i have been working my ass off(changing heads and cams and intake and stalls) to get my combo right this summer fighting ping and rattle,fighting the retarded timming just to stay out of ping, i finally broke loose of all those stupids myths and what not of what you are suppose to run in your car and now i have a more powerful combo then i thought i was going to have,most of you said my gears would hurt me but you know with all the power i have now if i had more gears i would just blow up tires...lol

when i took my car out to the track last i ran 14.47 at 98 mph in street trim just as i drive it daily.........i could leave the light full throttle with no worry about spinning my tires................with the same set up on your nearest stop sign i could lay into the gas from a dead stop and i would get a bark or so maybe 5 feet of black mark if i was on different pavement....................


Now with 3 changes i have more then i ever thought i would have........

"you need dual plane for the street" i say BLA to that i stuck on a single plane

"you need to have a stall below your cruise rpm" i say BLA to that too i shoved in a 2600 stall to match my intake not my gears

and on top of that i finally recurved my timming to speed it up since now i dont have ping to worry about........30 initial and 46 total.........no ping!!!!!!

just with those changes and everything else being the same my car is ALIVE i took it out on a back road and i wished i had it on film....i stopped pulled it down in low and hit the gas (no power braking mind you) and i roasted the rear tires in 1st gear to 6000 rpms and shifted into 2nd gear to 6000 rpms (still roasting the tires) and i hit 3rd gear and was still spinning the tires for just a few seconds after that and i hooked up nothing but a smoke roll cloud behind me with two black marks more then a block long........WOW

i finally got the combo right and i still have the 2.41 posi in the rear.................

i think i might hold off on the 2.73 posi i was going to stick in there for awhile because i think it will just make my traction worse............thanks to everyone who helped in the past.......now i just wish the track was open to see how much better it is time wise.........and mph........i think i will pull the 6000 grand chip to put in a 6600 chip cause it just fly's to 6000 and i was bouncing the rev limiter a few times and i know there is more on top.............

What changes did you make to the heads and cam?

Tim.

It will perform better with lower gears,once you get those high gears spinning they won't stop,it takes minimal rpms to keep the tires going,especially with the torque of a big block. I'd go 3.42-3.55 minimum. My car in street trim,real radials thru the old 2.5" exhaust ran a best of 12.69. fwiw ;)

oh the changes way to many lol.........i started out with 10.2 compression with a summit cam 218/228 @ .050,1600 stall,2.41 gears,stock cast iron high rise intake,800 holley double pumper.

i had no low end to pull off the line with and i had some ping problems too(rattle)

i change the intake to a streetmaster single plane(i wanted to run the factory air cleaner assy cold air induction) and that didnt help.......was worse

then i threw in a cam i had on the shelf some over kill radical cam....the ping was gone but the car was a real turd till i hit 3500 rpms

then i threw on a stock iron low rise intake (LS5) and a 3310 holley vacuum sec.......the bottom end was better but still couldnt even power brake it.........ping was there in some cases

then i bought a elgin cam 214/224 that made the bottm end way better but i was pinging SO bad..........

then i took off my highly ported closed chambered heads and threw on a set of mild ported open chambered heads that gave me 8.5 comp....ping was still there but not as bad but i couldnt pull it to 5000 rpms it just gave up........

i bought a custom grind cam from delta cams with 233/239 @ .050 and i put my old heads back on to give me 10.2 again............this pretty much helped my ping problem but it was still there.........this cam pull on the top end like i wanted, it would go easy to 6000 rpms and pull hard but i had nothing down low..........

so i put in a 2100 stall this help out big time but i was still dealing with ping.......still only getting a scratch or maybe more of the line.........

so then i put in a 2600 stall, to match the cams power band(now i had a 2500 to 6500 cam and a 2600 rpm launch to match)

then i decided to match the intake to the power band so i bought a torker 2-0 that is rated from 2500 to 6500....

and i am were i'm at now........i left out alot of the tunning details but this was pretty much the go of it this summer......

Sounds to me like you need to match some stuff up. Starting with your cam to what you want. Do you want it be a daily driver? A racer? A tow truck motor?. Decide this, get the cam thats right. Then gear your car accordingly. I dont know how you expect ANY motor to be a real "performer" down low with 2.41 gears. I bet if you geared your car with a mid 3 series gear it would be a whole different story with how those cams ran and compared.

Originally posted by Rapid Robert:
Once you get those high gears spinning they won't stop,it takes minimal rpms to keep the tires going,especially with the torque of a big block. I'd go 3.42-3.55 minimum.My old 70Nova with a SB307 214 441 cam and Performer intake with Qjet would just melt the tires off the rim with a 2.71 non posi rear.I thought "WOW it must be fast".

