Seems a little slow...

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burr said:
ligthen the car every 100 lbs. is a .10, 3600 is alot for a small engine
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Why would you think this?? Theres guys out there running 8" 5000 stalls behind 318s, Picking the right converter is not just based on cubes, Theres alot more variables.
 
I'd leak the car down and see if its leaking past the valves or something.

1-5/8 headers are fine. Or at least I'm running 1-5/8 Hookers on mine and they work pretty good.

60' time is very poor as you know. If its not spinning the tires, its probably in the carb or the converter someplace.

Try running it without the power steering belt, and that clutch fan is also a serious drag on power (like a tenth or so).

When I converted my car to manual steering it saved about 50 lbs off the front end!

Steve
 
my wagon runs 13's all day 100+mph with stock rv cam/stock heads /w 273 roller rockers and alum manifold 500eld carb/ stock ex manifolds 6000chip elec ign/accel super/duel fomaster ex 2in pipes coil hope this helps
 
With open chambers and domed pistons you can run alot more timing at launch but it has to retard in each gear like this
1st gear 42 degrees
2nd gear 36 degrees
3rd gear 28 degrees


If you want to test this to see if it works before you buy a retard box then lock the dist so it has no advance and start at 36then run it and keep upping the timing 3-4 degrees and run it down the track you should notice your 60ft times getting faster and your mph getting slower. So now start back at 36 and retard the timing 3-4 deg at a time and your 60 will suffer but mph will improve. If you try this and you get these results then you know to go and buy a retard box.


One other thing that cam needs 150-160 psi to be happy and you should only be at 125-135 with your combo. Unless you milled alot off your heads. So either up the compression or swap the cam. Either way it should pick up time but it will be alot more if you leave that cam and up the compression. Your converter should be right for the cam Have you done a compression test??

And you could use some more gear like a 4.33 or a 24in tire. Not the 4.88 just about 1/3 of that

Smaller carb 650 dp will work just make sure it has the 50cc acc pump kit

904 trans is good for 3-5 tenths


Put the victor jr back on and give it some more fuel too.

You should be running in the high 12s

But dont give up you will get figured out you current times are pretty respectable I know of quite a few 360 340 cars that are slower than yours

Good luck
 
LXguy said:
I'd leak the car down and see if its leaking past the valves or something.

1-5/8 headers are fine. Or at least I'm running 1-5/8 Hookers on mine and they work pretty good.

60' time is very poor as you know. If its not spinning the tires, its probably in the carb or the converter someplace.

Try running it without the power steering belt, and that clutch fan is also a serious drag on power (like a tenth or so).

When I converted my car to manual steering it saved about 50 lbs off the front end!

Steve
Click to expand...

I'll have to see if I can find a leakdown tester. I'm sure between my dad and brothers, one of them has one handy.

I'm more concerned about the bad 60' times at this point, so I'll probably work on that part first.
 
340dart.812 said:
With open chambers and domed pistons you can run alot more timing at launch but it has to retard in each gear like this
1st gear 42 degrees
2nd gear 36 degrees
3rd gear 28 degrees


If you want to test this to see if it works before you buy a retard box then lock the dist so it has no advance and start at 36then run it and keep upping the timing 3-4 degrees and run it down the track you should notice your 60ft times getting faster and your mph getting slower. So now start back at 36 and retard the timing 3-4 deg at a time and your 60 will suffer but mph will improve. If you try this and you get these results then you know to go and buy a retard box.
Click to expand...

I'll have to give this a try. It's easy enough to lock out the distributor, I can probably do it in under a half hour.

340dart.812 said:
One other thing that cam needs 150-160 psi to be happy and you should only be at 125-135 with your combo. Unless you milled alot off your heads. So either up the compression or swap the cam. Either way it should pick up time but it will be alot more if you leave that cam and up the compression. Your converter should be right for the cam Have you done a compression test??
Click to expand...

Compression is 155 to 165 across all 8 cylinders. I cc'd the heads before I assembled the engine and they're all right at 64 & 65cc.

340dart.812 said:
And you could use some more gear like a 4.33 or a 24in tire. Not the 4.88 just about 1/3 of that

Smaller carb 650 dp will work just make sure it has the 50cc acc pump kit

904 trans is good for 3-5 tenths


Put the victor jr back on and give it some more fuel too.

You should be running in the high 12s

But dont give up you will get figured out you current times are pretty respectable I know of quite a few 360 340 cars that are slower than yours

Good luck
Click to expand...

I'll look into the gears, but unless I can pick them up cheap, it probably won't happen for a while.

I have a pair of 50cc pump kits that I picked up, just in case.

There's been a lot of good suggestions here, sounds like I need to get started. I'll try to keep everyone up to date on where I'm at on this thing.

