Howdy folks. I'm a long time reader and a short time poster! Need some advice. Recently rebuilt my 66 nova's 327 or rather a pal did the work for me He used a 280H cam. The car has a TH350 and 3.08 gears and a mild stall (redneck) higher than stock iirc it is a 2400 stall. OK, it's obviously challenged from a stoplight no worries I don't race between stoplights but man it's a slug!!!! I'm not going to change the cam please no! Question(s) suppose I change the gears to 3.55 and or put in a 3,000 stall? Think that will make me happy? I drive this car quite a lot....mix of hwy and city. Thanks for you patience.
Sounds like more of a tune or cam timing issue. Need more info: timing, heads, induction, ignition, etc.
2.0 heads, hedders, alum. high rise chebby intake (orig. 66'), pertronix ignition, holly 600cfm. Thanks
To much cam & no gear.Go to at least 3:50 gear & that should help. A better choice would have been the 268 or 270 with your combo. If you have a single plane intake that will kill the bottom end a little as well.
A higher stall will make it worse... go with lower gears. With that cam, I suggest a 4.11... depending on tire diameter. Sam
4:10 gears would be perfect for the 280 cam as long as the top end of the engine is moving the air. I have a set of 4:10 with a 280 in a 67 Nova and it is real impressive. However, you mentioned driving quite a lot. Think of the 3:55 as mentioned earlier or 3:73. The lower gears would be great if you could swing an overdrive tranny. 700R4's in the Nova work but cause tunnel problems. If you can do it consider a Tremic 5-speed. Clutch cars are more fun. As the tee-shirt says "If it don't have a clutch, you don't have much! Good luck, Nova's are too cool My first, second, and third cars were 67 Nova SS, still have the first one since 1970
a 268 Comp cam would have been a much better choice. For all around driving it's the best grind they have ever produced. Like others have said there are couple of other things that would help. Bottom line, your "friend" doesn't have a clue how to put a combination together that fits a set of driving parameters. Another area that might yield some results is working with the ignition system but get someone who knows what their doing before changing anything. A rear gear change is the quickest way for a performance increase, living with the results at the gas station will require a billfold adjustment. Frank
You need to match your choices in regards to cam , gearing, carbs, trans ect. Pick a purpose and build to that. cruzer street racer drag strip autocross They all require the details to be different. chuck
I think I understand where this guy is coming from. He doesn't want to change the cam because it obviously must sound bitchin with that lopey idle, so the best advice is what others have said...leave the tranny alone and go with the 3.55 gears. It will pull good from the stoplight, and will cruise down the hiway at 3000rpm all day long.
That combo should do pretty well, especially in a car that light. I'd guess that either the compression is too low, cam timing is off or there is some other problem, such as the secondaries not opening, etc.
Something that no one is mentioning is your compression ratio. If you don't have enough static compression the longer duration 280 cam will absolutely kill cylinder pressures in the lower rpm ranges. Cylinder pressure = torque, responsiveness, and efficiency. Together with a weak gearset in back it will definitely be a dog in the city, AND get lousy gas mileage, as you are keeping the motor in a rpm range in which it is sort of crippled.
Need's more gear. I have a 350 in my 39 Willys with this same cam, performer RPM intake, 750 Holley, 2800 converter, 31" tall rear tires and a 4.86 (a bit much for crusing) gear and it flat out hauls ass. Gas mileage sucks though, then again I didn't build it to get good gas mileage.
needs more gear. sorry just wanted to say what everybody else was saying , because i have no idea what your talking about.
Does your friend know what he's doing? Only reason i ask is if he tightened down the rockers too much it will kill power. Learned that one the hard way. Id also say its probaly the gears. Built a 305 years ago with stock 2.73 gears, big cam and edelbrock intake, 194 heads, edelbrock 600 carb. Was a dog below 40mph. Guy i sold it to just swapped the rearend for a posi with 3.73's and ran low 15's at the dragstrip. It was an 82 buick regal by the way.
3.08's will neuter anything down. Gotta agree about changing out that gear set. I know that it's a pain in the ass because because of ring & pinion set-up, but it's gonna be worth it. I'd really shoot for 3.73's or maybe even 4.10's to really make the swap worthwhile. Oh yeah, I don't know what you have for an intake but for a street car and even MOST race cars,............a good dual-plane intake is the ONLY choice. I've run low 11's with a pump gas 454 with a Perfromer RPM dual-plane WITHOUT Nitrous. I thought swapping to a bitchin' Single plane Victor JR. race intake would get me into the 10's.......guess what.......instead it turned my 11-second car into a 12-second car. Put the Performer RPM right back on!
Definitely put a gear in it...I had a very similar combo in my first car (65 Chevelle). It had a 327, 2500 stall and 3.08 gear (12 bolt). I was just 14, and changing things as I could afford it. Total slug out of the hole, would haul ass on top end. Put in a set of 3.90 gears and it was a total different car. sam
Thanks for the excellent advice fellas. I'm all in for the gears. 3.55 sounds about right. For the trouble and $$ we ALL know that's step one 'cuase we ain't pullin' the cam out!!! Ouch.
*Is is weird to reply to yourself? Wanted to thank y'all for the support. I had planned on nix'ing the stock exhaust and did that. Replaced with a 2 1/2" in/out magnaflow / duals / H pipe system. That made a huge difference and if you asked me before I did it I'd say that this would not make much if any diff. The car boogies nicely off the line now. With 3.08 gears I didn't expect to burn the tyres off however it's very driveable now. Go figure? The 3.55 gears JUST arrived and am going to drive it as is for a few weeks before I add gears which I think will REALLY wake the engine up. Hey, thanks.
I would also suggest playing with the timing as mentioned already the cam is bleeding off a fair amount of compression and if its an undecked block is probably between 9 and 9.5 compression with flat tops, you could probably get away with more total timing than you might think and that would wake up the low end power noticably
get your gears in go find a dyno and some one willing to help tune it while its on the dyno thats how you will know for sure how this combo goes together good luck
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