I put slicks on it... graemlins/sad.gif DOG!

i had a vision of what i wanted:

-i wanted a factory stock 80 z28 on the outside(got that now)

-i wanted the interior to look factory stock as well with black deluxe interior with alot of options(got that now)

-i wanted a car that was a factory a/c delete car(bought the car that way)

-i wanted to shove in a bbc 396 motor that looks like it came from the factory that way.(it does)

-i wanted the car with 2.41 highway gears with a posi because i knew i would drive it everywhere(took the factory 3.42 posi out)

-i wanted to run a th350 to keep it simple(got lucky the car came with a rebuilt unit)

-i wanted the car to run high 13's( not there yet atleat dont have proof)

-i wanted the engine to run at least 5500 rpms( it does and even more!)

-i wanted to at least be able to turn the tires on the launch (around town) about 10-15 feet for the cool factor.(boy i got that plus way more to boot)

with those goals in mind I knew i had to build for torque......i knew i was dealing with alot of weight and no gears to speak of...

but i didnt think i would have problems like i did

i have never had problems with ping before even 10 years ago when i ran a 396 with 2.56 gears

as far as the gears go i was willing to give up the 2.41 gears and go to 2.73 but no more this is a daily driver and i put all my time in this car this summer and i even parked my race car to build this vision......i think im there now im happy on how it runs right now and im sure im in the high 13's.........i like how the car looks and i like how stock it looks under the hood.......it looks like chevy built this car with a bbc in 1980 the only things that look like performance is the intake and headers, i have all the factory over flow bottle and the washer fluid bottle and a nice big factory cold air induction set up and factory fan shroud and such no chrome ....

nickel333 things are matched up now, the only thing that is not a match is the highway gears..............the intake is rated at 2500 to 6500 and the cam is rated 2500 to 6500 and the stall is matched to that at 2600 brake stall with flash stall pretty close to 3000 rpms.......and the heads are highly ported with big valves that will handle the rpm range........compression is matched to the cam with 10.2 and i can run this all on 87 octane fuel with 30 initial timming and 46 total........the carb is plenty with a rating of 750 cfm's.so pretty much everything is a go...it is a daily driver and works just fine now


the car ran 14.40's before the changes and with the pulling power it has i didnt give nothing up so i know its faster i can FEEL it.....i just need track time now to dial in the carb and timming........

i wont be putting in any other gears other then the 2.73 posi i have for it......but i will wait on this to see how well i do at the track the low end torque is way better now......

i just had to move the power band up to make this work with the gears i wanted.......before i was trying with idle to 5000 rpms but it had to change to 2500 on up to make it work with the weight and gears and the compression......

Sounds like you have the most important thing worked out... a FUN combo! Got any pictures of the engine? I like the sleeper look.

I agree with Jason..sounds like you have a fun combo,and its daily driven.A BBC that makes a lot of low/midrange torque is fun,even with highway gear.I hope it performs good at the track too graemlins/thumbsup.gif

You've got what you wanted and that is what it is all about... graemlins/hurray.gif Enjoy graemlins/thumbsup.gif

Why does this 80 Z28 weigh 4060 pounds? I thought they were more like 3500 pounds??

Originally posted by Epistuff:
Why does this 80 Z28 weigh 4060 pounds? I thought they were more like 3500 pounds?? I was wondering the same thing...
My '80 with a small block weighs 3550 with driver (190lbs) and half a tank of gas. :confused:

Im happy for ya, if you got it the way YOU want it, thats all that matters. good luck and enjoy it. Dave

thanks guys for the replys,its been a long summer, i just weight the car again today because i have done some changes since last race day, the car is down to 3900 lbs even with driver and 5 gals of gas in the tank.....

4060 was with driver and 15 gals of fuel...

the changes i made since last weight time

-10 less gals of fuel=something like 70 lbs
-stock 5 spoke steel wheels to the N90 rims=36 lbs
-cast iron intake with spacer to alum=30 lbs
-cast drums to alum= 10lbs less
-plus i had some tools clean out of the trunk= well less weight of unknown amount

so almost all my weight is accounted for in the 160 drop in weight granted half was fuel but still......

just let me say my car is loaded with all kinds of options,i have tar pads still in the floors and walls of the car,padding ,carpet,power windows,every nut and bolt you can put in the car,all the interior,all the fender flares and spoilers,bbc,all the factory equipment under the hood surounding the bbc, so its a loaded down car

even my stripped out 81 camaro with no interior but one seat(no dash nothing),100 lbs front clip, and no bumpers still weights 3300 lbs with out driver.

and i know its not the scales being off or something we have two intown and they will read with in 20 lbs of each other.........