Between the full time job and full time school, I'll be working on this as much as I can. I want to get it sorted before the track closes at the end of October.

Thanks! :grin:
 
You switched from a victor 340 to an action plus and went from 102 mph to 98? Whoaa! Weiand has been known to have core shift problems fairly often, maybe that was some of the loss. I would not expect just the manifold design alone would be responsible fora 30+ hp loss. Anyway... i think the Victor 340 intake may be a little big for your engine and the Action plus just crappy. An Ed Perf rpm/air gap or LD340 might work better in your application. And MORE converter. I don't think your mph of 102 is bad for what you have but your et and 60 ft need work. I would bet that your torque peak is in the 4500 rpm range or higher. Put a converter in that will get you farther into the powerband than the 3500 unit you have now. Little engines like the 318 need all the help they can get off the line. You will launch harder if you can leave at close to the torque peak. A street car can reliably handle much more stall than some people on here seem to think. Just gotta have a good cooler. I have a 9.5 Dynamic that flashes to 4500 behind a worn 440 in a b body that's heavier than your car and has 3.23 gears. Been in the car for 8 years and hasn't burned up the tranny yet and is driven regularly in all kinds of weather. I don't make much power and my mph is only 107, but my best et is 12.35. 60 ft best is 1.69. BTW,you don't need a bigger header.
 
I just looked over your combo and you forgot the most important thing a drag 318 setup needs

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With all the recommendations from fellow fabo members and some laughing gas you should be able to get into low 12s

100 shot of nos = about 75 hp and 150 -175 ft lbs. Can you say big block torque from your 318
 
I would ditch the pinion snubber, run a long rear shock, put the 650 on ,advance timing to 36-38 total (use good gas)and have someone verify you don't spin! use shoe polish and mark the tire with a line. Also verify your timing! Balancer could be off. Just for giggles put a vacuum gauge on it and advance timing till it peaks on gauge,then back down the timing 1 " of vacuum on the gauge,then see how it runs.
 
Baxter61 said:
advance your cam a couple of degrees. cheap and easy to try
Click to expand...

Funny you bring that up, I actually did this earlier this year. I had originally put the cam in straight up...I took the 4 degrees of advance ground into the cam out. I went back in and advanced it 4 degrees to manufacturer recommendations. It helped the bottom end a little bit, maybe I'll go back in and give it some more at some point here.
 
forphorty said:
You switched from a victor 340 to an action plus and went from 102 mph to 98? Whoaa! Weiand has been known to have core shift problems fairly often, maybe that was some of the loss. I would not expect just the manifold design alone would be responsible fora 30+ hp loss. Anyway... i think the Victor 340 intake may be a little big for your engine and the Action plus just crappy. An Ed Perf rpm/air gap or LD340 might work better in your application. And MORE converter. I don't think your mph of 102 is bad for what you have but your et and 60 ft need work. I would bet that your torque peak is in the 4500 rpm range or higher. Put a converter in that will get you farther into the powerband than the 3500 unit you have now. Little engines like the 318 need all the help they can get off the line. You will launch harder if you can leave at close to the torque peak. A street car can reliably handle much more stall than some people on here seem to think. Just gotta have a good cooler. I have a 9.5 Dynamic that flashes to 4500 behind a worn 440 in a b body that's heavier than your car and has 3.23 gears. Been in the car for 8 years and hasn't burned up the tranny yet and is driven regularly in all kinds of weather. I don't make much power and my mph is only 107, but my best et is 12.35. 60 ft best is 1.69. BTW,you don't need a bigger header.
Click to expand...

I'd thought about going to a different manifold, but the Victor and the Action+ are what I have. I went through and ported the Weiand and it didn't look too bad, but the ports were shifted a little. I didn't get to do as much tuning as I would've liked last time out except jet changes and dropping the exhaust.

If I go to a different converter, a 904 is going in at the same time.
 
340dart.812 said:
I just looked over your combo and you forgot the most important thing a drag 318 setup needs

Amazon.com: NOS 07001 Sniper Nitrous Kit: Automotive

With all the recommendations from fellow fabo members and some laughing gas you should be able to get into low 12s

100 shot of nos = about 75 hp and 150 -175 ft lbs. Can you say big block torque from your 318
Click to expand...

A nitrous kit would be a whole lot of fun :) I would like to get it as close to optimized as I can before I throw any power adders at it though.
 
RambleTamble said:
I would ditch the pinion snubber, run a long rear shock, put the 650 on ,advance timing to 36-38 total (use good gas)and have someone verify you don't spin! use shoe polish and mark the tire with a line. Also verify your timing! Balancer could be off. Just for giggles put a vacuum gauge on it and advance timing till it peaks on gauge,then back down the timing 1 " of vacuum on the gauge,then see how it runs.
Click to expand...

