WOW , a freaking Millennial. I bet you hung out with gen X ers, Or had an older close friend or 2 growin up. Or you watched Dr. Who growin up. Now you will steadly spend money on parts getting more power out of it until you blow the bottom end out. So it would be smart to be on the look out for a spare 455 to start collecting parts for. If you have the center caps for the rally's they look great with bf goodrich ta radial white letters . Grinding the drums removing the COOLING fins is not gonna make your break shoes happy. You busted onto this site with that corvet story quiet well. Great Job!. Just say the word Rochester ,how too? And Larry will give you a link to some ware on this forum and you can immerse yourself into the inter workings of the quadrajet and get it running tits.
Thank you! Believe it or not, I started out messing with quadrajets and holleys, not saying I was good at it yet. I combined the air horn, main body, and base plate from three separate carbs to get the corvette running ok, because the previous carb was clapped out. I had much less of an idea of what I was doing back then, and shudder to think that when I installed a timing “advance kit” I actually locked out the timing at 14* initial to 14* at 6000rpm. Failure. A really slow Corvette failure. However, especially since the drag strip and with Kens help I’ve been able to get the Riviera running in the realm of “like a top”, first crank starting, easy idling, great power, etc. With this new cam and related stuff it is harder to start, so I’ll be doing a lot of work on that front in the spring. Screw the salt on the roads, it’s not bad right now, and we don’t live forever. I’m driving it over break
@Briz ill get you some pictures today. I’m looking at about 1” of clearance to the tire on both sides
Alright, the report on the system and everything in general. The first video there was the car running like an old bag at 500 rpm barely staying alive in the cold 10* F. Today I will post another video of it idling at about 950, with a tuned carb and reset timing at 44*F (35 total timing though) Overall, I feel like I need to take a drive with earplugs in to feel if it “feels slower” because the ridiculous amount of sound next to my ears is gone. I never gave it hell throughout the whole drive, because as it was a shakedown drive I know so much can go wrong. It has a much more aggressive yet quiet tone at idle and I notice a ton of what seems like drone at 1500 rpm, which is fine with me as long as it disappears, which it does upon a higher or lower rpm. I notice my big initial mistake was having the midpipe mount be metal to metal solid mount, as the whole car shook violently while waiting at a light. I have since fixed that a few minutes ago by installing rubber isolaters to all the mounts that didn’t have them already, which came with the TA kit. During the tuning session I also refilled the trans to the proper level, I was down nearly 5 quarts after the line blowout! So after the drive I: Tightened things up Checked tire to exhaust clearance Used thread sealant to fix a fuel leak at the carb Fixed old switch pitch wiring that was coming apart I will soon: Change the oil (3 quarts 20w-50 and 2 quarts 10w-30) Check all fluids and top them up Get ready to drive it again later this week, it’s now tucked in for tomorrow’s storm Idle hot pressure dropped to 22psi at 800rpm again, so I’m still debating keeping the thinner oil, but spring is around the corner and it will start to warm up, so I’m not sure. Currently getting cold start oil pressure of 80psi at 1500rpm Loving the Dynomax Ultra Flows. Idle, part throttle, and WOT all sounded good. Well ya know, I can’t hear jack cause it’s all exiting behind me, but I bet other cars think it sounds cool Anything else? If anyone wants a functioning Riviera exhaust system (with included brand new TA downpipes!) pm me or something, cause the weakest link of that old system was in fact the stock downpipes. In other new news, 20w-50 is stupidly thick, so I’m using two quarts instead of 3. So now there’s one quart 10w-30 in the filter and pump, 2 of 10w-30 and 20w-50 added
You know if you can't wait for the track to open, they sell quarter mile smart phone apps that could give you an idea of what its going to run before you go. Just be safe if you get it, maybe just do an 1/8 mile so you if you do get a ticket it won't be as bad.
Your missing that negative pressure zone by watever amount of pipe is past the bottom rolled edge of the bumper.
If your pipe sticks out past the bottom of the bumper on our rivieras your leaving the free scavenging zone. Or neg pressure zone. Its due to the way the trunk tapers down cleanly to the bumper, Then the bumper curves around inward. The air follows the curve inward , when your on the freeway the cars forward motion creates a negative pressure zone underneath the bottom inside area. You put your pipes in that zone your exhaust gas will exit the pipe faster. Its just one of the many little seemingly insignificant things we do to optimize every aspect of your cars performance, one thing alone you may not notice, but when you add up all the little things that you can do, the results make it worth doing. I used my HVAC tools to figure this out. You can get a magnahelic static pressure gauge, attach a long vacuum tube to it and place the end of the tube in various places at the exhaust area and see the needle move positive or negative as your driving.
Well with crappy weather today and complete boredom I thought I would do some random stuff on the car. I reinstalled my AC belt, having left it off the car since Oct. 7th at Lebanon. I cleaned, put back together, and reinstalled all my center caps, looking good now I replaced my trunk and license plate light bulbs, both of which had gone missing, and now the trunk works, and the license plate will remain to be seen when I fire it up
does your trunk have a button in the glove box to open it. I mean your glove box have a button for the trrunk. My 68 had a vacume opperated trunk latch.
Probably not, but I will take a look tomorrow When the weather gets sunny and warm this week (40*) I will drop the timing back to 34.
Good idea....I don't like to run more than 32 with iron heads. The extra 3-4 deg may make it seem peppier but will hurt it if you stay into it. Before the tracks got better I used to only run 26-28 to keep from spinning....mph was the same. Seems low but I learned years ago that they don't like a lot of timing. It's actually a good thing....means the heads as efficient....HEMI's are same....not much needed.
Before I turned the tips out to the side ( which I now do not like) it had the pipes exit like seen in the picture. Made a good leaf blower when I backed out of the driveway.
Ok I was able to futz with the mechanical advance to the point where I reached 14* It’s now timed at 18* initial, 14* mech, and 10* vacuum. Might bump it up to 20* initial and let the b!tch eat Tuning it again this afternoon if I go for a cruise, lots of classic cars out today. Late 70s caddy, late 70s firebird And no vacuum operated button in the glovebox for the trunk
Ok I have since given it a proper flogging. It pulls pretty strong on the primaries and then very strong on the secondaries. Can't get the stupid downshifting mechanism to work. Gonna fight that tonight in silence so I can hear the solenoids clicking Checked after the drive that timing was still 18*, maybe in my excitement I kicked it up to 23*. Brought it back to 20* initial at 34* total and am going to leave it there. There have been no burnout videos but the lack of film evidence means nothing compared to physical evidence.
You discover the wildest things when examining cars. I realize now why my detent downshift wasn’t working. Even with my adjustment, due to the 1” spacer, the plunger on the intake no longer reaches the end of its travel, so no matter how I wired it, it would never downshift. To the hardware store tomorrow
