio to a point that you may have to run race gas but then again with the 302 heads and zero deck flat tops you should have a decent amount of quench. Piston to head clearance with that .028" gasket is very close and out of my comfort range but I have heard of people running that close of clearance without problems.

You need gear and timing. You should probably be running 18-20 intitial and 34-36 total with that set up and a 4.10 gear. Then you can start doing some carb tuning in regards to the power valve and jetting.
 
Looking at your specs and making a few assumptions, your static compression is around 10.65 and your dynamic around 7.69 assuming an intake closing point of 60 degrees and 4.04 x .028 gasket - major assumptions though...

I went looking at Lunati's site and did not find a 274H cam with an intake closing point of 60, but their 60402 voodoo cam looks like a good driver or the 60403 if your valve train can handle the lift

Using either of those 2 voodoo cams takes your dynamic compression to around 9.0 - but with .028 quench you should be good to go on 91 octane

Throw some 3.23-3.73 gears in it and call it good - I tend to err on the conservative side
 
It sounds like you did get the build pretty much right. I had concerns about that but i feel better seeing more detail. I do think the cam will be a little soft in any event with your current gearing, but I also think you may be a little confused on the stall speed and rating of a convertor. Stall speed is a function of power and resistance to that power. So if the engine is soft at low rpm as yours is, the stall speed will be lower. In addition, each convertor has two: Brake stall, which is what you are testing by holding the car still and flooring it... And flash stall, which is what the engine speed raises to when you are in high gear at about 30mph and floor it (try to not let it downshift). If you do that is it higher than 2300? I think a gearing change and maybe some tuning will bring it where you want it.
 
This may be a not so smart question but anyway, If I install a line loc technically if im staging and bring the rpms up to 3000 I should not be spining tires at that point or should I?
 
A line loc is designed to work on the front brakes. If you lock your front brakes, unless you are running slicks, I can't see you being able to load it up to 3000 RPM (or anywhere close to 3k for that matter) without spinning. Even if you did it would probably just push the front tires. Don't know if they'd work on the rear wheels very good or not. The brakes would have to have some super holding power. My car has the best 10x1-3/4" shoes I could find for it and they'd never hold the car back even at part throttle but my car is real torquey. A trans brake is what's needed and maybe what your thinking of.
 
Sounds to me like your thinking a torque converter works like dumping the clutch in a 4 speed?
A converter works at moving the car all the time, but with a higher stall speed it feels like it's slipping ,just like when your driving a standard and you slip the clutch by holding it half way in.

Even with it not being locked yet it will move the car and spin the tires.
Think of a tow truck pulling someone out of a ditch?
The tow truck driver will slip the clutch and give it gas ,pulling the car out of the ditch.
The max stall speed is hit when the tires don't spin and they hook loading the converter to max stall speed.
This happens when you mash the gas when you go to take off from idle and your using a set of slicks.
 
I'm not sure I understand the question right... You're asking if you have line loc, can you stage the car and spin the tires to get to 3K while you're at the line? Or are you asking if line loc will help the stall speed go to 3k? If it's one of those, the answers are no in both cases. If it's something else, try to clarify a little...lol. The convertor stall will not be affected by any device holding the wheels if the engine isn't making enough steam to reach the stall anyway.
 
4.10 gears, 3000stall convertor and more intial timing like 18-22 degreeswith a recurved distributor. Total timing all in by 2200-2400rpm. That should improve the low end response a bunch.
 
You've got a ton of great advice here already. Now my OPINION. You do NOT have too much cam. What you have is too much gear. You are crippling that engine with those gears. Swap to 4.10's or better FIRST. Then follow t67power's advice. Here's an analogy for ya. Carl Lewis was one the world's greatest sprinters. But how fast would he have been if he had been forced to drag Hulk Hogan in a wheelchair behind him when he competed. That's the effect those gears are having on your engine. Also, until you get the right gears under there, it will be much more difficult to dial in the motor b/c the current gears will exaggerate every "mistake" and every change in your motor setup. Also, if you do get it dialed in perfect on the current gears, you may find youself re-tuning after the gears swap. Get the right gears first then dialing in the motor will feel a lot easier.
 
You've got a ton of great advice here already. Now my OPINION. You do NOT have too much cam. What you have is too much gear. You are crippling that engine with those gears. Swap to 4.10's or better FIRST. Then follow t67power's advice. Here's an analogy for ya. Carl Lewis was one the world's greatest sprinters. But how fast would he have been if he had been forced to drag Hulk Hogan in a wheelchair behind him when he competed. That's the effect those gears are having on your engine. Also, until you get the right gears under there, it will be much more difficult to dial in the motor b/c the current gears will exaggerate every "mistake" and every change in your motor setup. Also, if you do get it dialed in perfect on the current gears, you may find youself re-tuning after the gears swap. Get the right gears first then dialing in the motor will feel a lot easier.

I think you are right on the money.
That anology with Carl Lewis is priceless, but it explains it well. lol
 
Guess what... with a really good converter you can drive with those gears and the car perform really well. I'm not talking about the $200-300 POS TCI, B&M etc. One of the new style units that drive real solid on the street and flash like crazy when you mash the pedal.

I think he's getting things sorted out. There were multiple issues with the ignition set up.
 
I pretty much got it down now thanks to crackedback, I took it out today and drove everywhere and it seems to drive well. It has plenty of power but I do know it needs gears badly and it will get them as soon as I can afford it! As for the ignition problems I was having its all taken care of I have a total timng degree of 34 and intial is about 28* so thanks again to all that replied and a speacial thanks to cracked back for taking the time to explain to this youngster what the hell I was doing wrong.
 
So, can it at least bust them loose.

Good to read you got it running better.

Gears will help a bunch for getting the engine into the powerband.
 
Well I have not tried it yet maybe tomorrow will see, I was also tryin out the trans I installed too and man the 1st to 2nd shift is a doozy.
 
I pretty much got it down now thanks to crackedback, I took it out today and drove everywhere and it seems to drive well. It has plenty of power but I do know it needs gears badly and it will get them as soon as I can afford it! As for the ignition problems I was having its all taken care of I have a total timng degree of 34 and intial is about 28* so thanks again to all that replied and a speacial thanks to cracked back for taking the time to explain to this youngster what the hell I was doing wrong.


do you have your timing locked out? or do you have 28 initial and 6 mechanical? because I want to know what you did to make something to limit it too 6, so I can also do this
 
Its 28 initial and 6 mech. I way I acheived this was installing the 18* bushing in my msd dist. and I tacked a weld to the side of where bushing stops a full mech advance on the distributor. I know its barbaric but sometimes you have to get creative! I guess another way to do it would be to find something that is the same diameter as the 18* bushing and offset drill the hole.
 
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