I can pull the snubber off easy enough at the track and I'm running shock extensions on the rear with parts store brand rear shocks and Lakewood 90/10 fronts.

I'm going to have to compile a list of things to try for the next few times to the track...I'm going to lose track of all the suggestions. :read2:
 
Baxter61 said:
advance your cam a couple of degrees. cheap and easy to try
Click to expand...

I've been thinking about this a bit more today and the cam may need some more advance. I have some time this week and was thinking about giving it a try.

The vacuum on this engine has always been low, I don't think I've ever been able to get it over 10" idling in park. It is lazy off the line and seems that way pretty much all around.

Any ideas what I should expect from this combo in regards to idle vacuum? I would think it should be at least 12 to 15" at idle in park.

It also seems odd that it'll take up to 36 degrees of timing at idle with no kicking back. I wouldn't think that it'd want any more than 20 degrees max.

Any thoughts?
 
[email protected], about 10.2:1, with a 3.31 stroke... Yeah, I'd think in Park I'd expect 10" or less. In gear that might drop to 5-6. Depending on the fuel and setup, I'd think it should be pinging long before it kicks back. But you have a huge chamber and a domed piston... It takes a while for the flame to propogate and build pressure and that short stroke means the piston isnt at TDC for very long.
 
73Scamp318 said:
I would like to get it as close to optimized as I can before I throw any power adders at it though.
Click to expand...

Good plan!

As for timing and vacuum, my 340 only has about 5" of vacuum at idle (800 RPM). I don't think it would be good for an auto trans car, but ok with a manual.

I run 38 degrees advance with aluminum heads and pump gas. The car was run on the dyno and power fell off with 36 degrees. The engine guys were surprised that it liked that much ignition advance.

Just for comparison sake...
 
moper said:
[email protected], about 10.2:1, with a 3.31 stroke... Yeah, I'd think in Park I'd expect 10" or less. In gear that might drop to 5-6. Depending on the fuel and setup, I'd think it should be pinging long before it kicks back. But you have a huge chamber and a domed piston... It takes a while for the flame to propogate and build pressure and that short stroke means the piston isnt at TDC for very long.
Click to expand...

Ok, just thinking out loud and making sure my bases are covered. I just thought it a bit odd that the vacuum is that low for a relatively small cam and it likes that much timing. I'd been around big blocks for awhile, this is the first small block that I put together with any purpose beyond a basic rebuild.
 
With an auto, you check idle vacuum in first gear, not park.

Again, its a good idea to leak the thing down. If you're not getting good ring seal or whatever, you're not going to make power. poor ring seal can definitely effect engine vacuum.

ITs possible (likely?)that your balancer has spun on the hub. Is it a stock style deal? To half *** it its easy enough to turn the motor over till the mark is lined up on the timing cover and pop a plug to see where the piston is. If its clearly not at TDC you know you've got a problem there.
 
LXguy said:
With an auto, you check idle vacuum in first gear, not park.

Again, its a good idea to leak the thing down. If you're not getting good ring seal or whatever, you're not going to make power. poor ring seal can definitely effect engine vacuum.

ITs possible (likely?)that your balancer has spun on the hub. Is it a stock style deal? To half *** it its easy enough to turn the motor over till the mark is lined up on the timing cover and pop a plug to see where the piston is. If its clearly not at TDC you know you've got a problem there.
Click to expand...

I'll check the vacuum in first and make a note of it. I think I remember it being around 6 or 7, but I'll have to recheck.

In regards to the balancer, I went from a stock one to one of those summit bracket race balancers and checked the marks between the two when I put it in. The marks were dead-on between the two.
 
With simple math you have 295 hp at the rear wheels.
Your 60 ft times are soft as mentioned.
At the strip add fuel pressure to 8 1/2 pounds.
 
Okay, so I just got back from the track. I didn't uncork the exhaust tonight because I didn't want to fight with getting it put back on in the dark.

Here are the changes I made prior to going to the track:
Swapped the 650 DP back on
Lowered the pinion snubber 1" so it's 1.5" off of the floor
Pulled the Mallory 110 pump off and put on a 140 + regulator right next to the carb...set for 7.5 psi

Here's the best time slip of the night

60': 1.918
330': 5.660
1/8 ET: 8.763
1/8 MPH: 79.46
1000': 11.452
1/4 ET: 13.736
1/4 MPH: 98.65

The fuel pressure now dips just below 7 psi going through the traps and the RPM is right at 5800 to 5900. I'm still running the Action + intake and this is with the exhaust on, so I figure that it should run low 13.6 to high 13.5 with open pipes, as I picked up .15 last time dropping the pipes.

Any thoughts? I didn't get an opportunity to mess with the squirters or cams (running the blues in #2 front and back), or try clamping the leaf springs. Those would be my next steps.
 
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