Horse power question

speedracer · June 29, 2006, 12:35:46 PM

Hey guys have'nt posted in awhile and been wondering if yall could suggest anything that I could do to gain more HP. It's my el camino that I'm talking about, heres what I've done so far.
Bored out 30 over, installed edelbrock proformance package which was the alluminum heads, high lift cam, valves etc. dual plane intake and instead of there carb, I went with a holley 750 vac adv and hi pro fuel pump. This package was suppose to make 400 HP. Installed proformance MSD distributor and MSD box, Hooker headers. Oh yea while rebuilding did the speed pro pistons and rods, steel crank. Also took off the AC and put on electric fan and all pulleys replaced with the serpine belt.
I think thats about it.
Is there anything that I could do to make more HP? Without breaking the bank. Oh yea installed a nitous system on it, Now that was a BIG boost in power!!-----Thanks, Johnny

EMSjunkie · June 29, 2006, 12:40:44 PM

Hey Johnny, 'bout time you posted.

did you ever get the timing issue resolved?

about all you got left to do is add a blower or a turbo.

how many more horses are you wanting to add?

Vance

speedracer · June 29, 2006, 02:15:44 PM

ya bout time I agree! Seems the older I get the faster time flys. Ya know the last time I posted I think was before I had a fender bender with it, nothing serious and worked out well for me cause I was wanting to paint it anyway, but as things would happen found a whole bunch of rust that had been painted over, I mean some heavy duty stuff, so long story short the car has been in the shop getting all that done, ists been about 10 weeks now, the body and paint shop screwed up on the estimate, they told me they could just bill the ladys insurance for the damage and paint the entire car and wouldn't cost me a dime! But they didn't know about all the rust that had to be done first, so long story short their working on it in between jobs and its taking along time but they still aren't going to charge me, so now they've repaired all the dents and rust spots and are in process of primering it, should'nt be long now! So havent haven't had the car to work on as far as the timing issue. And ya I think I'm just about as far as I can go with the HP, just was curous if yall knew of some thing else I could do.
I'll post more when I get her out of the shop!
Thanks Vance--------Have good one--------johnny

DRD57 · June 29, 2006, 02:24:01 PM

Back when I used to drag race a lot I noticed several guys who would throw a speed shop catalog at there car and then wonder why it wasn't as fast or quick as they thought it would be. The answer was usually one of three things. 1. they still had fwy flyer gears in the rear end that prevented them from effectively using the new higher RPM horsepower, 2. They we making plenty of power but they weren't getting any traction due to stock suspension and/or crappy tires, and 3. They hadn't spent any time or effort tuning the combination of all the new parts. Unlees the guys was a very experienced tuner or racer, there was usually a half to a full second of E.T. to be gained from track testing and an effective tune i.e. timing, advance curve, spark plug changes, jetting changes, accelerator pump changes, alignment changes, etc.

speedracer · June 29, 2006, 03:36:39 PM

Quote from: "DRD57"Back when I used to drag race a lot I noticed several guys who would throw a speed shop catalog at there car and then wonder why it wasn't as fast or quick as they thought it would be. The answer was usually one of three things. 1. they still had fwy flyer gears in the rear end that prevented them from effectively using the new higher RPM horsepower, 2. They we making plenty of power but they weren't getting any traction due to stock suspension and/or crappy tires, and 3. They hadn't spent any time or effort tuning the combination of all the new parts. Unlees the guys was a very experienced tuner or racer, there was usually a half to a full second of E.T. to be gained from track testing and an effective tune i.e. timing, advance curve, spark plug changes, jetting changes, accelerator pump changes, alignment changes, etc.

I know what ya mean, after being around hot rodding since I was a kid I've wasted more money on exactly what your talking about, but now days knowing the value of a buck I ask questions alot, mostly probably stupid ones but I always learn. Yea the rearend was changed out to 4;10 gears and swapped out the trannie from a 350 turbo to a 700r4 found that to be a great match up! Also installed a TCI converter with a stall speed of 2800 rpm, I'm still not to sure about the stall speed, thinking it maybe alittle high. Thinking in that department I need to learn alot more bofore screwing around with it anymore.
Thanks alot for your input, anymore advice would defintly be apprecated.
johnny

DRD57 · June 29, 2006, 04:17:16 PM

If your RPM's at highway speed are below 2800 RPM your convertor is likely still slipping enough to cause excess heat and make the car feel sluggish.

Loose convertors are great for getting a relatively heavy car off the line but they can be a problem when combined with fwy flyer gears and/or overdrive transmissions.

With the 4:10 rear gears and the ultra low first of the 700R4 trans you should be able to live with a little tighter convertor.

speedracer · June 29, 2006, 04:28:12 PM

Quote from: "DRD57"If your RPM's at highway speed are below 2800 RPM your convertor is likely still slipping enough to cause excess heat and make the car feel sluggish.

Loose convertors are great for getting a relatively heavy car off the line but they can be a problem when combined with fwy flyer gears and/or overdrive transmissions.

With the 4:10 rear gears and the ultra low first of the 700R4 trans you should be able to live with a little tighter convertor.

OK remember I said dumb questions! When I take off in drive does this trannie suppose to shift at 2800 rpm automataly thru out the 4 gears. The reason I ask is it does from 1st to 2nd but not always to 3 and 4th gears. Kinda hard to explain but in town with say 45mph speed limit the trannie sometimes will travel all thru the gears without me playing the accelartor!
Told ya it was stupid-----------johnny

1FATGMC · June 29, 2006, 06:11:48 PM

Quote from: "speedracer"
Quote from: "DRD57"If your RPM's at highway speed are below 2800 RPM your convertor is likely still slipping enough to cause excess heat and make the car feel sluggish.

Loose convertors are great for getting a relatively heavy car off the line but they can be a problem when combined with fwy flyer gears and/or overdrive transmissions.

With the 4:10 rear gears and the ultra low first of the 700R4 trans you should be able to live with a little tighter convertor.
OK remember I said dumb questions! When I take off in drive does this trannie suppose to shift at 2800 rpm automataly thru out the 4 gears. The reason I ask is it does from 1st to 2nd but not always to 3 and 4th gears. Kinda hard to explain but in town with say 45mph speed limit the trannie sometimes will travel all thru the gears without me playing the accelartor!
Told ya it was stupid-----------johnny

The converter is not going to determine the shift points of the transmission. Is the converter still a lock-up style? If so do you have some way of locking it up? Is the TV cable hooked up and adjusted properly. Make sure or it won't last long.

Welcome and c ya,

Sum