Put a 406 SB in my 70 Chevelle. I had rebuilt this motor around 8-9 years ago for a street rod project and ended up selling the car W/O motor. Stock rebuild. Forged 9:1 pistons. Stock heads, Torque style cam. 214 int 224 exh. 442/465 lift. Edelbrock 650 AVS carb on a Weiand stealth intake. HEI dist. with MSD ign. 1 5/8 headers. 350 turbo with 3:31 gear in the rear.
Fired the motor for the first time about a month ago. Fired up relatavely quick and I let it run @2,000 rpm for 15 minutes to break in the cam. Set the timing @ 8 deg BTDC w/o the adv. Total adv with vacuum & mechanical looks to be around 30-32 deg. Got the car completly together and drove it. The car runs good and idles good. The problem being at about 3/4 throttle it just falls on it's face, Won't rev any higher, just bogs down. Some light popping through the exhaust.
I called Edelbrock and they said it sounded like a starvation problem so I ordered a Edelbrock fuel pump (80 GPH) and just put it on tonight. Seemed to help slightly but not all that much.
I re-adjusted the lifters with the car running and everything seems to be moving like it should. I did not measure the lift or anything though.
Can anyone suggest anything? Cam wiped out? How do you check for that? Every year I would dump a little oin in the cylinders and roll it over manually so it wouldn't rust up, Would this have wiped the cam assembly lube off?
I am at my wits end, Tried everything I can think of. Any suggestions?

Thx.
LK

If you have a compression cylinder test gauge-pull all the plugs and check the presure on all the cyls. Spin the engine over-record the information Be sure to write the pressure down dry. Add a few drops of oil in the cylinders and this will give you a notice that the compression is good You can also use a vacuum gauge hooked up to the vacuum manifold system. You could have cam failure?? Good luck.

Might need to go to a 3/8 line from the tank.

Might need to go to a 3/8 line from the tank.


I put a gallon can under the hood with a 3/8" line, no change. I am going to do a compression check tomorrow. Could this be a collapsed lifter?

LK

How can you check high volume flow with a gallon can and a fuel pump?
I had a 69 Malibu that came with a small block. I replaced it with a 396. Same problem your having now. I put the big fuel pump on, still didn't solve the problem. I discovered that Chevy used a 5/16 line on the small block and a 3/8 line on the 396 cu in. I replaced the pickup in the tank and a new 3/8 line and waalaa. Problem solved.:D

Shouldn't matter if I am pulling out of the tank or a gallon can, The pump has no return line to the tank. I just did it to see if I could feed it enough fuel with a 3/8" line and it did not change how the motor ran. I wanted to try this before I went through the trouble of plumbing a 3/8" line to the tank.

LK

You say 30-32* timing with both vacuum & mechanical? If that's right thats not enough. You should have at least that mechanical alone, and then another 10 or so on top of that with the vacuum. Another thing that comes to mind. Make sure you're balancer and timing mark are a matched pair. Chevy made balancers that have the mark straight up behind the water pump, and others that are off to the drivers side. If you use the straight up balancer with an off to the side timing mark(cover) then you'll have the timing way retarded.

I don't think it is possible to get much more than 10 deg. or so with mechanical only, Is it? Yhe car starts well and idles good. I have also messed with advancing it quite a bit to see if it changed and it did not. I have tried quite a few things but am comming up with nothing.


LK

If it idles and drives good at moderate rpm's then the cam aint shot or you'd feel the dead spot from it. Might be when the secondarys are opening and not feeding fuel. Try to get a carb from a buddy to try out. Could be fuel lines but I doubt with a mild small block

RandyB.