Agree or Disagree on my Motor Car Set up.

[BLOW-DART]

Ive been meddling in many different threads with questions about heads, cam specs, etc...

Id like anyone's input on the combination I'm putting together because I know there's a lot of knowledge on this forum!

To start with the motor. this is the engine i have in the garage that is not yet in the car but will be in a couple weeks.

its a 360 block out of a 73 or 74 roadrunner, rebuilt with factory crank, new rods and keith black hyper pistons, compression was requested to be 9.75:1 when i had it built at the machine shop but i dont have any numbers to prove if its exactly that or not.

new double roller timing set, new water pump.

J heads with 2.02/1.6 valvles open chamber, valve job, new seats, springs, retainers etc, just a basic head rebuilt, exhaust ports gasket matched with no other porting or polishing. original rocker assembly with new pushrods and lifters(hydraulic)

i think the cam is a purple shaft(this motor has been built for a few years so im a little foggy on some of the details. the two specs on the cam i remember is 284 duration and .484 lift.

edlebrock airgap intake with a demon 700 mechanical secondaries and electric choke.

this will be placed in a 1964 barracuda, with custom headers, a 904 pushbutton with a tci shift kit, 8 3/4 rear with 3.55 sure grip, and tires 245/60/15 on steel wheels.

the rest of the car is fairly stock at the point with the exception of 4 wheel disc brakes.

motor has been run in a A100 van a few years ago for about 1000 miles if that and ran strong but was running with a high end accel dual points system. i will be running it HEI electronic.

Now I would like to hear some feedback on the build and set up with any reccomendations to the motor set up, drive train set up (torque converter selectiong) etc.

Use for this car is not a daily driver, its just a toy for my wife and I. we will be taking it to infineon a couple times for some amateur bracket racing and taking it shows and cruises. let me know what you all think...

 

[fishy68]

Sounds good but you need a loose converter with that cam. At least a 3k stall. If you don't drive it a lot and racing is in mind go with a 4k stall. Lower gears would be much better for racing too. 3.91~4.10 should help a lot. they aren't very friendly on the hwy though so if you have to drive a way on the interstate keep the 3:55's.

Just noticed you said your using HEI? That's a chevy ignition system and contrary to what some say isn't good for over 4500 rpm. It can be made to perform but an MSD or Mallory box can be bought for about the same price and the multiple spark down low helps clean up the idle a little.

 

[BLOW-DART]

Sounds good but you need a loose converter with that cam. At least a 3k stall. If you don't drive it a lot and racing is in mind go with a 4k stall. Lower gears would be much better for racing too. 3.91~4.10 should help a lot. they aren't very friendly on the hwy though so if you have to drive a way on the interstate keep the 3:55's.

Just noticed you said your using HEI? That's a chevy ignition system and contrary to what some say isn't good for over 4500 rpm. It can be made to perform but an MSD or Mallory box can be bought for about the same price and the multiple spark down low helps clean up the idle a little.

I had about a 3k in mind due to still possibly driving it on the street here n there I probably won't go higher than that.

As far as hei, I could just be doing a termonology error. My dad always called the electronic hei vs. Points. I have the mopar performance orange box, and an unknown distributor that I have on my current 318, it has a brown cap? Not sure what brand.

 

[bad440]

Sounds good but you need a loose converter with that cam. At least a 3k stall. If you don't drive it a lot and racing is in mind go with a 4k stall. Lower gears would be much better for racing too. 3.91~4.10 should help a lot. they aren't very friendly on the hwy though so if you have to drive a way on the interstate keep the 3:55's.

Just noticed you said your using HEI? That's a chevy ignition system and contrary to what some say isn't good for over 4500 rpm. It can be made to perform but an MSD or Mallory box can be bought for about the same price and the multiple spark down low helps clean up the idle a little.

if its one of those davis hei conversions but it wont clear the firewall . and fishys right they are no good over 4500.

 

[fishy68]

I had about a 3k in mind due to still possibly driving it on the street here n there I probably won't go higher than that.

As far as hei, I could just be doing a termonology error. My dad always called the electronic hei vs. Points. I have the mopar performance orange box, and an unknown distributor that I have on my current 318, it has a brown cap? Not sure what brand.

Yeah HEI is a chevy term. No biggie. With Mopars is just referred to as electronic ignition. You might consider upgrading to the chrome box as the orange box isn't really great above 5k. Or you could do away with the factory box altogether and go with a MSD or Mallory box with a rev limiter and multi spark. Much better system.

