Hey Skep,
I reread most of this thread, but I'll be darned if I can find your original issue.
Are we just down to the clatter in the TC now?
In any case, just to recap
I ran my engine dressed out pretty much exactly like yours, back in about 2001. It was a zero deck 360 with OOTB Eddies and .039 FellPros. The cam was a 270/276/110 in at 106. the .050 was 223/230 and the lift was a wee bit more than yours. That compares very well to your Voodoo 268/276/110/in at 106 with .050s of 226/234, and lifts of;.494/.513.
My cranking compression was also 200ish
I also was able to run this on 87E10 with "full" timing. Full, I found out, with Eddies is about 34*, or even 32*.I felt no power difference between 32 to 36, so happily set it to 32/34.
Now the way I did this, was described way back at the beginning of this thread, but to recap, I brought the power-timing in a little late at 3200/3400.
I ran 14 initial and the primary-curve ended at 28* at 2800. Most would call this lazy, but 14* was what it took satisfy the T-port sync. And 28*2800 was what it took to satisfy the freedom from detonation on 87E10. And I desperately wanted to run 87, cuz at the time it was 24cents a liter less than 89 non-oxygenated. And I knew I'd be in this for the long haul. 24/l works out to about 88 cents a gallonUS,or $16.80 per tank Canadian. Work that out as a DD to 15 years/125000 miles, I think I mightof saved 2 million dollars,lol.
Anyway 14 initial and 28@2800 and 32/34@3200/3400 worked for me.
Now I run a 4-gear with CF clutch. But I run a 3.09 low and a 3.55rear for a 10.97 starter gear.Compare that to your starter of 9.58, plus maybe 20% in the TC for an off the line, instantaneous starter of 11.5. That's really nice.
That combo ran; a 600Holley, a TQ,750 vac secondary Holley, and finally ended with a 750DP. The TQ had the best idle and low-speed response;no surprise there. The 600 was set up strictly for fuel mileage. The 700 was Ok but I demanded more/earlier tire-spin and more controlled power-slides, and that is why the 750 DP found it's home with me.
So, again, to recap; this combo is incredibly versatile. It made mountains of low-speed torque,A tremendous midrange, and was only a little softer after 6000, than the 292/292/108 cam it replaced. For me it was an ideal combo.
It can run just about any carb. And I got the 600 to pull 32mpgUS with a double OD final-drive ratio of 1.97
Now, I'll tell you a bit about that. I was running the aforementioned centrifugal advance curve, and a 22* Vcan. The rpm at 65 was 1600, and the carb pulled enough vacuum at the sparkport to pull it all in. So the total timing from all sources was about 40*. I had previously installed a dash-mounted,dial-back,timing device which I used to finalize the timing curves. Now, that device has a 15* working range. During the power-tune, I had set the engine timing with the device in the middle of its range, so it could add or subtract up to 7.5 * of timing at the twist of the knob. For this run, I set it so I could add up to 15* of advance. So now I had the potential to run up to 40+15=55* at 1600rpm!
Well it turns out I didn't need to run that much,lol. It also turns out that most of the time traffic was moving along at 85mph, and so my rpm was now 2100. This was a little over peak vacuum in neutral, so this was the rpm where reversion in the intake had stopped, and the engine was now ready for active duty. The all-source timing was now 44*, and the potential was 44+15=59*. I don't recall how much timing I actually dialed in on that trip, but I can tell you what I did.
Since the hiway seemed to be dead flat, I cranked in 8* of timing, and waited for the cruise mph to peak.Then I took out 4*, and waited, for the mph to restabilize. If it slowed,I returned to cruise speed,and added 8 more and waited, then took out 4*, and so on until I reached a maximum cruise mph, on that gas-pedal setting. Then I leaned out the low speed circuit, by jamming specifically sized wires into the previously drilled-out idle feed restrictions. Then went back to running the timing loops. And so on. It seems to me at 85mph, I eventually topped out the DB, for a total of 59*. so then I increased the base timing,and backed off the DB a like amount, and then off we went again. And so it went. Remember that this carb was set up strictly for cruise mileage. When we got to our destination,some 12 hours later, on went the 750DP. Oh I remember: that was 2004, and we went to the CarCraftNationals in Minneapolis Minnesota! On the way back, I ran some more loops, but soon a late-model Corvette overtook us(us at 85), and sped by. I thought he was traveling rather fast so the thought came to me that maybe he had a radar detector; and so you know I just had to see how fast he was cruising at. I let him get out a half mile or so and then dogged him all the way to DL,Detroit Lakes, where we decided to spend the night. Good times ! Yeah so, that was the end of the tuning right there.
So again. that combo was by far my favorite. Tons of torque,power, and fuel mileage. What's not to like? But,what did I have to give up? Answer;two things; the quite lump idle, and the raw power from about 5600 to deep into the 6000s, maybe even 7000. But here's the thing; that little cam spun the 295s all the way to the speed limit anyway, and I rarely if ever needed more power.And it broke all kinds of stuff behind it.So IMO,trading away the bad-boy 292/.508 cam was a no losing thing.
So your combo is pretty much the same as mine, with the exception of the timings, And I have one more gear. That however matters very little cuz with your combo, you can hit 60mph in first gear,same as me. But you have a bit of an edge with the automatic and it's TC.
Oh yeah; I run those same Champions, and I think they might have close to or more than, 100,000 miles on them. Get you an Accell Sq-top SuperCoil and yours will go the distance too. I think mine started life,gapped at .045, or a bit more. I have no idea how much electrode is left on there today,lol.
And in conclusion, given a bit of time, I'm positive your combo will be fabulous.lol.
