finding motor info

[Roz]

ok heres the scope of my problem. i bought a motor from a mechanic dirt-cheap. so even in the worst scenario im still ahead. he didnt know much about it except he installed it from crate but someone else bought it. bout year later the guy sold the car and recomended this mech to do work for him. guy wanted a bad a$$ motor for it so had one built and the one i bought pulled to be junked.
-said it is a 420 hp set up. SBC 350,it has ERSON all over it, it came with mallory ignition, unilite breakerless dist, torkerII intake, edlebrock 1406 carb, other misc. cool motor dress up stuff. has about 1200mi on it, came out of a '76(?) el camino street rod.

*the problem. i dont think its tuned well. it runs awsome at 3krpms and up. no off the line or tow abillity at all. sounds wonderful i have headman headers,flowmasters,2 1/4" exaust piped out before rear wheel. think i have 4.11's and i have 35" BFmudds.

is there any tricks to figureing out where to do timing, if my stroke is maybe to long.... blah blah ect or anyother tricks to tunning it without knowing any specs?

btw i am now running stock dist and i have a performer to replace the torq II if it is recemened
would a dyno run help?
any suggetions please

 

[DavidB]

HEY BUDDY :-)

it can get expensive, but a dyno tune at a good engine shop with a good mechanic should help. they could prolly figure out the engine build. should be able to find one in motorhead el cajon.

 

[dirtwarrior17]

Dyno runs always help but it sounds like a carb problem to me... might need to lean out the lowspeed needle.

 

[Roz]

ive looked, but cant seem to find one.


anyone else ahve ideas?

 

[HarryH3]

-said it is a 420 hp set up. it came with ... torkerII intake...

it runs awsome at 3krpms and up. no off the line or tow abillity at all.

A 350 that can crank out 420 HP is gonna have a LOT of cam in it. Big cams don't start making good power until 3K+ RPM. That Torker II doesn't help things either. It's designed to make power from 2,500-6,500 RPM.

A milder cam will give up some of that high RPM horsepower, but you'll get back a LOT of low RPM torque in the process. Swap the Torker II for a Performer or even a Performer RPM while you have the intake off for the cam swap. You'll be VERY happy with the results.