Spent some driving time with the new car today.

I'm a little dissapointed.

I've got a 396 oval port heads, bored .060 with an Edelbrock 750, headers, really low rear-end gears....like 3.08ish and 3" exhaust all the way back.

The car sounds great, drives nicely, but when I step on it from a dead stop, it doesn't even bark. When I hit some high rpms it starts to come alive, but I think our minivan could take it through the 1/8th.

Is this normal?

3.08... is not..... a really low gear. It's a good highway gear. I've got 3.08's and I turn 70 mph at 3000 rpm.

Sounds about how my first SS was. Was a real handful at the top end but from a dead stop with 3.08s it was kind of a dog. Still think it would hung with a mini-van though :D

Put a set of 410s in that baby ,, thatll wake her up.

You need to get specific details. Cam may be too large, converter too tight, timing too lazy. Dig into it a little.

Depends on the mini-van..... How is it from a 40-60 roll? If it still dogs out you should listen to GRN69CHV. If it takes off like a scalded dog then a new gear package should do the trick.

You need to get specific details. Cam may be too large, converter too tight, timing too lazy. Did into it a little.

Exaust too big? (3 inch)

Sounds like most of your power is on the top end, that's where a set of gears comes in.

3.08's are not low, and I'd think even a modest 396 making 400 ft lbs of tq could spin the tires....unless the cam was too big...

Then again they say spinning ain't winning....:D

Had the same problem with my car...from a dead stop a dawg...396/325 with a glide and 3.07 rear gears. from a 30 mph roll ran good. Wouldn't shift out of first till 70 or 75 and pulled hard. Slipped in a 2500 stall converter and first test lost half of my tire tread. Last weekend we had Thunder Beach here with a lot of Harley's in town...after listening to them for a couple hours Friday night I decided it was time to play. So up went the garage door and away I went, followed a couple guys down the beach revving their Harley's trying to draw attention....finally I decided it was time to play...matted it and scarred them to death...me as well...damm drum brakes. We all pulled into a Sonic and one of them asked to look under the hood, he jokingly said he wanted to check my air cleaner for one of his missing buddies. Check the tune up, swap the converter and kiss the tire tread good bye....My Ole 396 has enough torque to fry them with the the 3.07 gears....by no means a good strip package but fun on the street.

What's the timing set at?? Maybe a little more may help you in the bottom end.. I also agree with the others, a set of gears would wake it up, maybe even a 3:73, that way you could still drive it on the highway...

tune it i mean really TUNE it

:beers: :angry:

396 an 3.08 gears is a tuff situation, but, it should still run pretty good.

Where is your timing at, specifcally?

Just to clarify - 3.08 is a 10-bolt ratio, 12-bolts came with 3.07s and are considered high ratio gears. Minor point but correct. I had a 3.07 in my 67 for a number of years with both a 4-speed and 700R4. A bit too high a gear (ratio-wise) for the 4-speed, IMO, as it tended to chatter on initial takeoff; much better with the 700R4 where the converter would allow the RPMs to come up a little before connecting.

Sounds like PCB67SS found his solution with a different converter. Other suggestions/questions like camshaft specs, timing, etc. all come into play. Bigger isn't always better - components have to compliment each other. :thumbsup:

.....We all pulled into a Sonic and one of them asked to look under the hood, he jokingly said he wanted to check my air cleaner for one of his missing buddies.
ROTFLMAO!

Check the timing, I added a couple degrees to my '72 after I got it and it really woke it up. Mine's a stock 402 with even more lackluster gears, 2.73, but acceleration is quite good, usually breaks the tires loose anywhere under 40 mph with a good punch of the go pedal.

GRN69CHV had it exactly right - way too little detail to really give any decent answer.

If your tuning skills are average, then you may want to turn the tuning process over to your local chassis dyno tune shop. Make sure they understand carburators and ignition systems. In advance of your dyno session you will want to weld in an O2 bung near your header collector, so that the dyno operator can plug in a wide band O2 sensor - which will greatly speed up dialing in the carb.

Unless you have spent time dialing in your fuel curve and advance curve then all questions about power and throttle response are moot. My guess would be that you are leaving a lot of power on the table. Although not a 396 BB, my Bomber had a torquey low rpm 406 - it peaked 336 rear wheel hp at ~ 4,450 rpm. With 3.08 gears and a TH350 and a B&M Holeshot converter on 245 street radials it would run consistent 13.1x e.t.'s at 105+ mph. 3.08 gears be damned, that thing would roast the tires with the throttle mashed off any intersection in town.

Thomas

Yes, too little info. However, I would suspect that a little advanced timing would help. Also, are you sure your secondaries are opening up? Which carb do you have? A q-jet has a little metal lip that is part of the choke system that limits the secondary air flow until the car heats up. If that part is not adjusted properly, it will prevent the air flow even when the car is heated up. Piece of crap setup if you ask me, but that is how it works. open your throttle all the way up with the car not running and make sure your linkage is all working correctly.

Thanks for all the advice. I'll probably wait till the spring to tackle this one. It's still fun to drive and is probably keeping me from getting in trouble with the man anyway.

As far as carb-I'm running an Edelbrock 750.

I think the secondaries are opening, at least at 30mph. It seems like it picks up pretty well then. But off the line, I can't even get the tires to spin.

I am guessing the torque converter is the culprit here.

I've had stock 402's with 2.56 and 2.73 gears smoke the tires.This is this a stock convertor and a TH400 (in various cars too..72 Monte 402 and Monte,71 402 Caprice)
Sounds like you need to check if you are getting wide open throttle (verify that when ths gad pdeal is fully depressed that the throttle linkage on the carb is fully open) and that you have enough total timing.