 

[BLOW-DART]

Yeah HEI is a chevy term. No biggie. With Mopars is just referred to as electronic ignition. You might consider upgrading to the chrome box as the orange box isn't really great above 5k. Or you could do away with the factory box altogether and go with a MSD or Mallory box with a rev limiter and multi spark. Much better system.

cool, i will put that on my list of things to buy when i have money . ill have to inform my dad about the orange box's limitations, he has one set up to go on a sweet 340 and he has the money to put the good stuff on, but he grew up a chevy guy.

 

[moper]

Is the trans a stock 64 unit? If so, you will have a couple issues. I think your convertor has a different input shaft so you'll have to note that to the caonvertor place and "off the shelf" units will not work. Second, the 360's crank register is larger than the hub on the convertor.. So it won't center properly. I think there is an adaptor for that, but again, the issue of the input shaft is still there. What I'm doing on my '65 is this: I'm using the '65 case and valve body with a later (mid 70s) guts and tailshaft. That's so I can use the std slip yoke driveshaft, still have teh factory cable shifter, and run any later convertor. You might want to verify these issues on the "early A" section here. Those guys have helped me a bit with mine.

 

[BLOW-DART]

Is the trans a stock 64 unit? If so, you will have a couple issues. I think your convertor has a different input shaft so you'll have to note that to the caonvertor place and "off the shelf" units will not work. Second, the 360's crank register is larger than the hub on the convertor.. So it won't center properly. I think there is an adaptor for that, but again, the issue of the input shaft is still there. What I'm doing on my '65 is this: I'm using the '65 case and valve body with a later (mid 70s) guts and tailshaft. That's so I can use the std slip yoke driveshaft, still have teh factory cable shifter, and run any later convertor. You might want to verify these issues on the "early A" section here. Those guys have helped me a bit with mine.

Ya ive read a few things about the 360 and the early 904 having some issues.

ive got a crazy idea im looking into. i have this shorty a100 727 that is a cable shift and im going to see if the push button cable system might mate up to that with out too many problems, then i just have to fab a custom crossmember because of the different mounting style and that will solve everything because that tranny i believe has the good style yoke and already has a decent stall converter for the 360 but i have to do some verification if the casing will even fit under the car.

 

[rumblefish360]

Fishey has some good advice there. Very true about the Orange box. It is a modest upgrade over a stock box. The Chrome box is an excellent street strip box capable of everyday use.

On the engines compresion, where are the pistons sitting in the block? IF you have the KB 107 pistons, and they sit flush with the engines block head surface, this is called zero deck height and with the J heads and a .039 head gasket, the ratio will be 9.8-1. Right where you want to be. The .05 difference from 9.75 - 9.8 is nothing.

IF the piston sits higher than the engine blocks head surface (AKA Deck) then a head gasket change is in order to a thicker on.

 

[BLOW-DART]

Fishey has some good advice there. Very true about the Orange box. It is a modest upgrade over a stock box. The Chrome box is an excellent street strip box capable of everyday use.

On the engines compresion, where are the pistons sitting in the block? IF you have the KB 107 pistons, and they sit flush with the engines block head surface, this is called zero deck height and with the J heads and a .039 head gasket, the ratio will be 9.8-1. Right where you want to be. The .05 difference from 9.75 - 9.8 is nothing.

IF the piston sits higher than the engine blocks head surface (AKA Deck) then a head gasket change is in order to a thicker on.

the motor is built right now and i dont think im pulling the heads before it goes in. when i do pull it apart i will be sure to do those calcs cause i would like to know.

 

[C130 Chief]

The cam sounds like the P4120231 Purple Shaft unit which is a pretty stout cam for the street. But it sounds like you have lived with it for a while, so you're probably used to it. The rest of the combo sounds pretty reasonable ( I might have run a vac secondary 750 like a 3310).

You are at the point where you need to decide what the priority for the car is freeway driving or bracket racing. If you put in 4.10 gears and a decent converter, 12's should be within reach. Then again, with a little less cam and 3.23's or 3.55's you'll end up with a car that runs 14's, won't drive you nuts above 50 and might get reasonable gas mileage. With the 3.55's you may actually have a quicker car with a milder cam, or at least no slower. What I'm trying to say here is low gears=quick acceleration. Since you'll have the tranny apart, consider a low gear set out of a late model 999, which will help some.

The mopar chrome box ignition, with a properly curved distributor is more than adequate for your needs. There are all sorts of aftermarket systems with various bells, whistles and gimmicks out there too.

Make sure to take lots of pictures of those custom headers!